EC065_Guide.pdf

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 65

TOPICS

Native rate of speech, to preach to the choir, common sense, “though” at the end

of a sentence, possess vs. own, allow you to vs. allows you to, pronouncing

“twenty” and “ninety,” picking a suitor, a make-out scene

_____________

GLOSSARY

native – related to the country, region, or situation where a person is born

* We’ll be wearing the native dress of our country at the festival, so everyone will

know that we represent Somalia.

rate – the speed at which something moves or happens

* At this slow rate, the construction company won’t finished building the new

school until next year!

to preach to the choir – to try to convince people who already agree with you

* When Jeremy tried to get us to take an extra day of vacation from work, we told

him that he was preaching to the choir.

sermon – a talk on a religious topic

* The priest gave an inspirational sermon about using our own abilities to help

the poor and the sick.

choir loft – a balcony (second floor area with no wall on at least one side) in a

church, usually for singers and musicians

* The singers in the choir loft began singing as the organist played.

pulpit – a raised (higher place) in a church where someone gives a sermon

(religious talk)

* The people in church looked up to see the new priest standing in the pulpit.

common sense – good judgment in practical or daily things

* None of us have experience taking care of children, but let’s use our common

sense and I’m sure we’ll be able to take care of this baby until his mother returns.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 65

though – however; usually used to show how this statement is different from the

one made before it

* I really like cold weather. Spending December in Minnesota, though, is too cold

even for me.

to possess – to have; to own; to have an ability or characteristic

* Do you think he possesses the skills necessary to become a good painter?

to own – to have; to possess, usually an object or physical thing

* I wish I could help, but I don’t own any folding chairs that can be used for the

party.

to allow someone to – to permit someone to do something

* Before we can allow anyone to go back into the building, we need to make sure

it’s safe.

suitor – someone (usually a man) who is doing special things to show his

romantic interest in someone else (usually a woman)

* She’s very smart and beautiful. It’s not surprising that she had a lot of suitors

before she got married.

to make-out – to kiss, hug, and touch someone you are romantically interested

* Teenagers like to park along this mountain road to make-out on the weekends.

to watch the ball drop – to watch a ball with lights move from a very high place

to the bottom of a pole at 11:59 p.m. on December 31 in Times Square in the

middle of New York City as part of the New Year celebration

* We normally stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop on TV, but this year,

we fell asleep at 11:30!

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 65

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

The Song “Auld Lang Syne”

There are many traditions that people in the U.S. follow when celebrating the

New Year on January 1. One of these traditions is singing the song “Auld Lang

Syne” at 12:00 a.m. on January 1 st .

The title, “Auld Lang Syne,” is actually not English, but Scottish, the language

spoken in Scotland. It means “long ago” or “days gone by” (days in the past).

This “melody” (the series musical notes) is one of the most well known ones in

the U.S. and in many other English-speaking countries.

The “lyrics” (words in a song) to the song are from a poem written by Robert

Burns, born in 1759 and considered the national poet of Scotland. Most people

don’t know all of the lyrics to the song, but know the first “verse” (a section of a

song or poem).

Should auld (old) acquaintance be forgot,

and auld lang syne?

The language in the song is an older version of English used when the poem was

written. The word “old” is the modern word for “auld.”

In the first line, “acquaintances” are people whom we have met and know a little,

but don’t know well enough to call them our friends. In the second line, “to bring

(someone or something) to mind,” means to remember that person or thing. If

you learn these few lines, you’ll be able to sing along on New Year’s Eve.

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and never brought to mind?

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 65

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to ESL Podcast's English Café number 65.

This is the English Café episode 65. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to

you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles,

California.

On this, our last podcast, well, our last English Café of 2006, were going to be

answering questions in this episode, just like we did in English Café number 64.

In this Café, we're going to try to answer several questions on many different

topics. I'm sure that at least some of these will be of interest to you.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com, where you can download a

Learning Guide for this podcast. Now let's get started.

Our first question comes from Germany, from “Joern,” Joern. I'm not sure if I'm

pronouncing that correctly, so my apologies. The question has to do with

something that I say on many of our regular ESL Podcasts, our Monday and

Friday podcast. After I give my explanation of the dialogue, we listen to the

dialogue again at a fast speed, and usually the expression that I use is “a native

rate of speech.” The question is what does that mean, native rate of speech?

Native, “native,” means where you are born; it relates to a specific place. So for

example, if you say, “I'm native of Minnesota,” that means that's where you were

born.

When we use the term native rate of speech, we're talking about the rate, “rate,”

or speed that someone talks who is a native speaker - who grew up, from the

time they were a little baby, speaking English. So, you are a native speaker of

your language, whatever that language is, and I am a native speaker of English.

So, a native rate of speech is how people who are fluent English would talk to

each other - that's the speed at which they talk to each other.

Our next question comes from Antonio, “Antonio,” in Italy. Antonio wants to know

the meaning of an expression that he heard or read, which is “to preach to the

choir.” What does it mean to preach to the choir?

Well first, let's talk about the words in this expression. We begin with preach,

“preach.” To preach means to give a religious talk, usually in a church. We call

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 65

those religious talks sermons, “sermons.” A sermon is a religious talk that a

priest or a pastor or a minister might give in a church.

The choir, “choir,” are the people who are singing. The expression, to preach to

the choir, means that you are talking to people who already agree with you. The

choir, who sings at the church, are probably already convinced of the religious

beliefs of the person who is preaching.

By the way, the place where the choir sings from is not normally called a balcony.

In a theater, when you have a second floor - a second story where you have

seats up above, that's called a balcony, “balcony.” In a church, the place where

the choir is is usually called the choir loft, “loft.” The place where the minister -

what we would call the preacher, that's a person who preaches - the preacher

gives his sermon, or preaches his sermon, from a place called the pulpit, “pulpit.”

The pulpit is the place where the minister stands.

So, “to preach to the choir,” means to talk to people who already believe what

you believe. And usually, the expression means that you are, in some ways,

wasting your time because if you are trying to convince someone of something, it

doesn't make any sense to try to talk to people who already agree with you, and

that's what “to preach to the choir” means. So, if your boss says to you, “We

have to work harder. Everyone must work more hours,” and you are already

working hard and work additional hours, you may say, “You're preaching to the

choir” - I already believe that - I already agree with you.

Our next question comes from Europe also, from Poland; “Pawel,” Pawel from

Poland. Again, I apologize for my pronunciations here. The question has to do

with an expression you will hear many times in English, “common sense.”

Common, “common,” sense, “sense.”

Common sense means the knowledge or wisdom that you would get just from

your every normal day life, nothing that would require going to school or studying

or memorizing. Common sense means that you are able to do things logically,

reasonably, without necessarily having any special education.

If you say, “That person has no common sense,” you mean they are not very

intelligent or very smart, they can't make logical or reasonable decisions. If you

say, “This is common sense,” if you are talking about an opinion that you have,

“Well, it's common sense that you should put a coat on if it is cold outside.” The

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