بررسی

M: Hello English learners! And welcome back to EnglishPod!

My name is Marco.

E: And I’m Erica.

M: How are you Erica?

E: Marco, I’m doing really well today!

M: You’re excited?

E: Aha, we’ve got a great lesson for everyone.

M: Yes, we have a really common situation where we’re gonna use real English, right?

E: Yep, everyday English, English that people really use.

M: And that’s what we want you to learn. What are we talking about today specifically?

E: Today we have a really common situation that is a little bit embarrassing.

M: Hehe. Alright, an embarrassing situation, so, let’s listen to the dialogue for the first time and it’s gonna be kind of fast.

E: Yeah, but don’t worry if you don’t understand everything, because after ten minutes you’ll understand everything.

M: Perfect, alright, let’s listen.

A: Nick!

How’s it going?

B: Oh, hey…

A: What are you doing in this neighbourhood?

Do you live around here?

B: Actually, my office is right around the corner.

A: It was great to meet you last week at the conference. I really enjoyed our conversation about foreign investment.

B: Yeah, yeah, it was really interesting.

You know, I’m in a bit of a hurry, but here’s my card.

We should definitely meet up again and continue our discussion.

A: Sure, you still have my contact details, right?

B: You know what, this is really embarrassing, but your name has just slipped my mind.

Can you remind me?

A: Sure, my name is Ana Ferris.

Don’t worry about it; it happens to me all the time.

I’m terrible with names too.

E: Wow! Nick forgot her name.

M: Yeah, that’s happened to me a couple of times and I’m gonna tell you about it a little bit later.

E: Okay. Alright, well, let’s start with our three “language takeaways”.

Voice: Language takeaway.

M: So, our first word on our language takeaway is in a bit of a hurry.

E: In a bit of a hurry.

M: In a bit of a hurry.

E: In a bit of a hurry.

M: So, Nick was in a hurry.

E: Yeah, that’s right. This is a great phrase. So, let’s listen to three examples of how you can use this phrase.

Voice: Example one.

A: Can you drive faster? I’m in a bit of a hurry.

Voice: Example two.

B: I can’t talk right now, I’m in a bit of a hurry.

Voice: Example three.

C: Ah, I’m in a bit of a hurry, so, I’ll check these files later.

M: Okay, so, it’s clear now.

Basically, it means that you don’t have time.

E: You’re moving really quickly.

M: Okay, perfect. Now let’s look at our second language takeaway word and it’s contact details.

E: Contact details.

M: Contact details.

E: Contact details.

M: So, what are your contact details?

E: Basically, this is the information you can find on your business card.

M: Alright, so, we have like our name, our telephone number.

E: Your e-mail address, perhaps your mobile phone number.

M: So, all the useful information, so people can get in touch with you.

E: Yep, so, people can phone you or e-mail you.

Okay, so, contact details.

M: Great. Okay, so, our third word is slipped my mind.

E: Slipped my mind.

M: Slipped my mind.

E: Slipped my mind.

M: So, this is a funny phrase. It’s kind of strange, right?

E: Yeah, slipped my mind. It sounds very weird.

M: Exactly.

E: Okay, so, now we’re going to listen to two examples of this phase.

Try and see if you can figure out what it means.

Voice: Example one.

A: I’m sorry I forgot to respond your e-mail. It just slipped my mind.

Voice: Example two.

B: Don’t you know what day it is today?

C: Oh, it’s your birthday! It completely slipped my mind.

E: Uh, so, slipped my mind is like “I forgot”.

M: You forgot something.

E: Aha, so…

M: Accidentally.

E: Right.

M: Okay, great! Now, it’s time for “putting it together”.

Voice: Putting it together.

M: Alright, Erica, why don’t you tell our listeners what ‘putting it together’ is?

E: Well, ‘putting it together’ helps you put language together. It helps you be more fluent by knowing how words fit together.

M: Great, so, let’s look at out first phrase today and it’s around here.

E: Around here.

M: Around here.

E: Around here. So, this is like close by, right? [NOTE: “it is close by” or “it is quite near”]

M: Close by, right.

E: Yeah.

M: I can say, for example, ah, “Is there a bank around here?”

E: Yeah, yeah, um, so, that’s “Is there a bank close to here”.

M: Exactly.

E: Now, this phrase around here, we can change it a little bit…

M: Uhu.

E: And it means something a little bit different.

M: Right.

E: I could say “Marco, there’s a great restaurant right around the corner”.

M: Right, and that would mean “There is a great restaurant on the other street”.

E: Yep.

M: Or around the corner

E: Yep.

M: Great. Or we have another example, we can say around there.

E: Around there.

M: Right, so, for example, I can say, uh, “Los Angeles is a great city; I used to live around there”.

E: So, you used to live near Los Angeles.

M: Exactly.

E: Alright.

M: It’s a really good phrase and it’s really common.

E: Yeah. Now, our next phrase in putting it together is terrible with.

M: Terrible with.

E: Terrible with.

M: Terrible with. So, we have a couple of examples that will show you how this phrase works.

Voice: Example one.

A: You’re terrible with numbers. You can’t even remember your own telephone number.

Voice: Example two.

B: I’m terrible with directions. I’m always getting lost.

Voice: Example three.

C: I’m terrible with faces. I can never remember what people look like.

E: Wow! I understand that. I’m also terrible with numbers. I can barely add two plus two.

M: Hehe. Well, yeah, I guess, uh, not everyone is a numbers person.

E: Yeah.

M: I’m terrible with, uh, faces. I sometimes forget what people look like.

E: Really?

M: Yeah.

E: Oh-oh.

M: So, I think it’s time now for us to listen to our dialogue a second time.

E: Okay, this time the dialogue will be a little bit slower.

M: Right.

E: So, try and listen for some of the words we’ve just talked about.

A: Nick!

How’s it going?

B: Oh, hey…

A: What are you doing in this neighbourhood?

Do you live around here?

B: Actually, my office is right around the corner.

A: It was great to meet you last week at the conference. I really enjoyed our conversation about foreign investment.

B: Yeah, yeah, it was really interesting.

You know, I’m in a bit of a hurry, but here’s my card.

We should definitely meet up again and continue our discussion.

A: Sure, you still have my contact details, right?

B: You know what, this is really embarrassing, but your name has just slipped my mind.

Can you remind me?

A: Sure, my name is Ana Ferris. Don’t worry about it; it happens to me all the time. I’m terrible with names too.

M: So, it’s more clear now, you can understand a lot better, right?

E: Yeah, that’s true.

M: Great, so, now it’s time for us to take a look at “fluency builder”.

Voice: Fluency builder.

E: So, with fluency builder we take some very simple phrases and show you how you can be more fluent or how you can…

M: Sound more native.

E: Yeah!

M: Great. In the beginning of the dialogue Ana said “Nick, how’s it going?”

E: Yeah, this is a great phrase; it sounds really, really natural.

You know, sometimes I hear students say “How are you?”

M: Or “How are you doing?”

E: Those are two great phrases, but this one sounds really, really natural.

M: It just sounds more casual.

E: Yeah, let’s listen again to that phrase from the dialogue.

Phrase: How’s it going? How’s it going?

M: Great, so, next time that you find a friend on a street, you can just say “Hey, how’s it going?”

E: Yeah!

So, Marco, have you ever forgotten someone’s name?

M: Yeah, it’s happened to me a couple of times and actually the most embarrassing situation was that I forgot a family member’s name.

E: No!

M: Yeah.

E: A family member’s name.

M: We had like a family reunion and there were a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins that I hadn’t seen in a while and I just forgot one of my uncle’s names and I was…

E: Oh-oh, that’s pretty embarrassing.

M: Yeah.

E: So, what did you do?

M: Hehe.

Well, I had to ask one of my, uh, other cousins like “Hey, who’s that guy?” and he’s like “Oh, that’s Uncle John” and I like “Oh, man, I totally forgot”.

Yeah, so, it was really embarrassing, because I didn’t know what to call him, so, I just called him Uncle, cause I didn’t know his name.

E: Hi, Uncle!

M: Yeah. Hehe.

E: Hehe. Yeah. So, when that happens to me when I’m in a business setting.

M: Uhu.

E: Sometimes what I do is I ask for someone’s card.

M: Uh, yeah, that’s the good technique.

E: Yeah, or sometimes I might ask them to write down their e-mail…

M: Hehe.

E: Cause usually their full name is spelled out in the e-mail address. So, that’s my trick when I forgotten someone’s name.

M: Hehe. That’s a good trick and I guess…

E: Yeah.

M: A lot of our listeners can take your advice on that.

E: Okay, so, I think it’s time for us to listen to our dialogue one more time, this time at natural speed.

A: Nick!

How’s it going?

B: Oh, hey…

A: What are you doing in this neighbourhood?

Do you live around here?

B: Actually, my office is right around the corner.

A: It was great to meet you last week at the conference. I really enjoyed our conversation about foreign investment.

B: Yeah, yeah, it was really interesting.

You know, I’m in a bit of a hurry, but here’s my card.

We should definitely meet up again and continue our discussion.

A: Sure, you still have my contact details, right?

B: You know what, this is really embarrassing, but your name has just slipped my mind.

Can you remind me?

A: Sure, my name is Ana Ferris.

Don’t worry about it; it happens to me all the time.

I’m terrible with names too.

E: Well, I hope that you’ve all enjoyed our lesson for today and remember to check out our website at englishpod.com

M: Where you can find a lot of other resources and you can leave all your questions and comments.

E: Yeah, Marco and I are always on the site, so, we’re happy to answer all of your questions.

M: Exactly, so, now it’s time for us to say…

E: Good bye!

M: Bye!