Scout and Atticus

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Last week we began watching "To Kill a Mockingbird." The movie is narrated by a little girl called "Scout." "Scout" is a nickname, not the girl's real name. I think it's an unusual nickname. I've never met a little girl in the U.S. who was called "Scout." The word "scout" means "to look for something." So, perhaps Scout's father decided to call her "Scout" because she was always looking around for things.

Scout calls her father "Atticus." This is also unusual because "Atticus" is her father's first name and most American children don't call their parents by their first names. Dill, the little boy that Scout and her brother Jem meet early in the movie, wants to know why Scout calls her father "Atticus" because it's so unusual:

Dill: Why do you call you daddy Atticus?
Scout: 'Cause Jem does.
Dill: Why does he?
Scout: I don't know. He just started to ever since he began talking.

On the other hand, I have heard of other children calling their parents by their first names. As a matter of fact, my sister's children called her "Marti," which is her first name. Still, most American children call their parents something like "Mom" or "Dad."

In the beginning of the movie, a man named Mr. Cunningham brings some nuts for Atticus. Scout calls Atticus when she sees Mr. Cunningham, even though Mr. Cunningham says that there's no need to bother him. After Mr. Cunningham leaves, Atticus tells Scout not to call him the next time Mr. Cunningham comes. Listen to the dialogue:

Atticus: Scout, I think maybe . . . next time Mr. Cunningham comes, you better not call me.
Scout: I thought you'd wanna thank him.
Atticus: Oh, I do. I think it embarrasses him to be thanked.

Atticus is a very kind man and father. He would like to thank Mr. Cunningham for the food that he brings him, but he can see that being thanked embarrasses Mr. Cunningham so he tells Scout not to call him next time. Now, let's listen to the rest of the conversation between Scout and Atticus to find out why Mr. Cunningham feels embarrassed when he brings food to Atticus's family:

Scout: Why does he bring you all this stuff?
Atticus: He's paying me for some legal work I did for him.
Scout: Why does he pay you like this?
Atticus: That's the only way he can. He has no money.
Scout: Is he poor?
Atticus: Yes.
Scout: Are we poor?
Atticus: We are indeed.
Scout: [Are] we as poor as the Cunninghams?
Atticus: No, not exactly. Cunninghams are country folks, farmers. Crash hit them the hardest.

Atticus is a lawyer and Mr. Cunningham was his client. As Atticus explains to Scout, Mr. Cunningham has no money and so the only way that he can pay Atticus is to bring food from his farm.

The "crash" that Atticus mentions is the stock market crash of 1929. The crash of the stock market was the beginning of the Great Depression, which lasted for about 10 years. This movie takes place in the 1930s, during the Great Depression.

During the Great Depression, food prices dropped. This hurt the farmers because they could not get much money for the food they produced. This is one reason that Atticus says that the crash hit the farmers the hardest. Another reason is that the farmers were already very poor before the crash of the stock market.

Now, let's study the dialogue in more detail.

Atticus: Scout, I think maybe . . . next time Mr. Cunningham comes, you better not call me.

When Atticus says "you better not call me" it means the same as "you had better not call me." In English, you can say "you had better do such-and-such" to mean "you should do such-and-such" and some people just say "you better do such-and-such," as Atticus did here.

When people speak they sometimes leave out words that they would include if they were writing. Atticus's leaving out the "had" in "you had better not call me" is one example of this. Another example is when Scout leaves out the word "are" in the question "Are we as poor as the Cunninghams?":

Scout: [Are] we as poor as the Cunninghams?

When people speak in informal situations, they also tend to pronounce two or more words together as one word, instead of saying each word clearly. For example, instead of saying "do not" people often say "don't." In the following sentence Scout pronounces "you would" as "you'd" and "want to" as "wanna."

Scout: I thought you'd wanna thank him.

In standard English, this would be "I thought you would want to thank him." When you speak, I recommend that you say "want to" because "wanna" can sound a bit childish, unless you are speaking very quickly. When you write, you should definitely write "want to," not "wanna."

Scout: Why does he bring you all this stuff?
Atticus: He's payin' me for some legal work I did for him.

"Legal" means having to do with the law. So, Atticus is referring to work that he did as a lawyer as "legal work." When Atticus says "paying me" he pronounces it "payin' me." Americans often talk this way in informal situations. However, when Atticus speaks in court, he pronounces the "ing" sound at the end of words clearly.

Now that we have studied the dialogue, I hope you will find it easier to understand. Let's conclude by listening to the entire dialogue one more time.

Atticus: Scout, I think maybe . . . next time Mr. Cunningham comes, you better not call me.
Scout: I thought you'd wanna thank him.
Atticus: Oh, I do. I think it embarrasses him to be thanked.
Scout: Why does he bring you all this stuff?
Atticus: He's paying me for some legal work I did for him.
Scout: Why does he pay you like this?
Atticus: That's the only way he can. He has no money.
Scout: Is he poor?
Atticus: Yes.
Scout: Are we poor?
Atticus: We are indeed.
Scout: [Are] we as poor as the Cunninghams?
Atticus: No, not exactly. Cunninghams are country folks, farmers. Crash hit them the hardest.

About Podcasts

I made a video in which I explain what podcasts are. Click here to see the video (it should open in another window).

I have also prepared three files that you can download to study outside of class. To download each file, please right-click on the link:

• About_Podcasts.mp4
  This is a video file that you can put in an iPod or other device that plays mp4 files.
• About_Podcasts.mp3
  This is an audio file that you can put in any mp3 player.
• About Podcasts.pdf
  This is a file that contains the text in the video. If you download this file it will be very easy for you to print the text out on one sheet of paper.

Next week I will give you a quiz on the English in the video. I will play a recording of the audio and you will have to write down the sentence that I played and translate it into Japanese.

Here is the text of the video. Please study it for the quiz.

Hi! In this video I try to help you understand what podcasts are and how they work.

Podcasts are audio or video programs that you download with a computer and can enjoy on your computer or on a portable device, such as an iPod. Many people use a program called iTunes to download podcasts. There are other ways to get podcasts but let's begin by looking at iTunes. If you don't have iTunes on your computer you can download it for free. Just type "iTunes" into Google. It doesn't matter whether you have a Mac or a Windows computer. You can use iTunes on either one.

After you start iTunes, click on "iTunes Store." Even though it's called a "store," don't worry. Almost all podcasts are free. Next, click on "Podcasts." Now, let's look at the podcasts in the "英語を学ぶ" quick link that is in the Japanese iTunes Store.

There are two types of podcasts: audio and video. The audio podcasts are like radio programs and the video podcasts are like TV programs. Let's look at this one to see what it's like.

[A short video plays here.]

If you are interested in this podcast you should subscribe to it by clicking on this button. It will take a few minutes for the last program in the podcast to download.

After you subscribe to a podcast you can find it the "Podcasts" section of iTunes. The podcast that we just subscribed to is made up of many individual shows. Podcasts are similar to radio and TV programs in that each podcast is a series of shows. In this case, "Gaba G Style English" is the name of the whole series. These are the individual shows in the series. After you subscribe to a podcast, iTunes will show you when a new show in the series is ready to be downloaded. If you click on this "Settings" button, you can change how iTunes checks for new shows (or "episodes") and what you want iTunes to do when it finds a new show in a podcast that you have subscribed to.

Podcasts are like radio or TV shows in that they have audio and video content. However, they are like newspapers or magazines in that, once you subscribe to them, they come to you automatically. If you subscribe to a newspaper, you will find it in the morning even if you were asleep when it was delivered. In the same way, if you subscribe to a podcast, you can find the new shows when you turn on your computer. Unlike TV and radio, you don't have to worry about when the next show will be broadcast.

By the way, let me take a minute or two to explain that parts of the word "podcast." "Podcast" combines the "pod" of "iPod" and the "cast" of "broadcast." First, let's think about the meaning of "iPod." Apple has many products that begin with the letter "i": iPod, iPad, iMac, iTunes, iMovie, etc. The "i" in these products stands for "internet." A "pod" is a part of a plant or machine that can be separated from the main part. So, the iPod is part of a computer that is connected to the internet and that you can separate from the computer and take with you. Now, let's think about the word "broadcast." "Broadcast" is also made up of two parts. "Broad" means "over a wide area" and "cast" means to "send." So, broadcast means to send radio and TV signals over a wide area so that people. Now, I think we are ready to understand how the word "podcast" combines parts of the words "iPod" and "broadcast" to mean programs that are sent, or "broadcast," to iPods over the internet.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, it is very easy to use iTunes to copy the podcasts on to it. If you use a Sony Walkman or some other device, it may be a little harder to copy the podcasts onto your player but I think it is possible. Remember that you can only watch video podcasts on devices that can play video files. Many iPods can do this but not all. Before you buy an iPod or Walkman or some other device, make sure that it can play the kinds or podcasts that you want to subscribe to.

In my next video, I'll show you how to used iTunes to find lots of podcasts that you can use to study English.