GUILTY PLEASURES Listening Exercise

Are you ready for a challenge?  Meet Dana, Giyen, and Mindy -- three very guilty ladies.

This is a very difficult listening exercise.  But don't be afraid.  I would like to help you try to understand why it is important not only to understand WORDS but also CULTURAL CONTEXT.

CULTURAL CONTEXT is important for comprehension. 

The cultural context is the knowledge shared by a group of people.  If you can develop an understanding of culture and context, it will help you improve your listening (and reading) comprehension in everyday, informal situations.

Improve your listening and begin your cultural context training with the following steps.

1. Try to listen to this video once without reading the text (transcript). Listen for the following words which will help you understand that Dana, Giyen, and Mindy are talking about things that they like:

a. love

b. my favorite thing

c. awesome

d. I like

e. I enjoy

2. Another reason that it is often difficult to understand spoken English is because you hear words that are not used the way you learned them in the text books. For example, these words are generously used by native speakers in everyday speech.  You can often hear these words spoken in movies and television.  Do you understand these words in the following sentences?

a. You know:

"And, you know, I don’t really care. You know, you only live once."

"Your COPS is, you know, my Laguna Beach."

b. like:

"I think, in this whole culture of celebrity, and like, I’m shocked that they go to Target like we do."

"I don’t have to worry about like AIG or anything else."

c. totally

"It would totally be Jay-Z or Eminem."

Listen and read the text.

3. Finally, listen again.  Do not read the text.  Answer these questions about the CULTURAL CONTEXT of this listening exercise.  Write your answers below in the "Post a Comment" section below.

a. What is Laguna Beach?

b. What is COPS?

c. What is Chardonnay?

d. What is Brie?

e. What is Target?

f. What are fritos?

g. What is a gossip site?

h. Who is Misha Barton?

i.  What is AIG? 

j. Who is Eminem?

k. Who is Jay-Z?