Lesson 20: What Can You Do?

Summary

Anna meets her friend Pete in a coffee shop. Pete needs a job. Can Anna help him to find the right job for him?

Speaking

In this video, you can practice saying the new words and learn how to ask questions when you do not understand someone clearly.

Pronunciation

This video teaches about the shortened form of cannot and the two ways to pronounce can.

Conversation

Lesson 20: What Can You Do? (3:39)

Anna: Hi, there! Washington, D.C. is a great place to work. Many people here work in government and politics. But there are many other jobs. You can work at a hospital; a university. You can work in a coffee shop. Wait a minute, I think I see a friend of mine. Pete? Is that you?

Pete: Hi, Anna.

Anna: You look different. Your beard … is really big.

Pete: You don’t like it, do you?

Anna: No, no. You just look … different.

(To server) Thank you. So, what’s wrong? You look sad.

Pete: I don’t have a job.

Anna: Sorry, I can’t hear you.

Pete: I do not have a job!

Anna: Oh. I’m sorry to hear that, Pete.

Pete: I don’t have a skill.

Anna: Everyone has a skill. You need to find yours.

Pete: I don’t know, Anna.

Anna: Pete, I am good at asking questions. Let me ask you some.

Pete: Really, Anna? Can you help me?

Anna: Yes, I can. Let me help.

Pete: Sure, Anna. Maybe you can help.

Anna: Can you write code?

Pete: Sure, c-o-l-d. How is this going to help?

Anna: No, not “cold.” Code; you know, for making phone apps, or websites. You can make tons of money writing code.

Pete: Tons of money? But I can’t code.

Anna: Next question. Can you drive?

Pete: Do you mean drive a race car? It’s really hard to be a race car driver. First, you need a race car ...

Anna: No, I mean drive a taxi or drive a bus.

Pete: No, I always fall asleep when I drive.

Anna: Oh, that’s not good. Next question. Can you teach? You can be a teacher in a school.

Pete: No, I cannot teach.

Anna: Can you cook? You can be a chef in a restaurant.

Pete: No, I can’t code! I can’t teach! I can’t cook! Anna, I can’t do anything. This is sad. I’m gonna write about my feelings in my blog.

Anna: You write a blog?

Pete: Yeah, I write a blog.

Anna: How many followers do you have?

Pete: I don’t know … 59,538.

Anna: Pete, that's a lot of followers! You can make money writing!

Pete: Writing is easy. Everyone can write.

Anna: Not everyone can write well. You can be a writer!

Pete: I can be a writer. I can be a writer! I can be a writer! Thanks, Anna.

Marsha: Hi, Pete. Hi, Anna.

Pete: Hi, Marsha. Excuse me, I have to go.

Marsha: Where are you going?

Pete: I’m going to be a writer!

Marsha: Good luck, Pete!

(To Anna) He does know that it’s not easy to be a writer, doesn’t he?

Anna: There are many different jobs you can have in Washington, D.C. Pete wants to be a writer. I wish him luck. Lots of luck. Until next time!

Writing

In this lesson, Anna is helping her friend Pete. He needs to find a new job. How do you try to help your friends? Write to us to tell us about the ways you help your friends. Send us an email or write in the Comments section.
Use the Activity Sheet to practice talking about jobs and skills.

Learning Strategy

Learning Strategies are the thoughts and actions that help make learning easier or more effective.
The learning strategy for this lesson is identify problems​. When we are talking with someone in English it helps to identify problems in understanding and get the information we need to correct the problems.
In the video for this lesson, there are three problems. Here are two of them.
1. Anna identifies one problem. Pete is not talking loud enough. She tells Pete. "Sorry, I can’t hear you." Pete speaks more loudly so she can hear him.
2. Later, Pete does not understand Anna. He asks, "Do you mean drive a race car?" Anna explains that she means to "drive a taxi or drive a bus."
Can you find another time in the video when Anna or Pete identifies a problem? Write to us in the Comments section or send us an email. Teachers, see the Lesson Plan for more details on teaching this strategy.

Listening Quiz

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New Words

app - n. a computer program that performs a particular task (such as word processing)

beard – n. the hair that grows on a man's cheeks and chin

blog - n. a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences

chef - n. a professional cook who usually is in charge of a kitchen in a restaurant

code - n. - a set of instructions for a computer

code - v. to change (information) into a set of letters, numbers, or symbols that can be read by a computer

drive - v. to direct the movement of a vehicle such as a car, truck, or bus

easy - adj. not hard to do

follower - n. a person who likes and admires (someone or something) very much

good luck - expression. used to say that you hope someone will succeed

hard - adj. physically or mentally difficult

lot(s) or a lot (informal) lots - n. a large amount

hospital - n. a place where sick or injured people are given care or treatment and where children are often born

school - n. a place where children go to learn

taxi - n. a car that carries passengers to a place for an amount of money

teacher - n. a person or thing that teaches something

university - n. a school that offers courses leading to a degree and where research is done

website - n. a place on the World Wide Web that contains information about a person, organization, etc., and that usually consists of many Web pages joined by hyperlinks

well - adv. -- in a skillful way

Improve Your Listening Skills by Transcribing

 http://av.voanews.com/clips/VLE/2016/06/27/ca8af16f-2c1a-4bad-b865-9ff62fb279cb.mp3
In our Education Tips series, education experts in the United States offer advice on how you can improve your knowledge of American English. This week, Pascal Hamon, the Academic Director at the English Language Institute at Missouri State University, talks about how students can improve their listening skills.
English learners can improve their listening skills by transcribing spoken English.
That advice comes from Pascal Hamon, the Academic Director for the English Language Institute at Missouri State University.
Students often study listening comprehension in less than interesting, even boring ways, he adds. Transcription, however, provides a fun way to improve one’s listening skills.
Why is listening important?
At VOA Learning English, we often receive questions from English learners about how they can improve their listening skills.
Some learners want to build up general English skills, while others want to take exams that involve listening skills.
Take the TOEFL exam, for example. International students who want to attend an American college or university are often required to pass TOEFL, short for the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
This test has a listening section. It asks students to show their ability to understand short and long conversations in English. Those discussions are designed to test one’s understanding of common vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and special grammatical constructions used in speech.
Whether you want to build general English skills or prepare for a test, being able to understand spoken English is a necessary skill. And you will not get better at this skill unless you practice!
Pascal Hamon says that listening exercises should force English learners to focus on turning the sounds that they hear into words. Then, learners must use their brains to turn these words into a message.
Many students try to learn listening skills by performing listening comprehension activities. Hamon believes that such exercises have value but do not force the student to decode individual sounds.
Worse, some English learners listen to television or radio programs in English, but do not actively try to study how native speakers say words and sentences.
Building listening skills does not have to be boring, says Hamon. There are fun, game-like activities that build listening skills.
One such activity, Hamon says, is to make transcriptions.
What is transcription?
Transcribing is the act of writing down the words that have been spoken.
English learners should start working with transcriptions by finding audio or video material that has a transcript with it, Hamon says.
Then, he adds, English learners can start practicing.
"They [English learners] listen to a segment as many times as they need, and they try to write what they hear – without subtitles, without ... Just focusing on what they hear. And then they can check with the actual transcript to see what they got right, what they did not get right, if there are areas where they thought they heard two words but there is actually only one, or they missed a verb ending or plural or something."
Students should not stop the transcription exercise there, however. Hamon says that students should always try to learn from their mistakes.
Students should think, Hamon adds, about what they could do better. By identifying problems, and repeating the exercise, English learners will improve their listening skills.
What can you do?
You can start practicing transcription on your own by following these steps:
-First, find audio that has a printed transcript, but do not look at the words. You should choose audio that is right for your level.
One way you could do this on our website is to open a story and start listening to the audio before reading the story. All of our stories have audio below the headline of the story.
-Second, listen to a short section of the audio many times. After you have listened many times, try to write down what you hear.
-Third, compare what you wrote against the story.
-Finally, think about, as Hamon suggested, where you had problems. Ask yourself the following questions: What do I need to improve? What words or sounds did I not hear?
Remember: when you transcribe something, you do not always have to choose a news story. You could choose a song or part of a movie that you like. Just be sure that you are able to find a transcript for it to check your work.
To get you started, let me give you something to transcribe. Listen to part of a song at the end of this story. The song is called “How Deep is the Ocean,” and the singer is American Billie Holiday.
Transcribe what you hear and write it in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. Next week, we will give you the answer in the Comments Section of this story and on our Facebook page.
I'm John Russell.
Listen to the song from the 31 second mark until the 50 second mark.Then transcribe what you hear.

Review of Lessons 15 - 19

Congratulations! You are learning English well with VOA Learning English! Try the listening quiz and enjoy the video of our mistakes.

For Fun - 'Bloopers'

Sometimes we do not remember what to say. Or we say the wrong words. Watch the video above to see a few of these mistakes, or 'bloopers' from our lesson videos. There are no subtitles in this video. So listen carefully for the funny parts.

Review Quiz

In this quiz, you can test your listening skills. Watch a short video and answer the question.

Review of Lessons 15 - 19

Lesson Review

Lesson 15: I Love People-Watching!
Grammar focus: Descriptive adjectives; Tag questions
Topics: Describing Differences and Similarities; Watching People
Learning Strategy: Access Information Sources
Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Non-Verbal Expressions of Happiness; Rising and Falling Intonation in Tag Questions

Lesson 16: Where Are You From?
Grammar focus: Nationality and language names used as nouns and adjectives
Topics: Countries and Nationalities; Tourism activities
Learning Strategy: Monitor (comprehension and production)
Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Talking about countries, languages, and nationalities; Saying "a couple of" quickly

Lesson 17: Are You Free on Friday?
Grammar focus: Simple Future tense with will and going to.
Topics: Talking about schedules and leisure time activities
Learning Strategy: Evaluate
Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Future verb forms; shortened forms of future verbs and invitations.

Lesson 18: She Always Does That
Grammar focus: Describing frequency of actions; Object pronouns; ordinal numbers
Topics: Reacting to information; Facts vs. Feelings
Learning Strategy: Classify​
Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Object pronouns with /h/ sound deleted ['em; 'im]

Lesson 19: When Do I Start?
Grammar focus: Which as an adjective alone and with pronouns; Adjectives next and every
Topics: Saying the months of the year; Talking about seasons and activities​
Learning Strategy: Summarize
Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Using which and which one to offer a choice; using every and next with time expressions; Pronunciation of February
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Special request to teachers and English learners:

As you see in the Lesson 19 video, Anna is going to have a new children's program. What should she call the program? Let us know in the Comments section or by email. We'll send a special thank you to the person who suggests the best name.