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Becoming VIP – Point of View

Hello this is A.J. My special VIP member, how are you today? It’s time for the point-of view stories for this month’s lesson; same story, different times; different points of view.

Let’s start.

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Warren is a very rich man. In fact, Warren is wealthy. He’s extremely wealthy. He has lots and lots of money. However, there’s a problem, because Warren also loves to gamble. He loves to gamble on turtle racing and, eventually, Warren loses all of his money gambling on turtle racing.

Of course, he’s devastated. (To be “devastated” means to be super upset; super unhappy; shocked and unhappy.) He’s devastated by losing all of his money, but, eventually, he realizes he has to find some kind of work, so he gets a job at Wal-Mart as a greeter.

Now it’s a horrific job, because they only pay him .10¢ an hour and they make him work 80 hours a week. Poor Warren works and works and works, but doesn’t get paid much money and when he gets his paycheck every month, he spends all of his money on new clothes and new DVDs.

And so after 11 ½ months, he is exhausted and he has no savings; no extra money at all. He’s so exhausted that he just can’t continue and so he quits. He quits the horrific job at Wal-Mart.

So, next, he finds a very cheap apartment and he gets a welfare check from the government, but it’s a very small payment. In fact, he can barely pay for his rent and food each month. After he pays for his rent and food each month, he has no extra money left over. Of course, this makes him miserable.

He continues a while like this feeling horrible, feeling miserable, just barely getting by.

(“Barely getting by” means barely living; barely paying your expenses; nothing extra.) He just gets by, but then, finally, he finds a very good job. He gets a good job at an Apple Computer Store and they pay him quite well, $42 an hour.

And it’s a good job. He enjoys the job. He enjoys talking to the people. He enjoys learning about computers. However, he does not get a more expensive apartment. No.

He stays in the same one-room cheap apartment and he does not buy new clothes or new DVDs. No. After he pays for his apartment and his food all his extra money is saved. He saves all of his extra money each month and then he invests that money.

And after five years, his investments grow and grow and grow until, once again, Warren becomes wealthy and, when that happens, he quits his job and has plenty of both money and time. He moves to Florida and he plays golf every day and he’s very, very happy.

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All right, that’s version one of our story. Let’s change the time a little bit and go to version two.

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Now since he was 24, Warren has been rich. He has been extremely wealthy since the age of 24. So he became wealthy at the age of 24 and continued to be wealthy for many, many, many years until recently.

Now, has he been just a little bit rich since the age of 24?

No, no, no, not just a little rich. He has been extremely wealthy, super, super, super, super rich since the age of 24, continuing on until recently.

However, something bad happened at the age of 60. You see, at the age of 60, at that time, he lost all of his money gambling. That’s right. Warren lost all of his money gambling, gambling on turtle racing.

When, exactly, did it happen?

Well, it specifically happened at the age of 60. At the age of 60, he lost all of his money gambling on turtle racing.

Now, since the age of 60, starting at 60 until recently, he has been poor. In fact, he has been impoverished.

Since when has he been impoverished?

Since the age of 60. It started at the age of 60 and continued. So since the age of 60, he has been impoverished. Since the age of 60, he has been poor. He lost all of his money, specifically, at that one time, at the age of 60, and since then he has been impoverished. He has been very poor.

Now, one day, he decided he needed a job, so he went to Wal-Mart and he got a job at Wal-Mart as a greeter. Unfortunately, it was a horrific job and he worked 80 hours a week for only .10¢ an hour and then he spent all of his money on new clothes and new DVDs. Of course, since he got the job at Wal-Mart, he has been totally exhausted.

So it started when he got the job at Wal-Mart and continued for a while, but finally, after enduring this for 11 ½ months, he quit his job at Wal-Mart. Then he found a cheap apartment and he got a government welfare check, but he could barely pay for the rent and the food that he needed every month, just barely.

He had no extra money left afterwards and he was miserable and so, finally, he went and he found a better job working at an Apple Computer Store. He stayed in his cheap apartment, however, and he didn’t buy new clothes or DVDs. No. He took all that extra money from the $42 an hour that he made at the Apple Store and he saved it and he invested it.

He invested it every month and then, finally, five years later, his investments grew and Warren became wealthy again and, at that time, he quit his job. He plenty of money and plenty of time and so he moved to Florida and played golf every single day.

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And, finally, into the future we can imagine we’re dreaming about this or we’re just imaging it. It might happen or it’s going to happen, but there will be a guy named Warren in the future.

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There’ll be a guy named Warren and, initially, he’ll be very wealthy. He’ll be super rich.

Now this guy Warren, however, is gonna’ have a problem. (Of course, “gonna” means going to; gonna’ means future.) He’s gonna’ have a problem and his problem will be gambling. Specifically, he’s gonna’ gamble on turtle racing. He’s gonna’ love to gamble on turtle racing and, eventually, he’s gonna’ lose all of his money gambling on turtle racing. Poor Warren.

He’ll lose all of his money and, finally, he’ll realize he needs to get some more and he needs to work, so he’ll go to get a job at Wal-Mart. He’ll get a job at Wal-Mart as a greeter, but it’ll be a horrific job. You see, they’ll make him work 80 hours a week for only .10¢ an hour.

Even worse, every month when he gets his paycheck, he’ll spend it all on new clothes and new DVDs. He’s not gonna’ save any money at all and, eventually, after 11 ½ months of working at that job, he’s gonna’ be totally, completely exhausted and so he’ll have to quit.

Next, for a while, he’ll get a government welfare check. He’ll find a cheap one-room apartment, but he’s gonna’ have a lot of other problems. You see, the money he gets from the government will just barely pay for his rent and food. He’s not gonna’ have any extra money for anything else. He’ll be very miserable; very unhappy.

Well, after enduring that for a while, he’ll finally realize he needs a better job and he’ll find one. He’ll get a very good job at an Apple Computer Store. He’ll love working with the computers. He’ll love working with the people.

Now, he’s not gonna’ go get an expensive apartment when he gets that job. No. He’s gonna’ stay in the cheap apartment and he’s not gonna’ go buy clothes and DVDs. No.

He’s not gonna’ do that, instead, what he’s gonna’ do (what he’s going to do) is save and invest all of his money; all of his extra money, after he pays for rent and food.

All of his extra money, he’s gonna’ save and invest every month, every month, every month and those investments are gonna’ grow and grow and grow until after about five years, his investments will grow so much that he’ll be wealthy again. He’ll be very wealthy and then he’ll quit his job and he’ll have plenty of money and plenty of time.

He’ll be so happy, he’ll move to Florida and, when he’s there, he’s just gonna’ play golf every single day and he’ll love it. He’ll have a great life.

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All right, so that’s the end of our three-versions of the story. Now, as I tell you every month, you do not need to think about the grammar terms, such as, this is the present perfect and ah, this is the future and dah- dah- dah- dah- dah. You don’t need to think about those. In fact, I don’t want you to think about those.

All I want you to do is get the feeling, the feeling for how the time is changing and words like since or in the future, they give you that feeling, or gonna’, right, going to. Gonna’ is what we actually say a lot in normal speech, we say gonna’, gonna’, gonna’. It’s mostly for speaking not writing, but those words give you clues. They give you ideas to how the time, how the point of view is changing a little bit and you can get the feeling for the meaning. I just want you to feel that meaning.

Now, listen to these point-of-view stories every single day for one month and, of course, the next month you get a new one. By doing this, the grammar of English gets into your mind very deeply. You don’t need to think about the rules. You don’t need to think at all.

You start to just recognize it and understand it automatically and feel it and then, after a little more time, you start to use it correctly, just automatically, intuitively. No thinking, no planning. That’s the power of these stories.

The vocabulary is very simple in these stories, but just the change of grammar and also in the mini story too, that’s what’s going to kind of program English grammar into your brain at a deep level. So all you need to do is listen carefully and enjoy the stories.

All right, have a great month. I’ll see you next time, bye-bye.