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Introduction
Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from BetterAtEnglish.com. Today’s conversation is about some of the differences between American and British English usage when it comes to telling time. This conversation also marks the first appearance of my very own mom here on B@E. She give us her perspective on American usage, while my English friend Michael (whom you know from earlier podcasts) returns this episode to cover the British point of view. This episode follows directly from the previous episode, number 44, so if this is your first time listening to our podcasts you should listen to episode 44 first.

The pdf that goes with this episode contains the full transcript, the vocabulary list, the image of clocks that I used to elicit time expressions from my mom and Michael, and some usage notes about time expressions in British and American English. You can download it directly in iTunes, or visit betteratenglish.com and download from there. I think that’s enough introduction for today — let’s get on with the conversation!

Conversation Transcript

[Lori:In this informal language experiment, I showed my mom a picture of four clock faces and asked her to read me the times. This was to see what prepositions she would use, particularly if she would avoid the preposition past as Yvette's former teachers claimed Americans do.]

Mom: OK, well starting on the top left I have ten m minutes after nine, and then the next one to the right is twenty-five after seven, and then on the bottom left is five past six and the last one on the bottom right is a quarter past twelve.
Lori: OK! Perfect! You scored 100%
Mom: Wow, I got 100%! I do know how to tell time on a regular analog clock!
Lori: OK…now this is very interesting because you are a native American speaker, and you haven’t had…I doubt you’ve had much exposure to British English and definitely not ever had to teach English using British English materials or anything like that.
Mom: No, for sure.
Lori: Yeah, the problem is..is that sometimes when non-native speakers are learning English, teachers will tell them misguided rules that they maybe read in some outdated book somewhere saying things like, “In American English you have to use after when you talk about time; you can’t use past.”
Mom: Yeah, I think one time I said past..I think I said five past six. In fact I purposely said past because I was trying to give you some variety of the difference…we can tell time…because Americans will say past.
Lori: Yeah! That’s what I think as well, that I…maybe naturally I’d be more likely to say after but I wouldn’t think it was weird or strange if someone said past.
Mom: No…no, that’s exactly…’cause…I think the first couple of times I said after and then I thought, “Oh I’m going to give her a little variety,” so I’ll say five past six because we do say that, but it’s…I mean we wouldn’t think it’s odd.
Lori: OK, that’s great, and that’s really just the point I wanted to make… that often…
Mom: In fact I think we especially do it with with…on the half hour, we say half past twelve.
Lori: Right, right, half past twelve, definitely. Yeah, you wouldn’t say half after twelve.
Mom: Nuh-uh, we always say past for then. See, we use both.
Lori: And the interesting thing is I used analog clocks on purpose because I was worried that if I just wrote the times in digital time you would have said, for example, seven twenty-five.
Mom: Exactly, ’cause that’s what you see on a digital clock.
Lori: So anyway, that was my little experiment!
Mom: OK!

[laughter]

[Lori: After doing the experiment with my mom, I went on and did the same experiment with Michael to get the British perspective.]
Lori: …and read the times that you see on the clocks.
Michael: Yeah, it’s ten past nine… that’s from the top left. The top right is twenty-five past seven. The bottom left..err..five past six, and the bottom right one is quarter past twelve.
Lori: OK, cool! You’ve also scored 100%. You can tell time on an analog clock!
Michael: [laughs] Yay!
Lori: And the reason that I asked you to do this is…I had a discussion with Yvette the other day and she remembered learning when she was studying English, umm — she’s had both…been exposed to people, you know, trying to teach her British English and American English — and she somehow was told that if you’re going to speak British English you have to say past just like you just did, like, it’s ten past…
Michael: It’s true as well, it’s..in fact, I can tell you that…I mean she’s absolutely right. I mean, never mind the experimenting, that is how we are taught. And I’ve never heard anybody say ten after, you know, three or something like that until I met an American person.
Lori: OK! OK, but did you still understand it the first time you heard…did it cause any problems?
Michael: Oh it didn’t cause any any confusion… you say 10, you know five past, ten past quarter past, twenty past, twenty-five past.
Lori: Uh-huh.
Michael: And when it’s around it’s around, it’s twenty-five to, twenty to, quarter to, ten to, five to…
Lori: Right.
Michael: But I’ve heard some American people say ten till..
Lori: Oh yeah, ten till six, yeah quarter till, um-hmm.
Michael: You never ever ever ever ever say that in British English, it’s always past and it’s to and it’s drummed into you.
Lori: OK, that’s quite interesting.
Michael: There’s no variation whatsoever, but people can understand obviously, I mean you’d have to be a bit of a [bleep] jerk to…
Lori: Um-hmm.
Michael: Being deliberately obtuse if you’re going, “Huh? I don’t get it.” You know, because it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain, you know, what it means. But it is…it stands out as being unusual ’cause this is… yet we have this little clocks with the, you know, the movable hands.
Lori: Yeah, analog clocks.
Micheal: Yeah!
Lori: In fact, I was quite cunning when I made the picture to send to you. I made…I used analog clocks on purpose just to elicit the preposition past, ’cause if I had just written the times, like in digital format, you probably would have said things like…
Michael: Nine ten…yeah. But I don’t…I don’t say times like that anyway. I always do it the old-fashioned way. even after the advent of digital things because my dad would belt me if I said it, err, you know, the digital way, I’d… seriously, I’d get in trouble when my parents would yell at me.
Lori: Oh, that’s funny why, why…Did they ever say why they didn’t like it?
Michael: Yes, they felt it was dumbing things down, err, and it meant that you know you wouldn’t be learning you wouldn’t know how to tell the time properly. Err, because if you just read it out like that…err…and…I mean I think they had a very good point, because if you, you know, if you only knew how to tell the time like that and then you were at, oh I don’t know, some big train station somewhere where they had an analog clock and you’re going, “Oh, umm, let me work out bla bla bla,” you know, it’s…it’s not so good.
Lori: Yeah, it’s definitely, I think, everyone needs to know how to tell time on an analog clock but I wouldn’t go so far as to force people to use that every time they were talking about time because I think the digital system is so established now and it really makes perfect sense.
Michael: Yeah, and my, I mean, I can hear you hang on my parents are total [bleeping] Nazis when it comes to…
Lori: [laughs in disbelief]
Michael: But anyway… I love them but they’re…you know…misguided in the extreme.
Lori: You know I’m going to have to bleep you out now.
Michael: [laughs]
Lori: We’re not recording for Uncensored English!

Final Words

That’s all for this time. Of course, in these spontaneous conversations we can’t cover all of the usage issues that apply, and sometimes the examples we come up with on the spot might not be the best from a teaching perspective. So to make up for that I’ve added some extra usage notes to the pdf file for this episode. I hope you find them useful. Thanks for listening, and bye for now!

See the PDF for the Vocabulary list and usage notes.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Telling time in English 1

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Introduction
Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from BetterAtEnglish.com. In today’s conversation, my friend Yvette and I continue our discussion about perfectionism. The main focus of this part of the conversation is how perfectionist tendencies can cause problems in foreign language learning, particularly for adult learners. Another thing that comes up is a couple of usage differences between British and American English. So without further ado, here is the conversation:

Conversation Transcript

Lori: But you know, speaking about correction, it’s kind of interesting when you think about learning a language as an adult, how perfectionism and having, like, demands on yourself when it comes to performing…I think that’s one of the biggest differences between learning the language as an adult and, then, picking one up as a child.

Yvette: Yeah I remember when I was in university at the very beginning in the first year I spoke British English with a British English accent, and I was studying American English or American studies. And I had a lot of American-speaking professors who, umm, just, you know, I thought it was really odd to be using British language to talk to an American professor, so I switched to American English, which was really frowned upon because it was not the “proper” language. And everything that you did, every word you used, you had to think, “Is this the proper American word or is it a British-ism?” Because it was…you were punished much more severely for using British-isms as an American speaker than if you were a British speaker using American words. It was really weird.

Lori: Yet there’s this kind of weird…at least in some classroom contexts…there’s this weird elitism when it comes to British English and American English, and like there’s these weird synthetic rules about what you’re allowed to say and what’s acceptable and what isn’t. And, you know, native speakers out in the world, they mix and match as they see fit.

Yvette: Right. Right, because, like, I would have to look out and make sure that I didn’t use the word “pavement,” and you can say that very American-like…pavement…and then they would be like, “No, it’s ’sidewalk.’ So, you’re wrong.” And it’s like, “Oh, you know what I mean, though!”

I know that I got punished for that, and there were other things like “ten after six” or “ten past six”…I, you know, if you say something like “ten past six” in American voice it’s really wrong because you have to say “ten after six,” which is something I didn’t even know until I was corrected. And it was like, “Oops, I didn’t know there was a difference.”

Lori: Wow, well, speaking as American I would say say that’s something I didn’t even know.

[Laughter]

Yvette: There you go! So, but then you get to the perfection level, then you want to be absolutely correct.

Lori: But yeah, sometimes I wish I could get back to the state that I remember having as a kid. You know — when I’m trying to create something and start battling with perfectionist tendencies and procrastination and all the demands I place on myself, and the ones that I imagine that other people are placing on me — I wish I could just throw it all out the window and just approach it with the carefree abandon that I remember having as a little kid.

Yvette: The thing of course is when you…now you work, and it actually…you make money doing things and people expect a certain standard of you, and you try to hold to that standard but often that standard is in your own head and it’s not even what they’re expecting you to do. So you end up doing a lot more work for something that is really not worth the money that you get paid for it.
Lori: Yeah. There is that as well.

Yvette: On top of that! But you know, as a kid I think I was already quite perfectionist in everything, I… everything had to be perfect, everything had to be done properly.

Lori: Yeah.

Yvette: And I felt like I was going to get punished if I didn’t, so that — not to say anything bad about my parents, but, because I don’t think they ever held me to that standard; they always said, “Do your best and that’s good enough.” But for me it had to be perfect, and then it’s maybe “okay.”

Lori: Yeah. Yeah, but, but even so I can still remember, like, approaching new things and just being willing to just try new things that I knew I was going to suck at, because there’s no way you can be good at something right at the very beginning. And it just didn’t matter; you were willing to just give it a go anyway. And now I really sympathize with the people, my, my students that I used to have when I taught English, my adult students, how horrible it can be to sit in a group…and you know you need to try to speak the language but you know you’re going to make mistakes and you know it’s not going to be right but you have to force yourself to try anyway. And it’s…I think, yeah, for people like me anyway, it’s really hard to force yourself to do that.

Yvette: Well yeah it is, it is about letting go of the judgment that other people are going to have. You know, when I, went I went to the United States for the first time and I felt really kind of embarrassed about speaking English, people were very surprised that you were able to even speak the language and understand what they were saying because they had no idea of what you were saying if you spoke Dutch. I mean, they were like, you know, I could switch to Dutch and they were like, “I don’t know, that sounds really strange and odd.” And so that kind of helped me along at the time because I knew that my, you know, what I could do or how I could speak was better than what they could speak my language, and they very often would say, “Well, you speak better English than I do.” And I thought, “Oh, I don’t think so.”

Lori: Yeah, well you know most…your English is fantastic, as you know, as I’ve often told you.

Yvette: Well, thank you.

Lori: But…

Yvette: That’s right!

Lori: But, even so, most Americans, they’re just amazed that anyone can speak a language other than their own, because even though I think most of us do study a foreign language in high school, oftentimes it never gets past the classroom level, you know, the school level, where really, you can do okay on written tests but you can’t really have a conversation.

Yvette: Yeah, and that’s the thing, and it’s also, you know, other little phrases that people use all the time when they speak, which is probably what this is all about. it’s just speaking and listening to people just talking…normal phrases instead of these textbook phrases that nobody understands anyway. I mean, or nobody uses.

Lori: Yeah, they’re so far removed from what you hear out in the real world that it’s…

Yvette: Right. “I would like a hotel room…”

Lori: Please, for one. Please.

Yvette: With a bath. With a bath and a shower.

[Laughter]

Final Words

Vocabulary list
Download full vocabulary notes here

Picking one up
frowned upon
synthetic
mix and match
look out
There you go!
throw it all out the window
carefree abandon
end up
there is that
on top of that
suck
give it a go
letting go
far removed

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Perfectionism 2

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Hello, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English.com. In today’s episode, Michael and I continue our discussion about the English government’s decision to ban junk food ads on television before 9 pm, when children are likely to be watching. This is the second of a three-part series, so if you missed the first part you might want to listen to that first. In this episode we inadvertently end up discussing some differences in British and American English vocabulary. As always, you’ll find the full transcript and vocabulary notes on the website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Here we go!

Conversation transcript

L: …do you know what their rationale was, why children, and not just ban them across the board?

M: I don’t know the exact reason, but I assumed it was because of this, umm…this…the difficulty that that parents have in, you know, the kids going, “Mum, Mum! I…” You know? I don’t know the exact reason.

L: OK, because I…I would think that, I mean, that that’s one reason, but another reason could be that when you’re a child, that your basic eating habits and your relationship to food, that a lot of that is formed by the habits you form as a child.

M: OK.

L: And so that’s all the more reason to not be making it any harder on kids than it already is…

M: That’s inter- yeah…

L: …to develop good, healthy eating habits and…

M: Right.

L: Umm…

M: Well, do you remember when, I mean, back when you were at school,

L: Uh huh?

M: Uhh…did, I mean you…I assume that you ate your lunches at school? Did you have school dinners?

L: Yeah we had school “lunches” we would call them.

M: Oh, OK, OK.

L: Yeah, school lunches, yeah.

M: Umm, but I mean, what was the food like then? I mean was it healthful, healthy food or?

L: It’s…it’s hard to say I think it could have probably been healthier. I know in high school they always had salads and things, but there was so much junk food, just fried food.

M: And what did the kids eat? Which did they choose? Do I need to ask?

L: It would depend. You know, the health conscious ones would try to be healthy but there was a lot of, there’s a lot of umm…denial and sort of strange rationalization going on when it comes to food. For example, I know that I had girlfriends who would buy for their snack, they would buy this big bag of trail mix, thinking that “oh yeah, it’s healthy because it’s natural.” But the thing is, is that you know, eating this huge bag of nuts and dried fruit, you know all that concentrated energy — and there were little bits of chocolate and things as well — that that really, unless you’re out climbing mountains all day long, which is when you need something like trail mix…

M: That’s why they call it trail mix!

L: That if you just, yeah, you know you don’t need this huge gigantic pouch of trail mix just to get you through your biology lesson.

M: Sure, that’s right, right.

L: But you know, still…

M: No, totally.

L: …rationalizing it saying that, “Oh, oh I got this because it’s healthy.”

M: Yeah.

L: Umm…”because it’s natural.”

M: Well I thought, yeah, the…the school meals thing, let’s call them school meals — you call them err…school lunches and I call them school dinners, umm, but with the school meals, err…it’s something that when you’re…you’re a kid…err…at school, I can remember back at school and there would be chips or what, err you, err “French fries.”

L: Yeah, “fries.”

M: Yeah, err for you, they’re always on the menu, always and no matter what myself or my friends would eat, we would always have chips, and loads! As many as possible, they were the yummiest thing going! Umm but there was something…are you familiar, you know who Jamie Oliver is?

L: Oh yeah, sure, the Naked Chef!

M: TV naked chef!

L: Yeah.

M: Umm…but he was being very outspoken just recently about how really, really bad the choice of food…is in school, umm and he was trying to bring this to people’s attention, using his celebrity status, and I don’t…I don’t think…this wasn’t a money-making thing or anything like that, he was just using his…his position to make people aware of it and pointing out all these…all these things. So in the light of that, because this is a…this was a very recent thing too, in the light of that, this is very interesting that the government has taken this step.

L: Yeah, I think…I think it’s a move in the right direction. I would…I would support …a total ban on advertisement, because that’s just one reason, you know, one more reason that you might watch TV — to get at the good things that TV has to offer — is that you know you won’t be subjected to all of these, these advertisements that you don’t want to see.

M: Right, well I mean, there are, I mean.

L: You know, advertising things that are bad for you, that hurt you but that are…
M: Of course.

L: …still so compelling that maybe in your life you’re doing everything you can to cut out the junk food and then you’re sitting there, maybe even on a diet, if you’re someone who’s trying to lose weight…

M: Oh yeah.

L: …so you’re watching TV at night and the Haagen Dazs ad comes on.

M: [laughs]

L: With this…beautiful images of these gorgeous ice cream creations in front of you and…

M: Oh.

L: I mean it…it is really hard; that just puts the idea of food into your head and…

M: That’s torture, that’s torture.

L: Yeah, horrible torture…

[To be continued in part 3]

Final words

That’s all for this time, thanks for listening! We love to hear from you, so if you’ve got questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to e-mail us at info [AT] betteratenglish [dot] com. Your continued donations make Better at English possible, so if you are a regular listener who enjoys the show, please consider making a donation. See you next time!

Vocabulary list

going
In informal conversation, native speakers often introduce reported speech with the verb go. Many careful users of English disapprove of using go in this way, so you should not copy it.

making it (any) harder on
To make it harder on someone means to make it more difficult or unpleasant for them.

school dinners/lunches
In British English, the meal you eat at midday is often called “dinner.” In American English, this meal is most often called “Lunch,” and the evening meal is often called “dinner” or “supper.” Note that there is much regional/dialectal variation in the area of meal names.

healthy/healthful
In everyday English, healthy means (1) contributing to good health, and (2) possessing good health. So it’s OK to say “a healthy diet” (a diet that contributes to good health) and “a healthy child” (a child who possesses good health). But some careful users of English say that meaning (1) is wrong, and that to talk about things that contribute to good health you should use the word healthful. If you are writing a paper for someone like this, you should use healthful to talk about things that contribute to good health. Otherwise, you use healthy for both meanings, as most native speakers do.

health conscious
If you are health conscious, you are very interested in good health and try to live a healthy/healthful lifestyle.

trail mix
Trail mix is a type of food for backpacking, hiking or other endurance activities. It is designed to be very calorie-dense for its weight. It typically contains nuts and dried fruit, and may also contain bits of chocolate (such as M&Ms or Smarties) or other candy.

rationalizing
If you rationalize, you try to find valid reasons to explain your decisions or behavior, usually to make yourself feel better about it. The noun form is rationalization.

outspoken
If you are outspoken, you express your opinions and views very directly without worrying about what other people will think about them.

torture
Torture is the act of inflicting extreme mental or physical pain on someone to get them to do what you want them to do, such as confess a crime or reveal a secret. Sometimes people torture others just to be cruel and horrible. But the word torture is often used informally to denote any unpleasant experience.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversation: junk food (part 2 of 3)

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Introduction

Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English dot com. In today’s episode, Michael and I exchange some opinions about television, particularly with respect to commercials and advertising. In this conversation we discover some differences between British and American English vocabulary, and use some everyday phrasal verbs. As always, you’ll find the full transcript and vocabulary list on the website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Before listening to the conversation, you might want to pause and think about the following questions:

1. Are you influenced by TV advertising?
2. If so, then how are you influenced?
3. Do TV commercials attempt to appeal to people’s logic or to their emotions?
4. Is watching TV is a constructive activity, or is it more a waste of time?

OK, without further ado, here is the conversation.

Conversation Transcript

Lori: TV is so evil.

Michael: [laughs]

L: I mean, don’t…don’t even get me started on TV – what a time waster and a time sucker it is, and…and all of the horrible…all of the horrible messages that you’re bombarded with if you are, you know, just one of these people who comes home in the evening, turns on the TV and just has the TV on kind of in the background until you go to bed at night. Some people even fall asleep in their bedrooms with the TV on.

M: Yeah, well I don’t know…I think people would perhaps use this for different reasons. If you just want some background noise, maybe they just regard it the same way they would do putting on a piece of music…

L: Yeah

M: …in the background, just to have some ambiance…

L: Yeah.

M: …as they’re going about their evening, but I do know what you mean. I think that a lot of programs are a complete waste of time.

L: Well see, that’s the thing. I don’t think people should be limited to watching things that are educational. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with watching something that’s just entertaining. [It's just] that there’s so much…umm…just really negative stuff out there.

M: Yes. I…But I think that’s…that’s the commercial side of it, and unless you have something like in England for example – the BBC – they don’t have advertisements.

L: [laughs]

M: They… they get their…

L: Ads!

M: …revenue from…

L: Do you really say that, advertisements? You don’t say…?

M: Yes! That’s right, well we would say adverts but, or advertisements, yeah.

L: Even for the ones that are on the TV? You don’t call them commercials?

M: No, no! We wouldn’t…I mean, I know…we know what commercials are, but no, we would say the adverts.

L: Really?

M: “I’m going to make a cup of tea whilst the adverts are on,” that’s what we would say.

L: Oh that’s funny because as…I can’t speak for all Americans, but for an American we would definitely call those things you see on TV commercials.

M: Right, right that’s… that’s what I hear Americans calling them but we…

L: Yeah.

M: …we call them adverts.

L: OK, interesting

M: But that’s, umm, with the BBC they don’t get their money from adv-…advertising, they get it from the TV license, which you have to pay just for owning a TV every year, and that’s what… you know, they keep it free from adverts.

L: OK.

M: So you don’t have to put up with that, which is really quite nice because all the satellite channels and the independent TV channels in England are umm…full of adverts, all the time, and you really get that impression that people are trying to sell things to you all the time and it’s, err…all the things showing you that you have to be young and beautiful and all this kind of…

L: Yeah.

M: And “If you buy our products. you will be like these people in these… perfect people…”

L: Yeah, the myth of transformation.

M: Yes, exactly, exactly.

L: Yeah it’s like, “let’s create things that make you feel bad about yourself and then show you the things you need to buy to…”

M: That’s it!

L: “…improve yourself so you will feel better.”

M: That’s it, and I think that’s… that’s mean, that’s… that’s not nice.

L: It’s horrible!

M: So, but I… that’s… that’s what I see when I see the adverts, I… I see through it so…

L: Yeah.

M: But I… I don’t watch much TV either, so umm…

L: Uh huh. No, it’s horrible – horrible time waster.

Final words

Thanks for listening, and thanks to those of you who have donated since last time. I can’t tell you enough how much Michael and I appreciate your support. Remember, your continued donations make Better at English possible. Bye for now!

Vocabulary list

Don’t even get me started
If someone says, “Don’t get me started (on X)” it means that they have strong feelings and a lot to say about the current topic. The idea is that if they start talking about it, you won’t be able to get them to stop. You can say it about other people, for example “Don’t get him started on butterfly collecting…he’ll bore you for hours!”

going about
In this context, to go about something means to continue an activity for a period of time. If you are going about your evening, you are engaging in your typical evening activities.

revenue
Income (money) that a business, organization or government receives regularly. TV licenses generate revenue (money) for the government.

to put up with
To put up with (something or somebody) means to tolerate it, even though you don’t like it.

mean (adj)
Mean in this context means unkind (or even cruel). In Br.E, the adjective mean can also mean being selfish and ungenerous (particularly about money).

see through it
In this context, to see through something/somebody means to understand the truth about a person or situation that is intended to deceive or manipulate you.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: TV adverts, advertisements and commercials

Introduction
Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations at BetterAtEnglish.com. Today my British pal Michael and I compare working in an office with working at home, and talk about how difficult it can be to put up with rude treatment from nasty customers when you work in a job providing service. As usual, we end up touching upon some of the differences between British and American English vocabulary.

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

If you have a job where you have to look busy all the time, or where you have to tolerate rude customers, I encourage you to post your stories in the comments section on the website! It would be fun to hear what you have to say.

Before moving on to the conversation, I’d like to thank everyone who has donated since the last episode. Michael and I really appreciate your generosity, thanks so much! I also wanted to let you know that because of illness the past few weeks, I’ve not been able to keep up up with my email as well as I’d like to. Fortunately, I’m feeling a bit better now, so if you’d emailed and not received an answer, you will be getting one soon.

Right then, on with the conversation! [Download transcript from links above]

Final words
I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Real English Conversations. Before I sign off, here are this week’s announcements.

First, because I really want to post more frequent episodes for you, I’ve been looking for ways to streamline my work process. So from now on, I am not going to put the transcript on the web page itself. I’ll just provide PDF and Microsoft Word documents for you to download from the website. Not having to format the html for each episode will save me between one and two hours per podcast. I’m curious to know how you react to this, so if you have strong feelings one way or another, please let me know. I’ve put a new poll up in the sidebar of the website to make it easy for you to have your say.

Second, thanks to everyone who has voted in other poll on the website. It appears that close to 80% of you are learners of English, 9% are teachers, and another 9% are both. About 2% of you are neither teachers nor learners of English.

That’s it for this time! As always, the transcription and vocabulary notes for this podcast are available at our website, www.betteratenglish.com. And remember, if you enjoy our show, please consider leaving a donation. We really appreciate your support. Bye for now!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: The customer is always right, right?

Introduction

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English. Again, I apologize for the poor audio quality this time, but I’m still posting from abroad, using my laptop. This is the third and final episode of a three part series in which Michael and I discuss some of the potentially embarrassing differences between British and American English dialects. This episode takes up right where we left off in part two, so if you are a new listener you might want to go back and listen to parts one and two before you listen to part three. You can find all the previous episodes and full transcripts on the website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Hey ho, let’s go!

Conversation Transcript

Michael: Well, do you know, just to change the subject slightly, you just reminded me of something, of a very good friend of mine, an English computer programmer who went on a business trip to the United States. And when he was over there, somebody asked him where one of the other programmers was 'cause they couldn’t find him. And my friend Peter said, “Oh, I think he’s just popped outside for a fag.”

Lori: Oh, dear!

M: Now, in British English the word fag is a very, very common, perfectly innocent slang word for a cigarette.

L: Right.

M: And everybody knows it, everybody uses it, and you would be far more likely to talk about a fag and fags as being cigarettes than you would actually say cigarette.

L: Uh huh.

M: So, but, but the look that the American fellow gave to Peter, saying that he nipped outside for a fag, was quite priceless. So he had to explain on the spot, “No that’s not what I meant,” because, as we know, the word fag in American English is a slang word for somebody who is homosexual.

L: Yeah, usually, a male, male…and it’s not a very nice word I think, from what I’ve understood. It’s a derogatory word for…

M: That’s, that’s what I understood.

L: …it’s not very nice to say.

M: But it was a perfectly innocent mistake, but you just reminded me of that.

L: I know! No, it’s funny. And these are the kind of things…I’m not sure they even teach those types of words, you know, I’ve never seen that taken up in a mainstream ELT [English Language Teaching] course book.

M: Well, probably not. But it’s the kind of thing that, as we know from experience, this kind of mistake is very easy to make. And if you wanted to sound particularly, umm, if you wanted to sound like your English was British English, then knowing words like that, that fag for cigarette, is…would be a very important one. You would need to know what it was—and not to get it confused.

L: Exactly.

M: You know, umm, so, I mean, a typical thing, “I’m just going to the shop to buy some fags,” you know is an ev–

L: [laughs] It’s like, what kind of shops do you have over there?

M: [laughs] I know, I can understand…

L: Didn’t know they sold those!

M: That’s, well, when you come back from abroad in the duty-free you can get 200 fags very cheaply!

L: OK, yeah, they have them on discount. Oh, funny!

M: But I can understand this must sound ridiculous to you [as an American], but as a British guy this is just normal speak, this is what we say.

L: Well, that’s another thing: Do you consider yourself British or do you consider yourself English, or, does it matter?

M: Well no, I’m English. I’m very much English. I’m sure you don’t want to know about my family history, but no, I think of myself as being English.

L: OK

M: And certainly the other countries, I mean, Scotland and Ireland and Wales, they like to think of themselves as being exclusively Scottish and Irish, they don’t really like to be thought of as being British.

L: Mmm hmm.

M: I think they prefer to be thought of as independent. So…But, I don’t know, I think foreigners tend to think of…the people on that little green island in the middle of the sea, umm, as just being British. It’s just easier to say, to say Britain, you know.

L: Mmm hmm.

M: Umm, but no, I’m English. That’s it, yeah.

L: OK, and is it actually offensive to be called British, or…?

M: Not if you’re English. But in…actually, some…as I was suggesting, that the Scottish, Irish, and Welsh people could be offended to be called British.

L: Really?

M: Oh yeah, because, umm, they very much, you know, they like to have their independence, and I’m not completely sure, but I think that some…we have an independent Irish parliament now. They’re still governed overall by the English parliament, but they try to break away, really. And certainly in southern Ireland, which is known as Eire, they’re not British. I mean, they’re not part of the United Kingdom. It’s all, it’s all kind of complicated—I’m from the country and I don’t even understand it properly!

Final words

OK, that’s it for this episode of Real English Conversations at Better At English. Before I sign off, I just want to thank you all for listening and for your continued support. Paul’s generous donation came in right after I posted my latest message to you all—thanks so much, Paul! And Michael, your donation just popped in a few minutes ago as I was preparing this episode—thanks so much!

If you’d like to leave feedback about the site, you can email me at info AT BetterAtEnglish DOT com, or leave a message on my voicemail line at 1 (for the USA) 206 350 2283. And don’t forget that your donations make the Better at English possible, so if you get value from the show, please visit the website www.betteratenglish.com and make a donation. Your support really means a lot!

Vocabulary list

Popped
To pop [+ adverb or preposition] is an informal way of saying “to go quickly” in Br.E. For example, “I’m just going to pop into the post office to buy some stamps.”

Fag
An informal word for cigarette in Br.E. In Am.E, fag is a disparaging (i.e., not nice) word for a male homosexual. It has several other meanings as well — see here.

Oh, dear!
A common exclamation of surprise.

Nipped
To go quickly. Similar to to pop (see above).

Priceless
If something is extremely amusing to see or hear, you can describe it as priceless.

On the spot
If you do something on the spot, you do it immediately. In this example, Michael’s friend had to immediately explain that “fag” means cigarette in British English.

Derogatory
If something is derogatory, it shows disapproval or disrespect.

Duty-free
The duty-free is short for “the duty-free shop.” Duty-free shops are usually found in airports, and are special shops where travelers can buy goods that are free of government taxes. Duty-free shops usually sell “luxury” items that normally carry heavy government taxes, such as alcohol, cigarettes, perfumes, and cosmetics.

On discount
If something is on discount, it is being sold at a reduced price.

Offensive
If something is offensive, it means that it causes someone to feel upset, angry, or hurt. People can be offended by something, or take offense at something.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Cultural Differences (part 3 of 3)

Transcript

Introduction

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another edition of Real English conversations from Better at English DOT com. This is the second in a three part series in which Michael and I discuss some of the differences between our British and American English dialects. This edition takes up right where we left off in part one, so if you are a new listener you might want to go back and listen to part one before you listen to part two. In this podcast, we focus on some pronunciation differences between British and American English, as well as one potentially embarrassing difference in vocabulary.

But before getting into the conversation, I want to thank you again for your continued support of Better at English: Alberto and Yuichi, I received your generous donations this week—thanks so much! So to all listeners out there, if you get value from my podcasts, please consider making a donation; see the link in the sidebar at www.betteratenglish.com for all you need to know about how to donate. And as always, on the website you’ll find the full transcript and a vocabulary list. OK, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Conversation Transcript

Lori: …what has happened? What has happened?” And it turns out…

Michael: Well, I think that would be the same for me if someone was just a sharp intake of breath like when you take your car, to the garage, and you say, and they tell you how much it’s going to cost to have your exhaust fixed. And you respond with [gasp], that’s what you would do.

L: Exactly. It’s funny you said garage.

M: That’s, I think, is a regional thing with English people. Because you could say garage or garage or garage. People would understand you in English; it just depends whereabouts in the country you come from.

L: But it’s funny, where I’m from—and it, this might differ—you know, America is so big and I haven’t…I’m not really up on all the different regional dialects. But I would say I took my my car to the shop, or to the workshop. I wouldn’t even say the garage, or I would say garage. But the garage for me is the place you, at your own home…

M: Oh, that’s interesting

L: …a special building where you park your own car, that’s your garage. And usually you keep a bunch of tools and junk and, and things…in there…

M: Yeah, oh yeah. And your lawnmower, and things like that.

L: Exactly. Yeah.

M: It…that’s what we would call it in England too, but also it doubles as where you take your car to have it fixed, to have it repaired. But if you said that you were taking your car to the shop in British English, they would look at you really funny. Like thinking you’re going to sell your car in a shop; you don’t have it fixed, but they would understand workshop, you know, that engineers and mechanics work in a workshop, but a shop in British English, it’s where you sell something, newspapers and things like that.

L: Yeah, so that could be a misunderstanding, then.

M: Oh yeah definitely, definitely.

L: But, I mean, wouldn’t you be clever enough to figure it out? Don’t they know enough about American English from TV and things like that to… to pick up on that?

M: I think so, I think so now because there’s so much of the TV in England, are American programs, and if you want to understand what’s going on you just have to get up to speed with what people what people say and the names they have for things, so I think most people would be able to figure it out, umm, but I can’t speak for everybody.

L: It’s funny, there’s a lot of expressions in British English and American English that can completely…screw you up if you’re not careful. One of my very, very favorites is the word rubber.

[laughs]

L: Can I borrow your rubber? Have you got a rubber I can borrow?

M: That’s disgusting.

L: Yeah I know but, I mean, isn’t that what… because I learned…and I learn most of my British English from, from reading and from these English teaching materials and vocabulary lists that you have, because it’s almost always based on the British English model. And in these teaching materials a rubber is what I would call an eraser, what you use to rub out pencil marks, or erase pencil marks. But what do you call it, you know, spontaneously with what you know about British English, would you call it, a rubber or an eraser?

M: It’s quite funny that you brought this up, because when I was young I would, without even thinking, we’d just talk about this as a rubber, you know, I need a rubber. When I was a child we used to write in pencil at school and so everyone, every school child, had to have a pencil and a rubber—this was important equipment for going to school. But it was only when I went to secondary school in England that I realized that rubber could actually mean something else, and particularly in, with American English. And so I had to consciously start calling it an eraser, and that actually felt really false.

L: Oh funny! You say you eraser and I say eraser. Do you hear the difference?

M: Oh did I say that? Oh yeah, eraser, eraser. Yeah I say it with as if it’s a Z (zee). Or a zed, as we would say. You call it a zee, We call it a zed. You know, eraser.

L: Exactly. Exactly.

M: But yeah, I have to consciously do that because to me, to be honest, it’s still a rubber.

L: Uh huh! It’s still a rubber! And you know maybe people don’t understand what a rubber actually is in American English… and as far as I know…

M: Perhaps we should…

L: … the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word rubber used as a noun, for like, a thing, is a condom.

M: That’s right that’s it that’s it it’s a slang word for a condom, yeah.

L: Yeah! And I can just imagine the, you know, unintentional fits of merriment that could occur at a business meeting if you said, “Oh darn! Can I borrow your rubber?” If you were sitting there with a bunch of Americans, that they, you know, they might laugh at you.

M: I, well do you know…? Just to change the subject slightly, you just reminded me of something, of a very good friend of mine, an English computer programmer who went on a business trip to the United States…

[to be continued in episode 3 of 3]

Final words

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. You’ll hear the rest of Michael’s story in part three. Until then, I wish all of you the best for 2007. Stay inspired, stay positive, stay focused on what’s important to you, and don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from seizing the opportunities that come your way.

If you’d like to leave feedback about the site, you can email me at info AT BetterAtEnglish DOT com, or leave a message on my voicemail line at 1 (for the USA) 206 350 2283. And don’t forget that your donations make this podcast possible, so if you are feeling generous please visit the website www.betteratenglish.com and make a donation. Your support does a lot to keep me going. Bye for now!

Vocabulary list

Funny
Funny is a tricky word in English, because it has two different meanings: amusing/humorous/comical or strange/unusual. Something is funny in the amusing sense if it makes you laugh. Something can be funny in the strange sense it is unusual, weird or strange. Sometimes the distinction is not entirely clear, because some events that are weird or strange can also be rather amusing! For example, seeing a man wearing nothing but a chartreuse glittery tophat running (streaking!) through a crowded football stadium is probably funny in both senses of the word. At least Lori would think it was.

I’m not really up on
To be up on something means to be well informed about it, to know a lot about it.

Shop
In both British and American English, a shop is a store, a place where you go to buy things. In American English, it’s more common to talk about grocery stores or supermarkets (where you buy food and other household items). Lori (American) would be much more likely to say, “I’m going to the store—do we need milk”? Michael (British) would be more likely to say, “I’m going to the shop—do we need milk”? In American English, shop is often used as a short form of workshop, particularly the type of workshop that repairs cars. “I’m riding my bike to work this week because my car’s in the shop.”

Figure it out
To figure something out means to understand something or find a solution to it, usually after a lot of thought.

Pick up on
To pick up on something means to notice something and understand it or make sense of it.

What’s going on
To understand what is going on means to understand what is happening or what something is about.

Get up to speed
To get up to speed on/with something means to learn what you need to know about it.

I can’t speak for everybody
This is one of many phrases you can use to show that what you are saying reflects your own experience or opinions, and that other people may have different opinions or experiences.

Screw you up
If something screws you up, it causes you problems, difficulties, trouble, confusion or (in the worst case) causes you to fail at what you are trying to do.

Rubber
In American English, a rubber is an informal (and rather vulgar) word for a condom. In British English, a rubber can mean either an eraser or a condom.

Eraser
An eraser is a piece of rubber or soft plastic that you use to rub out (delete) pencil marks.

Brought this up
To bring something up means to mention it or introduce it as a topic of conversation.

Fits of merriment
A fit is a sudden and uncontrolled period of doing or feeling something. Merriment is when people laugh and have a good time. Lori means that Americans who don’t know that a rubber is an eraser in British English might (involuntarily) laugh at you if you ask to borrow a rubber.

Bunch
A bunch is an informal word for group. You can use bunch about things and people, for example:

I still have a bunch of Christmas shopping to do. (uncountable)

I still have to buy a bunch of Christmas presents (countable).

There is/are a still bunch of people I have to buy Christmas presents for. (Bunch is a collective noun (like group, committee, jury, etc.), so verb agreement is up to how the speaker views the bunch — as a unit or a group of individuals).

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Cultural differences (part 2 of 3)

Transcript

Introduction

Hi! Lori here with another edition of Real English conversations from Better at English dot com. This is my first podcast in a while because the computer I use for podcasting broke down a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, it’s still broken, but today I managed to MacGuyver enough hardware and software together to prepare some new podcasts for you.

Since the previous podcast, several people have been kind enough to send donations to support Better at English. Thanks so much to Hiroyuki from Japan, Matteo and Antonio from Italy, Franz from Germany, and to Pietro, Patrik, Ted, and Mirko. I really appreciate your generosity! Donations from listeners are enormously helpful and encouraging. If you would like to donate, just follow the link in the sidebar at the website, www.betteratenglish.com. On the website you’ll also find the full transcript for this podcast, as well as the audio and transcripts of all previous Better at English listening podcasts.

In today’s conversation, Michael and I discuss how native speakers use fillers such as “umm” and “uh” and “mmm hmm” in conversations, and how these fillers are not always the same in different cultures. This is the first part of a series of three: in parts two and three we go on to discuss some rather amusing pronunciation and vocabulary differences between British and American English. Here is part one: Enjoy!

Conversation Transcript

Lori: I got some e-mails from people saying that they wanted to have more of the British English guy because they like hearing the difference between British and American English.

Michael: Oh well, that’s very kind of them; I’d be happy to oblige you.

L: Yeah, but there was also one guy [who complained], do you remember when I transcribed all of the umms and uhs and stuff like that?

M: Oh yes! Yeah, I try not to do that too much, to say umm and ah and uh, like so many people do, it’s something I’m very conscious of, so instead of doing that I just tend to repeat what I just said instead.

L: You know that’s really hard to transcribe.

M: I’m really sorry about that, but it’s something that I think I get from my father. He speaks that way. It’s a family thing.

L: So you don’t think it’s just a British English thing?

M: I don’t think so, but now that you mention it I’ll start to listen out for things like that. I just… you can be very conscious of the pauses, the gaps in a conversation, and people I think find that kind of awkward. As you’re thinking of the next thing to say, it’s better to be making some noise than just have a complete silence. So I think maybe that’s why I do it; it’s subconscious really.

L: And what about, you know, I’ve had some of my students say that they think that it’s really weird that if you’re listening to a speaker, you make these little encouraging noises like “Mmm hmmm, mmm hmmm”?

M: Oh yes. Yeah. Well, do you know I think that people tend to do that because it would be completely rude to interrupt somebody when they’re in the middle of a sentence and saying, “Oh yes I agree.” But you want to give the other person confirmation that you are agreeing, and encouragement. And also I think when you’re on the telephone or using Skype or something like that, you want to let them know that you’re actually still on the other end of the phone…That you haven’t lost the collec— the connection.

L: Some of my students have said that they think that would be really annoying, you know, some of my Swedish students, particularly.

M: Is that something that Swedish people don’t do then when you’re speaking to them on the phone?

L: They make this weird sound instead of, of “Mmm hmmm,” “Uh huh,” “Oh, right,” they do this thing where they sort of suck in air. They go [imitates gasping sound]

M: Oh yes, I’ve heard of this, OK. Yeah, I’d think that they were gasping for air.

L: Yeah, when I first moved to Sweden and I heard people like that on the phone when I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, that’s the sound that we make in…where I’m from in southern California, anyway…we make that sound when we’ve heard something really horrible and surprising, like if you’d heard there’d just been a terrible accident, that’s the sound you would make. So I was always thinking that, “Oh my God! What had…what has happened? What has happened?” And it turns out…

M: Well, I think that would be the same for me if someone was just a sharp intake of breath like when you take your car, to the garage, and you say, and they tell you how much it’s going to cost to have your exhaust fixed. And you respond with [gasps], that’s what you would do.

L: Exactly. It’s funny, you said garage!

[to be continued]

Final words

In the next podcast in this series, Michael and I talk about some funny pronunciation and vocabulary differences between British English and American English. Well, I think they are funny, anyway! But then again, I don’t watch TV, so I’m easily amused…

Thanks for tuning in, and thanks again for your donations and supportive emails and comments! It makes my day to hear that Better at English is useful for your language learning. You can email me at info AT BetterAtEnglish DOT com, or call the voice mail line at 1 for the USA, 206 350 2283. Bye for now!

Vocabulary list

I’d be happy to oblige you
[I’d = I would] This is a phrase you can use to show that you are eager and willing to help someone. To oblige someone means to help them or do something that pleases them.

Transcribed
To transcribe something means to write down something that was spoken (or played or written in another form). Lori transcribes [writes down] the spoken conversations so that Better at English listeners can read along as they listen to the podcasts.
Conscious
If you are conscious of something, you are aware of it.

Tend to
If you tend to do something, you are likely to do it (but you don’t necessarily ALWAYS do it).

Hard
If something is hard to do, it is difficult to do.

Something…I get from my father
In this case, get means inherited or learned. Michael means that his own speaking style has been influenced by his father’s style.

Subconscious
If something is subconscious, it means that you are not conscious or aware of it. Something that is subconscious can influence your actions even if you are not aware of it.

Encouraging
Something that is encouraging makes you feel more confident, or makes you more likely to want to do something.

Confirmation
If you give someone confirmation of something, you show them that it is certain or that you understand.

Annoying
Something that is annoying makes you feel angry or irritated (annoyed).

Go
In informal conversation, native speakers often introduce reported speech with the verb go. Many careful users of English disapprove of using go in this way, so you should not copy it.

Gasping
If someone gasps, they breathe in very quickly and sharply through their mouth.

Turns out
In this case, to turn out means to happen in a certain way or have a particular result. Lori didn’t finish her sentence, but she meant to say: “It turns out that the gasping sound means something different than I thought it did.”

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Cultural differences (part 1 of 3)