S05 - 8 Internet

Native English speakers answer questions about the internet from previous B2, C1, C2 and IELTS exam papers.

We will take a look at some common errors that people make when speaking about technology, particularly with pronunciation. On top of that, we have some lovely phrasal verbs, some ways to add emphasis and we have a quiz about binomial pairs. 

For classes or transcripts go to https://realexamenglish.com/podcast/

Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link for Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/

Thanks to all of the contributors, including Emma, Mike, Noel, Konner, Jen, Dan from the Roar and Score Trivia Podcast and the girls from the Butt Stuff Podcast

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast, this episode is about the internet. Make a note guys, the internet, not just internet. I know in quite a few languages you don’t need an article before internet but in English you do, so this episode is about the Internet. We will take a look at some other common errors that people make when speaking about technology too, particularly with pronunciation. On top of that, we have some lovely phrasal verbs, some ways to add emphasis and we have a quiz about binomial pairs. 

As usual, you can get the transcript for this podcast on the real exam English website, realexamenglish.com

Ok, let’s kick off with a speaker from Ireland.  

What negative effects has the Internet had on our social lives?

There are many negative effects from the Internet. People spend a lot of time watching maybe Netflix, HBO, Disney, all this entertainment, maybe on their mobile phones, sometimes on their computer. People also spend a lot of time browsing the Internet, surfing the Internet, which takes up a lot of time and maybe they don't socialize. They don't go to the bar, they don't meet their friends, they don't do sports. So yes, the Internet, I think has very many negative impacts on our free time.

Alright, a super clear answer there to start off, a classic sandwich answer, he states his opinion - that there are many negative effects, he lists the effects and then restates there are many negative effects. In terms of vocabulary, he has browsing the internet and surfing the internet. You don’t hear surfing the internet so much anymore but browsing the internet or browsing the web is still quite common, or you could say I was browsing Pinterest or whatever. We had this phrasal verb to take up a lot of time, meaning it uses or occupies a lot of time. And I had to laugh when I heard him say one of the negative symptoms of using the internet is that people stop going to the bar. For a lot of people not going to the bar would be a good thing but for an Irishman, as this guy is, the bar is often a key part of the community and is central to keeping in touch with your friends and neighbours. Having said that, this is changing a little bit in Ireland and many of the younger generations prefer to meet up in coffee shops rather than the pub, times, they are a-changing. 

Do you ever buy things online? 

I do. I've just gotten into disc golf and I've been buying about 4000 discs online, spending a silly amount of money on things that I think is going to improve my game, but just don't. It's actually my fault, not the discs. Yeah, I'm not a massive massive online shopper, but if I'm going to make a big purchase, I'll usually get it online cause it’s cheaper and I don't want to go talk to people at the mall. 

What negative effects has the Internet had on our social lives? 

I guess we are…we're we're now happier without socialising for a full day or longer because we, you know, we can scroll on our phone, which kind of gives us the illusion of of of socializing and….where am I going with this? So yeah, kind of gives us the illusion of socializing. And that means that you know you do see your people, your friends less and talk to them a bit less, I guess back in the 80s, it would have been, oh, I'm bored, I'm gonna call my friend and talk to them on the phone but now it's not really that. It's like, ohh, I saw this funny meme, I might press to share with my friend, and that's going to be our interaction for the day, which is a little bit sad.

But I also think it's positively affected our social lives cause it's so much easier to organise like events and things like that. You know, the advertising does itself. If it's an event that people want to go to, you could talk to….you know, you can video chat with a million people at the same time. You can do group chats and things like that. So I think that's a positive effect as well. 

Nice answer that, very balanced, he gives some of the negative effects but also gives the positive side. Whereas the previous speaker mentioned surfing the internet, this one mentioned scrolling on the phone, which is really what most of us do these days, unfortunately. He kind of lost his way at the beginning of this second answer and then said “where am I going with this?”, that’s a handy expression, particularly for anyone who has to give a monologue of some sort or who often finds themselves in this situation, forgetting what they were going to say. It often happens in exams when people are nervous, so if that is the case take a breath, say “where am I going with this?” and start again. And it will sound very natural and perhaps will even impress the examiner. 

Other internet vocabulary was video chat, group chats and memes, remember that pronunciation guys, memes, not me-mes. 

What do you spend most of your time online doing?

I have to say that I use the Internet a lot for scrolling through my Instagram. And watching TV, I don't own a physical television anymore. I use… I exclusively stream everything. So that's what, that's what I use it for, and work.

Some people say that you shouldn't trust what you read on the Internet, do you agree?

I do agree. I agree that you should have some critical thought when you read things, but not just on the Internet, everywhere. I think you should be able to distinguish between blatant lies and the truth, and I think on the internet it's very easy nowadays to just say whatever and people just latch on to that and I….and that is the Internet, isn't it? We can all say whatever we want whenever we want, and someone, somewhere will….will agree with us for whatever reason. And I think you need to be very careful with that. I think you need to think about what you read and read different different opinions to be able to compare and contrast and make up your own mind and not believe everything that's in writing. Don't take everything at face value, basically.

Don’t take everything at face value, great idiom. This means not to accept everything as it appears to be initially but to question it a bit, use some critical thinking, as she also mentioned. She had some more super vocabulary on this topic, we should be able to distinguish between blatant lies and the truth. Blatant lies are very clear and intentional lies. Like a politician saying he never did something, when there is evidence of him doing it, that is a blatant lie. Also, she said people say whatever and others latch on to it. Ok to latch on to means to grab and hold something, like my friend latched on to my arm during the horror movie, but in this case, it’s used figuratively, like people grab hold of what is said and identify with it or start using it. Another example would be I really latched on to what my CEO said about trying to be authentic or the news channel really latched on to the idea of using tiktok to spread the news. But as this speaker said you should compare and contrast different news sources, nice, and make up your own mind about issues, ok to make up your own mind meaning to decide for yourself. 

Alright, really good vocabulary and ideas there to talk about that question, which is quite a common one in English exams, and around the table in real life too. 

Ok time for a language break. This time we are gonna look at binomial pairs. These are pairs of words that go together and are usually connected with the conjunction and. For instance, black and white. Make a note that they only sound good one way, like if you say white and black instead of black and white it sounds a bit weird. Ok so I’ll give you the first word of the pair and you gotta say the second word. I’ll then give a short sentence as an example. Ok here goes:

Life and – death. It was a matter of life and death.

Pros and – cons. There are pros and cons to marriage.

Short and – sweet. Keep your meeting short and sweet.

Peace and – quiet. After work I need some peace and quiet.

Law and – order. The mayor promised to restore law and order.

Neat and – tidy. She keeps her desk neat and tidy.

Hustle and – bustle. She enjoys the hustle and bustle of big cities

Wear and – tear. The car showed signs of wear and tear.

Part and – parcel. Stress is part and parcel of modern life.

Hit and – miss. The restaurant’s food can be hit and miss.

Alright, that’s all 10. How did you do? You can add a comment on Spotify or whatever podcast app you use. Alright, back to the internet!

Do you think it's a good idea to get your news through social media?

Ohh, I think if you like to be entertained and you have no interest whatsoever in the truth, I think the social media is good place to go to. But jokes aside, no. Social media is always going to come from someone who has a hidden agenda. And it's going to be their side of the story they want to tell. They're going to be biassed, it's…it's not going to be the truth. Definitely not the whole truth. So social media I think is the last place you should be looking, unless you want it for purely entertainment purposes.

So true, as he said unless you have no interest whatsoever in the truth, using whatsoever here to add emphasis. Remember we only use whatsoever with negative statements, as in I have no idea whatsoever. Then he said “no, jokes aside”, as he was transitioning from something funny to something more serious. You can also use “joking aside” or “joking apart” in the same way, to change the tone to a more serious one. He said that news on social media is biased, meaning it favours one side over another, and that it often comes from someone with a hidden agenda. If they have a hidden agenda then it is not obvious why they are telling you that news story. Like if a news channel receives donations from an oil company and then spreads news about climate change not being so bad, there is a hidden agenda. 

Tell us about a website you like to visit.

What do I visit the most. I don't really use social media. What do I visit the most? That's not work. Let me….give me a second. I use the the….what is it called? Can’t even remember the name of it. There's one website I use that has like a big directory of old copyright free books and novels. And I use them a lot for…Project Gutenberg. That's what it is. I use them for studying materials, making courses. I use them even to read myself. Like, I read….I read Dubliners for the first time a little while ago, and I just read that for free. From there you can download the PDF or the epub or whatever and put it on your Kindle. I use that quite a bit. I use apps I would say more than actual websites. Most of the stuff I do actually on my laptop, maybe it's not a good thing, is work based, so there's nothing really I use that often other than something like that I would say.

Alright, cool. James Joyce's tricky enough although Dubliners isn't too bad, right? It's quite it's more accessible ones. Yeah, yeah.

No it was fine. It really enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah. Some of the some of the short stories were, you know, a bit boring to be honest, but some of them were stunning. I would say there's. There was one. I can't remember the name of it, but it's just about this, this guy who, yeah, you know, he he's talking about his boring life, and his friend comes who has this amazing life in London. And he thinks that he should be better and he should be a poet and this type of thing. And I think it…even though it's quite an old book, it still resonates with feelings we have today, but certainly I'm not going to go ahead and read Ulysses or something like that. And no, no, no 

You're not gonna go for. I'm not gonna go for it either.

Terrified.

 Yes. Yeah…and huge. 

It's got that whole pretentious element to it as well. I think, you know, people….anyone who's read it, like, let's you know about.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's the joke, isn't it? Like, that's the only good thing about reading Ulysses is the fact that you can tell other people that you’ve read Ulysses.

Totally.

Alright. Do you think it's a good idea to get your news through social media?

No, I don't. Not at all. I think it's a terrible idea. I think. I mean, I think it's good in some part that it's…it…you could probably digest it much easier than than other places, but no, I think social media is responsible for this wave of, like lack of science and lack of scientific literacy and lack of skepticism. I think social media is almost single handedly responsible for it and I think it's absolutely terrible when people get their news from social media, yea.

Not a fan of social media there. Like the previous speaker he adds some emphasis to his negative statement, he said No, I don’t, not at all, using not at all in a similar way to not whatsoever. I like the way he described getting news on social media, he said it’s probably easier to digest it there, meaning it’s more accessible and you probably get the news broken up into smaller bits, therefore easier to digest. But as he said this leads to a lack of scientific literacy and lack of skepticism, lovely vocabulary. And that social media is almost single handedly responsible for it, meaning it is almost the only thing responsible for it, I like that a lot, single handedly. Other examples would be she single-handedly brought the company from zero up to a multi-million dollar empire, or we worked together on the project but I did all the artwork single-handedly. 

In the first answer he mentioned this website that he uses to get free books from, project Gutenberg. This is a fantastic resource if you would like to get your hands on some classic books to practice your English, I’ll add the link to the webpage in the shownotes. We then go into this nerdy chat about James Joyce, who is an Irish writer. I said James Joyce can be tricky, meaning his books can be challenging to read, but that his book Dubliners is more accessible, meaning it’s easier to read than the others or more understandable. He said one story was stunning and despite being old, it really resonated with feelings we have today, which means it still feels true or relevant today. This verb to resonate with is really versatile, particularly to show you have a personal connection to something or you can relate to it. I had one C2 student that used to add in to so many of her exam answers, especially monologues. 

For example, the topic of immigration really resonates with me as I, myself, am an immigrant. Or when the singer sang about the challenges of growing up in the 21st century it definitely resonated with her listeners. 

One other aspect of this first answer I’d like to pick up on is the intonation. So he said Most of the stuff I do actually on my laptop, maybe it's not a good thing, is work based. So when he says maybe it’s not a good thing he lowers the tone and he says this as a separate chunk on its own. This is called an aside, and is often used to give a remark or a comment or maybe even something secretive. Other examples would be, I’ve been working non-stop for the last two days, well I took an hour or two off to go for a run, but I’ve got loads of work done. Or my cousin Emma, surprisingly for her, managed to stay awake till midnight. Ok, this is really high level intonation that would only come into marking if you are looking for a top C2 level mark but it’s good to be aware of it. 

One last thing, is the correct way to say website and apps. I hear a lot of people saying my favourite web is whatever, or I got this new APP. Alright, neither of those are correct. You can say website, or webpage, but not just web on its own. And you can say app or application but not APP. Just like with meme earlier it seems a lot of these technological words get messed up in other languages. Other ones that come to mind are wi-fi, not weefee, blog, not blog and tech, not tech. 

Alright, that’s all the tech tips for today guys. Remember if you would like to work on your pronunciation or improve your fluency then why not get in touch about classes. You can take individual classes or there are usually new groups for B2, C1 and C2 levels starting each September or October, or you can join any time throughout the year if you like. It’ll help to keep you out of the bar!

Ok folks, thanks very much for listening, see you next time!

Trevor