Wednesday, September 29, 2010

#1319 A While Vs Awhile, One In 8 Million, Australian Top Model Mistake, Sammie

Show 1319 Wednesday 29 September
Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.

Do you know if awhile/a while is one word or two words? Which is correct: awhile or a while?

The answer is … they are both correct.

Awhile is an adverb.
But when it’s two words, a while, while is a noun.

So, both of these sentences are correct:

I thought awhile before I answered.
And: I thought for a while before I answered.

But the adverb awhile, as in the first sentence, is quite formal. So I think the second sentence is more common.

Try to remember this: for a while is three words.

This morning I went shopping for a while, then I came home and had lunch.
Tonight I’m going to study for a while, and then I might watch a bit of TV after that.


click here

Today I recommend you go and check out something called One in 8 million.
You can find it on the New York Times site.

It’s a collection of stories of people who live in New York. There’s audio of the people telling their stories, and there are photographs to go with the stories.

The stories and the photos are really interesting and I think it could be a good site for studying. You could just enjoy listening to the stories, or you could pick a story and try and transcribe it for listening practice, and then get someone to check your work.

I’ve written out the transcript for one of the stories. It’s a story about a 57-year-old guy called Joseph Cotton. You can find the script for that on the blog, so you can listen and read along.



STICK NEWS


Australia’s Next Top Model is the Australian version of the reality TV show America’s Next Top Model.
This year’s final was shown live on TV and the host accidentally announced the wrong winner.
The host realized her mistake after the wrong contestant had made an acceptance speech.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 29th of September.
Kia ora.


IT’S TYRA MAIL!
SQUEEEAL!
Clap! Clap!
AHHHH!


I want to thank …


I’m so sorry …





Word of the Day

Today’s word is sammie.

I think you can spell it with a y or an ie.

Do you know what a sammie is?

I saw this sign in Auckland the other day. It says: MUFFINS SAMMIES PIES.



A sammie is a an informal word for a sandwich.


conversations with sarah
#846 You don’t like cute things?

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

Phil Do you use the word sammie?

Sarah No.

Phil Why not?

Sarah Why not? Um … I don’t know. Maybe because sammie sounds, kind of, too cute.

Phil You don’t like cute things?

Sarah No, I like cute things. And I like some cute words … just not this one.




One in 8 Million - Joseph Cotton - TRANSCRIPT

listen here

I’m the built in babysitter, so I have to do something with them. We’re not going to sit in the house with them kids. Because they want to get on the computer, they want to play music, they want to do this, you know. Where we are, it just ain’t big enough for all of us and all their ideas. So the whole thing is, OK … your mama left you here, let’s go for a walk, let’s come back and have a wonderful meal, you know what I mean? And it gives me the opportunity to do the things that my Uncle (?) and my Aunt Mary did for me. Like cook for ‘em. What we going to have for lunch?
“Oh, we want hot dogs!”
“We want chili!”

So now, this entails us going outside to the store, getting it, carrying it back home, make it with love. And it just becomes training. I don’t try to teach them a damn thing. Only thing I try to do is show them and let them pick up their own insights. That maybe later on, it might hit them. “Oh man, Popop (?) talked about this.”

Showing them how they can always find their way north. Look, it’s always wet on the north side of a tree. And sometimes the older ones will come back and tell me, “Oh, Popop we was out in the woods with our school and you know what the tree was just like that and we told our teacher.” And, you know, they understood what I was saying.

I make ‘em walk. Whenever they have to do an activity with me, they must walk.
It’s a very slow pace. Nobody’s in a rush. Try to get them to be silent. To hear oneself. To hear what you’re bringing, your mind is telling you. To smell, because they’re making so much noise, they’re not even smelling.

The youngest of the grandbabies, I took out, maybe about three weeks after she was born, I took her down to Bronx Park, just so she could smell it, just so she could know. Of course, she was asleep, I couldn’t get her to wake up. But that baby had a smile on her face as she was sleeping. And we just went back and forth.

All the little pennies that I find, I call it Jenna-pen (?). For my little granddaughter.
So that when she gets of age, her and I are going to go to the bank and cash in all the pennies that I have found. And we got the jar about quarter fill. Cause, you know, I don’t have no money to give her, but all that I find, I’m going to give it to her, you know.

Eventually I’m going to lose them, you know, they going to get to be 15, 16 year old. They’re going to be, “I ain’t hanging with Popop.” Because they’re going to have other interests, they’re going to be doing other things. I’m looking for greatness from them, so they can’t hang around me and, ah, find greatness.

I’m glad that I was able to make it to this age. Cause I never believed that I would make it past 16 years of age. God asked me for what I want, my answer was, “I just want time.” And I never knew that he was going to give me time with all these daughters and grandkids.




links




music

show start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Future Cha Cha
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States

click here start
artist: #NarNaoud#
album: Green Vision
track: Oriental Standing
from: Gironde, France

WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France

cws start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France

qa bgm
artist: TSF
album: Mystic Opus
track: Myst Dub
from: Toulouse, France


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