Practice English Speaking&Listening with: #096 Obsolete Communication Devices and Gadgets (ESL)

welcome to speak English now podcast

with your host Georgiana the podcast

that will help you to speak English

fluently with no grammar and no

textbooks hello everybody I'm Georgiana

your English teacher and founder of

speak English podcast.com my mission is

to help you to speak English fluently

speaking English is easier than it seems

you just have to use the right material

and techniques today we're gonna be a

little nostalgic and talk about some

communication devices and gadgets that

still exist nowadays but are obsolete ok

let's start how did we share documents

and letters before the email existed

although many people send a telegram or

a letter there was another device that

we used particularly in the professional

fields yes I'm talking about the fax

machine while some companies still use

fax machines no one has a fax machine at

home I guess we prefer to use the email

because it's faster takes up no space

and it's free nowadays you can still

send a fax without a fax machine you

only need to use your computer or a

smartphone because there are websites

that offer this service and by the way

you'll be surprised to know that people

still send telegrams no I'm not

referring to the telegram messenger app

you can send a telegram the

old-fashioned way or even online

how about landline phones do you still

have one of those at home I can remember

when was the last time I had one of

those it was definitely a long time ago

the landlines had no definition color

display no camera and no internet

connection they had a long cord so

people could move it or

the house but that was inconvenient I

remember my landline phone was wireless

and with a small black and white screen

I was happy to move around the house

without a cord but it was a bulky phone

and the battery didn't last long I just

know I'm grateful to have a smartphone

now and have you ever used a phonebook I

remember using one a few decades ago

people used the white pages to find

personal phone numbers and the yellow

pages were phone numbers for businesses

and services before the internet if you

wanted to call someone on their landline

you could look for their phone number in

a phone book but thanks to the internet

printed phone books are no longer useful

now some of you might be surprised to

know that the internet wasn't always

fast and easy to access it turns out

that some decades ago if you wanted to

connect to the Internet

you were required a phone line you had

to plug that phone into your computer

then your computer would attempt to call

the Internet and guess what you couldn't

make a phone call while you are using

the Internet the landline phone and the

Internet we're connected to the point

that when someone picked up the phone

the internet connection will get

interrupted how annoying is that many

young people today have never ever heard

of the dial-up connection however not

all areas have high-speed Internet

access and in some locations people

still use a dial-up connection and have

you ever used a pager or beeper I've

always preferred to use a cell phone but

sometimes I wish I could use a pager

instead why well

it's smaller than a cell phone so I

could fit it in a pocket I would only

have to charge the pager every week or

two and let's face

our smartphones consume more battery

than a pager but how does it work a

beeper is actually a small personal

radio receiver that you can carry around

each beeper comes with a personal ko

number or a phone number when someone

sends a message

our pager beeps and displays the message

with the date and time did you know that

about eighty-five percent of hospitals

in the states still rely on pagers for

communication

the first pagers were introduced to

physicians in New York City in 1950

apparently doctors were among the first

users of paging technology and they will

probably be the last to abandon it great

now you can practice with a mini-story

you'll be able to go over the vocabulary

we saw in the first section a mini story

is very simple I give you information

using phrases and then I ask you

questions sometimes I call it a

conversation simulator because you can

practice your English like in a real

conversation I recommend that you listen

several times until it's easy to answer

let's start in 2018 ein a museum guard

will witness a fax machine printing a

word will a coast guard witness

something

No a Coast Guard won't witness anything

a museum guard will witness a fax

machine when will a museum guard witness

a fax machine in 2019

no no a museum guard won't witness a fax

machine in 2019 kill witnesses in 20 89

what will a museum guard witness a word

or sentence

not a sentence a museum guard will

witness a word he'll soon notice another

word coming from an old telegram machine

when will he notice something

soon he'll soon notice something

what will he notice a mouse

no no he won't notice a mouse he'll

notice a word where will the word come

from from a telegram

you

yes the word will come from a telegram

later that night he'll listen to another

word coming from a landline phone when

will he listen to something in the

morning

no no he'll listen to something later

that night

will he listen to a song

you

no he won't listen to a song he'll

listen to a word will the word come from

a phone

yes the word will come from a landline

phone the situation won't make any sense

and he'll become more and more afraid

what won't make any sense

the situation the situation won't make

any sense will he become braver

now no he won't become braver he'll

become more afraid who will become more

afraid

the museum guard he'll become more

afraid one hour later the guard will

observe a new word coming from a pager

will the guard observe anything

yes he'll observe something he'll

observe a new word where will the new

word come from from a cellphone

no no the word won't come from a

cellphone it will come from a pager

when will the guard observe a new word

two hours later

no the guard won't observe a new word

two hours later he'll observe a new word

one hour later finally he'll read a

complete sentence written in an old

phone book saying relax it's just a joke

will he listen to a whole sentence

now he won't listen to a complete

sentence he'll read a whole sentence

where will he read an entire sentence on

a tablet

no no he won't read a whole sentence on

a tablet he reads a sentence on an old

phone book will the sentence say run for

your life

no the sentence won't say that it will

say relax it's just a joke

poor guard he was so worried but it

turns out it was just a joke his

co-workers made I guess he thought they

were ghosts in the museum it must be

challenging to work in a museum at night

perfect it's the end of this mini story

today we traveled in time and use the

future tense and as you can see through

questions and answers you can practice

and improve your speech just like in a

real conversation if you want to get

hours of audio with many stories and

point-of-view lessons I'd like to

recommend to you my fluency course you

can get it at fluency dot speak English

podcast.com well that's it for today

please help me spread the word about the

podcast tell your friends about the show

and leave a comment on iTunes when you

have a minute

that would make me very happy I will be

back next week take care bye bye did you

enjoy today's episode get the transcript

now at speak English podcast.com speak

English podcast calm

you