Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Show 251 Tuesday 9 January


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV

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

Yesterday was the 250th show so thanks for watching and thank you for your support so far.

I’ve decided to have a party to celebrate. So, it’s going to be this Saturday from 6 o’clock. BYO. Everybody’s welcome. Please come. But I know you probably can’t because most people watching this don’t live anywhere near Niseko. In fact there’s probably no one in Niseko watching this ... but just in case – please come to The Daily English Show’s 新年代 (shinnenkai) which means New Year party ... and 250th show anniversary.

For the last couple of days, I’ve been cleaning out the rooms upstairs for the last couple of days. Because we’re renting out the rooms out and we actually have a customer coming next week – and we also have a friend coming to stay.

So the cleaning is a big job – as you know if you watched some of the earlier shows. Thirty years of dirt.

But I found something interesting today. I was cleaning out the draws and there was some paper in the bottom of one of the draws so I thought oh, I’ll throw that out. And then I looked at the bottom of the paper and it was a poster ... of the Thompson Twins. Isn’t this great? The classic 80s design.

I might put it on ebay. I just got a paypal account and started putting a few random things on ebay to see how it works.
So I’m going to see if there are any Thompson Twin fans out there who want to buy this beautiful pink poster.



STICK NEWS

Kia ora this is Stick News. Yesterday in Japan it was Seijin no hi but the celebrations were lonely this year – only 1.39 million people turned 20. It was the second-lowest figure on record.

The second Monday in January is a public holiday called Seijin no hi(成人の日) or
Coming-of-Age day in English.
In Japan when you become 20 you can legally drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, vote, and get married without your parents consent.
The coming-of-age ceremony is called Seijin Shiki(成人式).
Many women wear a special kind of kimono called furisode (振り袖).
Most ceremonies are held at local city offices. Government officials give speeches. These days many naughty new adults talk loudly through the speeches and some even start shouting and fighting.
One of the city offices in Chiba held their ceremony yesterday at Tokyo Disneyland. 1200 people attended.
Japan has a low birthrate and rising elderly population.
This year 720,000 men and 670,000 women turned 20. It was the second-lowest year ever. The lowest was in 1987 and the highest was in 1970.


That was Stick News for Tuesday the 9th of January.
Kia Ora.



the snow report

It hardly snowed all last week ... then on Sunday night it snowed a lot.
This is the car on Monday morning.



conversations with sarah
#150 Have you ever sold anything on ebay?

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

Natalie Have you ever sold anything on ebay?

Sarah No. But I’m curious to see how it works so I’m going to try and sell a few random things.

Natalie Is ebay popular in Japan?

Sarah No, not at all. Yahoo auctions is the most popular auction site.

Natalie How about in New Zealand?

Sarah In New Zealand it’s Trade Me.

Natalie Have you ever sold anything on Trade Me?

Sarah No, I think you have to actually live in New Zealand to use that site. But I sold something on Yahoo auctions once.