Learn how to use the most common verb in English, "to be"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Jessi here. |
| Daniel: Daniel here. Beginner series, season one, lesson four - What’s your ethnicity? |
| Daniel: Hello and welcome to the beginner series, season one at EnglishClass101.com where we study modern English in a fun, educational format. |
| Jessi: So brush up on the English that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. |
| Daniel: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Jessi, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Jessi: In this lesson you will learn how to ask and talk about ethnicity. |
| Daniel: This conversation takes place outside a classroom at a college. |
| Jessi: The conversation is between Mike and Vicky, two classmates |
| Daniel: The speakers are friends. Therefore, the speakers will be speaking casual English. Now, before we listen to the conversation. |
| Jessi: We want to ask |
| Daniel: do you read the lesson notes while you listen? |
| Jessi: We received an email about this study tip |
| Daniel: So we were wondering if you’ve tried it. and if so, |
| Jessi: What do you think of it? |
| Daniel: You can leave us feedback in the comments section of this lesson. |
| Jessi: OK, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Vicky: Hi, Mike! What’s up? |
| Mike: Not much. How are you doing, Vicky? |
| Vicky: Never been better. I’m waiting for my roommate. |
| Mike: Oh, do you mean Oksana? She is Ukrainian, right? |
| Vicky: Yup. Are you Italian-American Mike? |
| Mike: I’m part Italian and part Irish. |
| Vicky: How interesting! |
| Mike: How about you Vicky? I know you’re Asian-American, but I don’t know which ethnicity. |
| Vicky: My parents are Korean, so I’m Korean-American. |
| Mike: Cool! I love kimchi. |
| Vicky: Um…okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: So, in this conversation, Mike and Vicky were talking about ethnicity. |
| Daniel: That's right. |
| Jessi: So, by the way Daniel, what ethnicity are you? |
| Daniel: Well, I'm part-Japanese, part-English, part-Irish, and part-German. |
| Jessi: Wow! You have a lot of mixes in there! |
| Daniel: That's right! How about you Jessi? What's your ethnicity? |
| Jessi: Well, my mother is from Mexico, so I'm Mexican-American. |
| Daniel: Okay. |
| Jessi: Yea. |
| Daniel: Great. Are you good at cooking Mexican food? |
| Jessi: I'm not, but my mother is. So, she always cooked Mexican food for us. I loved it. |
| Daniel: Oh, I'd love to try it. |
| Jessi: Yes, it's really good. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Daniel: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Jessi: What's up? [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: What are you doing? / How are you? |
| Jessi: What's up? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: What's up? [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| Jessi: not much [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: nothing special, nothing especially |
| Jessi: not much [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: not much [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| Jessi: Ukrainian [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: a person or thing from Ukraine (an Eastern European country) |
| Jessi: Ukrainian [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: Ukrainian [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| yup [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: yes (casual) |
| Jessi: yup [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: yup [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| Jessi: Italian-American [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: an American person or thing with roots in Italy |
| Jessi: Italian-American [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: Italian-American [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| Jessi: Asian-American [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: an American person or thing with roots in Asia |
| Jessi: Asian-American [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: Asian-American [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| Jessi: ethnicity [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: condition of belonging to a national or cultural group |
| Jessi: ethnicity [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: ethnicity [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: Next. |
| Jessi: kimchi [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: a spicy, pickled side-dish served with Korean food |
| Jessi: kimchi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jessi: kimchi [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Jessi: In this lesson's dialog, Mike asks Vicky, "what's up?" This is a common way for close friends to begin a |
| Daniel: The meaning is the same as "What are you doing?" or "What is happening now?" However, it is often used as an informal simple greeting, such as "hi". |
| Jessi: Yes, this phrase is very informal. You can answer this question by explaining what is new with you. But the most common answer is "not much". "Not much" simply means that there is no special news to report. |
| Daniel: Also, people often don’t answer the question "what's up?", but instead respond with "what's up?". |
| Jessi: So let’s hear an example of this. |
| Daniel: OK. Jessi, what’s up? |
| Jessi: What’s up? |
| Daniel: Exactly. |
| Jessi: The next word we will look in this lesson is "ethnicity". Ethnicity is the noun form of the word "ethnic", as in |
| Daniel: Something that is ethnic is associated with a national or cultural group. For example, Italian food and Mexican food are considered ethnic food by Americans. |
| Jessi: That's right. Ethnicity is the noun form, and it is often used to talk about a person's race. A person may be a different ethnicity than the country they were born in or live in. |
| Daniel: Now, in America, there are so many different ethnicities, so it is fairly common to ask people about their ethnic background. When you ask this question, you will hear many people say things like "I'm Italian-American" or "I'm Chinese-American." |
| Jessi: Yes, you hear those kinds of phrases a lot. But many people are from mixed backgrounds, so you will also hear things like "I'm part-Italian." This means that the person has some Italian in their background, but also has some other ethnicity or ethnicities. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Daniel: Okay, let's take a look at the grammar point for this lesson. |
| Daniel: The focus of this lesson is subject-verb agreement with “be”. For example, "She is Ukrainian, right?" |
| Jessi: "Be" is one of the most common and important words in the English language. In this lesson, we will look at how it is used as a copula and how it is conjugated. |
| Daniel: By copula, we mean that it is used to link the subject with an adjective, another noun, or an expression of place. |
| Jessi: You can think of “be” as being like an equal sign (=). |
| Daniel: That's right. The conjugation of “be” can be difficult, so let's look carefully at how to do it using the simple present tense. |
| Jessi: The basic sentence pattern using “be” as a copula in the simple present tense is like this… Subject, plus, be, plus either an adjective, noun, or expression of place. |
| Daniel: The conjugation for "be" depends on whether you are using first person |
| Jessi: I |
| Daniel: 2nd person |
| Jessi: you |
| Daniel: or 3rd person |
| Jessi: he or she |
| Daniel: It also depends on whether there is only person, or more than one person. |
| Jessi: The conjugation also depends on the verb tense - past, present, future, etc. But in this lesson, we will only consider the simple present tense. |
| Daniel: Let's look at some examples… |
| Jessi: First, an example in the 1st person. |
| Daniel: I am American. |
| Jessi: Next, an example in the 2nd person. |
| Daniel: You are tall. |
| Jessi: And lastly, an example in the 3rd person. |
| Daniel: She is Ukrainian. |
| Jessi: So don't forget these three forms of the word "be" - am, are, and is! |
| Daniel: There is a detailed write-up of the grammar point in the lesson PDF. So be sure to visit the website and download the PDF for this lesson. |
Outro |
| Jessi: Well, that just about does it for today. |
| Daniel: Some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool on EnglishClass101.com |
| Jessi: The line by line audio. |
| Daniel: The perfect tool for rapidly improving your listening comprehension. |
| Jessi: by listening to lines of the conversation again and again.. |
| Daniel: listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. |
| Basically, we break down the dialogue into comprehensible, bite-size sentences. |
| Jessi: You can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at EnglishClass101.com |
| Daniel: Well, until next time. See you later |
| Jessi: Bye everyone. |
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