Show 299 Monday 26 February

Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.
People often ask me how they can improve their pronunciation and fluency.
One idea I have is to watch a video on the internet and try and copy what they are saying.
You can start by stopping the video after each sentence and repeating what they say and then work up to leaving the video playing and speaking at the same time as them.
I’m going to do this to show you what I mean.
This week I’m going to choose a different video every day and I’m going to try and copy their accent.
I’m going to choose women – but if you are guy you should do it with guys.
And I’m going to try and copy a different accent every time.
But you can choose – say if you really want to sound like an American for example then choose someone who you think sounds nice and try and copy how they speak.
And don’t worry if it doesn’t sound perfect – because it won’t – I’m going to try it now and it definitely won’t sound perfect – but that’s not the pint. Just give it a go and it will definitely help your English.
I chose a video today by an English girl. I think it’s a really funny story – and I also think this video is a really good example of how to use filler words like you know, like, um.

Script for the start of this video.

Hi, hello guys, um OK, check this out, yeah, I went up to the shops yesterday, um, to get some fruits, yeah. So, I go up to the till and ... there’s this lady standing in front of me, yeah, middle aged lady, probably late 30s or something like that, or probably early 40s, I don’t know. But you know she’s standing in front of me to like get her things, you know, paid for and ... stuff and I’m just like there holding my ... toiletries. And you know just standing behind her. And then, all of a sudden I sort of like smell something really, really disgusting ... seriously this lady farted, I mean, she really, she farted in my face. You know literally, I was just standing ... And it smelt so bad. And seriously, because I was like the only person standing there, yeah, it was like, you know there was no other person there to smell what I was just smelling. Because it actually turned my stomach, you know, I had like really upset stomach because it was so disgusting, you know, she, she could of as, she could of as well just like sat on my face and farted. That was just how it felt. And she didn’t just, she didn’t bother, she just, she just went up straight to the till and you know just put her card in and paid for whatever she bought and that was it ... you know, it was horrible, seriously. I mean, I just, I just, it’s good to fart yeah, but don’t fart in someone’s face.

STICK NEWS

Kia ora this is Stick News. Martin Scorsese won his first Oscar yesterday. It was the eighth time he has been nominated.

Martin Scorcese was born in New York in 1942. He studied film at university in New York and in 1967 made his first feature-length film.
Since then he has directed dozens of movies and has been married 5 times.
Before this year he was nominated for an Oscar for directing five times – and he never won.
Yesterday, he finally won.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 26th of February.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#182 Did you watch the Oscars?

Step 1: Repeat Kate’s lines.
Step 2: Read Kate’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Kate Did you watch the Oscars?

Sarah No, we don’t have a TV.

Kate Do you normally watch it?

Sarah Yeah, if I have the chance. I quite like watching it.
I did watch some of the clips on the internet though ... and saw some of the photos.

Kate What did you think of the dresses?

Sarah I didn’t really like any of them that much.

Kate If you had to choose one ... ?

Sarah Of the ones that I saw, maybe Jennifer Lopez’s dress. That was pretty cool. With the, like, sparkly things around here.

Links

today's news
Martin Scorcese at imdb wikipedia Oscar.com