 |
Your Daily English Programme #17 - Boy & Man, 57 Years Apart, Talk about Life (Listening A2-B2) |
 |
Think Before You Listen |
Look at this list of questions below: Which ones, do you think, are questions for an older person? Which ones are questions for a younger person? How do you know?
Older or Younger?
|
Questions
|
What is the worst thing about being young?
|
|
What is
the worst thing about being old?
|
|
Do you wish you were older?
|
|
Do you
wish you were young? Why?
|
|
Will you fall in love? And what will it be like?
|
|
Who do
you love now?
|
|
Did you fall in love? What was it like?
|
|
Did you
get married?
|
- Has anyone ever asked you these questions? Have you ever thought about these - or similar - questions?
 |
Watch and Listen |
Behind the Video: Producers brought together two people, with a very large gap of 57 years, and got them to ask each other questions about life and growing up. The aim was to see how people from opposing stages of their lives answered the questions above, and whether they could learn from one another.
Watch & Listen: How do the people in the video answer the questions in the table above? (Note your answers on a piece of paper as you listen)
- Did any of their answers surprise you? Which one(s)? Why?
|
Let's Practice |
In our previous post, we mentioned that 'fluency' does NOT necessarily mean speaking without any pauses or hesitation; that even native and fluent speakers hesitate in natural conversation in order to gain time to think and to plan how to say what they intend to say (we have highlighted examples in this video transcript, too).
Today's video gives us a great opportunity to look at another aspect of fluency: 'repetition'. Most of the time, we have to resort to repetition in order to think and to make sure we get our message across. The gaps in the transcript below help you see different ways repetition is incorporated in everyday English conversation1:
Man asks: What is the worst thing about being young?
Boy answers: Well, you get lots of homework. It’s also pretty…it’s
like in the middle…like, in school…like, in the middle of bad and good.
Boy asks: What is the worst thing about being old?
Man answers: Not being able to ___ things that you could ___
when you were young.
Boy adds: Um…like, uh, you can’t bend down and get ______ on
the floor?
Man responds: Well, I can still ___ _______. But the problem is your body ____s
a bit stiff…
Boy reacts: Oh, I know, it hurts a lot when you try to bend
down…
Man adds: Yeah! That’s right! You might ____ sick more
often. Hopefully, I don’t. But that’s the _______. It is pretty bad.
Boy says: The only time I went to the hospital was my mom
didn’t like ____ting me born.
Man asks: Do you wish you were older?
Boy answers: Maybe…Like, so if I was old, and I can buy ______
for my own, and be married. But that’d be ew!
Boy asks: Do you wish you were young? Why?
Man answers: Well, uh, the ________ about…uh…the great thing
about being young is you have more time. You have more time to do things. I
could ______ games, which I did; I used to ______ Cowboys and Indians.
Boy says: That’s what I ______!
Man responds: That’s what I like about being young. I could use
my imagination more.
Boy reacts: That’s a sad story, you can’t ___ ______ anymore.
Man says: Well, I could be an older cowboy – I might ___ __, yes!
Man asks: Will you fall in love? And what will it be
like?
Boy answers: I don’t know. Like, we’ll have babies and it will
be like _____…oh, I’d have to change… Even though I’ll have to change his
diaper, it’ll be _____! But what if he cries? …I’ll just sing like Ed
Sheeran to him.
Man asks: And who do you love now?
Boy answers: My ______!
Man reacts: Your mom? Your ______?
Boy says: I like my dad.
I like my ________.
Boy asks: Did you fall in love? What was it like?
Man answers: Yes, uh…It was different for me. I fell in love
late.
Boy asks: And did you get married?
Man answers: No, unfortunately, my partner, she ______ _____…she ______. That was a sad ______; she
____ sick.
Boy reacts: I’m gonna cry.
Man says: No, no, no! Don’t. You see, these ______ happen,
Shawn. That’s life. But…we have, I have very good memories…very good _________.
And you live…a lot of the time you live in your head with those memories. You
can _________ all the good things, and that’s the important thing.
Man gives advice: Well, the advice I would give to you Shawn…is…you
don’t have to be rich to be _______. Do the things you like doing, [things] that
make you feel good because when you’re _______ yourself, everybody else is _______.
Boy gives advice: To…like…act normal. Don’t be silly; don’t bully
lots of _______. The people I know in school, like my ________ Alex in
school, whenever he ____s hurt I hug him. It might not be able to work out…
Man says: No, that’s good advice…
Man gives more
advice: And be yourself. Don’t
let other _______ tell you what you should be. Just be as you are, isn’t that
true? …and I’m sure your life is gonna be very successful. You have all the
right _______; you have all the right things to do; all your good friends.
And…keep those ________ going. And keep life going…
|
(To compare answers, see the full transcript here)2
 |
Your Turn |
Congratulations! You've completed another day's lesson on Engramme: Your Daily English Programme. Want to learn more vocab related to 'stages of life' & 'aging'? See this
Did You Notice? Mouse over the underlined words in the post to see more info.
Teachers can download a pdf copy of this lesson for classroom use HERE
1 There are many ways speakers 'repeat' what they say: one way, as you can see in this video script, is to say again exactly what you've just said. Another way is to use 'synonyms' (for example, in this video, the speakers use the words 'memory' (n.) & 'remember' (v.) to talk about exactly the same idea: past memories). Yet another way is to use 'familiar vocabulary' (e.g. do/get/stuff/thing) or 'ready-made collocations' (e.g. get sick/get stuff/ get old/ get hurt).↩
2 This is not an 'exact' transcript. Some parts have been omitted for brevity.↩
No comments:
Post a Comment