10
0B044 - Elementary - Small Talk
M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.
E: And I'm Erica.
M: And we're bringing you another great elementary lesson for all our elementary learners.
E: You know what, Marco, I think this lesson is so useful. This is language that you can actually use every single day.
M: Exactly, everyday. Exactly, because today we're gonna be teaching you small talk.
E: So, what is small talk?
M: Well, small talk is small conversation that you would have with people that you don't know very well, but you
still wanna be polite…
E: Yes!
M: Right? And you want to maybe…just… chat a little bit. Okay, so, let's listen to our dialogue and as always it's gonna be a little bit fast, but don't worry about it.
E: Cause we'll come back in a minute and help you with some of the difficult language.
- 00:48 DIALOGUE,FIRST TIME
M: Okay, I think this guy was a little bit annoying.
E: Yeah, Mr. Anderson really didn't wanna talk to him, did he?
M: Yeah, I think that was pretty obvious, he left the elevator in a hurry. Okay, let's take a look at our language today in "language takeaway".
- 01:51 Voice:Language takeaway
M: Alright, what do we have today in language takeaway?
- 01:58 Barely even
E: Well, we've got four words and phrases and our first one is barely even.
M: Barely even.
E: Barely even.
M: So, how do we use barely even? It's a little bit difficult.
E: It's really similar to like almost couldn't or almost nothing or almost can't. So, we use it usually in a negative sense. For example, I could say "I was so busy today I could barely even eat my lunch".
M: Okay, so, I can maybe say "it was so dark I could barely even see".
E: Yeah!
M: Okay.
E: Yeah, or "I'm so poor I can barely even pay my rent".
M: Okay, good. Barely even.
E: Uhu.
- 02:34 Catch
M: Alright, let's take a look at our next one - catch.
E: Catch.
M: Catch.
E: Did you catch the news?
M: So, by did you catch the news you mean did you hear the news.
E: Exactly. So, how else can we use this, did you catch?
M: A really common one is "I didn't catch your name”.
E: Yeah, I didn't hear you name.
M: I didn't hear you name.
E: Yeah. Yeah, and we can also say "I didn't catch what he said".
M: I didn't catch what he said, yeah.
E: Yeah.
M: So, I didn't hear.
E: Yeah.
- 03:00 By the way
M: Okay. Let's look at our next word - by the way.
E: By the way.
M: By the way.
E: By the way.
M: Okay, so, let's listen to some examples first of how we can by the way and then we'll come back and talk more about it.
03:13 Voice: Example one.
A: Are you going to be at the meeting today?
B: Yeah, I'll be there. Oh, by the way, did you hear what happened today?
03:25 Voice: Example two.
C: By the way, I almost forgot to tell you, Maggie called.
E: Okay, so, I see that when we say by the way, um, we're introducing a point after we've already talked about something.
M: Exactly. And maybe it's not even related to the topic we were talking about.
E: No, it's a different topic.
M: Different topic, right?
E: It's like saying "oh, I almost forgot to tell you".
M: Exactly.
E: Uhu.
M: So, it's like "oh, Erica, don't forget we have a meeting today, oh, and by the way, I like your new haircut”.
E: Thanks, Marco.
M: Alright, see?
E: Yeah.
- 04:04 Take the stairs
M: That's the way you would use by the way. Okay and our last word on language takeaway - take the stairs.
E: Take the stairs.
M: Take the stairs.
E: Take the stairs.
M: So, does it mean you're gonna take them somewhere...
E: No, no, you… No, you're not taking them home with you.
M: Hehe. It means you're gonna go up the stairs.
E: Uhu.
M: Okay, so, take the stairs.
E: Yes, and a lot of people might say use the stairs or go up the stairs, but our EnglishPod learners, they know, right?
M: To use take the stairs.
E: Yep.
M: Take the stairs. Okay, so now we're ready to listen to our dialogue again. We're gonna slow it down a little bit.
E: And this will help you to catch these phrases a little bit better.
- 04:47 DIALOGUE,SECOND TIME (slow)
