BetterAtEnglish.com все тексты (слова) песен, переводы, видео, клипы

Hi, this is Lori from Better at English dot com, comin’ at you with a brand new format today: Real English conversations.

Here at Better at English, we believe that learners need to hear authentic conversational English as it’s spoken by first-language speakers, not just the simplified, stilted, unnatural, boring, wishful-thinking language you find in most mass-market English teaching materials. So we’re proud to introduce our new format: Real English Conversations. This format will feature first-language speakers of English engaging in unscripted, spontaneous conversations.

Now because Better at English is based in southern Sweden, my access to first-language speakers of English is somewhat limited. So for the time being, you’ll mainly be hearing me and my friend Michael, who is from England. That way you can hear both American English and British or “English” English in the same podcast. We’ll keep these short and snappy, between two and five minutes long, and we’ll always provide a transcription and vocabulary list. So if you’re listening to our podcast via iTunes or some other podcatcher, remember that you can surf to our website, W W W dot Better at English dot com, to read the transcript and get the vocabulary list. We hope you’ll enjoy and benefit from our new format. So, without further ado, here we go with our first episode of Real English Conversations.

Conversation Transcript

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English. I’m currently on vacation in the American southwest, but during a very long car trip I had some time to put this episode together for you. In today’s conversation, my English friend Michael and I talk about whether or not I should get a pet cat. We don’t agree: Michael thinks that the cat I want is ugly, and I think it’s adorably cute. To settle our dispute, we have put a poll on the website that will allow you listeners to vote and give me your advice. If you go to www.betteratenglish.com, you can see photos of videos of the kind of cat we talk about in the conversation, and use the poll to tell me whether you think about my choice of cats.
Are you ready? Here we go!

Conversation transcript
Lori: You know we talked before about whether or not we are dog people or cat people.
Michael: Oh sure.
Lori: Yeah, and I always thought I was a dog person but I think that might be changing a bit.
Michael: Oh no! Say it isn’t true!

Hi, Lori here with another hot, steaming fresh edition of Real English Conversations. Remember, you can find the full transcript at our website, Better at English dot com.

As you can hear, my cold is almost better now. Thanks to Katja and Marco for the nice get well wishes!

Today’s conversation is between me and my friend Michael. We discuss my annoying neighbor and his habit of playing a very irritating song at very high volume, usually on Friday and Saturday evenings. I’m pretty sure it’s a live version, too, so it’s much longer than the original, thus extending my torture.

My best guess is that he plays it to get himself in the party mood. Here in Sweden, people usually “party” at home, that is, sit around and drink with their friends and make a lot of noise, until around 11 pm. After that, they go out to the bars, pubs and clubs. I think that’s because in Sweden, it’s so darn expensive to buy drinks when you’re out. So it’s good to drink a load of cheap alcohol at home to get a good healthy buzz going before you out on the town. I’m telling you this as a form of public service announcement in case you ever decide to come to Sweden. Now you know what to do when it’s time to party…

Hello and Welcome to another edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. This is Lori comin’ atcha from the Better at English studios here in Southern Sweden, where as you might be able to tell, I’ve got a really bad cold. But hey, your learning is more important than my voice, so I’m going ahead and podcasting for you anyway. So before we get on with the conversation, I just want to say thanks very much to everyone who’s provided feedback about the show. I try to reply to everyone who emails a comment, but Franck in France and Mustafa in Turkey, there’s no way for me to reply to you when you send a text through the Mychingo site, so I’ll take the opportunity to thank you here for your nice comments about the show.

OK, without further ado, here comes another episode of Real English Conversations.
Conversation Transcript

post-it sticky notes
Lori: I was browsing photos on the Internet the other day on Flickr and I’m not sure how I ended up there, but I saw this really funny thing. It was to do with office pranks. And apparently, some guy in some office was known for having, like, far too many Post-its posted all over his workstation on his computer…

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from BetterAtEnglish.com. My English friend Michael and I are back and ready to rock after our long-overdue vacations. In today’s conversation we talk about a fun electronic game that I found out about while on vacation in the States. But before we start with the conversation, I have a really cool tip for you. If you like what we do here at Better at English, you’re sure to enjoy Andrew and Addison’s ESL podcast at China232.com. Just like me, Andrew and Add are tired of the typical boring English learning material and podcasts, and have reacted by creating a fun and free conversational podcast. You can find it at www.china232.com. If you’re keen on improving your English in a fun and entertaining way, you definitely should check it out.

OK, let’s get on with today’s conversation. As always, you can find the full transcript and vocabulary notes on our website, www.BetterAtEnglish.com. Here we go!

Conversation transcript
Lori: OK, you know, every time I go back to the States, it’s usually been a few years since my last visit, and there’s always some new gadget or some new thing that’s come along that I just for some reason hadn’t heard about in Sweden.
Michael: Mm hmm.
L: And this time it was that 20Q game.

Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English dot com. In today’s episode, Michael and I exchange some opinions about television, particularly with respect to commercials and advertising. In this conversation we discover some differences between British and American English vocabulary, and use some everyday phrasal verbs. As always, you’ll find the full transcript and vocabulary list on the website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Before listening to the conversation, you might want to pause and think about the following questions:

Are you influenced by TV advertising?
If so, then how are you influenced?
Do TV commercials attempt to appeal to people’s logic or to their emotions?
Is watching TV is a constructive activity, or is it more a waste of time?