Getting Internet Service

Hello English learners! Welcome to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And my name is Catherine and today we’re talking about something very, very important in the computer age.

Internet.

Internet and internet connections.

Right, I think, well, so many people use the internet now and have it, but it’s sometimes a little bit complicated to maybe get a plan or maybe if you’re not too familiar with the terms. Um, that’s what we’re gonna be looking at today.

So listen out for some of these words; today we’re… we’re talking on a phone with someone who’s going to help us get a plan. [When] we come back, we’re talking all about what some of these words and phrases mean, so if you’re confused, just wait a couple of seconds and we’ll be back.

Alright, so interesting, uh, a lot of these technical terms specifically for internet and computers and connection and all that stuff.

Yeah, and the nice thing about some of these words, uh, is that they can be used in other ways as well, so…

Uhu.

We’re learning about these and, uh, expanding our vocabularies, but they’re useful on many other, uh, contexts as well.

Okay, so let’s get started with, uh, these words now in “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

So this first phrase, for example, is something that you see advertised all the time and it’s, uh… well, it’s a kind of internet connection.

Uhu, broadband internet.

Okay, so internet is pretty clear, but broadband you might be asking what the heck can this mean?

Okay, so you have broad.

So broad means wide.

Wide, aha, and a band is basically kind of like a frequency that… at which something works.

Like bandwidth.

Bandwidth, aha. So you have broadband, you have fast or high-speed internet.

That means the bigger the space is, the more information can be transferred, so it’s… it’s a fast connection, essentially.

Exactly. Uh, before broadband we had dialup…

Ooh.

Interent.

Tih, tih, tih, tih, tih, tih, teeet, teeet.

Yeah. Hehe.

Remember AOL?

Yeah, exactly, so you had to…

Hehe. It was so slow.

You had to use you modem and call, uh, a number and then get connected by… by telephone, so it was a dialup connection, but it was so slow.

And every time it broke, the connection would… would break, you had to dial up again and go the whole process, it’s so annoying.

Exactly, so, uh, fortunately now not many people use dialup anymore and we have broadband internet. Uh, now if you have broadband internet, it’s really convenient, because you can downloadany type of application or music, videos, et cetera.

Right, so this is another key computer word that actually has a couple of different uses.

Uhu.

For example, as you sad you can download music…

Right.

Or download photos. That means you find a photo on the internet that you like and you could save it on your computer.

Uhu.

Uh, but you can also have a download, so it could be a thing too.

Okay, so if maybe you’re downloading three different files, you have three downloads.

Okay, so to download and [a] download.

Uhu, very good. So now with internet you have different speeds, as we talked about, right? How fast you’re downloading something and the guy mentioned five hundred and twelve (512) kbps.

Oh, no… not ??? one of these kbps, so these mean… actually, this is pretty simple. You can think about kilobytes. You’ve heard about megabytes, kilobytes. This is a… this is a size.

Uhu, tha… how fast you can receive these packets of information, uh, so five hundred and twelve kilobytes per second.

Per second, that’s… I have no idea how much that is. It’s maybe a lot. It sounds like a lot.

Right, well, basically, i… it is a lot, but we saw later that he was asking for a connection speed of two megabytes.

Ooh, so mega is bigger than kbps, right?

Right.

Alright, so, uh, these are different speeds of transferring information, right? So, this is a way for you to see what kind of, uh, internet plan you want.

Exactly, and, uh, so we have kilobytes, we have megabytes, and basically you want a faster connection speed, because you want to avoid lag.

Ooh, lag, alright. Uh, this is a word that you can use in a lot of different ways. For example, uh, my brother always lags behind.

Uhu.

Okay, so it’s a… it’s a verb, but in this case we ??? with a noun, so lag is slowness, it’s ???.

Yeah, it’s like a delay.

Yeah, it’s a delay in… in something, so in this case I can’t even play my video games, cause there’s too much lag.

Uhu.

So that means the internet is too slow.

Too slow, exactly. So that’s what happens when you have a slow connection speed, you have lag. And as you can say, it refers to something that’s slow or delayed, so you can use it in other contexts when you want to say something is a little bit slow.

Hm, well, and another key thing here, as we’re talking about, uh, internet connections, is the router. So router is something that helps us to, um, rout an internet connection, so, ah, for example…

It’s… so it basically distributes the internet connection to different computers or to different users.

And some of these you plug in and some them are wireless.

Uhu.

That means without a wire. So wireless router is something like a little box in your house that allows you to maybe have three or four computers on one broadband connection.

Right, so it’s very popular now, you go to Starbucks and you havewifi. Uh, in order to have wifi or wireless internet you need a router, a wireless router.

Okay, so wireless router. And finally what is something that mightget in the way of a connection?

You have a firewall – very important security measure when navigating the internet.

Right, so a personal firewall is a firewall that you have on your computer to keep people from spying on you; this keeps other people out.

Uhu. So it’s exactly that. It’s a wall between your… between your computer and the outside world, so it protects you from any type of maybe malicious intruders.

Right, and oftentimes governments and, um, public offices, things like that, law… law offices, they have firewalls to protect the information that they store, because it’s so important.

Exactly.

That is secretive.

Yeah, so firewalls. There’re many different types of firewalls, but a personal firewall is just a basic one.

Great, so that is our language takeaway for today. Let’s, uh, check out this dialogue again and slow it down a bit this time. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Alright, great, so we just heard all of these, uh, words that we looked at before, uh, but now why don’t we take a look at some of these phrases, ah, in “fluency builder”? Voice: Fluency builder.

What’s this first one? I can’t read, uh…

I have no idea.

Wh… didn’t you write it down? Marco.

Hehe. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Hehe. Alright, and I’m kidding, so I have no idea, this is a… this is… well, it’s gonna treat this is a phrase that gets, uh, said that as is.

Uhu.

We’re not gonna take bits and pieces of it, uh, so “I have no idea” or “he has no idea” is a way of saying, Listen…

I don’t know.

I don’t know; I really don’t know.

Right, the guy was talking about kbps and all these things and… and the other guy was like “I have no idea what you’re talking about; I don’t understand”.

And I can… I can definitely empathize.

You can relate.

Yeah. Well, we leave that for another one.

Hehe.

Uh, but after this we’ve got, uh, bucks, aright, so bucks. What… is this slang?

Bucks, a hundred bucks, two hundred bucks.

A lot of money.

Right, so bucks is basically another way of saying dollars.

Alright, so this is a way for… well, this is a way that most Americans talk about money.

Uhu.

It’s, uh, one buck is one US dollar.

Uhu.

Alright, so, uh, can I borrow ten bucks, Marco?

Right. Oh, yeah, sure, here you go.

Cool.

Now, bucks, you can only use it for American currency, right? You can’t use it for like Euros or…

No, no, no.

You can’t say like ten Euros would be ten bucks.

No, no, no, no. Usually you say this about American dollars and you say this, uh, just when you’re hanging out or “how much does this cost?” Oh, five bucks.

Uhu.

Yeah, but…

Very good. So the guy was telling him about, uh, the price of the internet and everything and he said that he’s gonna throw in a pen drive, right?

He’s gonna throw it? What is this…

He’s gonna throw it at him. No he’s gonna…

Hehe.

Throw in a pen drive for free.

Oh, sweet, so throw in means to, uh… to add.

Or include.

Include, so…

Uhu.

Um, listen, sir, here’s your large popcorn and I’m gonna throw in a small diet coke for free.

Wow. So you…

Not generous ???.

Hehe. So you throw in something it’s… you include it for free, right?

Exactly, so this is usually a complimentary item.

Uhu. Great, I think, uh, this word is really interesting, or this phrase, so why don’t we listen to a couple of other examples usingthrow in? Voice: Example one.

If you buy two pizzas, we will throw in another one for free. Voice: Example two.

Tell you what, I’ll buy this computer if you throw in a pair of headphones, deal? Voice: Example three.

The salesman threw in a subscription to the local newspaper for buying his product. Isn’t that great?

Alright, great, so, uh, good examples. I think it’s clear now, the phrases, all these words related to the internet.

Absolutely, and so useful.

Right, so why don’t we listen to this dialogue for the last time and then we’ll come back and talk a little bit more.

So the internet, it’s a big deal nowadays and now you can do so much on it, not only navigate websites anymore, but watch movies, download applications, uh, photos, Facebook, all this type of things nowadays you can you on the internet.

You can even do it from your phone like when you’re in the bathroom or on the train.

Hehe.

I mean it’s scary. There’s… we’re always connected.

Right, so it’s… it’s interesting, you’re always connected, you’re always online with people and, uh, it’s actually very noticeable when you maybe live somewhere else. Before you used to have to write letters. I don’t think many people re… receive handwritten letters anymore.

Never, I’m… I’m speaking for myself, I’ve never receive an… and I don’t write them either, so…

Yeah.

I guess I’m guilty of it.

So now people just send e-mails. Obviously, it’s more convenient, but, uh, maybe it’s a little bit less significant maybe than actually going to the post office or taking the time to write a letter, going to the post office and stuff.

Well, I don’t know, there’s something nice of having a physical thing you can hold on to, but I wonder if one day we’re gonna forget how to write.

Yeah.

You know, like write with a pen.

With a pen and pencil, exactly.

We’re gonna have these little PDAs and these little iPhones and they’re gonna just… we’re gonna talk and they’re gonna take everything down in note form for you.

Well, now it’s kind of happening with, uh, the Kindle, right? Now you can have books on this, uh, electronic device…

Uhu.

That lets you read through them and, huh…

You can carry a hundred books with you.

Exactly.

To the beach.

So now you don’t even really need physical books anymore, which is good on… in… on some level, because, you know, you’re saving trees and, uh, space and all that stuff, but…

But there’s something, I don’t know, physical about reading a book: you hold it; you flip the pages; you know how many pages you have left.

Hehe.

I don’t know, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll be a convert one day, but for now, I’m good with paper books.

Alright, so, well, what do you guys think about the internet? About, uh, electronic books?

You can also tell us any problems or confusion you have with the things that we talked about today. Uh, hopefully, everything is clear, but if not, we are here to answer your questions; we like to do so, so check out our website englishpod.com.

Alright, we’ll see you guys there and until next time…

Goodbye everyone!

Bye! ***