Monday, December 11, 2006

Show 222 Monday 11 December


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.
One more thing about English mistakes in shops today. If you work in a shop or restaurant or bar and you want to have an English menu or sign. Then, obviously the best thing to do is to get somebody to check it. But that can cost money so if you can’t afford it ... then I would recommend just writing it yourself and definitely use spell check.

Then you’ll probably have a few grammar mistakes and your selection of words might be a bit strange. But that’s OK because it will probably still be understandable ... which is the main point.

What I don’t recommend, is using a computer translator. Computer translators of course can be useful to get a very general idea of what something is about.
But they can produce incomprehensible language so be careful.

I went into a shop today by the Hirafu gondola and they obviously had made their signs using a computer translator.
Some of it was just a bit odd ... but with some of the signs I couldn’t even understand what they meant in English. So there’s kind of no point in having the English signs. Here’s an example.



STICK NEWS

Kia ora in Stick News today the 10-year-old son of a New Zealand journalist was attacked by a shark.

Melanie Reid is a television journalist.
This morning she was watching her 10-year-old son Eliot surfing with his dad
when a shark bit Elliot’s foot.
At first Elliot’s dad didn’t realize that the shark had bitten his son. He thought the shark had only nudged him.
Then he saw blood coming out of his son’s foot so he ditched his own board and started paddling towards the shore with his son.


The shark attack left Elliot with cuts to the base and top of his foot. He said he would be back in the water surfing once the injury had healed. And that was Stick News for Monday the 11th of December.
Kia Ora.



the snow report

Yesterday we rode in the gondola for the first time this season. I like the gondola. It’s very warm and comfortable.



conversations with sarah
#132 Where are you from?

Step 1: Repeat Tom’s lines.
Step 2: Read Tom’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Tom Where are you from?

Sarah New Zealand.

Tom Are you here for the season?

Sarah Yeah.

Tom Have you been to Niseko before?

Sarah Um, I came here last year just for two weeks though, over Christmas and New Year.

Tom What are the mountains like in New Zealand?

Sarah Um, I never really did it in New Zealand actually.
Yeah, when I was a kid I went skiing for ... just for a couple of days. And then when I was at university I went snowboarding. But only for like half a day.