Baik, baik saja
And Baik, baik saja to you too Shirley! That's Indonesian for I'm fine thanks. And how do I know that? Well, I spent 3 years in Indonesia, in the lovely city of Bandung. It was a long time ago (in the early 90s) and although I might not remember much Bahasa Indonesia now, I certainly do remember those Jakarta traffic jams!
And you know, spending time in Indonesia isn't the only thing we've got in common either.
When I was a wee girl, growing up in Glasgow, I used to adore adverts too. Here's a story my brothers and sisters still love to tell about me from when I was about 5 or 6: Apparently, the last thing I'd say before I'd go out of the house in the afternoon was, "I'm just going out to the garden to play. Call me the minute the adverts come on." I didn't care what programme was on TV, I only liked watching the ads! Unlike you, I didn't actually want what was advertised – I think I was too young to even realise what adverts were. I'm not sure I even realised those things on the TV were on offer - I just liked the short, snappy jingles and the fast-paced action of the ads!
And even today, whenever I watch TV, I try to get whoever's watching with me involved in a game I call Name That Ad. It goes like this: whenever an ad comes on, you try to be the first person to buzz in before the name of the product is mentioned by the announcer or shown on screen.
Your writing is really good Shirley. Do you write in English in your day job? And where did you learn your English? Did you do all your studying in Indonesia or did you live or study abroad for a while, perhaps in an English-speaking country?
A couple of points in your posting, both relating to numbers and times:
Over two hundred millions of people should be two hundred million people. (And there's something else here I want to ask about – not related to your grammar at all – are you sure your figure of 200,000,000 people in Jakarta is right?)
AM (or am) already means in the morning so you don't have to use both of them in the one sentence. You can say 6 in the morningor 6 am. So what about this one:
at 9 pm in the evening.
Can you figure out you should say?
Looking forward to hearing more about your favourite adverts!
Bye for now,
Nuala
Vocabulary
we've got in common – that is similar about the two of us
wee – a Scottish word that means small (or here, young)
Apparently – We don't know if it's true or not (here, I use it to show that we only have my brother and sisters' word that this story is true. I was too young to remember it, so I want to show that I'm not 100% sure it's true)
the minute – as soon as
jingles – short, catchy tunes that are used to advertise products
buzz in – in a game show the contents use their buzzers to buzz in when they know the right answer
mentioned – said or announced
your day job – your main employment (you might have a hobby or another, smaller – often more enjoyable - job that you do at weekends or in the evenings)
Comments
Hello Nuala, Welcome. The topic you have taken was really interesting one ad. Not only kids’ even adults are interesting to watch adverts on the television now a days. Some time it was also boring. For example when we watch cricket or football match, some interesting movement comes, the sponsors suddenly put the ads. It’s really irritating, isn’t it? Why most of adverts focus on women alone. Is it just for attraction?
Hi Nuala, First post itself you have started with giving lots of language tips. Looking forward to hearing more from you in this month. Hearty welcome!. Thanks
Hello, Nuala. It's a very interesting fact from your childhood that you've told us, thank you. Now I have something similar :) The thing is that I don't watch TV at all, I meen on purpose. All film and programs that I might be interesting in I watch either on youtube or on other sources. Now I even have access to all on-line football games through all these internet TV. The huge advantage of using web sources instead of TV set is that you don't need to adjust to someone's else schedule. But my parents still use TV as they did before. And for example, if we have dinner and TV is on they can watch something and I can chat with them, but as soon as it's a break for commercials, I stop to speak and just follow all ads because they all new for me. We even have a joke that I love commercials more than regular programs :) And concerning the game with ads, we also have it:) Now of course I can't play because of my lack of information in current ads, but when I was young we played a lot with my friends. Thank you for reminding me of these nice days :)
Hello and wellcom to you Nuala!It seems to me that we are going to learn a lot of new words from you since you are planing to stay with us for few months and the first post is already rich of new wards to me. Thank you
Hi Nuala, I hope you're doing great. Today, I'm pleased to tell you that I already know you as you'll always have an influence on my English language. Although I've never met you before, but I really,really benefited from the serious of programmes that you made or did on the BBC LE website. I said the programmes that you made or did, because I'm not very sure of the right collocation there if you know what I mean. As always, I appreciate the great job that you're doing for us to help us improve our English language studies. And I'm glad to be one of your online students. It's a great pleasure for me to have met you in this interesting blog, and I hope that you'll have a good time with us over the next couple of months as we're informed. I'm looking forward hearing more from you. Best wishes to you and your family, Abdisamad
English learners warmly wellcome teacher and student bloggers.Interestingly both loved to watch advents in TV.i simply hate them, there are too much on our National TV and mostly of cellular companies.It looks that biggest problem in coutry is choose right Sim .
Hi Nuala, Ceud mile failte! Are you curious where I pick up the greeting in Scottish Gaelic. It was Jim, who was the teacher of June to July in 2009 to teach us. By the way, it’s so nice to have a teacher from Scotland. I’ve been to Scotland with my family twice, and we did enjoy the splendid landscapes of Scotland. We watched a document of The Loch Ness Monster. We had a great expectation of it because we’d heard a lot of the speculations of the monster and our curiosity had been accumulated. It says that is 3D film and we paid the earth to watch it. Did it satisfy our curiosity? Well, I should say no! I do look forward to leaning more about Scotland and improving on my English by you.
Hi Nuala, Ceud mile failte! Are you curious where I leant the greeting in Scottish Gaelic. It was Jim, who was the teacher of June to July in 2009 to teach us. By the way, it’s so nice to have a teacher from Scotland. I’ve been to Scotland with my family twice, and we did enjoy the splendid landscapes of Scotland. We watched a document of The Loch Ness Monster. We had a great expectation of it because we’d heard a lot of the speculations of the monster and our curiosity had been accumulated. It says that is 3D film and we paid the earth to watch it. Did it satisfy our curiosity? Well, I should say no! I do look forward to leaning more about Scotland and improving on my English by you.
Hello and welcome Nuala! I have a question to you: how do you pronounce your name? /niula/, /nala/ ...? Bye for now
Hi, Nuala. I am glad to see a new face appeared here this September. From your smile you put on your face, I reckon you must be an easygoing teacher. And just now you’ve put forward a fascinating post for us to discuss. I think everyone may have such an experience of having to watch those boring advertisements until the programme you are waiting for is back. I think at this time it is really annoying to watch those endless advertisements even though they are really fast-paced actually. Maybe next time when an advert pops up during a TV programme, I can try your game of ‘ Name That Ad’ to kill time.
Hi Nuala, We've nearly got in common because I like reading the adverts in the newspaper especially those about the food and the travelling.
Hello Nuala, I am looking forward to learning from you :). You've started an interesting topic about ads. When i was a little girl,I also used to love adverts. There were so many interesting things in them that i love,so i couldn't wait for them. I've always hated those movies,TV shows,News&Weather that my parents watched. They were annoyed when ads were on,and i was happy,playing and jumping around :). I can still remember some of those. My hobby,as a little child,was to learn all that and when boring news were over,i used to repeat ads along that i've learned before. That was so interesting though i didn't even know what are adverts. I realised that like a war beetwen adults and children :). But now,as a grown up person,i find them very boring and annoying sometimes,so i understand my parents now :). And i know about the game "Name that Ad". I used to play with my twin sister and older brother,and i still do. I guess i still have that spirit of a child,and i hope i'll never lose it,because it's grateful being person who also know about fun . I will also thank you beacuse i have opportunity to practise english. Looking forward for your next topic :).
Hi Nuala,huge welcome. It is good luck of bloggers who got a wide experienced teacher. Small and smart adverts for a few seconds between on going programme surely entertain viewers but long duration adverts make the programme tasteless and often force the viewer to shut down TV. Kindly share more antecdotes. Thanks
Hi Nuala, As many said, I feel so lucky to have you as my english teacher for this entire month. Thank you for your interest on my writing, and I will definitely keep you update on my competition result. Wow, you've spoken Bahasa nicely... I wonder how you like Bandung. Looking forward to your next posts.
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