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Today’s song is In The Ghetto. I think this is a great song, it has really good lyrics.
In the Ghetto was written by Mac Davis and was made popular by Elvis Presley and has since been covered by quite a few singers.
Apparently, it was originally called "The vicious circle" – which I think is a pretty good description of what the song is about. It’s about a child who is born into not a good situation – and so he ends up getting into trouble and then dies. And then another child is born and no doubt it happens all over again.
This song was released in 1969, but I think it could have been written yesterday. And this story could be from anywhere in the world.
This is the second verse:
People, don't you understand the child needs a helping hand or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day. Take a look at you and me, are we too blind to see, do we simply turn our heads and look the other way.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today, an expensive tree in New Zealand has died. The New Zealand Herald reported the cause of death remains a mystery.
Last year, the main street of Auckland got a 43.5 million dollar upgrade. The upgrade included 48 Nikau palms which cost a total of $404,000. Less than a year after being planted, one of the palms is now dead. A spokesperson said the other palms were flourishing in their urban environment and they didn’t know why this palm had died. "Trees and living things do die, but sometimes you can't figure out what it is," he said.
And that was Stick News for Friday the 27th of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is ghetto.
A part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group.
We don’t use the words ghetto or slum in New Zealand. Of course there are some areas of some cities where the crime is higher than other areas and we usually call those areas: low socio-economic areas.
conversations withsarah #478 Do you like Elvis Presley?
Step 1: Repeat Kim’s lines. Step 2: Read Kim’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Sarah Do you like Elvis Presley?
Kim Yeah, I’m a big Elvis fan.
Sarah Elvis died pretty young, didn’t he?
Kim Yeah, he was 42.
Sarah He died in a plane crash, didn’t he?
Kim No, it was drugs. He had health problems for years.
Sarah Oh, that’s right. Who was it that died in a plane crash?
Kim Maybe you’re thinking of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.
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One of my favourite channels on YouTube is the google channel. They have a lot of really long videos – some of them more than two hours long. And they are on a variety of interesting topics – or things that I find interesting anyway. A lot of them are about technology – as you’d expect - but they also have people talking about other things, like politics and food and they have authors talking about their books.
Peter Hessler is a writer who taught English in China for two years. And he wrote a book about that. And I thought the talk was really interesting.
One funny thing was when he was talking about some of the nicknames his students had. Because, for some reason, when Chinese people study English they tend to give themselves nicknames.
And he had students called: Yellow, Pen, coconut. And one guy was called Daisy.
He says this: There was one boy, a very tall boy who always wore military uniform, full camouflage dress, who had named himself Daisy. I was never able to get a clear sense on why he had come up with the name Daisy. The Dean actually asked me about it at one point. But I liked the idea of having a mysterious student with the name Daisy in full camouflage at the back of my class, and so I never encouraged him to change his name.
So, it’s a pretty interesting talk. Check it out if you’re interested.
And I think these talks could be really useful for students who are planning on going to a university in an English speaking country. They would be great practice for listening to lectures.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today, architects have unveiled plans to build a 420-meter shape-shifting skyscraper in Dubai.
David Fisher is an Italian architect who wants to build an 80-story rotating tower in Dubai. According to CNN, each floor would be capable of rotating independently, powered by wind turbines fitted between each floor. Apartments in the tower will range in price from 4 to 40 million dollars and work on the tower is due to be completed by 2010.
And that was Stick News for Thursday the 26th of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is unveil. v. show or announce publicly for the first time
conversations withsarah #477 Have you ever been to China?
Step 1: Repeat Jim’s lines. Step 2: Read Jim’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Jim Have you ever been to China?
Sarah No. Have you?
Jim No.
Sarah Actually, I have I guess. I went to Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Jim Are they part of China?
Sarah Kind of. I think Hong Kong is officially part of China but it has its own laws and money and stuff.
Jim It used to be part of the UK, didn’t it?
Sarah Yeah, until 1997.
Jim Has it changed much since then?
Sarah I don’t really know. The flag changed. I know that much. It used to look like the New Zealand flag, but now it looks like the Japanese flag except there’s a flower in the middle instead of a circle.
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I’ve quite often see people mix these two words up: hard and hardly.
Hard is an adjective. For example: The test was hard. This mattress is hard.
It’s also an adverb. For example: I worked hard today. I thought long and hard before I made my decision.
Hardly is also an adverb, but it has a different meaning than hard. Hardly means scarcely, barely, almost not, almost none etc.
Here are some examples of how to use hardly: There’s hardly any coffee left. I hardly ever go out these days. I’m so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open.
So you can’t say: I thought long and hardly before I made my decision.
1. Yahoo 2. Google 3. YouTube 4. Windows Live 5. MSN 6. MySpace 7. Wikipedia 8. Facebook 9. Blogger 10. Yahoo Japan
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today, an American street performer called The Naked Cowboy is suing the maker of M&Ms. The Naked Cowboy is a man who plays the guitar in Times Square, New York, wearing a white cowboy hat, white cowboy boots and white underpants. In February, the company that makes M&Ms released a video billboard showing a blue M&M version of the naked cowboy. The Naked Cowboy then decided to sue the sweet company for “using his likeness, persona, and image for commercial purposes without his written permission and by falsely suggesting that he endorses M&M candy." A judge has now ruled that the lawsuit can proceed.
And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 25th of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is endorse. v. declare one’s public approval of
conversations withsarah #476 What’s the top site in New Zealand?
Step 1: Repeat Joe’s lines. Step 2: Read Joe’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Joe What’s the top site in New Zealand?
Sarah Google.
Joe Oh, OK.
Sarah And Yahoo is number two and then TradeMe is number 3, which is a site like eBay.
Joe Don’t people use eBay in New Zealand?
Sarah No, I don’t think so. Well, not much anyway, cause TradeMe is so popular.
Joe What are some other popular sites?
Sarah Bebo is popular in New Zealand. That’s the most popular social networking site in New Zealand.
Joe Are you a member of Bebo?
Sarah Yeah, I think so. But I probably haven’t logged in for a couple of years. I’m not a very good social networker.
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Today we’re going to have a look at a short dialogue from Casablanca.
Casablanca is a city in Morocco, and it’s also a famous movie.
Its characters, dialogue, and music have become iconic, and Casablanca has grown in popularity to the point that it now consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films of all time.
One of the lines most closely associated with the film is: Play it again, Sam. But, the funny thing is, no one actually says that in the film. So what do they say?
Well, this is the situation. A woman called Ilsa sees a piano player called Sam, for the first time in a long time, and she asks Sam to play a song that he often used to play.
She says: Play it once, Sam, for old time’s sake.
But he doesn’t want to play it, so he makes up some excuses.
And then she says: I’ll hum it for you.
Hum means to sing a tune with your lips closed. Like this: mmmmmmmm
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today, an American hiker who was stranded for three days in the mountains in Germany was rescued thanks to her bra.
A 24-year-old American woman called Jessica went hiking with her friend in Germany. CNN reported she fell over 16 feet to a rocky overhang, where she spent the next 70 hours on the narrow ledge. She was injured in the fall and the cliff was too isolated for her to climb free. But luckily a cable used to move timber down the mountain was within reach. Jessica decided to tie her bra to the line and when the cable car next moved up the mountain the bra reached the worker at the base. The worker had heard about the missing hiker, so he called the police and Jessica was rescued by helicopter.
And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 24th of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is rusty.
adj. (of knowledge or a skill) impaired by lack of recent practice
Sam tells Ilsa he doesn’t want to play the song because he’s rusty.
conversations withsarah #475 Play it, Sam.
Step 1: Repeat Sam’s lines. Step 2: Read Sam’s lines and talk to Ilsa.
Ilsa Play it once, Sam, for old time’s sake.
Sam I don’t know what you mean, Miss Ilsa.
Ilsa Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.
Sam Oh, I can’t remember it, Miss Ilsa. I’m a little rusty on it.
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Some more exciting news: The Daily English Show is going to a summit.
What is a summit? A summit is the highest point of a hill or a mountain. And: a meeting between heads of government.
In Wikipedia it says a summit is: a meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security and a prearranged agenda.
I think summit is also used to mean a meeting or conference.
The fourth global iSummit will be held in Sapporo, Japan from 29 July to 1 August, 2008. iCommons in association with Digital Garage, Creative Commons Japan and the City of Sapporo will bring together pioneers of the free Internet from over 60 countries around the world.
So we’re going to be going to be doing some reports about the event – to share with everyone what it was all about, what happened, what we learnt. And we’re also going to be interviewing a lot of interesting people too.
We’re really excited to be involved because as you know, The Daily English Show is part of the free online culture. All of the videos are free to watch and use in classrooms and so are all the scripts too. And we use music that is licensed with Creative Commons licenses. That’s why at the end of the show you can see a long credit roll, because part of the conditions of using that music is that you credit the artists.
And iCommons was incubated by Creative Commons. And is an organisation with a broad vision to develop a united global commons front by collaborating with open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world.
So, if you’re going to the iSummit, I’ll see you there! And I’m looking forward to meeting you.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today, for the first time ever, scientists have confirmed the presence of ice on Mars.
Last month a rocket called Phoenix went to Mars dug a trench and found a white substance which turned out to be ice. A spokesperson said: It is with great pride and a lot of joy that I announce today that we have found proof that this hard bright material is really water ice and not some other substance."
And that was Stick News for Monday the 23rd of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is considerable.
Considerable is a formal word fora lot. So: considerable media exposure means a lot of media exposure.
conversations withsarah #474 Where is Bulgaria?
Step 1: Repeat Dave’s lines. Step 2: Read Dave’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Dave Where is Bulgaria?
Sarah It’s in Europe.
Dave What language do they speak?
Sarah Bulgarian.
Dave What’s that like?
Sarah It’s a Slavic language, so I guess it’s similar to Russian.
Dave What alphabet do they use?
Sarah They use the Cyrillic alphabet.
Dave Is that different from the English alphabet?
Sarah Yeah, English uses the Latin alphabet. But some of the letters are the same. Cyrillic has some really cool letters, like one that looks like a backwards n and another one that looks like an o with a line down the middle.
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Have you 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.
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 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.
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.
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Today’s song is I Get A Kick Out Of You. It’s a song by Cole Porter who was an American composer and songwriter. The song was originally performed by Ethel Merman and has been covered by many performers.
So what does it mean? Well, you probably know that a kick is something that you do with your leg. But did you know that there are also a lot of idioms that use the word kick:
For example:
kick someone’s arse kick the bucket kick up a fuss kick in kick somebody out
One informal meaning of the noun kick is: a strong feeling of pleasure and excitement. So, to get a kick out of something means you really enjoy something, or it makes you happy.
So basically the song is about a person who really loves another person but they don’t really enjoy other things in life that people usually enjoy.
There are a few different versions of the song, partly because I think some people didn’t want to sing about cocaine, so they changed a few verses.
One of the versions Frank Sinatra sung starts like this:
I get no kick from champagne Mere alcohol, it doesn’t move me at all
Kia Ora this is Stick News. The social networking site Linked In has just sold a 5% stake in the company for 53 million dollars and is now valued at approximately 1 billion dollars.
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. It was founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. The CEO says they now have more than 20 million registered users and the average user is a 41-year-old with an income of $109,000 a year. Following its latest found of fundraising from venture capital companies, Linked In is now valued at around 1 billion dollars.
And that was Stick News for Friday the 20th of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is riff.
riff n. a short repeated pattern of notes in popular music or jazz
Step 1: Repeat Junko’s lines. Step 2: Read Junko’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Junko What does kick the bucket mean?
Sarah To die.
Junko Does it mean the same thing as “pass away”?
Sarah Yeah, but you use them in different situations.
Junko For example?
Sarah It depends on the listener. If they’re likely to be upset, then you’d use pass away or die and you definitely wouldn’t use kick the bucket or other informal slang.
Junko What are some other informal words for die?
Sarah Um, cark it.
Junko How do you spell that? Sarah Good question. Maybe k-a-r-k or c-a-r-k ... ?
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Today I’m going to talk about a video by Michael Buckley. Michael Buckley makes an online show about American celebrities, called What The Buck Show. I’m not really too keen on that – but he also makes some personal vlogs which I enjoy watching.
The main things that he remembers are, firstly, that he cried a lot because he was homesick, even though he only went to kindergarten for about three hours a day.
He says: I was only there from like noon to three. So in retrospect, it’s like toughen up, you know, you couldn’t go to school for three hours?
In retrospect is an idiom which means: when looking back on a past event or situation. Another way of saying it is: with hindsight.
He says that he used to do stuff like go to the nurse’s office and say he was sick to try and get out of kindergarten. I think this is funny, he says: I saw some kid wet their pants once and I thought I’m going to wet my pants because if I wet my pants I’ll go home. I didn’t do it, but these are things that went through my brain.
Another thing that he remembers is that his teacher "seemed out of sorts". Out of sorts is another idiom. In my dictionary it says: especially BrE ill/sick or upset.
He means that she might have had a mental illness or maybe she was on medication or something. He says: years later I think I did hear through the grapevine that perhaps, yes, my teacher was a little out of sorts.
The grapevine means: the circulation of rumours and unofficial information.
So if you hear something through the grapevine it usually means that someone told someone who told you ... and it may or may not be true.
By the way, Micheal Buckley talks pretty fast, so this is very good practice for listening to a fast speaker. I wrote a transcript for you so you can check out the bits that you didn’t catch.
And, just out of curiosity, I also calculated how fast he was speaking in that video. And it turns out he’s speaking 220 words per minute. And then I tried to find the average speed for speaking English, but all the sites I looked at had different averages, so I don’t know what the best answer is.
One site said the average was: 125 to 150. And another site said:155 to 160. But in any case, I think he’s speaking pretty fast.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today a celebrity chef from the UK has prompted Australia's parliament to recommend stricter rules about language used on television.
Gordon Ramsay is a chef who verbally abuses his staff on the cooking shows he stars in. Reuters reported his shows prompted outrage in Australia earlier this year when “one episode featured the volatile chef using a four-letter expletive more than 80 times in 40 minutes.” The Australian Senate has now completed an inquiry which made 20 recommendations to television stations to review the way they rate programs, what they consider to be coarse language, and how they respond to complaints. The inquiry chairperson told parliament that submissions expressed concern about Ramsay’s swearing and attitudes. "People were offended by the way Ramsay directed his language toward restaurant staff in an abusive and aggressive manner.” The Governor-General said that television programs glorify bad manners and foul language. "There is a culture of crudeness. Crudeness in our language in high public life. The language you see coming out over the television, the language in political areas in some parts. It's a crudity which I don't think is a good thing."
And that was Stick News for Thursday the 19th of June. Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is: diaper.
A diaper is a thing that babies wear in North America.
In other countries they wear nappies.
conversations withsarah
#472 Is he famous?
Step 1: Repeat Mari’s lines. Step 2: Read Mari’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Sarah Have you heard of Gordon Ramsay? Mari No. Who’s he?
Sarah He’s a chef from the UK. Mari Is he famous?
Sarah Yeah, I think so. He has a few restaurants and a few TV shows. I was just watching a clip from of one of his shows and I’m so shocked.
Mari Why?
Sarah He verbally abuses his staff on the shows. It’s so nasty.
Mari You mean he swears at them?
Sarah Yeah, he does that. But I don’t think the swearing is so bad – it’s just what he says and the way he says it ... it’s, like, hard core verbal abuse.
Mari And it’s on TV?
Sarah Yeah, crazy aye. I can’t believe it’s even legal to do that. It reminds me of military abuse or what teachers used to be able to get away with.
Mari Someone will probably sue him, won’t they? Sarah Mmm, I don’t know. But I guess he’ll get his trouble back eventually. You can’t go around treating people like that. Actually, it looks like he’s already suffering from his own stress. When I saw his photo I thought he was in his 60s or 70s, but in Wikipedia it says he’s only 41. But that could be a mistake I guess.
Hey everybody and this is the first in a series of at least twelve videos. Um, Michael Buckley, the school years. This one is called kindergarten. I am going to be making a vlog talking about each year of my life in school. Because I’ve found doing the live shows that people always ask certain questions. And it always triggers some memory. Um, and I just, I have specific memories of each year. And I just have such strong associations of my lunchbox or what I wore the first day of school. Or, you know, just what happened based on, oh, that happened in third grade, I remember it so well. So I’m going to make a series of videos. And this one is kindergarten. I would love for you guys to play along too. Make response videos for every year you want to. If you want to skip a year, if something was too painful ... I sure as hell didn’t like 9th grade that much. But, I’m going to do each year. So this is ... so that was a little background. But um, so kindergarten, Michael Buckley, what do I remember? Wow. I remember going to kindergarten and being very excited to not be in preschool anymore. Um, preschool was a little rough for me. I was very emotional and very sad every day, I was very homesick, even though preschool was short. So I go to kindergarten and same thing. I thought it was going to be different, I thought I was going to enjoy it because I thought oh, I’m there and there’s you know first, second, third, forth, fifth… you know, there’s older kids that I can see. And um, we used to have half day kindergarten and I was an afternoon kindergarten person. So I didn’t have to go until noon. And so I was only there from like noon to three. So in retrospect, it’s like toughen up, you know, you couldn’t go to school for three hours pussy. Um, but I couldn’t. I would go and I would cry. And I would just go down to the nurses’ office. I would always pretend I was sick. I can’t tell you how many times I went down to the nurses’ office in kindergarten and just: my stomach hurts, my head hurts. And they would know. I saw some kid wet their pants once and I thought I’m going to wet my pants because if I wet my pants I’ll go home. I didn’t do it, but these are things that went through my brain. Um, my other thing that I remember most strongly from kindergarten, was my teacher seemed out of sorts. And even as a child you kind of can tell when people are out of sorts. Um, and years later I think I did hear through the grapevine that perhaps, yes, my teacher was a little out of sorts. Um, but all I know is, I used to ... we used to have to say our address. Like, so every day she would like ask you: what’s your name? Michael Buckley. Where do you live? And I would say the street address where I lived. I’m telling you know. I used to say the wrong address. And she sat there, Indian style, on the bench and said right, like glazed over. And so like two years later, in second grade, I wrote down my street address, and my mother said, what the hell’s that? And I’m like that’s where I live. And she’s like no you don’t. And I’m said, well blank said that I did. And she’s like um, no, you don’t live there Michael. I thought I lived on some ... oh you know what ... I can’t even .. I’m so embarrassed that I ... but she said that I live there ... so, maybe she wanted me to go there. I don’t know. Crazy! Um, that’s what stands out in kindergarten. I don’t remember much in terms of academics. I do remember having nap time and laying there on the mat, and just … that was happy time. Like I remember laying there, looking over at other kids and thinking: I wonder if they’re having as much fun as I am? Cause I enjoy laying here as opposed to doing whatever work we’re supposed to do. I also remember having a bathroom in the classroom. Which you know when you’re in first, second grade you don’t. So I remember having, you know, going to the bathroom ... and I remember a kid having a diaper. Cause I remember walking in on some kid once and being like what the … why does this kid have a diaper? What the hell’s wrong with him? What else? Crazy teacher, walking in on a kid with a diaper. Crying often. My mother was a PTA room mother, I can’t remember if it was for me or for my twin sister. But every time she came in, I would just start crying. What an emotional person! What a sensitive person! Boys are like that, I swear, girls are you know ... let’s get to school. Boys are very attached to their mothers, well I was anyway. And I just remember being very sad that I had to go to school and leave. I wanted to be home with her. Um. So that’s all for now. Michael Buckley – kindergarten years. Um, first grade is fun. So look forward to first grade. Hopefully I’ll do it next week. I’m going to be motivated to do at least one a week – maybe more. But I hope you guys will play, make kindergarten ... or pick another grade. And um. Have fun. I think this will be a little YouTube fun thing we can do. So this video’s going to be called kindergarten, what’s yours going to be? Pick a grade and let’s go!
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 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.
It’s mistake day today and I’m going to talk about a few common mistakes – that is getting few and a few mixed up. And getting little and a little mixed up.
Let’s look at a few examples.
I’m going to read you some examples from this book: Common Mistakes in English, which is a pretty good book by the way, so I’ll put the details in the script and you go and check it out if you’re interested.
Here are the examples for the correct way to use few and a few:
Although the question was easy, few boys were able to answer it. Although the question was difficult, a few boys were able to answer it.
And they say few means not many and emphasizes the smallness of the number and a few means at least some.
A simple way of thinking about it might be to think that few is negative but a few is positive.
A few more examples:
I invited a lot of people to the party, but few people came. I didn’t think anyone was going to come to the party but a few people actually came.
Little and a little work in the same way.
Here are a few examples I got from better-english.com. You won't change her mind so there is little use in trying. I need a little help. I'm a bit stuck.
click here
I have a couple of sites to tell you about today.
They are both sites where you can type in a word and press a button – or click on something - and the word will be pronounced. I think it’s called text to speech software or speech synthesis.
It’s not as good as an actual human of course - but it can be useful I think, sometimes, if you want to do something like check where the stress is on a word.
This site has an American female voice and this one has a British male voice.
There are other similar sites out there too, so if you know of one that you think is good please let me know so I can add it to the list.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, in Stick News today some local governments in Japan are urging convenience stores to close during late night hours in an effort save energy.
According to a Reuters report, the city of Kyoto wants to persuade convenience and other 24-hour stores to close late at night to improve evening views of the city and cut down on energy use. They say Saitama prefecture may be next on the list to push for limited business hours. The convenience store industry is strongly opposed to the move. The president of Seven-Eleven Japan said: "Even if we only operate the stores for 16 hours, we can't stop the refrigerators." He said cutting operating hours would reduce each store's profit by 20 percent.
And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 18th of June. Kia Ora.
conversations withsarah
#471 Really? Why not?
Step 1: Repeat Taka’s lines. Step 2: Read Taka’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Taka It’s hard to remember the difference between few and a few. Sarah You know, I don’t usually use the word few.
Taka Really? Why not?
Sarah I don’t know. But I usually say not many. Taka So you wouldn’t say few people came to the party. Sarah No. I’d say: Not many people came to the party. Not many, if any.
Taka What?
Sarah Oh, it’s just a song.
Taka Do you use a few? Sarah Yeah, I use that a lot. Sometimes as a euphemism. Like, I had a few drinks last night, sometimes means: I had lot of drinks.
links
Common Mistakes In English by T.J.Fitikides Amazon
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 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.
The Daily English Show is the world's first daily online English language show. Produced by studio tdes and presented by Sarah - a New Zealander currently based in Auckland, New Zealand.
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