Show 557 Wednesday 21 November

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

So, The Daily English Show is back in Japan. We had a nice break for 10 days. And now we’re going to be here until next May.

The town we are in is called Kutchan. And this area is called Abuta-Gun or Shiribeshi. And the island is called Hokkaido. But the mountain closest to us is called Niseko-Annupuri and this ski area is called Niseko. So that’s why it’s going to be The Daily English Show Niseko for the next six months.

Wednesday is mistake day and I don’t need to look too far to find mistakes around here.
Let’s start with a couple of signs I saw yesterday.

Firstly, there is a “buckwheat needle restaurant”. I think they are selling noodles, so those es should be os.

Another sign says: “Welcome to Kutchan”. They’re missing an “o” on that sign. But I think it’s really sweet of them to write a sign in a few different languages to make tourists feel welcome.

Another mistake I found comes from a brochure. This brochure is for a company called NOASC in Niseko and they do things like tours, lessons, rental equipment. And they also have a bar and restaurant. And it says: “Dinner reservations excepted”.

That’s a common mistake for native English speakers actually – confusing accept and except.

The pronunciation is similar – actually pretty much the same the way I say it – but the spelling and meaning is different.

Here are some examples from my dictionary of how you can use except:

We work every day except Sunday.
They all came except Matt.
I had nothing on except for my socks.

And these are some examples for accept:

You just have to accept the fact that we’re never going to be rich.
It may take years to be completely accepted by the local community.
The machine only accepts coins.

So as you can see accept and except mean different things.
And this sentence doesn’t make sense. But they could say: “We accept dinner reservations every day except Sunday.”

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, there’s a shortage of secondary school teachers in New Zealand and according to a new survey, it’s getting worse.

The Post Primary Teachers' Association is a trade union in New Zealand.
Yesterday they released the results of a survey which they say shows New Zealand secondary schools are having serious troubles attracting and retaining qualified staff.
About a quarter of high schools in New Zealand responded to the email survey.
One principal said he was “extremely concerned about the quantity and quality of applications in some areas, especially maths and science.”
Another school said they were forced to hire 72-year-old teacher to head their technology department because finding qualified and able teachers was "becoming next to impossible".

And that was Stick News for Wednesday 21st of November.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#338 I can’t believe I’m almost 30.

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

Sarah I can’t believe I’m almost 30.

Ben You’re worried about being 30 already?

Sarah Only one more year...

Ben You like being young?

Sarah Yeah. One of the good things about being young is that you can, kind of, get away with not knowing much about anything. But when you get to around 30 it’s like, damn I should know something about this ...

Ben Yeah, but on the other hand, when you’re older you’re more confident and you don’t really worry about what people think.

Sarah Yeah, I guess you realize that no one really knows much about anything and it doesn’t really matter ...

Ben I’ve enjoyed my thirties. More than my twenties.

Sarah Really?

Ben Yeah, much more. And I think my forties will be even better. I’m looking forward to it.

Sarah Hmmm.

links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Anawin
album: A glimpse inside the bubble
track: Little jazzy
from: Arles, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo

other music
artist: OPRACHINA
album: The jazz farm
track: Grigioscuro
from: Roma, Italy
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
YouTube channel

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