Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1147.
Types of students in school.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1147.
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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In this episode we're going to listen to a dialogue between Cheech and Boo about types of students in school, the names that we give different kinds of students in a school, especially a high school.
Let's get started.
Is this your old yearbook?
Yeah, I found it while cleaning out my closet.
Look at your picture.
You look like you were an honor roll student.
Don't be fooled.
I was just an average student, not the valedictorian, but not a dropout either.
Who is that?
She's very pretty.
That's my friend Marlene.
In high school, she was good at everything.
She had a high GPA and took every available AP class.
So she was a nerd?
No, not at all.
She was also a jock, a member of lots of student clubs, and was student body president.
Wow, she must have been popular.
She was, but she wasn't stuck up.
She got along with everybody, not just the football players and cheerleaders.
She was friends with geeks and goths, too.
Everybody liked her.
Where is she now?
Do you still keep in touch?
Yes, of course.
She's doing very well and is very successful.
And single?
Yeah, but you're not her type.
And what type is that?
You?
Definitely a druggie.
Cheech begins our dialogue by asking Boo, Is this your old yearbook?
A yearbook.
Y-E-A-R-B-O-O-K one word is a book published at the end of a school year, usually for a high school, that has photographs of all the students and teachers in the school, as well as photos and perhaps stories about the athletic teams, the clubs and other activities at the school.
Most American high schools have a yearbook that students can buy.
When I was in high school, I was the editor of my school yearbook, meaning I was the person responsible for picking the photographs and helping write the descriptions in the yearbook.
True story.
I actually wrote something in the yearbook at the very end of the book that the teachers, especially the leader of the school, the principal, didn't like.
And so, before the book was given to the rest of the students, they went through and cut out that piece of paper half a piece of paper actually and then gave the books out.
So all the books were missing a half a piece of paper, a half a page at the end of the book.
Well, that's a long story.
We'll talk about that some other time.
Anyway, back to our dialogue.
Cheech asks Boo, is that your old yearbook?
Boo says, yeah, I found it while cleaning out my closet.
Cheech says, look at your picture.
You look like you were an honor roll student.
The honor H-O-N-O-R roll R-O-L-L is a list of the best students in the school or, to be more precise, the students who got the best grades that quarter or semester, or perhaps even year.
Sometimes the schools will put up a list of the students with the best grades.
The idea, of course, is to try to encourage students to get better grades.
Cheech says that Boo looks like she was an honor roll student.
Perhaps because she looks intelligent.
I don't know.
Boo says, don't be fooled, meaning not.
Don't think that just because I looked smart, I was smart.
She says, I was just an average student.
That is not a great student, not a bad student.
She says that she was not the valedictorian, but not a dropout either.
The valedictorian, V-A-L-E-D-I-C-T-O-R-I-A-N, is the best student in a given school.
The valedictorian is the student that has the highest grades, the best grades throughout their entire time at that school.
Usually at the graduation ceremony, when the school celebrates the end of the schooling of a certain group of students who are graduating from the school, there is a recognition of the valedictorian and sometimes the valedictorian gets to give a little speech at the graduation ceremony.
So the valedictorian is the best student in the school.
At the other end, we have someone who is a dropout.
A dropout is a person who doesn't complete their schooling.
In the United States, in many states...
You only have to go to school until you're 16 years old.
After that, if you don't want to go to school anymore, to high school that is, you can drop out.
You will be a dropout, someone who doesn't complete his schooling, his education.
Of course, you can also go to college and then be a dropout, but we don't normally talk about college dropouts.
Usually when we talk about a dropout, we're referring to a high school dropout.
Cheech says, who is that?
She's very pretty.
Boo says, that's my friend Marlene.
In high school, she was good at everything.
She had a high GPA and took every available AP class.
A GPA is a grade point average.
Basically, it's the number that is calculated from all of your grades.
Traditionally, high schools give a certain number of points to students. a grade.
So the grade of A is four points, the grade of B is three points, the grade of C is two points, and so forth.
You take all of the grades and then you come up with an average grade.
We call that the grade point average, or more commonly, simply the GPA.
Boo is telling us that her friend Marlene had a high GPA, which means she was a very good student and took every available AP class.
To take a class means to be a student in that class, to study that subject.
AP refers to Advanced Placement Class.
Advanced placement or AP courses are special high school courses that at the end of the year have special exams.
If you score very well on these exams, you can get college credit.
Many universities will give you a certain number of credits if you get a high score on these exams.
These exams, of course, cost money, and most students who take the exams don't get a high enough score to get credit.
But, of course, the company, the private company that gives the exam still gets your money.
So it's a great way for the company to make a lot of money, not such a great way for students to get college credit.
In any case, the advanced placement courses in a high school are considered the most difficult, often the ones that are hardest to get a good grade in.
My high school didn't have any AP courses, probably because we weren't smart enough to be in those kinds of classes.
Cheech responds to Boo's description of Marlene by saying, So she was a nerd.
A nerd.
N-E-R-D is a smart person, but one who doesn't seem to be able to get along with other people, or perhaps, more correctly, is a little socially awkward.
A nerd is a person who can get good grades but doesn't seem to be very good at talking to other people or relating to other people.
Boo says no, not at all, meaning Marlene was not a nerd.
She was also a jock, a member of lots of student clubs, and was student body president.
A jock, J-O-C-K, is an informal term for an athlete, especially a student who likes to play sports, although it doesn't necessarily have to be a student.
Student clubs are groups or organizations that usually the school itself organizes and And are for students who have different interests.
There might be a photography club or a writing club.
These clubs usually have meetings after school or outside of the regular student classes.
To be the student body president means to be the elected leader of all the students.
The student body refers to the entire group of students, all of the students in the school.
It's common in American high schools for the school to have an election where all the students vote for a president, and often vice president, of the entire school.
Now, this is a little different from a similar term class president, each level in a high school.
That is, In a typical high school, a 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade and 12th grade.
Those are the four levels.
Each of those levels also elects a leader called a class president.
In addition, there is what's called a student government, sometimes called a student council.
That is the group that organizes events for the school.
So the student body president is in a sense, the president of the student council, the leader of the student council.
But everyone votes on who will be the student body president.
And in addition, each class, each level, each grade also has a president.
So there are lots of presidents in American high schools, it would seem.
Was I ever student body president or even student class president?
Absolutely not.
Cheech says, wow, she, meaning Marlene, must have been popular.
That is, she must have been well-liked.
Boo says she was, but she wasn't stuck up.
The term stuck, S-T-U-C-K hyphen up, U-P, means arrogant.
Someone who thinks he or she is better than everyone else.
It's the kind of term that you would hear in a high school.
You don't hear people use that term very much in an adult conversation, but I suppose you could use it.
Boo says that Marlene got along with, was friendly with everybody, not just the football players and cheerleaders.
Boo means that Marlene was friendly and was able to get along with everyone, not just the people who you might expect a popular student to get along with the football players and the cheerleaders.
A cheerleader, C-H-E-E-R-L-E-A-D-E-R, is someone who...
Well, cheers or encourages people at a sporting event, typically to yell and to support the athletic team that's playing.
In an American high school, boys on the football team and girls on the cheerleading squad or the team of cheerleaders are usually the most popular students in the school.
Was I a football player or a cheerleader?
Of course not.
Boo says she was friends with geeks and goths too.
A geek, G-E-E-K, is similar to a nerd.
It's a very smart person who knows a lot about especially scientific or technical topics, but might not be the most sociable person.
A goth G-O-T-H is a person who enjoys wearing black clothing, often leather chains, and listens to a certain kind of music.
Was I a geek or a goth?
I would have to say no.
Besides there weren't any goths in the school I went to.
I must have gone to school before that became popular.
Cheech says where is she now?
Meaning where is Marlene now?
Where does she live?
Do you still keep in touch?
That is are you still in communication?
Do you still talk to each other?
Boo says, yes, of course.
She's doing very well and is very successful.
Cheech then asks, and single?
Meaning, is she not married or not involved in a romantic relationship?
Boo says, yeah, but you're not her type.
Meaning, you're not the kind of man she would be interested in.
Cheech says, and what type is that?
Here Cheech is asking what type, what kind of person Boo thinks that he is not, what kind of person Marlene is interested in.
Boo says, you?
Definitely a druggie.
A druggie, D-R-U-G-G-I-E, is a person who consumes illegal drugs.
Was I a druggie when I was in school?
No, not really.
We didn't have any drugs when I was in school.
In fact, I'm so old, there weren't any drugs when I was in school.
Yeah, it's true.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Is this your old yearbook?
Yeah, I found it while cleaning out my closet.
Look at your picture.
You look like you were an honor roll student.
Don't be fooled.
I was just an average student, not the valedictorian, but not a dropout either.
Who is that?
She's very pretty.
That's my friend Marlene.
In high school, she was good at everything.
She had a high GPA and took every available AP class.
So she was a nerd?
No, not at all.
She was also a jock, a member of lots of student clubs, and was student body president.
Wow, she must have been popular.
She was, but she wasn't stuck up.
She got along with everybody, not just the football players and cheerleaders.
She was friends with geeks and goths, too.
Everybody liked her.
Where is she now?
Do you still keep in touch?
Yes, of course.
She's doing very well and is very successful.
And single?
Yeah, but you're not her type.
And what type is that?
You?
Definitely a druggie.
If ESLpod.com were a school, our valedictorian would be the one and only 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.
