درسنامه واژه ها

Zero Waste – Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin Dodds, one of the teachers and directors of Learn Real English. Welcome to this month’s vocabulary lesson for the conversation called Zero Waste. So as always, I have the text of the conversation here and I’ve made some notes about some words or groups of words that you may have had difficulty understanding. So I’ll be giving you the meanings as they relate to this conversation. They could have meanings in other conversations, they could have different meanings, but I’ll give you the meanings as they relate to this particular conversation.

Alright, in the beginning I always like to talk about three words that you hear a lot in our conversations. So the first is y’know, y’know. And y’know is actually two words combined together. So sometimes when we’re speaking quickly, we…instead of saying you know, we’ll say y’know. We just combine them together as we’re speaking fast.

The next word is yeah. So yeah is a slang word for yes. And then the third word is like. So you probably know that like means to have positive feelings for someone or something. But many times it doesn’t have a meaning. It’s just a filler word.

Alright, so let’s begin with the name of this conversation, Zero Waste. I want to explain what zero waste means. So it’s a philosophy that encourages the reuse of products so that no trash is going to landfills. No trash is being sent to landfills. So landfills, here in the United States, they’re usually outside of a city or a town and it’s an area of land that basically gets filled with trash, to either be buried into the earth or the land, or to be burned.

Alright, so in the very beginning of the conversation, Joe says, “I just got an email from Green America.” So this, Green America, that’s the name of an organization here in the United States.

And then Joe says, “The article was about recycling and compost.” So recycling: this means changing waste products into reusable materials. So for example, changing plastic water bottles or glass bottles into reusable materials. And compost: so plant-based foods, paper napkins, coffee grinds, y’know, the grinds are the…what’s left when you make coffee. These are things that break down very easily and over time what they break down into is called compost. So that can actually then be used to help plants, vegetables to grow better. It’s put into the ground to help them grow better. Which we then can also call fertilizer.

Alright, then I say, “One thing that I’ve always really liked about San Francisco is how cutting edge they are.” So San Francisco is a city here in the state of California. California is on the western part, western coast of the United States. It’s a really large state. So San Francisco is actually a city in the northern part

of the state and it’s where Joe and I live and AJ and his wife Tomoe spend some time here as well. And cutting edge, when I say San Francisco is, I like how cutting edge they are, what I mean by cutting edge is I like how they are one of the leaders with recycling and composting.

And then Joe says, “Curbside recycling is something that, not only in a city, I’ve never seen it anywhere.” So what he means by curbside is at the edge of the street.

And then Joe says, “Do you remember that place where AJ did the walk? Shikoku Island?” So what Joe’s talking about is many years ago AJ and his wife Tomoe did a walk. It was the area, I didn’t know if it’s actually the name of the island, but this area is called Shikoku where they did the walk and they walked from…they walked between different Buddhist temples where they would actually spend the night at each temple then. And the walk actually took them about a month to do.

And then Joe says, “They actually have implemented a program with the goal of having zero waste by 2020, meaning no incineration.” So implemented a program: what he meant here is they put this program into action. Implemented means put into action. And when he says incineration, meaning no incineration, incineration is the burning of trash. Here it means the burning of trash.

And then I say, “I’m not surprised that this town you’re mentioning in Japan is so progressive.” So progressive means open to new behavior or opinions.

And then I say, “I remember when I was living in Hiroshima, we had to recycle.” So Hiroshima is a city in Japan and I lived there for a very short time teaching English.

And then I say, “I didn’t quite know how because it was really complex.” So complex means complicated, not easy.

And then I say, “I believe if residents did not recycle, they could actually be fined.” So residents: these are people living in a city or a town. And fined, when I say that they could actually be fined, that means that they could have to pay the government money if they did not recycle.

And then Joe says, “They were incinerating all of their trash and there was a lot of air pollution from it.” And then I say, “Yeah, I can imagine.” So when I say yeah, I can imagine, I’m saying yeah, I believe that. I believe there would be a lot of air pollution from that, from burning trash.

Okay, then I say, “They would just be burning it everywhere and it was so toxic.” So toxic here, what I’m saying is it would be so polluting to the air or, y’know, making the air really bad quality, which is not healthy.

And then Joe says, “Residents of South Korea now have to pay for trash disposal by weight.” So disposal means getting rid of something. It’s the action of getting rid of something.

And then Joe says, “It’s mandatory to compost now.” So mandatory means required by law. You have to do it or you might have to pay money.

And then Joe says, “They actually divert more than 83% of their trash.” So divert means to redirect. So more than 83% of their trash is going somewhere else, it’s not going to be burned or to be buried. It’s being used in another way or something else is being done with it, which is great.

And then I say, “It’s great to see that progress has been made.” So progress means improvement.

And then I say, “But even with the plastic, it’s not all plastic. Like here, y’know, any number you can recycle, any number of plastic. There it’s only 1 and 2.” So what I’m talking about is I’m comparing recycling plastic here in San Francisco to where my parents live. They live in a small town in the state of Georgia, which is in the southeastern part of the United States. So in many places in the United States, when you recycle plastic, you have to look on the bottom of the plastic container to look for a number because certain places will only allow you to recycle certain numbers that are on the bottom of the plastic container or bottle. So, for example, I think usually like a water bottle, a plastic water bottle will have a 1 or a 2 on the bottom. So like where my parents live, they could recycle that. But let’s say you had another plastic container and it had a 5 on the bottom, you wouldn’t be able to recycle that where my parents live. You could in San Francisco because San Francisco will take any number of plastic, that’s on the bottom of a plastic container. So that’s what was meant by that.

And then I say, “San Francisco is such a pioneer as far as recycling.” So pioneer means leader.

And then Joe says, “And for a city, that’s pretty remarkable.” So remarkable means amazing.

And then Joe says, “They have a bunch of education programs aimed at kids in school because they’re going to be the future.” So a bunch of, a bunch of education programs, this means many education programs. And aimed at kids in school, aimed at means focused on.

And then Joe says, “Maybe if they can get on board and see how important it is.” So get on board, this is just another way of saying see how important it is, see the benefits of it.

And then Joe says, “It’s happening but it is kind of weird, I agree.” So weird means strange.

And then Joe says, “When I was really young, there was no concept of recycling.” So concept means idea, there was no idea about recycling.

And then Joe says, “My family was living in Pennsylvania.” So Pennsylvania is a state in the northeastern part of the United States.

And then Joe says, “So it seemed real foreign to us.” So when he says foreign, what he means here is strange, not normal.

And then I say, “The bins were much smaller.” So what I mean by bins are the containers, the recycling containers.

And then I say, “That particular place was Athens.” So Athens is a town in the state of Georgia where I grew up and I moved there to go to university, to go to the University of Georgia.

Alright, so that is the end of our vocabulary lesson for the conversation Zero Waste and I will be right back with the commentary.