EC056_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 56

TOPICS

Day of the Dead, Desperate Housewives, work vs. job. vs. occupation, older vs.

elder

_____________

GLOSSARY

saint – someone who is recognized by others, often a religious organization, as

being holy

* When we visited the churches in London, we saw a lot of statues of famous

saints.

grave – a hole in the ground where a dead person is buried

* We haven’t been to this cemetery for years, but I think that his grave is over

there under the tree.

shrine – a place, often a building, that is considered holy

* When he’s feeling troubled, he goes to that shrine on the top of the mountain to

think and to pray.

skull – the bones of a person’s (or animal’s) head

* I was always scared of the fake skull that my science teacher kept on his desk.

desperate – having a great need or desire for something; having no hope that a

situation will improve

* We’re trying to quit smoking, but I’m feeling desperate right now for a cigarette.

housewife – a married woman whose main job is to care for her family and to

take care of things related to the house

* She isn’t sure if she wants to quite her job after having children to become a

housewife.

suburbs – an area, usually with a lot of housing, outside of the city

* After they moved to the suburbs, they bought a more reliable car so they can

drive to work in the city.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 56

soap opera – a television series that tells about the daily life of the same group

of people over a long period of time, sometimes years

* He eats his lunch in the employee lounge everyday at noon so he can watch his

favorite soap opera on TV.

melodramatic – event or behavior that is more exciting or dramatic than in real

life; exaggerated actions intended to make people feel very emotional

* Don’t be so melodramatic! Breaking up with your boyfriend isn’t going to be the

end of the world.

Emmy Award – awards given out each year to the best television show or actor

or actress in the United States

* I was so mad when my favorite TV show didn’t win any Emmy Awards this year!

work – things that need to be done

* After a tough week in the office, the last thing I want to do is work around the

house.

job – a position that someone is paid to take or to do

* The hiring committee loved you. If you want the job, it’s yours.

occupation – a type of job

* When we asked him his occupation, he said that he used to be musician but

that he’s now training to be a podcaster.

older – having more years than something, or a higher age than someone else

* My birthday is this week, but I don’t feel another year older.

elder – an old and wise person in an organization or community

* Even though she had some good ideas, the elders in our community thought

that she was moving too quickly.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 56

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law is a popular funny saying or “adage” that means that if something

can go wrong, it will go wrong. People use the saying Murphy’s Law usually

when something has happened that causes problems or failure. If you are giving

an important speech and you arrive at the meeting without your notes, you may

say, “It’s Murphy’s Law!” You mean that since there is a possibility for something

bad to happen, it is certain to happen—and it has. People usually use this when

they are disappointed or frustrated about the outcome of something.

There are many versions of this adage with the same idea, but a little different

focus. Here are a few:

- You will always find something in the last place you look.

- No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you've bought it, it

will be on sale somewhere else cheaper.

- The other line always moves faster.

- Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.

Nobody really knows why these sayings are called Murphy’s Law. Murphy is a

fairly common last name in the U.S., but no one is certain which Murphy this law

was named after. We do know that it is called Murphy’s Law because the saying

is in the form of an “axiom,” or a scientific statement about something that is

accepted as truth. Other scientific statements are also called laws, such as

Albert Einstein’s Law of Relativity: E = mc 2 .

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 56

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café

number 56.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 56. I'm your host, Dr.

Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in

beautiful Los Angeles, California.

On today's Café, we're going to be talking about a popular celebration in many

parts of the United States, something called Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the

Dead. We'll also be talking about one of the most popular television shows in the

United States. It's called Desperate Housewives. And as always, we'll answer a

few questions. Let's get started.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com. You can find information about

our podcast and a copy of today's Learning Guide for this episode. It includes all

the vocabulary and definitions we talk about, as well as additional vocabulary and

definitions. In today's Guide, we talk about a very popular expression in English,

Murphy's Law, so be sure to take a look at that

Our first topic today is the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. The

expression, Dia de los Muertos, is, some of you may know, a Spanish expression

and the celebration of the Day of the Dead is something that comes from Latin

American, from particularly Mexico. But, because there are so many Mexican-

Americans - people who came from Mexico or whose parents or grandparents

came from Mexico - now it has become a popular celebration in Mexican-

American communities in many large cities, including Los Angeles. So, I thought

we would talk a little bit about the Day of the Dead and what it is, for those who

don't know.

This, of course, is the week of Halloween. We did talk about Halloween last year

on ESL Podcast number 73. So, if you're interested in learning more about the

American custom of Halloween, which is, of course, the most popular celebration

at this time of the year, then go to ESL Podcast number 73 on our website, and

you can listen to that.

But, today we're going to talk about something related, in some ways, to

Halloween, the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is actually celebrated

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 56

during the days after Halloween. Halloween is a celebration before a what would

be called in the Catholic Church a holy day, which is the first of November. The

first of November is considered All Saints' Day. A saint, “saint,” is someone

who's a very holy man or woman who has died, and on the first of November, the

Christian churches - some of them, the Catholic Church - celebrates this day in

honor of all of the saints. The term Halloween comes from an old expression, All

Hallows Eve. Hallows is just another word for holy here, or we may translate it

as All Saints' Day.

The day after All Saints' Day is called All Souls' Day in English. All Souls',

“Souls,” is a day when you pray for people who have died, but are not yet in

heaven, at least that is the tradition in the Catholic Church. And, the Day of the

Dead is sort of the Mexican version, the Mexican equivalent of All Souls' Day,

although it is sometimes celebrated on both of the first and the second of

November, and it's a time to celebrate the lives of those who have died, your

friends or family members, and also to remember them.

One of the customs, one of the traditions of Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead

- is to go to the place where the person is buried, to go to their grave, “grave,” a

grave is the place where someone is buried, and you bring gifts for the dead

person. This is connected to a very popular custom in many different cultures,

including ancient cultures, where you would bring gifts for the dead: food and

other things that you think the dead may need on their...on their road after they

have died. And, Dia de los Muertos does include this custom of bringing toys

and food, sometimes pictures of the person who died. You can go to a grave to

do that, where the person is buried, but it's also popular in some houses to have

what we would call a little shrine. A shrine, “shrine,” is a place where you honor

someone. It's usually something associated with a holy place. And, many

Mexican and Mexican-American families have small shrines to the people who

have died, so they remember them by putting food, by putting other things there.

Day of the Dead is, in some ways, a happy occasion. It's a way of, you might

say, making what would be a very sad occasion - death - somewhat happier. For

example, it's common to write poems about the person who has died. These are

sometimes called calaveras. Calavera is a word that means skull. Your skull,

“skull,” are the bones in your head after you have died, so you don't have your

eyes or your teeth or your skin, it's just the bones. We call that - the head, with

the bones only - we call that the skull. Your skull is still there even before you

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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