English, baby!

Living in the Sticks

Date: Jun 11 2001

Intro

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

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

Even though most of us live in Portland now, the members of the Ebaby! team all come from different backgrounds. Some of us are from big cities. Some of us are from small cities. Here we have Miguel asking Nedra about where she is from.
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Dialog

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

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

Miguel

Nedra

Miguiel

Miguel: Nedra, did you grow up in Portland?

Nedra: I’m from Idaho originally.

Miguel: From Idaho? I didn’t realize that. What part?

Nedra: The Snake River, Twin Falls area.

Miguel: Twin Falls area. That’s not very specific. Do you just live in the middle of nowhere or what?

Nedra: Kinda. It’s not that bad. It’s a town of two thousand people.

Miguel: Oh, two thousand? Wow. So was there a stoplight?

Nedra: Yeah! There was a stoplight.

Miguel: Just one? How many?

Nedra: One!

Miguel: One stoplight?

Nedra: Yeah!

Miguel: Huh. Was there, like, other stuff, like, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut…

Nedra: No!

Miguel: None of that?

Nedra: No. You have to go into a different town to have that kind of food.

Miguel: Well, that’s good, actually. It’d be better to live away from that…

Nedra: Yeah. It wasn’t so bad.

Miguel: So did you feel, like, deprived as a child not being able to have, like, you know, Taco Bell?

Nedra: Um, yeah. I felt kind of weird not having Taco Bell.

Miguel: Could you get, like, cable TV out there?

Nedra: A lot of people started getting satellites when I was a teenager.

Miguel: But not regular cable?

Nedra: Yeah, you could get cable. My grandma had cable.

Miguel: So, what was the benefit to living out there?

Nedra: I saw the circle of life with the animals on the farm.

Miguel: So, you lived on a farm?

Nedra: Oh, part of my life, yeah.

Miguel: What, what kind of animals were on the farm?

Nedra: Oh, pigs, chickens, cows, horses…

Miguel: Wow. Did you ever milk cows?

Nedra: Yeah. I helped my dad. My dad was a dairyman for a while.

Miguel: Nice! I remember I milked a cow one time and it’s one of my clearest memories. ‘Cause I’ve only done it once.

Nedra: Did you hand-milk it?

Miguiel: Yeah!

Nedra: Oh, God!

Miguel: Of course!

Nedra: Don’t do that! You use a machine!

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Discussion

When you listen to Miguel talk, you should be able to tell that he thinks it’s funny how small Nedra’s hometown is. He’s not being mean. Nedra actually thinks it’s funny, too.
It’s common in the U.S. for friends to talk about their background. It’s a fun way to get to know someone and to learn a little about another part of the country.
Are you from a small town or a big town? Come share a funny story of the place you grew up at the “Life Goes On” Message Board!

Comments

La Princesse de la vie

Egypt

My hometown is kind of rural, it’s not in the middle of nowhere. It only takes 15 minutes walk and less than 5 minutes ride to get in downtown. But we have some manifestations of rural life, along the road on both sides there’s so much of green color, there are some peasants who live on farming and their wives raise farm animals and hand-milk cows to sell it later. The rest of the residents are urbanized.