Saturday, February 2, 2008

Conversation: AJ & Chris, Part 2




AJ: No problem.

Chris: Yeah, go.

AJ: Yeah looking forward to it.

Chris: Awesome man, well I think it’s been I don't know how many years has it been since we got together?

AJ: Good God –

Chris: Three or four huh?

AJ: Yeah. Yeah I guess it woulda been before I went to Thailand right? I think just before I went to Thailand –

Chris: I think so yeah.

AJ: Didn’t I – I drove up and yeah I think I – yeah so its been about three and a half years, almost four? Yeah. It’s been awhile.

Chris: About freekin time.

AJ: Yeah. Yeah and you know we’ll get this going and hopefully it won’t be a problem any more.

(Laughter)

AJ: You can – but we’ll both just be nomads.

Chris: Yeah man, sounds great. Well I appreciate it, it’s gonna be great to see you and I’m glad you’re carvin out some time to come hang out with me, it’s gonna make a big difference me getting these things done too so –

AJ: Yeah, yeah, I – you know I think it is the best way to do it if you can – especially you have someone to kinda – you keep each other on task but just try to do it in an intense burst you know really work hard for a couple weeks and – I’m hoping we can really, yeah get the whole thing done. You know at least the bulk of the recording done and –

Chris: Yeah I mean let’s shoot – I mean let’s definitely shoot for that then and you know we can sit down and try to even sort of figure out to sort of meet you know what goals you think we need to meet for a complete lesson set, you know how many we need to get done by here and here –

AJ: Yeah, yeah.

Chris: And I think I was sort of you know I’ve sorta been thinking geez I wish I could have carved out a little more time for your visit but at least having those 3-day weekends I think –

AJ: Yeah, yeah, we could get a lot of work on those days, that’s true.

Chris: Yeah, I think even if we’re not making the kind of progress we hope to during the week or maybe not quite making it then at least we’ll have you know, have nice 3-day sort of periods to do some of that so –

AJ: Yeah, yeah and you’ve got Audacity, right, on your computer?

Chris: I do. I’ve got that on my – I actually put it on both my work laptop as well as my desktop.

AJ: Okay good and you've got a good mic? Good microphone?

Chris: I don’t – I wouldn’t necessarily say that.

AJ: Okay, okay. Well I’m gonna bring mine with me.

Chris: Okay. I think you said you were and I just use the headset that I had to record that other and you probably noticed there was a little hiss in it.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah we can use mine, I’ll bring it. It’s really good and – cause I – in the beginning I used to use a headset and yeah, it’s actually quite a big difference. So yeah, that’s cool.

Chris: And I can get, you know I'll certainly get one at some point if it makes you know, it probably will make sense for me you know to get one at some point too so – I think you said you’ve got one you really like so –

AJ: Yeah, yeah it’s really nice, I know – do you have a – is there an Apple store in Chapel Hill?

Chris: There is. Well it’s not right in Chapel Hill but it’s just – it’s you know it’s like 12 minutes down the road.

AJ: Oh okay.

Chris: Sort of on the – sort of right into Durham.

AJ: Oh okay, cool, cool, great, there’s – yeah that’s where I got mine and it’s really nice. It just plugs in the USB.

Chris: So maybe they might even have them there huh?

AJ: Oh yeah, yeah, cause in fact I just bought one for Kristin to use so – and yeah, I’ll buy it, don’t worry about that. So maybe we can go by there and then – yeah we have two microphones, maybe at some point we can be in different rooms you know cranking out –

Chris: Yep.

AJ: Cranking out lessons at the same time.

Chris: Yeah that’s – that and that’s entirely possible and you know we’ll set up – I think you remember, you probably remember how my place is set up. I figure – I think you slept in the – that sort of study, spare room I have last time?

AJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris: You can do that again. I been trying to clean out some of my junk in there but that’s – you know that’s – I’ve got a couple sort of desks and tables in there so we can you know set up one studio up there if we want, we can set up one downstairs, I can clean my kitchen table off, you know whatever – whatever works for us so –

AJ: That sounds good, okay great. And so maybe we can or I could just get directions, I could do it while you’re at work, run by the Apple store and pick up another one.

Chris: Yeah, I mean I don’t – you know I don’t really expect you to buy that for me but you know if –

AJ: Yeah, no worries, no worries.

Chris: You’re comfortable do it.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, especially after this week man, no, no problem.

(Laughter)

Chris: Cool.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah I’ll do that then and at least have, I guess probably during the week one will be enough but I’ll try to get it at least before the weekend so that we’ll have two on the weekend when you maybe you know –

Chris: That probably does make sense, yeah. Then we can be doing some simultaneous stuff.

AJ: Yeah. Exciting, cool!

Chris: Yeah. I think I’ve got – and I’ll let you – I’m not sure that I did send you – I think I sent you a second draft of the first part of that lesson I did but I’m not sure I sent you the second part of it cause basically I had like – I probably have like almost I don't know maybe a 20 – if you combine the two parts together, almost a 25 minute lesson.

AJ: Oh perfect, perfect.

Chris: So the other thing you might – yeah, if you don’t mind doing when you get here is listen through the both parts of that and decide if we should combine em or if you think I should do some more work on a particular section.

AJ: Okay, that sounds good.

Chris: But at least you know at least we might have at least one lesson to begin with so –

AJ: Oh good.

Chris: That’s 5% less work for us to do I figure.

AJ: Absolutely.

Chris: I did finish that book you had recommended to me, the – I guess it was Blaine Ray and Contee Seely?

AJ: Oh yeah, yeah the TPRS book?

Chris: Yeah, I finally – cause I had read maybe a third of it but I hadn’t finished it but I also worked my – the rest of the way through that and – over Christmas break so –

AJ: Oh good, good, so that gives you a nice overview of the storytelling technique and –

Chris: It does.

AJ: Kind of the rationale behind it.

Chris: Yep. Yeah it all looks good, it makes a lot of sense to me so I think it’s a great model.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, it’s fantastic, it’s the best I’ve found which is why I use it. Yeah, really nice. Cool, cool. And what was the – what other book did I send you – the marketing book was the Permission Marketing right?

Chris: Yes.

AJ: Stuff go – yeah that’s good stuff too.

Chris: And I’ll get to that.

AJ: Excellent.

Chris: Yeah man and I got plenty of DVD’s here so if you get bored during the day or whatever you’ll – I don’t have cable but I don’t suspect you’re a big cable television person anyways.

AJ: Nah. Yeah, DVD’s will be great. Cool. Yeah actually I gotta load up my ipod too with some videos for the flight. I’ve got like a 9 hour, 9 ½ hours.

Chris: Nine – so you have – is like – is that just like a big layover they have for you or –

AJ: Yeah there’s a – well there’s a 3-hour layover in Chicago, three, three and a half maybe in Chicago.

Chris: Now do you – do you – it’s so funny that you say that because I didn’t have an ipod until I saw the video ipod’s come out and it’s – for me it’s such a drag to hang out in airports twiddling my thumbs and one of the reasons I got it was so I could put videos on there and be entertained in the airport.

AJ: Exactly, that’s why I did it too cause I had –

Chris: But I don’t know anybody – I don’t know anybody else who’s got one for that reason.

(Laughter)

AJ: Yeah. No that’s exactly why I did it – I already had a little like old nano, one of the little ones you know, I used it with some Spanish stuff and a little bit of music and you know really that was fine for my normal use, I don’t need a big one but then as we started traveling more it’s like oh – this is – it’s just a pain in the ass, you know the – none of the American Airlines show movies any more or very rarely do they and you know yeah all the long layovers, I’m like it would be nice to have a, just download some you know, couple little movies or something and some you know. And I did that when we went to Indiana and it was, it was really nice so –

Chris: Cool. Have you – did you discover the – I can’t remember what it’s called, it’s not the Lego podcast but they were like these movies, these sort of movies they make with you know stop-action Legos?

AJ: Oh no I haven’t seen that. I think I’ve heard of it but I haven’t seen it.

Chris: Well you might wanna, you might wanna download one but they’re – some of them are pretty fun, especially the Star Wars one, you might check that one out sort of –

AJ: Oh okay, cool.

Chris: Yeah they’re sorta funny.

(Laughter)

Chris: Anyways. Get you all full up on your ipod.

AJ: Yeah.

Chris: But yeah there’s a Apple store’s around the corner and I’ll show you, the other thing I should do is show you around the area a little bit. So and there a couple restaurants right around here, you know for breakfast and lunch and that kind of thing and –

AJ: Oh nice. Yeah I remember I think your – the last time I was there I think it had just been built right? Your house and that area around it, I think it all seemed really new at that point.

Chris: Yup, you’ll have your car but you’ll certainly be able to find a lot of the basics just by walking around the neighborhood, the grocery store’s open 24 hours a day and –

AJ: Oh nice, that’s great.

Chris: So yeah, yeah we’ll try to make you as comfortable as you can be. Home away from home. Nomad man.

AJ: Awesome. Well I guess maybe if you go ahead and email just some basic directions from the airport and I’ll get on you know, print out a map or something too, I mean I’m sure it’ll be fine and I’ll call – if I get lost.

Chris: It will and I’ll – you’ll have my number and you’ll have your cell phone.

AJ: Yeah.

Chris: So I can always coach you into the last part of it. The other big thing is once you sort of turn into Meadowmont, the grocery store is there and you’ll – in our.... all these, you know the 32 units are right here so it’s almost gonna be impossible to miss actually.

AJ: Okay, great. Hey you know, I was just thinking, I’ll bring my video camera, maybe we can make some videos and put em on the blog, you know like introducing you –

Chris: Yeah man, yeah, let’s do that.

AJ: Introduce you and you know hey, this is Chris. The new teacher, da-ta-dah!

Chris: Yeah that sounds great. That’d be fun.

AJ: All right cool, great. Well all rightie then, I’ll give you a call you know once I’ve landed and in the car and –

Chris: Okay.

AJ: Yeah so see you tomorrow night.

Chris: Sounds great. Anything you want to plan to grab a bite when you get here or –

AJ: Yeah.

Chris: Well I guess we can figure that out.

AJ: Yeah, I imagine I may be hungry after a bunch of bad airline snacks and – they don’t – actually they don’t feed you at all actually now so yeah, actually that – I’ll probably be hungry.

Chris: Yeah I've been, I mean when I flew up over the holidays, they like the one flight they didn’t even give a drink so yeah.

AJ: Damn, not even a drink?

Chris: I know.

AJ: Stingy bastards. That’s why – the Asian airlines are so much better, God. That’s another one that Tomoe is always going on about, service, customer service and things like that. “I can’t believe it.” Like yes, it’s not Japan where they – they you know an army of people is running to serve you everywhere you go.

Chris: Do you have any – do you have like any video of her or anything?

AJ: Trying to think, do I have any video of Tomoe? I shot, she’s so, like kind – she’s a little camera shy.

Chris: Is she.

AJ: Let me think if I – I may actually have, I’ll bring my video from, I think there’s a little bit, like a couple tiny little snippets from our vacation on – in Honduras so I’ll –

Chris: Yeah bring some along, I’d like to – of course you said maybe a picture or two but that’d be interesting to see what she’s like.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah I’ll do that.

Chris: Okay, cool. Well I’m looking forward to it man, it’ll be a good time and yeah give me a call when you get in and we’ll start figuring it out.

AJ: All rightie then, see you tomorrow night.

Chris: Okay.

AJ: Okay.

Chris: Okay great.

AJ: Okay.

Chris: Bye.

AJ: Bye.



Listen To This Article at:
The Effortless English Podcast.

9 comments:

JengSRI said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JengSRI said...

Ooopssss....

AJ,

Who's the guy on the picture?

Is he Chris or Osama Bin Ladeh :)?

AJ Hoge said...

Ha!

That's Chris in the picture!!

This is part 2 of our phone chat-- I recorded it the day before I flew to his house to work on the New Flow English Lessons.

So in the beginning of this part, we are talking about working on the lessons, buying a microphone, etc...

JengSRI said...

I guessed it so that was Chris in the picture but i was expecting that Chris's got a long blond hair, he's got a skinny body and when i saw his picture, he was
actually remind me to an British actor in "LOST" of movie's program, wasn't he?

Btw, thank's million for the podcast AJ! It's a great job!

Forex said...

Hi AJ,

Spontaneous English is cool.

You are right ----'' it can be very difficult for some students to understand-- unless they can check text ''.

Thank you for being so creative and so enthusiastic in teaching english to us.

It's great way to learn english without much worries.

. said...

...too bad that I don't study more the English language...it's so... it's fascinating ...for me...thank you for all AJ!... these conversations are really great...

Unknown said...

I wouldn't be able to understand without the text almost anything.
it's "sloppy" conversation. Your podcasts are so easy to understand but this so difficult...

mazar said...

You're really great, both of you I mean and I love you !

Ghost said...

You always are cool, AJ. this conversation is a great idea, thank a lot!