Let’s Master English Podcast Episode 16
is dictated by Joaquin, Margherita, Yuka, Bertha and MaxJoaquin
Hello everybody! You´re listening to Let´s Master English and my name is Coach Shane.
How are you doing every body?. Thanks so much for downloading and listening to the Let's Master
English podcast. This is episode 16. I hope your week was great and that this week is excellent for
you.
Now I do have a DDM announcement Daily Dictation Members. This is the final week of our great
prices. The prices will go up at the end of the week; so, if you´re interested in joining DDM, do it
now. If you join this week, I guarantee the same price for the rest of your membership. DDM is an
excellent class. We discuss listening skills, pronunciation, culture, expressions, background
information. It´s a lot of fun. It´s the greatest English class on the internet. I´m serious. If you have
not try DDM then I hardly encourage you to get the free lessons and you can get those one throw
eight - eight free DDM lessons if you sign up. Please go to www.letsmasterenglish.com/tryddm that´s T-R-Y DDM. Get it today. And I have to say a special thank you to Miguel and we can call
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is taking care of the scholarship students and for everybody who signs up for the free DDM lessons
he is having specials hang outs. So you can practice the lessons with other members and coach
Miguel. So Miguel, thank you so much for that.
Also this week I will be releasing a special podcast and the title is - how to choose an online
English course. This will be a great podcast and I hope you share this podcast with everybody you
know - how to choose an online English course.
Enough chitchat, let's start with the news.
A California man is suing McDonald's because he didn´t get enough napkins with his
quarter pounder because he is black. The man, perhaps a sloppy eater ask the manager for
more napkins but was refused. Then the manager mumbled something like "you people".
The man claims he hasn´t been able to work because of undue mental anguish. He suing
the hamburger franchise for the equivalent o a quarter of a million quarter pounders or
about one and a half million dollars.
What?
(reads the text again)
Oh boy!, What a crazy story!
Now, the key word in this story is sue S-U-E. Do you know what it means - to sue?. To sue
someone means taking that person or that company to court, you know, in front of a judge. And the
reason you take that person or company to court is because you believe that person or that
company has cheated you; has done something wrong to you and you want the company to
formally apologize and almost always we sue for money as compensation for been wrong.
So for example: if I am a, uh, look at me. I am a white guy 46 years old and I work for a company
and the company fires me because I´m a white guy; they only want black guys or they only want,
uh, Mexican guys; they don´t want any white guys and the boss says: Shane we have to let you
go. Why?. I work hard. I´m sorry, Shane, you´re too white. Ooh!. In this situation, the court was
been racist against me. So I would sue the company and I would probably sue them for millions of
dollars.
No, that´s a bad example because in America, white people do not usually suffer from racism; it's
the other way around, usually black people, Mexican people, people from other races and other
backgrounds tent to suffer from racism and things like that; but this is the idea of suing.
So, if somebody or some company does something wrong to you, in America we tent to sue that
person or that company and America is kind of famous for it's law suits, S-U-I-T-S, that means
suing and sometimes the courts give millions of dollars to the victim and that´s the situation here.
Did you understand the story?
Let's look at each sentence.
A California man is suing McDonald's because he didn't get enough napkins with his quarter
pounder because he's black. OK, so, uh, – California man – now, California man; we also can say
a Californian man. So, we can add an “n” to California.
Is suing McDonald's – so, here is the key verb, sue, to sue, S-U-E, but here it's - ing, S-U-I-N-G.
McDonald's, you know McDonald's, the hamburger company.
So, why is he suing McDonald's? - because he didn't get enough napkins, he didn't receive
enough napkins with his quarter pounder.
OK, so he ordered a quarter pounder, a quarter pounder, Q-U-A-R-T-E-R, quarter pounder,
P-O-U-N-D-E-R.
A pound is a unit of weight, like a kilogram. So, one pound equals 0.45 kilograms, so almost half a
kilogram. So, a quarter pounder would be a quarter of a pound or about a hundred and twenty
five grams. That's a big hamburger. So, the quarter pounder is one of McDonald's famous
hamburgers. It's their big hamburger.
So, this guy, he's black, he's black American, African-American, he went to McDonald's and he
ordered a quarter pounder, a big hamburger and they gave him some napkins but he wanted more
napkins, but the McDonald's restaurant didn't give him more napkins. So, he's suing them.
Uh, we have to keep listening.
Let's listen to the first sentence again.
A California man is suing McDonald's because he didn't get enough napkins with his quarter
pounder because he's black.
Aha, so the real issue is not really the napkins. It's because he's black. Let's find out.
The man, the black man, perhaps a sloppy eater, perhaps, maybe a sloppy eater, eater, you know
somebody who eats, what is sloppy, S-L-O-P-P-Y, that means a messy eater or a dirty eater. So,
when they're, when, a sloppy eater, if they're eating a hamburger then the ketchup comes down
the face and the,the onions fall out of the mouth; so, if you are a sloppy eater then you need lots of
napkins. Right? Sure. So, the man perhaps a sloppy eater, asked the manager for more napkins.
“Excuse me, manager. Could I have some more napkins?” But was refused. The man was refused.
He asked for more napkins, but the manager said: “No”.
Then the manager mumbled something like: “You people”. OK, so, mumbled, what does it mean
“to mumble”? M-U-M-B-L-E, the manager mumbled something like “You people”. To mumble
something means- to say something but not very clearly or not very loud, rather quietly. So, for
example, if I wanted to say – I hate you, if I said it loud and clear, you would be angry. So,
sometimes I mumble it, hhhh hhhh. So, you can kind of hear me but not exactly and that's what the
manager did. The manager said to the black customer: “You people. You people”. And the black
man heard “you people” and he thinks that “you people” means “black people”.
Now, the manager was not white, the manager was a Mexican-American. So, it's a big question. If
the manager actually said “You people”, was he referring to black people or was he talking about
sloppy eaters or maybe he was talking about the lunch time customers or demanding customers.
Oh, “you people” can have many different meanings, but yes, one possible definition is – black
people. Oh boy, that's a big problem.
The man, the black man claims, he says, he claims, C-L-A-I-M-S, the same thing is “says”, the
man claims he hasn't been able to work, he can't work because of undue mental anguish, undue
mental anguish. Now, this is actually what he wrote in his lawsuit. So, the courts when they see the
documents they see “I am suing McDonald's for undue mental anguish because I didn't get enough
napkins with my quarter pounder because I'm black”. So, what is undue mental anguish? Undue,
U-N-D-U-E, undue means inappropriate or excessive, too much, a huge amount but in a very bad
way; undue mental anguish; mental means your mind, your stress level. What about anguish? A-NG-U-I-S-H, anguish means severe mental suffering. So, basically “ undue mental anguish” means
severe stress, too much stress, unnecessarily stress, large amounts of stress, the man has not
been able to work at his job because he is stressed, because the manager said: “You people”
when he asked for napkins.
Oh my Goodness!
So, he, the man, the black man is suing the hamburger franchise, hamburger franchise, the
McDonald's store. Franchise means a chain, a chain of restaurants, a chain of stores, a hamburger
franchise, uh, there are many types of franchises, especially restaurants and also drug stores and
also departments stores. Walmart is a huge franchise, Burger King is a huge franchise.
So he is suing the hamburger franchise for the equivalent of. So the equivalent means an equal
amount, so, for example, if I buy a Starbucks Coffee, the value of the Starbucks Coffee is $5. It’s
the same value as a Big Mac meal at McDonald's. So am I hungry or am I thirsty? With the
equivalent amount of money, I could buy either a coffee or a McDonald's meal. What do I do? So in
equivalent amount of something means the same amount, regarding in this case, money. So he is
suing the hamburger franchise for the equivalent of a quarter of a million Quarter Pounders. So a
quarter of a million, a quarter means 1/4. A quarter of a million means 250,000 Quarter Pounders.
We talked about Quarter Pounders, Quarter Pounders are the big hamburgers at McDonalds. So
he is suing the hamburger franchise for not a quarter of a million Quarter Pounders, he doesn’t
actually want 250,000 hamburgers. The equivalent of a quarter of a million Quarter Pounders or
about one and a half million dollars. So the last sentence is actually funny. He is suing McDonald's
for one and a half million dollars. That’s $1.5M or $1,500,000. And if you have $1.5M, you can buy
250,000 Quarter Pounders at McDonald's or a quarter of a million Quarter Pounders.
Wow, so this is the news right now in America. Not a big story but it’s a funny story. But if it’s true, if
it is about racism, yeah, that’s a problem. McDonald's is a global company. They do not want to be
known as a racist company. So this is a problem for the manager and I wonder what will happen to
the man. Will he win in court? Will McDonald's give him money? How much money will McDonald's
give? America is sue-happy. Many people like to sue in America. You have to be careful. If you
have a business in America, be very careful with your customers. Because if they think you are
doing something wrong to them, they are going to sue you. Undo mental anguish. Oh, I can’t
work, they didn’t give me napkins because I’m black. Well, I hope that’s not true but we shall see.
So we have lots of vocabulary words. SUING to sue, to take someone to court because you
believe they have cheated you. They did something wrong to you. When we sue in court, we
usually sue for money. And we take that money as compensation. What about in your country? Is it
common to sue? In America it’s actually quite common.
NAPKINS those are the pieces of paper that you use to clean your mouth and clean your hands
when you eat lunch or dinner, maybe breakfast too. Most napkins are made of paper. But some
napkins are made of cotton. And some expensive napkins are even made of silk. Can you believe
that?
QUARTER POUNDER, the Quarter Pounder is a very popular sandwich at McDonald's. It’s a
quarter pound of beef that is 1/4 of a pound of beef which is about 125g. It’s a big hamburger.
A SLOPPY EATER someone who eats sloppily. A messy eater. When you are eating the food as
falling from your mouth. It’s not very nice to see.
MUMBLED to mumble; to say something in a low tone of voice, very quietly. And not very clearly. I
don’t like to study English. I don’t like to study English. Ooh, did you hear what I said? I’ll say it two
more times I’m mumbling. So listen carefully. I don’t like to study English. I don’t like to study
English. If you know the answer, leave a message. What did Shane mumble?
CLAIMS someone claims, it means says or insists.
UNDO MENTAL ANGUISH simply interpreted it means unnecessarily large amounts of stress,
unnecessarily large amounts of stress.
FRANCHISE a franchise is a chain, specifically one unit of a restaurant so there are many, many
McDonald's restaurants all over the world. But McDonald's doesn’t own every restaurant. They sell
the rights to an individual and he or she opens the restaurant but it is the same as all the other
McDonald's restaurants. That’s a franchise. Starbucks is a famous coffee franchise.
The EQUIVALENT OF the equal amount of, so something is equivalent to something else. 250,000
Quarter Pounders is equivalent to one and a half million dollars. It’s a lot of money.
Okay I’m going to read the story two more times. The first time smoothly, the second time normally.
Here we go:
A California man is suing McDonald’s because he didn’t get enough napkins with his quarter
pounder because he is black. The man, perhaps a sloppy eater, asked the manager for more
napkins, but was refused. Then the manager mumbled something like “ you people”. The man
claims he hasn’t been able to work because of undue mental anguish. He is suing the hamburger
franchise for the equivalent of a quarter of a million quarter pounders or about 1 ½ million dollars.
(reads the text again)
How’re you doing everybody. This is country Shane and I’m here to bring you the facts.
In Europe there is country called Montenegro. Montenegro is right across from Italy, South of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. North of Albania. Well, the interesting fact about Montenegro. When
Montenegro became independent from Yugoslavia its internet domain changed from being YU to
ME. That’s dot yu dot me. Ha ha ha. This has been country Shane bringing you the facts.
It’s time for some questions and answers.
The first question is from Hin Min. I hope I pronounced that correctly. I’ve watched your videos and
they have helped me a lot. I have a question. I need your help. How can I pronounce the l-l in will
and the contractions; they will, we will, I will, she will, he will and It will. Thank you very much.
Great questions.
So they will if we contract that with will it sounds like they-l, they-l. However most Americans when
they say it quickly they do not say they- l they say dell. Dell be here. They-l be here. Dell be her,
dell be here. We will is the same thing if we contract it sounds like we-l, we-l but when we say it
quickly it usually sounds like will or wul. Will be there, wul be there. Will or wul. Actually we will has
5 different pronunciations that are quite common in America and I talk about those in DDM. So join
DDM. The next one I will. I’ll, I’ll but the typical pronunciation is al,al,al. She will, she-l but we
usually say shel, shel. He will perfect pronunciation he-l but we usually say hel,hel. And it will
contracted It’ll and that’s almost how we say it, it’ll it’ll. Great question. Thank you very much. Now
our next question is from Gustavo. Gustavo from Spain has a question; it’s about the T that is in
the middle of the word for example Saturday T is in the middle, tomato the second T is in the
middle, priority there is a T in the middle.
Now, do you pronounce the T like a D or an R is it priority or prioridy?. Okay so if you listen to my
pronunciation there Gustavo you know that it is pronounce like a T. Now that type of T is called a
flap T and many English teachers say a flap T is like an R. That’s is not true. No, it’s not like an R.
So let’s look at Saturday, the T is a flap T so if the flap T sound like an R then the pronunciation
would be Sarurday, that’s terrible. Tomato if the second T which is a flap T sounds like an R would
be tomarro, tomarro, what the heck is that? It’s not an R. Now, it might be similar to an R in
Spanish or the R sound in Japanese or in Korean, but in English the flap T is basicly a D. Saturday,
Saturday Sattturday Saturday. Tomato, tomato, tomatttto tomato. Priority, priority, priority priotttty
it’s a very, very, very short sound. That makes sense? I hope so. Thanks for the question Gustavo.
Our next question is from Mina. Mina moved to New York from Japan last year and Nina is signing
up for DDM live. That’s great Nina we look forward to having you.
Now, Mina has a problem with some pronunciation and, uh, she wants to say the word Thursday.
But whenever she says the word Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, people hear
Saturday and she says “no, no, no, no, not Saturday, Thursday”. But still they don’t understand
what I’m saying. Oh this is so frustrated and now I’m scared. I’m afraid of saying Thursday and by
the way I also have a problem with birthday and thirty, ten twenty thirty. Aha, so, the big problem for
me is the R and I’ve been watching your videos and they helping me but can you talk about these
words. Yes Mina, so Thursday, now if people are thinking Saturday that’s a big problem, because
Saturday has three syllables Sa-tur-day, Sa-tur-day, Thursday has only two syllables. So, Mina,
first of all be careful with your syllables. Listen carefully how many syllables are you pronouncing.
So the T-H-U-R be very careful, TH…, , the TH is long, THUR, THUR, THUR, when you make the
R sound do not let the tongue touch anywhere in the mouth. THUR, THURSDAY, the S is actually a
Z sound and it is vibrated, and then you touch with the D, THURSDAY, THURSDAY, THURSDAY,
SATURDAY, SATURDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY. Let’s look the other two words. BIRTHHHDAY,
BIRTHHHDAY, BIRTHHHDAY, THHHIRTY, THHHIRTY, so just like THURSDAY, THIRTY has the
same type of pronunciation, BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY, the R and TH are the other way. So, my
recommendation Mina is to listen to my recording and record yourself and keep practicing. Also,
since you’re joining DDM LIVE and in your fist live hangout please ask me this question again, so
that I can hear your pronunciation, okay? Thank you very much for the question, it is tough one,
the R and THs together it is very difficult for a lots of people I know. So, good luck with that one
Mina.
We have another question and I don’t. Ah yes, yes, this is Qumon from Vietnam again. So, his
question is, I think it is a he. Why can’t I hear the native English speakers pronounce the ED
sound? Especially in the sentence - it happened to me. So, when a native English speakers says it happened to me. I can not hear the happened, I don’t hear the ED. In fact it sounds like “it
happens to me”. Okay, so I do have many videos on ED. And ED sound is confusing. But in this
case it happened to me. What happens is - the D in “happened” and the T in TO, those two sounds
connect, they link. So, we don’t say “it happened to me”, we say “it happened to me, it happened to
me”. So, you do not hearing the D, I agree, because the D sound connects into the T and in this
type of connection we only keep the second sound. And once again, I always talk about this in
DDM. Now I’m guessing the reason you hear an S is because sometimes when the T sound is very
clear it does have a bit of an S sound. But It is not an S, it happens to me, it happened to me. So,
listen carefully. The first sentence will be it happened to me, the second santance will be it
happens to me. OK, listen carefully. “It happened to me”, “It happens to me”, “It happened to me”,
“It happens to me”. I hope you can hear the difference. And once again that's a great question.
And we have another question from Michael. Now Michael's question is the word NO, N-O and
KNOW, K-N-O-W. Now we all know, everybody knows the homonyms, they sound exactly the
same. However this is just my guess, it seems that when Americans say NO, N-O, especially in the
middle of a sentence, in the middle of a phrase it sounds very short, not KNOW, but just NO, NO,
so for example:
- Did you see that TV show last night?
- No
It is a long sound. Let’s get some the other example.
- Let’s get something to drink
- I have no money
NO, NO, NO. So, once again N-O all along sounds long NOOO, but N-O in the middle of a
sentence sounds really short: “I’ve no money, I’ve no money”. I hope you understand what I’m
asking and please answer my question. Well, Michael, yes, I do agree, that many times when N-O,
where N-O comes in the middle of a sentence it is really short. “I’ve no money, I’ve no money”. It is
N, N, N, almost just an N sound. NO, but not with a W, I do agree with that Michael. I don’t think
other native English speakers would recognize the difference, but if you analyze it, yes, I think
there truly is a difference for many cases. And that’s it for the questions today. Thank you
everybody for those fantastic questions, it is time to rape up the show.
All right, once again I want to say a special thank you to everybody who leaves and rating and
comment on iTunes. Believe it or not in the past two weeks nobody has left a comment on iTunes.
I’m very sad, but I did get another 5 star rating from somebody in Italy. Thank you very much for
that.
Also, please join our community on Google Plus, it is called Let’s Master English and if you go
there: “Berta Granados” from Mexico, she lives in America, she dictated all of the podcast LME 15
and she wants your feedback. Did she do a good job? I think she did a great job. But may be you
can help fix some things.
And finally, don’t forget if you are interested in joining DDM, Daily Dictation Members, that’s my
premium online class, join this week and guarantee yourself the low prices that we have now. The
prices will go up at the end of the week. That’s right. So, do it. If you want a trial, if you want to try
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Oh, and I should say last week we had a problem with our email service provider, so we couldn’t
get you the lessons quickly, but have as today which is March 3rd, everybody who signed up for
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videos, the lessons, okay? Don’t forget if you sign up for the free DDM classes, join coach Miguel,
for the free hangouts to practice those lessons, you can get more information if you join our Let’s
Master English community on Google Plus and also don’t forget this week we do have a special
podcast coming up, an extra podcast and a title is “How To Choose An Online English Course”.
That’s it everybody.
I hope you have a fantastic week and, of course, I’ll be back with Let’s Master English 17 next
week. Take care everybody, and Let’s Master English!