Real English Conversations: Cultural differences (part 1 of 3)
Posted on December 19, 2006
Filed under British vs. American English, Intermediate, Listening, Real English conversations |
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.”
Your continued donations keep B@E free!
Add to del.icio.us | Digg | reddit | StumbleUpon
Comments
16 Responses to “Real English Conversations: Cultural differences (part 1 of 3)”
Leave a Reply
Instructions: Record a message and tell us what you think of our English lessons, podcasts, website or anything related to English language learning. You an also ask questions about English vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, etc., or request topics for Real English Conversations. We love hearing from you! - Lori and Michael
-
Recent
-
Donate
-
Podcast levels
-
Categories
-
Topics
-
Archives
-
Links
-
Copyright
-
-
-
Featured sites
-
Subscribe
-
About Better@English
Better at English: Free English lessons to help you learn English vocabulary, idioms, slang, grammar, and more! Our short, fun English podcasts are perfect for busy people who don't have much time to study or who think that traditional English lessons are boring — you just need a few minutes a day to have fun learning conversational English at Better@English. read more »»
-
Get in touch
Subscribe by e-mail
Oh my, oh my! I’m in the Podcast! =)
Thank you Lori, I love this series. It’s so interesting, I can’t wait for the other two episodes of the trilogy… I just wish it was a NINE-ology or something!
Cheers
Matteo
Tuscany, Italy
It occurs to me that a lot of British English speakers will actually have a tendency to actually “word-stutter” when looking for words. In Belgium, I ran across quite a few native British English speakers and they tended to word-stutter instead of “you know-ing” or “uh”.
e.g. Well, you’d think that that that that guy would have a very … very …, well, plausible explanation for for for the circumstances.
This is a very interesting line of podcasts! Thank you!
Great podcast on a very interesting topic! BTW maybe you have already answered this kind of question, but I just have to ask - Will you continue 2 minute english or are you so focused on real english conversations that you don´t have enough time to do both? Thank you for your answer in advance (sorry if I am bugging you:)
Hey, funniest podcast so far! And now I’m really intrigued by the “sweedish gasp”. Do you get used to it?
And speaking about accents, I find it extremely hard to understand the Australian and New Zealand accent. Seriously, I can’t get a word of it. So if you have any kiwi friends, I’d like to hear them here at B@E.
cheers!
Juan
Thanks for the kind words, Matteo
Kristof, I’ve noticed the same thing. As you know, I’ll be spending some time in England in the near future; I’ll be paying attention to the English I hear around me for sure. Recording these podcasts has sure taught me a lot about my own verbal tics — I’m on a quest to vastly reduce instances of you know and like.
Claire, thanks for your comment. Based on most of the feedback I’ve received so far, listeners seem get the most benefit from the conversational podcasts. And there are already a lot of other English Learning podcasts that do a lot of “explaining” about the meaning and usage of words and phrases. It’s tough: on the one hand, I figure if learners can understand the explanation, then they probably don’t have trouble understanding the word or phrases being explained.
But if people do like the 2-minute English format here, I can certainly do more of them! They are a good deal less time consuming than the conversational podcasts…
Juan, thanks! Yes, when you live here you get used to EVERYTHING (except the expensive alcohol, perhaps). In fact, I have to stay on my toes just to keep my English from turning into Swenglish. L2 influence is insidious and scary! After so many years in Sweden, grammatical structures that seemed completely WRONG to me when I first came here now seem perfectly normal. As for Kiwis, I don’t personally know any, I’m on the lookout for potential conversational partners that provide a wide variety of regional dialects
Lori, this is great! I’ve just discovered this podcast and I love it. It’s very uselful!
Do you and Michael speak completely free without manuscript? It’s impressing how spontaneous you talk!
Thank you so much,
Sereina, Art Student
Berne, Switzerland
ps: Would you say: I’ve just discovered this podcast OR I just discovered … ?
Hi Sereina, and thanks for your nice comment! Yes, our conversations are completely unscripted and unrehearsed, but sometimes we’ve decided our basic topic before I press “record.” Sometimes we start with one topic and end up digressing, and the digressions turn out better than the original topic!
As for your grammar question, I think the tendency in BrE would be “I’ve just discovered.” But in AmE you could say both, with “I just discovered” probably being more likely in informal contexts. Hope this answers your question!
Hi lori,thanx a lot for such nice podcasts (perhaps i should rather say, nice “approach”). Among so many elt podcasts i went thru, urs is the most attractive and SMARTEST. but if u make me wait for so long, i really don’t appreciate it. (don’t mind dear, we look forward to it). Thanx again. Good luck.
Emdad, Australia.
[...] Criado pela professora americana Lori Linstruth, o blog Better English tenta ensinar o inglês de todo dia, mais próximo da realidade da língua do que a maioria dos livros de inglês. Apesar de ser atualizado apenas algumas vezes por mês, cada artigo é super bem escrito e explicado (dê uma olhada em Cultural Differences Part 1, por exemplo.) No tópico listening, todas as lições acompanham áudio e o transcript em PDF para quem quiser salvar o texto no computador. Além de falar bastante de gíria e idioms, Lori também disponibiliza um sistema onde você pode tirar dúvidas gravando e enviando a sua pergunta com o seu computador mesmo (tem que ter microfone - é só clicar em record a question, no topo à direita.) Você também pode mandar a dúvida por e-mail, ou até pela hotline ligando para o número na tela. Mais uma dica: as lições aqui são mais apropriadas para alunos do intermediário ou avançado. [...]
Dear Sir,
I would like to request that I have in Listening Please give me help.
Yours Sincerly
Sami-ul-Haq
Hello. I am mexican, not native speaker but I am an English teacher. I live in Italy because I’ve married my italian husband… Getting a job as an English teacher is hard since I am not native speaker… Listening to your voice in the concersations helps me very much to reinforce my accent.
I would like to know if I can download free English conversation from this website.
Thank you
Zuri
Hi Lori, well I’ve being listening some of hte conversations in your page and I think they are good, but you are missing the presentation of the web site. I mean the type of organization of the conversations, and some of them are interrupted, and at the end you say something like go to the ### part to continue listening, and it isn’t so easy to figure out where is the next part.
In addition, there could be a label to inform listenerns about the total time of each conversation.
Anything else by the moments, good job.
Colombia.
[...] Criado pela professora americana Lori L, o blog Better @ English tenta ensinar o inglês de todo dia, mais próximo da realidade da língua do que a maioria dos livros de inglês. Apesar de ser atualizado apenas algumas vezes por mês, cada artigo é super bem escrito e explicado (dê uma olhada em Cultural Differences Part 1, por exemplo.) No tópico listening, todas as lições acompanham áudio e o transcript em PDF para quem quiser salvar o texto no computador. Além de falar bastante de gíria e idioms, Lori também disponibiliza um sistema onde você pode tirar dúvidas gravando e enviando a sua pergunta com o seu computador mesmo (tem que ter microfone - é só clicar em record a question, no topo à direita.) Você também pode mandar a dúvida por e-mail, ou até pela hotline ligando para o número na tela. Mais uma dica: as lições aqui são mais apropriadas para alunos do intermediário ou avançado. [...]
thank you, so much…
I love these classes about conversations, I am from Bogota (Colombia). I`d like to improve my english and comunicate with other people who dont speak spanish.
If you may help me, i`d like to know a website where i can find a chat in english.
Julio Fuentes….
(057)0318252916 Bogota, Colombia
Hi Julio,
I don’t have much experience with public chats, but I did a quick Google search for
free practice english chat
and found this one:
http://www.englishclub.com/esl-chat/index.htm
I signed up for a test account (it was kind of a pain, with two e-mail confirmation steps), and tried out the chat room. It was very active, and the people seemed to be friendly. Maybe you could give it a try? If any listeners/readers out there can recommend good free chat rooms for practicing English, do post a follow up comment and let everyone know!
Good luck, Julio
Lori
Emdad, thanks for the input. I am doing everything I can to streamline the process to be able to post more frequently — each episode with transcript and vocab list takes at least 8 hours of solid work to prepare. My goal is to post at least twice a week. Thanks for giving me more motivation to work harder!
Alma Zuri, yes you can download the podcasts from the website. At the top of each episode there is a link to the mp3 file. All you have to do is “right click” and “save as” if you’re on a PC (or whatever the corresponding procedure is on a Mac).
Silvia, thanks for your input. I’m not sure I quite understand your comment about “gong to the ### part to continue listening.” Perhaps the 3-part series on “Cultural Differences” was confusing? If you could let me know which episode you were referring to, it would help me isolate the problem so I can be sure not to do it again. Your suggestion about the length of the podcast is good as well — thanks!