Show 526 Thursday 11 October

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

This weekend is homecoming weekend at Acadia University.
So, what is homecoming?

I’d heard of it before and I always assumed that it meant when the students go home.
But no ...

In my dictionary there are two meanings for homecoming.
1. an instance of returning home
2. (N. Amer.) a reunion of former students of a college or high school

In New Zealand, we don’t use the word homecoming. But I think schools and universities do have reunions, but not very often, as far as I know.

But here homecoming is an annual event. So I guess some people, if they have a lot of free time, could go back to their (old) university every year.

And former students are called alumni. It says in my dictionary, especially American English. I’ve heard that word before, but I don’t think it’s used much in New Zealand.

There are various events over homecoming weekend mostly sports games, and there is also something called fall convocation. I don’t actually know what that is. I should probably ask someone.

I’ve never heard of convocation before and in Wikipedia it says there are about three different meanings. But anyway it’s some kind of ceremony.

And fall is a season, as you probably know. I still can’t really get used to it being called fall. Fall sounds like something you do when you trip over, it doesn’t really sound like a season to me.

And tomorrow night we’re going to a hockey game. Hockey as in ice hockey which they call hockey in Canada. It’s hard to get used to that too.
In New Zealand we say hockey and ice hockey. And in Canada, they say field hockey and hockey.
I’ve played both sports actually. At high school I played hockey for 4 years. And then when I was at university I played ice hockey for a year.
So I’m really looking forward to watching the game.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today the Nobel Prize for literature has been awarded to 87-year-old British writer, Doris Lessing.

On the 22nd of October 1919, a girl was born in a country called Persia.
Her parents were British and six years after Doris was born, they moved to Southern Rhodesia .
Doris went to a Catholic school and left when she was 13.
She was married twice and had three children.
In 1949, Doris Lessing moved to London and her first book was published.
The book was called The Grass is Singing.
It’s a novel which deals with racial politics in Southern Africa in the 1940s.
Lessing has now written more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, poetry, plays, two operas, non-fiction and two volumes of an autobiography.
Now she’s just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In a radio interview Lessing said about the prize: “They can't give a Nobel to someone who's dead, so I guess they were thinking they'd better give it to me now before I popped off.”

And that was Stick News for Thursday the 11th of October.
Kia Ora.

ASKING ACADIA
Why did you choose Acadia?

Cause it was the first place that accepted me.

Ah, it’s one of the only schools I got into.

Well, ah, it was one of the, it’s the closest school to my hometown with a program in theology, which is what I study. And they actually have, ah, better scholarships in theology than almost any other school in Canada right now, so a couple of really good reasons right there.

I wanted to go to a really small school. And most of the small schools are on the east coast. So then my dad and I came out and looked at them. And Acadia I guess was the one that just fit the best, so ...

Ah the lap top program’s pretty nice. And ah, being far away from home.

Um, I came here, because it had a really good kinesiology program. And I came for rugby as well.

conversations with sarah
#326　 How long did you play for?

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

Tommy You played ice hockey in New Zealand?

Sarah Yeah.

Tommy Is it popular in New Zealand?

Sarah No, not at all. I think there are only two ice skating rinks in the whole of New Zealand.

Tommy How long did you play for?

Sarah Just for one season.

Tommy Did you enjoy it?

Sarah Yeah, I loved it. I love ice skating and rollerblading and hockey ... so, yeah, it was really fun.

Tommy Did you win many games?

Sarah Yeah, actually my team won the championship.

Tommy What was your team called?

Sarah Ahh, I can’t remember.

links

today's news
Nobel Prize press release
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: La note en cage
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

asking acadia start
artist: XL Ant
album: XL Ant
track: Levitation (Club Mix)
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

qa start
artist: Manu Cornet
album: Distance & Temps
track: Silk Road
from: Paris, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Olga Scotland
album: Scotland Yard
track: Ksan
from: Moscow, Russia
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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