product, tool
Who taught: Brian Williams
Tool (source: http://peb.pl/albumy-rock-and-metal)
When I was young, I did not understand why my parents always wanted to watch news programs, especially, when there were some TV shows my brother and I really wanted to watch. You know what happened? Now, I love watching news programs. They are informative and fun as well. I watch two news programs. One is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (7 pm est) and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric (7:30 pm est). CBS one is more fun to watch. Katie uses a few fun expressions often. FYI, people here in the U.S. say “Do not watch any news from Fox channel.” Why? I do not know. Why don’t you try to ask your American friends the reason?
The other thing I want to point out is that news programs are amazingly useful to practice English. While watching them, I usually do the followings.
1. Listen very carefully to find out new words or expressions. I will get back to you later on this.
2. Listen very carefully to learn the sentences what anchors say. They are using very simple but great sentences.
3. Speak what anchors say! As soon as they say something, I myself speak them again out loud. I really try to mimic them in terms of voice and pronunciation. This way, I practice pronunciation and also it is a perfect way of practicing t0 listen and speak as fast as possible.
Getting back to the new words, a few days ago, I was watching NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams was talking about people who died on that day and he used a very interesting word. He said, “He is a product of Ohio and died today……” As soon as I heard it, I was quite surprised because that was the first time I heard the word, product, to describe a person. I have always thought product is the word that can be only used to describe things, not people. Well, I am a product of South Korea. How about you?
In this sense, there is another word which really sounds like it should be used to describe things but can be used in relation to people. It is “TOOL.” So, you can say like, “You are such a tool.” Wait!! You gotta keep reading. Here is the definition of the expression.
A fool. Characterized by low intelligence or self-esteem.
This expression is typically used for male. (Why? Who is using tools?) So, you would not want to use this often. Not a good expression at all. But, if you happen to be a guy and someone uses this expression to you, it is hard to understand if you do not know the meaning. You would be like, “Is he saying that I am good at dealing with tools or what?” So, again, it is really good to know these expressions to be able to protect yourself from being teased and participate in conversations properly.
There’s a funny variation of this which a friend used in high school.
“I’m a byproduct of our education system.”
He wasn’t headed to college like the rest of us. He got into a school at the last minute, but lasted only a semester because it was over his head. He is very creative, but no studious or booksmart at all.
Even byproduct can be used to describe people.. 🙂 So, just out of curiosity, what is he doing now?
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The same experience to me when I was a kid, I hated the time of a day when News starts, especially during weekend, because it always caught my father’s attention and he kept watching it seriously.
But now I enjoy watching News on the Internet, listening may be more accurate expression, whenever I go to bed and close eyes to get asleep. But it’s mostly Korean News not English. Truth be told, I tried to watch it many times before but couldn’t fully understand what it was saying and got frustrated and stop watching.
Terry, when did you start and how well do you understand the News ? Do you feel much improvement comparing to the first time?
These days, I’m doing efforts to improve my englisth, and hope it will pay off some day. In fact, I lived in foreign country over 15 years total ( 3 in Sigapore, 1 in HongKong, and over 10 years in US) but was so lazy in practicing English.
Now, I encourage myself by reminding ” It’s never too late to start learning”…..
I have been watching them from 2006. I now understand most of them. When I have hard time to understand, it is mostly because of the context about which I have no idea. Yes, it got really better and better. Well, in my opinion, anyone who moves to a foreign country after 20 – 25 years old stands at the same starting point. It is really hard to get better in English but still nothing is too late, I believe. I came here when I was 32 years old. It has been almost 5 years. There are two goals I set in my mind in terms of English.
1. Listening : Be able to listen any news without even trying to listen.
2. Speaking : Be able to speak English from which no Americans think that I am a non-native English speaker.
I know it would take time but my goal is to achieve these in 5 years from now. To be able to spend more time to listen and speak English, I intentionally do not watch any Korean TV shows or news at all even though it is very tempting to watch them. In fact, I have never watched any Korean TV shows at all ever since I got here.
You may have given talents in language and do well in self control.
Your attitudes really motivate me a lot… it’s my luck knowing your blog.
No, I do not have any talent in language. The thing I am good at though is that setting a really high goal and do my best to achieve it. Glad to hear that I would motivate you.