"The Machine" - Sasha Vujacic of the Lakers

Intro

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

• flawlessly
• programmed
• nickname
• since day one

• hot
• shots
• on a roll
• pick it up

• stick
• clicked

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

Since when do robots have such cool hair? Sasha Vujacic is a man from Slovenia who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, but when he’s having a good game, he is no man, he is a machine.

It’s pretty great to be human, but it means you can never be perfect. People get scared or tired and make mistakes. They feel pain and get nervous. But machines can do the same thing over and over flawlessly.

Imagine playing against a basketball player who seems like he can’t miss. He’s a machine programmed to make his shots and block yours. Sounds scary, right? Well, don’t be scared. Sasha Vujacic may be known as “The Machine,” but he’s all smiles, and one of the friendliest players in the NBA. Jason recently met up with him in LA to talk about learning languages, making friends and where he got his nickname.

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.

Jason

Sasha

Jason:  Welcome to English, baby! I’m Jason, here with Sasha Vujacic of the Los Angeles Lakers. How are you today, Sasha?

Sasha:  I’m OK. Thanks for having me.

Jason:  You’ve played both in Italy and now in the United States and you’re from Slovenia. So you’ve had to learn two different languages. And then when you came here, how hard was it for you to learn English?

Sasha:  I knew English since I was probably eleven or ten. In school we always had English as a second language.

Jason:  So when you first got here, did you do any speaking Italian with Kobe?

Sasha:  Yes, I did since day one. He speaks really good Italian and we kind of clicked from day one.

Jason:  And so, your nickname is “The Machine.” How did you get that nickname?

Sasha:  I think it started when I made a couple of shots and I was on a roll. You know, on both ends, defense and offense. Our announcers on TV, they kinda started calling me “The Machine.” Fans kind of picked it up, carried it on, and that’s the nickname now.

Jason:  When do you call someone a machine? For people that don’t know, like, what makes someone a machine?

Sasha:  There’s so many reasons that you can call a person a machine. You can be a machine if you don’t sleep at all. You can be a machine if you don’t feel pain or whatever. Whenever you see a little bit of supernatural power in someone, you can call them a machine. I don’t know. It’s just funny.

Jason:  Is Pau Gasol a machine also?

Sasha:  I don’t know. I mean…They gave me that nickname so you can’t just give it to anybody.

Jason:  Sure.

Sasha:  So Pau Gasol is Pau Gasol. Everybody is a machine in their own way, but we just gotta do our thing this year and that’s win the championship. That’s all I’m thinking about right now. Machine or not, the championship is the most important thing.

Jason:  Definitely. Thanks so much, Sasha. Can I get you to give me a high-five and say, “English, baby!”?

Sasha:  OK. English, baby!

 

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