Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 687, Shopping for a Television.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 687.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is all about buying a new television with the vocabulary related, of course, to TVs.
Let's get started.
This is what I'm talking about.
They certainly have a large selection.
These new TVs have pictures that are much sharper than our current one.
There's no comparison.
These new TVs have a much better resolution.
Just look at the brightness and the contrast.
Our old TV looks washed out by comparison.
And listen to that sound quality.
It's like being in a movie theater with surround sound.
Yeah, it's time we moved into the 21st century.
According to what I've read, with a viewing distance of 10 feet, we should look for a screen size of about 40 inches.
I was thinking more like a 60 inch screen.
A 60 inch TV?
That would take up the entire living room wall.
That's exactly what I had in mind.
A dialogue begins with Byung saying, this is what I'm talking about.
This is what I'm talking about is a phrase, an informal phrase used to show that you have found what you have been looking for or what you are interested in and have been for a long time.
Its meaning depends on the way it is said.
If you go to the beach and you sit down and you say, oh, this is what I'm talking about.
Meaning, this is what I wanted.
This is what I like.
That's what Byung is saying here.
He says it's time to upgrade to a big screen TV.
And this is the perfect place to buy one.
So Byung and Nelly are in an electronics store somewhere.
Byung says it's time to upgrade.
Upgrade.
To upgrade, U-P-G-R-A-D-E, one word, means to get the newer, bigger, or better version of something.
If you had an iPhone 1, the first iPhone, and then you bought an iPhone 3G, you upgraded.
And then you bought the iPhone 4.
You upgraded.
You got the better, newer, more expensive, usually, version of this particular service or product.
Byung wants to upgrade to a big screen TV.
A big screen TV is a television with what is a very large screen compared to a normal television, shall we say.
Although most televisions now are much bigger than they were 20, 25 years ago.
So what is normal has become a lot bigger now.
Nellie says they certainly have a large selection, meaning this store that they are in has a large selection, a large variety of things or something where you have a lot of different choices and options.
Nellie says, these new TVs have pictures that are much sharper than our current one.
Picture here means what you see on the television screen, what you see when the television is on.
We call that the picture.
It's the same word we would use for a photograph or a painting even, but here it means what you see on your screen.
Sharp means very clear, with very easy-to-see lines, things that will distinguish one object from another.
Nellie says that the new TVs they are looking at are much sharper, much clearer than our current one, the one we own right now.
Byung says there's no comparison.
A comparison is when you look at two different things and say what they have in common, how they are alike and how they are different.
The expression however, there's no comparison means that there is not even a question about what you are talking about.
It's obvious that one is better than the other.
He says, these new TVs have a much better resolution.
Resolution when we're talking about a television, refers to how detailed the images are on the screen, how easily you can see the smaller details in the picture.
Byung says, just look at the brightness and the contrast.
Brightness refers to how much light comes from the electronic screen.
It could be something on your computer screen.
It could be from your television screen.
Here we're talking, of course, about televisions.
Contrast is normally how different two things are from each other.
In this case, the dark from the light.
Byung says that these new televisions have apparently a very different kind of brightness and contrast, something that is better.
He says our old TV looks washed out by comparison.
Washed out by Here means without bright colors.
We might say it's a little dull or a little faded.
It's not easy to see.
It doesn't have bright colors.
Nellie says, and listen to that sound quality.
The sound quality refers to, of course, what you can hear coming from the television.
Or She says it's like being in a movie theater with surround sound.
To surround means to be on all sides of something.
In many modern movie theaters there are speakers, things that are used to project the sound so that you can hear it.
There are speakers all around the theater, on the sides, not just on the front.
So you are surrounded by the sound.
That's what Nellie is referring to.
She says it's like being in a movie theater with surround sound.
Byung says, yeah, it's time we moved into the 21st century.
It's time means that we have been late doing this.
We should do it right now.
What they should do is move into the 21st century.
He means that we should now do things that people do now, rather than the way they did things 10 or 15 years ago.
A century is a 100-year period.
We talk about the 21st century.
That's the century we are in right now.
Nelly says.
According to what I've read, with a viewing distance of 10 feet, we should look for a screen size of about 40 inches.
The viewing distance is how far you are sitting away from the television.
So a viewing distance of 10 feet would mean that you are 10 feet, about 3 meters roughly, from the television set or the TV.
Nellie says that they should look for a screen size of about 40 inches.
The screen is the thing that you see the images of the television on.
The screen size would be how large or how small it is.
Normally, televisions in the United States are measured by their diameter.
So that would be a line that connects the top right corner, for example, to the bottom left corner.
That's the measurement that you use.
She says it should be about 40 inches for those who are sitting 10 feet from their TV.
Byung wants something bigger.
Byung says, I was thinking more like a 60-inch screen, one that is considerably bigger.
Nelly says, a 60-inch TV, that would take up the entire living room wall.
To take up is a phrasal verb that here means to occupy, to use a certain amount of space or possibly time.
Here we're talking about the space.
How much space does the TV take up on your wall?
Or my girlfriend keeps calling me.
She's taking up all of my time.
She's occupying all of my time.
Nellie thinks that a 60-inch TV would take up the entire living room wall.
The living room would be the main room where you would be watching television, usually the largest room in a house or one of the largest.
Byung says, that's exactly what I had in mind.
To have in mind means to be thinking about or to want.
What do you have in mind for dinner?
Hmm, I was thinking of maybe going to a Japanese restaurant tonight.
That's what I have in mind.
Byung says that he wants to take up the entire living room wall.
That's exactly, he says, what he had in mind.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
This is what I'm talking about.
It's time to upgrade to a big screen TV, and this is the perfect place to buy one.
They certainly have a large selection.
These new TVs have pictures that are much sharper than our current one.
There's no comparison.
These new TVs have a much better resolution.
Just look at the brightness and the contrast.
Our old TV looks washed out by comparison.
And listen to that sound quality.
It's like being in a movie theater with surround sound.
Yeah, it's time we moved into the 21st century.
According to what I've read, with a viewing distance of 10 feet, we should look for a screen size of about 40 inches.
I was thinking more like a 60-inch screen.
A 60-inch TV?
That would take up the entire living room wall.
That's exactly what I had in mind.
There's no comparison with our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
We think she's the best scriptwriter of the 21st century.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
