Neighbor Trouble

Good neighbors are blessing.  Smile and chat with them, and exchange news.

Sometimes, however, neighbors could bother you, and you want to do something about it.  It's not easy to talk to them when you have complaints. You want to keep good relationship with your neighbors, but at the same time, you want them to be considerate for other people.

Today's dialogue is one of those common cases of neighbor trouble.  This situation might occur if you are here in the U.S. as a college student, especially during the final exam period.

Listen carefully to the dialogue, and answer the following questions.
 (1)   What is the main complaint of the female speaker?
 (2)   Who is her neighbor and what is the neighbor doing?
 (3)   What time of the day does this dialogue takes place? 
 (4)   Where can she find a better place for her during this time period?
 (5)   Pick the most important word in the dialogue that solved the problem.

Click the next word AUDIO, to listen to the dialogue.  As usual, please try to write the script.  In the repetition part, please be sure to speak aloud to train your tongue.  This is Dr. Han's method of improving speaking skills in English as a second or foreign language.

I'll be back soon with a new dialogue.

Dr. Han
Author

Compliments

Offering and receiving compliments are important social skills.  People in California are usually very frank in expression, and both men and women offer compliments.  Women tend to be more expressive, while men may be more conservative.

Appropriate compliments can start friendly conversations, and polite manners of receiving them keep the conversations going, and cultivate friendship between the speakers. 

Customs with compliments vary in different cultures.  To be a friendly   conversationalist in the U.S. it is good to learn American ways of exchanging compliments.

Listen carefully to the following dialogue.  To improve your listening skill, please listen several times, and answer the following questions.

1.  Where is this dialogue taking place?
2.  Who are the speakers?
3.  What is the thing that the speakers are talking about?
4.  How did the man acquire the object?
5.  Have you ever been to the place where the man bought the object? 

Please click the next word, AUDIO.

In the repetition part, please repeat after each sentence aloud. The pauses between sentences are long enough for you to practice speaking.  To become fluent in English you need to train your tongue to move just like a native speaker's.  The best exercise is "repetition."

I am not posting the script, because I believe that language is basically "spoken."  It's best if learners can develop their own ears to catch spoken words correctly without relying on the written text.  It's, however, a good practice to write down the sentences as much as possible.  The teachers could use this exercise as a homework, and correct their students' errors.  If you are studying independently and find certain parts unclear, please let me know. 

I'll be back soon with a new dialogue.

Dr. Han
Institute for Intercultural Studies

Dinner Guests

It's nice to be invited to dinner, but it's nicer if you can invite your friends to your home for dinner.  First, you'll clean your house.  Next, you'll go shopping and buy some food.  You'll set the table with the best tableware and a center piece of fresh flowers.  Then, you'll find an apron and become a chef.

Today's episode presents the arrival time of your dinner guests.  Pretend that you are the host.  Your dinner guests are arriving at the front door.

Listen carefully to the dialogue several times, and write the script.  In order that you'll listen more, I am not posting the script.  This is my teaching method.  In the repetition part, there are enough pauses between the sentences.  Be sure to repeat after each sentence aloud.  The models are all well educated native speakers of American English.  Imitating their pronunciation and intonation is the key to improve your spoken English.

Here is the link to the audio.

To test your comprehension, please answer the following questions.

1.  What do you say when your guest arrives at the front door?
2.  How many people are seen in this room?
3.  What do you say to introduce the guest to the other people in the room?
4.  Who is Janet?
5.  Did the guest drive his car to come here, or did he come on the bus?

I will post the answers on the Bulletin Board at my school.

Happy listening and speaking English!

I'll be back again soon.

Dr. Han
Institute for Intercultural Studies

Supermarket

Supermarkets in Southern California are very nice. They are spacious, clean, and pleasantly air-conditioned all year around. They have an abundance of fresh vegetables and good looking fruit. Shelves and shelves of all kinds of food items are there.

But, if you need something special and don't know where to find it, what will you do in such a big place?

Today's episode will take you to a supermarket and let you hear how a young lady finds someone to help her.

Listen carefully to the dialogue and find out the answers to the following questions.
1. What was the special item she needed?
2. Was the item available at this market?
3. Where was it?
4. What other things did she need?
5. What kind of salad is she planning to prepare for dinner tonight?
Please write the answers on a sheet of paper.

Listen once more and write the script of the dialogue. Spell out all the words.

In the repetition part, there are enough pauses. Please repeat after each sentence aloud. Repeat several times until you can memorize the dialogue and act out the scene as a skit.

Here is the link to the AUDIO file.  Click!

If you can find a native speaker of English please ask him or her to check your answers and the script you wrote.

I'll be back again soon.

Dr. Han
Institute for Intercultural Studies English School