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.
Steve Nash is a great teammate to have. Not only is he a two-time MVP who scores a lot of points, he also helps his teammates score with assists.
An assist is when you pass the ball to your teammate and then your teammate scores. Steve is an excellent passer. He can get the ball to his teammates at just the right moment, even if it means throwing the ball with one arm or while he’s looking the other way.
At a recent practice, we met up with Steve and asked him to explain why “dime,” which is a coin worth 10 cents, is a common slang term for an assist in basketball. We also talked about the charity work he does to assist people around the world.
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.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Jason: Welcome to English, baby! I am Jason here with Steve Nash. Could you tell us how you would use the term “dime”?
Nash: Dime. Yeah. You usually say that you dropped a dime. I’m guessing the origin came from in the old days when you needed to use the pay phone to make a phone call. It cost a dime, so you dropped a dime, or gave somebody a dime, so they could make their phone call. It’s an assist.
Jason: OK.
Nash: How’s that?
Jason: Perfect. In addition to assists, you like to assist. You do a lot of charity work and you’ve done some in China too. You have a shoe in China. Did you sign with a Chinese shoe company as part of your charity goals?
Nash: A little bit. I’ve done some things with Yao Ming, a couple of charity games, and we built some schools in rural China and other areas as well and in the earthquake zone. I’ve been fortunate enough to go to China three or four times now and help out. My shoe contract and my partnership with Luyou is definitely one where we’ve gone and dedicated courts and created opportunities for kids in some of the rural areas or areas where they don’t have the opportunity to play basketball, you know, different resources whether it be basketball courts or sporting equipment or money.
Nash: English, baby! That was pretty awesome.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Steve Nash explains where the basketball slang “dime” comes from. Making a phone call on a public phone used to cost a dime. A dime is a coin that is worth 10 cents. If you didn’t have a dime, you might ask for someone to assist you by lending you a dime. So an assist in basketball, or when you help another player score a basket by passing them the ball, is called “dropping a dime.”
Steve is a great passer, so he makes a lot of assists on the court. But he also assists people outside of basketball. He’s involved in several different charities. He even does some charity work in China with Yao Ming. He’s helped build schools and basketball courts in poor and rural areas.
Have you ever assisted with a charity? What was the last time you assisted someone, in sports or in regular life?
For more English lessons with Nash and his teammates, visit our blog.
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