00:08Conversations in English between the world
00:10Today's video is a 100% English conversation between two women.
00:16Chelsea and Zalinda, as they meet up to record an episode of a podcast.
00:23Can you understand them?
00:25We will listen once with the title in French on the screen and then a second time with the text
00:33in English on screen.
00:36After the second time, I will talk about some of the vocabulary used in the dialogue.
00:42So here we go! Let's go and listen to Chelsea and Zalinda.
00:55Hello listeners and welcome back to another edition of Chelsea's Chats.
01:00Today's chat is with the amazing and beautiful Zalinda Johnson, singer, songwriter and now author.
01:07Welcome to the show Zalinda.
01:09Thanks so much for having me.
01:12So, as I said in the intro, you are a singer and accomplished songwriter, but now you are also an
01:18author.
01:19After launching a children's book recently, My Mom Has a Tale.
01:23Yes, it's been a big change for me, but I'm loving it.
01:28I launched the book at my old community center in South Chicago two weeks ago,
01:33and I've gone from singing in front of people to reading my book in front of 50 children.
01:39Which is scarier?
01:41Definitely the children.
01:44I can imagine.
01:46Can you tell us a little bit about the book?
01:49Of course.
01:51Well, I became a mom three years ago and I love reading to my little daughter Aisha,
01:56but some of the books on the market are kinda old-fashioned.
02:00It's the classic princess is saved by the handsome prince type thing,
02:04and they're not the sort of books that I wanted to read to my little girl.
02:08It's true that there are quite a few books like that on the market,
02:12but I do know of a couple of good books.
02:15Absolutely, and I was particularly inspired by another Chicago local,
02:20Jodi Bernstein and her Bears in the Attic series, which is great.
02:24But in general I think that most of the books on the market are too old-fashioned and lacking diversity.
02:31The hero of my book is a little girl called Chanel and she is a person of color,
02:36with a circle of friends that represents modern America today.
02:40Yes, I even saw that her best friend is Korean and her favorite teacher is Native American.
02:47Yes, the school environment was perfect for showing some diversity and I fit in a lot of different nationalities,
02:54and even some ugly monsters into the teaching staff.
02:58My favorite is definitely the two-headed science teacher.
03:01He is absolutely horrible.
03:04Any inspiration drawn from teachers that you had as a child?
03:08Um, no comment.
03:21Hello listeners and welcome back to another edition of Chelsea's Chats.
03:26Today's chat is with the amazing and beautiful Zelinda Johnson, singer, songwriter, and now author.
03:33Welcome to the show Zelinda.
03:35Thanks so much for having me.
03:38So, as I said in the intro, you are a singer and accomplished songwriter,
03:43but now you are also an author.
03:45After launching a children's book recently, My Mom Has a Tale.
03:49Yes, it's been a big change for me, but I'm loving it.
03:54I launched the book at my old community center in South Chicago two weeks ago,
03:59and I've gone from singing in front of people,
04:02to read my book in front of 50 children.
04:04Which is scarier.
04:07Definitely the children.
04:10I can imagine.
04:12Can you tell us a little bit about the book?
04:15Of course.
04:17Well, I became a mom three years ago, and I love reading to my little daughter Aisha,
04:22but some of the books on the market are kinda old-fashioned.
04:26It's the classic princess is saved by the handsome prince type thing,
04:30and they're not the sort of books that I wanted to read to my little girl.
04:34It's true that there are quite a few books like that on the market,
04:38but I do know of a couple of good books.
04:41Absolutely, and I was particularly inspired by another Chicago local,
04:45Jodi Bernstein and her Bears in the Attic series, which is great.
04:50But in general I think that most of the books on the market are too old-fashioned and lacking diversity.
04:57The hero of my book is a little girl called Chanel and she is a person of color,
05:02with a circle of friends that represents modern America today.
05:06Yes, I even saw that her best friend is Korean and her favorite teacher is Native American.
05:13Yes, the school environment was perfect for showing some diversity
05:17and I fit in a lot of different nationalities,
05:20and even some ugly monsters into the teaching staff.
05:24My favorite is definitely the two-headed science teacher.
05:27He is absolutely horrible.
05:30Any inspiration drawn from teachers that you had as a child?
05:34Um, no comment.
05:47Okay, how did you go with Chelsea and Zalinda?
05:52Were they difficult to understand?
05:55Was one of them more difficult than the other?
05:59Now, I would like to talk about three things that I heard or saw in that particular video.
06:12Firstly, they were American.
06:16The two ladies were American.
06:20I could hear it with the accent.
06:24I could also see it with the dialogue when it was on the screen.
06:30We had this word.
06:34Favorite.
06:35It was spelled with the American spelling.
06:39No U.
06:41British English, of course.
06:43There is a U in that word.
06:45With a very similar pronunciation.
06:48Favorite.
06:48We also had the word.
06:54Mom.
06:55Mom.
06:56Mom in American English.
06:58In British English, we say.
07:01Mom.
07:02With a U.
07:05So they were the two words that I heard with American spelling from that short text.
07:14Another interesting word that I heard was a go.
07:20A go.
07:22Now, we use this one to talk about something that happened in the past.
07:31And we use it after the time period.
07:36In this case, it was two weeks ago.
07:40We had to do some men.
07:41But we could use it for a short time period.
07:47Five minutes ago.
07:49I ate my dinner five minutes ago.
07:53However, I can also use it for a very long period.
07:58Ten years ago, I came to France.
08:04A go.
08:06Now, it's important to note that a go is always used with the simple past, or preterite, you say, in
08:16French.
08:17That is the one with the ED for the regular verbs.
08:22Or, it's that first column for the irregular verbs.
08:26Things like, I ate, I ate my dinner five minutes ago.
08:33I came to France ten years ago.
08:38Or, a regular verb.
08:41I played football three years ago.
08:43It's important that it is the simple past, or preterite.
08:50We cannot use it with the present perfect.
08:54That is the past that uses have.
08:58I have eaten.
09:00I ate my dinner five minutes ago.
09:04No.
09:06When we're using a go, we have to use the simple past.
09:10I ate my dinner five minutes ago.
09:15And, finally, the third thing that I saw that was interesting in that particular podcast text was to fit in.
09:28When Zalinda was writing her children's book, she was able to fit into many different nationalities.
09:39Because she wanted a book that talked about different diversities, different ethnic diversities in her book.
09:49To fit in.
09:51We could also use the verb integrate.
09:55But that is more formal.
09:57Because to fit in, it translates like this in French.
10:00And we could say integrate, but to fit in is much more common with native speakers, like myself, like Zalinda,
10:15etc.
10:16To fit in.
10:18Okay, were there any other parts of the text which you found interesting?
10:24Or maybe you have a question.
10:28Don't hesitate to tell me or ask me in the comments below, and I will respond and help you.
10:36Thanks for watching, everyone.
10:38And I'll see you next time.
10:39Bye-bye.
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