"Bun in the Oven" With Newscaster, Stephanie Stricklen

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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• come to mind
• go with
• bun in the oven
• euphemism

• CEO
• crude
• deal
• the Queen's English

• metaphor
• bridge the gap

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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There are some personal things that you just can’t hide. Especially if you host the evening news every night.

Last month, English, baby! CEO John Hayden was on the news in the US talking about how the site has reached one million members. The newscaster who interviewed him, Stephanie Stricklen of Portland’s NBC-affiliate, KGW, was nine months pregnant. That gave John an idea…

There is lots of slang about pregnancy since it’s something everyone can see, but it’s a personal thing that can be uncomfortable to talk about directly. There are some cruder expressions, like knocked up, but watch as John asks Stephanie to teach a cuter pregnancy idiom, “bun in the oven.”

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Stricklen

John

Stricklen:  Tonight, using the Internet to help people around the world learn English. English, baby! is a Portland deal with followers around the planet, more than a million, in fact. Joining us tonight, CEO, John Hayden. Thanks for making the time.

John:  Hi Stephanie.

Stricklen:  K. How does this work? Explain it for folks who’ve never heard of English, baby! before.

John:  Basically, it’s like the MySpace for people who want to learn English and it’s these kids that have studied their whole life, but they can’t quite get the context behind the language, so they like to hear idioms and slang and they like to do it in a fun way.

Stricklen:  You focus on conversational language.

John:  Exactly. So they have been taught the Queen’s English their whole life and they still have a hard time with natural conversation.

Stricklen:  Right.

John:  So what we try to do is give them a supplemental piece so then they can bridge that gap and then talk just like you and I are right now, in a really cool way.

Stricklen:  You wanted to try a lesson on me, so how might something like this work?

John:  Well, you’re a pretty big celebrity yourself and, you know, congratulations about your pregnancy.

Stricklen:  Thank you.

John:  So we thought that we’d talk a little bit about that.

Stricklen:  OK.

John:  Can you think of any kind of idioms that come to mind? Let’s go with...Let’s try “bun in the oven.”

Stricklen:  OK. Bun in the oven.

John:  How about that?

Stricklen:  Sure. That’s what people say…

John:  Now where did that come from? ‘Cause you don’t actually have a bun in your oven.

Stricklen:  It’s one of those, like, clever ways of phrasing what’s going on.

John:  Right. And it makes it a little bit more engaging, a little bit more fun. We can smile about it. And it’s the kind of thing that people want to learn around the world. They’re not satisfied with just knowing the word “pregnancy.”

Stricklen:  But that’s perfect. So then folks will go to your website, watch this and then maybe if they’ve got someone…Similar age, they can communicate in sort of a more casual style.

John:  Right. And when they watch movies and music and television, they’ll understand it when they hear those slangs and idioms.

Stricklen:  Thank you.

John:  Thanks, Stephanie.

Grammar Point

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Lesson MP3

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