Friday, February 09, 2007

Show 282 Friday 9 February


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today I’m going to teach you some idioms.
This is a response to kusaimamekirai.
This YouTube channel is guy from America, I think, who has some videos teaching English.
His video titles used to be in Japanese, so you can’t read them anymore.
Because since YouTube’s last update I think – most of the Japanese on YouTube has been scrambled – which is bit of a pain in the arse – I had a lot of Japanese words in my video descriptions ... but anyway.
In this video:
Idioms-"Piece of Cake","Hang On","Pay through the Nose"
He explains those three idioms.
So I thought I’d talk about them too – because if you watch two different videos explaining the same thing – then you’re more likely to remember them or understand them.
Repetition is good.

A piece of cake means easy. I think most English students in Japan know that one – it’s often used as an example in textbooks.
Uploading a video is a piece of cake.
A variation on that one is a piece of piss.
I don’t necessarily recommend using that because people might be offended. But, you know, it’s good to understand all kinds of language.

Hang on literally means hold onto something
I’m hanging on tightly to my bag so nobody can steal it.
The idiomatic meaning is wait.
You can say: hang on, hang on a minute, hang on a second, hang on a sec.
Hang on a second doesn’t literally mean one second, it just means a short time.

What time does it start?
Um, hang on a sec, I have the flyer here somewhere ...


And lastly, pay through the nose means to pay a high price for something.

Are skiing lessons expensive?
Group lessons aren’t too bad, but you pay through the nose if you want a private lesson.



STICK NEWS

Kia ora this is Stick News. The league team which is co-owned by actor Russell Crowe has decided to scrap cheerleaders because they make they make the audience uncomfortable.

Cheerleading started in the United States in the 1880s. It was originally an all-male activity.
Now, most cheerleaders are females and the activity has spread to other countries.
Some teams in the Australian NRL have cheerleaders. They dance and shake pom poms wearing sexy outfits.
Russell Crowe is famous for acting in Hollywood movies and throwing a telephone at a hotel employee.
Last year he and another man bought an Australian rugby league team.
The team has just decided to stop having cheerleader perform at games.
Crowe said they make people feel uncomfortable.
Souths with replace the cheerleaders with a drumming band for their home games.


And that was Stick News for Friday the 9th of February.
Kia Ora.



the snow report

This is snow in Sapporo on Tuesday. It’s amazing how dirty city snow gets.
The place looked nicer on Wednesday after a fresh layer of snow.



conversations with sarah
#171 What’s he been in?

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

Marvin Are there many cheerleaders in New Zealand?

Sarah No, not really. I’ve only seen them a couple of times.

Marvin What do you think of Russell’s decision?

Sarah I think it’s a great idea. The first time I’ve ever been impressed by something he’s done. Do you like his acting?

Marvin What’s he been in?

Sarah Ah ... The Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind ...

Marvin Oh, that’s right. I liked A Beautiful Mind.

Sarah Really?

Marvin Didn’t you like it?

Sarah No.