Daughter to Park; Mom to Jail

Daughter to Park; Mom to Jail Dictated by : Alex, Burhan, Gregorio, Gulya, Maha and Roberto Podcast 35: JULY, 2014 Hello everybody. You re listening to Let s Master English and my name is Coach Shane. How are you doing everybody? Welcome back, this is Let s Master English Podcast 35. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast and downloading the podcast. This weeks podcast is brought to you by Audible. Once again I am so excited about having this sponsor. If you sign up at www.audibletrail.com/lme you can get one free audiobook. But I ll tell you more about that later. Today we ve got a news story, a very serious fact from Country Shane and I am going to answer a few of your questions. So, enough chit-chat, let s begin. Oh, that that was a tough one. This is a tough story everybody. Let me read it again, a little bit slower. Ok, so this is actually a serious story with some controversy. But let s look at the sentences first. In the first sentence: It s the slammer for a mom in Georgia. So we have the vocabulary word slammer s-l-a-m-m-e-r, and slammer refers to jail. The slammer. Now why do we say slammer, why does that mean jail? Well when they shut the door of the jail. Do they shut the door quietly? No, the image is- boom! They shut the door very loudly. Or, we can say in English- they slam the door. They slam the door shut. And that s the idea. Slammer means jail. So, it s the slammer for a mom in Georgia. That means, in America, we have 50 states, one of those states is Georgia. Georgia is in the south-eastern part of America. And there is a mom in Georgia, who is now in jail. It s the slammer. A mother.somebody has been sent to the slammer, for- a mom in Georgia. Hmmm, why is this, why? The 46 year-old-mother was taken in for neglecting her 9-year-old daughter. Ok, so the mother is 46, 46 year-old mother. We do not say 46-years-old mother, because 46-years-old is actually describing the mother. So, there is no s, when it s

used when the number is used as an adjective. The 46-year-old mother was taken in. And we ve studied the word the phrasal verb- taken in before. It means arrested. Taken to the police station. Taken to jail. The 46-year-old mother was taken in. Why? For neglecting her 9- year-old daughter. So, once again, 9-years-old, NO. 9-year-old daughter. Daughter of 9 years. 9- year-old daughter. So here we have another keyword neglecting n-e-g-l-e-c-t-i-n-g.. Neglecting means not caring for, sometimes it means ignoring. So the 46 year-old mother was taking in for neglecting her 9 year-old daughter, that means this mother was not doing a good job of taking care of her daughter. She was ignoring her daughter. She wasn t caring for her daughter so she was taken to jail. So what was the situation? The next sentence: When the mother had to work, she d routinely drop her daughter off at the local park and give her money for lunch at Micky D s. So now we can understand this is probably a single mother, meaning she is not married it is just her and her daughter; and she have a job. So when this mother have to go to work, what did she do with her 9 year- old daughter? She would routinely r-o-u-t-i-n-e-l-y routinely, regularly drop her daughter off at the local park. To drop somebody off at somewhere means to leave somebody at the place. To take somebody and leave them there at the place. So when the mother went to work she would take her daughter to the park and leave her there, while she works. What about food?, that s terrible. Well, and give her money for lunch at Micky D s. Ok so she would take her daughter to the park and she would give her daughter some money; so she could buy lunch at Micky D s. And we ve studied Micky D s before, Micky D s that s M-I-C-K-Y and then D- -s Micky D s and that is the slang version, the daily English casual version of MacDonalds. Oh boy. So the mother is at work, she takes her daughter to the park and gives her $5 for lunch at MacDonalds. Ummm not too cool. The next sentence: No harm ever came to the girl. Harm h-a-r-m, something bad, nothing bad ever happened to the girl, thank God. So the 9year-old daughter, you know, she probably went to the park in this situation many many times; but nothing bad ever happened to her. That s good, but now the mom has been arrested, so what happens to the child if the mother is in jail? What happens to the 9year-old girl? The child is now in Social Services. Umm so the child is now, right now in Social Services. Social Services is a proper noun, that means there is a big as and both words Social Services; and Social Services is the US government agency that takes care of children who cannot live with their parents, maybe they don t have parents or the parents are bad or there re in jail or something like that. So this is a it s a very sad story. Umm I don t know about in your county but in America there are many single parents; and it s very difficult been a single parent because you need to get a job and pay for your rent and food and the child and the child s education and a lot of single parents can t afford a babysitter or a daycare center, it can be very expensive in America and that was the situation with this mother. And I, I do feel sorry for her, losing her child it s a serious, a horrible, a nightmare something that is not good for

any parent. But the mother was neglecting her child. How could you leave your child at the park for hours and end; and give the child some money for MacDonalds? Now I'll be honest, when I was 9 years old, I would love it, I would love to spent all day at the park, every day, going to eat at McDonald's, that would be fun, so as a child this is great; but as a parent, that's very irresponsible, it's really difficult, though, especially if the parent doesn't have enough money. They can't afford take care centers, maybe they have no grandparents or you know another friend around to help take care of the child, it's a serious problem; and is not just this one woman who has this problem, it happens to many many people. What do you think? Do you think this 46 year old mother should have been put in jail? Do you think the child and the mother, should stay together? Or should the child be taken away from the mother? This is a tragedy, that I hope none of you ever have to go through, is no fun, too sad story. OK, so let's look at those key words again: Slammer: s-l-a-m-m-e-r, jail, have you ever been in the slammer. Georgia: one of America's 50 states, I spent about two months, two and a half months in Georgia a long time ago, it was hot and humid, I was in the army at the time so it was not fun. Taken in: so in this story "taken in" means arrested, or put in jail, it's a phrasal verb, "taken in" can have several other meanings too, but in this story, once again it means arrested. Neglecting: n-e-g-l-e-c-t-i-n-g, neglecting, not caring for. Routinely: r-o-u-t-i-n-e-l-y, routinely, means regularly. To drop someone off at someplace: to leave someone at someplace. Micky D s: that s the casual or slang version of MacDonalds, the famous hamburger restaurant, and Social Services: the US government agency who takes care of children, who can not live with their parents. Let s listen to the news two more times:

How re you doing everybody, this is Country Shane, and I'm here to bring you the facts. Not protecting your child is a serious thing. In the US, 2300 children go missing every day. 67% of those kids go missing from Social Services! So, parents, do your job. It s tough, it takes 18 years, but don t let your child be a statistic. This has been Country Shane, bringing you the facts. Wow! 2300 children go missing every day in the United States. And 67% of those children go missing from Social Services. That s the government agency whose suppose to protect children. now, that number does include runaway children, but this is really tragic information. Being a parent is tough; being a single parent is super tough. Make sure you have a good network of the friends and support. So, that you can do your job as a parent. It s a lonely job, it s a tough job. It takes a long time- 24 hours a day at least 18 years. But don t let your child be a statistic. Don t allow your child to become a missing child. Yeah.. we don t want any tragedies. Thanks a lot Country Shane. Ok, it s about time for some answers to your questions and I promise the rest of the podcast will be happy. Once again this weeks podcast is brought to you by Audible. Audible is the Amazon company. Everybody knows Amazon. So, this is a..this is a perfect partner for..for us. For what I do and what many of my students want. Audible is a company that has audiobooks. Yeah, it s not easy. And you can get an audiobook for free. Go to www.audibletrial.com/lme. I ll spell that wwwwwwwww, w-w-w.a-u-d-i-b-l-e-t-r-i-a-l.com/lme of cause LME stands for Let s Master English. So, you go here and you sign up and then you can choose any book that you want, for free. Now at the end of July, I ll be doing a video, talking about the audiobook called Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. And I ll be specifically covering the book- the 10th anniversary edition. It s gonna be great. This is my book club. So, every month I ll have a new book that I ll recommend to everybody. Now the Mitch Albom s book Tuesdays with Morrie is just over 3 hours. So, it s not very long. But I want you to get the book and listen to it. Not just one time. Listen to it several times. Listen to it like when you listen to my podcast. And once again at the end of July 2014 I will make a video discussing the book. So, as you listening to the book if you do have questions, send me an e-mail. And maybe I ll be able to address your questions regarding the book. Ok? So, my e-mail address dailydictationmembers@gmail.com Now, if you sign up at audibletrial.com/lme you get one free audiobook. But after a month, they will start charging you $14,95 every month. That might sound expensive. However if you are enjoying audiobooks, the price is very good. Because some audiobooks are over $30. But by being a member, you can get that $30 book for $14,95. You don t have to worry. So, that membership allows you to have one book every month. The first month is free, after that $14,95. And of course you can quit. This is a trial. So if you don t like it you can stop. Me? I ve been a member for several months. And I really enjoy audiobooks. I usually go to bed listening to an audiobook, I wash the dishes listening to an audiobook. You know. I don t have a TV, I don t watch TV. I

don t want a TV. But I miss the sound. So I listen to podcasts and audiobooks. Fantastic! I love it! Now if you have the book Tuesdays with Morrie. If you read it. That s great. This is really going to help your listening comprehension skills. So, once again if you are interested- this is a great opportunity. Audible, is an outstanding company. They have 150000 audiobooks. And you can get one for free. Go to www.audibletrial.com/lme. Now let s get into those questions. Okay, our first question is a followup question from Tulio in Brazil. And Tulio was asking about the T sound, that s a glottal stop or a stop sound. Yes, I thought about this all week and I understand why people say a glottal stop. Glottal stops are when the sound stops in your throat. When I say stop sound what I mean is when the tongue stops the sound in front of the mouth. For example it but don't finish the t just say it And the tongue is stopped in the front of the mouth. Okay? Now, some glottal stops do not need the tongue to make the stop sound. They can just stop in the back in the mouth; ng ng especially an ng kind of sound. They'll all stop in the back in the mouth. But usually with the T we do use our tongue to make the stop sound. So it was if we say it fast it was it was And I'm doing the stop sound it was that was that you that you that you but marry but marry Okay? So I'm doing the stop sound for all of those. Once again if we're doing the glottal stops that's fine, it should sound the same, it doesn't matter. Now Tulio wants to ask specifically about adverbs. Especially adverbs they all end in ly where the regular part ends on a T, so unfortunately, lately, definitely, approximately. What about these sounds. And once again Tulio, stop sound is correct. Unfortunately I'm using the tip of my tongue to stop the T. Unfortunately lately lately definitely approximately. Now the throat does stop a little bit, but the focus from me is on my tongue. Okay? So I hope that cleans it up a little bit for youtulio. Thank you. Our next question comes from Mikhail Could you discuss the words sports and sport. S-po-r-t-s and s-p-o-r-t. What's the difference. When do we use these words. Tell me. That's, that's a great question. So in America sports with an s refers to any athletic activity. So typically baseball, basketball, football, swimming. But some people would include billiards, golf, darts, curling. So maybe even drinking. So, in America we say sports to cover all different types of athletic activities. However in the UK they say sport. They do not use, as far as I know, they do not use sport as a mask count noun. They don't say sports in the UK. I'm not exactly sure, but in America we do. So, in America we could say I love sports, and that means many different sports baseball, football, basketball, whatever I love it. But in the UK the same person would say I love sport with no s. Okay. So that's the big difference. So the UK English and American English there is the difference. Now, in America we could say What sport do you play? That's possible. And the nuance is we know you only play one sport.

Or we re referring to a season like the fall. In the fall in America you could play football. Or, I don t know, swimming or running-cross country. There is only three sports you can choose, which one did you choose? Which one do you play? Which sport do you play? Now once again if we talking about all activities we say- which sports do you play? So, Mikhail asked me: Shane which sports do you play? Oh I play a football, baseball, I play volleyball, cycling, etcetera, etcetera. Now if Mikhail said: Shane which sport do you play? Then I would say this: Well in the summer cycling, in the fall running, in the spring swimming. That s the idea, I only play one sport per season. Does that make sense? I hope so. Our next question comes from David Calvalho, thank you David.First of all thanks for the videos and podcasts, they re helping me a lot. I ve watched almost all your videos and listened to all your podcasts and my English is improving so much. Now, David has a question -what is the best and most correct pronunciation for the word awesome? a-w-e-s-o-m-e. Ok!So the typical most perfect pronunciation in America; awesome, awesome, awesome. It s an a-w sound,not o ; but aw, which means your tongue needs to be pushed down; aw awesome. It s not really som, it s more sm awesome, awesome. Now, when we say this word in a real situation, it usually means excellent! So, we have to give that feeling David. So if you wanna say the word awesome, you should probably say awesome! It was awesome, it was excellent, I loved it. Uh,this podcast is awesome.that game was awesome. Does that help David? Next we ve a comment from Emanuel Gutti; I was listening to Lets Master English podcast 33 and you were talking about a goose; but I didn t know how to write goose, I didn t know how to spell it. So I used the search by voice option in google, and it worked. My pronunciation was perfect, Google showed me a goose. It showed me the spelling. Your podcast is helping me so much. It s amazing how your podcast helps me. Emanuel, that is awesome news, I love it. Everybody,start using search by voice in google.that will help you determine whether or not your pronunciation is good or bad. And one more comment, this is from Ivan Beltran; living far away from home is hard; but since I ve arrived to the States, uh Ivan lives in America, Coach Shane has been an amazing companion. Uh,That s great Ivan. I listen to him every single day and I feel that I ve been honing my spoken English continuously.that s excellent, thank you very much Coach Shane, Ivan Beltran. Ivan, yeah I know what it s like to live far away from home. I lived in South Korea for over twenty years. It s lonely. It s nice to have a friend and uh Ivan, I am more than happy to be your companion, to help you master English and uh, thank you so much Ivan. I really appreciate it! And that's it everybody, today's podcast is a little bit short. It's been a very rough long week. Lots stress but I'm surviving. How about you? I hope that your week was great. And, thank you once again, thank you so much for downloading my podcast and listening to them. Remember, you can get this podcast on your Android phone with our App. That's right, we have an Android App,

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