Real English Conversations Episode 24
[Music]
welcome to speak English with Tiffany I
am teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in
and nothing just working on some stuff
here for work / business what are you up
to what you up to what you up to
now this expression means what are you
doing and it is also an informal
greeting usually used between friends
and family okay now here are some
examples of what you up do that have the
same meaning hey what you up to
right now I’m hungry it means what are
you doing right now I’m hungry I want to
go out to eat with you the second
example hey what are you up to today it
means what are you doing today and the
third example since you are off from
work what are you up to today
again you’re not working today so I’m
curious what are you going to be doing
now in the top right corner you’ll see
this right here the word owns so
throughout this conversation I call my
friend owns and she calls me owns this
is actually a nickname that we gave each
other several years ago so a nickname is
just something that you call your friend
or someone in your family okay it’s a
name that you guys choose to represent
your friendship okay so I say owns to my
friend and in the bottom left-hand
corner you see the word / so during the
conversation my friend said work /
business so now you can see that this /
just refers to this right here so when
you say it out loud you call this right
here a / ok me well I was working on
some things but I saw some pictures on
Instagram and I noticed that you went to
Miami this weekend
sure dude yes yes yes big things this is
an expression or slang that means
something great amazing or that you
believe to be good so it’s kind of an
expression used between friends or
family to express great amazing or
something good so I thought it was good
that she went to Miami so I said wow big
things Carnival now Carnival is a series
of events celebrated by Caribbean people
with dancing parades and other
festivities now you’ll see that I have
two different pictures the reason I put
these pictures here is because Carnival
also refers to an area or a place that
people go to have fun they ride a ferris
wheel they walk around and they buy
different food but this is not talking
about that type of carnival instead my
friend is referring to this Caribbean
event that happens in certain countries
and people dress up as you’ll see these
women in this picture are dressed up in
very amazing outfits and there’s lots of
music so my friend went to this type of
Carnival that’s what’s up that’s what’s
up this is an expression slang that
means you like what was said or done it
also means that you think something is
good so once again my friend is talking
about her trip that she took with
another one of her friends to Miami and
they went to Carnival and I said wow
that’s good or that’s what’s up
I know so when we lived together back in
Korea and we were working there we
always talked about traveling and stuff
but like what’s your favorite part about
traveling there like so many things but
I think I like like this to me in my
head I think of like different speeds so
like the worldís shoe
right like you see like the globe and
you’re like grief and I live in like
it’s like peace of it when you travel
even if it’s like internationally or
locally because from where I am Miami’s
three hours
three and change yeah good grief good
grief
now this is an expression that is used
to show irritation frustration or
surprise
so in our conversation my friend was
expressing her frustration when she said
good grief so let’s look at two
different examples using this expression
someone can say
good grief did you burn it again talking
about food or something else or you can
also say good grief it has started to
rain again
so again irritation or frustration maybe
you just got your hair done and you
didn’t want it to rain that’s yeah
that’s like still a whole other part of
the world it’s filled with like Hispanic
culture I mean again we left the
carnival no Caribbean carnival because
they know I think in Brazil they have
their own carnival but it’s you know
huge Hispanic culture like we went to
the beach and I’m really not doing a
huge beach person but on the side like
there’s much a restaurant it was nothing
to have him just walking on in bathing
suit I was like oh okay oh yours your
clothes oh yeah that’s right this is
mine this is another part of what my
enormous so I like seeing other people’s
norms other people’s cultures norm okay
this word is also used very often okay
an accepted standard or a way of being
or doing things okay you can also say
it’s a situation or type of behavior
that is expected and considered to be
typical in English we say norm so let’s
look at three examples using this word
so we can say one child per family is
becoming the norm in some countries it
means having one baby is becoming a norm
in some countries our second example
what are the social norms in your
country so we have social norms
referring to be
a VIIRS okay and our third example is
delays are likely to be the norm for air
travel next year it means they’re going
to be many delays next year
oh wait that wasn’t because of Carnival
it was literally just how they walk
around right so I’ve been to Miami
before and so the difference in going
for Carnival and this time was that it
was a little bit more of the Caribbean
like flag egde if you will flag egde
flag äj–
okay so what’s important about this word
is this part right here a GE this is a
suffix added to a word to emphasize it a
GE is added to it so this is an
expression or slang that means the
amount and types of flags that were
displayed so my friend was trying to
tell me that there were lots of flags
when she went to Carnival I could get
people to the beach and like on the side
where there’s like restaurants and stuff
people were just walking up and down
that’s just Miami on a Tuesday like I
never go to Miami years ago to visit one
of my friends but I was only there for a
short period of time but I remember
being hot but I don’t know her like
being by the beach as much with the
babies and stuff but I mean it’s that
right there experience plus your
experience so what you’ll notice is I
refer to her experience and then I gave
my experience this is a part of having a
good conversation okay you acknowledge
the person’s experience that you are
listening to and then you add it to your
own experience as well so it’s kind of
this back-and-forth connecting their
experience and your experience I mean
I’m down with being outside and walking
around and yeah myself and enjoying the
water at the same time exactly and
that’s the thing no one
I mean I know I generally was because I
was aware of it and so even if for me I
had all like this white mesh
what-have-you and I was still being
cautious of keeping it quote I mean it’s
mesh so like how much closure could I
have gotten out of it but still so I’m
like this is their norm like they’re
just okay you’re okay
button you know it’s just different
cultures and I just like it it’s yeah
and bracing in in others yeah yeah
you’ve done some traveling yourself I
mean you hung out in Korea for a minute
I can feel that okay this is an
expression that I personally use a lot
okay I can feel that so this expression
it’s also slang is used when you are
trying to show empathy with the person
or confirm agreement so when I wanted to
say that I agreed with what my friend
was saying I said oh I can feel that now
let’s look at an example of this okay
basically I am understanding and feeling
the same emotions as you or simply I
understand and agree
okay these are other examples that mean
the exact same thing so again I can feel
that was because of the culture aspect
because Korea was so opposite of my own
culture being an American and being an
african-american it was so honest that
that there were so many aspects of their
culture that really intrigued me and I
was really curious to intrigue intrigue
okay this is a common vocabulary word
now this word means to arouse the
curiosity or interest of okay or to
interest someone often because of an
unusual or unexpected quality remember I
was talking about my culture and Korean
culture okay and I was saying that I
noticed some differences and there were
also similarities but this aspect
actually is what intrigued me okay
now let’s look at some examples on the
bottom of the page it says I was
intrigued by his way
of talking okay his way of talking was
something that interested me the second
example he was intrigued by ancient
mysteries okay ancient mysteries were
something that caused him to be more
curious okay and finally we have they
were intrigued by the possibility of a
natural cure for cancer so finding a
cure for cancer was something that
interested them
so again intrigue understanding how
important it is to learn about cultures
and yeah realizing that the cultures in
Italy what they I guess the right and
that’s kind of a best way to know it I
was gonna say the best way to know it is
you can get a good amount from a book a
movie of this so when you’re in that
culture the pull of something okay this
is an expression that is used to express
the attraction or power of something
real quick remember earlier I taught you
this / okay / so Express the attraction
/ power of something but in this
situation will say or power of something
okay so let’s look at two examples right
here the pull of the movie business
started early on in America so the
attraction or power of the movie
business okay next example
it was the pull of his influence that
led to the passing of the bill so
whoever the man was he had a lot of
influence on other people so his
influence led to the bill being passed
so we call that the pull of his
influence it’s it’s completely different
and you know like you said you’re
African American Caribbean American and
so it’s it’s a different yeah but I
liked it I liked it a lot with tang I
think my uncle’s calling me so I got a
run real quick
but I’ll hit you back okay if you
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