Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1129, Experiencing Virtual Reality.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1129.
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 is an episode about experiencing virtual reality.
What is virtual reality?
We'll find out in this episode.
Let's get started.
I'm trying out a new kind of virtual reality.
You mean like flight simulators?
This is much more sophisticated.
This system creates a complete sensory experience.
I don't see how it can do that.
With the help of these goggles and headphones, this computer program recreates what it's like to actually be in a particular place at a particular time.
It even allows me to interact with different people and things.
I can see how that would be useful for gaming, but It's not only for gaming.
It's useful for a host of other things, including relaxation.
For instance, right now I'm experiencing what it's like to be outdoors, with the sun shining and the birds chirping.
If you open the door, you'll see that the sun is shining and the birds are chirping.
Yes, but with virtual reality, I may never have to get out of this chair again.
Now, isn't that progress?
Tatiana asks Mustafa, Why are you wearing those funny goggles?
The word funny here means odd, strange, or unusual.
We also use the word funny when something makes us laugh.
But here, it's used to mean weird or strange.
Goggles, G-O-G-G-L-E-S, are things that you wear over your eyes, like eyeglasses, to protect them.
The difference between regular eyeglasses and goggles is that goggles have protection on the side, so that your eyes are completely protected, protected or surrounded by the glass or usually it's plastic that goggles are made out of.
Sometimes there's a combination of rubber and plastic for goggles.
Mustafa says, I'm trying out a new kind of virtual reality.
To try out is a two-word phrasal verb.
That here means to test something, to do something for the first time, especially when you are trying to determine whether you like it or not and or whether you want to buy it or not.
To try out can also mean to try to become a member of a team.
That use of the phrasal verb is more common in schools.
You can try out for the basketball team.
You can try to become a member of the basketball team.
But here to try out means to test something.
Virtual reality is a computer made or computer generated experience.
Usually it involves you wearing a special device that looks like goggles that you put on your head.
And it seems as though you are in a different place or experiencing something that is not real.
That's the meaning of the word virtual, V-I-R-T-U-A-L, in this phrase or term.
Tatiana says you mean like flight simulators?
Yes.
A flight simulator.
S-I-M-U-L-A-T-O-R is a machine that is used to teach people how to fly an airplane.
You're not actually in the airplane, but you're in a special machine that makes it seem as if you were in an airplane.
Flight simulators, I guess, are a kind of virtual reality, but the virtual reality that people talk about nowadays usually involves something more sophisticated, and often with just something over your eyes, or perhaps something in your ears and over your eyes.
Mustafa says this is much more sophisticated.
The word sophisticated S-O-P-H-I-S-T-I-C-A-T-E-D means here advanced, more complex, with more technology.
He says.
The word sensory S-E-N-S-O-R-Y relates to the five senses taste touch smell, sight and sound.
Those are called the five senses, S-E-N-S-E-S.
Then, of course, there's the sixth sense, which is talking to dead people.
You have to see the movie to understand what I mean by that.
Mustafa continues, I can see...
Here, feel and nearly taste this 3D simulation.
Well, I doubt he can feel anything, although it's possible.
A 3D simulation is three-dimensional.
Three-dimensional refers to height, length, and width.
Of course, it only seems as if it were 3D.
The real world is 3D.
But when you watch a movie, even a movie with virtual reality goggles, it isn't actually in three dimensions.
It just seems as if it were.
A simulation is...
Tatiana is confused.
She says, Mustafa replies With the help of these goggles and headphones.
This computer program recreates what it's like to actually be in a particular place at a particular time.
Headphones are things you put over your ears in order to hear music or some other sound that has been recorded.
The verb to recreate, R-E-C-R-E-A-T, means to copy how something happened or how something was done to give someone a similar experience.
What Mustafa is saying here is that there is a computer program that allows you to recreate what it's like to be in a particular place and a particular time.
Once again, it's really like watching a movie that makes it seem as though you are there in the action.
And that's what a 3D movie tries to do.
Mustafa continues, it even allows me to interact with different people and things.
To interact means to talk to or to communicate with another person.
Tatiana says, I can see how that would be useful for gaming, but...
Gaming G-A-M-I-N-G means playing video games, something that is very popular nowadays among many people, but not me.
I grew up in the late 70s, early 80s and video games were just getting started at that time and I never really got that interested in them.
But I know they are very popular among millions of people just not me.
Well, Tatiana thinks this virtual reality machine would be useful for gaming, but she doesn't seem to think it would be useful for anything else.
Mustafa disagrees.
It's not only for gaming, he says.
It's useful for a host of other things, including relaxation.
A host, H-O-S-T, of something is a large number of something.
Mustafa is saying that virtual reality goggles can be used for many different things, including relaxation, the act of becoming calm.
For instance, Mustafa says right now, meaning at this time, I'm experiencing what it's like to be outdoors, with the sun shining and the birds chirping.
To be outdoors, O-U-T-D-O-O-R-S, means to be outside, not in a house or a building.
The sun shines, S-H-I-N-E-S, from the sky.
To shine means for a light to be produced.
The sound that birds make is sometimes described using the verb to chirp, C-H-I-R-P.
We talk about birds chirping.
In fact, there's a bird chirping outside of my window right now.
So Mustafa is saying that he can experience things such as being outside in the sunshine with the birds chirping.
Tatiana says if you open the door, you'll see that the sun is shining and the birds are chirping meaning in the real world.
Mustafa says yes, but with virtual reality.
He's saying that he will never have to get out of his chair to stand up and leave his house.
He says, Now, isn't that progress?
Progress.
P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S is an improvement over time often used when we're talking about technology, although I'm not sure if everything that technology has brought us has resulted in progress.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are you wearing those funny goggles?
I'm trying out a new kind of virtual reality.
This is much more sophisticated.
This system creates a complete sensory experience.
I can see, hear, feel, and nearly taste this 3D simulation.
I don't see how it can do that.
With the help of these goggles and headphones, this computer program recreates what it's like to actually be in a particular place at a particular time.
It even allows me to interact with different people and things.
I can see how it would be useful for gaming, but...
It's not only for gaming.
It's useful for a host of other things, including relaxation.
For instance, right now I'm experiencing what it's like to be outdoors, with the sun shining and the birds chirping.
If you open the door, you'll see that the sun is shining and the birds are chirping.
Yes, but with virtual reality, I may never have to get out of this chair again.
Now, isn't that progress?
If you want to make progress with your English, just keep listening to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer, 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.
