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Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

I’m Erica.

And today we’re at a party.

Yeah! This is a great, exciting, fun, uh… energetic lesson

We’re at the biggest party in the world - carnival in Rio.

Okay, so, Rio, um, this is… this is the name of a city, right?

Yeah, this is a city in Brazil called Rio de Janeiro (Spanish pronunciation). [NOTE: Rio de Janeiro = River of January]

So, Rio de Janeiro (English pronunciation).

Yeah. Different pronunciations…

Yeah–

Right?

Your sounds a lot more– I don’t know… authentic than mine.

Hehe. So, for– we sometimes refer to it as Rio just to make it shorter.

Yeah, I think it’s actually the most common way it’s referring to in English.

Yeah, Rio.

Yeah.

It’s just like if you would say Los Angeles, you would say LA.

Yeah, or– yeah, if you’re talking about Kuala Lumpur, you might say KL.

Yeah.

Same idea.

Okay, so, we have some words that we’re gonna preview before we listen to our dialogue, so let’s start with “vocabulary preview”.

Vocabulary preview.

Okay, in vocabulary preview we have one word - Sambadrome.

Sambadrome.

Sambadrome.

Sambadrome.

This is, actually, a building.

So, it’s– it’s a proper noun, not– not an– common noun.

No, it’s not really a common noun.

Yeah.

It’s a proper noun, but it is a bulging.

Aha. And– and what happens in this building?

Basically, it’s very similar to a stadium.

Aha.

But each end isn’t closed off. So, you have stands on one side–

Yep.

And stands on the other and you have like a little street in the middle.

Okay.

So, you can sit down and you can watch people parade or walk by and you can see the dancers and everything.

And, so, what is it used for?

The Sambadrome is used so, that samba schools can present their– their dances and their dancers and their costumes to judges and all the people that wanna watch them dance samba.

Okay. So, you’ve been using this word a lot.

Samba!

Samba.

Hehe.

What– what is this?

Samba is a type of dance that Brazil is famous for.

Okay.

It’s, um– it’s very fast dance. A lot of, uh, hip movements, a lot of, uh– it’s very fast, but it’s very very nice and the music is based, uh, with many different type of tropical instruments, so, it’s really really fun.

Can you samba?

I can samba a little bit. Hehe.

Alright.

It’s kind of hard. It’s trickier than what it seems.

Okay, well, we’re actually gonna hear some samba music in the dialogue, right?

Exactly, we’re gonna hear some samba that is actually used during carnivals, so–

Okay, so, let’s go to Rio now and, uh, listen to some samba.

I can’t believe we’re here! Carnival in Rio! Seriously, this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity! Can you believe it? We’re here at the biggest party in the world!

I know! We’re so lucky that we found tickets for the Sambadrome! Good thing we found that ticket scalper.

Look! It’s starting! Wow, this is amazing! Look at how many dancers there are. Oh my gosh! The costumes are so colorful! This is so cool!

It says here that the school that is dancing now is one of the oldest and most prestigious samba schools in Rio.

No kidding! Look at them, they’re amazing! Look at that girl on the top of that float! She must be the carnival queen! Move over there so I can get a picture of you!

Ok. Hurry up take the picture!

join us! come and dance!

Oh really– no I can’t. No really, I don’t know how to dance! Honey I’ll see you later!

Patrick! Don’t just leave me here!

DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME

Alright, what a lucky guy, he got asked out to dance by a beautiful Brazilian samba dancer.

I know.

Hehe. I don’t think his wife is very happy though.

Well, we’ve got some language about carnival in Rio, right?

Exactly.

So, let’s look at that now with “language takeaway”.

Language takeaway.

Alright, our first word on language takeaway today - ticket scalper.

Ticket scalper.

Ticket scalper.

Ticket scalper.

This is actually a job title, I think. Hehe.

Hehe. Maybe not a totally legal job title, but–

Exactly.

So, what does a ticket scalper do?

Uh, basically, this person will sell tickets at a higher price to people who don’t have tickets.

Okay, so, he buys like hundred tickets–

Right.

And goes and stands outside of the Sambadrome or– or the–

Stadium.

And he– and he sells them for like twice the price, right?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that’s a ticket scalper. Actually, they– they come in handy sometimes, because you wanna go to a concert or something and you don’t have tickets. You gotta turn to them, right?

Right.

Okay, uh– our next word - prestigious.

Prestigious.

Prestigious.

Prestigious.

This is a very nice word - prestigious.

Uhu.

Before we explain anything, let’s listen to some examples.

Example one.

Harvard University is one of the most prestigious schools in North America.

Example two.

The Academy award is the most prestigious prize an actor can get in the film industry.

Example three.

He worked really hard and now he is a very prestigious heart surgeon.

I can see that when– when something is prestigious, it’s really well-respected, right?

It’s well-known.

Yeah.

Well-respected.

And you can–

Exactly.

And– and if you’re part of this thing, you can feel a sense of pride.

Right. Prestige.

Uhu.

Okay, now let’s take a look at our last word - float.

Float.

Float.

Float.

Now, and this doesn’t mean like to float in water, right?

No, this is a noun, not a verb.

It’s kind of hard to describe actually.

Yeah, it is hard to describe. A f– a float is something that you commonly see in parades.

Right. So, it would be like a car–

Uhu.

But you can’t really see the car.

No, cause it’s covered with decoration.

With big decorations and it’s made to look like, uh, artificial island.

Yeah, or a tree maybe.

So, you have people standing on there and dancing or– or waving.

Yep.

Okay. We’ll definitely post a picture of a float, uh, on our comment section, so you could see what a float looks like.

Right.

Okay, so, now let’s listen to our dialogue again. We’re gonna slow it down a little bit, so you can understand all of these words we’ve just talked about.

DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Alright, we’re back. So, now, I think we should take a look at some of the phrases.

Yeah. Let’s go to “fluency builder”.

Alright.

Fluency builder.

So, we have this phrase once in a lifetime.

Once in a lifetime.

Once in a lifetime.

Once in a lifetime.

So, this is an expression you would use to say that it doesn’t happen very often.

Yeah, it’s a really special event.

So, like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Or a once in a lifetime chance.

Okay.

Yep.

Once in a lifetime. Let’s look at our next phrase - good thing.

Good thing.

Good thing.

Good thing.

So, we have some examples for good thing. Why don’t we listen to them and then we’ll come back.

Example one.

Good thing I studied for my exam. It was really hard.

Example two.

It’s a good thing I brought my umbrella. It rained the whole day.

Example three.

It’s a good thing that I bought my house before the prices went up.

Good think I had money in my wallet.

You’re happy you had money in your wallet.

Okay. And you could also maybe– use it as a negative, right, like– good thing I didn’t go.

Right. Um, I’m happy I didn’t go, because it was terrible.

Okay. Good thing.

Yep.

Alright, now let’s take a look at our last word - no kidding.

No kidding.

No kidding.

No kidding.

Okay, so, many of you probably already know this word kidding, right?

Yeah, it means joking.

Yeah, I’m joking. Just kidding.

Yeah.

Okay, but if I would say no kidding–

Um– you’re saying like “yeah, I totally agree with you”.

Right, I agree with you; I know you are–

I know you’re being serious.

I know you’re being serious.

Yep.

I know it’s true.

Yeah.

So, I could say “Wow! This restaurant is really expensive”.

No kidding.

Yeah. So, you would agree as like “yeah, for real”.

Yep.

Alright.

So, this term no kidding is… is slang, right?

It’s a little bit informal, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay. So, why don’t we listen to our dialogue again for the third time and then we’ll come back and talk about Brazil!

DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME

Alright, Marco, so, um– Carnival, it’s a Brazilian celebration, right?

M: It’s, um– it’s very popular in all Latin America.

Oh, really?

Yeah, but Brazilian carnival is very very special.

Okay, so, what are they celebrating?

So, basically, it’s the beginning of Lent–

Uhu.

Which is, uh– this period of time in the Catholic religion right before Easter.

Right.

But carnival in Brazil is very special because of all the dancing and all of this, uh– and costumes and everything.

Yeah, well, um– from the dialogue it sounds really wild and crazy, so– so, what happens?

M: Well, it definitely is really amazing and it’s just basically a lot of samba music and partying and– and it’s really nice and especially to be able to see something so spectacular like hundreds and thousands of dancers in the Sambadrome and– and they’re parading down and their costumes and– and in floats– so, it’s a very very, uh– it’s a very special event.

Alright, so, uh– it sounds like a lot of fun, um–

Yeah.

I wanna hear from our listeners.

Yeah, for sure, we have a lot of listeners from Brazil and carnival is not only celebrated in Rio. It’s also in São Paolo, in Pernambuko, in Bahia and it’s a little bit different in each place, so– so, it’s not just a thing of Rio. It’s just more popular there.

Is there a Sambadrome in each city?

Yeah, there is a Sambadrome–

Really?

In São Paolo. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, cool.

Yeah. Let us know if you’ve ever been to carnival or how you celebrate it in your home town or in your city.

Yeah, come to our website englishpod. com and leave us your comments all about carnival.

Exactly, and everyone be sure to come, because we’re gonna post some videos of what samba is like and some photos, so, you can get an idea of this really interesting Brazilian celebration.

Okay, everyone. Thanks for listening and until next time– Good bye!

Bye!