Although the video is a short one, we're going to use it as a springboard to revise some of the features of spoken English that they use.
First of all watch the video through to get acquainted with the teachers' conversation.
Now watch the video more carefully, paying attention to the following:
- Conversation fillers to gain thinking time: Well; er, you know; you see
- Showing that you understand: Oh right; Yeah
- Use of I mean to paraphrase what you have just said and make yourself clear
- Use of actually to introduce a bit of surprising information
- Use of just to give emphasis
- Use of so as a linking word
- Use of I’m pretty sure to soften your opinion (hedging) and not to sound categorical
- Use of really to emphasize the adjective
Ok, well, you have to do the touristy things, I mean and then, do some local stuff, but do the touristy thing that everyone does is go to Battery Park, er, you know it has a lot of history.
Which park?
Battery Park.
Oh right. I thought you were going to say Central Park.
No. Well, Central Park is that is also a very important park. It’s one of the oldest in New York. You know for a while it was a, that’s where junkies used to go. Did you know that?
No, I didn’t.
Yes, that’s where people went to smoke.
Well, actually, I’ve seen quite a few films, you see, scenes where they, bad things happen in the park.
Well, it was, until the project to restore Central Park came along in like the late 90’s, that place was just a dump.
Yeah.
A lot of junkies would go there and get high, and end of story, and then, you know, with the philanthropist trying to, it’s in the middle. It’s a beautiful park. It’s the lung of New York to begin with. So, everyone said it’s a crime, it’s a shame not to fix this park. And so, the project of restoration came about and it started booming and it brought a lot of tourists also, a lot. It brings, well, a lot of the magazine shoots are done there I’m pretty sure, Vogue, Marie Claire, etc, etc. but anyhow that’s Central Park. You have to go, Battery Park is really nice also. That’s more in the Lower East near the Iron Building.
