Yurimac

Here is the final project in english !!!

Blue Scarf Man

Enjoy

Here is my record of a short story named Wait of History : record (sorry for the quality, i did the best i could)

You can fin the text here : text, and the audio source on this page : audio .

Here is the final vresion of my table of phrases : table

And some other phrases found on the internet or into movies.

31. Most marriages fail after five years. Nevertheless, people continue to get married.

32. It was very interresting, though.

Here are some phrases that we found in class. (not complete yet)

24. The authorities cracked down.

25. Neither…. nor.

26. … will help set us free or merely give us that illusion.

27. But he expressed cautious optimism.

28. The young peoples’ hompes have been dashed.

29. The detention was upheld by…

30. Two squirrels were playing hazel-ball !

Those new phrases come frome different articles that i found on internet.

10. But Statham is largely unsung.

11. White New Yorkers commit crimes against both law and ethics.

12. You can either jump in randomly, or try for something all-encompassing.

13. If we can’t appreciate the good that’s present today, and for that matter, was present yesterday.
Don’t you talk to me like this! Or to anyone else, for that matter !

14. She’s not only a paragon of positivity.

15. I’d be remiss to not…

16. It was certainly a surprise ( a pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless )

17. Well, we don’t want to be beholden to anybody.

18. If Sonic Youth wanted to whet our appetite for…

19.If there had been an obituary.

20. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

21. So far, there are only 150 titles…

22. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion.

23. “That’s my shirt you’re wearing.”, “Yes it is, as a matter of fact.”

This semester, we have to find a few phrases that can help us to improve our english. So I’ll try to get some interesting phrases, with new words or new forms.

The color of some words refers (approximately) to the type of information they give : vocabulary, expression, structure.

Today, i took a short story writtent by H.P. Lovercraft, The white ship.

1. Above sunken slimy rocks that are seen when the tide is low.

2. As though I were the last man on our planet.

3. When the wind howled eerily from the East.

4. The lore of old men.

5. And when the day dawned, rosy and effulgent.

6. The visions of young poets who died in want before the world could learn of what they had seen and dreamed.

7. For it is told that he who treads them may nevermore return to his native shore.

8. The City of a Thousand Wonders, wherein reside all those

9. I climbed gentle hills from whose summits I could see entrancing panoramas

This is the transcription we made in class, about the linguist.

Hello, this is Steve Hoffman here, hum, talk about something little different today. Although it’s related to language. We’re here at the linguist.blog.com

Today I went for a haircut. My barber talks a lot, sometimes he even stops cutting just to talk, which I find mildly annoying. On the other hand I’m always entertained for 30 minutes while he cuts my hair. He does a good job and charges me 18 $, which is not the cheapest, but not the most expensive haircut in Vancouver.

He told me that he came to Canada as a 16 year old, 20 years ago. He went to hair dressing school and then worked for a chain of hair salons for 5 years, in different locations in the city. He got to know the personalities of different kinds of clients. He did’nt like working in the heavily Chinese district of Richmond because, in his words : the customers would arrive late and expect to be served right away. If they were not served immediately, they assumed that the customer who was being served in their place had paid extra. He did not like the pressure of this situation.

He eventually opened his own shop in North Vancouver. He said that he made sure to learn all about the subjects that his clients were interested in, from fly fishing to the stock market. He knew that if customers liked him, they would come back.

After 20 years in Canada, dealing with English speaking Canadian clients, his English is just terrible. His pronunciation and use of words, structure, you name it, are all quite poor. When he taught about a leading politician and his wife, “he” and “she” were regularly used wrong. I had trouble understanding whom he was talking about. People who are not used to Chinese accent must have trouble understanding him. His English is poor even by the standards of his native Hong Kong.

So what is the conclusion? He doesn’t represent everyone, but just being immersed in the language and talking the language will not necessarily improve your language skill. You need to want to improve. You need to want to improve, you need to have a deliberate program of improvement. And you need to listen.

On the other hand, he was been successful at building up a customer base, and did not seem to be inhibited in any way by his poor english. He was a communicator, although a better talker than a listener. I have not suggested to him that he join The Linguist.

You can find my self presentation here, on the teacher’s blog. I had just one chance to record it (in class), so be gentle with me !

For the big transcription, I chose a commercial for Volvo. It’s a short movie directed by Stephen Frears (great director !), with the wonderful Robert Downey Jr. It’s a really good short movie, very funny and original. (for a commercial !).

Here is my transcript : My transcipt

And here are the 2 parts of my video :