#896 Nick From USA, Three Greedy Old Men And A Pretty Princess

Show 896 Monday 24 November
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today’s guest is Nick. He’s from somewhere near Philadelphia, in the United States. He’s been teaching English in Japan for five years. And he currently teaches young children at an English school in Hokkaido.

I met him at the JALT conference last month and I asked him what he enjoyed most about teaching.

At its best moments I, I enjoy watching students, ah, get to goals that we’ve set together. Um, or, actually, the most rewarding is watching the student get to the goals that they set by themselves. Um, when you’re lucky enough to have two or three years with the same student – cause I teach mostly young kids - you’re actually watching, um, their growth not only as an English speaker, but as a human being, which is very rewarding.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today Three Greedy Old Men and a Pretty Princess have just won lotto in New Zealand.

Four people in Dunedin, New Zealand formed a lotto syndicate. They called themselves, “Three Greedy Old Men and a Pretty Princess”. They all work in a factory for a company called Fisher & Paykel. In April, the company announced it would be closing the factory and 430 workers would lose their jobs – including the Three Greedy Old Men and the Pretty Princess. Last Saturday, the Pretty Princess brought a lotto ticket for the group. They’ve been playing lotto with the same numbers for seven years. This time they won. They said they planned to pay off mortgages, upgrade cars, travel and semi-retire with the money.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 24th of November.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#558 Why did you come to this conference?

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

Sarah Why did you come to this conference?

Nick Ah, well, I’m teaching young children English and I’d like to get my way back up the age scale. So, I’m kind of curious in developments, particularly in the self-access. Self-access is something that I have a strong interest in and I wanted to see this keynote speaker.

Sarah What advice do you have for people who are studying English?

Nick Ask yourself why you want to learn English. I don’t think most people really have a concrete idea, aside that it’s a class that they’re required to take. And the difference between students I’ve seen succeed and students I’ve seen flounder, is a clear sense of what they want to do with, ah, with English, so …

Sarah What songs or movies do you recommend for studying English?

Nick Well, personally favourite singers are Simon & Garfunkel. Um, they, I think Paul Simon, their diction is rather clean, so it’s relatively easy even for non-native speakers to understand. And the content of the songs, I think, is kind of meaningful for older students.
Um, as for movies, ah, I got a kick out of Batman, the recent Batman series. Um, I don’t know, movies are a little different because, ah, although I think they’re valuable, ah, different people enjoy different genres, and so it’s really hard … I mean personally I like the, the hero type of, you know, difficult, difficult crisis resolved by the end. So that for me is very meaningful. Whereas, for someone who’s not interested in that, they won’t get much English out of that.
Ah, but the main thing I say with, with movies is … I always tell students, “avoid science fiction”. Ah, just too many words you’ll never use. And, ah, and, ah, avoid, um, 24 which also has too many words they’ll never use. Try to think of something … for example, when I study Japanese, one of the better movies I’ve watched is, ah, is となりのトトロ　(Tonari No Totoro). And because the majority of the movie is about a family spending time, you know … and so you don’t really get lost in words that you’ll never … the core of the movie is that family. And in the same … I just don’t know many movies off the top of my head in English like that, because I like Batman, so …

notes

flounder v. have trouble doing or understanding something

diction n.
1. the choice and use of words in speech or writing
2. the style of enunciation in speaking or singing

get a kick out of something idiom
to enjoy something very much


links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: City Flight
from: Switzerland
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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