Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.
The video I recommend today is called Elevator – Comments. It’s done by ElevatorShow.
They have a series of comedy videos done in an elevator and I think they’re pretty funny.
This one is a parody of the typical comments you see under videos on YouTube. For example, the first few comments – for the channels that have the really big audiences anyway – usually say something like: First! Which I think is pretty funny, but it seems to annoy a lot of people, and so the comments in reply to those first few comments are usually something like: Who cares what number you are? Shut up. That’s so annoying!
And there’s often a comment like: I just wasted (a certain number of) minutes or seconds of my life. Which I also think is kind of funny.
And then there are spam comments, which I find incredibly annoying. They’re something like: Hey, please watch my videos and subscribe to my channel.
In this video, they tell a joke about a redneck.
So, what’s a redneck?
It says this in the Concise Oxford.
redneck
n.
a working-class white person from the southern US, especially a politically conservative one
I’ve heard this word used in New Zealand too – I think it’s used to describe someone who is Pākehā, probably racist, sexist, homophobic and only likes things in the absolute mainstream and is pretty close-minded. But they don’t have to be working class.
But I don’t really like this word – I think it’s pretty nasty to call people names like that. And it also makes the person using it look pretty close-minded.
So, yeah, it’s one of those words that I would recommend learning, but not using.
It’s confusing too. I read the Wikipedia entry and it seems like people view the word in different ways. This is what it says about Canadian English.
... some Canadians continue to see this as a highly offensive term while others have claimed it and proudly describe themselves as rednecks. This difference often arises because the former consider the term to connote racist beliefs while the latter believe it implies traditional rural values (e.g. work ethic, honesty, self-reliance, simplicity).
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora, this is Stick News. Last year a man in England found an old cup under his bed. It’s just been sold for 100,000 dollars.
According to Wikipedia, a rag and bone man was an individual who would travel the streets of a city with a horsedrawn cart, and would collect old rags, bones, scrap iron and other items, often trading them for other items of limited value.
John’s grandfather was a rag and bone man and before he died he gave John an old cup.
John stashed it under his bed and forgot about it. Then, last year, he moved house and took the cup out to have a look. It was then that he noticed it wasn’t bronze or brass like he’d originally thought.
John said: “I sent it to the British Museum, and the experts there hadn't seen anything like it before and recommended I had it tested at a laboratory. So I paid quite a bit of money for it to be examined by a lab the museum recommended. And they found the gold dated from the third or fourth century B.C."
John then decided to sell the cup. It sold for $100,000.
And that was Stick News for Thursday the 5th of June.
Kia Ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is Pākehā.
Pākehā means a New Zealander who has European ancestors. Sometimes it’s used to mean any non-Māori, but it’s usually used to mean a person who was born in New Zealand with European ancestors.
Pākehā are also called European New Zealanders or New Zealand Europeans. If the police are looking for a criminal, they’ll use the word “Caucasian”.
Pākehā is often used in the context of talking about issues like colonization, dishonoring the Treaty of Waitangi – and comparing Pākehā with Maori, the people who lived in Aotearoa before Pākehā arrived.
So, perhaps because of this, some people don’t like using the word Pākehā and they use European New Zealander or just New Zealander.
The word Palangi – which is a Samoan word for Caucasian – is also used in New Zealand. It’s usually used in places where there are a lot of Pacific Islanders.
conversations with sarah
#462 I don’t get the joke.
Step 1: Repeat Mari’s lines.
Step 2: Read Mari’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Mari I don’t get the joke.
Sarah About the redneck?
Mari Yeah.
Sarah Oh, well, it’s not really funny. But, I think one of the stereotypes of a redneck – well the way the word is used in the US, is of people who are inbred.
Mari What does inbred mean?
Sarah Inbreeding is breeding between people or animals that are closely related. So it’s like making babies with your brother or your cousin or something.
Mari Ew.
Sarah Mmm. Yeah.
links
music
show start
artist: BrunoXe
album: aprendiendo desde 2004
track: Mandrake
from: Jerez, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack4
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
qa bgm
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
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