#917 Niseko Patrol – Derek’s New Job, Bush Shoe Attack

Show 917 Monday 15 December
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today’s guest is Derek. I think this is the first time we’ve had a guest back on the show for a second interview – Derek was the guest on show 737. But I wanted to interview him again because he has a new job so I thought it would be interesting to hear about that.
He also has a new dog, it’s a very cute little puppy but right after the interview I accidentally stood on its foot with my new, massive heavy boots and it looked so sad and I still feel bad about that so I’m sorry puppy …

The first thing I asked Derek was: What’s your new job title?

I’m the, ah, community liaison officer for the, ah, anzen, or safety center in the middle of Hirafu, right next to the Seicomart.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today the president of the United States of America has been attacked by a shoe.

George Bush is the president of the United States of America. In 2003, he decided to invade Iraq and asked the world to help him. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. On Sunday evening during a press conference in Iraq, a journalist threw his shoes at President Bush. He yelled: "This is a farewell ... you dog!" The president survived the attack and said, "So what if the guy threw his shoe at me?"

And that was Stick News for Monday the 15th of December.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#571 Have you had any trouble so far?

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

Sarah What does your job involve?

Derek Um, lots of things. Helping people, ah, find where buses are. Um, lost items like wallets and cameras. Um, renting cars, where restaurants are … and then also patrolling the village at night, for, ah, just to make sure everything’s going smoothly and everyone’s having a good time.

Sarah How many staff work here?

Derek Um, we’ve three staff on, from 9 o’clock in the morning until, ah, 2am. And as well four police officers are on a rotational basis coming in through here and basing themselves out of here.

Sarah Have you had any trouble so far?

Derek Um, no, nothing, nothing trouble … we’ve had a couple of, ah, with the icy weather we’ve had a couple of, ah, slips and falls on the, ah, the snow. But nothing so far.

Sarah When do you expect it to get busy?

Derek Um, as soon as the, as the customers arrive, as soon as all the visitors start coming in, it starts to get pretty busy, around Christmas and then New Years of course is always a big day. So we’re, ah, looking forward to that.

Sarah How did you get this job?

Derek Um, somebody recommended me for it, they ah, they’d, ah, heard that, ah, they were looking for somebody and thought I’d be a good fit, so, ah … I know a lot of people in town, I’ve been here for a while. So, it’s been good. I’m really, ah, happy to do it and happy to be of, ah, service to the town.

Sarah Have you done anything like this before?

Derek Um, yeah, I was, ah, actually was, ah, in police collage back in Canada to be a patrol officer and, ah, um, yeah, it’s just something that sort of comes naturally to me, I guess.

Sarah Is there much difference between the Canadian and the Japanese police forces?

Derek Um, no, I mean, I think they both go about their jobs the same way, the Japanese police are, ah, much more thorough. And this has been a really good opportunity for them to sort of bridge between the foreign community … The biggest problem for the police here is they don’t quite understand some of our customs and culture. Like getting drunk and wrestling in the street is not really a Japanese, ah, hobby. But it’s sort of, ah, one of our past times in the snow, so sometimes it’s good to have somebody to kind of explain – they’re fighting, they’re playing. So, that’s what I’m doing.

Sarah Is there any kind of behaviour that you’d like to try and stop this season?

Derek Um, yeah, I think it’s important that we have in the town, just sort of a feeling of, there actually is somebody, sort of, watching. And, kind of, ah, to help everybody get along. I mean, it’s one percent, we’ve had problems with one percent of the sort of the visitors that come here. And they can ruin it for a whole place, a whole bar, just by being, um, you know, getting drunk and acting out of control. So hopefully if people know that there’s, there’s a resource they can use, hopefully we’ll be able to eliminate that one percent, or quiet it down. And everyone can have a really good time, every time they come here.

Sarah What will happen if there is any trouble?

Derek Um, normally what happens is I’m kind of the first line of defence and basically, if you get to the point where you’re still not listening to me. I say, well there’s other … you know, we’re either going to deal with this now or you can have the police deal with it. And, ah, a lot of foreigners don’t know that in Japan you can be detained for up to 23, 24 days without any, um, ah, lawyers. And usually be held in jail. Most of the time if there’s any, um, court costs they’re borne by the defendant. Um, you can be exported, you can lose your passport rights. So these kinds of things, if people knew a little bit more, they might be a little bit more careful. But as I said it’s usually, it’s, you know, one to two percent of the … the vast majority of the people that come here are good customers. Only one or two people, visitors that come here, cause a little bit of problems and hopefully this year we’ll nip ‘em in the bud.

notes

out of control idiom to be or become impossible to manage or to control

eliminate v. completely remove or get rid of

detained
detain verb to keep sb in an official place, such as a police station, a prison or a hospital, and prevent them from leaving

exported - he meant deported
deport verb to force sb to leave a country, usually because they have broken the law or have no legal right to be there

nip 'em in the bud
nip sth in the bud idiom to stop sth when it has just begun because you can see that problems will come from it

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: Kevin MacLeod
track: Style Funk
artist site
YouTube channel

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.