Wednesday, October 01, 2008

#842 McCain Did Awesome - Sarah Palin’s English, Cringe, TED, Dog Bites Bum


Show 842 Wednesday 1 October
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.



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

It’s the first of October and I was going to do the draw today for this CD … but, there are no names in the hat … so that’s going to roll over to next month.
I’ll talk more about that next week. But for now, go and become a tdes member, support The Daily English Show … and all of your dreams will come true.

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time to study a mistake that we can learn from.

Today I was reading an article on CNN about Sarah Palin. It was talking about how her attempts at interviews have been disasters.
It says:

And that's the word Republicans use. It wasn't just her interview with Katie Couric in which she tried to explain how Russia's being Alaska's "next door neighbor" adds to her foreign policy cred. (In a "Saturday Night Live" skit, Tina Fey used Palin's exact words to mock her. Yikes.) And how about, after the first presidential debate, when she told reporters that "McCain did awesome." Cringe.

So, what’s wrong with saying: “McCain did awesome.” Why would the writer cringe at that?
It’s because awesome is an adjective. She should have used an adverb, like well. McCain did well.
If she wanted to use the word awesome, she could have said: McCain did an awesome job.

That grammar – such and such did awesome – might be acceptable in some parts of America, for informal speech. But even if that’s the case, because she’s supposed to be attempting to represent the whole of the United States, and the presidential elections are a pretty important serious thing, people expect her to use more formal, standard English.
And also, apart from the grammar, the choice of word is also a bit of a problem. The word awesome is quite an informal word, so some people might think it’s a bit too informal for the situation.
Having said that, some people might like the fact that she said: “McCain did awesome”. If they speak like that themselves, then they might feel a sense of closeness to the candidate, because of her speaking style. So, maybe it wasn’t a mistake ...



click here


The site I recommend today is: ted.com
TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design and it’s an annual conference held in the US.
They have a lot of interesting speakers at their conference and they make videos of the speakers available on their site.
So there are lots of interesting videos you can watch. And you can also watch them on their YouTube channel. They have almost 300 videos on their YouTube channel … I’ve only watched a few and I think some of them are more interesting than others. So if you see any that you recommend please tell us … leave a comment with the name of the video.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today, a teenage girl who won 7 million pounds in a lottery screamed so loud that her dog bit her on the bottom.

An 18-year-old girl from England bought a ticket in the EuroMillions lottery. She said it was only the second time she had bought a ticket. She was tempted to try after hearing that the jackpot was more than 100 million pounds. She checked her ticket and found the winning numbers. “My mum called the National Lottery Line and it was only then that I realized I had won a share of the jackpot,” she said. “We were both screaming so loudly that my dog didn't know what was happening and bit me on the bottom." The girl is planning to start a law degree in 2009. She said she would spend the money on a trip to Egypt and a car – then share the rest with family and friends.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 1st of October.
Kia Ora.




Word of the Day

Today’s word is cringe.
Experience an inward shiver or embarrassment or disgust.

I just searched for cringe Sarah Palin on Google and got 88,000 hits.

Here are a few of the headlines:
Why Sarah Palin Makes Women Cringe
Palin sends the cringe meter off the dial.
Palin-Katie Couric interview: cringe inducing



conversations with sarah
#520 Can you name any of them?

This is part of an interview between CBS News anchor Katie Couric and Sarah Palin. Watch here.

Step 1: Repeat Courics’s lines.
Step 2: Read Courics’s lines and talk to Palin.

Couric And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read, before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin I've read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media, I mean...

Couric Like what ones specifically? I'm curious that you...

Palin Um, all of 'em, any of 'em that um have been in front of me over all these years, um...

Couric Can you name any of them?

Palin I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news too. Alaska isn't a foreign country where it's kind of suggested it seems like, wow how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, DC may be thinking and doing, when you live up there in Alaska. Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.



links

today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

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

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

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

qa bgm
artist: Ensono
album: Night Culture
track: Wild Mind
from: Vigo, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo

Did you notice a mistake in this script? Please leave us a comment and tell us! We really appreciate people pointing out our mistakes.Thank you.

Have you translated this script - or part of it - into your language for English practice and published it on your blog? Please leave a comment and a link so other people can read your translation. Thank you.