Hello, everybody. My name is Coach Shane and welcome to Easy English Expressions.
You and me every day!
Come on let's master English.
English. hello everybody welcome back to todays easy English expression the podcast today's podcast is brought to you by three outstanding new sponsors usani reyrongkusal i hope my pronunciation It was okay Usani, Nikolaj Mikhailov and Marcos Almeida.
Thank you so much you guys for sponsoring this podcast. We need it.
You guys rock! It's also brought to you by Perfect English.
It's a new speaking class, and I would love to give you a lesson for free.
I'll tell you about that at the end of today's podcast. Okay, today's expression is a good one.
But it's a little bit difficult.
A tar baby. T -A -R. Baby.
A tar baby. Now tar is like oil.
It's a little bit thicker and more sticky.
Tar. Use your dictionary.
T -A -R to find out the exact meaning.
A baby? Well, it's a baby.
It could be a doll.
D -O -L -L. Now, a Tar Baby, this expression actually comes from an old children's story called Brear Rabbit.
B -R -E -R. Rabbit. R -A -B -B -I -T.
On YouTube you can find many stories of Brear Rabbit, so you can listen to that.
But, in In daily English, in modern English, a tar baby is actually a problem.
And it's a problem that you try to solve, but the problem actually gets worse.
you are unable to solve the problem and you become part of the problem that's what a tar baby is it doesn't sound like fun so the idea is you have a friend maybe he's very depressed maybe he has a problem with his girlfriend or his wife for his job or money or some sort of problem so you go to help your friend but you don't do anything for him in fact he gets more depressed more angry you're creating the problem even bigger and then you try to leave and then the problem gets even bigger oh my god trying to help John was a tarp baby Don't try to help John, its a tar baby.
You're asking for problems. So I want you guys to listen to today's dialogue and this dialogue is a bit political.
So I hope I don't make anybody angry but just listen to it.
It's a good example.
Do you think the West should have interfered with Saddam Hussein?
Hold on, it was a tar baby.
How? Saddam is gone, but the West is still over there.
They created a problem and it's just getting worse for them.
Politics. We should never talk about politics but I think many people do understand the situation.
Now, I have several students from Iraq, and some students are happy that the West went over to try and help, and some students are not happy that the West went over to try and help.
But the fact of the matter is the idea was to go over there and help solve some sort a problem and then leave, but the West is still there.
Not necessarily as big as it was, but it's still in the Middle East. This has become a tar baby for the West. And once again, I don't want to get political.
It's a very long, complicated history, but that is a typical example.
In politics, we often use the expression a tar baby.
But not just politics, sometimes talking about religion or talking about race.
You know, white versus black, oh boy that can be a tar baby.
You know it's really important that we try to help each other, to help other people, to help people in other countries, but we have to be careful of creating or getting involved in a tar baby.
Sometimes, it's better to help somebody from a distance, not directly, yeah.
Be careful of tar babies, okay?
Let's check out that dialogue two more times.
Do you think the West should have interfered with Saddam Hussein?
Oh it was a tar baby!
Saddam is gone but the West is still over there.
They created a problem and it's just getting worse for them!
Do you think the West should have interfered with Saddam Hussein?
Oh it was a tar baby!
How? Saddam is gone, but the West is still over there.
They created a problem, and it's just getting worse for them.
Okay, it's time to talk about perfect English.
Now listen to the spelling.
Perfect English is spelled P I R F E C T.
Perfect English. Not P E R.
F E C T. P -I -R -F -E -C -T, why?
Because it means something.
This is a speaking class, and in this speaking class I focus on four things.
Pronunciation, standard American pronunciation.
Intonation, what words to stress, rhythm, how to group words together, and flow how fast or how slow to say things now when you talk about so by the way that is PI RF so perfect English now when we talk about speaking English there are many types of speaking you could be reading a paragraph like a narrator it could be an interview asking questions giving answers it could be a The dialogue, which is usually question to answer, but sharing opinions.
There are many different types of speaking.
And the lesson I want to give you is my third lesson.
The first lesson I did was a simple paragraph.
The second lesson was a conversation.
And the third lesson is an interview, a question and then a long answer.
It's actually very interesting, but I'll be honest, the content is a little bit difficult.
There are some difficult words, but I give you the entire paragraph.
I give you all the words, and what you need to do is think about how you would say this, how you would ask the question, how you would answer it, how you would pronounce things.
What words would you stress?
How would you group words together?
How fast would you say it?
This is what you need to do.
That's the assignment.
So I'm gonna give that to you for free.
And then in a few days I'll make a video know explaining exactly how to say it.
I'll give you the perfect English solution.
Does that sound cool?
So, in order to get this lesson, you have to get on my email list. Nothing's for free.
No, it is for free.
But anyway, my email list, don't worry, I don't spam people.
If you sign up for the email list if you want you can get DDM lessons for free.
Every week I send a newsletter about my podcast and other events that I have so usually it's just one email a week with my newsletter so anyway sign up here www .letsmasterenglish .com tryDDM that's T R Y D D M.
Leave your name and your email address and I will send out this perfect English lesson number 3 to you for free but you have to be quick.
I will be sending the lesson on September 10th, lunch time.
That's 12 PM September 10th Los Angeles United States time.
So once this podcast goes up you have 14 hours to get on the list all right.
So if you are interested in speaking properly you need to get this class and I'll be honest this lesson is a little bit tough but I'll probably give lesson number four for free too and that will probably be a little bit easier so you want to get on that list do it now Now, www .letsmasterenglish .com slash tryddm, okay?
Hey, everybody. Have a great day, and together, Let's Master English!
