City

Jeyong,Korea
I like living in cities more than the country because I like the crowndiness of people all busy walking around and especially like going to clubs, being with many people and talking to new people is something that I live very much.

Al,England
I think ideally I'd like to do both, so have, be rich and have a house in the country and and a house in the city and spend my weekdays in the country, in a stone house, and go to the city on weekends and party.

Joel,America
Well, I've lived in very big cities for most of my life: Tokyo, Bangkok, Los Angeles, and now is the first time ever that I've lived in the country and I'm finding that I like it a lot better. I have time to do things that I could never do in the city, like play guitar or even read the news, and I'm enjoying a peaceful lifestyle a lot more than the busy city life.

Martin,UnitedStates
If I wanted to live in the city or country, I'd have to saynowadays, in the city. I grew up in the country in a very small farm and it was kind of boring. I enjoyed the clean air and the wildlife around but it was boring. The city is much more exciting and a lot more to do and see and experience, so by and large, the city for me is the way to go.

Mitchell,UnitedStates
I would rather live in the countryside because I'm from the islands and andeverythings more peaceful, relax, and time seems to go by slowly. Compared to the city, it seems like every one is in a rush, moving around fast, trying to get things done as soon as possible, that's why I'd rather live in the countryside.

Shuan, Canada
I think that living in the city would be so much better than living in the country. I like being active, and I like going out so living in the country would be, I would think, boring, compared to the city.

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Filed Under: City, Topic on Monday, 13 July 2015 No Comments

Mid-life Crisis

Do you know what I mean when I say that someone is “middle-aged”? If you are “middle-aged” you are probably 40 years old or older. You have stopped being interested in pop music. You don’t go to night clubs any more. You have sold the motor-bike which you drove all around Europe a few years ago. You no longer share a flat with six of your student friends.

Instead, you are married, with children. You have bought a house in the suburbs. You lie awake at night worrying about the mortgage. You own a boring but practical car – aFord Focus perhaps. The car is full of the children’s things. They have left sticky sweets on the seats and empty crisp packets on the floor. You now play golf instead of going to football matches. Worst of all, your hair is going grey, and you have started to put on weight. (To put on weight” is a polite way of saying that you are getting fat!) Welcome to middle age!

Now, please don’t confuse “middle age” with the expression “the Middle Ages”. “The Middle Ages” means the period of European history from roughly the 11th century to the 15th century. In those times most people died before they were 40, so they never became middle-aged. Or perhaps they became middle-aged earlier than people do today.

Some people, particularly men, reach middle age and become unhappy and dissatisfiedwith their lives. The years seem to go by more and more quickly. Life has become boring. Yes, you have a well-paid job, but it does not feel like an exciting or worthwhile job. You have too many responsibilities. You want to be young and free again.

If you feel like that when you are middle-aged, we say that you are suffering from a “mid-life crisis”.

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Examinations

Todd: Hello, Frederick.

Fred: Hi, Todd.

Todd: Frederick, we are talking about school and education and our topic now is homework. Do you think students in university should have lots of homework?

Fred: I think your question is very precise. I think students in university is different than students in high school or junior college. Now in university, you should be a responsible student. Now what I mean by being a responsible student is that the teacher doesn't have to tell you what you should do. You should know what you have to do, and so homework perhaps should not be something so important to you as a responsible student.

Todd: So, you are saying that students should study on their own.

Fred: They should.

Todd: And not be told what to study?

Fred: They should be told what to study, but they should not be told how they should study by giving them a framework of homework.

Todd: Alright, so for example if they are studying math they should be told what principles they need to learn but they shouldn't actually have to do a handout and turn it in every day.

Fred: No, because they know that at the end of the semester they will have and exam and if they haven't done what they were supposed to, well, I don't think they can pass that class.

Todd: As a teacher, I'm not so sure because you are a very motivated person and I think many students are motivated and disciplined like you but I have many students I think that just are not motivated and they won't do it unless I make them do it, like if I make them do it, then they might generate interest and they might improve but if I I don't make them hand in homework, if I don't tell them what to do, I don't think they'll study at all. They'll just party and have fun.

Fred: OK, I agree with you. There are certain students that need to be told what to do. There are people that have a hard time doing things by themselves. I agree with you, but perhaps this idea of homework, it just kind of comes out of high school or junior high school where the teacher tells you what to do, but in university it's different because assignment would be very important, so perhaps you would give the students and assignement every week but not homework every day and the assignment would count for a certain percentage and then that would give the incentive to the students to do it. If you don't give the students any incentive, then they will not be motivated.

Todd: That's a good point. I agree with you somewhat.

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Break

Todd: OK, now Matt, you used to work in Hollywood as an actor. Can you talk about what kind of actor you were?

Matt: Sure. I acted mainly incommercial work and that is Iauditioned for commercials and basically in Los Angeles it's unlike any other city in the world for acting and it's just so heavily centered around Hollywood and television and screen work that there isn't really a lot of work in theater so I didn't have a ton of training going in to the acting world when I entered L.A. so like many others I opted just for commercial work and tried to get experience that way.

Todd: Oh, cool. So how do you actually get a gig? Tell me about the process.

Matt: It actually... It's a lot more complicated than I thought when I first got there and competitive. Basically, there are two types of actors in Los Angeles. There's union actors and non-union. And to really progress you need to be a union actor which takes getting a speaking part or doing commercial work, which took me about six months and from there becoming a SAG member, screen actor's guild member. You're in the union which looks a lot better on your resume to go after agents so that was my next step and after I got an agent then I was able to be sent out on auditions and look for work that way.

Todd: So how did you get your first big break?

Matt: It was just by chance really. I was acting and I was doing a lot of non-speaking work on television and movies and really not progressing as fast as I wanted to and I was on a commercial for I think it was Pepsi and they liked my look and they needed an extra guy in the scene in a library and they put me in and from that thirty second spot which was shown all the East Coast of the United States I has half of my income for my first year because you get royalty checks every time a commercial is shown on television. You get paid, so...

Todd: Nice.

Matt: Yeah... But from there I went back to television and movies.

Todd: Cool.

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First Aid

Woman: You’re bleeding! What did you do to yourself?

Man: I just slipped and fell against the door. I think the door handle must have cut me.

Woman: It looks pretty nasty. Do you think you should go to A&E (accident and emergency)?

Man: No, I don’t think so. I’ll just clean it up, put a dressing on it, and it’ll be fine.

Woman: Alright, let’s see… Take this towel, make sure you keep pressure on it.

Man: OK. Do you have any disinfectant?

Woman: Yeah, somewhere. I’ll look for it in a minute. Are you sure you don’t want to go to hospital? It’s quite a big cut. I think it might need stitches.

Man: Well, let’s stop the bleeding and get it clean, and then we can have a proper look.

Woman: Something like that won’t heal well if you don’t get stitches. You’ll have a bad scar.

Man: Yeah, but you know what it’s like in A&E. We’ll have to wait for hours.

Woman: At least we need to check that it’s clean and there’s no dirt or anything inside it. If it gets infected, you’ll have a serious problem.

Man: Hmm, I suppose you’re right. OK, let’s put a dressing on it, then we can go.

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Reading

Todd: So Monica, this week we’re going to talk about technology and how maybe technology changes patterns of how we read and how we write, so let’s talk about reading. Do you think you read fewer books now because of the Internet?

Monica: I don’t think I read fewer books now because of the Internet.

Todd: So you still read quite a bit?

Monica: Yeah, recently I’ve been reading quite a bit, but I think it’s more to do with how much spare time I have.

Todd: So you don’t think that the internet eats into reading time at all? At least for you?

Monica: I would have to say no because I use the internet for slightly different reasons. I use the internet to check my e-mail and communicate with my friends, but reading a book is something completely different that I do for relaxation. So yeah, I don’t think it has impacted the amount that I read.

Todd: Yeah, you see, for me I think it’s the exact opposite, it’s pretty bad. I pretty much read everything online, magazines or newspapers, and occasionally I’ll still buy a newspaper but I’ve completely stopped reading books. I just do not read books anymore and I think I’m not alone...I’ve read online, ironically, of other people who say that they’ve stopped reading books because you’re so used to reading online now that the actual process of sitting down and reading a book just isn’t as enjoyable as it used to be.

Monica: Well, having said that it doesn’t affect how much I read, I have to say that I have stopped reading newspapers in hard copy form. I tend to check the news items on the websites so, yeah, in that regard, I do read less than I used to.

Todd: So you buy newspapers quite rarely?

Monica: Yeah, exactly. I’m also concerned about the environment so I sort of feel that if I can get the news from the Internet then it’s saving all the trees being cut down and printed into a newspaper form.

Todd: Yeah, that’s a good way to look at it.

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Eating out

Alan, Canada
Do I prefer to cook at home or eat out? I prefer to cook at home. I enjoy cooking. It gives me something to do. It's kind of like a hobby, and I enjoy creating different kinds of food. I enjoy eating them, and actually I enjoy cooking for other people, cooking for them and watching them enjoy the food that I cook.

Jeff, Canada
Do I prefer to cook or eat out? I like cooking. Cooking is fun and it's a nice way to relax and get rid of some stress but eating out is also fun, especially when you have a couple of good friends or your with a good buddy of yours and you can go to a nice restaurant and have someone wait on you and serve you, so I like to eat out but I like to cook at home.

Lucinda, New Zealand
I was raised in the country, so we always cooked at home, so I prefer to eat out any chance I can get I would prefer to eat out than cook at home. Being a student, living on a student budget, we mostly have to cook at home so I pretty much would prefer to go out to a restaurant or a cafe to eat almost any night of the week.

Ruth, England
At home or eat out? There absolutely no comparison. If you ask me that every time, I would say,eat out. I love eating out. It's so good. I love going to different restaurants, especially if somebody else is paying, but the disadvantage is that it's often less healthy to eat out if you eat at home. You'd know exactly what you're eating so it depends if I'm on a diet or not: if I'm not eating out, If I am eating at home.

Simon, Canada
If I had the choice to eat out, or to cook at home, I would definitely pick eating out. Yeah, I don't mind cooking at home. I like cooking but going out is an event. I like to go to cool restaurants, fancy restaurants, any kind of restaurant that has a cool atmosphere. Yeah, going out is an event. It's fun, and yeah, that's what I choose.

Todd, The United States
Actually this is not a choice because every night I eat out. I pretty much never cook. I cook maybe three or four times a year. I guess because I'm a bachelor and I just hate cooking and I don't know how to cook very well so I just always eat out pretty much, every night and buy my dinner. It's just easy, you know. No preparation. No cleaning up afterwards, just buy it and eat. That's it.

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Suburbs

Todd: Jason, actually I'm going to England this summer.

Jason: Really?

Todd: Yeah can you give me some advice about where I should go. I'm gonna have about one week.

Jason: One week. What I suggest you do then is stay in the suburbs of London for a start, because it's a lot cheaper. If you stay in North London then you can spend all your money on rent. And I guess you should go aroundCentral London. That's where all the tourist attractions are. That's where all the nightlife is. It's just got everything you need really, but like I said rent is way too expensive there, so.

Todd: OK, now I was thinking of taking a day trip to Oxford or Cambridge or Bath. What would you recommend?

Jason: It depends really. Bath has got a lot of history. I guess Oxford is a lot quieter, but again there is a lot of nightlife there as well. It really depends what you want to do, but Bath is good for history, definitely.

Todd: OK. What about Cambridge?

Jason: Cambridge I'm not too sure about. I haven't been there so.

Todd: Oh, really. OK. If I want to go to Oxford or to Bath, how can I get there? Do I have to drive?

Jason: The easiest way is to get a train. It can vary how much you wanna pay really. It's kind of similar to Japanese trains. But traveling as far as Cambridge and Bath would be quite expensive, maybe 30 pounds, which is quite a lot of money really, so.

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Entertainment

(16-5-2015) Entertainment

Mari: Hi, this is Mari. I'm here with Ron. Today, we'll talk about types of entertainment and how often we do these things. Let's first start with watching TV. Ron, how often do you watch TV?

Ron: Usually I watch TV every day. I don't watch TV very long but I usually watch TV every day. Usually I watch the news.

Mari: Why just the news?

Ron: I like to know what's going on in the world, so I usually watch CNN or BBC.

Mari: And that's it. Nothing else?

Ron: Usually, yes.

Mari: Usually?

Ron: Other than that, sometimes I'll watch sporting events such as baseball or football.

Mari: But that's it?

Ron: Yeah.

Mari: OK, next, do you go to the movies? How often do you go to the movies?

Ron: I don't go to the movies very often, maybe twice a year, I would say.

Mari: That's it.

Ron: Yeah.

Mari: Do you rent movies?

Ron: I rent movies more than I go to the cinema, but also not very often.

Mari: What kind of movies do you like?

Ron: I like funny movies. Comedies.

Mari: Comedies. What's the most recent movie you watched?

Ron: I watched Home Alone last night but it was on TV. I didn't rent the movie.

Mari: OK. How often do you read books?

Ron: I don't like reading, so I don't read books very often. The only time I do read books is for school purposes.

Mari: What kind of books do you read for school?

Ron: Well, my major is International Relations, so usually I read International Relations books, if I have to read.

Mari: If you have to read. So nothing? No books for pleasure?

Ron: Not for entertainment.

Mari: So when you're on the airplane, you don't read?

Ron: No. I try to watch the movies on the airplane.

Mari: OK. How often do you go to concerts?

Ron: I go to concerts once in awhile. In Hawaii, there aren't many concerts so when they're are concerts, I try to go.

Mari: What do you go see, or what type of concerts?

Ron: I like Hawaiian music so I go to Hawaiian concerts, and if a big star from America comes, I usually try to go also.

Mari: So music concerts.

Ron: Right, music concerts.

Mari: OK, Ron, thanks.

Ron: You're welcome.

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Filed Under: Entertainment, Topic on Friday, 15 May 2015 No Comments

Natural disaster

(14-5-2015) Natural disaster

Have you ever been in a natural disaster?

Tom, U.K.
I was in a typhoon in Hong Kong, and I just arrived with a big heavy backpack, and I had to hide in a telephone box while the street flooded and the water came up around me.

Jess, U.K.
Natural disaster? No, I haven't been been in a natural disaster. Unfortunately I was very close to a bomb which went off in Manchester when I was about sixteen years old, which was quite scary, but probably not as scary as a tsunami or a typhoon or something.

George, U.S.
Oh, yes, yes. I have been in a natural disaster. I forget what year but Hurricane Yuniki in Hawaii, but I lived on Ohau so we got the eye of the hurricane so it wasn't like harsh at all. In fact, I remember when it hit, I remember telling my parents, I wanted to go out and fly a kite because it looked so nice outside, so it wasn't really that bad of an experience for me.

Pernais, Jamaica
Yes, I have. I've been in a fire. A really big one actually. It was just very scary. There was just smoke everywhere, and I couldn't see anything. My eyes were hurting. I was choking, and I really thought I was going to die, but I was rescued by an old man passing by.

Mike, Singapore
OK, have I been in a natural disaster? Well, I've actually seen one happen while I was driving, and this was along I think the coast. I think it's called the Pacific Ocean Highway, if I'm not wrong. Anyway, there was in December 2004 I think, it was ... there was a big landslide during a the raining season in Los Angeles, and while I was driving I actually saw it, and then I didn't know what was damaged, but it was all over the news, and then it was bad.

Doron, U.K.
Yeah, actually, I was staying with friends in Norway and we were camping and we got hit by a blizzard and it was really frightening, but luckily I was with some big Viking Norwegian guys, and they knew exactly what to do, because I didn't. It was really ... you couldn't see anything. It was so white and the snow was so heavy and it actually hurt quite a lot, and it didn't help that it was absolutely freezing.

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Global issues

(13-5-2015) Global issues

Climate Change

Paul: So have you seen all thesefreakish weather events on the news all around the world?

Amy: Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to pay attention, yeah. It's been pretty bad in some places. I think, it's been the wettest January on record in the UK at the moment.

Paul: Right, right, right. So do you think it's kind of indicative of climate change? Are you a climate change believer or a climate change denier?

Amy: I think it's hard to deny really. I think what humans do to the planet is going to have some effect and science is science, you know. It's backed up by evidence and facts and scientists don't tend to say things until they know it's true or as true as it can be. So yeah, I'm definitely a believer in climate change, I think. We are affecting things on the planet.

How about you?

Paul: I've read quite a lot about it. And yes, there is a science to support it but there's also a lot of science to — not to deny it but there's definitely a lot of questions that aren't answered yet. It's a very sort of complex issue. I mean, these global systems of weather and you've got all these like organic processes going on that we just don't really understand. And then trying to explain all these complex events by saying it's climate change, it's…

I mean, what worries me is that by denying it, it seems to also be a sort of justification for us to continue living the way we are, which worries me a lot. Whether it's true or not, I think we need to be thinking about how we can live better. And that means, living in ways that are less, sort of, damaging on our environment.

Amy: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I've also read a bit about weather systems that are perhaps not—because of climate of change, every planet has weather systems that come and go. And I understand that part but I also fully agree that we have to stop being so destructive.

I think it's pretty clear. You can't continue cutting downacres and acres and acres of really valuable resources like the rainforest. I mean, we need that to breathe, so it just doesn't make sense. Yeah, I think we definitely have to stop being so destructive.

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Small Talk

(12-5-2015) Small Talk

Small Talk

Edwin: Hey Buddhi, how ya going?

Buddhi: I'm good Edwin, how are you?

Edwin: I'm not too bad. Did you do anything last weekend?

Buddhi: Yes, I did. I went out with a bunch of friends after a very long time. And, yeah, I had a nice time.

Edwin: What did you guys do downtown?

Buddhi: First, for lunch we wanted to go out for lunch and then we did some window shopping. None of us had saved up enough for any actual shopping, so it was window shopping, and then we did some karaoke and we went out for some dancing. It was nice. I enjoyed my Saturday.

Edwin: Do you love karaoke?

Buddhi: I do. I do. I end up losing my voice the next day.

Edwin: How as the dancing? Are you a bit of a dance master?

Buddhi: I wouldn't say that. Well, I love dancing, so we had a nice time. How about you? How was your weekend?

Edwin: My weekend was alright. I just went down to the city and did a bit of shopping.

Buddhi: So, did you spend a lot?

Edwin: I spent about two hundred dollars.

Buddhi: OK.

Edwin: Bought some winter clothing, and it's getting a bit cold these days, so yeah.

Buddhi: I'm not a very winter person. Do you like winter?

Edwin: No, I don't like winter. I'm a very summer person.

Buddhi: Oh, really. Well, I don't like when it's too warm. And you like it?

Edwin: I prefer to sweat rather than freeze.

Buddhi: So do you like sea bathing and like outdoor activities?

Edwin: Yeah, I love the sun so, I like a lot of outdoor activities. It's better than being cooped up in a room.

Buddhi: In my case, I'm not a very outdoor person. But now summer. Definitely not summer. I'd say my favorite season will be spring.

Edwin: Ah, I guess, yeah. Spring is a nice time. Not too hot, not too cold.

Buddhi: Yeah, yeah. Especially, I guess because I'm from a tropical country, and we are used to that kind of weather.

Edwin: I see. I guess Australia's summer's not so tropical. It's just a lot of dry.

Buddhi: Yeah.

Edwin: So, I guess Sri Lanka in Australia is really different?

Buddhi: It's quite warm, and throughout the year, it's quite hot, warm and in the hill country, you'll feel that it's like fall. You'll wanna wear, you know, some warm clothes, but it's really nice, you know you feel like having something cold or, being a bit cold, you go to the hill country. If now, you stay in the beach area.

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