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enjoy well
well I'll ride look at that look
look what i have here i'm back in
in America for this month's masterclass
masterclass video lesson and I have
have none other than my father say
say hello say hello say hello hello
hello
hello and
and low and low goodness so he and
and I I like to joke around a lot
lot and I get a lot of that from him
him we say the apple doesn't fall
fall far from the tree this means
means that when I'm I'm like my father
father and what are you looking at
at
at oh
oh my goodness those look it I know
know the Apple like it oh
oh my goodness see we don't get this
this either you get to see all of
of this
of this so
so his name is you want to introduce
introduce yourself to everybody my
my name is Richard batcher and so
so I'm drew badger as you already
already know and this month because
because I'm here back for a vacation
vacation about family and reunion
reunion we have a little bit of a
a reunion this month here in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon so
so I get to see my dad I haven't seen
seen how long has it been no
no it's been almost two years nearly
nearly two years since your sister
sister got married yes I my sister
sister got married this was about
about
about I
I guess a year and a half two years
years angles and that was the last
last time we got to see ch how's
how's the girlfriend I don't know
know what you're talking about my
my girlfriend why not well
well that makes a kind of public what
what do you mean listen it's not even
even that little public my
my girlfriend is fine oh very good
good
good well
well we will leave that one it's a
a secret
a secret don't
don't worry about that in case you're
you're watching as is don't tell anybody
anybody look in the camera in the
the camera right here don't look over
over here don't get confused by that
that
that so
so sometimes when i'm recording people
people they get a little bit they
they see themselves in the camera
camera so this video camera we have
have a regular screen that you're
you're looking at right here but also
also there's a monitor on the side
side so you can look at yourself right
right now I'm looking at the monitor
monitor and it looks a little bit
bit confusing when you do that but
but anyway so you're doing here is
is how my head gets bigger as I get
get closer yes
yes just keep your eyes and the camera
camera like that very
very good very good but what it would
would also you working on back home
home anything going to talk about
about my job yes
yes you could talk about your job
job you can tell me tell me what you're
you're working on it but how I am
am familiar with Japan yeah
yeah sure there's other countries
countries you can talk about all the
the other countries sure my
my job is to bring in about 70 students
students every year to the University
University of Chicago Law School so
so he works as a person as dean and
and at the law school and these students
students are in a program for foreign
foreign trained lawyers so their lawyers
lawyers in their country already but
but they come to the United States
States to spend a year and during
during that year they will study about
about American law and then afterwards
afterwards they'll go back to their
their countries and this will be beneficial
beneficial to them because they will
will be dealing with clients who may
may be us clients wanted to do business
business in their countries or dealing
dealing with American lawyers representing
representing us clients and so familiar
familiar with American law will be
be helpful and they come to me about
about commercial for the you know
know how well you asked me to talk
talk i'll go ahead and go ahead and
and ask you know yes
yes and so I'm sort of their social
social chair I
I take them to a baseball game I have
have them over to my home for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving so
so you teach them the culture and
and here's just do it is the law and
and my children grew up thinking that
that that's what Thanksgiving once
once
once yes
yes having a bunch of people from
from abroad in their home and and
and of course the byproduct that is
is I have a son who
who goes off to some of the country
country yeah so basically what what
what Thanksgiving even know where
where we're at Christmas or the holiday
holiday season at the end of the year
year right now basically
basically for thanksgiving this is
is the main time for people to come
come back from wherever they are and
and together as a family and there's
there's a lot of eating a lot of eating
eating turkey or other traditional
traditional thanksgiving foods and
and this is one of the probably it's
it's still the biggest holiday I
I think it has traveled thousands
thousands of the year the thanksgiving
thanksgiving always comes on a thursday
thursday in November so it's always
always a four-day weekend and many
many people will actually a couple
couple of days earlier so
so they'll turn it into a major travel
travel time and since my students
students all of a broad they really
really can't go home for that period
period of time so i have them over
over to my home and then I tell them
them that the next day which is the
the day after thanksgiving is the
the big shopping day in this country
country where everyone goes out and
and buys stuff so we call this black
black friday that's right and it's
it's called Black Friday because in
in accounting terms if the numbers
numbers are black that
that means you're making a profit
profit and the numbers are red that
that means you're making a loss so
so the idea is that all of these stores
stores and businesses have been losing
losing money for most of the year
year but then all of a sudden people
people come and begin buying things
things for Christmas and one of the
the nice things about thanksgiving
thanksgiving is it's not a religious
religious holiday you
you know Christmas New Year's other
other events tend to be tied to a
a religion but thanksgiving is not
not religious so it's something that
that everyone can observe and that's
that's why so many people are out
out celebrating and why it's such
such a busy travel time so the weather
weather is also occasionally not so
so nice and a lot
a lot of people get delayed and it's
it's really terrible at airports and
and on major roads where a lot of
of people are trapped but so we get
get to have that experience and so
so just as my dad said we have the
the experience of having all these
these international students come
come to our home and so that's instead
instead of having a sit-down dinner
dinner with maybe you know five to
to 10 people in your immediate family
family so your immediate family is
is all like your mom and your dad
dad and your close relatives may be
be your cousins or uncles or something
something like that we
we have all these students from all
all over the world and so I got to
to meet people from Japan China India
India Iraq all the country Europe
Europe South America everywhere everywhere
everywhere we
we get lots of little things from
from people from all over the world
world they bring a little gifts things
things from their their own country
country and so it was a nice little
little international experience I
I wouldn't trade it for the world
world i use that expression a lot
lot of means you you would not want
want to give up that I wouldn't trade
trade it for the world so
so I do its way to prime my favorite
favorite holiday i'm good i think
think i like it a lot of people like
like Thanksgiving and it's a night
night it's a nice time it's
it's all right now you're you're out
out here visiting yes in Oregon and
and it's a bit i'll show you guys
guys the snow later it's a beautiful
beautiful day outside my dad was 22
22 cold he didn't want to sit outside
outside and record this he's a smart
smart man
smart man yeah
yeah only a fool would sit outside
outside for 15 minutes and you can
can be in a warm place right now and
and we have i'll show you also we
we have any other school is he has
has a full a fool will write it down
down here for you right down here
here fool is a person that you know
know they do stupid things kind of
of like I do on occasion i can be
be foolish but my dad is no fool he's
he's no fool he's no he's an ok so
so we're enjoying our time and bend
bend in anything you specifically
specifically like to do out here or
or just the actually know about what
what we didn't do yes
yes we go ahead you can tell them
them a story so the weather is not
not so great my dad will tell you
you the story right now well
well in Bend Oregon which is a relatively
relatively small city maybe it's like
like 80,000 80,000 people yeah
yeah they have a tradition here lots
lots and lots of what they call local
local breweries yeah
yeah it's called a brew pub group
group up will you can explain what
what a brewery is yes a brewery is
is where you brew beer that's where
where beer is made and most beer in
in this country is made by large companies
companies in very large factories
factories basically and they ship
ship it all around but
but in recent years there's been a
a growth of these brew pubs where
where people make their own beer and
and very small batches and then sell
sell it to people in the sort of the
the city or the community these
these are called micro brews right
right micro meeting small and so there
there again there's a couple of big
big maybe verte of budweiser coolers
coolers Miller these are like the
the big three companies that make
make most of the beer in America but
but then you have a whole bunch of
of these tiny companies and some of
of them actually make the only make
make beer and other companies they
they they make beer but they also
also have a place where you can go
go and eat is called a brew pub and
and there are a lot of these in Bend
Bend I think they're about 15 of them
them and one of the things you can
can do is to rent a large it's
it's called a bicycle but it really
really isn't a bicycle it's like a
a contraption that machine heart sort
sort of and you can get a bunch of
of people maybe 10 or 12 people peddling
peddling this bike and going from
from place to place and drinking beer
beer now because you have to be careful
careful with all these people drinking
drinking beer you
you hire a driver with the contraption
contraption pleased that he's more
more like a steer yes
yes but they won't let us they won't
won't just let 12 people do it on
on their own game because the foolish
foolish yes that would be foolish
foolish although if we did we'd probably
probably select one person to be the
the designated driver yes
yes this is a word for a person if
if you go out drinking you
you know maybe if you've been to America
America or even in your own country
country we have very strict laws and
and for good reason if
if you go out drinking you can't have
have you know maybe let's say five
five people go out drinking and one
one of them is the designated driver
driver so to designate means to have
have a specific person that won't
won't be drinking or they drink you
you know some non-alcoholic things
things so they can drive and their
their brains okay right so that person
person will sort of volunteer to do
do that or be selected to do that
that but even here they probably wouldn't
wouldn't want us to do it because
because you know you're driving this
this contraption up and down these
these little Hills in the town and
and I probably take some experience
experience through its not like just
just riding a bicycle it's a it's
it's a long thing with all the people
people on it pedaling
pedaling trying to move it forward
forward but it's probably difficult
difficult to drive so so we we were
were supposed to do that today instead
instead of shooting this video right
right now we're going to shoot this
this later actually but
but we had a little bit of snow last
last night and the roads are pretty
pretty icy so
so we had to cancel our reservation
reservation there was going to be
be maybe I think 10 of us yes
yes I think that's a ten of us sit
sit on this thing and we're all peddling
peddling except for me maybe I would
would sit back and relax and let the
the rest of them pedal while I that's
that's called that's called being
being a free ride is a free rider
rider or a low for i'm relaxing and
and I'm not the rest of the people
people doing all the work is or they
they discovered that that makes them
them unhappy because they feel he
he should be doing just as much work
work as I am yeah
yeah or you could say I'm I don't
don't know I'm
I'm trying to think of a good expression
expression for that where I'm you
you said you could say I'm not pulling
pulling my own weight yes
yes that's true I'm not not pulling
pulling my own weight you have a whole
whole bunch of people doing something
something and I'm not doing that so
so that's another good experience
experience all the other people have
have to pull their weight and his
his way yes but had we so we were
were thinking about doing that today
today but now we get to sit down have
have a nice conversation is like father-son
father-son yeah it is it's been a
a while we talk sometimes we send
send emails but we don't really take
take so much time to talk about as
as much as we should that's
that's probably right and we we should
should be talking more and maybe traveling
traveling more as well in
in addition I think that's for sure
sure and you can come out to japan
japan i would I can i went to japan
japan
japan unfortunately
unfortunately about 10 years ago before
before and we got there or drool I
I guess he's also my real name if
if it's just for you you
you subscribe so everybody so I have
have I maybe I don't remember me i
i think maybe i was in high school
school as well my real name is Andrew
Andrew you probably knew that already
already if you've heard that before
before but I go by Drew and so most
most of the people that have known
known me since I was a young lad a
a young boy they call me Andrew or
or some people even call me badger
badger they refer to me by my last
last yeah that's a tradition that
that people call me badger - yeah
yeah so it sits there like that's
that's a common thing in America if
if you were very close with someone
someone you can use their last name
name in an informal kind of way this
this is not like the Japanese style
style where people use a person's
person's last name in a formal way
way or other other cultures that do
do that as well so it's a because
because a term of endearment it's
it's just a a polite way or a kind
kind of casual way of introducing
introducing someone or toward referring
referring to amusingly
amusingly and because some of the
the people who applied to my program
program do come from Japan and China
China where there may be a tradition
tradition of having the order of the
the names different where you have
have the family name first and then
then the given name or your familiar
familiar name second I
I have to explain to them that this
this is the way we do it in this country
country but people still will write
write to me as Badger and realize
realize that yeah it's my last night
night yeah and sometimes it's interesting
interesting I I know when I if I get
get a like an email since i had i
i speak with people from all over
over the world i get emails from people
people and I don't actually know which
which is the first name or the last
last night just because i'm not i'm
i'm not used to that so don't don't
don't be afraid to ask somebody if
if you hear their name or you see
see something written down number
number one if you don't know how to
to pronounce it you can always ask
ask them see how do you pronounce
pronounce this how
how do you pronounce this or you can
can say which is your first name so
so your family name or your last name
name that's the second name also my
my middle name is Mark so
so it's andrew marc badger that's
that's my full name but
but you often don't use the middle
middle name unless your mom is mad
mad at you and then she will say and
and rhubarb my
my mom will my new and you've heard
heard that many times is really like
like this you know so the file name
name it in again it's it's different
different in different countries but
but usually in America we have a first
first name middle name and the last
last name as well and sometimes the
the middle name we get that from having
having like a like a you get like
like maybe your grandfather's name
name would be like your first name
name and your uncle's name is your
your middle name something like that
that people do lots of different things
things but usually the middle name
name isn't you unless
unless your mom is angry now when
when my students graduate from their
their program I
I have to read their names in front
front of a big audience and of course
course i'm reading names that i'm
i'm not familiar with the language
language some of the South Americans
Americans may have six or seven names
names because the custom there is
is that when you get married you take
take on the names of the parents it's
it's very complicated so
so what I do in the very beginning
beginning of the program is I have
have them say their name and record
record it just like this and then
then I say it myself and then they
they correct me and then I have a
a tape but you do that with all of
of them I do really
really i doing just the ones you all
all of them really well with me some
some of them will come from countries
countries like England or Australia
Australia and New Zealand where it's
it's pretty easy to pronounce the
the nation but the most difficult
difficult names actually are the names
names from the students in Brazil
Brazil and in Portugal because the
the Portuguese language looks a lot
lot like Spanish the names look at
at spanish but they're pronounced
pronounced differently and
and I try to get the pronunciation
pronunciation is correct as i can
can because the what's the longest
longest name well
well I probably had a name with six
six or seven names remember what it
it was
it was I
I don't you know what was it like
like daylight something you know it
it
it I
I can't remember specifically but
but it's it's there long in
in fact that we think that we should
should charge them by their name we
we don't do that the other alternative
alternative is to do what we used
used to do in this country when immigrants
immigrants would come into the country
country we would assign them a name
name that was done at ellis island
island and we would say oh we can't
can't pronounce your name if you want
want to live here will call you John
John Smith yeah and then at later
later on people of course change their
their names back but many people to
to keep the name they
they were given and i would like to
to give my students the chance to
to pick a name like a famous actor
actor
actor yeah
yeah i think is what I'm true yeah
yeah you could be tom cruise with
with that again they
they don't seem to like that idea
idea they want to have in our own
own name sure it's been well they
they don't know you know that you're
you're there you know and they want
want me to read their name because
because oftentimes their parents will
will come here for their graduation
graduation and you know if I can turn
turn towards yeah you want to hear
hear my name yeah
yeah you know when I graduate that's
that's right yeah I graduated I remember
remember when I was graduating he
he and he hugged the guy giving out
out his deployment yes that's quite
quite actually I actually hugged the
the president of my university and
and he wasn't expecting only was when
when I walk but we have a picture
picture of it maybe i can find yes
yes yes it's a great picture and and
and we all appreciated that because
because it broke up a list of 300
300 people just going up and shaking
shaking hands and I try to be different
different yeah for you that's
that's true yes well anyway it's been
been I don't want to keep you too
too long from the from the actual
actual vacation week it's okay but
but it's always it's the greatest
greatest we've talked in a long time
time
time I
I know I know it's so nice loaded
loaded to get out here and since it
it down and will again I'll take the
the camera around and show you what
what i'm doing over here in this video
video
video but
but we'll pull a journey here and
and then i'll be back in a little
little bit as i said we'll show you
you the Christmas tree some of the
the the beautiful surroundings all
all the lovely the the white Christmas
Christmas were experiencing over here
here and we'll get into the special
special mission homework assignment
assignment for this month you can
can say bye bye good bye bye bye right
right
right yeah
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah
yeah mmm
mmm
mmm well
well hello and welcome to the special
special mission homework assignment
assignment for today i hope you enjoyed
enjoyed this little set of me making
making a fire right quick basically
basically i took newspaper and then
then you saw me put some pine cones
cones these are the big things that
that hold the seeds for pine trees
trees and then I put some small pieces
pieces of wood this
this is called kindling so you can
can get the fire burning and then
then you can see up top I have the
the bigger pieces of wood I
I really love fireplace and here in
in oregon who i am for vacation you
you can hear the fire it's
it's very hot sitting here by the
the fire but it's very warm and I'm
I'm glad you're able to share it with
with me if you were feeling cold where
where you are well
well I also hope you enjoyed the conversation
conversation I had with my dad this
this month he's a funny guy I get
get a lot of my humor and my english
english from him so
so learning from him as I was growing
growing up but for this special mission
mission homework assignment what I
I wanted to talk about because we're
we're also talking about family is
is where you learn English from and
and one of the things or i guess in
in two ways when you think about learning
learning English the
the first thing is the kind of people
people that you spend time with and
and how old they are and also the
the kind of English that you use depending
depending on how you are or how old
old you are so
so in my case I am right now 32 years
years old and so the English that
that I know it comes from maybe
maybe movies that were in the eighties
eighties or in the nineties and a
a lot of the things from when I was
was younger and that's how unable
unable to communicate with other people
people because for learning English
English
English you
you don't just learn the grammar these
these are the rules of the language
language the real language is the
the words and the things from movies
movies and TV and radio that you learn
learn and these are the things that
that connect you with the other people
people in your generation so
so for the people you spend time with
with maybe you are 40 years old maybe
maybe you're 50 years old you're
you're 25 but you have to think about
about not only your own generation
generation so you can learn all of
of the things that you talked with
with with other people that are also
also the same age as you but
but if you live in a different country
country and you don't have the chance
chance to speak English with other
other people that are your age you
you can also spend time talking with
with people that are a different age
age that you and the way to do that
that is if you already understand
understand the rules of the language
language this is the grammar that
that you have to start focusing on
on the culture and learning the culture
culture is the most important part
part because learning the rules is
is not really so tricky it's
it's learning the culture so you are
are starting English not as a native
native speaker you are starting with
with your own culture you've got you
you know maybe you speak Italian or
or French or German or Arabic whatever
whatever your language is but you
you know all of the references in
in your culture from your generation
generation so
so all of the people you grew up with
with it's the same situation as it
it is for me so
so now you have to do a little bit
bit of extra work to go back and start
start speaking with the other people
people not only in your generation
generation but also other generations
generations but i recommend you begin
begin with people maybe
maybe let's say you take care of little
little children then you would watch
watch the TV shows or listen to the
the music that that generation of
of people listens to so
so just like me I don't know all of
of the references that my father uses
uses or my mother or my grandfather
grandfather he will talk about something
something maybe a joke that everybody
everybody in the culture new from
from World War two but i have no idea
idea and it doesn't mean i don't understand
understand English it just means i
i don't understand the culture from
from that . so the more cultural references
references you understand the better
better you will get at being able
able to have conversations with people
people at these different levels so
so begin with the the people that
that you spend the most time with
with if you are teaching at a university
university or you have you're
you're an adult and you go to dinner
dinner parties with people whatever
whatever that thing is study
study the the music and movies that
that they would have known from younger
younger generations because this is
is usually what people use their english
english from so again I'm 32 years
years old and the english i use I
I make jokes and talk with people
people it's about English from maybe
maybe 20 years ago so it's not the
the language were speaking right now
now we're using phrases from movies
movies and TV and we're bringing them
them back into the conversation and
and what we do when we speak is we're
we're kind of having like a like a
a cold conversation so
so we're using the same language but
but we're understanding each other
other and this comes from having seen
seen the same movie or the same TV
TV show
TV show so
so we bond in this way we come together
together so when you have to think
think about speaking English don't
don't worry so much about trying to
to get maybe the grammar correctly
correctly it's more about kind of
of joining the club of your generation
generation so
so if you are 50 years old go back
back and maybe you can google online
online so this is what I'd like you
you to do for the special mission
mission homework assignment whatever
whatever your birthday is go back
back so in my case again I'm 32 years
years old I look on to google what
what movies were made in the eighties
eighties or the most popular movies
movies in 1983 or whatever the whatever
whatever the year is but we usually
usually work in decades so
so a decade is a group of 10 years
years so you've got the eighties nineties
nineties to thousands you know that
that kind of thing and you can use
use that information to begin mastering
mastering the culture of your generation
generation so whatever your age group
group is but also the the culture
culture of the people that you spend
spend a lot of time with so maybe
maybe me I spend time with a lot of
of children maybe
maybe you don't but whatever that
that is if you want to understand
understand the people that you're
you're speaking with it's
it's not it's not really the the grammar
grammar or the English that you're
you're using its the cultural ideas
ideas that you understand and
and the more deeply you go into the
the culture of a language that's really
really where you begin to connect
connect with people and maybe you've
you've had this happen to you before
before you're speaking with someone
someone that and they say oh my goodness
goodness i had no idea knew
knew that and what you're doing is
is connecting with them in a real
real human wait not
not just using the language but actually
actually connecting with them by kind
kind of joining their club and showing
showing that you share something like
like that sharing more than just the
the grammar or something of a language
language
language well
well for this month go out and really
really try to find again these two
two things one is think about your
your own generation so
so go back think about when you were
were born and then start moving up
up from there so
so maybe if you're born in nineteen
nineteen eighty then start with the
the eighties and nineties and watch
watch some really popular movies from
from that time look
look at the most popular music you
you can go to billboard.com and you
you can get lots of information about
about music from there as well but
but plenty of other web sites especially
especially youtube but look for the
the most popular cultural ideas from
from particular particular generations
generations also commercials TV commercials
commercials are very popular and that's
that's a very common way that people
people you know two people are both
both watching the same commercial
commercial and they can laugh and
and joke about it but these kinds
kinds of ideas of the things that
that you should really be studying
studying
studying so
so for this month this is just a fun
fun assignment take as much time as
as you want to and you should continue
continue doing this as you become
become a better speaker of English
English but the more you practice
practice and the more you go into
into the culture and not not worried
worried about the grammar so much
much begin with the movies and the
the books and the ideas all of these
these things and and start doing some
some research online to think about
about your own generation and then
then also think about the the generation
generation of the people you spend
spend a lot of time talking with so
so it
so it whoever
whoever that is for you it could be
be maybe the same age or it could
could be with people younger people
people older than you it
it just depends on what you're interested
interested in and what you'd like
like to study and talk about well
well I hope it's been an interesting
interesting talk i'm sitting by this
this nice warm fire it's
it's a little too hot actually but
but it's been a fantastic month and
and I'm really happy that I got to
to finish another great year of master
master English conversation and that
that we're starting a brand new year
year in 2013 with this January lesson
lesson
lesson so
so I will leave you with a few shots
shots of just the lovely surroundings
surroundings over here I'll show you
you the Christmas tree you
you got the lovely fire right here
here and go out and start getting
getting into the culture forget
forget the language forget that you're
you're an English Learner you're just
just a person who can speak English
English and you just need to learn
learn more cultural references that's
that's really in have an excellent
excellent day and i'll leave you with
with a few shots few scenes of the
the lovely nature and the natural
natural surroundings that we have
have here in organ baba
baba
baba yeah
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah
yeah yeah
yeah
yeah yeah