English, baby!

Snapchat

Learn English meaning of Snapchat

Date: Mar 06 2015

Themes: Friend, Pop Culture, Tech, Time

Grammar: Articles, Quantifiers, and Determiners

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Intro

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

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Websites and apps come and go. You need the right features and good timing to build a following, and even then, the appeal might not last. Think about Friendster or MySpace. The selling point of these websites was important to a large demographic for a while. But now? Nobody talks about them anymore.

The app Snapchat is having success with the idea of impermanence. After something is sent with Snapchat, it vanishes again in less than a minute. If you want to send someone a photo or a video on Snapchat, whatever you say or do will only last for a moment. It’s a fun app for people who like to keep moving.

Julie and Gary are talking about Snapchat and why it’s so popular. Read on in today’s English lesson about a new way to use our phones to say hello.

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.

Julie

Gary

Julie: So, what’s the appeal of Snapchat?

Gary: Good question. I guess I would say that it actually has a really big following in a very specific demographic.

Julie: Right. Isn’t it teenagers and young adults?

Gary: So, teenagers don’t want to have their conversations followed, and they want to be able to talk with their friends as quickly as possible. And they don’t want their conversations to last forever.

Julie: So, they like the impermanence of Snapchat.

Gary: Exactly.

Julie: The fact that they can post something, and then it vanishes within seconds. Right?

Gary: That’s the goal of Snapchat. That’s the whole selling point. That is Snapchat.

Julie: And can you use Snapchat on any device?

Gary: No, you can actually only use it on a smartphone. So you’re not using it on a computer…

Julie: That’s exclusive!

Gary: It is, but it’s also yours. You get to hold onto it. And you get to have conversations with your friends using all their features. So, you could do a video, you could do a photo, you could do text. And it’s this private…

Julie: Supposedly!

Gary: ...conversation. I don’t know many adults using it, but I do know a few.

Julie: I have to check it out. I am curious.

Gary: It’s free.

Julie: Even better.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Go Super to Listen

Julie wants to know why people like Snapchat. She’s not sure that she understands why it’s so interesting or fun. Gary explains that what’s sent with Snapchat is only there for a few seconds, and teenagers really like that. Gary believes that younger people prefer that nothing is on Snapchat for long.

Gary tells Julie that you can only use Snapchat on a smartphone. Snapchat has many features, including videos, photos, and texts. If someone wants to talk to friends but doesn’t want his parents to find out, it sounds like Snapchat is perfect. Anything you see or read on Snapchat vanishes almost right away!

Have you ever used Snapchat? What do you like about it?

Comments

1 through 20 of 32
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oguzzugo

Turkey

Hello friends, I have not a snapchat account.I am using Instagram these days.I want to know why people like Snapchat.So Thank you Julie.

I think it is not necessary.If you want to follow me on skype add me

@gezegoni

I am travelling Turkey, taken a lot photos.Next month I am going to go Izmir and buy a bicycle.I think to learn English we need to talk other people.

So I am going tourictic places in Turkey and everyday talking them, meeting new good friends.It is enjoying.

DragRacing79

Russian Federation

Hello there, I never used Snapchat in my life, but I heard about it. My biggest concern is that if something posted online it is not private anymore.

Is there a risk that people still can copy the content/data fast and use it later? Not really sure…

Sami Aswad

Iraq

I havent used snap chat , but I am curious ,I want to check it out :)

EsraMehmet

Turkey

I have just heard about snapchat and I did not like it.

evil_genius

Turkey

I actually like snapchat… it’s different from others. and it lets me enjoy the momentarily situations in a different perspective :)

fadaee_mehdi

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I had never heard about snapchat !

I prefer to use viber and whatsApp because they are popular apps now and most of people have them.

abbasam

Turkey

Every things for good aims must be good :)

lostpoem

Turkey

# HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY

# EBABY..WHY DONT YOU PUT SPECIAL DAYS ON TIME ???? FOR EXP. WOMEN’S DAY

Hazelgirl

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Julito, I like your attitude that you don’t make a record of your conversations. Yes, each day is a new day, you can consider people differently :)

Seiyf_khawas

Turkey

ola33

Japan

Traita, about thinking twice, agree- what’s done cannot be undone.

tar1ta

Antarctica

I heard a lot of times that Snapchat is good because messages disappear within several seconds. It really would have been a good application if supposedly-deleted photos had disappeared. About a year ago it has been placed beyond a doubt that information can be retrieved. So think twice when you send a photo that shows you drunk or naked XD

P.S. Big brother is watching you all the time! It’s time to go offline. I guess I’m being followed, some people view my profile every day ;)))))))

ola33

Japan

:)) nice program to exchange photos. It’s free. It’s fun… For youth. It’s like, Moriska, I’m here. And you, where are you? There? Ok, catch a picture. It really lasts only 10 seconds. – the shortest life shelf, oops, shelf life :), just like the Hollywood marriage.
Pst.. hey.. Guess where am I!:)

julito

Argentina

Hello everybody, i am back from the daily grind, it is 18.00 pm, and friday . I have been listening to the last topic of conversation ,and frankly speaking , i didn`t even know that there was an app such as snapchat. As for me , i am not interested in this app. I usualy delete all my mails and chats , i don`t keep records of my conversations , each day is a new day .:))))

iftikhar659668

Pakistan

thanks for sharing this, i have been using smartphone but i didn’t heard about this app. Now i got an idea about it, i m going to download this app. lets see how its work.

ScienceBoy

Turkey

Where is Julito? I had never seen him skipped a lesson on Ebaby..!

WalaaDab

Jordan

Honestly I don’t know about Snapchat and never heard about it, in general I know about apps that have the same features, in my opinion it is good if you have many friends and also have social character
It adds some funny soul or maybe break the routine between people, but as Gary said this app very good for teenagers or adults, and it will be strange for oldest one.
Thank you.