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Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from betteratenglish.com.

In today’s conversation, which is part one of four, my British friend “Michael” and I begin by talking about whether we are “dog people” or “cat people.” Then we move on to discuss the social etiquette of dog walking – particularly picking up after them in public places.

As always, you can find the full transcript of this podcast and vocabulary notes on our website, www.betteratenglish.com.

OK, here we go!

Conversation Transcript

(Note: Words in bold are featured in the vocabulary list [PDF])

Lori: Would you consider yourself a dog person or a cat person?
Michael: Oh, I’m a dog person, I can tell you straight away.
L: Really?
M: Absolutely, 100% confirmed, dog person. You bet.
L: [laughter] Dog person… Have you ever had a dog?
M: Yes, I have. Yes, I had — let me see, this would be about 10 years ago. I had my own doggy; I had a Norwegian Elk Hound.
L: Oh, was he cute?
M: He was very cute; he was painfully cute. He was great. But I don’t have a dog nowadays, but I have…I walk my neighbors’ dog.
L: Oh right, yeah, Bertie.
M: That’s right, I was telling you the other day. They’re a lovely old couple, who I’ve known for years, but they’re getting on a bit and they’re not so active, so I take their dog out for a walk quite often.
L: OK! Do you have a law in England or in your city that you have to pick up the dog poo when you’re walking your dog?
M: Well, I think it depends on the council, the local government. Because if you go to certain areas, they have signs up and it will say, “Don’t let your dog foul the footpath!” and they will actually tell you that there is a fine of fifty pounds or whatever. I think it can be a lot more than that, actually. But I don’t know whether it’s a blanket law, you know, I don’t know if it’s a law for everywhere. I think it’s more down to the local authorities.
L: OK. Do you notice that people are good about picking up dog poo when they’re out with their dogs? Do you find a lot of, you know, doggy doo?
M: I still see quite a few dog turds on the pavement, I’m afraid. And unfor- I’m sorry to say, and not nearly as much as in the seventies. That was part of my childhood. I remember.
L: Oh, stepping in dog poo, totally, in the summertime when you’re running around barefoot.
M: Oh when it squishes between your toes?
[laughter]
L: Oh. That is, oh, the worst. But at least if you’re barefoot it’s easy to wash off. It’s almost worse when you step in a pile with your sneakers on. It gets all inside the tread, oh man.
M: Oh. Right. OK. Like the Adidas trainers that used to have the ridged soles as well. So it would get.
L: Yeah, or any hiking boots or anything at all that has a, you know, a pattern and ridges and texture on the sole.
M: Well, my parents actually had a special stick and a scrubbing brush which was specifically for getting dog poo off your shoes.
L: Yeah, ’cause…that’s, oh, it’s such an annoyance. But I, you know, I have to say that here in Sweden I think it is some kind of law that you have to pick up after your dog. And when people go out walking their dogs they have little…special little plastic bags, little black bags…and there are actually special garbage receptacles for depositing the dog poo. And people are pretty good about it, I have to say.
M: Well we have those bins here, at least the area that…you know, around here where I take Bertie for a walk. There are quite a few of these special dog bins, these red bins, and there’s a picture of a dog on the front of it. So that’s never a problem. But, for me, still you find that people just let their dogs foul the footpath, even though there are these bins around. And I don’t know, I guess it’s not, it hasn’t quite caught on.
L: Maybe people think it doesn’t apply to them, or whatever.
M: Well, who knows? It’s no fun. I must admit I don’t relish…
L: No, it’s not nice.
M: …picking up the dog’s mess, but…
L: But you pick up after Bertie?
M: Absolutely I do. Yeah.
L: Do you have special little bags?
M: No, I just use my Tesco bags.
L: [laughing] Tesco bags?
M: Yeah, Tesco are great. You know how I feel about Tesco, but…
L: Yeah, maybe it’s almost like I feel about Google.
M: Yeah, Yeah. [laughing] It’s almost to that level. But the problem with that actually is because they’re typical plastic supermarket bags, you know, and so they’re actually perforated.
L: Oh, dear.
M: Yes. If you don’t hold the bag in the right place, then there can actually be contamination, and that’s not so nice. So…
L: Oh no. Oh dear. Well, are they…? That sounds like they could be big as well, so it could be a bit unwieldy.
M: All right. Quite. They’re quite big.
L: You should just take some little plastic baggies with you.
M: Well. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose so. But I manage OK with the Tesco bags. You know?
L: I could send you some from here…special plastic doggy-poo bags
[laughter]
M: No. That’s OK. We do have them here in England you know. But…
L: I hate to think of you getting contaminated. I think Bertie would probably hate it too.
[laughter]
M: He’s very cute. But I’m afraid, you know, his poo does smell. So it’s… you wouldn’t think so to look at him, but..Yeah.
L: Well anyway, we’re digressing. Enough about dog poo. What do you think the best thing about doggies is?

…hear the answer in part two!

Final Words

Thanks for listening. We’ll be back soon with part two. This is Lori from BetterAtEnglish.com signing off until next time. Bye for now!

Download full transcript and vocabulary list (PDF).

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

Real English Conversations: Don’t step on the dog doo (part 1 of 4)

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Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to a new episode of Real English conversations from betteratenglish.com. I hope you’re all enjoying the summer. One of the typical summer pastimes in the USA is playing baseball. There’s even a saying that goes something like this: “It’s as American as baseball and apple pie.” But today’s show isn’t about baseball or apple pie. It is about food, though. Weird food combinations, to be precise. And after listening to today’s episode, you might want to change the saying to “It’s as American as donuts and peanut butter and jelly!”

Before getting into the conversation, I want to thank the anonymous listener who sent us three books from our Amazon wish list last week. Whoever you are, I hope you hear this message so that you will know how happy the books made me. Thanks so much!
I’d also like to encourage our listeners to visit our friends at China232. China232 is a free conversational English podcast similar to ours and I really think you’ll like it. That’s www.china232.com.

OK, let’s get on with today’s conversation.

Conversation transcript

Lori: When I was over in the States recently, I was reading one of my mom’s magazines. And in that magazine I read about a new hamburger.
Michael: OK.
Lori: That…it really takes the cake, this new hamburger. You know, we’ve talked about junk food before, but this is amazing. It’s a big beef burger, and they put sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon…
Michael: What… Can I just stop you there? What is sharp cheddar cheese?
Lori: Sharp cheddar cheese? A sharp cheese is a cheese that has a strong flavor.
Michael: Ooh, OK.
Lori: So cheese can be mild or sharp.
Michael: Right.
Lori: You’d think that the opposite would be “dull,” but you don’t talk about a dull cheese.
Michael: Or “blunt” cheese.
Lori: Yeah, a blunt cheese, right, exactly. Exactly. So sharp cheddar cheese. But anyway, back to the burger, it’s got…yeah, a big beef patty, sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon. And now here is the key.
Michael: Mmm, the bacon sounds good.
Lori: Yeah, but the key ingredient…the bun is actually a KrispyKreme glazed donut.
Michael: Uh huh.
Lori: Can you believe that? And it’s actually a baseball team, I think, the Gateway Grizzlies, it’s what they’re calling “Baseball’s Best Burger,” and they’re serving it at their baseball games.
Michael: Baseball’s weirdest burger, maybe!
Lori: Baseball’s most artery-clogging burger.
Michael: So you said that it was, the burger bun is a donut,
Lori: Mmm hmm. A donut, yes.
Michael: Is that, um, I mean, donuts are sweet though, aren’t they?
Lori: Yeah, it’s a glazed donut so it would be sweet. And apparently they cut it in half and toast it and use that as the bun on this burger.
Michael: That sounds horrendous.
Lori: It..I couldn’t…I thought it was a joke when I first read about it. I thought it must be a joke but apparently it’s true.
Michael: It really makes me wonder, you know, they have this, um this kind of, stereotype of American people being fat.
Lori: Right.
Michael: And I guess if, you know, they’re eating things like that whilst sitting down at the baseball game.
Lori: Yeah, sitting down watching other people do sports.
Michael: Exactly…that’s what I’m thinking, yeah!
Lori: Right.I just wonder, how would someone even come up with that, the idea of using a donut as a hamburger bun.
Michael: Well, there is something that you can, I mean, being an American you can tell me if this is true or not, I remember hearing about sandwiches that Americans like, and it’s peanut butter and jelly.
Lori: Well, that’s, yeah, that’s a classic kid’s sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly or even peanut butter and honey, you can have…
Michael: Well, what you call jelly, isn’t that what we [British English speakers] would call jam?
Lori: Yeah, jam.
Michael: So peanut butter and jam. So it’s the savory peanut butter, salty, peanutty tasting butter and something like sweet strawberry jam.
Lori: Yeah, but I guess it’s kind of like putting pineapple on your pizza. You know, some people think that’s just an aberration. But there’s something about the sweet, tart pineapple combined with the salty, savory ingredients of a pizza that is actually…I like it.
Michael: Well, I guess it’s like having gammon and pineapple, you know, the thick cut of ham which is also salty.
Lori: Yeah, or pork chops and applesauce.
Michael: Ah, right.
Lori: But you see, the thing is that in the States the peanut butter most people buy is actually slightly sweet anyway. It’s only natural style peanut butter that is just, you know, peanuts and salt with nothing added.
Michael: So how would you classify the peanut butter here in Sweden, that you and I eat? What’s…
Lori: Oh, that’s got sugar in it, definitely. It’s slightly sweet; if you just taste it on its own you can taste that it’s slightly sweet.
Michael: OK!
Lori: If you compare it with the taste of natural peanut butter that’s just peanuts and salt, you’ll really taste the difference and taste how sweet the normal peanut butter is.
Michael: I’m thinking, if you can combine something like peanut butter and jam, then combining a hamburger with a donut doesn’t seem so strange.
Lori: I’m sorry! I know what you’re trying to say, but just, even hearing you say that, just sounds so funny, “combining a hamburger with a donut.”
Michael: Well, yeah, it’s pretty loony.
Lori: Yeah, loony. I couldn’t believe that when I read that story in my mom’s magazine. But I went on the Internet and had a look, and there were people saying that it sounds disgusting and looks disgusting, but actually they were quite tasty, so what do I know?
Michael: I can’t even begin to imagine what it would taste like. You know, I have no frame of reference. My taste buds cannot picture it, you know, I have an image of a donut in my head and an image of a nice juicy hamburger with a couple strips of bacon on. And forget the cheese because I hate cheese as you know, but the hamburger with bacon, that’s something that…in fact we should cut this podcast short right now because I want to go to the store and get some bacon and some bacon and some hamburger because I’m getting hungry now.
Lori: Sounds like a plan, but let’s ix-nay on the donuts.
Michael: Right, yeah, Hold the donuts!

Final words
Thanks for listening to this episode of Real English conversations. And if you haven’t done so already, make sure to check out the show at www.china232.com. I’m sure you’ll like it! See you next time!

Vocabulary notes

takes the cake
(Informal American English) you can say that something takes the cake if it is something that you think is very surprising or annoying.
sharp
Sharp is a word to describe the strong taste of certain foods, such as cheese. Cheeses range from sharp (strong) to mild (not strong).
key
key (adjective) means very important
glazed donut
A glazed donut is a type of fried pastry covered with a thin coat (glaze) of sugary icing.
horrendous
terrible, horrible, extremely unpleasant
come up with
To come up with something means to invent it or think of it.
savory
Food that is savory is salty, meaty, or spicy, not sweet. In British English it’s spelled savoury.
aberration
An aberration is something that differs from the normal state of things, particularly the normal standard of morals or taste.
gammon
Gammon is also called ham. It is meat from the back leg of a pig, usually preserved with smoke or salt (or both).
loony
loony is an informal word for crazy, stupid, or foolish
ix-nay
Lori is using Pig Latin to play with the word nix. Nix is an informal word that you can use for negation (no, nothing, not, etc.).

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

Real English Conversations: Weird food