Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 487, Watching Videos on the Internet.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 487.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
You can download a learning guide which will help you improve your English even faster by going to our website.
This episode is called Watching Videos on the Internet.
It's a dialogue between Sheila and Rudy, talking about watching videos on your computer versus on your television.
Let's get started.
Where are you going?
I'm going to the video store to rent a movie for tonight.
Do you want to come?
You don't need to do that.
We can watch nearly any movie you want online.
Oh, you mean we can pay to download it?
Yeah, we can download it, but we don't have to pay for it.
What do you mean?
You're not using a file sharing site, are you?
Of course I am.
Everybody is doing it.
Aside from the ethical issues, it's so frustrating watching videos online.
The ones that stream are constantly pausing to buffer.
The interruptions drive me crazy.
Yeah, sometimes, but there's usually a workaround.
Even so, the movies are usually pirated, and they're so grainy.
I want to watch something in high definition.
Come on, let's go to the video store.
It'll be my treat.
All right, if you insist.
But why can't we just pay to download it right here at home?
We could do that, but where would we get the popcorn?
Sheila asks Rudy, where are you going?
Rudy says, I'm going to the video store to rent a movie for tonight.
A video store is a store where you can rent or buy a movie.
You can rent it usually for two or three days, sometimes longer.
Video stores became very popular in the 1980s after video cassette players became popular.
Now they have DVDs instead of the old cassettes.
But because of the new internet services and other mail services, video stores are not as popular now as they were say, 10 or 15 years ago.
Rudy asks Sheila if she wants to come with him.
She says, do you want to come?
Meaning, do you want to come with me?
In some parts of the country, you would say, do you want to come with?
The idea is come with me.
Sheila says, you don't need to do that, meaning you don't need to go to the video store.
We can watch nearly any movie you want, almost any movie you want, online.
Online means on the Internet, on the World Wide Web.
Rudy says, oh, you mean we can pay to download it?
To download means to save a file from the Internet or a website onto your computer.
If you are listening to this on your MP3 player such as your iPod, you downloaded the file from the Internet to put it on your player.
Rudy says, you mean we can pay to download it, meaning we pay money and then we download the movie?
Sheila says, yeah, we can download it, but we don't have to pay for it.
This is, of course, common on the Internet nowadays people downloading things that they did not pay for.
Rudy says, what do you mean?
You're not using a file sharing site, are you?
File sharing is when you exchange files often files that you have copied illegally with someone else.
This is, of course, against the law, but it is common.
At least it is common among some people on the Internet.
I don't do it myself.
Sheila says, of course I am.
Of course I'm using a file sharing site.
Everyone is doing it.
This is a common excuse for people who do things that are wrong.
They'll say, well, everyone is doing it, meaning it must be okay if everyone is doing it.
Rudy says, Aside from means in addition to or besides.
So, in addition to the ethical issues, Rudy is saying there are other problems.
It's frustrating to watch the videos online.
Ethical means something that is right or wrong.
Ethical refers to whether something is correct or incorrect morally from a position of right and wrong.
Rudy is saying that there are ethical problems, meaning it's wrong to steal someone else's files without paying them.
But it's also frustrating.
It's not very satisfying, not very pleasing to watch videos online.
He says the ones that stream are constantly pausing to buffer.
To stream on the internet means that you're not saving the file onto your computer.
You're just watching or listening to the file from the website, but you're not downloading it necessarily.
In fact, you're usually not downloading it if it's streaming.
When it streams, sometimes because of the slow internet connections, it has to stop so that it has enough of the file to continue going.
This is called to buffer.
When a computer holds data or information for a brief time before using it.
To pause means to stop doing something.
So the video stops, it pauses to buffer, to get enough data, enough information to continue.
Stream, I should say, also is a word that has a couple of different meanings in English.
So, of course, take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Rudy says, the interruptions drive me crazy.
An interruption is something that stops you from doing what you are doing right now in order to do something else, usually for a short period of time.
If a parent is talking to a friend of theirs and their four-year-old child keeps saying Mommy, I have a question, and the parent has to stop and answer the child, the child is interrupting the parent.
The verb is to interrupt.
The noun is an interruption.
Normally, it's something that you want to avoid, that you don't want to happen.
In this case, the video keeps stopping, and that is an interruption for Rudy.
Sheila says yeah, sometimes.
Sometimes there are interruptions that drive you crazy, that make you angry or upset.
But there's usually a workaround sometimes.
A workaround is a solution that doesn't fix a problem but lets you do something in a different way to get around the problem, to get what you want to have done.
Even though you haven't solved the problem, you're able to do it.
So, for example, your email software stops working.
Well, you can also send email online with your email account, let's just say.
So a workaround would be to use the internet browser to send email until you can get your email software program fixed.
You didn't solve the problem of your program, but you found a workaround.
You found another way to get the same thing done.
Rudy says.
Even so, even though there are workarounds for these interruption problems, the movies are usually pirated and they're so grainy.
To pirate as a verb means to, in this case to copy without permission, especially when we're talking about music or movies or podcasts.
That's pirating something.
Rudy says the movies are usually pirated, meaning they have been pirated, stolen and they're so grainy.
Something that is grainy is an image that is not clear or seems a little rough because it has some small spots on it.
Rudy says, I want to watch something in high definition.
High definition is a certain technology now that you can use with your television.
You can buy a television that is HD or high definition.
It's supposed to be a much clearer picture, something that is much higher quality.
I don't have a high definition television, so I can't tell you.
My television is black and white from the 1960s so I guess there are color televisions now.
People tell me
Rudy says that he wants to watch something in high definition.
He says, come on, let's go to the video store.
It'll be my treat.
A treat in this case means that you are going to pay for something as a gift for someone else.
You can use it as a verb.
I will treat you to dinner.
That means I am going to invite you to dinner and I will pay for your dinner.
So Rudy says, it'll be my treat.
I will pay for the movie.
Treat has a couple of different meanings in English, so take a look at our learning guide for some more definitions.
Sheila says This is a phrase used to show that you will agree to do something, what another person is suggesting, especially if that person has made a generous offer and it's something that you want to do anyway.
So, for example, I don't want to go shopping.
And my wife says, well, I'll buy you a new pair of shoes if you go with me shopping.
So I say okay if you insist, meaning I want the pair of shoes.
You are asking me, you are giving me this gift, therefore I will go.
Then she uses my credit card, so it doesn't really matter.
Sheila says, all right, if you insist, but why can't we just pay to download it right here at home?
She's saying, well, we can pay to download a high-quality movie here and not go to the video store.
Rudy says, we could do that, but where would we get the popcorn?
Popcorn is a food that is commonly eaten at movies, at least in the United States.
It is made from heating dry corn in oil or hot air and then putting butter and salt on top of the popcorn.
Many video stores sell popcorn in addition to renting videos.
It's very expensive there, however.
It's much cheaper just to buy it at the regular grocery store, if you like popcorn.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Where are you going?
I'm going to the video store to rent a movie for tonight.
Do you want to come?
You don't need to do that.
We can watch nearly any movie you want online.
Oh, you mean we can pay to download it?
Yeah, we can download it, but we don't have to pay for it.
What do you mean?
You're not using a file-sharing site, are you?
Of course I am.
Everybody is doing it.
Aside from the ethical issues, it's so frustrating watching videos online.
The ones that stream are constantly pausing to buffer.
The interruptions drive me crazy.
Yeah, sometimes.
But there's usually a workaround.
Even so, the movies are usually pirated and they're so grainy.
I want to watch something in high definition.
Come on, let's go to the video store.
It'll be my treat.
All right, if you insist.
But why can't we just pay to download it right here at home?
We could do that, but where would we get the popcorn?
Aside from all of her other work here at ESL Podcasts, Dr. Lucy Say has also written today's script.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
