Monday, September 15, 2008

#826 Sunglasses, Respecting The Elderly, Osaka Bugs


Show 826 Monday 15 September
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.


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

As you can see, I’m wearing sunglasses. Not because it’s sunny inside, obviously, although it is a beautiful sunny day outside.

A guy on YouTube
tagged me to do a vlog wearing sunglasses. Sometimes people on YouTube play a kind of a game, where they make a video with a theme, say 5 facts about yourself, and then they tag 5 other people to do the same thing. But this is the first time anyone’s ever tagged me, so I feel quite special. Thank you.

This is not actually a vlog though but I am wearing sunglasses. And now I’m going to take them off because I’m going to talk about something else.

Today it is a public holiday in Japan. The reason I know this is because I live opposite a post office and the post office is closed.

Today is 敬老の日 (keirō no hi) which is usually translated as “respect-for-the-aged day” - so it’s a day for the elderly.

I’m not sure what the cut off age is for who we’re supposed to be respecting today, but in any case, it’s a lot of people. Japan has one of the fastest aging populations in the world.
And I’m not quite sure how we’re supposed to show our respect for the elderly today … I think most people just have a day off and leave it at that.

Anyway, I would like to propose a toast - with tea, because it’s too early to drink wine - to all the elderly people of the world. Thank you very much for all your hard work during your life – so much of what we enjoy in our lives is thanks to you guys. If you’re retired, I hope you’re kicking back and enjoy your retirement. And if you’re thinking of starting a new hobby, like learning a language – I totally recommend it at any age, 80’s, 90’s, 100’s, no worries.

As I’m sure you know, keeping your brain stimulated is very important if you want to enjoy, no matter how old you are. And as for studying English, I’ve taught people in their 60’s and 70’s and it’s great. Sometimes their hearing isn’t so good … but that’s fine, I just speak a bit louder. So you’re never too old to study English. Cheers.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today a 48-year-old government official in Japan has admitted bugging his office because he says he was curious about what his colleagues were saying.

Last week a TV crew in Osaka were searching for signals from a bugging device as part of a news story when they picked up a signal from a different device.
The crew tracked the source of the signal to an office at the Osaka board of education.
Kyodo news reported the discovery caused an instant media frenzy over who might have planted it.
Then an official from the board of education came forward to say he had planted the device because he wanted to know what his colleagues were saying in the office.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 15th of September.
Kia Ora.




Word of the Day

Today’s word is respect.

Respect has a few different meanings.

One meaning of respect is a feeling of admiration for somebody or something.
And another meaning is polite behaviour towards or care for something or somebody.

So you don’t have to respect everyone as in having admiration for them.
But you should respect everyone as in being polite to them.

Everyone has a right to be treated with respect.

Do you understand the difference?

There’s also another meaning for the noun respect. It means: a particular aspect or detail of something.

For example, you could say: In certain respects I agree with you ...
Which means: I agree with some of what you are saying.



conversations with sarah
#508 Nice sunnies

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

Bob Nice sunnies.

Sarah Thanks.

Bob Where did you get them?

Sarah In Canada.

Bob They’re cool.

Sarah Mmm yeah, I guess so. I don’t know. I liked my last ones better.

Bob What happened to them?

Sarah Someone stood on them.

Bob You stood on them?

Sarah No, someone else.

Bob What were they doing on the floor?

Sarah Look, can we change the subject? I’m getting quite upset thinking about my dead sunglasses OK.



links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Ensono
album: Night Culture
track: Toralla Island
from: Vigo, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo

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.