Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,084, Learning a New Operating System.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,084.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Vanessa and Ressa about learning a new kind of computer software.
Let's get started.
What happened to my computer overnight?
This can't be my computer.
It is, the tech guys installed a new operating system on all of the computers after hours.
But my desktop looks completely different.
Where is the menu bar?
I don't know how to open any of my applications.
You'll have to get used to a completely different user interface.
It's been completely revamped.
But I had the old operating system customized with special settings.
Well, those settings are gone.
You'll have to start over.
I don't even know where to begin.
With this new operating system, you're supposed to navigate around using those icons.
They're supposed to make multitasking easier by allowing you to minimize and maximize applications more quickly.
How can that be when I don't know what any of the icons represent?
Search me.
Here's one of the tech guys now.
You can ask him all your questions.
I only have one.
Only one?
Yes.
Can he restore my old operating systems?
Our dialogue begins with Vanessa surprised at something.
She says, what happened to my computer overnight?
This can't be my computer, she says.
Rasa says it is.
The tech guys installed a new operating system on all of the computers after hours.
So Vanessa and Reza work for a company.
The company has people, as many companies do, who take care of the technical aspects, including the maintenance and service of the computers.
Sometimes these people are called the IT people personnel, the IT workers, IT standing for information technology.
But more informally, people may refer to them simply as the tech crew or the tech guys.
Notice the use of the word guys, G-U-I-S here.
Guys can mean both men and women when you're not really sure, although many times it's used just to describe men.
But anyway, Risa is saying that the tech guys installed or put in a new operating system.
An operating system is the software that runs the whole computer.
The two big operating systems are the one by Apple Computer. and the one by the makers of Windows.
There are, of course, other operating systems as well, such as Linux and a few others.
Risa says that the tech guys installed this new operating system after hours.
The term after hours refers to the hours that, So if the business normally closes at 5, after hours would be anything after 5 o'clock.
Vanessa says, Your desktop D-E-S-K-T-O-P on your computer is the main screen that you see typically when you turn your computer on.
Vanessa says, where's the menu bar?
A menu.
M-E-N-U bar B-A-R is a list of the programs that you have on your computer and that is often found either on the bottom, the side or the top of the computer screen.
The menu bar can also refer to the specific options you have within a given computer program.
Vanessa says, I don't know how to open any of my applications.
Your applications are your programs.
Programs.
Applications is just another word for a piece of computer software.
Nowadays it's become popular to refer to these simply as apps A-P-P-S, although some people use apps to refer to computer software on a phone or a tablet versus on a full-sized computer.
I guess we could call it.
Reza says you'll have to get used to a completely different user interface.
The user, U-S-E-R, interface, I-N-T-E-R, F-A-C-E, is the thing that a person sees when he's looking at the computer screen.
Every computer program has an interface.
The word interface usually refers to something that connects one thing to another, or the point at which two different kinds of systems come together.
Now, of course, computer programs are written in a special language that the average person doesn't understand.
And so, rather than working in that computer language, the computer operating system has ways of making the running of the programs, the way you operate the programs, much easier for the person who is using the program.
We would call that person the user.
So the user interface is what the person using the program sees and manipulates when using a particular computer program.
Rasa says that the operating system has been completely revamped.
The verb to revamp, R-E-V-A-M-P, means to redo and revise something, usually to improve it.
A company might revamp its website.
It might change its website and improve it.
Usually when you revamp something, you're making major or large changes to something.
Vanessa is not happy with this new operating system.
She says, I had the old operating system customized with special settings.
To customize C-U-S-T-O-M-I-Z-E means to design or create something so that it is Particularly useful for one person or for one sort of thing.
To customize your computer would be to change your computer in such a way that it works exactly the way you want it to work.
Another person might make it work a different way and might customize it to his or her particular preferences.
The settings S-E-T-T-I-N-G-S of a computer program are the features that are adjusted or can be changed by the individual user.
So, for example, if you have a tablet such as a Kindle or an iPad, you might, when you get old like me, want to adjust the size of the letters so that the letters are bigger and are easier to read.
This is one of the settings that you can change on a tablet.
Settings are used in many different kinds of computer programs so that you can change things so that the computer program works in the way you want it to work.
Risa says, well, those settings are gone.
You'll have to start over.
The phrasal verb to start over means to begin again, to do something from the beginning, if you will.
If someone is telling you a story and you don't really understand the story and you want the person to begin at the beginning once more, you could say to the person could you start over?
Could you tell me the story from the beginning?
Raysa is telling Vanessa that she'll have to start over when it comes to customizing the settings of her favorite computer applications.
Vanessa says, I don't even know where to begin.
Raysa says, with this new operating system, you're supposed to navigate around using these icons.
To navigate N-A-V-I-G-A-T-E means to find a path or a way from where you are now to where you want to go.
If you're in your car, you navigate in order to arrive at the place where you are driving to.
When we're talking about computer applications to navigate, refers to the process of actually using the program to get done the things you want to get done.
Risa says that you're supposed to navigate in this new operating system using these icons.
An icon.
I-C-O-N in a computer operating system is a small symbol that represents some action or, in many cases, the program that you want to use.
In order to open a program.
You often click on something or double-click on an icon in order to open the program.
On your phone or tablet.
You may use your finger and tap TAP on the icon in order to open the program.
Risa continues there, meaning the icons supposed to make multitasking easier by allowing you to minimize and maximize applications more quickly.
To multitask, M-U-L-T-I-T-A-S-K, means to do more than one thing at a time.
Many psychologists now say that true multitasking is almost impossible.
You have to be paying attention to either one thing or the other.
Some people say that it is in fact, very inefficient to multitask, but people do it anyway, especially those stupid people who drive and try to text at the same time or talk on the phone while driving, which is another thing that really bothers me because it has been found to be very dangerous.
But people are stupid, and what can you do about that, right?
Anyway, what was I saying?
Ah, yes, our dialogue.
Risa is talking about making things easier to minimize, M-I-N-I-M-I-Z-E, and maximize, M-A-X-I-M-I-Z-E.
Minimize and maximize are verb forms of the nouns minimum and maximum.
To minimize means to make something smaller, as small as possible.
On your computer.
To minimize a program would be to make it small so that you can't see it anymore on your screens.
To maximize would mean to make the program bigger, in the sense that you see it on your screen in a larger size.
Vanessa says, When she says, how can that be?
She's saying how is it possible that the icons are supposed to make it easy for me when I don't even know what the icons represent, what the icons are supposed to mean?
Risa doesn't really know either.
He uses a common expression that we would have an informal conversation, which is search me.
Search me is a phrase we use when you don't have an answer for the question either.
When someone says, I don't know how to do this, do you?
And the person says, search me.
The person means that he doesn't understand or he doesn't have the answer either.
Reza says, here's one of the tech guys now.
One of the IT guys is obviously entering the room.
You can ask him all your questions.
Vanessa says, I only have one.
Reza says, only one?
Meaning you only have one question?
Vanessa says, yes.
Can he restore my old operating system?
To restore R-E-S-T-O-R-E means to return something to how it was before.
To restore a computer application would be to bring it back to the way it was before you changed it, or perhaps even before you accidentally erased it.
Vanessa wants her old operating system back and we, which is all of us who deal with computers, know that sometimes new operating systems can be somewhat confusing because things are done differently.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What happened to my computer overnight?
This can't be my computer.
It is.
The tech guys installed a new operating system on all of the computers after ours.
But my desktop looks completely different.
Where's the menu bar?
I don't know how to open any of my applications.
You'll have to get used to a completely different user interface.
It's been completely revamped.
But I had the old operating system customized with special settings.
Well, those settings are gone.
You'll have to start over.
I don't even know where to begin.
With this new operating system, you're supposed to navigate around using those icons.
They're supposed to make multitasking easier by allowing you to minimize and maximize applications more quickly.
How can that be when I don't know what any of the icons represent?
Search me.
Here's one of the tech guys now.
You can ask him all your questions.
I only have one.
Only one?
Yes.
Can you restore my old operating system?
Our script writer helps you navigate through the difficult obstacles that you might find in improving your English.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
