Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Show 669 Wednesday 12 March


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today’s mistake is: I’m waiting. Well that’s not a mistake in itself – but it is the way some people use it.

In Japanese, it can be polite to say this at the end of a phone conversation.

For example:

OK, I’ll call you back tomorrow morning.
では明日、折り返しお電話差し上げます。


OK, I’m waiting.
分かりました。 お電話お待ちしています


In Japanese, that’s a perfectly normal thing to say. In English, it’s not.

But that’s a natural thing to do when you’re learning a language – to think of what you’d say in your native language and then just translate that. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t ... like in this situation. The first time someone said that to me, I thought: How rude! But I just said something like: OK, well, I’ll try and be quick. But they weren’t meaning hurry up they were just trying to use a polite expression to finish the conversation.

In English, I think when you say, I’m waiting, you’re usually angry or annoyed. So that’s why I was shocked the first time I heard Japanese people say that to me.

Like if you were supposed to meet your partner somewhere at a certain time and they didn’t show up and you were pretty annoyed about it, then you might call them and say: Where are you? I’m waiting!

So, back to this situation. What would you say in English?

I would say: OK, I’ll talk to you then.
Or: OK, bye.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, a woman in Saudi Arabia has uploaded a video of herself driving to YouTube to try and get the government to let women drive more freely.

According to Wikipedia, women in Saudi Arabia face severe discrimination in many aspects of their lives, including education, employment, and the justice system and are clearly regarded as inferior to men.
Apparently, women are not allowed to drive or ride bicycles on public roads in large cities.
Some women want this rule to be changed.
One woman filmed herself driving and uploaded the video to YouTube for this year’s
International Women’s Day.
In the video she asks the interior minister to permit women to drive in cities.


And that was Stick News for Wednesday 12 March.
Kia Ora




THE SNOW REPORT
in Hirafu


Check out this powder snow. This was filmed in Hirafu on the 2nd of March. The guy riding is Trevor from Christchurch in New Zealand. He’s been spending winters in Niseko for a long time. More than ten years.



conversations with sarah
#409 What does namara mean?

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

Sarah Did you see the jump competition on Sunday?

Luke Yeah. What was it called again? Namara something.

Sarah Namara Ippatsu.

Luke What does namara mean?

Sarah Um, it’s a Hokkaido word. I think it means very.



notes
What is the correct way to pronounce women?
How common is it for people to pronounce women the same way as women?
Someone asked a question like this on YouTube.
The only thing I could find about this topic was here. That person thinks it is wrong to pronounce women the same way as woman.

links

music

show start
artist: BrunoXe
album: aprendiendo desde 2004
track: Mandrake
from: Jerez, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

the snow report start
artist: Olga Scotland
album: Scotland Yard
track: Absolute
from: Moscow, Russia
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: Groovetracks
tracks: groovetracks ending
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa/sr bgm
artist: Antony Raijekov

album: Jazz U

track: Deep blue 2005

from: Sofia, Bulgaria

album at Jamendo

artist at Jamendo

artist site

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