Show 482 Tuesday 28 August

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.

Last Tuesday I answered a question from someone wanting to know if it was a good idea to do a teaching course before going to teach English in Japan.
They actually asked two questions, and their second question was:

Are schools such as Nova total scams or are they reasonable ways of getting started?

Well, when I first went to Japan, I worked at a language school called ECC, which is similar to Nova. And no, I didn’t think it was a total scam. I enjoyed working there. Of course like, like anywhere that you work, there were things that weren’t so great about it. And for me, after a year, I thought I’d had enough and it was time to move on and do something else.

What I enjoyed about it was ... I had a lot of different kinds of classes, so I learnt a lot from that. I was mostly teaching conversation classes – which they called “Free Time Lessons” – which meant that they weren’t regular classes. Students could book a lesson when they wanted to take one, kind of like getting a haircut or going to the dentist or something.

And that is quite challenging because you’re getting different students all the time ... and yeah, maybe it’s not quite the best system for students perhaps. But I learnt a lot from meeting hundreds of different students and all kinds of people and trying out different things and seeing what worked.

One more thing that I really enjoyed was that I worked at four different schools. So almost every day I’d go to a different school. And that was really interesting, seeing how the different schools worked. They were all part of the same company, but depending on the staff, the atmosphere was completely different.

As for Nova, well, I’ve never worked there, so I don’t really know. But I have a friend that worked there for several years and he seemed to enjoy it.
But, they don’t have a very good reputation and I’ve heard a few bad stories from students who have studied there.
Also, I think the company is in ... not great financial shape ... so mmm, maybe that particular company is not such a great choice.
But, language schools in Japan, in general, I think they’re good places to work. And at the end of the day, whether you have a good experience or not is going to depend more on you and what you make of it.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, an American teenager entered a beauty contest and is now enjoying 15 minutes of world fame thanks to her answer to a question in the contest.

Miss Teen USA is an annual beauty pageant.
This year’s contest was held in California on the 24th of August.
This year’s event is now most famous for Miss South Carolina’s response during the question and answer portion of the show.
The video of her rambling answer has been viewed millions of times on the internet.
Thousands of people on YouTube commented on her performance.

And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 28th of August.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#297 That’s so funny.

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

Sarah That’s so funny.

Lisa Don’t you think it’s mean though? Everyone laughing at her.

Sarah No. Not at all. She went in the contest.

Lisa How would you have answered the question?

Sarah Um ... well I think I’d say, I think the results of the survey are probably wrong and the survey must have been flawed.

Lisa What do you mean?

Sarah One fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a map. Yeah, right. Whatever, that’s ridiculous. It’s not possible.

Lisa How would you know? You’ve never even been to the United States.

Sarah Yeah, but ... anyway, I don’t think it’s possible. They probably surveyed babies or something. Or maybe they just questioned five people and one of them was drunk or had bad eyesight.

Question for Miss South Carolina:

Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?

Miss South Carolina's answer:

I personally believe ... that US Americans are unable to do so, because ah, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps. And I believe that our ed, education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like, such as. And ... I believe that they should ... our education over here in the US should help the US or, or should help South Africa. And should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children.

links

Miss South Carolina's famous answer
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start, cws start, qa start
artist: Matthew Tyas
album: Music for the movies vol1
tracks: Superheros, Intellectuel, Three ways to run away
from: Oloron Sainte-Marie, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: San Sebastian
track: mellow
artist site

Did you notice a mistake in this script? Please leave us a comment and tell us! We really appreciate people pointing out our mistakes.Thank you.

Have you have translated this script - or part of it - into your language for English practice and published it on your blog? Please leave a comment and a link so other people can read your translation. Thank you.