Episode 0137

My name is Marco.

And my name is Catherine and today we're talking about something very, very important in the computer age. Internet. Internet and internet connections.

Right. I think, well, so many people use the internet now and have it, but it's sometimes a little bit complicated to maybe get a plan or maybe if you're not too familiar with the terms, that's what we're going to be looking at today.

So listen out for some of these words today. We're we're talking on the phone with someone who's going to help us get a plan. When we come back, we'll be talking all about what some of these words and phrases mean, so if you're confused, just wait a couple seconds and we'll be back.

Hi. I would like to get an internet plan for my house.

Of course.

We have three different plans with different prices you can choose from. The first one is the cheapest, but most basic plan, which is $30 a month.

This is for broadband internet with a download speed of 512 Kbps.

I have no idea what Kbps means. I just want to be able to get online, play games and chat with my friends.

Oh, and watch movies online as well.

Well, this connection might be a bit too slow for your needs.

I suggest you get the premium package for $50 a month, which includes a connection speed of 2 megabytes.

Do I have to pay an installation fee?

All right, so interesting. A lot of these uh technical terms specifically for internet and computers and connection and all that stuff.

Yeah, and the nice thing about some of these words uh is that they can be used in other ways as well. So we've been learning about these and uh expanding our vocabularies, but they're useful in many other contexts as well.

So this first phrase, for example, is something that you see advertised all the time, and it's uh, well, it's a kind of internet connection.

Mhm. Broadband internet.

Okay, so internet is pretty clear, but broadband, you might be asking what the heck can this mean?

Okay, so you have broad.

So broad means wide.

Wide, uh-huh. And a band is basically kind of like a frequency that at which something works.

Like bandwidth.

Bandwidth, uh-huh.

So you have broadband, you have fast or high-speed internet.

That means the bigger the space is, the more information can be transferred, so it's it's a fast connection essentially.

Exactly.

before broadband, we had dial-up internet.

So slow.

You had to use your modem and call a number and then get connected by by telephone. So it was a dial-up connection.

But it was so slow.

Right. So this is another key computer word that actually has a couple of different uses.

For example, as you said, you can download music.

Or download photos.

That means you find a photo on the internet that you like, and you could save it on your computer.

Um but you can also have a download, so it can be a thing too.

Okay, so if maybe you're downloading three different files, you have three downloads.

Okay, so to download and download.

Mhm.

Very good.

So now with internet, you have different speeds, as we talked about, right? How fast you're downloading something.

And the guy mentioned 512 Kbps.

Oh no, not another one of these Kbps.

So this actually this one's pretty simple.

You can think about kilobytes. You've heard about megabytes, kilobytes. This is a this is a size.

Mhm, that how fast you can receive these packets of information.

Uh so 512 kilobytes per second.

Per second, that's I have no idea how much that is. It's maybe a lot, it sounds like a lot.

Right. Well, basically, it is a lot,

but we saw later that he was asking for a connection speed of 2 megabytes.

Ooh, so mega is bigger than Kpbs, right?

Right.

All right, so uh these are different speeds of transferring information, right?

So this is a way for you to see what kind of uh internet plan you want.

Exactly.

And uh so you have kilobytes, we have megabytes.

And basically you want a faster connection speed because you want to avoid lag.

Ooh, lag.

All right.

Um this is a word that you can use in a lot of different ways, for example, um my brother always lags behind.

Okay, so it's uh it's a verb.

But in this case we're talking about the noun. So lag is slowness.

Yeah, it's like a delay. Yeah, it's a delay in in something.

So in this case, I can't even play my video games because there's too much lag.

So that means the internet's too slow.

too slow. Exactly. So that's what happens when you have a slow connection speed, you have lag.

And as you can say, it refers to something that's slow or delayed, so you can use it in other contexts when you want to say something is a little bit slow.

Mhm.

Well, and another key thing here, as we're talking about uh internet connections, is the router.

So router is something that helps us to um route an internet connection.

So for example,

So it basically distributes the internet connection to different computers or to different users.

And some of these you plug in, and some of them are wireless. That means without a wire.

So a wireless router is something a little box in your house that allows you to maybe have three or four computers on one broadband connection.

Right.

So it's very popular now. You go to Starbucks and you have Wi-Fi in order to have Wi-Fi or wireless internet, you need a router, a wireless router.

Okay, so wireless router.

And finally, what is something that might get in the way of a connection?

You have a firewall, very important security measure when navigating the internet.

All right, so a personal firewall is a firewall that you have on your computer to keep people from spying on you.

This keeps other people out.

Mhm. So it's exactly that. It's a wall between your between your computer and the outside world.

So it protects you from any type of maybe malicious intruders.

Right. And oftentimes governments and um public offices, things like that, law offices, they have firewalls to protect the information that they store because it's so important that it's secretive.

Exactly. Yeah.

So firewalls. There are many different types of firewalls, but a personal firewall is just a basic one.

Great. So that is our language takeaway for today. Let's uh check out this dialogue again and slow it down a bit this time.

Hi. I would like to get an internet plan for my house.

Of course.

We have three different plans with different prices you can choose from. The first one is the cheapest, but most basic plan, which is $30 a month.

This is for broadband internet with a download speed of 512 Kbps.

I have no idea what Kbps means. I just want to be able to get online, play games and chat with my friends.

Oh, and watch movies online as well.

Well, this connection might be a bit too slow for your needs.

I suggest you get the premium package for $50 a month, which includes a connection speed of 2 megabytes.

Do I have to pay an installation fee?

All right, great. So we just heard all these words that we looked at before, uh, but now why don't we take a look at some of these phrases in Fluency Builder.

What's this first one? I can't read it.

All right.

Enough games.

No. I have no idea.

This is this is we're going to treat this as a phrase that gets uh said as is, we're not going to take bits and pieces of it.

Uh so I have no idea or he has no idea is a way to say, listen.

I don't know.

I don't know. I really don't know.

Right. The guy was talking about Kbps and all these things and and the other guy was like, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't understand.

And I can I can definitely empathize. You can relate.

Yeah.

Mhm.

Well, we'll leave that for another one.

Uh but after this we've got uh bucks.

All right. So bucks, what is this slang?

Bucks, uh-huh.

100 bucks.

200 bucks.

A lot of money.

Right. So bucks is basically another way of saying dollars.

All right, so this is a way for, well, this is a way that most Americans talk about money. It's uh one buck is one US dollar.

Now, bucks, you can only use it for American currency, right? You can't use it for like euros or No.

No, no, no, no. You can't say like 10 euros would be 10 bucks.

Usually you say this about American dollars, and you say this uh just when you're hanging out or how much does this cost? Oh, five bucks.

Mhm.

Yeah, but.

Very good.

So the guy was telling him about the the price of the internet and everything, and he said that he's going to throw in a pen drive, right?

He's going to throw it?

Where where's he going to throw it?

So throw in means to uh to add or include.

Or include.

So you throw in something, it's you include it for free, right?

Exactly. So this is usually a complimentary item.

Great. I think uh this word is really interesting or this phrase. So why don't we listen to a couple of other examples using throw in.

If you buy two pizzas, we will throw in another one for free.

Tell you what, I'll buy this computer if you throw in a pair of headphones. Deal?

The salesman threw in a subscription to the local newspaper for buying his product.

Right. So why don't we listen to this dialogue for the last time and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more.

Hi. I would like to get an internet plan for my house.

Of course.

We have three different plans with different prices you can choose from. The first one is the cheapest, but most basic plan, which is $30 a month.

This is for broadband internet with a download speed of 512 Kbps.

I have no idea what Kbps means. I just want to be able to get online, play games and chat with my friends.

Oh, and watch movies online as well.

Well, this connection might be a bit too slow for your needs.

I suggest you get the premium package for $50 a month, which includes a connection speed of 2 megabytes.

Do I have to pay an installation fee?

So the internet, it's a big deal nowadays, and now you can do so much on it. Not only navigate websites anymore, but watch movies, download applications, uh photos, Facebook, all this type of things now you can do on the internet.

You can even do it from your phone, like when you're in the bathroom or on the train. I mean, it's scary. There's we're always connected.

Right. So it's it's it's interesting. You're always connected, you're always online with people.

And uh it's actually very noticeable when you maybe live somewhere else, before you used to have to write letters.

I don't think many people receive handwritten letters anymore.

Never.

I I'm speaking for myself, I never receive, and I don't write them either.

So, I guess I'm guilty of it.

So now people just send emails.

Obviously, it's more convenient, but uh maybe it's a little bit less significant maybe than actually going to the post office or taking the time to write a letter, going to the post office and stuff.

Well, I don't know. There's something nice about having a physical thing you can hold on to, but I wonder if one day we're going to forget how to write.

Yeah. You know, like write with a pen.

With a pen and pencil, exactly.

We're going to have these little PDAs and these little iPhones and they're going to just we're going to talk and they're going to take everything down in note form for you.

Well, now it's kind of happening with the the Kindle, right? Now you can have books on this uh electronic device that lets you read through them and You can carry 100 books with you to the beach.

Exactly.

So now you don't even really need physical books anymore.

But but there's something, I don't know, physical about reading a book. You hold it, you flip the pages, you know how many pages you have left. I don't know.

We'll see. Maybe I'll be a convert one day, but for now, I'm good with paper books.

All right. So we'll what do you guys think about the internet about uh electronic books?

You could also tell us any problems or confusion you have with the things that we talked about today. Uh hopefully everything is clear, but if not, we are here to answer your questions. We'd like to do so.

So check out our website englishpod.com.

The English pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A fast internet connection.

Broadband Internet.

A device that allows data to be transferred between individual computers and networks.

Modem.

Act of transferring data between computers.

Download.

Form of broadband internet service delivered over telephone network, relatively slow.

Digital subscriber line.

Form of broadband internet service delivered over cable television network, relatively fast.

Cable Internet.

Over the internet.

Online.

An individual's necessary requirements.

Someone's needs.

Software which detects harmful viruses on a computer.

Antivirus software.

A delay.

Lag.

Not using wires to send and receive data.

Wireless.

Device used to protect a computer against intruders.

Firewall.

Process of making ready for use.

Installation.

To offer for free.

Throw in.

Let's try that faster.

Form of broadband internet service delivered over telephone network, relatively slow.

Digital subscriber line.

A device that allows data to be transferred between individual computers and networks.

Modem.

A delay.

Lag.

Not using wires to send and receive data.

Wireless.

Over the internet.

Online.

Process of making ready for use.

Installation.

Device used to protect a computer against intruders.

Firewall.

Form of broadband internet service delivered over cable television network, relatively fast.

Cable Internet.

Software which detects harmful viruses on a computer.

Antivirus software.

Act of transferring data between computers.

Download.

To offer for free.

Throw in.

A fast internet connection.

Broadband Internet.

An individual's necessary requirements.

Someone's needs.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Download.

Now that I have broadband internet, I can download music and videos for free.

Download.

This website has a lot of free software that you can download.

Download.

That's a big file you are trying to download. It might take up to three hours to complete.

Someone's needs.

This software is designed to meet all your needs.

Someone's needs.

You don't take into consideration my needs when making these decisions.

Someone's needs.

To understand the needs of your children, you should talk to them regularly.

Wireless.

Our office is installing a new wireless network so that we can use our laptops and smartphones.

Wireless.

Wireless.

Firewall.

We have a firewall at the office, which prevents us from accessing sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Firewall.

It's important to have a good firewall set up to prevent unauthorized access to your network.

Firewall.

I always turn off my firewall because it prevents me from opening certain websites.

Throw in.

If you buy two pizzas, we will throw in another one for free.

Throw in.

Tell you what. I'll buy this computer if you throw in a pair of headphones. Deal?

Throw in.

The English pod audio review.