3.5 Zapp Ingles Listening Culture

8/10/2019 3.5 Zapp Ingles Listening Culture

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Listening 3.5 Zapp! English podcasts by Inglés.fm

© Zapp! English ebook by http://ingles.fm

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English Listening / Level 3

Unit 5 – Culture

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Erm...and just everything was different...erm...the work ethic was really different...erm...people

worked really, really long hours...erm...and you kind of couldn’t go home before everyone else,

everyone was waiting for the boss to finish so that they could all finish, but they wouldn’t

necessarily be working, it would just be that they had to be there in the office...erm...and living as

well, the apartment that I lived in...erm...it was really, really tiny...erm...and the kitchen was prettymuch just in the hallway, with just one little gas ring, and I had this...weird thing called a toaster

oven that didn’t really do anything...erm...yeah, so it was it...it was just all different. The people...

erm...I used to get a lot of attention as well whenever I went outside, because I looked so different

from everyone else...erm...because I ’m very tall and...and very fair, and I just didn’t blend in at all

with the crowd, but...no it was a fascinating experience, but...err...very difficult at the time I think.

Listening Task 1 - Answers

Can you guess which country Emma was talking about? The country was Japan.

Listening Task 2

Now listen to Tom.

• Which country made him feel culture shock?

TOM: Well, I’ve done quite a lot of moving around and I remember one specific time I arrived in a

country and...wasn’t at all how I remembered it. And I was driving from the airport, the first

impressions were, What is this place? There’s so many cars so much traffic and it was very cold and

much colder than I was used to, and basically sat in traffic jams the whole way to my destination

and yeah, so that was the first thing and then basically I remember just the greyness. Everythingwas covered in grey, in this blanket of grey cloud and it was drizzling

3, the weather was really, really

dark and cold and basically got home and then the next thing I remember was...erm...yeah,

everyone, everywhere you went people were queuing, you know there was this very ordered

queuing reality where everyth...every time you know, everyone was very polite and everyone was

standing in line and...and...err...in...when you went out, people were...people drank a lot in this

place as well and I went out with some friends and they...err...yeah they were just drinking lots and

lots and lots of beer... (laughter)





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Did you guess which country Tom was telling you about?

The country was the UK. That’s a strange one, because Tom is from the UK. Because he was away from his home country for so long, when he came back it felt so different that he experienced

culture shock.

Listening Task 3

Here is the third one. This time it’s me.

• Which country am I talking about?

KATIE: Well there were quite a few things about this country that I really struggled to get used to. I

really, really enjoyed visiting this country but some things were just so opposite...erm...one thing

about...erm...English people is that they love to queue and in this country, there was no such thing

as a queue; in fact there was just a huge fight. I mean I saw old ladies pushing people out of the way

to get on the train...erm...and so it...it...it took me ages to get anywhere because I was no after you,

no after you and eventually I had to change my own behaviour because, you know, I couldn’t getanywhere! So no queuing, that was one thing...erm...and the other thing was the amount of

people; I mean there were so many people, everywhere, you know, when you walked down the

street I...I would just think God how do...where do all these people live? There were so many

people! Erm...and perhaps the other thing that was the most difficult for me to adjust to was the

fact that you...erm...you had to be very careful about...erm...making anybody else look

silly...y...you...so for example if you wanted to disagree with somebody, you had to do it in a very,

very careful way... especially if the person that you wanted to disagree with was important or more

important than you or older than you. So...erm...for example I remember having conversations with

my boss and...err...he would suggest something, and I would think well that’s a completely crazy

idea, but I couldn’t say, well sorry but I...I don’t really think that’s a good idea, I’d have to go...oh,yes well, that’s a very good idea...erm...but may be, perhaps...erm...something that would go well

with your idea is...and then I would have to, make my suggestion look like it was his suggestion. So

there was this whole thing about...erm...saving face...erm...and those three things...erm...were

difficult initially, I felt very shocked about them but...I got used to them after time.


Did you know the country? It was China.





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Listening Task 4

Now you’re going to listen to Amanda.

• Which country is she talking about?

True or false?

• Amanda changed the way she dressed while she was in this country.

• Amanda saw someone steal some money from a German tourist.

AMANDA: Before I went to this country, I was so excited about going...erm...lived up to myexpectations definitely. There were a few things that I was always...already prompted that...erm... it

was going to be completely different to what I was used to and one was that we were told to

remove any metal on our bodies anything that could resemble4 jewellery because...erm...it’d be

quite unsafe to walk around with something sparkling5 on your body because it was probably going

to be ripped off of you...erm...so it was a bit of a fear factor there about this particular city, I don’t

think it’s maybe...erm...relevant6 for the whole of the country...erm...so I found that I, you know,

reduced the way that I looked, I was very simply dressed the whole time, I was there to

work...erm... temperature was awesome, that was good. Another thing that I found difficult was

walking around and seeing people very, very comfortable with their own body and...erm...I

remember y...four or five o’clock in the morning...erm...along the beach, everybody wasout...running or skating, swimming, playing volleyball...talking about five, six o’clock in the

morning...big body culture, beautiful people and that was quite shocking for me too because most

of the time there is this cover yourself up even if you’re y...y..you generally want to be in a...in a

beach resort before you get that kind of attitude, but this was general, people walking around, the

girls in these teeny bikinis and the guys on weights on the beach and...erm...was a shock - not a bad

shock, I actually quite liked that because it was all very easy going and then the same attitude about

life and people were very smiley, there was lots of music, dancing...there’s these two very

contradictory messages of be careful and at the same time relax and that I found...err...completely

s...seductive7 and...err...loved every second that I was there. But I did see, several occasions of

the...the more violent side to this place and...err...I think it was a German tourist walking along witha...a gold chain and, you know, out of the blue, little guy on a bicycle ripped the chain off the guy’s

neck, I mean made him bleed, he fell to the floor, so it was quite aggressive8 and at the same time.

there was the...the music in the background and people dancing on the beach and so all of this,

these different vibes at the same time, but I can’t wait to go back.


Where was Amanda talking about? It was Rio in Brazil.

True or false?





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Amanda changed the way she dressed while she was in this country. TRUE – She said ‘I reduced the

way that I looked, I was very simpl y dressed the whole time’. She also took all her jewellery off.

Amanda saw someone steal some money from a German tourist. FALSE – someone took a chain, a

piece of jewellery, from a German tourist.

Listening Task 5

• Which country is Stuart talking about?

True or false?

• The people in shops were not friendly to him.

• Stuart only ate bad local food.

STUART: OK so when I arrived here, it didn’t help that it had been a very long flight so it was

through tired eyes, but I clearly remember the drive from the airport and thinking Why am I here?

And it was...err...so industrial and dry and just so different to where I’d been, and yeah, and then

we got to the city and well, we settled in, I was...err...I was staying in a hotel and yeah, we walked

around and yeah, it was all just very, very different and I remember the way people treated me in

shops sometimes was like quite surly, whereas what I was used to is people trying to sell me their

products whereas, I felt sometimes like I was...erm...causing a problem wanting to buy them, which

was very strange but, you know, the sun shone constantly throughout this, which, you know, keeps

a smile on one’s face...erm...and then the following day you know, we went out and I had some of

the worst food I’ve ever had, that was packaged as the local cuisine, but then later in the day I had

some of the best food I’d ever had, also packaged as the local cuisine; so I guess that’s...err...cities

and restaurants for you. Erm, but no that day finished with a stroll9 along the beach, which puts

everything into perspective and of course...err...you can manage with slightly you know, industrial

areas and dry weather, but constant sunshine and the waves lapping on the shore so...but it wasa...an enormous difference from the lush forests I’d left behind.


Where was Stuart? Mexico City.

Did you say true or false?

The people in shops were not friendly to him. TRUE – he said they were surly . Do you rememberthat word from the beginning of the lesson?





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Stuart only ate bad local food. FALSE – he had some bad food first and then he had some really

good food .

Listening Task 6

• Where is Eve talking about?

Are these true or false?

• Eve could communicate easily because she had studied Spanish at school.

• Eve didn’t like rice and beans.

EVE: Err...when...right when I graduated high school, I was about eighteen, was the first time I

really lived abroad and I went on a volunteer programme, to a country, and I lived in a pretty rural

area in a very small town and I think one of the biggest challenges for me when I first arrived was

the language barrier10

. I had studied Spanish in high school, but it’s one thing to study a language in

a classroom and it’s another to move to a small town where everybody speaks Spanish and pretty

much nobody speaks English and try to communicate. And I was living with one other American girl,

but besides her, there weren’t any other people in the town that spoke English, and we had a host

family, and so it was always a challenge trying to communicate with the host family and, even tounderstand the most basic things, I mean there’s a lot you can communicate without having good

language skills but, at a certain point, you just have to get used to the fact that conversations are

constantly going on around you, or to you that you don’t understand...erm...so my Spanish

definitely improved over...I was there for eight weeks and it improved but it was, a big challenge

the entire time that I was there, just to know what people were saying and to express myself.

Erm...and also another thing that was difficult to get used to was, the food was different, and there

just wasn’t as much variety of food; in the United States we’re used to going to the supermarket

you can get, you know, an endless amount of fruits and vegetables that normally come in any

season and just there’s so much variety in the US and you go out to restaurants and in this town the

main meal that we ate was rice and beans. They called it gallo pinto in this country and gallo pinto

was the traditional food that you would have. Sometimes breakfast, lunch and dinner, a huge plate

of rice and beans, and I didn’t mind it so much, I mean it was a meal, it was nice to get fed and, you

know, rice and beans are fine, but I think I ate it so much during this particular summer that now I

almost never eat rice and beans. It’s like I...I think I exhausted the amount of rice and beans that I

can eat...erm...but overall it was a good experience and I...I learned a lot.


Where was Eve talking about? It was Nicaragua.





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True or false?

Eve could communicate easily because she had studied Spanish at school. FALSE – she did study

Spanish at school, but found her experience in Nicaragua different and it was more difficult to

communicate.

Eve didn’t like rice and beans. FALSE – she liked them OK, but she ate a lot of them in that country,

so now she doesn’t eat them.

SummaryBrilliant! Listening to those very natural recordings will have really helped your listening skills.





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Extra Materials

Listening

If you want to practise your listening skills even more, here are some extra questions for you. The

answers are at the end of this document. If you get any wrong, you can look at the transcript to

check why.

Listening 1

Why did people have to stay at work, even if they had no work to do?

Listening 2

What are some of the things Tom described as grey?

Listening 3

Who did Katie say were good at pushing their way onto trains?

Listening 4

Did Amanda think the whole country was a dangerous place to wear jewellery?

Does Amanda want to return to Brazil?

Listening 5

What was the last thing Stuart did on his second day in Mexico?

Listening 6

How long did Eve stay in the country?

Who did she live with?

Vocabulary – Getting the meaning from context

When you listen to natural speech, there are lots of spoken expressions you can learn. Here we’ve

taken some of the most interesting ones from the conversations. Complete the following exercises,

which will help you learn and remember these words and expressions.

Look at each example of language that has been underlined and try to guess the meaning. Choose

a, b or c. The answers will come at the end of this document.





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1. ...because I looked so different from everyone else, erm...because I ’m very tall and...and very

fair, and I just didn’t blend in at all with the crowd,

To blend in means;

a) to make friends with

b) to be similar to, so people don’t notice you

c) to like

2. Well there were...quite a few things about this country...that...I really struggled to get used to...I

really, really enjoyed visiting this country but...some things were just so...opposite.

To struggle means

a)

to do something with difficulty

b) to dislike / hate

c) to enjoy

3. I was so excited about going...erm...lived up to my expectations definitely...

To live up to something means

a) to be worse than people thought it would be or promised something would be b) to be very

bad

c) to be as good as people thought it would be or promised it would be

4. ...and...you know, out of the blue a little guy on a bicycle ripped the chain off the guy’s neck,

Out of the blue means;

a) after a long time

b) very quickly

c)

suddenly, with no warning

5. ...there was lots of music, dancing...there’s these two...very...contradictory messages of...be

careful ...and at the same time, relax .

Contradictory means;

a) strong

b) very important

c)

two things cannot be true at the same time





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6. ..that day finished with a stroll along the beach,

A stroll is;

a) a drink

b) a slow walk

c) nice weather





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Extra Materials - Answers

Listening

Listening 1

Why did people have to stay at work, even if they had no work to do? They had to wait until the

boss left before they could leave.

Listening 2

What are some of the things Tom described as grey? The weather – everything!

Listening 3

Who did Katie say were good at pushing their way onto trains? Old ladies.

Listening 4

Did Amanda think the whole country was a dangerous place to wear jewellery? No ‘this particular

city, I don’t think it’s maybe erm relevant for the whole of the country’.

Does Amanda want to return to Brazil? Yes, she can’t wait to go bac k.

Listening 5

What was the last thing Stuart did on his second day in Mexico? Went for a walk / stroll on the

beach.

Listening 6

How long did Eve stay in the country? 8 weeks.

Who did she live with? A family and an American girl.





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Vocabulary

1. b

2. a

3. c

4. c

5. c

6. b





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Vocabulary Glossary

1

high heels (noun) - tacones altos

2

sweating ( present participle) – transpirando, sudando

3

drizzling ( present participle) - lloviznando

4

resemble (verb) - parecerse a

5

sparkling ( present participle) - espumoso

6

relevant (adjective) - relevante

7

seductive (adjective) - seductor

8 aggressive (adjective) - agresivo

9

stroll (noun) - paseo

10

barrier (noun) - barrerra

3.5 Zapp Ingles Listening Culture

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