English Listening - High School
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Before we continue, let me tell you about our sponsor, Rosetta Stone. As you all know, learning a language is challenging. Well, Rosetta Stone is a great tool that can help you with this challenge so you can improve your English or learn any of the other 25 languages that it offers. Rosetta Stone has helped millions of people learn foreign languages over the last 30 years.

The idea behind Rosetta Stone is to provide you with a more natural and intuitive language learning method compared to other types of courses. Instead of focusing on tests, drills, or boring memorization, Rosetta Stone helps you develop your language skills naturally using interesting stories, dialogues, and visuals.

In this way, you'll learn the language a little more like a child learns their first language, not just by memorizing things, but through engaging exposure to the language. Rosetta Stone is also convenient to use because of the flexibility of its lessons. They're full of helpful content, but they're also pretty short, and you can do them whenever you have the time. This will help you work them into your schedule more easily. And one other cool feature that Rosetta Stone has is its speech recognition tool called True Accent.

It can detect the differences between your pronunciation and a native speaker's pronunciation, so it can give you feedback on how you're pronouncing words and help you improve. As you can see, Rosetta Stone is a language learning tool with a ton of value. Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. For a very limited time, listening time listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off.

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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, I'm Connor and you're listening to episode 42 of the Listening Time Podcast. I hope you're all doing well. It's almost winter now and so the season is definitely changing, the weather is changing,

It's getting a little bit cold here in my city. Of course, for some of you, this weather that I consider cold would definitely not be considered cold in your city or in your country. But for me, it's pretty cold. And so I complain about it as if it were really cold weather because I'm not used to the cold weather.

And it's always a little bit hard for me to get through this season because I feel like I'm not as comfortable.

I'm a summer guy. I like the sunshine, the hot weather. I love being able to spend just the afternoon or the evening outside. And so I definitely don't like being restricted and feeling like I can't do much outside because it's too windy or cold. It's not my favorite time of the year, but it's okay.

I can survive. And I want to say thank you to those of you who have become Listening Time members and Listening Time super members.

I really appreciate it. It really helps me out. It helps me to be able to continue making this podcast and recording episodes, and it helps me dedicate time to doing so. So thank you for that, and I hope you're all enjoying the content so far.

In English, when we use the word content like this, we're just saying the material, right? So YouTubers release a lot of content in video format, for example, or podcasters release content in audio format. So I hope you're all enjoying that extra content, the seminars and the extra bonus episodes.

I hope that more of you will consider becoming a member or a super member. If you really want to take your listening practice to the next level, this is the way to do so. We have seminars that will really help your listening practice.

you're listening, they will really help you change the way that you listen and help you focus on the important elements when it comes to listening comprehension in English. Okay, so for today, in this episode, we're going to talk about high school. So this is a very popular topic because in many American movies,

you see this depiction of high school in America.

The word "depiction" just means some type of illustration or picture or representation of something, some image. So in many American movies, you can see a certain depiction of high school life in America. So we'll talk a little bit about that and some of the different aspects of high school.

Of course, before we start, remember that the transcript is available in the episode notes. So go ahead and access that if you need it. And of course, share this podcast with anyone else who might find it useful. All right, let's get started. Are your ears ready? You know what time it is. It's listening time.

Okay, so first of all, when does high school start in the U.S.? Well, it starts from 9th grade and it continues on until 12th grade. So just a quick note, in American English, we use the word grade to talk about which level of school that you're in.

For example, you start school in first grade and you end your last year of school in 12th grade. So each grade is just one year of school. So when you're in ninth grade, you start high school. And in the U.S., high school is four years from ninth grade to 12th grade.

And usually when you start ninth grade, you're 14 years old. And usually students turn 15 during this year of high school. So high school in the U.S. starts when you're 14 or 15 and it continues on until you're 17 or 18.

So this is when we have high school in the US. This is that period of our lives. I know that in other countries, high school starts earlier or later, but in the US it's those four years.

It's also important to note that high school is mandatory in the US. This is something that everyone is supposed to do. Of course, some people don't finish high school, but you're supposed to go to all four years of high school and then graduate afterwards. This is what is expected of you.

I know that in some countries, like in Eastern Europe or Russia, maybe high school, in high school, you have a couple different options. Like you can finish all four years of high school and then go to a university afterwards. Or maybe you can just do a couple of years of high school and then study in some vocational school.

In English, the word vocation or vocational just refers to a specific type of job, right? So students who go to a vocational school, they're not going to a four-year university with many subjects, many classes with English, science, math, etc. They're just studying one specific trade or job.

one specific industry and then they become a worker in that industry afterwards. So in the US, most people don't do this. They go to high school for four years and in high school they have to take classes about a lot of different subjects. So, for example, when I was in high school,

I had math classes, English classes, history classes, science classes, foreign language classes, and some other different types of classes as well. And most of these classes are mandatory, right? The word mandatory just means that you have to do it.

You don't have a choice. You have to take these classes. So most classes in the U.S. are mandatory. So everyone kind of takes the same subjects. But of course, there are some classes where you can take a higher level, like a more difficult class in that subject or like a lower level class. So for example,

In the US, we have what we call AP classes. AP just stands for Advanced Placement. So if you want more challenging classes, you can take AP Math, for example, AP English or different types of classes like that that are a little bit harder and you have to do more work than in the regular class.

But everyone has to take those general classes. And then we have a few classes.

that we call electives. An elective is a class that you can choose. You have some different options for different subjects. They're kind of like secondary subjects, right? They're not the main ones. So for example, art, music, drama, etc.

And so each year you have one or maybe two electives that you can choose. And this type of class is supposed to be a little bit funner, right? It's a little bit funnier.

different from your general classes because it's kind of like a secondary subject, right? So we have a lot of mandatory classes and we have some electives. And as I said, we have some harder classes, the AP classes, and then we just have the normal general classes for each subject as well.

So one other thing that's important when talking about academics in the US is our system of grading. So now I'm using the word "grade" in a different way from how I used it before. The word "grade" can refer to the level of school, the year of school that you're in, or it can refer to the score that you receive in a class.

So the grading system in the U.S. goes from A to F. So A is the best grade and F is the worst grade. So in each class, you get a grade from A to F.

And in order to pass the class, you need to get a C or higher, right? So if you get an A, B, or C, you pass the class. If you get a D or an F, you fail the class, okay? So it's very important to get at least a C, which is 70%.

So grades are very important, especially in your last couple years of high school because colleges will look at your grades to see what type of student you were in high school. If you have bad grades, you probably can't get into a good college because they want the best students. So if you didn't have good grades...

This shows them that you weren't the best student and so they probably won't let you go to their university. Another really important part of academics is the SAT. So in the US, the SAT is the standardized test that is the same for all students.

And this test is optional. For example, if you don't want to go to college, then you don't need to take this test. And so even if you go to college, if you go to a really low-level college,

they might not even care about your SAT score. So this isn't important for everyone, but for people that want to go to like a really good college or just, yeah, any good college, any good school, the SAT is very important because it's one of the things that universities consider when

when they want to decide whether or not to admit an applicant. So the word admit in this case means accept, right? They will accept you into their program if you have a good SAT score, for example.

So they look at your grades and they look at your SAT score when deciding whether or not to admit you. So you can take the SAT multiple times. I don't remember if there's a limit, but I know that you can take it more than once. You can take it multiple times.

So, if you don't like your score, you can take it again and try to get a better score the next time. Some students, they do special training for the SAT. They go to SAT preparation courses.

And they study how to take this test in the best way possible. So these students usually get really high scores on the SAT, while the other students who haven't done this preparation...

probably aren't going to get really high scores, right? So I never did this type of preparation. I didn't really care so much about my SAT scores. And so I just took the test and hoped for the best. And I got an okay score on the SAT, but it definitely wasn't really impressive.

Okay, so when universities are considering whether or not to admit applicants into their schools, they look at your grades, they look at your SAT scores, and they look at one other thing, and that is extracurricular activities. So extracurricular activities is a phrase that refers to things that you do outside of school.

So outside of the classroom. For example, if you play a sport, that's considered an extracurricular activity. Or if you're in some club,

That's also an extracurricular activity. So if you want to go to a really good school, a really good college in the U.S., extracurricular activities are essential. So, for example, if you want to go to Harvard and you have really good grades and you have a good SAT score,

but you have no involvement in extracurricular activities, Harvard will probably deny your application. Okay? So when I talk about this with students from other countries, they're usually pretty surprised that universities care about these other types of activities.

But this is how it is in the US. For example, if you're a really good athlete at some sport, it's pretty likely that you'll be able to go to a really good school.

the US because college sports are a really important thing and universities are not only for academics they're also for sports and other things as well

So let's talk a little bit about sports. This is something that you've probably seen in American movies. You see the football games with the cheerleaders and all of that. So sports are very important in high school and in college in the U.S. And so if you're on a sports team in high school, this is a big deal.

In English, when we use the phrase "a big deal", we're just saying this is important, right? This is significant. So if you're on a sports team in high school in the US, this is a big deal. Okay, especially if you're on the football team, the American football team.

So American football is a very, very popular sport, not only at the professional level, but also at the college level and the high school level.

So, in high school, the football games are a big event. They're a big event for the sport, for the school, but also for your social life. Everyone wants to go to these high school football games because this is a big social event.

Most of the students go, right? Even if you're not interested in football, this is still an essential, right? You go because you talk to your friends, you meet other people, you hang out at these types of events. And so football games are a big deal in the U.S., even high school football games.

I know that there are many people in the U.S. that go to the local high school football game even if they don't have a child who plays for

for the football team or maybe they don't even have a child who goes to that school but maybe the the people are connected to the community and they want to see the the local high school team play so as you can see high school football is very important so are the other sports in high school but especially football

So let's talk a little bit about cliques. The word clique in this context refers to a group of people that share some interest or characteristic. So this is the stereotypical thing that you see in American movies.

where in high school there are the cheerleaders, the nerds,

the hipsters, the goths, the jocks. In English, the word jock just refers to athlete. So we say he's a jock. It means he's an athlete. So we have all these cliques in high school. And you're probably wondering whether or not what you see in American movies is accurate in terms of these cliques.

And I would say that in these movies, they exaggerate a little bit, but there's a lot of truth to what you see.

So, for example, the cheerleaders are usually the most popular girls in school. The jocks, the athletes, these are usually the most popular guys at the school. And of course, there are always the nerds. There are always the hipsters, people like that.

But of course, they don't always stay separated in their groups and there's a lot of interaction between these different groups. But yes, these cliques definitely do exist. I remember this from my time in high school, but it's not exactly like how they show it in the movies.

Okay, lastly, let's talk about a few other interesting things about high school in the US.

So, for example, we have a lot of dances. I think this is something that doesn't exist in high school in most other countries, but you've probably seen this in movies in the US. We have three big dances every year and a couple other minor dances. So these dances are also a really big deal. And so if you don't have a date,

A date in this case just refers to someone that you take to the dance. If you don't have a date for the dance, this can be a very stressful period. You might be depressed. Or, of course, some people don't really care about these dances, so it doesn't matter to them. But for other people...

It's essential that they have a date for the dance. And of course, this is a huge social event. And of course, this is really important for high school life in the U.S. So we have dances. We also have pep rallies.

You might have seen these in certain TV shows or movies. Pep rallies are when the whole school comes together, usually where the basketball courts are in this stadium at the school. And they try to get excited about some big sporting event, usually a big football game.

So the cheerleaders are there, the football players are there, and they try to get excited and get everyone riled up about the big game.

In English, the phrase riled up just refers to people getting really excited or animated in a very loud way. So they try to get people all excited and riled up and ready for the big sporting event. So this is another fun tradition that we have in high school in the U.S. And one last tradition is what we call grad night.

So grad night is the event where seniors, seniors are students who are in their last year of high school. We call them seniors. So grad night is the night when seniors get to go to some special place all night and have fun. So usually...

or at least when I was in high school, it was common for grad night to take place at an amusement park like Disneyland or Six Flags.

So for my grad night, we went to Six Flags and we went there at night and we stayed there all night until the next morning. So this was a really cool experience and I'm a big fan of roller coasters. So this was a great place for me to spend grad night. So that's something that a lot of people look forward to in their last year of school.

All right. Well, why don't we stop there? I hope this episode was interesting for you and that you learned a little bit about high school in America. And I hope it was good practice for your listening. Remember that if you need more help with your listening comprehension, definitely become a Listening Time member or super member at podcast.

patreon.com slash listening time you can find that link in the episode notes and of course if you become a member or super member you have access to my listening practice seminars where I help you train your listening skills and show you why you can't understand native speakers when they're speaking at native speed and how to practice so that you can understand them so

So definitely sign up to become a member or super member. It's only $2 a month to be a member or $3 a month to become a super member. So it's a great investment and it will really help you with your listening. And of course, remember that you have the transcript available in the episode notes. So just click there and you'll have the transcripts.

All right. Thank you for listening to this episode. And I hope you'll come back for episode 43 of the Listening Time podcast.

Before we continue, let me tell you about our sponsor, Rosetta Stone. As you all know, learning a language is challenging. Well, Rosetta Stone is a great tool that can help you with this challenge so you can improve your English or learn any of the other 25 languages that it offers. Rosetta Stone has helped millions of people learn foreign languages over the last 30 years.

The idea behind Rosetta Stone is to provide you with a more natural and intuitive language learning method compared to other types of courses. Instead of focusing on tests, drills, or boring memorization, Rosetta Stone helps you develop your language skills naturally using interesting stories, dialogues, and visuals.

In this way, you'll learn the language a little more like a child learns their first language, not just by memorizing things, but through engaging exposure to the language. Rosetta Stone is also convenient to use because of the flexibility of its lessons. They're full of helpful content, but they're also pretty short, and you can do them whenever you have the time. This will help you work them into your schedule more easily.

And one other cool feature that Rosetta Stone has is its speech recognition tool called True Accent. It can detect the differences between your pronunciation and a native speaker's pronunciation, so it can give you feedback on how you're pronouncing words and help you improve. As you can see, Rosetta Stone is a language learning tool with a ton of value.

Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. For a very limited time, Listening Time listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash listeningtimetoday.

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