Sunday, March 18, 2012

Technical English

This week all of you watched refrigerator (upright cooler) maintenance videos. The biggest problem was not vocabulary. Many of you had problems because you haven't practiced enough listening to normal English rhythm and linking. Some people complained that there were too many technical words (專有名詞太多). Actually, each video only included a very small number of specialized words (two or three).

Understanding how to fly an airplane is much, much more difficult. This involves tons of technical vocabulary. In these two videos, Pranas Drulis, a young man from Lithuania, explains how to start an Airbus. Watch for fun:

1] Airbus A320 - From Cold and Dark to Ready for Taxiing 

If you read this article first, the video will be easier to understand: What do all the controls in an airplane cockpit do?





In the second video, Pranas is working with a friend, Povilas Maknavičius:

2] Boeing 737 -- From Cold and Dark to Ready for Taxiing

Remember: these two young men come from Lithuania, a small country in Eastern Europe. Only 3,000,000 people live here, only a little bigger than Taipei.


60% of people in Lithuania learn to speak Russian. English is probably these men's 2nd foreign language.

Don't be discouraged by easy refrigerator videos. If you practice, one day maybe you, too, can learn to do something difficult, such as flying an airplane (use your English)!

5 comments:

  1. I have watched these two videos. I enjoyed listening to Pranas because he looks more handsome and he's sound is quite clear
    and slower.Povilas's sound is fuzzy and heavy local accent. However I think it is too long to listen carefully. I took more then 1 hour to watch them once(include short break). I like them and I wish I could review more and more times.

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  2. Actually, both men have Lithuanian accents. You should watch these two videos for fun only. Right now they are too complicated for most of our class, but maybe one day you TOO can also learn to fly an airplane in English!

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  3. Oh.. I wish I could. I like to drive very much. I have bus driver license and huge heavy motorbikes(above 250cc)driver license(even I seldem to drive them). I hope someday I could fly in the sky or drive a tank,a train,a ship and so on. However I have read the "Heart Bandit" it's a very funny story like "whodonit". I enjoyed reading it. And I wondered that pretty women could be always fascinated by handsome men? I'll try to write a mini-sagas for it. But it could not be easy.

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  4. Hello Sir.;
    Wow! It's really amazing! This film comes from Baltic
    Aviation Academy's. No wonder he can remember so many
    switches and knobs just in order to start the Air bus.

    I felt much difficulties then the upright cooler. so many
    technical terms are there in this film.

    Pranas Drulis said that to turn on all the switches
    should follow the rule form the left to right and from up
    to down.

    I need to watch more to understand it.

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  5. Great! You understood quite a lot. Keep on practicing! Maybe one day you can take me for a flight in your own airplane! ;-) LOL

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