Episode 0048
Summary
A couple attends the Carnival in Rio, expressing immense excitement and awe over the parade, the colorful costumes, and the dancers. They marvel at the atmosphere, comment on the samba schools, and discuss taking photos. The male speaker playfully claims he cannot dance and then makes a quick exit, leaving the female speaker momentarily exasperated.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
I can't believe we're here! Carnival in Rio!
Seriously! This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Can you believe it?
We're here at the biggest party in the world!
I know! We're so lucky we found tickets for the Sambadrome. Good thing we found that ticket scalper.
Look, it's starting! Wow, this is amazing!
Look at how many dancers there are.
Oh my gosh, the costumes are so colorful. This is so cool!
It says here that the school that is dancing now is one of the oldest and most prestigious samba schools in Rio.
No kidding! Look at them! They're amazing!
Look at that girl on top of that float! She must be the Carnival Queen!
Move over there, so I can get a picture of you.
Okay.
Hurry up, take the picture!
Oi, eles estão a dançar com a gente!
Hey, they are dancing with us!
Oh, really? No, I can't. No. Really, I don't know how to dance.
Honey, I'll see you later!
Patrick, don't just leave me here!
Summary
This audio is a podcast episode discussing the Brazilian Carnival, particularly in Rio de Janeiro. The hosts, Marco and Erica, introduce and explain key vocabulary related to Carnival, such as "Sambadrome," "Samba," "ticket scalper," "prestigious," and "float." They then play a dialogue featuring two tourists experiencing the Carnival, highlighting their excitement and interaction with a Samba dancer. The episode also delves into common English phrases like "once in a lifetime," "good thing," and "no kidding," providing examples and explanations. Finally, they discuss the significance of Carnival in Brazil and other Latin American countries, inviting listeners to share their own experiences.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Hello, English learners, welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.
I'm Erica.
And today we're at a party.
Yeah, this is a great, exciting, fun, energetic lesson.
We're at the biggest party in the world, Carnival in Rio.
Okay, so Rio, um, this is, this is the name of a city, right?
Yeah, this is a city in Brazil called Rio de Janeiro.
So, Rio de Janeiro.
Yeah. Different pronunciations, right?
Yeah, yours sounds a lot more, I don't know, authentic than mine.
So, for we sometimes refer to it as Rio just to make it shorter.
Yeah, I think that's actually the most common way it's referred to in English.
Yeah, Rio. It's just like if you would say Los Angeles, you would say LA.
Yeah, or, yeah, if you're talking about Kuala Lumpur, you might say KL.
Yeah.
Same idea.
Okay, so we have some words that we're gonna preview before we listen to our dialogue, so let's start with vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview.
Okay, in vocabulary preview we have one word, Sambadrome.
Sambadrome.
Sambadrome.
Sambadrome.
This is actually a building.
So it's, it's a proper noun, not, not a common noun, right?
No, it's not really a common noun. It's a proper noun, but it is a building.
And, and what happens in this building?
Basically, it's very similar to a stadium, but each end isn't closed off. So you have stands on one side and stands on the other, and you have like a little street in the middle.
Okay.
So you can sit down and you can watch people parade or walk by, and you can see the dancers and everything.
And so what is it used for?
The Sambadrome is used so that the samba schools can present their, their dances and their dancers and their costumes to judges and all the people that want to watch them dance samba.
Okay.
So you've been using this word a lot, Samba. What, what is this?
Samba is a type of dance that Brazil is famous for.
Okay.
It's, um, it's a very fast dance, a lot of, uh, hip movement, a lot of, uh, it's very fast, but it's very, very nice, and the music is based with many different type of tropical instruments, so it's really, really fun.
Can you samba?
I can samba a little bit.
Right.
It's kind of hard, it's trickier than what it seems.
Okay, well, we're actually gonna hear some Samba music in the dialogue, right?
Exactly, we're gonna hear some samba that is actually used during Carnival, so.
Okay. So, let's go to Rio now and listen to some samba.
I can't believe we're here. Carnival in Rio. Seriously. This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Can you believe it? We're here at the biggest party in the world.
I know. We're so lucky we found tickets for the Sambadrome. Good thing we found that ticket scalper.
Look, it's starting! Wow, this is amazing! Look at how many dancers there are. Oh my gosh. The costumes are so colorful.
This is so cool!
It says here that the school that is dancing now is one of the oldest and most prestigious samba schools in Rio.
No kidding! Look at them! They're amazing! Look at that girl on top of that float! She must be the Carnival Queen.
Move over there, so I can get a picture of you.
Okay.
Hurry up, take the picture!
Oi, vem com toda a tua gente!
Hey, come with all your people!
Oh, really, no, I can't. No, really, I don't know how to dance. Honey, I'll see you later!
Patrick, don't just leave me here!
All right, what a lucky guy, he got asked out to dance by a beautiful Brazilian samba dancer.
I know.
I don't think his wife was very happy though.
Well, we've got some language about Carnival in Rio, right?
Exactly.
So let's look at that now with language takeaway.
Language takeaway.
All right, our first word on language takeaway today: ticket scalper.
Ticket scalper.
Ticket scalper.
Ticket scalper.
This is actually a job title, I think.
Yeah. Maybe not a totally legal job title, but...
Exactly.
So what does a ticket scalper do?
Uh, basically this person will sell tickets at a higher price to people who don't have tickets.
Okay, so he buys like a hundred tickets and goes and stands outside of the Sambadrome or, or the...
Stadium.
And, and he sells them for like twice the price, right?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's a ticket scalper. Actually, they, they come in handy sometimes because you want to go to a concert or something and you don't have tickets, you gotta turn to them, right?
Right?
Okay, uh, our next word: prestigious.
Prestigious.
Prestigious.
Prestigious.
Now this is a very nice word, prestigious.
Mhm.
Before we explain anything, let's listen to some examples.
Example one.
Harvard University is one of the most prestigious schools in North America.
Example two.
The Academy Award is the most prestigious prize an actor can get in the film industry.
Example three.
He worked really hard and now he is a very prestigious heart surgeon.
I can see that when, when something is prestigious, it's really well-respected, right?
It's well known, well respected.
And you can, and, and if you are part of this thing, you can feel a sense of pride.
Right. Prestige.
Mhm.
Okay, now let's take a look at our last word, float.
Float.
Float.
Float.
Now this doesn't mean like to float in water, right?
No, this is a noun, not a verb.
It's kind of hard to describe actually.
Yeah, it is hard to describe.
A float is something that you commonly see in parades.
Right.
So it'd be like a car, but you can't really see the car.
No, because it's covered with decorations.
With big decorations, and it's made to look like a artificial island.
Yeah, or a tree maybe.
So you have people standing on there and dancing or or waving.
Yep. Okay.
We'll definitely post a picture of a float on our comment section so you could see what a float looks like.
Right.
Okay, so now let's listen to our dialogue again. We're gonna slow it down a little bit so you can understand all of these words we just talked about.
I can't believe we're here. Carnival in Rio. Seriously. This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Can you believe it? We're here at the biggest party in the world.
I know! We're so lucky that we found tickets for the Sambadrome. Good thing we found that ticket scalper.
Look, it's starting! Wow, this is amazing! Look at how many dancers there are. Oh my gosh! The costumes are so colorful! This is so cool!
It says here that the school that is dancing now is one of the oldest and most prestigious samba schools in Rio.
No kidding! Look at them! They're amazing! Look at that girl on top of that float! She must be the Carnival Queen. Move over there, so I can get a picture of you.
Okay.
Hurry up, take the picture!
Oh, really, no, I can't. No. Really, I don't know how to dance. Honey, I'll see you later!
Patrick, don't just leave me here!
All right, we're back. So now I think we should take a look at some of the phrases.
Yeah, let's go to fluency builder.
All right.
Fluency builder.
So we have this phrase, once in a lifetime.
Once in a lifetime.
Once in a lifetime.
Once in a lifetime.
So this is an expression you would use to say that it doesn't happen very often.
Yeah, it's a really special event.
So like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Or a once in a lifetime chance.
Okay. Yeah. Once in a lifetime.
Let's look at our next phrase. Good thing.
Good thing.
Good thing.
Good thing.
So we have some examples for good thing. Why don't we listen to them and then we'll come back.
Example one.
Good thing I studied for my exam. It was really hard.
Example two.
It's a good thing I brought my umbrella. It rained the whole day.
Example three.
It's a good thing that I bought my house before the prices went up.
Good thing I had money in my wallet.
You're happy you had money in your wallet.
Yeah. You could also maybe use it as a negative, right? Like, good thing I didn't go.
Right. Um, I'm happy I didn't go because it was terrible.
Okay, good thing.
All right, now let's take a look at our last word, no kidding.
No kidding.
No kidding.
No kidding.
Okay, so many of you probably already know this word kidding, right?
Yeah, it means joking.
Yeah, I'm joking, just kidding.
Yeah. Okay.
But if I would say no kidding.
Um, you're saying like, yeah, I totally agree with you.
Right. I agree with you. I know you are.
I know you're being serious.
I know you're being serious. I know it's true. So I could say, wow, this restaurant is really expensive.
No kidding.
Yeah, so you would agree as like, yeah, for real.
So this term no kidding is, is slang, right?
It's a little bit informal, yeah. Yeah. Okay.
So why don't we listen to our dialogue again for the third time and then we'll come back and talk about Brazil.
I can't believe we're here. Carnival in Rio. Seriously. This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Can you believe it? We're here at the biggest party in the world.
I know. We're so lucky we found tickets for the Sambadrome. Good thing we found that ticket scalper.
Look, it's starting! Wow, this is amazing! Look at how many dancers there are. Oh my gosh. The costumes are so colorful. This is so cool!
It says here that the school that is dancing now is one of the oldest and most prestigious samba schools in Rio.
No kidding! Look at them! They're amazing! Look at that girl on top of that float! She must be the Carnival Queen. Move over there, so I can get a picture of you.
Okay.
Hurry up, take the picture!
Oi, vem com toda a tua gente!
Hey, come with all your people!
Oh, really, no, I can't. No. Really, I don't know how to dance. Honey, I'll see you later!
Patrick, don't just leave me here!
All right, Marco, so, um, Carnival. It's a Brazilian celebration, right?
It's, um, it's very popular in all Latin America. Oh, really? Yeah, but Brazilian Carnival is very, very special.
Okay, so what are they celebrating?
So basically it's the beginning of Lent, which is a this period of time in the Catholic religion right before Easter. But Carnival in Brazil is very special because of all the dancing and all of this, uh, and costumes and everything.
Yeah, well, um, from the dialogue, it sounds really wild and crazy, so, so what happens?
Well, it definitely is really amazing and it's just basically a lot of samba music and partying and and it's really nice and especially to be able to see something so spectacular as like hundreds and thousands of dancers in the Sambadrome and and they're parading down in their costumes and and in floats. So it's a very, very, it's a very special event.
All right, so, uh, it sounds like a lot of fun. Um. I want to hear from our listeners.
Yeah, for sure. We have a lot of listeners from Brazil and Carnival is not only celebrated in Rio, it's also in São Paulo, in Pernambuco, in Bahia, and it's a little bit different in each place, so, so it's not just a thing of Rio, it's just more popular there.
Is there a Sambadrome in each city?
Yeah, there is a Sambadrome in São Paulo, yeah, yeah.
Oh, cool.
Yeah. Let us know if you've ever been to Carnival or how you celebrated in your hometown or in your city.
Yeah, come to our website, englishpod.com and leave us your comments all about Carnival.
Exactly, and everyone, be sure to come because we're gonna post some videos of what samba is like and some photos, so you can get an idea of this really interesting Brazilian celebration.
Okay, everyone, thanks for listening and until next time.
Goodbye.
Bye.
Summary
This audio is a vocabulary lesson from 'The English Pod audio review' featuring two speakers. It introduces English vocabulary words by first providing a definition (spoken by Speaker 2), then the word itself (spoken by Speaker 1). The lesson covers words such as 'once in a lifetime,' 'ticket scalper,' 'prestigious,' 'float,' 'good thing,' 'stadium,' 'festival,' 'Brasilia,' 'take a chance,' and 'ditch.' Following the initial definitions, Speaker 1 then uses several of these words in example sentences to illustrate their usage.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
The English Pod audio review.
Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.
Something that happens very rarely, not common.
Once in a lifetime.
Person that buys and resells tickets at a higher price.
Ticket scalper.
Being respected and admired for being successful or important.
Prestigious.
A vehicle with a platform used to carry and exhibit in a parade.
Float.
It is good that something happened.
Good thing.
A large structure where sport events are held.
Stadium.
A special time or event when people gather to celebrate something.
Festival.
The capital of Brazil.
Brasilia.
Take a risk, do something that you would not normally do.
Take a chance.
Leave someone on purpose. Informal.
Ditch.
Let's try that faster.
Take a risk, do something that you would not normally do.
Take a chance.
Something that happens very rarely, not common.
Once in a lifetime.
Being respected and admired for being successful or important.
Prestigious.
A vehicle with a platform used to carry and exhibit in a parade.
Float.
A special time or event when people gather to celebrate something.
Festival.
A large structure where sport events are held.
Stadium.
The capital of Brazil.
Brasilia.
Leave someone on purpose. Informal.
Ditch.
Person that buys and resells tickets at a higher price.
Ticket scalper.
It is good that something happened.
Good thing.
Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.
Once in a lifetime.
You have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make this trip. You should really go.
Once in a lifetime.
Swimming with the sharks and dolphins was a once in a lifetime experience.
Once in a lifetime.
Michael Jackson's concert in Budapest was a once in a lifetime event.
Good thing.
Good thing I studied for my exam, it was really hard.
Good thing.
It's a good thing I brought my umbrella. It rained the whole day.
Good thing.
It's a good thing that I bought my house before the prices went up.
Ticket scalper.
Police arrived and arrested three ticket scalpers outside of the stadium.
Ticket scalper.
The concert was sold out, but I was able to buy some tickets from a ticket scalper.
Ticket scalper.
I hate ticket scalpers. They always resell tickets at a much higher price.
Prestigious.
Harvard University is one of the most prestigious schools in North America.
Prestigious.
The Academy Award is the most prestigious prize an actor can get in the film industry.
Prestigious.
He worked really hard and now he is a very prestigious heart surgeon.
Tony, don't just leave your toys on the ground.
Don't just buy the first thing that you see, look around first.
Don't just cross the street without looking, it's dangerous.