Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 482, Talking About Architecture.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 482.
© transcript Emily Beynon This episode is a dialogue between Iktinos and Pindah.
They're going to be talking about architecture, the way that we make buildings, including a lot of very common vocabulary to talk about buildings and houses.
Let's get started.
I can't believe we're in one of the world's most famous structures.
Look at this architecture.
Yeah, great.
Another old building.
I'm going to sit in that bay window and rest my feet while you walk around.
Come on.
Come with me.
Just look at these columns and beams.
They're over 2,000 years old.
Right.
They're old.
Everything we've seen these past two weeks has been old.
What's so special about this?
Are you trying to tell me that you don't think this dome is impressive?
It's one of the largest in the world.
Look at those cornices and skylights.
I've never seen anything like them.
This building has a good facade with nice balance and symmetry, but I'm so tired of looking at the same style of building, one after another.
Are we going to see anything else today?
We are seeing some of the most important monuments to human ingenuity.
You're right, but I'm too tired to walk up and down all three stories.
You go.
I'll stay here on this balcony.
What are you going to do here?
I'm going to think about how I'd remodel the building to bring it up to date.
You're hopeless.
The dialogue begins with Iktanos saying I can't believe we're in one of the world's most famous structures.
A structure is a building or something that was made by human beings, something to work in or live in.
These are all considered structures.
A house, a building are examples.
Icteno says, look at this architecture.
Architecture is the art and science of designing and creating new buildings.
There are many different types of architecture.
Historically, you can find many different varieties throughout the world.
Pinda says, yeah, great, another old building.
Pinda is not very excited about architecture.
She says, A bay window is a large window that pushes out through the wall of a building.
It creates an area where you can sit.
Normally it's like a semicircle that goes out from the side of the building to the outside.
It's a window, but it's a window where you can sit down on and look out or look in, depending on what's more interesting.
Pinda is going to rest for a while.
Ictino says, however, come on, come with me.
Just look at these columns and beams, he says.
A column is a large piece of a building that goes from the floor to the ceiling.
Usually it's like a big round tube.
It's circular.
It's circular.
It can be used to support the ceiling, support the top part of the building or the floor of the building above you.
Often a column is used, however, for decoration purposes.
It looks nice.
The most famous example of columns would be perhaps the Parthenon in Athens, the great temple on top of the Acropolis in Athens that is surrounded by columns.
And And, of course, there are many columns in various buildings throughout the world, especially in Western and European architecture.
A beam is a long beam piece of the building that goes from one side of the ceiling to the other.
So a column is vertical, a beam is horizontal.
It goes from one side of the room to the other.
Again, it's used to help support the roof or the upper floor of the building.
The word beam has several different meanings, so take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Ikteno says that the columns and beams are over 2,000 years old.
Pinda says, yeah, right, they're old.
Everything we've seen these past two weeks has been old.
What's so special about this?
Icteno says, are you trying to tell me that you don't think this dome is impressive?
A dome, D-O-M-E, is a round roof of a building.
For example, if you go to Rome in Italy, you can see the roof of the Basilica of St.
Peter in Vatican City.
There are domes, for example, in many capital buildings, such as in our capital of Washington, D.C.
There's a dome on top of our capital building.
There are domes in many different kinds of government and religious buildings throughout the world.
Iktinos is saying to Pindah don't you think this dome is impressive, meaning it's something that you would admire, something that you would like?
The expression are you trying to tell me is usually one where we are expressing to the person our disbelief.
We can't believe that this person doesn't agree with us or is saying this thing.
Iktanel says that the dome is one of the largest in the world.
Then he says, look at those cornices and skylights.
A cornice.
C-O-R-N-I-C-E is plaster, a type of building material or wood that's put inside of a building, usually right next to the ceiling, the top of a room.
And it is very fancy.
It is very decorated.
A skylight is a window in the ceiling that allows light to come in to the room.
You can only have a skylight, of course, if the ceiling is the roof of the building or near the roof of the building.
Icteno says, I've never seen anything like them.
Pinda says, this building has a good façade.
A facade, spelled F-A-C-A-D-E, is the front of the building.
It's the way that the building appears from the street view.
Sometimes the front of the building can look very impressive, very large, but the rest of the building is not.
We use this word façade also to mean the perhaps false impression that people give.
They look like they're happy, but they're not really happy.
Their happy face is a façade.
In architecture, the facade is the front of the building.
Pinda says that the building has a good facade with nice balance and symmetry.
Balance is when you have two things that are in equal amounts or that are in amounts that seem to make sense.
They don't have one much more than the other or one that seems to dominate the other.
So balance can be equality equilibrium, but it can also just mean that the proportions that you see seem right.
They seem correct.
Symmetry means something is the same on both sides.
It's similar to balance, but it is specifically something that is identical, that is the same on two sides.
Pinda says I'm so tired of looking at the same style or the same type of building one after another.
She asks, aren't we going to see anything else today?
Iktano says, we are seeing some of the most important monuments to human ingenuity.
A monument is something normally that makes you remember something.
It could be a building.
It could be a statue.
It allows you to remember some important person or some important event in history.
Ingenuity means creativity, the ability to think of new things and create new things.
Pinda says, you're right, but I'm too tired to walk up and down all three stories.
A story is a floor of the building.
It's a level of the building.
This building has three stories, so it has three levels.
It has the first or ground floor, the second floor, and the third floor.
Pinda and Iktinos are tourists, and Pinda is now tired of walking.
Pinda says, you go, you go ahead.
I'll stay here on the balcony.
A balcony is a flat area outside of a window or a door that is on an upper floor.
You can stand on it and look outside, or simply sit in a chair and be outside of the building.
If you are familiar with the famous Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, There is a well-known scene, a well-known part of the play, where Juliet is in her house, and usually when you watch the play, it shows her on a balcony.
She's on the balcony looking for Romeo.
Romeo, of course, is down below and starts to talk to Juliet.
It's such a famous scene that some houses actually have what's called a Juliet balcony.
A Juliet balcony, however, is very small.
It's a small rectangle where one person can barely stand.
It's not a large extension on the side of the house.
Iktinos asks, what are you going to do here?
Pinda says, I'm going to think about how I'd remodel the building and bring it up to date.
To remodel means to change a building so that it is better, perhaps more modern or larger.
To bring something up to date means to make something more modern, more current, more appropriate for the time that we live in now.
Pindar is saying that she's going to think about how she can change this building, remodel it to bring it up to date.
Of course, Iktinos doesn't like this idea at all.
He says, you're hopeless, meaning there's nothing I can say or do that would change your opinion.
You have such... a wrong opinion that I'm not going to bother arguing with you.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I can't believe we're in one of the world's most famous structures.
Look at this architecture.
Yeah, great.
Another old building.
I want to sit in that bay window and rest my feet while you walk around.
Come on, come with me.
Just look at these columns and beams.
They're over 2,000 years old.
Right, they're old.
Everything we've seen these past two weeks has been old.
What's so special about this?
Are you trying to tell me that you don't think this dome is impressive?
It's one of the largest in the world.
Look at those cornices and skylights.
I've never seen anything like them.
This building has a good facade with nice balance and symmetry, but I'm so tired of looking at the same style of building, one after another.
Aren't we going to see anything else today?
We are seeing some of the most important monuments to human ingenuity.
You're right, but I'm too tired to walk up and down all three stories.
You go.
I'll stay here on this balcony.
What are you going to do here?
I'm going to think about how I've remodeled the building to bring it up to date.
You're hopeless.
The script for this episode was written by someone with great ingenuity, our own Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
