#848 Scent Of A Woman, Naked Man Swims In Palace Moat

Show 848 Tuesday 7 October
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today we’re going to do a conversation from the movie Scent of a Woman. We’ve done a few conversations from this movie before. (Shows 787 and 794)

Today’s conversation is a very simple one. It’s a good one for practicing the situation of … when you meet someone for the first time.

A university student, called Charlie, is going to a woman’s house for the first time. She put up a notice for a job advertisement at his university and he answered the ad and then he goes around to her house. It’s Thanksgiving weekend and the job is to look after somebody, while the rest of the family goes away for the weekend.

When he arrives at the house, Charlie says: I’m here about the weekend job.

I thought it would be interesting to study the structure of the questions the woman asks Charlie.

She says: You're available for the whole weekend?
And: Not going home for Thanksgiving?

Normally, those questions would be: Are you available for the whole weekend?
And: Are you going home for Thanksgiving?

But she’s expecting the answer to be yes – because he wouldn’t have applied if he was not available for the whole weekend, or if he was going home for thanksgiving – so she’s just checking or confirming.

You’ve probably learnt that to make a question, you usually need to use a word like: who, when, what, why, where, how. But, of course, it doesn’t always have to be that way. You can also make a question by adding a question tag, like:

Conrad’s very sexy, isn’t he?

And, like in today’s conversation, you can make a statement into a question, just by raising your voice.

You're available for the whole weekend?

Remember if you make a question like this, you have to raise your voice. It doesn’t work if you don’t raise your voice at the end.

You’re available for the whole weekend. You’re available for the whole weekend?

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today, a Spanish man was arrested after he went for a naked swim in the moat around the imperial palace in Tokyo.

This morning, a Spanish man visited the imperial palace in Tokyo, Japan, with a group of Spanish friends. At 11:20am, he approached the police and said, in English, that he had dropped his bag in the moat. Then he jumped in the moat and started taking his clothes off while swimming. The police went to pick him up in a boat. But the naked man tried to escape. Stark naked, he climbed up the palace wall, while throwing rocks at police officers. Police called in reinforcements and about 50 emergency services personnel arrived at the scene. It them an hour and forty minutes to capture the naked Spaniard. According to news reports a crowd of around 300 people gathered to watch the shenanigans.

And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 7th of October.
Kia Ora.

* NOTE: At the time of writing the media were reporting he was Spanish ... but it turns out that he was actually a British guy who lives in Spain.

Word of the Day

Today’s word is moat.
A deep, wide defensive ditch surrounding a castle or town, typically filled with water.

If you visit the imperial palace in Tokyo, it’s probably not a good idea to go swimming in the moat.

conversations with sarah
#524 I'm here about the weekend job.

Step 1: Repeat Mrs Rossie's lines.
Step 2: Read Mrs Rossie’s lines and talk to Charlie.

Charlie Hi, Mrs Rossie?

Mrs Rossie Yes?

Charlie I'm here about the weekend job.

Mrs Rossie Come on in. I'm sorry, the school gave me your name, but I've forgotten it.

Charlie It's Charlie. Charlie Simms.

Mrs Rossie How are you Charlie?

Charlie Fine, thanks.

Mrs Rossie Right this way. You're available for the whole weekend?

Charlie Ah, yeah.

Mrs Rossie Not going home for Thanksgiving?

Charlie No.

Mrs Rossie Good.

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: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack3
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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.

#847 Jon From Wellington, New Zealand, Stranded Bus

Show 847 Monday 6 October
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.


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

Today’s guest is Jon. He’s from Wellington, New Zealand and he lives in Japan. This is his second stint in Japan. The first time he was here on the JET programme. He was teaching at a high school in Gifu. And after a year teaching, he went back to New Zealand, then he decided to come back to Japan, this time to do something different.
When he was living in Gifu, Jon came to Niseko on holiday to do some snowboarding and now he’s back in Niseko, this time he’s living here and working for one of the companies up at the ski village called Hokkaido Tracks.

I asked him what he does at Hokkaido Tracks.

At the moment I, um, do design, um, and website work. So I look after, ah, my company’s media, ah, requirements. So that can be, um, anything from just updating the website, text or, um, creating new web pages, um, through to pamphlets and, ah, sometimes photography as well.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora this is Stick News. A group of children from a swimming club in Japan thought they would have to swim for their lives after their bus became stranded on a flooded road.

Last month a group of 16 students were on their way to a swimming competition in Hiroshima when the minibus they were travelling in stalled on a road that was flooded with water. Mainichi News reported the students feared they would have to swim for their lives. So they quickly changed into their togs inside the bus and climbed out the windows. But the water wasn't as deep as they anticipated and they managed to wade to another bus and they made it to the competition.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 6th of October.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#523 What did you study?

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

Sarah Did you study design at university?

Jon Actually, I didn’t study – that’s my naughty little secret. I, um, I didn’t study, ah, design or photography. Um, I, um, I’ve always been very interested in photography and design. So, I’ve, um … the, the kinds of, ah, programs, the kinds of software that I work with, um, I’m very familiar with, I’ve worked with a lot in the past. Just for my own … stuff. Ah, like if I’ve made my own website, or … um, and, ah, I’ve been … um, doing photography for probably about ten years now. Um, so, I’m certainly very interested in it, um, but it’s not what I studied at university.

Sarah What did you study?

Jon I studied, um - very different - I studied criminology and philosophy. Um, so, two very, very interesting subjects. But, um, yeah, I don’t know, I never felt that they were subjects which would offer me, a, um, you know, a, like maybe a well paying job, or … but I was very, very interested in them. And I’m very, you know, I’m very happy that I studied them. And I’d like to, yeah, I’d like to study them again one day.

Sarah Why didn’t you continue teaching?

Jon Well, um, I really enjoyed the teaching but I also felt like, um, teaching wasn’t going to be my career. Um, it wasn’t going to be the job that I always did. So, I, um, felt that I, um, should, ah, maybe look at doing a, a job which was more, you know, sort of career based. Um, so when I went back to New Zealand I was looking around for that kind of job and I never really found it. Um, and I thought about doing the police, going into the New Zealand police force. Which I thought would be very interesting and um, be very close to what I studied at university. Um, but then I um, found this job in Niseko, online, and I thought, ah, I’d like to go back to Niseko.

Sarah You don’t seem like the police officer type …

Jon I know, a lot of people say that, and probably I’m not so much, you know, sort of, of that kind of personality. But, ah, yeah, I, I think, um, the … um, the, the, the subject matter, like, really interests me, like, why people, um, commit crime or … what makes people commit crime, or … um, why we define certain things as crime. So, it’s kind of the overall, the overall picture, I think is … yeah, and … yeah I thought it would be quite an interesting opportunity, being in the police, to, you know, have more experience, direct experience with it.

Sarah Why did you choose Niseko? So that you could go snowboarding?

Jon Japan, coming back to Japan, was probably the biggest reason. Um, I knew that the snowboarding was very, very good. Um, but, I’m not that good at snowboarding. So … um, but certainly the other big one was the job, um, and I felt that the job really, um, it, you know, sounded like a great company to work for, really interesting, young company. And, um, it was a, um, an area that I’d personally been interested in for a long time - the photography and I thought that this would be a good opportunity, a step into the door, um … for, um, you know, maybe, you know, a career in this field.

Sarah When did you start studying Japanese?

Jon Um, really, I started studying, ah, when I first came, um, but when I first came to Japan, I was, I think I was more interested in having fun and I didn’t really take it seriously enough. And when I went back to New Zealand, I really felt that I’d missed an opportunity. Um, and, ah, so, ah, when I came back, I felt like it was a second chance, another opportunity for me to, um, you know, learn more about, um, Japan through Japanese, through the language and, um, I’ve certainly always been interested in the culture, but the language, I don’t know, I’ve … yeah, I’m, I’m, I’m studying, I go to classes at the moment.

Sarah Do you use Japanese at work?

Jon Predominantly English, but, um, certainly, ah, I mean, all of our company’s, um, employees, we all study Japanese, um, and vice-versa, the Japanese study English. Um, so … the goal is to have a bilingual, um, environment, where, you know, Japanese or English is, um, is, you know, able to be used in, you know, in the work space.

Sarah Do you have any advice for people who are studying English?

Jon Well, using it every day, using the language whenever you can. And um, watching The Daily English Show of course.

notes

a step into the door
I think he meant to say a foot in the door - an idiom which means: to manage to enter an organization, a field of business, etc. that could bring you success

links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

Hokkaido Tracks
Hokkaido Tracks staff profile page

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: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack3
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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.