Welcome to the mini story lesson for Greek family.
Let’s do the basic story first.
Here we go.
I’m walking down the street when a guy comes to me and says "hi can I chat with you for
a moment?"
He looks clean and very neat.
I’m quite naïve so I think he’s just friendly.
I say "okay".
The man asks me "how far would you go to save yourself."
I say "what do you mean?"
He says "I’m talking about the Christian faith.
I want you to con- vert to Christianity."
"Actually, I’m a Buddhist" I say.
"What about your relatives are they Buddhists too" he asks.
I tell him "no just me".
He then tells me that I will go to hell if I don’t convert.
He says I am a bad person.
He tells me all Buddhists will go to hell.
Finally, he says that the Buddha and all Buddhists serve the devil.
That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
I yell at him "go away...
I refuse to listen to you anymore."
Okay.
Let’s go back to the top of our little story and this time with questions.
Here we go again.
I’m walking down the street when a guy comes to me and says "hi can I chat with you for
a moment?"
He looks clean and very neat.
I’m quite naïve so I think he’s just friendly.
Do I have a lot of life experience?
Do I know about life on the street?
No-no-no, I don’t.
I’m very naïve, right?
Kind of like a child.
I don’t really know that people might try to sell something to me or get something from
me on the street.
I think everybody’s just very nice and friendly.
I’m very naïve.
Are children usually naïve?
Well, yes that’s right- small children usually are naïve, right?
They -- they’re innocent.
They don’t know there are many bad people in the world or many people will lie.
They’re kind of naïve.
So I’m quite naïve.
This man says "can I chat with you for a moment."
I don’t know him.
He’s a stranger.
I’m walking on the street.
So this is naïve.
Is the other man naïve?
No-no, the other man’s not naïve, right?
He knows he has something.
He wants to tell me about his religion.
He has a plan.
He has life experience, right?
He’s not naïve.
But I’m kind of naïve.
I’m very innocent.
I don’t think he’s trying to sell me something.
I just think oh he’s a friendly guy.
I’m quite naïve, very naïve like a child.
So I think he’s just friendly.
I say "okay".
The man then asks me "how far would you go to save yourself."
Does he want to know how much I would do or how hard I would try to save myself-- like
save my soul, right?
Yeah, that’s exact- ly what he’s asking.
He wants to know how much would I do.
Would I try very hard?
Would I do something that’s very difficult?
Would I change my life to save myself?
He wants to know how far would I go to save myself.
Does he want to know how far I would go to save money?
No-no.
He doesn’t care.
He’s not asking about me saving money.
He doesn’t know -- want to know what I would do to save money.
He wants to know how far would I go to save myself, right?
My soul.
He asks "how far would you go to save yourself."
Does he want to know how far I would go to save my body?
No, he’s not talking about my body, my physical body.
He doesn’t want to know how far I would go to save my body.
He wants to know how far I would go to save myself meaning my soul my spirit, right -- after
I die.
He says "how far would you go to save yourself?"
He’s talking about my soul after I die.
And I ask him "what do you mean I don’t understand."
Do I understand what he means when he says how far would you go?
No, I don’t obviously.
No, I don’t understand what he means by "how far would you go to save yourself."
I’m a little confused by that.
So he says "I’m talking about the Christian faith".
Is he talking about his religion?
Yes, exactly right.
He’s talking about the Christian faith.
He’s talking about the Christian religion.
Is he talking about the Buddhist faith?
No-no, he’s not talking about the Buddhist faith.
He’s not talking about the Buddhist religion.
He’s talking about the Christian faith.
Is he talking about the Jewish faith?
No, he’s not talking about the Jewish faith.
Is he talking about the Islamic faith?
No, he’s not talking about the Islamic faith?
Is he talking about the Hindu faith?
No, he’s not talking about the Hindu faith.
What faith is he talking about?
Well, he’s talking about the Christian faith.
And what does he want me to do?
Well, he says "I want you to convert to Christianity."
Does he want me to change my religion?
Yes, he does.
He wants me to change to Christianity from my old religion to Christianity.
He says "I want you to convert to Christianity."
Does he want me to convert to Islam?
No-no.
He’s not Muslim.
He does not want me to con- vert to Islam.
He wants me to convert to Christianity.
Who does he want to convert to Christianity?
Well, he wants me A.J. to convert to Christianity.
Does he want to convert to Buddhism?
No- no.
He does not want to become a Buddhist.
No, he wants me to covert to Christianity.
He does not want to convert to Buddhism.
And I say to him "actually I am a Buddhist" I say.
And he asks me "what about your relatives are they Buddhists too?"
Does he want to know if my friends are Buddhists?
No-no.
He wants to know if my family is Buddhists, right?
He says "what about your relatives are they Buddhists too".
Is he asking about my family’s religion?
Yes, exactly right.
He’s asking about my family’s religion.
He says "what about your relatives are they also Buddhists."
So he wants to know about my mom and my dad but especially he wants to know about all
of my family.
So relatives usually means all the family-- grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins.
He wants to know if my relatives are also Buddhists.
Are my relatives Buddhists?
No-no.
My relatives are not Buddhists.
In fact, some of them are Christian some of them- no religion.
So my relatives are not Buddhists, only me.
Are my relatives Christian?
Some of my relatives are Christian, not all of them some of them are.
Are my relatives Buddhists?
No, they’re not.
They’re not Buddhists.
My relatives are not Buddhists.
So I say to him "no just me only me."
He then tells me that I will go to hell if I don’t convert.
If I don’t convert to Christianity does he think I will go to hell- I will burn and
-- after I die.
Yes, exactly.
He thinks if I don’t change to Christianity, if I don’t convert to Christianity then
I will go to hell after I die.
Then he says I’m a bad person.
He tells me all Buddhists will go to hell.
Finally, he says that the Buddha and all Buddhists serve the devil.
That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Does that make me angry?
Well, yes -- yes, it’s the last straw.
It’s the final straw that breaks that camel’s back.
It means he said many things to me- bad things.
He’s insulting me.
He says "oh you’re a bad person."
"If you don’t convert you’ll go to hell", right?
More bad things.
I’m patient.
But finally the last thing he says is "all Buddhists serve the devil."
That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
That’s the final bad insult.
And I become angry and I yell at him "go away".
What is the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
Well, it’s him saying all Buddhists serve the devil.
That’s the final bad thing that makes me lose control, lose my temper.
So he says all Buddhists serve the devil.
That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
When he asks me "are your relatives also Buddhists" is that the last straw?
Is that the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
No-no-no.
No, I’m patient.
After he says that, it’s no problem.
Okay so what is the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
Well, it’s when he says "all Buddhists serve the devil."
That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
It’s the final insult.
Then I get angry and I yell at him "go away.
I refuse to listen to you any- more."
Will I listen to him again?
No-no.
I refuse to listen to him anymore.
I will never listen to him again.
I refuse.
I say "no I won’t do it.
No, I will never listen to you again.
" I refuse to listen to him anymore.
Do I refuse to listen to all Christians?
No-no-no.
I don’t mind all Christians it’s just this one guy.
I refuse to listen to him ever again.
I will never listen to him again.
I refuse to listen to him, only to him.
I refuse to listen to him.
Do I refuse to watch television again?
No, I don’t refuse to watch television.
What do I refuse to do?
Well, I refuse to listen to that guy again, right?
I refuse to listen to him again.
Alright.
That’s the end of our little story.
One more time, this time with pauses after the key phrases.
I’ll pause -- say the key phrase after I pause.
Copy my pronunciation that’s the important part of this section.
Copy my pronunciation especially my intonation when I go up when I go down things like that.
Okay?
Let’s go.
I’m walking down the street when a guy comes to me and says "hi can I chat with you for
a moment."
He looks clean and very neat.
I’m quite naïve.
[pause] I’m quite naïve.
[pause] So I think he’s just friendly.
I say okay.
The man asks me "how far would you go to save yourself."
[pause] How far would you go to save yourself? [pause] How far would you go to save yourself?
[pause] Good.
I say "what do you mean."
He says "I’m talking about the Christian faith."
[pause] I’m talking about the Christian faith.
[pause] I want you to convert to Christianity.
[pause] I want you to con- vert to Christianity.
[pause] Good.
I say "actually I’m a Buddhist."
And he asks "what about your relatives are they Buddhists too".
[pause] What about your relatives are they Buddhists too?
[pause] I tell him "no just me."
He then tells me that I will go to hell if I don’t convert.
[pause] He then tells me that I will go to hell if I don’t convert.
[pause] He says I’m a bad person.
He tells me all Buddhists will go to hell.
Finally, he says that the Buddha and all Buddhists serve the devil.
That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
[pause] That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
[pause] I yell at him "go away I refuse to listen to you anymore."
[pause] I refuse to listen to you anymore.
[pause] I refuse to lis- ten to you anymore.
[pause] Okay.
Great job.
Now the final part of the mini story lesson.
Pause your iPod, pause your computer and try to tell all of the story yourself.
Tell all of it out loud so you can hear it.
Tell all of the story.
You don’t need to remember every word but try to use the target vocabulary the new vocabu-
lary correctly.
If you can’t, if you have trouble, no problem relax, listen to it again.
Just keep listen- ing until you can pause and tell all of the story yourself.
Okay.
See ya next time.
Bye-bye.