Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Show 272 Tuesday 30 January


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today I’m going to talk about one of the suggestions that tokyocooney sent me.
You should check out his channel. He’s a comedian in Tokyo.

You’ve probably learnt a lot of and lots of.
A lot of and lots of are exactly the same except lots of is informal.
I have lots of pens. I have lots of books. I have lots of money.

Did you know that there are other ways of saying lots?

For example:
heaps
stacks
loads
piles
tons
trucks


These are all informal.
By the way informal doesn’t mean rude. It just means that you might not want to use them in certain situations – such as writing a university essay or making a formal speech.

I think people use heaps a lot in New Zealand.
And to emphasize the quantity you can lengthen the e sound.
There were heeeeeaps of people at the party.

I think loads is more common in England. My sister lived in London for a couple of years and when I talked to her on the phone I noticed that she said loads a lot instead of heaps.

Another colourful word which I quite like is shitloads. This is very informal or vulgar slang according to the dictionary.
So be careful if you use this word you might not want to use it if you say work at a bank or something.

Good afternoon sir. Goodness me, you have shitloads of money in your account.



STICK NEWS

Kia ora, this is Stick News. On Saturday the health minister of Japan called Japanese women birth-giving machines. Three of the opposition parties are now calling for his resignation.

Japan has a declining birth rate. Some people are worried about the lack of tax money to look after the elderly and other beneficiaries.
71-year-old Yanagisawa Hakuo is the minister of health, labor and welfare. He’s in charge of dealing with the declining birth rate.
On Saturday he talked about the issue in a speech. He called women:
産む機械
or birth-giving machines.
He said "The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head."
Today three of Japan's four opposition parties agreed that they want him to resign over the remark.
But the Prime Minister disagrees. He says Yanagisawa “is a person with deep insight”.
And one internet commenter said: “If every politician got fired for saying something stupid, who would run the country?”
KyndigJ1s


And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 30th of January.
Kia Ora.



the snow report

This is a bell that you can ring on the mountain.
It’s a memorial for a guy who really loved Niseko. Apparently he was still really fit even when he was 100 years old. If you ring this bell you’ll have a safe time on the mountain.



conversations with sarah
#164 Do you like horror movies?

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

Sarah Do you like horror movies?

Dom Not really. Do you?

Sarah I don’t really either. But I watched one last night.

Dom What was it?

Sarah Misery. Have you seen that?

Dom Yeah. Is that a horror?

Sarah Mmm, yeah. Maybe it’s more of a thriller.

Dom That got an Oscar, didn’t it?

Sarah Yeah, Kathy Bates got best actress.

Dom She was really good in it. Do you know what else she’s been in?

Sarah Yeah, she was in Titanic. She was the “new money” rich woman. The one that was nice to Jack.