Friday, September 08, 2006

Show 128 Friday 8 September


Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Intro

Hi, I’m Sarah. It’s Friday the 8th of September This is The Daily English Show. And this is a jandal in New Zealand English anyway.
Today there was a story in the NZ herald about money from pokie machines.
And when I saw that I thought mmm pokies there’s a word I haven’t heard in a while. I wonder if that’s NZ English.
So looked it up and it turns out that pokie machine is used in NZ and Australia. In America it’s slot machine and in England fruit machine.
And in an interesting twist – according to my dictionary – in England a slot machine is what in New Zealand we call a vending machine.
Anyway – I looked on the net ... And somehow got to the Wikipedia page for jandals. I already knew that they had different names ... but I found out more some interesting information that I didn’t know.
So in New Zealand: jandals. In Australia: thongs or pluggers. And in the United States, flip-flops, thongs, and beach walkers.
And apparently, jandals come from New Zealand. This is what it says in Wikipedia.
“They appear to have been developed out of traditional Japanese woven or wooden soled sandals ... in New Zealand.”
“The modern design was invented in Auckland, New Zealand by Maurice Yock in the 1950's and patented in 1957.”
The name comes from Japanese sandals.
And apparently, for intellectual property right reasons, they become known by other names outside of NZ.
So there you go.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora. In Stick News today, twenty charities in New Zealand have refused to accept money from pokie machines.

This is a pokie machine. People put money in a slot, pull the lever, and hope that lots of money comes out. Sometimes, it does. But usually it doesn’t.
Every year more than a billion dollars is eaten by these greedy machines.
So where does the money go?
According to this government document: gaming machines are licensed to operate in pubs and clubs only as a form of community fund raising. Machines in pubs are owned by gaming machine societies who pay the pubs to host their machines. Those societies operating machines in pubs must pay the profits to the community.
Charities receive millions of dollars a year from pokie machines. But some charities are refusing the money. Twenty charities have joined the No Pokies register set up by the Gambling Watch lobby.
The Public Health Association director said they didn’t want the money, because it was “sourced from people with a gambling addiction that is likely to have played havoc with their social, physical and mental health."
She said people with gambling problems found it harder to afford healthy food, heating, shelter, transport, medications and health services.


The Public Health Association director described the charities’ stand as gutsy.
And that was Stick News for Friday the 8th of September.
Kia Ora.

* Mistake: In the document it says “their profits to the community” – but I said “the profits to the community”.



conversations with sarah
# 84 Is NZ English the same as Australian English?

Hiro asks Sarah about the difference between New Zealand and Australian English.
Step 1: Repeat Hiro’s lines.
Step 2: Read Hiro’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah.

Hiro Is New Zealand English the same as Australian English?

Sarah Well, it’s pretty close. If you’re not from NZ or Australia and you’ve never been there ... then you probably wouldn’t notice the difference.

Hiro So, what are the differences?

Sarah Um, one difference is the sound of the letter I ... so, for example the word “fish” – In New Zealand we say “fish” and in Australian they say something like “fesh”. So: fish/fesh.

Hiro Oh, it sounds the same to me.

Sarah Mmm, yeah, it’s not that different really, I guess.

Hiro Are there any vocabulary differences?

Sarah Um, yeah, there are some, a few, like, ah ... what we call togs – in Australia they call bathers or swimmers, I think.

Hiro Togs? What does that mean?

Sarah Um, Togs are things that you wear when you are swimming. They’re called ... swimsuit and swimming costume in other countries, I think.



Notes:

Today's news.
NZ govt pokie policy.
Wikipedia jandal page.

Music on the show used with permission from magnatune.com and www.jamendo.com

Music on today's show:
Artist: Snapo
From: Cannes, France
Album: Lord I say
Track: Lord I say
site
music on jamendo