Wednesday, September 24, 2008

#835 Corruption, Wear Vs Clothes, Anything Vs Something


Show 835 Wednesday 24 September
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.


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

I just wanted to remind you about our member giveaways this month. One is a Super Simple Songs CD – brilliant songs for teaching kids. If you want this send me an email (tdesmember@gmail.com) with your membership number and I’ll be making the draw next week – on Wednesday the 1st of October.

I also have sets of postcards of these beautiful paintings by a local artist called 宮本健 (Miyamoto Ken). One set has gone and I have four more. I got a few emails from people who weren’t members actually – so I don’t think I was clear enough about that last week, so, I’m sorry about that. These giveaways are for members. And you can find out more about tdes membership here. I’ve just updated that page today actually, so now it’s more detailed. It’s still not brilliantly clear and could be written better … but hopefully it will give you an idea of what the membership thing is all about. I’ve talked about it before, but, of course you don’t watch every show … and this may indeed be the first show you’ve ever watched.

By the way, four of these postcards are actually a story about hiking up Yotei-zan at night and watching the sunrise. Yotei-zan is a mountain here in Niseko. We did a show about it a while back, about hiking up and riding down Yotei-zan.

Anyway, today, at the top of the mountain, it snowed for the first time this winter … autumn, it can’t be winter yet. It feels like it was just summer a few days ago. I can’t believe it’s getting cold already.

Moving right along … today’s mistake.
A common mistake in Japan is to say wear instead of clothes.

For example, a student might say: I went shopping on Saturday.
And I’ll say: Oh yeah. What did you buy?
And they’ll say: I bought wear.
And then I’ll say: No … actually, you bought clothes.

In English, wear is usually a verb.
For example: I wore a red dress to the party.

Sometimes it is a noun. That is when you’re talking about clothing that is suitable for a particular purpose or of a particular type.

For example: sportswear, evening wear, kids wear, baby wear, footwear, menswear.



click here

If you ever forget the correct way to write a letter, I recommend this site.
I just love Spinner, the Writing Spider. He’s so cute.



STICK NEWS


Kia Ora this is Stick News. Today it was announced that people think the least corrupt countries in the world are Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand.

Transparency International is an international non-governmental organization. Its mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption. Every year they publish a list called the CPI. On this list, the countries of the world are ranked according to "the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians". This year there were three winners. Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand. Somalia came last.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday 24th of September.
Kia Ora.




Word of the Day

Today’s word is: corruption.

Corruption, as in the Corruption Perceptions Index, means: dishonest or illegal behaviour, especially of people in authority.

There are many kinds of corruption. One is bribery.
For example, if I paid a Japanese politician to introduce a new law that forced all schools in Japan to show The Daily English Show in their English classes. That would be … very strange … and if it actually happened, that would be an example of corruption.



conversations with sarah
#515 Do you have any money?

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

Yuko What’s the difference between something and anything?

Sarah Well, in general, some – or somebody, someone, something – is used in positive sentences and any is used in negative sentences or questions.

Yuko I don’t have any money. Is that right?

Sarah Yes, that’s right. I don’t have any money. Negative. Do you have any money? Question. I have some money. Positive.

Yuko So you can’t say: I have any money?

Sarah Yeah.

Yuko And you can’t say: Do you have some money?

Sarah Actually, you can say that.

Yuko But it’s a question.

Sarah Yeah. For most questions, you use any, but for some questions you can use some.

Yuko When do you use some in questions?

Sarah For example, when you think the answer is going to be yes. Do you have some money? Or when you’re asking for something. Can I have some money? When else? Oh, when you’re offering something, too. Would you like some money?

Yuko Yes, please!



links

today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

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

click here start
artist: #NarNaoud#
album: Green Vision
track: Oriental Standing
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site


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: Anyway
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.