Buying a Computer

Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name isMarco.

And my name is Catherine, so what are we talking about today, Marco?

Well, we’re talking about one of my favorite topics, which arecomputers.

Yes, you’re a little bit of a nerd.

Uh, a little bit.

Hehe.

I love computers and technology and everything that’s related to it, so, uh, that’s what we’re gonna be looking at today; maybe we’re buying a new computer.

Well, I anticipate learning something from this, because there’re a lot of those fancy big words that I don’t know that have to do with processors, and giga-fingle-tingle things.

Hehe.

So, uh, that’s gonna be coming up in a minute here, but, uh, first let’s just jump right in and take a listen to today’s dialogue.

Alright, we’re back. Uh, I think it’s a very typical case. You’re going to get something fixed and they say: “We can’t fix it, you need a new one”.

Yes and not only a new one, but a bigger and better and faster one.

And more expensive, obviously.

Obviously.

Hehe.

It’s called the upsell.

The upsell, yeah.

Hehe. Yeah.

Alright, so there were some very difficult words, I think, because they’re very specific, related to technology and computers. So, uh, why don’t we look at those now in “language takeaway”? Voice: Language takeaway.

Alright, so the first word we have today is when something is no longer in use.

Okay, so this word is obsolete.

It’s obsolete.

Obsolete. We’re not just talking about like “oh, I haven’t touched that pen in like ten years”. We’re talking about a piece of technology that is no longer useful, because there’s something else that can do a better job.

Right, and actually not only with, uh, technology. We also have words that are obsolete, right?

Uhu, exactly, like thy or thine.

Hehe.

You or yours.

Classical English. We don’t use “thy” anymore.

No.

But…

Thou art very summery today, Marco.

Hehe. But we don’t use that anymore. That’s obsolete English, right?

Uhu.

Or obsolete words.

Exactly, so obsolete means it’s no longer of use. We have better and newer things in… in its place.

Alright, and now moving on, when the salesman was describing the characteristics of the computer, uh, he had… he used some prefixesthat were a little bit strange, right? Like for example, giga-.

Giga what?

Giga. Hehe.

Alright, so these are actually prefixes that have to do with numbers and so, this is not just a computer thing, this is a math thing or a science thing, so…

Uhu.

Okay, so we’ve got three different prefixes. A prefix is something we tack on at the beginning of a word. So we’ve had… we have, uh,hertz, uh, or byte, right? These are little bits of a computer – byte.

Right, so you have like megabytes.

Megabytes, we’ve all heard before, that’s the smallest here. Uh, we’ve got megabytes, but bigger than mega, we’ve got gigabytes.

A giga… yeah, so now, for example, the… the hard drives are two hundred and fifty gigabytes.

You might even hear someone say gigs. We’ve got a…

Gigs, yeah.

Two hundred fifty gig hard drive.

Yeah.

But, uh, what’s bigger than giga?

Now it’s the terabyte.

Ooh, tera sounds like boom-boom-boom-boom…

Yeah.

Huge!

I actually wondered what would happen after, uh, gigabyte, cause so much information already and now it’s the terabyte, so it’s like one thousand gigabytes.

So that’s like two hundred movies.

That’s probably more than that. It’s amazing…

Yeah.

The amount of storage you can have and how small it actually is.

So mega, giga, terra.

Right.

Going from littlest to biggest.

Alright, uh, and well, he described a four gigahertz processor.

Mm, okay, so the processor is our next word and this is actually something that, um… that determines how fast your computer is gonna run.

So it comes from the word to process, right?

Right.

To like calculate or to think…

Do, even.

Uhu.

Uhu.

To do. So you have different examples like a word processor.

Right, so that’s like Microsoft Word, it’s allows you to make Word documents.

Uhu.

You can also say to process, uh, data. You’re trying to calculate it.

Uhu, but in this case a processor is like a little brain that’s the center of the computer and that’s where all the information gets processed.

Yeah, so it’s the brain of the computer, essentially.

Uhu.

And the bigger it is, the faster it can go.

Exactly. And, well, if you don’t have a very good processor, your computer is bound to freeze.

Ooh, okay, so freezing is another keyword, especially when we talk about computers this one drives me nuts. Uh, to freeze, uh, it means to stop moving.

Right.

Right, so, uh, well, it has a couple of different meanings. You might have heard it about ice before, but…

Uhu.

To freeze here we're talking about stopping moving, so we have a… a game called freeze tag.

Mm.

If I touch you, you have to stop running.

Right.

Uh, but here we’re talking about computer freezing. I’m moving my mouse and I’m typing and all of a sudden…

It doesn’t work anymore.

My… my mouse doesn’t move. I can’t close or open or do anything and it’s really frustrating.

It’s very… especially if you’re doing something and you didn’t save your work, it’s gone.

Huh-huh.

Hehe. Right, so if your computer freezes, then usually you have to restart it…

Yeah.

Or turn it off and on.

So that is, uh, about it for those words, but let’s take another listen and slow the dialogue down this time, so you can catch some of those big words. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Great, so we are back, so now let’s jump into today’s “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder.

Alright, so on fluency builder we’re gonna take a look at three different phrases. For example, the salesman was describing technology and sad that it’s ever-changing.

Mm, okay, so this is, um, so a little poetic line here.

Yeah.

So, uh, ever-changing means always changing.

Uhu, always.

Always changing. And so we can say that the ocean is ever-changing.

Hehe.

You know…

Hehe. Right.

The waves are always changing and…

Hehe.

Um, but in this case he’s saying that technology is always changing, it’s always progressing into something new and so…

Exactly.

Uh, that is a key selling point for this guy.

Right, so, uh, this is actually a very interesting word. We can use it like in your example beyond technology like the way… like the sea is ever-changing, so why don’t we listen to a couple of other examples? Voice: Example one.

There’s always something new in this ever-changing world. Voice: Example two.

Times are ever-changing and we must prepare ourselves better everyday. Voice: Example three.

The flu is an ever-changing virus that continues to claim many lives.

Alright, we’re back, so now we understand ever-changing.

So the man who’s trying to buy this computer or at least get his computer fixed, really starts to get frustrated with the salesman and he says: “Okay I know where this is going”.

Uhu.

So he hears the sales pitch. He’s hear… he hears this guy trying toloosen him up a little bit, he says “I know where this is going”. So what does this mean this where something is going?

So basically what direction a conversation or a topic or a situation is taking.

Okay, so he’s saying “I know why you’re telling me these things”.

Right.

I know your motive.

Or I know what’s happening, I know what you’re going to say.

Okay, so he’s essentially saying “I know you’re going to try and sell me a computer”.

Right.

Alright.

So, uh, you can use it in other circum… circumstances, right? For example, a relationship.

I don’t know where this is going.

Right, what… what is going?

Classic break up line.

Hehe.

I just don’t think I know where this is going anymore.

Hehe. So in reference to the relationship, right?

Yeah, so…

We don’t know what’s happening. Are we serious? Are we maybe gonna get married? I don’t know anymore.

I can’t tell where this movie is going, it’s so like… ooh, let here and there and boring and…

Yeah, you don’t know the plot.

Yeah.

Hehe. Alright. So it’s a very common phrase and it sounds very natural when you say it, right?

It does. That's why in fluency builder it really helps you sound like a more native English speaker…

Uhu.

When you use this kind of phrases.

And the next one is also very, very good when he describes the… the condition of the computer, he says it’s top of the line.

Top of the line. Now, what line we’re talking about I do not know, but this is…

Like above average line.

Right, so this is the best of the best. This is the top model or the top computer and, uh…

Uhu.

You can definitely imagine a car salesman using this.

Yeah.

Yes, this BMW is top of the line.

Hehe.

The best money can buy.

Yeah, that’s another good one. So, basically, top of the line is the best of the best, the… above average, right?

More than above average. It’s really… it’s the best you can do and so…

The best you can buy.

The guy is saying: “Listen, this is our best computer, really, you should buy it”. And obviously…

Usually…

Top of the line. Usually it costs a lot of money.

Yeah. It’s usually for… for something that costs money, right? For things. You wouldn’t really use it for a person, right? He is top of the line.

No, no, no, no, no.

Hehe.

Uh, top of the line, I think generally refers to electronics and cars.

Yeah.

Or like motorcycles and so, you often hear top of the line stereo, top of the line TV.

Uhu.

Um, top of the line car.

Uhu.

But you wouldn’t say this about food or…

Yeah.

People or art. Hehe.

Yeah, you wouldn’t say this… this painting is top of the line.

No, no.

Hehe.

Not about like very unique things.

Right.

You’d say this about kind of manufactured things.

Uhu.

Uhu.

Very good, so we’ve taken a look at a lot of great phrases. Why don’t we listen to our dialogue for the last time and then we’ll come back.

Alright, we are back, so, uh, computers. Catherine, I know you recently got a nice Macintosh.

Yeah, yeah, I did.

It’s one of those big screen ones, right?

Yeah, it is. It’s a desktop, right…

Uhu.

So it’s not a laptop and, uh, it’s got a very fast processor, because Macs started using Intel processors…

Uhu.

Couple of years ago and that made them much faster.

Wow, and it has… this processor actually has two cores, right?

Uhu.

So basically it can has two different brains almost within one processor.

Which gives it really bad headaches.

Hehe.

She complains to me often.

Are you a big, uh, Mac fan or PC fan?

I’m a Mac fan.

Really?

I’ve been converted. My roommate in college my sophomore year had a Mac and ever since then I’ve really gotten into them, so…

Really?

Yeah, I went Mac and didn’t turn back.

I’ve… I still honestly cannot really use a Mac. I get confused, I’m looking for the s… for the start button and I’m looking for where my documents are.

It’s really hard to change over, right?

Yeah.

But once you do is… you don’t wanna change back, because everything is so much easier on a Mac.

Really?

But if you’re really into PC gaming, uh, then you should probablystick with it… stick with the PCs, because the games just don’t really compare on Macs.

But I’ve heard that also Macs don’t really suffer from viruses, right?

No, they don’t, which is great, cause I always used to get these viruses that would slow down my computer…

Hehe.

Cause, you know, you open some e-mail and all of a sudden…

Yeah.

There’s nastiness on your desktop.

Hehe.

Well, now I don’t really have that problem and, um, and also there’s really wonderful photo editing software and video editing software.

Right.

So everything is just really easy to find and easy to use.

Mm, what about you listeners? Do you prefer the Mac? Do you prefer the PC? Or maybe some of our listeners don’t really even like computers.

Well, let us know either way. We are very curious to hear, you have to say. And, or course, writing on our comments section is great practice for your English.

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

Bye everyone!

Bye! ***