#951 Lunar New Year, Dilbert, Punchline, Naked Singapore Stroll

Show 951 Wednesday 28 January
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

As you may or may not know the Lunar New Year was celebrated on the 26th of January this year. Apparently, this is celebrated in: China, Korea, Tibet, Vietnam and Mongolia.

And of course it’s celebrated all over the world by communities who want to celebrate it … for example Chinese communities all over the world.

And it used to be the Japanese New Year before they adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873.

By the way I got a bit sidetracked when I was looking this up and I discovered that the Gregorian calendar is named after an Italian guy called Gregory was the Pope between 1572 and 1585.

Anyway, today’s mistake comes from a blog entry about the Lunar New Year in Korea.
This person wrote: …. family members get together and spend time at home in New Year's day.

That should be on New Year’s Day – if you’re talking about just one day.
For example, in New Zealand, the 31st of December is called New Year’s Eve and the 1st of January is called New Year’s Day and the 2nd of January is … the 2nd of January.
And if you want to talk about that period, people often say New Year’s.

Are you going away for New Year’s?

And you can also say: over the New Year.

So, back to that sentence , I would probably say: in Korea … family members get together and spend time at home over the New Year. Or during the New Year holiday.

click here

The site I recommend today is: dilbert.com
Dilbert is one of my favourite cartoons and the site is awesome. You can register and save your favourite cartoons . You can easily print them out and you can get widgets to put on your site … I might do that actually. And one thing that I think could be good for studying English – apart from just reading and enjoying and studying the cartoons, of course - is the mashup service that they provide.
You can actually write your own punch line for a comic strip – and then you can save it and share it or print it out. If you’re an English teacher I think this could be an interesting activity to try in a class - especially an advanced class – get students to write their punch line and then explain it to the class.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today a couple in Singapore have been arrested after going for an evening stroll wearing only jandels.

When people go for walks in Singapore they usually wear clothes. But last week a couple decided to take off all their clothes before going for a walk. Restaurant staff said the couple walked by some restaurants and bars smiling and waving and they even stopped to talk to some customers. They said the couple attracted a crowd of more than 200 people who were cheering, whistling, applauding and taking pictures. The couple have been arrested and released on bail.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 28th of January.
Kia Ora.

TDES Niseko Snow Report
at MSK JR Apartment

The other day it was really sunny, so I took some photos around my apartment building.
This is where the rubbish goes.
This is my building and this is its twin.
From another angle.
Check out the mountain of snow!
These are the streets around my place.
This is the fire station which is near my apartment building.
And this is the local ski field in Kutchan.

Word of the Day

Today’s word is punchline.

This is the definition from wiktionary:
The final part of a joke.

Here’s a famous joke:

Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get to the other side.

This is the punchline.

conversations with sarah
#595 Did they have fireworks?

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

Paula Have you ever celebrated Lunar New Year?

Sarah Yeah, I went to Chinatown in Yokohama once.

Paula What did you do there?

Sarah It was like hatsumode, we queued up to go into a temple.

Paula What was it called?

Sarah Oh, I can’t remember – it was quite a few years ago.

Paula Did they have fireworks?

Sarah Yeah, yeah, they did. That was kind of scary actually. They were really loud and people were just randomly letting them off in the street.

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

nsr start
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: Is It Real?
from: Switzerland
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: 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: Dispersion Relation
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.

#950 Spider-Man, Shirking Chores, Ski Vs Snowboard, Canned Obama Music

Show 950 Tuesday 27 January
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today we’re studying a scene from a movie called Spider-Man which came out in 2002.

In this scene, Peter, who is the guy that turns into Spider-Man, is being dropped off somewhere by his uncle. And he goes to get out of the car but his uncle stops him because he wants to talk to him and give him some advice.

What can we learn from this scene?

This is a useful phrase to remember: Thanks for the ride.
If anyone drives you somewhere, before you get out of the car, you should say: Thanks for the ride or thanks for the lift.

Uncle Ben is telling Peter off and he says: You shirk your chores.

shirk = to avoid doing sth you should do, especially because you are too lazy
chore = a routine or tedious task, especially a household one

I don’t know how common the word shirk is, it sounds kind of old-fashioned to me.
If I was Uncle Ben I would probably say: You don’t do your jobs.

Another interesting thing in this conversation is Uncle Pete’s use of the word look.

Peter’s annoyed by what Uncle Ben is saying and he’s not really listening. So Uncle Ben says:
Pete, look, you’re changing, I know, I went through exactly the same thing at your age.

I think when people use the word look like this, they’re trying to say: Please listen to me, what I’m saying is very important.

I’ve noticed a few American politicians – including Barack Obama - seem to have the habit of saying, look, here’s the thing, before they answer questions.

It not really necessary … they could just get straight to the point, but by saying look, here’s the thing, it seems to make it sound a bit more convincing. And perhaps it gives them a couple of seconds to think as well.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today the classical music the audience heard at Obama’s inauguration was prerecorded.

At 12 o’clock last Tuesday, when Barack Obama officially became the president of the United States of America a piece of classical music called Air and Simple Gifts was being performed. The piece was arranged for the occasion by American composer John Williams. Some people were surprised to learn that the music they heard on TV wasn’t being played live – it had been recorded two days earlier. Apparently the bows of the stringed instruments had been soaped to silence them. The performers said the cold weather made a live performance too risky. The instruments may have been damaged and were unlikely to stay in tune. Despite the temperature being minus seven degrees, three of the performers performed barehanded.

And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 27th of January.
Kia Ora.

TDES Niseko Snow Report
with Scott Adventure Sports

For the next few weeks, we have a special guest on the snow report on Tuesdays. David is a ski instructor from England, who’s working for Scott Adventure Sports in Niseko this season.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask David, please write them in the comments section so I’ll have some more questions to ask the next time we interview him.

This is today’s question: What advice do you have for kids who have never skied or snowboarded before and are not sure which one to try first? Well I think, ah, the best advice I can give is to, is to, sort of, I mean, a lot of kids like the look of snowboarding, but I think their parents quite often seem to want them to do skiing for some reason. But, um, is, ah, you can actually, you can always try it out for a couple of days. You know, see if your parents will pay for, you know, one lesson to, to go skiing … But really, you really want to spend a bit of time. You don’t want to do just do, sort of, one day, ah, of one and one day of the other cause it doesn’t give you a chance to, sort of, get an idea, you know, understand the sport or, you know, really get a feeling for, for what either one is like. Um, so, I would probably say to, to try one for a few days. You know, go out there with an idea to, sort of, say, right I’m going to try skiing and then, you know, do that if you’re just there for a holiday or something, do the skiing for the week and then maybe decide the next holiday you’ll try snowboarding. Cause you really want to get past the, sort of, beginner level which is the most frustrating part. And then on to the … then you start to enjoy it. If you cut that too short then all you find is the, you know, just beginning part and you never really get past that to, sort of, enjoy the, the rest of the sport.

Word of the Day

Today’s word is canned.
Here’s a headline I saw the other day, about today’s Stick News:

Obama inauguration classical music was canned and frozen

What does canned mean?

informal, chiefly derogatory, of music, applause etc.
pre-recorded

In American sitcoms they often have canned laughter. That’s a recording of people laughing that they play whenever someone makes a joke.

conversations with sarah
#594 I didn’t start that fight!

* Watch this scene here.

Step 1: Repeat Peter’s lines.
Step 2: Read Peter’s lines and talk to Uncle Ben.

Peter Thanks for the ride, Uncle Ben.

Uncle Ben Now, wait a minute, Peter, we, ah, we need to talk.

Peter Well, we can talk later.

Uncle Ben Well, we can talk now, if you’ll let me.

Peter What do we have to talk about? Why now?

Uncle Ben Because we haven’t talked at all for so long your Aunt May and I don’t even know who you are any more. You shirk your chores. You, you have all those weird experiments in your, in your room. You have fights at school.

Peter I didn’t start that fight! I told you that!

Uncle Ben Well you sure as hell finished it.

Peter What was I supposed to do, run away?

Uncle Ben No, no, you’re not supposed to run away, but… Pete, look, you’re changing, I know, I went through exactly the same thing at your age.

Peter No, not exactly.

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

nsr start
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: Is It Real?
from: Switzerland
album at Jamendo
artist 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: Kevin MacLeod
track: Dispersion Relation
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.