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Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 126.

Awards show season

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast episode 126.

I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

The script and research for today’s program is provided by, as always, Dr. Lucy Tse.

This podcast is going to be talking about all of the awards or prizes that are given to the best songs, movies, and television shows in the United States. Let’s get started!

It’s that time of year again. It’s award show season. No, I’m not talking about the Nobel Prizes. I’m talking about the entertainment awards. This is the time of year when the TV shows and movies are nominated as the best of the year. Celebrities get together at an award ceremony and the winners are announced. My favorites are the Emmy Awards for television, the Academy Awards for the movies, and the Grammy Awards for records. But, I’m up for almost any award show‚ The Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, even the People’s Choice Awards.

For some people, the best part of watching the award shows is the pre-show. The celebrities arrive on the red carpet and are interviewed. Sometimes what they are wearing, made by the top designers and jewelers, gets more attention than anything they say. But, it’s still fun to see all of the celebrities all in one place, and you never know what will come out of their mouths when they win ; better yet, when they lose.

We’re talking about awards or prizes that are given to movies and songs, television programs in the United States. Our story begins by saying, “It’s that time of year again.” “it’s time of ” is an expression that we use to say, once again, this is the weeks, the months when we do a certain thing. You can use that expression for “It’s time of the week .” You can say, “It’s that time of year.” You can use it with other types of time. But when we say, “It’s that time of year again” we mean once again, we are going to get the same event, the same thing is going to happen. But what’s going to happen here is that there are going to be Awards Shows and the story continues, “It’s Award Show season.” A “season” (season) is a period of time. A couple of weeks, a couple of months, whenever something is happening so, “Award Show season” are the weeks and months when there are these prizes given and they’re given at a show. So, “Award Show” is usually in a big theater or in a big room where everyone comes together and they give out the award. Notice the verb there “to give out an award” – means to give someone an award.

Well, to give out the award would be the actual show, in this case. Well, the story says, “I’m not talking about the Nobel prizes.” And you know the “Nobel (Nobel) Prize” is one of the most famous prizes in the world, given to the best scientists and the best people who are good writers, the best writers. There’s also the Nobel Peace Prize and these are given every year in Stockholm, Sweden. Well, we’re not talking about the Nobel prizes, not that important. We’re talking about entertainment awards. And this is the time of year when the TV shows and movies are nominated. “To be nominated,” “to nominate” (nominate) – “to be nominated” – with a “d” at the end – means that you can win that prize. Usually, it doesn’t mean that you won – that you have won the prize. It means that you could win the prize. You are a nominee, you are nominated. So, for example, for the movie awards, the Academy Awards, we call them, they have four or five films or directors or actors who are nominated in each category, meaning they give out lots of awards. They give one award for different types of movies, for different people in the movie, the most important actor or actress – man, woman, so forth. Well, these are categories that have four, five nominees – people or films, movies that are nominated. Then they vote - the people who vote for the award will vote – pick one of those five as the winner.

Well, in the award shows, there are celebrities. And “celebrity” is a famous person – an actor, or a director, usually someone involved in entertaining other people like songs, movies and TV shows. Well, these people are all celebrities and they get together at an award ceremony. An award show can also be called an “award ceremony” (ceremony). A “ceremony” is a formal event in which you give someone something or something important happens. There are lots of different types of award ceremonies or award shows. The television people have their own awards and in the United States, the awards are called the “Emmy” (Emmy). That word doesn’t mean anything in English. An “Emmy” award or simply an “Emmy” is an award that is given for the best television shows, the best television actors, so forth. For a movie, they’re called the “Academy Awards” (academy). Some people call them simply, the “Oscar Awards” or “The Oscars.” “The Oscars” are the little award – what the actual award is called. It’s a man in gold and it’s you know, maybe a foot, 12 inches, 16 inches high, and that’s called “The Oscar.” So, the “Academy Awards” or the “Oscar Awards” are for movies. And for songs, in the United States, they’re called the “Grammy Awards” (grammy). Again, doesn’t really mean anything in English – the word “Grammy.” It probably comes from “Gramophone” which is an old type of way of playing music or sound. But the “Grammy Awards” are for songs or for records. And a record, of course, is a collection of songs.

Well, in the story, the person says, “I’m up for almost any award show.” When you say, “I am up for something” you mean I am willing to do or watch, in this case, that show. “I am up for swimming” means I’m interested in going swimming. I would want to go swimming if I had the chance. So, “I’m up for any award show” means I would watch any award show if it were on television. And then there’s a list of some other famous award shows in the U.S. – the “Golden Globes” (globes). “Golden,” of course means that it looks like gold. The “Golden Globes” are awards that are given to both movies and television shows. The “SAG Awards” (SAG) – the “S” stands for screen. A “screen” is what you go into when you go into a movie theater. You see the movie on a movie screen – “screen.” Well, “screen” – the SAG Awards are for the screen actor or Screen Actors Guild. And a “guild” (guild) is an old word in English. Here it just means the union or the work organization. Well, they have the Screen Actors Guild – these are all the actors – their organization – they have their own awards. And there’s also something called the “People’s Choice Awards” where you can, living in the United States, vote for your favorite TV show or movie. And that’s called the “People’s Choice Awards.” For many people, the most interesting part of the award show is not the actual show, but what happens before the show. What’s sometimes called a “pre-show” – (pre) show. And the “pre-show” is when the stars and the celebrities arrive at the theater or the place where the award ceremony is being held – is going on. And when they arrive, they usually walk up a carpet that is on the ground and it is a “red carpet.” In fact, the expression in English, “to roll out the red carpet,” meaning to put down the red carpet – means to give someone a very good treatment, to do everything you can to make someone feel welcome. Well, the stars come up the red carpet and there are television stations and reporters from newspapers that interview them, that talk to them and one of the things they talk about, particularly for women, is the kind of dress they are wearing. In fact, one question they will often get is, “What are you wearing?” Of course, they’re usually wearing a dress – the women are – but what that question means is who’s the designer, who made your dress. And people who design, who make dresses and figure out how they should look are called “designers.”Of course, stars also have diamonds and other types of jewelry, like a ring or earrings, and these are made by people called “jewelers.” A “jeweler” (jewelers) is someone who sells – makes and sells jewels.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue this time at a native rate of speech.

It’s that time of year again. It’s award show season. No, I’m not talking about the Nobel Prizes. I’m talking about the entertainment awards. This is the time of year when the TV shows and movies are nominated as the best of the year. Celebrities get together at an award ceremony and the winners are announced. My favorites are the Emmy Awards for television, the Academy Awards for the movies, and the Grammy Awards for records. But, I’m up for almost any award show‚ The Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, even the People’s Choice Awards.

For some people, the best part of watching the award shows is the pre-show. The celebrities arrive on the red carpet and are interviewed. Sometimes what they are wearing, made by the top designers and jewelers, gets more attention than anything they say. But, it’s still fun to see all of the celebrities all in one place, and you never know what will come out of their mouths when they win ; better yet, when they lose.

Remember to visit our website at www.eslpod.com for a script for today’s podcast.

From Los Angeles, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2006.