Jan 12, 2018
Transcripts and
Vocabulary Lists for Episode 505
Episode
page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-87u
italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk
Intro
Transcript
Here is the third and final part of this trilogy of episodes
about the latest Star Wars film. In this one you'll hear a
conversation between my Dad, my brother and me that I recorded just
after we'd seen the film a couple of weeks ago. Now, I know that
this is perhaps a bit too much Star Wars content on this podcast.
Even if you are a fan it might seem like overkill. So let me
emphasise the value of the conversation in this episode as an
opportunity for you to learn some natural English in an authentic
way. You'll hear us talking spontaneously and then in the second
half of this episode I'll to explain some of the bits of language
that come up in the conversation. So, this isn't just chat about a
film, it's a way to present you with real British English as it is
actually spoken.
When my family were staying with us for a few days during the
Christmas holiday period, fairly soon after our daughter was born,
Dad, James and I left my wife and my mum at home to look after the
baby and we went off to see the new Star Wars film. This has become
something of a Christmas tradition now.
After seeing the film we came home, drank some red wine and then
recorded our thoughts and comments for the podcast. That is this
conversation.
As you'd expect we were feeling quite excitable after having
just sat through 2 and a half hours of intense Star Wars action and
we were also slightly tipsy on French wine and so the conversation
is quite animated and lively. You will hear us talking over each
other a bit. Not every sentence is completed. Some words get cut
off as we interrupt each other and although that's all completely
normal in conversations like this, it might be difficult for you to
understand everything, depending on your level of English, but
watch out for various nice expressions that pop up during our chat.
I'll be explaining some of them later in this episode.
Right then, let's hear that conversation now - and remember of
course that this will contain lots of plot spoilers for Star Wars
Episode 8 - so if you haven't seen it yet, please do so before you
listen to this. This is your final warning - plot spoilers are
coming - please do not let us spoil your enjoyment of the film. You
could always come back to listen to this episode later if you
want.
Outtro
Transcript
Near the end of the conversation there you heard my dad and my
brother expressing their doubts about whether this conversation
might be either too difficult for you to follow or simply boring
for you to hear because of the slightly geeky levels of detail
about Star Wars. That's quite a frequent reaction from them, isn't
it. It's a bit annoying when they say that kind of thing, but to be
honest, I think they've both got a point, to a certain degree, and
this shows that making podcast content for learners of English can
be a bit of a tightrope. Episodes should be clear enough for
learners of English to understand, but at the same time spoken at a
natural speed to make them authentic. I want to be able to explore
subjects in some depth and detail so that the content is original
and insightful without episodes becoming too specific, too long or
simply uninteresting for you to listen to. It can be tricky to walk
that line. The fact is, it's probably impossible to get it 100%
right every time and produce episodes that are popular and useful
for absolutely everybody across the board.
But in the end I'm not going to worry about it too much. I
expect I lost a few people with all this talk of Star Wars, but if
that is the case - so be it. Looking on the bright side - maybe
those of you who share my enthusiasm for these films have really
enjoyed this trilogy.
In any case, that's it for Star Wars for a while.
Now, let's focus our attention on language - specifically
vocabulary. What about some of the expressions, phrasal verbs and
other bits of language that you heard?
I've been through the conversation again and made a list. It's
quite a big list. I wonder how many of these phrases how many you
noticed and how many passed you by. We'll see.
Let's go through them now. And this isn't Star Wars vocabulary -
it's all English that you can use to talk about all manner of
different things.
This is your chance to broaden your vocabulary, increasing your
understanding of not just this conversation but native-level
English in general.
Vocabulary (not just Star Wars related)
Listen to the episode to hear my definitions and
explanations.
- Your daughter is gorgeous and all in one
piece, and very healthy and alert. It's a
wonderful thing and I'm now an uncle.
- Dad: I'm wearing a flat cap, smoking a pipe,
sitting by the fire and dozing. James: No change
there then.
- There's been a big backlash against this film
from the die-hard fans.
- Is there a theory that the score has been dragged
down artificially?
- The sequel trilogy is a return to form, you
think?
- The characters are running out of steam.
- It doesn't have the same wow factor as before.
So they're exaggerating everything to keep it going.
- It didn't have the same feeling as the originals, that's what
you can boil it down to.
- They added new scenes. They added nothing. They
detracted from the originals.
- I was like you once. Full of beans and
spunk!
- I punched a bloke in the face once for saying
Hawk The Slayer was rubbish.
- I was defending the fantasy genre with terminal
intensity when what I should have said is Dad, you're
right, but let's give Krull a try and we'll discuss it later.
- Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like... f*cking...
Shaft! (The Ewoks were annoying, but Jar
Jar is so annoying and terrible that by
comparison, the Ewoks look extremely cool, like Shaft. This does
not mean that Shaft looks like an Ewok. It just means that Shaft
is very cool and Jar Jar is very
uncool.)
- Shaft (1971) Directed by Gordon Parks, Richard Roundtree
(as John Shaft)
- Tim, I'm going to have to let you go.
- Phew! I thought you were going to fire me then!
- I thought it went seriously
downhill when they started to introduce teddy
bears.
- They used more animatronics and
puppetry.
- There are a number of set pieces. It moves
from one set piece to another set
piece.
- I thought it was a little bit trying too hard. It was a little
bit frenetic.
- It does go on a bit.
- I thought they could have done without the
cute creatures. It's a bit of Ewokism here.
- To be honest I kind of got over my star wars
obsession when I was about 12.
- I'm not one of these rabid fans.
- I'm starting to warm to the new
characters.
- Dad said there were too many explosions. James: I know what you
mean. It's the law of diminishing returns. You see
one explosion and it's "ooh wow", and you see 100 explosions and
it's like "meh".
- I liked the bit when the guy got chucked into
the extractor fan. It was like he got chucked into
a lettuce shredder. Bits of him went flying out. That was
cool.
- The extractor fan/lettuce shredder - They should have a
grill over that or some sort of guard
rail. It's a health and safety issue.
It's a health and safety nightmare.
- To me, it needs a bit of lightening up. I
don't want it to be like one of these superhero films like Batman
where everything's deadly serious and
shrouded in seriousness. Come on it's a kid's film
- just lighten up!
- On milking the sea alien - I thought that was
wrong on many levels, but I laughed.
- I liked Adrian Edmonson. Every moment he was on screen I was
stoked.
The rest of this vocabulary is explained in the Luke's
English Podcast App - Check the bonus content for episode
505
How to find bonus content for episodes in the app[/caption]
- Snoke was a classic baddie. He looked horrible
and it was lovely when he came to a sticky
end.
- Hang on, let me finish!
- Were you disappointed that we didn't learn anything else about
him, that he just died? James: No I was glad to see the
back of him.
- Some people feel disappointed that his character wasn't
developed. Do you think he was killed too easily? Dad: Well, I
think he was very cut up about it. (!!!)
- He was just a really evil thing that had to be got rid
of.
- You take for granted the special effects
involved.
- On Luke throwing away the lightsabre. Dad: He didn't
hurl it into the sea, he just
tossed it over his shoulder.
- Pronunciation: We've been to that island.
We've been to those rocks. We've
been into those huts. We've been
there. /bin/ not /bi:n/
- Maybe Chewie did eat the porg. Dad: I think, "Chewie" -
the clue is in the name. He should have
chewed into that porg.
- Luke Skywalker was flawed.
- He'd coached this trainee jedi, his nephew, who had perfect
credentials, good bloodline.
- He peaked too early.
- You can see that we're running out of
steam.
- Did you like the new AT-AT walkers? I thought they were
sick. I liked the way they walked on their
knuckles. I thought it was funny the way they look
like they're grumpily stomping along on their
knuckles.
- Gorilla walkers / guerrilla
war in the forest
- (There's a moment where we go from talking about
gorilla walkers to guerrilla
warfare (Ewoks vs Empire). These are two different words that sound
the same.)
- I was genuinely and generally
interested.
- It didn't feel like they jumped the
shark.
- Disney are going to milk this one dry.
- Luke Skywalker brushing his shoulder / Obama brushing his
shoulder.
- He turned the tide against him by being too
cool in the Whitehouse.
- At least I didn't sigh in this episode.