First of all, watch the conversation through to get the gist, the main idea, of what they are saying.
Now watch the video more carefully paying attention to the following features of spoken English:
- Conversation fillers to gain thinking time: Well, you know;
- Ambiguous language: all sorts of things; food stuff; something like this;
a social, cultural thing - Using pretty to emphasize the adjective
- Use of so as a linking word
- Showing agreement: Well said; Yeah, I think it’s an excellent point; that’s a good point
- Expressing personal opinions: personally; to be honest; I think
- Use of I mean to paraphrase what you have just said and make yourself clear.
- Use of certainly to emphasize your ideas
- Use of just to emphasize the verb
- Use of actually to introduce a piece of surprising information
- Reacting to information we've just heard: that’s great, that’s good
Well, you know, I, personally alcohol is a big problem, particularly in England, you know, people binge drinking, you know, leads to violence and all sorts of things, you know, any British, any town in England on a Friday, Saturday night you’ll find loads of people, you know, getting into fights and…
It’s a problem.
… throwing up on the floor it’s pretty bad, and I think…
So the advertising causes that?
Well, you know, the more advertising there is the more people are gonna drink. Smoking advertising went so why shouldn't alcohol, and alcohol causes, you know, a lot of diseases and probably puts a big burden on, you know, the social security system, national health service…
So does ice cream, doughnuts you gotta do away with those advertisements…
Fast food.
All the fast food stuff.
Well said. But to be honest I can't ever support banning something like this. I mean, to me that just reeks of censorship and I think that, that's where society begins to crumble. People need to be respected for their ability to choose, and I certainly wouldn't blame any kind of binge drinking on advertising. I think the problem’s a lot more deep.
I think with something like alcohol or tobacco it’s different because they’re drugs, aren’t they, well, certainly tobacco was, and alcohol is addictive, you know, if you become an alcoholic you can’t control it, your drinking, so I think anything that reduces that or leads to less drinking is good, and I think, you know, if advertising it is almost like saying it’s a good thing.
Yes. I think the way that alcohol is advertised is a problem because it’s glamourised and it’s aimed towards young people a lot of time, which is what becomes the problem and I guess the wrong, it hits the wrong audience, which becomes a problem.
Yeah, I think it’s an excellent point.
Part of the problem in England is people just don’t know how to drink, I don’t know what it is like in Scotland, but…
I think it’s a social, cultural thing and I’m not sure advertising is going to change that.
Maybe they…
However, Alice’s point about the way it’s targeted and how it’s glamorized , that’s a good point, and I think that maybe could be regulated.
They have to have more of a responsibility, I think.
And simply the fine print at the end, please drink responsibly isn’t going to raise the image in your mind you have of those… the man and the woman meeting miraculously over a nice drink of cognac.
Yeah. The gorgeous people, and the glamorous setting and… Yeah.
I heard that some companies are actually, drinks companies, are actually producing adverts that encourage responsible drinking. There’s one in England about showing a girl and she had, from her point of view, she had a great evening, but then you saw it from other people’s point of view…
Oh, that’s great, that’s good.
… she was like a real mess…
I’ve seen that.
… making a fool of herself.
