Comments on: Real English Conversations: annoying coworkers

By: maurizio

maurizio — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:16:25 +0000

thank you.your work is so precious to me

By: Lori

Lori — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 00:15:21 +0000

Thanks, Emdad. I’m glad you like our approach! I’ll be sure to pass on your kind words to Michael

By: Emdad

Emdad — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:28:56 +0000

thanx a lot lori n michael for such a nice approach. Among so many elt podcasts i went thru, urs is the most attractive n most interesting as well. thanx again.

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 04:44:01 +0000

Hi Zeroes,
Thanks for your interesting questions. No, this podcast was not specifically designed to “teach” people to say “umm” and “aah” when they speak. But we do think that it’s important for learners to hear the way first-language speakers actually DO speak, not just the wishful-thinking, sterilized examples found in ELT materials. Goodness knows, there’s enough of THAT floating around…

Fillers like “umm” and and “aah” are a common feature of unscripted, spontaneous, informal conversations between first-language speakers. Even if excessive “umm-ing” and “aah-ing” are probably something most would try to avoid while speaking in public or giving a speech, when they are just having a conversation with a friend, you might be surprised at how much of this type of thing creeps in. And it’s perfectly normal. Now, whether someone approves of it or not is another story!

While everyone has different speaking styles, most first-language speakers (the ones I know, anyway) don’t spend time carefully planning each sentence in advance to ensure that every utterance that comes out of their mouths is a perfectly formed, grammatically correct masterpiece. They just speak.They backtrack. They search for words. They use fillers like “umm” and “aah.”

As for “fancy” words like draconian, it’s good to remember that one man’s “fancy” is another man’s “plain vanilla.” I didn’t even blink an eye at M’s use of “draconian.” The other day, a colleague reacted with strong disapproval to the word “ubiquitous” in an ELT text, claiming that “nobody uses words like that!” I sheepishly admitted that I use “ubiquitous” every now and then in both speech and writing. Diff’rent strokes.

Having said all this, I probably won’t be TRANSCRIBING the umms and aahs in future “Real English Conversations,” because it’s quite time-consuming and I think readers don’t actually NEED to have those transcribed understanding.

Umm, aaah, well, I hope this, umm, answers your, errr, question!

By: Zeroes

Zeroes — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 03:40:13 +0000

just wondering if the use of the words “umm” and “uhh” are intended as being something taught because if you notice in today’s english it is rather annoying to have someone say “umm…” partly because it shows that they didn’t think before speaking and secondly that they can’t think of any fancy words that no one uses like draconian… just wondering

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:03:35 +0000

Hi Antonin – thanks so much for your kind words about our podcast. Don’t worry, there is plenty of room in your brain for lots of vocabulary And as long as you’re motivated to learn, you WILL make progress. Good luck!

By: antonin

antonin — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 15:39:53 +0000

Hello,

I m french and i m very happy to find your website and your podcast.
I haven’t got a lot of english vocabulary in my brain!!! I hope to progress!!!!
Thanks a lot and good luck!

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 06:53:33 +0000

Thanks very much for your kind comments, Jamie and Tea. We’re really happy that you’re finding our podcasts useful.

By the way, if you (or any of your listeners!) ever have questions or topics you’d like us to take up, we encourage you to let us know. Teachers LOVE answering students’ questions – it gives our lives meaning

By: Tea

Tea — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 04:01:49 +0000

Hi,
Great format and the best ESL podcast I came across. I love it. I also like that you are working with the British guy, this works great for me as I’m trying to perfect by british accent as well.
keep up the good work and thanks.
bye.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 02:56:48 +0000

Thanks for this podcast, and Lori. Some posts is so helpful for the ESL learners.

By: Lori

Lori — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 08:49:27 +0000

Thanks for letting us know, JUANMI. B@E is a labor of love that we do in our free time, so it’s really rewarding to know that people are finding it useful.

By: Juanmi

Juanmi — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:06:28 +0000

Hi, this is a great post, I’m spanish and I’m following the podcast and It’s a good complement, so keep on doing it I like this new format too, thank you, bye!