Podcast 37, July 2014
Shocking Habits
Dicated by: Gulya, Alex, Gregorio, Maha and Azin
Hello everybody. You’re listening to Let’s Master English and my name is Coach Shane.
How are you doing everybody? Welcome to Let’s Master English, Podcast 37. Thank you so
much for downloading and listening to this Podcast. My name is Coach Shane and I'm here to
help you master English. Now, I've got to say a huge thank you to Roberto. Roberto has been
our Podcast dictation team leader for the past two weeks. And he and the entire team are
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So, today we've got a news story. It's a shocking news story. We've got an interesting fact
from Country Shane. A couple of questions from you. And, I'm gonna talk to about DDM,
because there is going to be a very special deal. It should be tomorrow which will be July 29th
2014. So, I want you, guys to listen to that, if you're interested in DDM, Daily Dictation
Members, my premium class. Okay, enough chit-chat, let's get to the news:
Got a bad habit? Wanna start a new habit? Pavlok might be just the thing. Pavlok is a
new wearable that shocks you, literally, when you don't keep a promise. If you sleep too
late – bzzz! If you don't go to the gym to exercise – bzzz! If you log on to Facebook for
more the 20 minutes – bzzz! The product should be out next year - are you in need?
Okay. Yeah, this is a tough one. This is about a new technology and the keyword is wearable,
wearable. Alright, so listen for that word and let's check out the story one more time. I read it
slowly. Here we go.
Got a bad habit? Wanna start a new habit? Pavlok might be just the thing. Pavlok is a
new wearable that shocks you, literally, when you don't keep a promise. If you sleep too
late – bzzz! If you don't go to the gym to exercise – bzzz! If you log on to Facebook for
more the twenty minutes – bzzz! The product should be out next year - are you in need?
Ha, ha, okay. So, the wearable – w-e-a-r-a-b-l-e that's the keyword. What is the wearable? It
is technology that you can wear. Technology that you can wear. So, we'll explain a little bit as
we go long. So, let's go to the first sentence: Got a bad habit? Now, grammatically do you
have a bad habit? Got a bad habit? You got a bad habit? Do you got a bad habit? Do you have
a bad habit? What's a habit? A habit is something that you do regularly without much thought.
So, a bad habit would be smoking. And many people who smoke they don't even think about
it. It's automatic. They just grab a cigarette and start smoking without really thinking. Another
bad habit would be biting your finger nails. People who bite their finger nails they aren't
thinking about it. It's just natural, it's just automatic. It's something that they do. But, we call
those bad habits. What's a good habit? A good habit is somebody who wakes up in the
morning and brushes their teeth. Somebody who before they go to bed at night they brush
their teeth... I think that's a good habit. I need to have that good habit. Yeah, I live alone, so I
never brush my teeth. Ha, ha, ha. No it's not true.
So, the first sentence: Got a bad habit? Do you have a bad habit?
The next sentence: Wanna start a new habit? Do you want to start a new habit? Would you
like to start a new habit? So, we got two questions, number one Got a bad habit? Number two
Wanna start a new habit? So, think about, think about yourself. For me- Do I have a bad
habit? Yes, I have a bad habit. I do not brush my teeth before I go to bed. That’s a bad habit.
Yes, I have a bad habit. The next question Wanna start a new habit? Do you want to start a
new habit? For me- yes, I would love to start a new habit. Well one habit would be- brushing
my teeth before I go to bed, but to start a new habit, every morning when I wake up, I would
like to have a big glass of water and go for a little bit of exercise at 6 AM. So, the new habit I
want to start is a glass of water and exercise at 6 AM. That’s the new habit I would like to
start, that would be great. If I could wake up every morning without thinking, have some
water and exercise that would be great! So, got a bad habit? Wanna start a new habit? Yes and
yes for me.
Next sentence: Pavlok might be just the thing. Pavlok, what’s that? I’ve never heard of
Pavlok. Well, anyway Pavlok might be just the thing. So, if something is just the thing- that
means it is the answer. So, Pavlok might be just the thing. Pavlok might be the answer. So if
you have a bad habit Pavlok might be the answer. If you wanna start a new habit Pavlok
might be the answer. So now we understand, Pavlok must be the name of a product or a
program, or maybe a book, okay?
Okay, so now, now I’m curious, what is Pavlok. Pavlok is a new wearable that shocks you
literally when you don’t keep a promise. Okay now, I understand. Do you understand?
Pavlok is a new wearable. So, once again a wearable is technology that you can wear. For
example- a smart watch. Yeah, nowadays they’re talking about smart watches, many people
have a smart phone, but we need to carry in our hand a smart phone. But the smart watch is
always on our arm. Very nice. Or GPS shoes. Yes, they’ve developed GPS shoes. And they
will help you with directions, seriously. Google glass. That’s right, you own the Google
glasses that you can wear? Yeah, that’s a wearable. So, this is wearable, these are wearable,
technology that you can wear. And Pavlok is a new wearable. Now, it’s not in the story, but
I’ll tell you, Pavlok is like a bracelet, it goes around your wrist. Okay, so it’s….you put it
around your wrist, like a watch.
So, let me finish the sentence here. Pavlok is a new wearable that shocks you. Now in
America when we hear: Oh, it shocked me! It shocked me! The first definition of shock is
surprise. “Did you hear that Shane is 46 years old? What?! I’m so shocked! I thought Shane
was 22 years old!” Ha-ha-ha. Yeah I know someone of you probably think that I am 66 years
old. But, no I am 46. Is that shocking? Is that surprising? But another definition of shock is
you know electricity. If something shocks you, it gives you a short electric pulse- bzzzz,
bzzzz. So, you can imagine touching a wire- bzzz. Auch! Okay, so a short electric pulse will it
kill you? No, probably not. But it will wake you up, it will surprise you. So shock has two
meanings. So shock in the dictionary: the first meaning is the electric pulse. But the
figurative, the other meaning is surprising. Another way to say it- the literal l-i-t-e-r-a-l, the
literal meaning of shock is a short electric pulse bzzz. The figurative f-i-g-u-r-a-t-i-v-e the
figurative meaning of shock is to surprise you. HA! So, literal meaning- bzzzz, figurative
meaning- HA! Do you understand?
Now, listen to this sentence again Pavlok is a new wearable that shocks you, literally, when
you don’t keep a promise. Aha, so if you make a promise- I promise to wake up at 6 AM. I
promise to exercise. I promise to not use Facebook. If you break that promise, if you do not
keep that promise, Pavlok- the bracelet on your wrist, will shock you. It’s not gonna surprise
you, it is literally going to shock you bzzzz. So, 6 o’clock, you wanna wake up at 6 o’clock.
But 6 o’clock you don’t wake up. At 6:10 in the morning bzzzz, bzzzz it’s gonna start
shocking you. If you, if you say: “I am going to go to the gym and exercise”. And you can
put the GPS of the gym in Pavlok. But if you don’t go to the gym at the time you say Pavlok
will bzzz, bzzz start shocking you. Now Pavlok has Bluetooth, Bluetooth technology. So if
you program Pavlok to say I will not use Facebook for more than 20 minutes. But you do,
Pavlok can sense that because it has Bluetooth technology and bzzz, bzzz it will shock you.
Ha-ha-ha. It will change your habits. So, listen to the sentence again: Pavlok is a new
wearable that shocks you, literally, when you don’t keep a promise.
Next sentence : If you sleep too late--- bzzz! If you don’t go to the gym to exercise---bzzz! If you log on to facebook for more than 20 minutes---bzzz! Hahaha, I think you
understand.
And the last sentence: the product should be out next year, are you in need?
So, Pavlok will be out, it’ll be on the market, it will be for sell next year, 2015. Are you in
need? Do you need Pavlok? Me, Why not? It might be helpful sure, but the problem is, and
I’ll tell you the problem, the beta version, the test version is two hundred and fifty dollars oh
my goodness that’s way too expensive.
Now Pavlok for ten, twenty dollars, maybe! 250 dollars oh no no no, that’s too much, too
much, too expensive, What about you? Tell me if you had this type of wearable with
Bluetooth technology, GPS technology. It can sense movement, so if you’re sleeping and not
waking up it knows, it knows, if it has that technology. I think it’s called kinesthetic
technology I’m not sure, but anyway, would you like this?
Do you think it would be useful for you to maybe stop a bad habit or start a new habit, a good
habit? Yah, Now, let me explain the name “Pavlok” have you heard of Pavlov, Pavlov’s dog?
He’s the Russian behavior expert who trained dogs with shock therapy and with bells ding
ding ding. Pavlov, so that’s we got the Pavlov the ach Pavlov shock, Pavlov’s shock. It’s a
great name, but 250 dollars oh it’s too expensive. Leave your opinions I’m curious, would
you like a Pavlov when it comes out. Okay let me then read the story two more times the first
time nice, smooth speed and the second time normal, comfortable speed, comfortable for me,
are you ready? Here we go!
Got a bad habit? Wanna start a new habit? Pavlok might be just the thing. Pavlok is a
new wearable that shocks you, literally, when you don't keep a promise. If you sleep too
late – bzzz! If you don't go to the gym to exercise – bzzz! If you log on to Facebook for
more the 20 minutes – bzzz! The product should be out next year - are you in need?
Got a bad habit? Wanna start a new habit? Pavlok might be just the thing. Pavlok is a
new wearable that shocks you, literally, when you don't keep a promise. If you sleep too
late – bzzz! If you don't go to the gym to exercise – bzzz! If you log on to Facebook for
more the 20 minutes – bzzz! The product should be out next year - are you in need?
How’re you doing everybody? This is country Shane and I’m here to bring you the facts:
You’ve heard of google glasses? Well they’re not realy glasses cause they have no lenses, and
the monitor is only for the right eye and there is only one size, so for a pumpkin head like me
Google Glass is out!
This has been Country Shane bringing you the facts.
Oh boy! Poor Country Shane he has a pumpkin head, yeah! Interesting, google glass I think
everybody has heard of google glass, they’re not really glasses because they have no lenses,
it’s just a frame, and the monitor , the really tiny monitor is only for the right eye. Are you
right eyed? Or lift eyed? And for the frames there is just one size, so if you have a little
skeleton head or huge pumpkin head like country Shane, google glass is not gonna fit very
well, by the way they coast 1500 dollars too. Too expensive!
It’s time for some questions:
Our first question comes from Chang Mu –Heng and he asks: “what’s the difference:
undeveloped and underdeveloped?”
That’s a great question. So we can talk about undeveloped land, l-a-n-d an undeveloped area
of land and at situation the land is fresh, it’s raw there is nothing there grass, trees maybe
animals undeveloped land.
Underdeveloped land means they’ve done some work maybe they’ve removed trees and
animals and things like that but there is no buildings or there is no pipes or electricity that
would be underdeveloped land, so they started but it’s not finished.
Now, undeveloped countries that would be a country that is very, well primitive. They
probably do not have internet, they might not even have electricity, they might not even have
plumbing, you know toilets and showers, they might still be cooking with wood or maybe
coal. That would be a very undeveloped society sometimes an undeveloped society sounds
nice, right? A little bit of nature, but we must remember people who live in undeveloped
areas, it’s tough, those are tough tough people.
Under developed countries once again these are countries that are beginning to develop, so
they’re not developed, they’re in the process, under developed countries might still have many
infrastructure problems but it’s a little bit better than undeveloped countries. Once again we
can use this for economies too. Undeveloped economies they probably don’t have a currency ,
they probably exchange food, you know I’ll give you three apples for some beef , that type of
situation , under developed economies probably most people are not using the bank , people
are using cash or once again they’re using apples to buy oranges something like that would be
underdeveloped. So the big difference is under developed it’s fresh it’s raw, underdeveloped
it’s in the process of being developed but it still has a long way to go, okay?
Our next question comes from Rana: “what’s the difference between check and control?”
Well the dictionary though be many differences but I think I understand your question. To
check something means to look at something and see what condition it is in. So check on the
patient at the hospital the doctor or the nurse will go and check on the patient they’ll just see
how the patient is doing how is their pulse? How is their breathing? How is their medicine?
How is their food? They’re just checking, they’re observing. To control something actually
means to manipulate it. So if you are controlling something you are touching it or you are
doing something to change how it is operating. Does that make sense? I hope so. Check your
dictionary of course and if you have a, another example like in this situation then let me
know, ok?
Our next question is from MRM: “what’s the difference, void and null?” Well this is a good
question. Sometimes we use them in a very similar situation, but void, if something is void it
means it is no longer useful. You cannot use it any more. So I bought a ticket to a movie last
night. But I didn’t go last night. I want to go tonight. But the ticket has yesterday’s date. Oh
no! My ticket is void. I cannot use the ticket. Null, n-u-l-l, now, null refers to something that
has no value. Its value is zero. So many times in America you’ll hear the expression: this
contract is null and void. This contract has no value and it is useless. Does that answer your
question MRM? I hope so.
Our next question comes from Algeria. This is a great question. It’s an audio question and he
wants me to explain this sentence and the pronunciation. So let’s listen to the sentence: “could
I have a box of Jujyfruits?” “Could I have a box of Jujyfruits?” “Could I have a box of
Jujyfruits?” So what did you hear? Could I have a box of jujyfruits? Could I have a box of
jujyfruits? Could I have a box of Jujyfruits? Ok, so the last word is a proper noun and when
you’re listening to real English proper nouns are tough. So Jujyfruits, J, that’s a capital j, a
big j, J-u-j-y so once again, Jujy, J-u-j-y fruits f-r-u-i-t-s, it’s one word: J-u-j-y-f-r-u-i-t-s,
Jujyfruits, Jujyfruits, Jujyfruits, Jujyfruits, it’s the name of a type of candy in America. So the
character, the woman’s name was Elaine, and she said: “could I have a box of Jujyfruits?” So
she wants to buy some candy. What kind of candy? Jujyfruits. How much? A box. “could I
have a box of Jujyfruits?” Now the pronunciation, c-o-u-l-d, could, no, no, no, c-o-u-l-d has a
very short : could, could, could. Could I, now here the ‘d’ needs to connect. Could I, could I ,
could I, could I ? It’s like a flat ‘t’, very similar but it is a ‘d’ sound. Could I have a, now the
word have when it comes in the middle of a sentence it is very possible to cancel the ‘h’
sound. So, I have, can become ‘I av’, could I have? Could I have? Could I have? Could I have
a, here the have, ‘v’ connects into the ‘a’, ‘a’. Could I have a? Could I have a? Could I have
a? Box, could I have a box? Could I have a box? Could I have a box? A box of Jujyfruits.
Now, here of the ‘v’ sound is cancelled. So it’s not box of Jujyfruits, it’s actually box ‘ae’
Jujyfruits. No ‘v’, box ‘ae’ Jujyfruits. So in this sentence we have two cancelations: have, ‘h’,
of, ‘v’ the ‘v’ sound, the ‘f’. So if we say it slowly with cancelation it sounds like this : could
I ‘av’ a box ‘ae’ Jujyfruits? Could I have a box of Jujyfruits? Could I have a box of Jujyfruits?
Could I have a box of Jujyfruits? Could I have a box of Jujygruits? Could I have a box of
Jujyfruits? Could I have a box of Jujyfruits? Could I have a box of Jujyfruits? Could I have a
box of Jujyfruits? So, can you hear it? I hope so.
Now, this is what I teach in DDM. I teach how Americans pronounce English and I teach you
how to say it and our philosophy in DDM is, if you can say it you can hear it. So, in this
sentence very short simple sentence but those two words ‘have’ and ‘of’ are very tough and of
course the proper noun. Many students have a difficult time with these easy sentences, that’s
why you need DDM. And I’ll talk about DDM at the end.
One more question from Patricia: Please explain the vowel sounds in the word “A-L-T-AR” for Juan Carlos, that’s Patricia’s friend. So Hi Patricia, Hi Juan, the word “A-L-T-A-R”,
you can check the dictionary, the dictionary for the meaning, the pronunciation is alter, alter,
alter, the alter, Where is the alter? Alter, alter ah! This is so crazy. So, the first part “A-L”: al,
al, it basically sounds like “A-W-L”: awl, awl, awl OK? Like altogether, alright, all, alter.
Now, some Americans will pronounce it “awl” as in “U-L”, that is possible too. So “awl” and
“al”, “awl” “al”, both pronunciations are possible. Now, the second syllable “T-A-R” is
pronounced “TER”, so ALTER and ALTER, ALTER and ALTER, ALTER, ALTER, where
is the wedding ALTAR? Where is the sacrifice or sacrificial altar? Altar. Now this is once
again American English, the pronunciation can really be confusing. Because sometimes AL
sounds like “AL”, like Alain and Alabama and sometimes it sounds like AWL like Alright,
always. T-A-R can sound like TAR, like guitar but it can also sound like “TER” like “nectar”
or mortar “N-E-C-T-A-R”, “M-O-R-T-A-R”. So it’s really confusing. I know and why is it
confusing? Because English language comes from so many different languages. Now most
English words have a Latin or a Greek origin. But we have so many words from the Arabic
language, form chines and Japanese maybe even from Russia, yes we do from Russia: Vodka
that’s a Russian word. From Spanish, from Portuguese, from French from German, all over
the word. And because these words come from all over the world the pronunciation can
become really confusing.
So how do you know how to pronounce a word? Well, you have to speak, the answer is
speaking. You have to listen, mimic and speak. I’m serious, speaking is the key but more
important than speaking is listening, being able to hear proper English and then saying it,
speaking it. Do you understand? Now, many of you, especially older people probably
remember their English teacher in school and many English teachers, a long time ago, their
pronunciation was horrible it was terrible! Why? Because they only read English, they studied
pronunciation in a dictionary. That does not help. It really causes problems, but nowadays we
have the internet, we have Hollywood movies and pops songs and TV shows all around the
world, you have so many opportunities to hear proper English, British English, American
English, Australian English, it’s different. But you have many chances to listen to it. Even in
America, English in Texas is different than English in New York, the pronunciation is
different than English in California but you still have the chance to hear it. And that’s, you
know, that’s my job. My job is to bring these different types of English to you so that you can
hear it. And my job is to teach you why and how Americans pronounce words like this. And
that’s my job. I’m here to help you. So it’s such a great question.
The last two questions, ah the guy from Algeria and Patricia these are my favorite questions,
talking about pronunciation. It’s tough but it’s so important, listen to the words, how they’re
pronounced. Do your best to repeat VERY IMPORTANTE very important yeah! Thank you
so much for the questions.
And that brings us to another ending of another podcast. Let’s master English podcast 37 is
finished. Thank you so much everybody again for listening and downloading this podcast.
Now, I said I would talk about DDM. DDM is THE class for pronunciation, culture, speaking,
it’s such a great class. And these days I received several letters from many students who said:
“it’s, I just don’t have time. 8 lessons of month, you know I studied your free lessons and, and
I checked out the 8 lessons and I know I’m worried, I don’t think I have enough time to study
8 lessons in a month”. Okay! This is what I’m gonna do for a very limited time. This will end
on Tuesday, yeah Tuesday, well actually Wednesday, for you Wednesday, in your time zones
this will end on Wednesday. I am offering DDM just four classes for a month. So that means
1 DDM lesson a week. See if you can handle this. Aft…, And this is just a one month only
it’s not a subscription, it’s a one-time, one month only, it’s a test. So sign up. OK? Check it
out and then you decide, do you want to continue with one lesson a week or do you want to be
real tough and Join regular DDM which is two lessons a week, okay? So this is a great
opportunity to test your time and your commitment. So once again, it’s called DDM Lite l-i-te. And right now I’m making the registration page. It’s not finished, but it would be ready
tomorrow, okay? So you need to, if you’re interested to pay attention to my Facebook page,
my google+ page, and my Twitter page. I will give you updates on how and when you can
register. Yes! It will be cheap, it’s 22 Dollars, that’s cheap, that’s really really inexpensive. So
once again my Twittec(-r handle is @coachshane c-o-a-c-h-s-h-a-n-e my facebook page is
eslcoachshane and our google; I want you to go to google community, our google community
is Let’s Master English, ok? I put the announcement there. And I’m expecting you guys to
sign up. This is going to be an opportunity once. However if people really like it, if they like
this DDM Lite version, then I’ll make it a regular situation, a regular registration, OK?
So that’s my deal. And now, normally I, people have asked me in the past to, to do this and,
you’ll, I’ll be honest, I’m against it because really, you know I want students who are serious,
I want them to practice every day and DDM, regular DDM requires 30 minutes a day. But
people, and I understand, people are busy. So I’ll try it. Let’s see what happens. So this is like
30 minutes every other day. Does that sound like it’s possible for you? I guaranty you will
like DDM, okay? I guaranty that you like DDM, and yeah, so Sign up and we’ll see how it
goes. And if you guys like it I’ll continue it but if you don’t I’m gonna stop. Registration will
only be tomorrow and Wednesday, that is July 29th and July 30th 2014. That’s it. Maybe I’ll
open it again in the future but no, right now for a month, for one month at least, that’s it,
okay?
Alright that’s it. Thank you so much everybody for listening and have a fantastic week, I’ll be
back in a week, and remember together let’s master English.