English, baby!

ANSWERING MACHINE

Date: Jan 15 2001

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

At our house, we have Britney Spear’s voice on our answering machine. We did it as a joke, and when our friends call, they always say something about it. I think they’re just jealous, but Zach doesn’t agree!

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Zach

John

Zach: I think we should talk about updating our answering machine message.

John: What do you mean? That’s the best!

Zach: Everyone that calls our house, every message is like, “Oh, my God. You guys aren’t serious!”

John: That’s the whole point!

Zach: Yeah ‘cause, like, everyone that calls our answering machine message is, like, totally laughing because there’s, like, a Britney Spears message on there.

John: Well, that the whole reason I did it, you know. I’m so tired of these message that are, like, “Leave your name after the beep,” you know. I mean, God. How many times do we have to listen to that?

Zach: So is that your voice on the recording?

John: No! That’s Britney!

Zach: Is it?

John: Yeah!

Zach: Oh, so you and her are tight?

John: Yeah, totally! That’s the best part of being part of English, baby!, you know. Getting to know all these celebrities.

Zach: Yeah. So, you’re kind of traipsing around and mingling with the upper crust while we’re just sitting here in the office?

John: Yeah, I haven’t been telling you guys about it, but, Britney and I are pretty tight. I know you’ve been wanting to meet that guy from ‘N Sync that she’s dating, so maybe I can… Justin Timberlake.

Zach: Yeah, and if you can get a hold of, um, Johnny Depp or Matt Damon for me, that would be great.

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Discussion

As you can see, the message on our answering machine is getting a lot of attention. It always surprises the people who call. Maybe you can tell that Zach doesn’t really care about the answering machine message. He’s just giving me a hard time about it. Then I start teasing him about wanting to meet Justin Timberlake. It is a joke because Zach doesn’t really like him. Again, we use sarcasm for humor. This is very common in the U.S. Have you ever had an interesting message on your answering machine? If so, please come to the Life Goes On message board and share! Later!—John