Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 817, Getting a School Class Schedule.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 817.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Good evening.
Whatever it is, when you're listening to this episode, that is what I say to you.
This episode, like all of our episodes, has a learning guide, a 10-page guide with a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
You can find that at eslpod.com.
This episode is a dialogue between Carlos and Marianne about going to school.
Let's get started.
Did you get your class schedule?
Yeah, you?
Yeah.
Let's see if we have any classes together.
I have P.E. with Mr. Lopez and Social Studies with Ms.
Walters.
How about you?
I have P.E. with Ms.
Schwartz and social studies with Ms.
Eng.
Who do you have for geography?
I'm taking it with Mr. Johnson.
I'm not taking geography this semester.
Who do you have for algebra?
I have Ms.
Abdul.
I'm not taking algebra.
I'm taking calculus.
Who do you have for chemistry?
I'm taking biology instead.
This isn't looking good.
Do we even have lunch together?
I've been assigned the first lunch period.
You?
I have the second lunch period.
How is it possible that we don't have any classes together?
I have an idea.
Are you taking band after school?
No, you know I'm not musical.
I'm taking drama.
Drop drama and take band.
That way, we'll at least be able to hang out after school.
And what am I supposed to play in the band when I'm tone deaf?
Have you ever heard of the drums?
Our dialogue begins with Carlos asking Mary Ann, did you get your class schedule?
Your class schedule is a list of all of the classes that a student will take.
Usually in junior high school and high school, sometimes in the younger grades.
Mary Ann says, yeah, an informal way of saying yes.
You, meaning did you?
Carlos says, yeah.
Let's see if we have any classes together.
Let's see if we are in any of the same classes.
He says, I have P.E. with Mr. Lopez and social studies with Ms.
Walters.
PE is short for physical education.
Sometimes we call it simply gym class.
It's a class designed to teach students to improve their physical strength, their physical health.
Social studies is a general term we use in the United States to refer to a lot of different specific areas of study.
History is the most common kind of social studies, but it could also include geography economics, the study of government, what we might call civics, even anthropology in some schools.
Social studies can cover a lot of different things.
I have, or used to have, a license to teach high school social studies, which means I could teach history economics psychology government, all sorts of things.
Anyway, we're talking about the classes that Carlos has.
Marianne says, I have P.E. with Ms.
Schwartz and social studies with Ms.
Ong, meaning she is not in the same P.E. or social studies class as Carlos.
Marianne says, who do you have for geography?
Who do you have means who is your teacher?
Geography is the study of land areas and oceans of countries.
It could be the physical geography.
It could be the demographic information, information about the people in a certain country, and so forth.
Geography, as I mentioned before, is really one area within the larger area of social studies.
But Mary Ann has a separate geography class.
She has Mr. Johnson as her teacher.
She says, I'm taking it with Mr. Johnson.
To take a class means to be part of a class in school.
Carlos says, I'm not taking geography this semester, meaning I am not in a class of geography.
Semester, S-E-M-E-S-T-E-R, is one half of a school year.
Most school years are divided into two semesters.
A school year, which in the United States is usually September to early June, can also be divided into quarters.
But in most schools, I think now they have semesters.
In my high school, they did.
So the year is divided into two parts.
There are some classes that only are one semester long.
You only take them a half a year.
Other classes, you take the whole year, both semesters.
Carlos then asks Marianne, who do you have for algebra?
Algebra A-L-G-E-B-R-A is a type of mathematics where you study symbols and letters that represent numbers in what are called equations.
N squared plus 3 equals 12.
That might be an equation you would study in Algebra.
In different schools, algebra is taught in different grades, even in different states.
Remember, the American education system is very independent.
Each state, each city, each area often has its own kinds of classes that it teaches.
We don't have a national list of classes that everyone has to take in a certain year.
When I was in school, algebra wasn't taught until the ninth grade, the first grade of high school.
In my school,
In many other schools it is taught at an earlier grade or at an earlier age, perhaps seventh or eighth grade.
Anyway, I didn't like algebra.
I really didn't like algebra.
I didn't like my algebra teacher when I was a freshman, and so I never really liked the subject.
I forget what her name was.
Mrs. Williams, I think.
Carlos has Ms.
Abdul as his algebra teacher.
Marianne says, I'm not taking algebra.
I'm taking calculus.
Calculus, C-A-L-C-U-L-U-S, is usually a math class you take after algebra.
It's more complicated.
It's typically more complex, more difficult than algebra.
I took calculus also when I was a senior, my last year in high school, and I also hated it.
And guess what?
I had the same teacher.
Marianne says, who do you have for chemistry?
Chemistry, C-H-E-M-I-S-T-R-Y, is the study of elements and substances that things are made of.
Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon.
In chemistry, you study these substances and analyze them.
I took chemistry when I was a junior in high school.
I kind of liked chemistry, actually.
I had a teacher who I more or less liked.
So chemistry was good.
Carlos says, I'm taking biology instead.
Meaning he's not taking chemistry, he's taking biology.
B-I-O-L-O-G-Y.
Biology is the study of different forms of life.
A study of what we might call living organisms.
I took biology when I was a sophomore, my second year of high school, and I did not like it.
The teacher was okay.
I just, I don't know, didn't like it for some reason.
Don't like blood.
Carlos says this isn't looking good, meaning it doesn't look like the two of them will have any classes together.
He asks, do we even have lunch together, our lunch break?
I've been assigned the first lunch period.
To be assigned, A-S-S-I-G-N-E-D, means to be put into a certain group.
You don't really have a choice about it.
Someone else decides this is where you're going to go.
In this case Carlos, has been assigned to the first lunch period, the time in the day when people students stop and eat lunch.
He says, you, meaning what about you?
Marianne says, I have the second lunch period.
How is it possible that we don't have any classes together?
Carlos says, I have an idea.
Are you taking band after school?
Band, B-A-N-D, is when a group of people get together and play musical instruments together.
Many schools, especially high schools, have a band, a group of students who play musical instruments at sporting games and that sort of thing.
Well, Carlos asks if Marianne is taking band after school.
A lot of schools have classes after the end of the day, extra classes and things that aren't really academic or school subjects.
Marianne says, no, you know I'm not musical, meaning I don't have any talent when it comes to music.
She says, I'm taking drama.
Drama, D-R-A-M-A, is acting, usually in a theater, in a play.
Carlos says, drop drama and take band.
To drop something means to decide not to take a class.
In American schools you can add ADD a class, meaning you can decide to take a class or you can drop a class.
To drop a class means to not have it on your schedule anymore, not to take it.
Carlos wants Marianne to drop drama and take band instead.
To hang, H-A-N-G, out, O-U-T, is a phrasal verb meaning to spend time with another person.
In a relaxed, comfortable way, maybe going to a movie or just going to a place to read or to talk or to have something to drink, to a cafe.
That would be to hang out.
You're not doing anything special.
Marianne says, and what am I supposed to play in the band when I'm tone deaf?
Marianne is asking how she can play a musical instrument if she's tone deaf.
A person who is tone deaf is unable to hear the differences between musical tones, musical notes, and that would make it very difficult for them to play a musical instrument.
Carlos says, have you ever heard of the drums?
A drum.
D-R-U-M is a musical instrument that has a rhythmic beating sound when you hit it with a stick.
However, drums are also made to sound or play different notes.
So I'm not sure if that's really going to help poor Carlos.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you get your class schedule?
Yeah, you?
Yeah.
Let's see if we have any classes together.
I have P.E. with Mr. Lopez and Social Studies with Ms.
Walters.
How about you?
I have P.E. with Ms.
Schwartz and social studies with Ms.
Ang.
Who do you have for geography?
I'm taking it with Mr. Johnson.
I'm not taking geography this semester.
Who do you have for algebra?
I have Ms.
Abdul.
I'm not taking algebra.
I'm taking calculus.
Who do you have for chemistry?
I'm taking biology instead.
This isn't looking good.
Do we even have lunch together?
I've been assigned the first lunch period.
You?
I have the second lunch period.
How is it possible that we don't have any classes together?
I have an idea.
Are you taking band after school?
No, you know I'm not musical.
I'm taking drama.
Drop drama and take band.
That way, we'll at least be able to hang out after school.
And what am I supposed to play in the band when I'm tone deaf?
Have you ever heard of the drums?
Our scriptwriter can write about all different school subjects.
That's because it's the wonderful, intelligent Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan, not very intelligent.
I hope you'll come back and listen to us again, however, here on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
