A: I can’t believe that Anthony is finally getting married! B: Yeah well it’s about time! He’s been living with his parents for 40 years! A: Don’t be mean. Look here come the bridesmaids! Their dresses look beautiful! B: Who are those kids walking down the aisle? A: That’s the flower girl and the ring bearer. I’m pretty sure they’re the groom’s niece and nephew. Oh, they look so cute! B: I just hope the priest makes it quick. I’m starving. I hope the food’s good at the reception. A: That’s all you ever think about, food! Oh, I think the bride’s coming now! She looks gorgeous. Wait, what’s she doing? Where’s she going? B: Oh great! Does this mean that the reception is canceled?
M: Hello English learners! And welcome back to another episode of EnglishPod! My name is Marco. E: And I’m Erica. M: And today with Erica we are getting married. E: Well, we’re not getting married. M: Hehe. We’re not, but our actors in the podcast are. E: That’s right, so, we’ve got a lesson today about weddings. And you know what, a lot of the language in this lesson is about weddings and marriages and maybe you don’t need to use this language everyday, but… M: Learning this vocabulary will definitely help you understand or learn a lot more about Anglo culture. E: Okay, great point, Marco, I think now we can look at our “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview. E: So, two simple words in this vocabulary preview; the first one is groom. M: Groom. E: Groom. M: Groom. E: So, who is the groom? M: He’s the man, the man that’s getting married. E: Okay, and our second word is… M: Bride. E: Bride. M: Bride. E: And obviously the bride is… M: The woman getting married. E: Perfect. M: Hehe. E: Now we have our bride and our groom, so, it’s time to listen to our dialogue the first time. DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME E: Oh, Marco, that sounds sad. M: Yeah, I know the reception is cancelled now. E: Marco! M: Well… E: They’re not getting married! M: Uh, well, I mean… the best part is when you go and eat and drink at a reception. E: Okay. Well, there’s some great language in this dialogue and now let’s look at our “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway. M: Great, our first word on the language takeaway today is it’s about time. E: It’s about time. M: It’s about time. E: It’s about time. M: So, now we are going to listen to some examples on how we use this great phrase. Voice: Example one. A: Dinner's ready. B: It’s about time! I’m starving! Voice: Example two. C: Guess what? I finally got a job. D: It’s about time! You’ve been unemployed for two years! Voice: Example three. E: We’re almost there. Just a couple more minutes. F: It’s about time. We’ve been driving for twelve hours. E: So, this phrase means ‘finally’. M: Finally! At last. E: We’ve been waiting a long time for this. M: Exactly. E: Okay, so, it’s about time. M: Great, let’s take a look at our second word now – aisle. E: Aisle. M: A-I-S-L-E. E: Aisle. M: Aisle. It’s a tricky word, it sounds like the contraction of ‘I will’. E: Yeah, but it’s spelled so strangely. M: Right, we don’t pronounce the S, the S is silent, it’s… E: That’s true. M: Ai-le. E: So, what is an aisle? M: In a big room where you have a lot chairs that space in the middle that allows people to walk through, that’s the aisle. E: So, the aisle is the part where you walk. M: Yes. E: In a big room. M: In a big room, wh… E: With many chairs. M: With many chairs. Hehe. E: Okay. M: So, in the church… E: The bride and groom… M: Walk down the aisle. E: Exactly. M: Great. E: Let’s move to our third word… M: Bridesmaid. E: Bridesmaid. M: Bridesmaid. E: So, who are the bridesmaids? Or wait, maybe you ask me that. M: Yeah, cause I… I… we don’t get bridesmaids. E: Okay, so, the bridesmaids are the women who are friends of the bride who stand next to her when she’s getting married. Usually, they’re her best friends. M: Right, okay. Okay, so, we have our bridesmaids, now we have our flower girl. E: Flower girl. M: Flower girl. E: Again, I’ll explain this one. M: Please, please. E: The flower girl is the cute little girl who walks down the aisle and who throws flowers. M: That’s the flower girl. And with the flower girl we have our ring bearer. E: Ring bearer. M: Ring bearer. E: So, the ring bearer is the cute little boy who walks down the aisle carrying the… M: Rings. E: Yep. M: Okay, so, a lot of useful vocabulary for a wedding ceremony. E: That’s true. M: Now, let’s look at our last word – gorgeous. E: Gorgeous. M: Gorgeous. E: Gorgeous means beautiful. M: Very beautiful. E: Yeah, i… you know, beautiful you can only use with a woman. M: Uhu. E: Can you use gorgeous with a woman or with a man? M: Yes, gorgeous is unisex. E: So, both men and women are gorgeous. M: Right, you can say “Oh, that girl is gorgeous”. E: That guy is gorgeous. M: Right, or you can say even “This house is gorgeous”. E: Okay, so, men, women, objects. M: Yes, yes. E: Alright, well, we’ve learned some really interesting vocabulary that will help us to understand an Anglo wedding, so, why don’t we listen to the dialogue slow down? DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow) M: Now, in this dialogue we have a word that many students often make mistakes on. E: So, this is a word that causes a lot of problems. M: Yes, the word marry. E: Marry. M: Marry, right? So, we are going to listen now to some common mistakes on how English learners use this word. E: Right, so, these are wrong examples. Voice: Example one. A: Honey, let’s marry. Voice: Example two. B: We married four years ago. Voice: Example three. C: When I marry I wanna huge wedding. E: These are great examples of mistakes students make with the word marry. They’re missing a word. Let’s listen to these right examples to see what word is missing. Voice: Example one. A: Honey, let’s get married. Voice: Example two. B: We got married four years ago. Voice: Example three. C: When I get married I wanna huge wedding. M: Great, so, we can see that when we use the word marry, we say to get married. E: Exactly right! Get married. M: To get married, right? E: Okay, don’t forget that. M: Yes, get married. I will get married. E: We got married. M: Right, so, now you know exactly how to use this word, we are ready to listen to our dialogue again for a third time and this time it’s gonna be at a normal speed. DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME M: Okay, well, I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t know too much about marriages, because, first of all, I’m not married and I’ve never really been too many marriages, so, Erica, some questions for you. E: Okay. M: What are these bridesmaids do… I mean… What are they… what are they about? E: What do the bridesmaids do? M: Yeah, what are they… what are they doing there? E: Well, like I said earlier, the bridesmaids are the friends of the bride, but the most important people besides the bride and groom are the best man and the maid of honor. M: Okay, and what do they do there, in the ceremony? E: Well, what they do is they sign the marriage license. M: Okay, so, they’re like witnesses. E: Exactly. M: Okay, so, but wait a minute, they sign the marriage license there in the church? E: Yeah, of course, right inside the church you sign the marriage license. M: Wow, that’s strange, because from what I know, in other countries usually you will sign the marriage license before the ceremony. E: So, you get married twice. M: Yeah, you have like the civil marriage and then you have like the church wedding or whatever. E: That’s so complicated. M: Hehe. Well, yeah, I mean the church wedding is just a ceremony; it’s not really anything official. E: Oh, in Canada it’s the official part as well. M: I guess maybe it’s just more efficient. E: Maybe. M: Hehe. E: Well, this is a really fascinating, a really interesting subject, isn’t it? M: Yeah, because there’re so many countries that have different marriage ceremonies. I know that marriages in India last around seven days. E: Yeah, yeah. I wanna know more about how our users get married in their country[s]. M: Yeah, so, please go to our website at englishpod.com and tell us how you get married in your countries. E: Yeah, I can’t wait to hear your stories. M: Yeah, it should be interesting, right? E: Okay, well, everyone thanks for listening and until next time… Good bye! M: Bye!