Thursday, July 03, 2008

Show 782 Thursday 3 July


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

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

Today I recommend a video which is the Queen of Jordon giving a speech at Google and answering some questions.

Jordon is a country in Southwest Asia.
It shares borders with these countries: Syria, Iraq, Israel, West Bank, Saudi Arabia.

And they have a population of about 6 million.

The official language is Arabic so I was surprised to hear that the Queen of Jordon sounds like a native English speaker – but it turns out that she went to a British primary and secondary school in Kuwait and then she went to an American university in Cairo.

So, the official language is Arabic, but it says in Wikipedia:

English is used widely in commerce and government and among educated people. Arabic and English are obligatory learning at public and private schools.


What she’s talking about in this video is how she has become a vlogger. She has a channel on YouTube – and she said what she’s trying to do is break down stereotypes people have about the Muslim world.
Which I think is a worthy thing to try and do. Stereotypes can be pretty destructive.

Here’s one thing she says in the video:

Here from 5:49

What if we could leverage the internet’s tremendous ability to bring people together to bridge the gulf of perception and trust between the Muslim world and the west. Because that is one of the social challenges that I worry about the most.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, US researchers have reported that mushrooms may help extremely anxious or depressed patients, or people with addictions.

Magic mushrooms are mushrooms which contain psychedelic substances called psilocybin and psilocin.
In 2006, a university in the United States conducted a study on the spiritual effects of psilocybin mushrooms.
Thirty six volunteers were given the mushrooms and asked how it felt.
According to Reuters, most said they had a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.
The results were recently reported in a medical journal.
The researchers said, more than a year after the test, most of the volunteers still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.
The professor leading the research is quoted as saying: "This is a truly remarkable finding. Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."


And that was Stick News for Thursday the 3rd of July.
Kia Ora.




Word of the Day

Today’s word is obligatory.

Obligatory is another word for compulsory or mandatory.

If something is obligatory or compulsory or mandatory it means that you have to do it because of the law or rules.

For example, in some countries people are forced to do military training.

And this is usually called:
compulsory military service
mandatory military service


Here’s an example for obligatory that I found online:

It is obligatory to have insurance cover for your car to drive it on UK roads.


conversations with sarah
#482 Is she a Muslim?

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

Kim
Is she a Muslim?

Sarah The queen of Jordan?

Kim Yeah.

Sarah Yeah, she is.

Kim Why doesn’t she wear a scarf?

Sarah You don’t have to wear a scarf to be a Muslim.

Kim Really? I thought all Muslim women had to wear scarves.

Sarah No, not at all. There are many different kinds of Muslims – just like Christians. Like there are Mormans who follow strict rules, and then there are other Christians who do whatever they want and don’t even go to Church.

Kim You don’t have to go to church to be Christian?

Sarah
No, I don’t think so.



links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: BrunoXe
album: aprendiendo desde 2004
track: Mandrake
from: Jerez, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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

cws start
artist: San Sebastian
track: Happy Sad
artist site

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

qa bgm
artist: ioeo
album: Groovetracks
track: egg
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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