Hoje eu continuo falando sobre o HEAR (eu já comecei a falar dele nesse podcast).
Transcrição
Hey, you guys! What’s up? So here’s another episode of Inglesonline Podcast, and… remember when I talked about the word “hear”, a couple of weeks ago? I said that there was probably going to be a second episode about that same word, so here it is. Remember, I’m talking about hear, h-e-a-r, not ‘here’ as in ‘where I am right now’. And just a reminder: to see the transcript and every episode of this podcast, go to inglesonline.com.br and click ‘Podcast Inglesonline’.
So let’s start with something really simple, you know, ’cause… sometimes we think we know stuff, and… if we read certain things, we understand them, because they’re simple. And if other people say those things, we get what they’re saying, but… Sometimes we haven’t heard or read those things enough and so we can’t say them… when we think we should say them. So, the first expression, so to speak, that I wanna talk about is ‘Can you hear me?’ And also ‘I can’t hear you’.
When would you say that? When you’re talking to someone on the phone, or on Skype, or on a video conference and you’re not sure that your voice is coming through clearly. In other words, you’re not sure that that person on the other side of the line can hear you clearly. So you can simply ask ‘Can you hear me?’ Well, if the other person can’t hear you, he or she won’t hear your question, so they’ll probably just say “I can’t hear you!”
Here’s a true story. I said before that Steve Ford and I are going to record a podcast together, and so two days ago we got together on Skype to test the recording capabilities of my equipment. Well, it turns out that it wasn’t working. I didn’t realize that Steve couldn’t hear me, so I started talking to him. After a while he said something like “Ana, I can’t hear you”.
Another true story. I used to have a cell phone I bought, like, in 2003 or 2004, I think. It was a very simple cell phone, it didn’t have a camera, it didn’t have anything, but it worked just fine. And because it had always worked well, I became a fan of that brand. So a few months ago I decided to buy a new model, ’cause I wanted a cell phone with an integrated camera… so I ended up finding a really nice phone by that same brand on Americanas.com.
I bought it, and quickly realized that the quality of the calls was much inferior than the calls made with my previous phone. So what’s happening now is that very often, when I’m talking to someone, I’ll say ‘Excuse me, I can’t hear you very well’. I can’t hear you. Please, speak up! I can’t hear you.
And this is a great one for people who work in offices. How often do you place a call to someone, and that person is not available, so… you leave a message. Or, let’s say you’ve called someone to ask them a question, or to ask them to do something for you, and now you’re waiting for them to call you back with the answer. You are waiting to hear from them. You’re still waiting, you’re waiting to hear from them.
So let’s say your boss asked you to contact someone in another department and ask them to email you some data. You made the call this morning, the person wasn’t there, you left a message and you are still waiting to hear from them. So it’s 2 in the afternoon now, and your boss asks you “Have you talked to James?” And you say.. “Yeah, well, no. He wasn’t available, I left him a message and I haven’t heard back from him yet”. You are still waiting to hear from James. He hasn’t called you back yet. You haven’t heard back from him yet.
‘He hasn’t called me back yet’ is something that we also say in Portuguese, right? But that’s not the case with ‘I haven’t heard from him yet’. We don’t say the same thing literally in Portuguese, and it’s a very common thing to say in English. I’m still waiting to hear from him, I haven’t heard from him yet. And then tomorrow your boss will ask “So, have you heard from James yet?” and maybe you’ll say “No, still waiting to hear from James”.
And, one more before we wrap up: you know when one of your friends tells you about a relative, or about a new girlfriend or boyfriend, and they tell you everything about that person… usually good things. So when you first meet that person, it’s like you’ve heard so much about him or her already. So that’s exactly what you can say: I’ve heard so much about you. I’ve heard so much about you! Mary has told me everything about you, she thinks you’re great, I feel like I know you because I’ve heard so much about you.
Alright, that’s it for today. Who are you still waiting to hear from? Talk to you next time.
Key expressions
I can’t hear you
Can you hear me?
I’m still waiting to hear from him
I haven’t heard back from him yet
I’ve heard so much about you
Glossary
a reminder = um lembrete
we think we know stuff = a gente acha que sabe as coisas
we get what they’re saying = a gente entende o que estão dizendo
Ana criou um blog de dicas de inglês em 2006, e depois de muito pesquisar o que faz alguém ganhar fluência numa segunda língua, criou seu primeiro curso de inglês em 2009.
Well.. this week I’ve emailes lots of people for different purposes and I’m still waiting to hear from them.. I haven’t heard from any of them yet. That’s sad! LOL
Nossa Ana… seu site tem me ajudado muito…
principalmente a seção de podcast, são os melhores áudios que eu já achei na net. Não tenho um bom vocabulário, mas ouvindo você consigo visualizar perfeitamente a palavra pronunciada na minha mente. É como se eu estivesse escrevendo o que você fala.
Comecei a estudar inglês no Livemocha.com e depois busquei auxílio blogs. Com certeza, as leituras que tenho aqui e o “listening” com os podcast tem me ajudado muito!
Grateful for your attetion e care!
You helping me a lot, Ana!
Thanks!
