Show 557 Wednesday 21 November

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

So, The Daily English Show is back in Japan. We had a nice break for 10 days. And now we’re going to be here until next May.

The town we are in is called Kutchan. And this area is called Abuta-Gun or Shiribeshi. And the island is called Hokkaido. But the mountain closest to us is called Niseko-Annupuri and this ski area is called Niseko. So that’s why it’s going to be The Daily English Show Niseko for the next six months.

Wednesday is mistake day and I don’t need to look too far to find mistakes around here.
Let’s start with a couple of signs I saw yesterday.

Firstly, there is a “buckwheat needle restaurant”. I think they are selling noodles, so those es should be os.

Another sign says: “Welcome to Kutchan”. They’re missing an “o” on that sign. But I think it’s really sweet of them to write a sign in a few different languages to make tourists feel welcome.

Another mistake I found comes from a brochure. This brochure is for a company called NOASC in Niseko and they do things like tours, lessons, rental equipment. And they also have a bar and restaurant. And it says: “Dinner reservations excepted”.

That’s a common mistake for native English speakers actually – confusing accept and except.

The pronunciation is similar – actually pretty much the same the way I say it – but the spelling and meaning is different.

Here are some examples from my dictionary of how you can use except:

We work every day except Sunday.
They all came except Matt.
I had nothing on except for my socks.

And these are some examples for accept:

You just have to accept the fact that we’re never going to be rich.
It may take years to be completely accepted by the local community.
The machine only accepts coins.

So as you can see accept and except mean different things.
And this sentence doesn’t make sense. But they could say: “We accept dinner reservations every day except Sunday.”

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, there’s a shortage of secondary school teachers in New Zealand and according to a new survey, it’s getting worse.

The Post Primary Teachers' Association is a trade union in New Zealand.
Yesterday they released the results of a survey which they say shows New Zealand secondary schools are having serious troubles attracting and retaining qualified staff.
About a quarter of high schools in New Zealand responded to the email survey.
One principal said he was “extremely concerned about the quantity and quality of applications in some areas, especially maths and science.”
Another school said they were forced to hire 72-year-old teacher to head their technology department because finding qualified and able teachers was "becoming next to impossible".

And that was Stick News for Wednesday 21st of November.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#338 I can’t believe I’m almost 30.

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

Sarah I can’t believe I’m almost 30.

Ben You’re worried about being 30 already?

Sarah Only one more year...

Ben You like being young?

Sarah Yeah. One of the good things about being young is that you can, kind of, get away with not knowing much about anything. But when you get to around 30 it’s like, damn I should know something about this ...

Ben Yeah, but on the other hand, when you’re older you’re more confident and you don’t really worry about what people think.

Sarah Yeah, I guess you realize that no one really knows much about anything and it doesn’t really matter ...

Ben I’ve enjoyed my thirties. More than my twenties.

Sarah Really?

Ben Yeah, much more. And I think my forties will be even better. I’m looking forward to it.

Sarah Hmmm.

links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Anawin
album: A glimpse inside the bubble
track: Little jazzy
from: Arles, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo

other music
artist: OPRACHINA
album: The jazz farm
track: Grigioscuro
from: Roma, Italy
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
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.

Show 556 Tuesday 20 November

Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.

I remember my primary school teacher telling me that if it was sunny on your birthday, it meant that you’d been good all year. And if it was raining, you’d been bad.
I don’t remember if he said anything about what it means if it rains in the morning turns to snow and then is cloudy - so I’ll just assume it means I was an excellent girl all year.

I went for a walk to the supermarket to find something to stick candles into.

I don’t usually go to the supermarket so I walked around in circles for a bit. Where are the sweets? Here they are.

I decided to buy lots of sweets. You can do whatever you like on your birthday, right?

Mmm, bottle of expensive wine.

These sweets weren’t really designed to have candles stuck in them. But I found a way.

Putting candles into hot mochi is definitely a stupid idea.

I can’t believe I’m almost 30. Damn.

music

show start
artist: Anawin
album: A glimpse inside the bubble
track: Little jazzy
from: Arles, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo

other music
artist: A.K.1974
album: Darker Than You Think
track: Woman's Body
from: Hamburgo, Spain (?)
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

artist: Musiciens de Surface
album: Rachamps 2004
track: Ah! que nos peres
from: Bastogne, Belgium
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

artist: OPRACHINA
album: The jazz farm
track: The Moon In August
from: Roma, Italy
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
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.

Show 555 Monday 19 November

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
Long time no see. This is our first show back in Japan – but our guest is in Canada. We did this interview on our last day at Acadia University. Mohammed is from Saudia Arabia and he’s studying engineering at Acadia. This isn’t his first time in North America, he lived in the United States twice when he was a child – the first time when he was a baby, and then again from when he was 5 to 8. I asked him if he remembered what it was like when he went to the United States.

Um, I remember like, ah, some stuff from, ah, like first grade. Like I remember some of my friends, I don’t remember names though, I remember like their faces, I remember ... ah, I remember quite a few stuff, like I remember my neighbour’s dog, I remember my neighbour, I remember the dog eating my toys when I was like young and ...

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, it’s anti-bullying week in the UK. The campaign includes posting videos on the first anti-bullying partner channel on YouTube.

Wikipedia says: bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation.
Beatbullying is an anti-bullying charity based in London, England.
Beatbullying say they aim to“reduce and prevent the incidence and impact of bullying ... between young people.”
Their campaign includes a YouTube channel called beatbullying.
The channel now features 84 videos of people, including celebrities, talking about bullying.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 19th of November.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#337 Have you ever been to Mecca?

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

Sarah Why did you choose to study in Canada?

Mohammed Because, ah, one thing is like, I wanted to study like abroad, because, ah ... like I had like two choices in my mind, like, I was going ... actually three. I was either, I was going home, I was going out of home, no pr... Like, this is my plan, because I wanted to depend on myself, I didn’t want to depend on my family any more.
So there was one choice is I go to another city and the other choice is I’m going to Japan. Or the third choice is I’m going to ah, like, Canada, or ah Australia, you know, like, English-based countries. But the US I heard that there is sometimes complications, because you’re from Saudi Arabia, the visa takes like too long in the US. So, I was like, “I can’t waste that much time, on the visa”. And I got the scholarship to come here, so I took the scholarship. Because they pay me, they pay the university. Like they pay the university, the pay my housing and they pay me more for living costs, so it’s a good deal.

Sarah What are the conditions of the scholarship?

Mohammed Ah, the conditions would be like, OK, we ah, like we give you the scholarship for five years and probably like how much time would you need like to finish. That’s basically it.
If they see a reason, like a good reason to extend that ah ... time, they would extend it. But then you would have to work for them for the same amount of time that they paid for your school for. And basically, even back home, if you go out from any university, that’s where you go you would go to this company right. And they would pay me the same amount that they would pay someone, from, ah ... who ah, graduates from back home, from Saudi Arabia, but I would have better chances to like ah, get promoted. So I chose, yeah, this is, I mean, it’s a good deal, I’m working there anyways, if I’m taking engineering.

Sarah Do you need English in Saudi Arabia?

Mohammed Yeah, English, yeah of course, like all of the universities teach in English. Especially like ah dental ... if you’re studying to be a dentist like my brother is studying to be a dentist, everything is in English. And, ah, engineering, all the scientific majors, they’re all like ah learnt in English. You learn them in English. They don’t teach them in Arabic.

Sarah How different are Canada and Saudi Arabia?

Mohammed It’s ... different. A lot different. Like the culture. Ah, how ah ... Like, pretty much, it’s the culture. And ah, the climate of course. There’s a huge difference in the climate. And ... like the views. Like, you know, the people are ... like ... People are people, like that’s what I found like pretty much. But the difference is like, there are certain things that we’d find, like, offensive back home, they wouldn’t be offensive here. And there are certain things that ah, you know, would mean a lot back home, they wouldn’t mean it here, the opposite works too. So it’s kind of like getting used to the culture more.

Sarah Did anything surprised you when you came to Canada or were you pretty used to it from living in the US?

Mohammed Yeah, I, I was like pretty used to it like, subconsciously you know what I mean. Like some of my friends got like shock from some stuff. But I was like, I kind of understand it somehow. Like in the back of my brain, probably because like I used to like live that life when I was a child. But I can’t actually remember it.

Sarah Is it easy to make Canadian friends?

Mohammed Yeah, if you like, you ... But kind of like you have to try it, you know. Because, ah, I mean, if they see you shy ... like they don’t know ... they don’t want ... some people, like ... if I see someone like too shy right, I’m afraid that if I approach them they think I’m offencing (offending) them by something. Or I’m afraid that they probably just don’t like me. That’s why like they avoid me. So that’s kind of like what happens like when ah ... especially at the start of the year, you have to be like social, no matter how shy you are, try to make at least three friends, at least. Because those three friends, like they would have friends and they would introduce you. Like this is ah, how I got better in writing because I would have friends to help me.

Sarah Have you ever been to Mecca?

Mohammed Yeah, of course, I’ve been there like this summer actually. Like just this summer I’ve been there and I shaved my head.

Sarah What’s it like?

Mohammed It’s awesome. It’s actually awesome because ... it’s ... I don’t know, like, it gives you like, actually like a feeling of relaxation, the atmosphere. And, ah ... there’s like a well of water that’s actually, like, it’s been there since I don’t know, like for how many ... I don’t know how many thousand years and never dried out.

Sarah What do you think is the secret to learning English?

Mohammed I think just try it out, just have to try it out like if you ... you would never, like get better at something if you don’t try. Like anything in life, you have to try it. You have to like kind of ... You know, don’t do it for the sake of doing it. Doing it ... Do it just like because like, you kind of want to, like just put some, motivation in it.

links

today's news

today's STICK NEWS pictures

Bullying (Wikipedia)
Beatbullying

Saudi Arabia (Wikipedia)

Kelly Holmes (Wikipedia)

Acadia University
Study English at Acadia
Acadia links

music

show start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: La note en cage
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

qa start
artist: Manu Cornet
album: Distance & Temps
track: Silk Road
from: Paris, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

other music
artist: XL Ant
album: XL Ant
track: Balbalama5
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.

Show 554 Thursday 8 November

Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Back to Japan 2007
Day 13: Hirafu

We drove up to Hirafu to check out the mountain and the village.

This is the ski field – it looks really different with no snow.

The place doesn’t look that much different than last year except there are a few new buildings here and there. Some buildings are still being built or renovated.

We saw a car driving on the mountain so we decided to go for a bit of drive ourselves.

This is a jump. It looks so different with no snow.

This is the place we stayed when we arrived last year.

And this is the place they were building opposite the place where we stayed. It’s all finished now, obviously.

We went to this bar a couple of times last year. This notice says they’re going to open on the 20th of December.

Show 553 Wednesday 7 November

Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Back to Japan 2007
Day 12: Kutchan

So we’re back in Kutchan, where it’s always 4:41 according to this clock.

And it’s 242 days to the Hokkaido Toyako Summit.

I keep calling this place the Shiyakusho. But it’s not, it’s the Yakuba.

Desk number 1, Alien Registration.

There are 15,699 people in Kutchan.

This is a poster about that summit. The hottest summit in Cool Hokkaido.

The minimum wage in Hokkaido is 654 yen an hour.

Here’s a poster teaching Australian English. よろしくお願いします　means please. Well ...

This is one of Kutchan’s characters. His name is Mirai-kun and his nickname is Snopiiii. Wow, I lived here for a whole season and I didn’t realize he had a name.

St Moritz is 8979 kilometres away. That’s always good to know.

Nine degrees.

The Japanese flag on top of the police station.

Hokkaido, Sapporo, Homen Kutchan Keisatsu Sho

Traffic Safety Kutchan.
Don’t get on a car if you drink.
OK ...

Here’s that guy again. 1 million yen reward.

This is where FM Niseko used to be. They went bankrupt a couple of months ago.

There are some nice shops in Kutchan like Boom, Cocoroya ...
This café is owned by an American monk.

I like M Pocket. They sell some nice wine.

The information centre has moved.

Seikomart. Long time no see.

notes

よろしくお願いします　has many meanings, depending on the context, so it is odd to translate it as "please".

Show 552 Tuesday 6 November

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/552-welcome-back-to-japan-are-you-smuggling-turtles/


























Back to Japan 2007
Day 11: Taipei to Hokkaido

In Taipei transit I did editing and uploading.

Our flight left on time and everything went smoothly.

They only downer was the movie. Something about transformers. It was lame but I watched it anyway.

The cameraman was fascinated by the fact that there were two kinds of toothpicks. Toothpick. Brushpicks. Wow.

Check this out, our seats were right at the front of the plane. Well at the front of economy class. These are totally the best seats. I was really happy about sitting here.

The wing was firmly attached to the plane.

And this is somewhere in Hokkaido, I think. I have no idea where.

After 6 months away I was fantasizing that someone might care that we were back. Maybe there’d be a bit of a red carpet ... some paparazzi.

But no, instead, after we picked up our bags we were swarmed by immigration officers and whisked away into a small room where they told us they suspected we were smuggling something and they searched and questioned us. Great.
I was kind of shocked because I’m the last person who would ever do that. I’m always lecturing people on how you shouldn’t take even one apple into New Zealand because it’s a really important rule blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, pretty soon after they started rifling through our dirty socks and underwear I think it was pretty obvious that we didn’t have any grenades, turtles or fake Louis Vuitton bags. And it wasn’t as bad as in Vancouver because they were actually quite nice to us.

Eventually, they apologized for taking up our time and we could leave the airport.

The scenery in Hokkaido is nice. It looks different with no snow.

I felt happy about coming back to the things I like about Japan and sad about the things I don’t like. And just tired from traveling.

It took a few hours to drive home from the airport.

notes

downer n. (informal) something dispiriting or depressing

lame adj. (informal) "stupid, unoriginal or lifeless" - from the Urban Dictionary

Something about transformers.
I looked it up, the movie was called Transformers.

links

New Chitose Airport
New Chitose Airport (Wikipedia)

Show 551 Monday 5 November

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/551-goodbye-canada-12-and-a-half-hour-flight/



























Back to Japan 2007
Day 10: Vancouver to Taipei

Our last day in Canada was one of those excellent days where we walked for hours all over the city, didn't get tired or lost, found everything we were looking for, did everything on our list and met lots of nice people.

We did some shopping in Chinatown.

We went to a shopping mall and had a great lunch at the best shopping mall food court I’ve ever seen.

We walked around town a bit and looked at the scenery.

We went to Gastown and made a video by the clock. Right after we finished the video we walked around the corner and saw some people from a New Zealand TV show which was pretty funny. They were here on an Air New Zealand promotional trip. And they asked The Daily English show cameraman what he knew about New Zealand.

We went to Commercial Drive to do some food shopping and we had dinner there.

We took a taxi out to the airport at about 7.

We found a cool bar at the airport. I don’t expect airport bars to be very good but this was great. They were promoting Air New Zealand too.

As for the flight it was the worst flight I’ve ever been on. It was a huge plane and it was completely full. I think there were about 500 people on it. There was a massive queue at check in three hours before the flight and it didn’t really get any smaller. I think we took off an hour later than we were supposed to.

For some reason the plane was full of really rude people too – and the flight attendants looked really stressed out. They were running down the aisles throwing slippers at people.

I was in shock for the first hour of the flight after I found out that we were on a 12 and a half hour flight. I was thinking it would be about 7 hours. Just a random guess ... I didn’t even know planes could stay in the air for 12 hours.

When we arrived in Taipei I saw a sign for a shower and I thought, oh I’ve got to have a shower. Seriously, that was the best shower I’ve had in my life. It felt so, so good.

I love Taipei. Yay, for Asia where the internet is free in airports like it should be. I won’t miss that about Canada.

Show 550 Sunday 4 November

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/550-what-do-you-think-of-vancouver/



























Back to Japan 2007
Day 9: Vancouver

What do you think of Vancouver?

I think that it’s really cute. And also I think that it’s very, ah, interesting because there are people from everywhere. And there are a lot of cultures and you can learn different languages also.

I think it’s one of the greatest cities in the world.

Oh, it’s a great place.

Oh, it’s a fantastic city. It’s a wonderful place to live. And being here is part of the lifestyle, ah, rather than, say, the income levels, what not.

I don’t know, I like it ... but I don’t come here very often. It’s fun, though, because there’s a lot of stuff to do...

I think it’s great. I just love it. I mean, ah, this clock, for example, is just amazing. I mean, yeah, I could, ah, I could fall in love with this place, definitely.

It’s a nice city. I’ve been here two years and I’ve had no problems.

Vancouver is very quiet and many ... you can’t see many animal. And ... the air is clean and sometimes noisy but quiet is many time.

Um, it’s great. It’s beautiful and I feel like it’s more like a big town than a, than a city like it kind of has that small town feel to it. And it’s dry today.

It’s good. It’s pretty awesome. I don’t know what to say. Good city.

I think it’s a pretty cool place. I guess. I mean it’s a new city, so ... I mean it’s cool to be involved with something that’s still trying to find its identity. And I guess that’s an interesting aspect of Vancouver.

Um, I really like it. I’m from the East Coast. And it’s ... the weather’s really nice. I love the beaches. I love … there’s always places to go for music. And ... I don’t know, the partying’s not that great. I don’t know, the clubs close kind of early. But um, yeah, it’s a nice place, I don’t know ...

I think Vancouver’s absolutely beautiful. Um, we’ve just been to quite a rough area round the corner with a load of druggies and that was quite shocking - but I suppose every big city’s got that. But the rest of it’s absolutely stunning. The hills and the mountains. Just been up, what was that thing we went up? Grouse mountain, today. That was superb, superbly beautiful.

notes

This video was filmed by the Gastown Steam Clock in Gastown, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Thank you to everyone who was in this video for agreeing to answer the question on camera.

Show 549 Saturday 3 November

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/549-rain-wine/



























Back to Japan 2007
Day 8: Vancouver

Today was pretty uneventful because it rained all day.
In the evening we decided to go back to Commercial Drive to check out the bars there.
These were goodbye Canada / happy 550th show drinks.

The first bar we went to had faces painted on the wall and quite a few screens showing hockey and football.
It was alright. And a bit sad.

I liked the second place more.
They had graffiti on the walls and a kind of gallery out the back.

The bars on Commercial Drive closed around twelve which I thought was strange since it was a Saturday night.

Show 548 Friday 2 November

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/548-vancouver-lunch-at-yogis-without-bryan-adams/

Back to Japan 2007
Day 7: Vancouver

I found some ads for nice-looking restaurants in a magazine so I looked up the addresses on Google maps and we decided to go the one that was closest to where we are staying.
The restaurant was called Yogi’s and it’s on a street called Commercial Drive which also happened to be a place where a guy called Jason had recommend – so I figured it was a good bet.
We walked pretty slowly and filmed things on the way so it took about an hour to get there.

Commercial Drive turned out to be a nice place. Lots of shops and restaurants that looked interesting.

Our lunch was tasty and the service was good. In their ad it says: We specialize in cuisine created for such personalities as Bryan Adams.But Bryan Adams wasn’t there and the waitress said it was quite a while ago that he went there.

We had someone to meet at 2:30. So we walked from here to here. It took about an hour walking pretty fast.

That turned out to be a place called Yaletown which was quite nice. Everyone seemed to be wearing new, designer clothing - a bit different than our neighbourhood.

We went back home and had a bottle of wine.

Show 547 Thursday 1 November

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/547-tofino-to-vancouver/

Back to Japan 2007
Day 6: Tofino to Vancouver

It wasn’t raining this morning so we went for a bit of a walk before we left.

We took the bus from Tofino to Nanaimo.

We took the ferry from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay. It was a different ferry.

Finally, we took a bus from Horseshoe Bay to Vancouver.

Back to the lovely Pender Lodge.

Show 546 Wednesday 31 October

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/546-tofino-oscar-the-grouch/


























Back to Japan 2007
Day 5: Tofino
Today the pouring rain killed our sightseeing plans so I decided to make a dash for the shops and find someone to interview.
The first shop I went into turned out to be very cool and the woman working there was really nice.
She said she was born and raised in Tofino and the shop was owned by her husband’s parents.

A lot of everything in here is native-made, from the area, the masks, the basketry, the jewelry. There’s ... there’s so much stuff in here.

I asked her what she liked about Tofino and she said she liked being close to nature.

I still go to the beach all the time and I still say to myself, “I just love it.” Like I, I go running on the beach all the time and I just ... like it’s like therapy for me.

She said the Tofino had changed a lot over the last 30 years.

When I was little, like growing up here when I was little, I used to know everybody and now, like I, in the summer especially, I walk down the street and I don’t know anybody, I can’t … some people you can pick out, like you’re not from here, but, like, a lot of people like – do I know them? I don’t know them. They don’t know me. Like I feel like when I go out, if I go out at night or anything, I don’t know anybody. It’s kind of scary.
I asked her why she thought Tofino was such a popular tourist destination.

Again I think it has to do with the beauty and the activities to do here. Just a lot of people ... I don’t know, just to get away from the city, the crazy life, a lot of people come here to go to the beaches, like we have so many beaches, and trails, there’s kayaking, surfing, a lot of people come here to surf. It’s a really big, popular sport here.

In the evening we saw some trick-or-treaters out the window. Then we went to the bottle store and saw Oscar the Grouch. Very cool costume.

Show 545 Tuesday 30 October

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/545-courtenay-to-tofino/

Back to Japan 2007
Day 4: Courtenay to Tofino

Yuko took us to the bus station in the morning and we took the bus from Courtenay to Tofino.

The bus took four and a half hours.
It left Courtenay at ten to ten and arrived in Tofino at twenty five past two.

When we got to Tofino we found our accommodation which turned out to be a bit of a disaster.

And then we walked around the town a bit ... which turned out to be a bit different than we imagined. We thought it was a surf beach town – but it’s not really. The town is next to the water but it’s actually quite far from the beach.

Show 544 Monday 29 October

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/544-courtenay/



























Back to Japan 2007
Day 3: Courtenay

Today we visited Yuko and Andrew. That was the reason we came to Vancouver Island. Yuko made us a great lunch.

In the afternoon walked around Courtenay. It seems like a nice little town.

In the evening we talked to some people at the hostel. The German girl was really nice.

I like this hostel. The only bad thing is that there is no laundry.

The room is nice, the internet is fast enough, the kitchen is really clean and well organized, the owner is nice. And the best thing is Jake. Jake is a very cool cat.

Show 543 Sunday 28 October

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/543-rain-two-buses-and-a-ferry/



























Back to Japan 2007
Day 2: Vancouver to Courtenay

This morning we walked around in the rain trying to find a bus stop.
Finally we found it.

The bus cost $2.25 and took about an hour.

Horseshoe Bay is where the ferry leaves from.

The ferry goes to Departure Bay in Nanaimo. It costs $11.50.
It took about an hour and a half.

It was a cool ferry.
There were lots of different places to sit, cafes and a shop ... this was the kind of ferry I was imagining when we took the ferry to Hokkaido.

We had to wait for a couple of hours in Nanaimo for the bus so we went to a bar. It was packed with people. There was some kind of event on called a silent auction. They had wireless internet which was cool.

We took the Islandlink bus from Nanaimo to Courtenay. It took about an hour and a half.

The bus driver was really cool.

It was still raining when we got to Courtenay but the driver was nice and he dropped us off pretty close to our accommodation.

This is our room. I like it.



notes

took about an hour - actually it took about 40 mins

it took about an hour and a half - actually, sailing time is one hour and thirty five minutes

silent auction

This is from Wikipedia: This is often a variant of an English auction, where bids are written on a sheet of paper, and at the predetermined end of the auction, the highest listed bidder wins the prize. This auction variant is often used in charity events, and many items may be auctioned simultaneously. Participants submit bids normally on paper, near the item. Other variations of this type of auction may include sealed bids. The highest bidder pays the price he or she submitted.

Show 542 Saturday 27 October

The latest version of this transcript has been moved here: 
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/show/542-peggys-cove-two-planes-and-a-taxi/

Back to Japan 2007
Day 1: Wolfville to Vancouver

This morning we left Wolfville at about half past ten. Ted and Lucy drove us to the airport. Before we went to the airport they took us to a place called Peggys Cove. They said you can’t leave Nova Scotia without going to Peggys Cove.
It was a beautiful place. Awesome rocks.

Our flight left at ten past five. The service at Halifax airport was great. The staff at check-in were super friendly and helpful.
The staff on the plane were good too.

We stopped in Montreal for a couple of hours.
Check it out, commas.

I did some editing and drank a $9 beer. Damn airports.

Before we took off, we had to wait about an hour, because, as the pilot explained to us, they couldn’t find anyone to push the plane out.
They gave us a free drink to apologize.

When we got to Vancouver there was a big line for taxis – we thought about taking a limo instead, because it’s not actually that much more expensive. But we didn’t have to wait too long.

I thought our taxi driver was really dodgy because he didn’t display any ID and because he was chatting on his cell phone for almost the entire trip – but apparently both things are actually legal in Canada.

We stayed at Pender Lodge in Vancouver. They weren’t very happy about us arriving an hour later than we said we were going to. But thankfully they let us in and we didn’t have to sleep on the street.

notes

This comma is for something called a decimal separator. (I just looked it up).

Show 541 Friday 26 October

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today is our last day at Acadia. So I’d just like to say thank you very much to Acadia University for having us. And particularly thanks to the Acadia Centre for International Languages which is part of Continuing and Distance Education. It’s thanks to them that we got to come here.
And we’re really glad that we came because we’ve had such a good time.

And I think it has worked out really well for both The Daily English Show and Acadia university. Thanks to us producing the show here hopefullymore people have found out about Nova Scotia and Acadia University – because that was the point of inviting us here.

And the good news is: hopefully we’re going to continue to have some kind of relationship with Acadia University. We’re just sorting out the details at the moment.
But I think it’s going to work well. One idea we have is to have is to do ... like a weekly section featuring Acadia – like, for example, the Asking Acadia thing that we’ve been doing. Or something else. And maybe students will produce it, they’ll film it and then just send me the data and then I can include it in the show.

So I think that will cool if it works out and also in future to have sections from other parts of the world. So if anyone is keen to get involved, please let me know.

We really enjoyed doing the Asking Acadia section. It was a fun way to meet students. About half the people we asked said no – which was fair enough because you don’t always feel like suddenly being on camera. But everyone was really nice about it. And some people just started running when they saw us ... which was pretty funny.

So thank you very much to everybody who agreed to be filmed. You guys rock. And thank you to everyone who helped us out and was nice to us – which was a lot of people ...
In fact I think we’ve only met about two people who weren’t very helpful and everyone else was great. So, there are a lot of nice people at this university. And thanks to them, we’ve had a really good time here.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, this is Stick News. Last night in New Zealand a French tourist was rescued from the bush thanks to a cell phone and a flute.

On Thursday night a 28-year-old French tourist went for a walk in the bush in Taranaki and got lost.
When it got dark she called the police on her cell phone.
During the search she remained in contact with the police and when they came near where she was, she started to play her small flute.

And that was Stick News for Friday the 26th of October.
Kia Ora.

friday joke

A man walks into a bar and orders a beer.

There are some peanuts in a bowl on the counter.

They start talking to the man.
“Hey, you’re looking pretty hot tonight,” they say.

The man thinks it’s a bit weird that peanuts are talking to him. But he feels pretty good about being told he looks hot.

He decides to play pool and goes over to the change machine to get some coins.

As he is getting the money, the machine says: “You suck at pool, bro. Why do you even bother? In fact, you suck at life.”

The man doesn’t feel good anymore. He thinks: “Man, something strange is going on in this bar. Maybe I’m hallucinating.”

So he goes up to the bar again and he says to the bartender: “What’s up with this bar tonight? First the peanuts starts talking to me and telling me I’m hot and now the change machine is telling me I suck! What’s going on?!”

“Well,” says the bartender. “The peanuts are complimentary and the change machine is out of order.”



conversations with sarah

#336 What's been the highlight of your time in Canada?

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

Jude What’s been the highlight of your time in Canada?

Sarah Tough question. There have been many highlights.

Jude OK, tell me a few.

Sarah OK, um, eating fresh organic fruit and vegetables from the garden every day when we were wwoofing. That was amazing. And … swimming in the river at our private beach in Nelson, that was very cool.

Jude You must have seen some beautiful places.

Sarah Yeah, for sure. Beautiful scenery. And nice people – I think I kind of enjoy that more than the scenery, actually. And we’ve met a lot of nice people in Canada.

Jude Do you like Wolfville?

Sarah Yeah, I love it. I like how it’s small that it’s easy to walk everywhere. And I love the fact that you can go on a bar crawl and go to every bar. You can’t do that in a big city.

Jude Did you run out of things to film?

Sarah No way. Actually we still have a long list of things that we just didn’t get around to doing because there was just so much that we wanted to do. There’s so many things going on around here and so many interesting people that I’d really like to interview.



links

today's news

today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: La note en cage
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

friday joke start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: Sumbala
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

qa start
artist: Manu Cornet
album: Distance & Temps
track: Silk Road
from: Paris, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Carlos Rives
album: Improvisaciones
track: Pequeñas piezas para María 2

from: Andratx, Spain
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.

Show 540 Thursday 25 October

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

One great thing about being at a university is that there are often public lectures that you can go to. And we’ve been along to a couple after I’ve noticed posters around the university advertising them.

This one was a French professor from Russia talking about “Teaching languages and particularly Romance languages, in Russia today.”

She’s from a place called Saratov and she told us a bit about her university and we could ask her questions. It was really interesting and she was so nice – it really made me want to go to Russia. So if anyone from Saratov or somewhere else Russia is watching – Hi! Thanks for watching and I hope I can come to Russia one day.

Another thing we went to was a kind of book launch for a book called The Stone Canoe. It was a couple of really old stories that had been found and they were really excited about that ... and the story way interesting. But what I really enjoyed was the artwork. And the artist was there talking about his work too.
I love art – but I’m quite picky, so it’s hard to find stuff I really like. But I love this stuff. And this is his site, you should go and check it out.

And if you’re studying at a university, don’t forget to check out the posters that are up around the place because it’s a good way to find out about interesting stuff that’s going on.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today Microsoft paid $240 million dollars for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.

Facebook is a popular social networking site with over with over 42 million active members.
Both Microsoft and Google were keen to buy a bit of Facebook.
The two companies have been involved in bidding wars before.
Previously, Google won the fights over AOL, YouTube and DoubleClick.
This time Microsoft was the winner. They paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.
A Microsoft spokesperson said “Facebook could attract as many as 300 million users worldwide within the next few years, giving Microsoft ample opportunity to recoup its investment by putting ads in front of a potentially huge audience.”

And that was Stick News for Thursday 25th of October.
Kia Ora.

ASKING ACADIA

Who would you like to win the next US presidential elections?

I don’t even know who’s in the next US presidential election.

Obama.

Stephen Cobert.

For the next US presidential election, I would like Hilary Clinton to win.

I don’t even know who the candidates are, sorry.



conversations with sarah
#335 Who do you want to win?

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

Sarah Who do you want to win?

Jim I don’t really care.

Sarah Fair enough.

Jim Why should we care, really? It doesn’t make any difference what we think.

Sarah Yeah, I know, but still ... the United States does some stuff which has a pretty big impact on other countries ... so I think we’re allowed to have an opinion at least.

Jim So who do you want to win?

Sarah Obama, I think.

Jim Why? Because he’s cute?

Sarah No, but he is pretty hot. I saw some video clips of him speaking on TV and he sounds really intelligent and honest.

Jim Don’t you care about his policies?

Sarah Not really.

Jim Not really?! Why not?

Sarah Because I usually just vote for someone who sounds intelligent and then trust them to make good decisions.

Jim So you don’t care about their policies at all?

Sarah Um. Well, yeah, OK, I do a bit, to a certain degree...



notes

been along to = gone to
to go along to = to go to

Go along to sounds more casual than go to.

picky adj. (informal) (of a person) liking only particular things and difficult to please

links

today's news

today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: La note en cage
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

asking acadia start
artist: XL Ant
album: XL Ant
track: Levitation (Club Mix)
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

qa start
artist: Manu Cornet
album: Distance & Temps
track: Silk Road
from: Paris, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Carlos Rives
album: Improvisaciones
track: Pequeñas piezas para María 2

from: Andratx, Spain
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.