Wednesday, June 17, 2009

#1063 Speakaboos, Sneaky German Fox, Simpleton, Telephone English


Show 1063 Wednesday 17 June
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

I’m now just over half way through the Japanese vlog experiment … and it’s going very well.
I’ve been writing down some notes about how it’s going, as well as writing down the words that I look up. That’s on this blog.

Some of the mistakes I’ve been making are because I don’t know the right word, or I use the wrong word. For example, I called a bus stop a “stop” which is wrong.


photo by: Mark Kobayashi-Hillary

I thought it might have been called stop because they use that word in Japanese. But stop in Japanese is used for the verb stop, and various other things, but not bus stop which I didn’t know.


photo by: saname777

Other mistakes I make are things that I actually know are wrong but they’re bad habits or they just slip out.

But making the videos has been really good for me to see where my weak points are, where I’m struggling. One thing I need to work on is getting the right level of formality. In Japanese this is partly done by the verb endings. And I’ve been getting them all mixed up and so it sounds odd.

And one more thing I’ve been having trouble with is transitioning from one point to the next when I’m telling a story or just talking about something. Maybe you have this trouble too in English.
But the feedback has helped me there too. I was using the same word a lot and someone suggested, "Why don’t you try this word?" And so I’ve been trying their suggestion.



click here


The site I recommend today is called speakaboos. On this site you can listen to children’s books being read and you can also read along. So it’s a good site for children of course ... and adults who enjoy children’s books. And people who are studying English.

One interesting thing is, they get a lot of different people to read the books for example The Emperor’s New Clothes is read by a guy called Harry Shearer who does a lot of the voices on The Simpsons, including: Mr Burns, Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner.



STICK NEWS



Kia ora in Stick News today a fox in Germany stole more than 100 shoes before it was busted by a forest worker.

In a small town in Western Germany a fox was stealing shoes at night time outside locals’ front doors.
A forest worker stumbled upon some shoes near the fox’s den and then looked down the hole and found more than a hundred shoes.
A local policeman is quoted as saying it appears a fox stole the shoes for her cubs to play with.
He said police weren’t planning to press charges.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 17th of June.
Kia ora.



Word of the Day

Today’s word is simpleton.

This is a line from the book The Emperor's New Clothes. I’m sure you know that story.
The guys who make the “clothes” for the emperor said:

Our clothing is invisible to anyone who is either a simpleton or who is unfit to hold their office.

A simpleton is an old-fashioned word for a stupid person.
a person who is not very intelligent and can be tricked easily





conversations with sarah
#673 This is Dave Brown

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

Sarah Good morning, Banana Studios, this is Sarah speaking. How can I help you?

Dave Hi, is John Smith available, please?

Sarah Sure. Can I ask who’s calling?

Dave This is Dave Brown.

Sarah OK, just a moment Dave, I’ll put you through.
Are you there, Dave?

Dave Yes.

Sarah I’m afraid he’s on the other line at the moment. Do you mind holding? Or shall I get him to call you back?

Dave Ah, it’s OK. I’ll call back later.

Sarah OK. Thanks for calling.

Dave Thank you. Bye.


filming notes


The fox footage was filmed in Hirafu, Niseko, Japan on the 7th of March 2009. It was featured in the TDES Niseko Snow Report on show #1001.



links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Future Cha Cha
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site

click here start
artist: #NarNaoud#
album: Green Vision
track: Oriental Standing
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album 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: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site

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: Flutey Funk
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site

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