Wednesday, October 15, 2008

#856 ESL Forum, Singing English, Busy Ringo Starr, Stocks Plunge


Show 856 Wednesday 15 October
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.



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

Today’s mistake comes from this forum.

I was having a look around there today and I saw a post from someone asking people to check his recommendation letter.

The second sentence was: I know him since 2002.
That should be: I have known him since 2002.
If you’re speaking, you can say: I’ve known him … but a recommendation letter is a formal letter, so you shouldn’t use contractions.

Every now and then, I go to that forum and answer people’s questions, just for fun, because it’s quite satisfying helping people that are asking for help …. especially when you don’t have to … like a random act of kindness.

So if you’re doing some writing and you have a sentence or two that you’re not sure about, try posting it in that forum and asking people if it’s correct. Or you can try posting it under a Daily English Show video – if you write a sentence and say: Could anyone tell me if this is correct? Then, I might not have time to help you, but someone else probably will.



click here


Today I recommend this site. Thanks to Charles for telling me about this.
It’s an art project called: Let them sing it for you. It was created by a Swedish artist, composer and musician who lives in Berlin.
On this site you can type in sentences and they will be sung with words from famous songs. Of course it doesn’t have all words. And it also doesn’t work with contractions – so you have to write I have instead of I’ve.
So I think you could have a bit of fun with this and send a message to a friend – or you could type in some grammatical structures that you’re trying to learn and listen to them being sung over and over.

* Ringo Starr's message
* tdes ending
* sentences patterns (by Charles)



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today Ringo Starr has announced that he’s giving up signing autographs for fans.

Ringo Starr is a 68-year-old British musician.
He used to be the drummer in a band called The Beatles.
In 1996, he appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple juice.
These days, he’s a busy man – too busy he says, to sign autographs. He’s just posted a video message on his website telling fans to stop sending him fan mail.
“Nothing will be signed after the 20th of October.” He says. “If that is the date on the envelope, it's going to be tossed.”

And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 15th of October.
Kia Ora.




Word of the Day

Today’s word is plunge.
Fall or move suddenly and uncontrollably.

Today I was reading more news about the financial crisis and it seems like the economy in Iceland is having a bit of trouble.

Apparently the Iceland stock exchange was closed for a couple of days and then, when it reopened, stocks initially plunged more than 70 percent.

They went back up again, but at first they plunged – which means they went down suddenly and uncontrollably.

So I wonder what stocks will do tomorrow … will they plunge or will they soar?



conversations with sarah
#520 How was the festival?

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

Andy How was the festival?

Sarah Terrible.

Andy Why? What happened?

Sarah Oh, this woman was really rude to me.

Andy What did she say?

Sarah Well, I was just quietly walking past her stall, minding my own business and she suddenly started saying really loudly, so that I could hear: Is that a man or a woman? It looks like a man but it also kind of looks like a woman … stuff like that.

Andy Really? About you?

Sarah Yeah. And then … as if that isn’t outrageously rude enough, she yells out to the person I was with, and asks them: Is that a man or a woman?

Andy What?! Why would she do that?

Sarah I don’t know. Just trying to pick a fight I guess. Maybe she was having a really bad day and wanted to share her misery.

Andy You don’t look like a man.

Sarah Thanks. But even if I do, it’s like, so what, it’s not my problem if she doesn’t like the way I look. I don’t mind if she’s rude about me behind my back … but it would be nice to be able to walk down the street with being verbally abused.

Andy What did you say?

Sarah Nothing, I just tried to ignore her and walked away.



notes

every now and then
or: every now and again, now and then, now and again

this is an idiom which means: from time to time, occasionally



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

click here start
artist: #NarNaoud#
album: Green Vision
track: Oriental Standing
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site

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: Antony Raijekov
album: See U
track: When Waves Trying to Catch a Marvel
from: Sofia, Bulgaria
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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