 Hi, I'm Avi Arditi with Carolyn Pursuti here at VOA Learning English, and thank you for joining us today as we talk to some callers on Skype. We're going to start by talking to a caller named Wafa from Egypt, because Carolyn here from VOA News has been covering the Egyptian election. There's been voting at the embassy here in Washington. All the Egyptian Americans are going there, and it's the runoff election, of course, because we're narrowing down to two presidential candidates. So it's between two, and the last date of vote will be tomorrow night at 8 o'clock. So do you want to talk to Wafa? I'll post a little note here on Facebook and let people know to watch us on Ustream. So Wafa, tell us a little bit about yourself. And tell us if you voted Wafa in the earlier election, because I realize that the runoff election hasn't taken place for you in Egypt yet. Yes, I voted before, but for someone whose name is Abu Fattouh, but he didn't win. He didn't win. And the thing that really made us or made us so confused because it's down to two, and many people don't like these two, and they don't trust them. And this is a problem for us right now. And you don't know why, you know, like it's between Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq, you know, Shafiq, yes. We heard that from Americans, too. Egyptians living here in the United States, one person even told me they exed out their ballot. They didn't put anything on the ballot, they just exed out the names, and they didn't vote for anybody. So they said they wanted to invalidate their ballot because they didn't believe in either candidate. Here in the states, we have what we call a write-in candidate. So if you get a ballot, typically if you don't like the person or the choices, you can write in a name of someone you want to vote for, even if only you and a few other people vote for this person. In some elections, you can do that. I think they do this right now, but I think there'll be no use for it. You know, finally it's down to two, and finally there's one of these two that would win. And if you don't cite many Egyptians, don't want either one of them to win. Well, Fa, tell me what the word is in Egypt right now, because as we know, both men may be declared ineligible by your court there. That's going to be decided next week, shortly before anyone in Egypt votes. I mean, what's the word on the street there about that, about both Shafiq and Morsi, maybe taking off the ballot entirely? You know, Caroline, believe it or not, many Egyptians are so frustrated because of this. You know, it's down to two, as I said, and they're very frustrated because many people wanted Sabahi and he's another candidate. Okay, many people wanted Abu Fattuah because they trust him. So Muslim Brotherhood, you don't side, you trust them, but the latest decisions they made make you know, like, not trust in them that much, okay? Because when they say that we're not going to elections and then they went to elections, okay? And we will not put the candidate and then they put candidate. So this, this made you know, like, you don't know why and they didn't explain themselves because of this. And of course, who she's talking about is the one candidate, Mohamed Morsi, is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate and then the other candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, was the Prime Minister under Mubarak. The last Prime Minister under Mubarak. Exactly. So we have, we have some friction there. I think it was best explained to me as these are the two most polarizing candidates that was, that were in the running for the original election two weeks ago and those are the two that came to the top. Most polarizing being the people that bring out the most bad and good in the electorate. Either you hate them or you love them, as explained to us. One day a little, this week in the US in California, they just introduced a new way of voting. It's a new method of election where, and it was, I forget what the races were for, but it was the two, whoever wins the two candidates with the most votes, this was actually in a congressional election in Southern California in the San Fernando Valley area, whoever gets the two candidates with the most votes will face each other in the general election. All right, now that's, that's not unusual, but what is, but what's unusual about this is that they could both be from the same party. They'll take, normally if you're a Democrat, you vote, typically if you're a Democrat, you vote in the Democratic primary for a Democratic candidate, and then if you're a Republican, you vote in the Republican primary for a Republican, and then in November in the general election, the Democrat and the Republican go, go against each other. But with this new system now, it doesn't, doesn't matter which party. So in fact, in this race, for this new seat in the, in the San Fernando Valley, there'll be two Democrats facing each other in the fall. So I think it's to try to reduce the, you know, the, the party influence or, you know, the polarization between, where you only have one option to vote for. Yes, to be honest, you know, now we should be very realistic and reasonable. Okay. Whether, whether it comes to Shafiq or Mohamed Morsi, I just hope all go for Egypt. That's it for my country. Well, let me ask you this though, what happens if the Supreme Constitutional Court then rules against both men, and, and you have to have the elections all over again? Will it, will it be a matter of the, the public then losing their trust in the electoral process, or will that be a good thing? Because then everybody can vote again for the people that they want. I don't know, to be honest, Caroline, I don't know. What's, what's, what's good or what's better? You know, to be honest, you know. What are you hoping for? I hope all good for Egypt, you know, like a good president. That's it. Well, what do you do for a living? Do you work? Are you a student? What do you do? You know, I graduated from Faculty of Education and Arts 2008. I'm an English teacher. I'm supposed to be this way, but I didn't work for four years. I started, you know, like, searching for a job right now and I'm not teaching kids. I hope I'm doing well with them. You sound very good in English. Your English is excellent. So, well, we're going to take, we're going to go on to another caller now. It's nice talking to you, Wafa. We're going to go on to Mohamed calling us from. Yeah. Hi, Mohamed. Where are you, where are you calling from? Uh-oh. Mohamed, can you hear us? Can you hear us? Mohamed, we're seeing you. Okay, we hear you. You're really pixelated though there. That's okay. Well, tell us, tell us about yourself. You a student? You look young. We see your, your, with your headset on. What are you? Yeah. Okay. We see you. We see you. Go ahead. Whoops. Where are, where are you from? What country are you from? Yeah, Indonesia. I'm from Indonesia. Indonesia. Very good. Yeah. And what do you do in Indonesia? Pardon? What job do you have in Indonesia? Where do you work? Yes, we can see you. Well, actually, this is, our audience isn't seeing you, but, but let's go on with the, with just the conversation. Tell us a little, a little bit about yourself. What do you do? Oh, I am a student. Okay. University student, the last university, life university student. What are you studying? Or I study in the Shenkou University, or the education department. The education department. Yeah. Well, great. We wish you luck. The connection's not great. So we're going to go on to Montessor. Montessor, can you hear us? Montessor? Hello. Are you there? Montessor? Okay. No Montessor. On, on next to Oscar. Oscar. Hello, Oscar. Hello, how are you? Good. Where are you from? You sound like you're from down under. I'm from Spain. Oh, Spain, okay. Down under. The other way. The other way. Little to the east. So tell us, what do you do, Oscar? What's on your mind? I'm a teacher. A teacher in Spain. Where in Spain? In Madrid. Oh, perfect. Perfect. What, what do you teach? I teach technology and IT. Are you originally from Spain? Yeah. I was born in Madrid. My parents too. And my grandparents as well. Oh my gosh. Excellent. Do you look like you're from California? Your picture with the baseball cap on, with the water in the background. What, what team? Do you have a team logo on your baseball cap there? It's turned around, so we can't see it. No, no, no. It's a, it's a cap with a logo from tennis paddle or paddle tennis. Do you know what paddle is? Paddle? Paddle tennis? Is it different kind of sport? What kind of tennis? It's paddle tennis. Oh, paddle tennis. We got it now. We got you now. Right. Okay, sorry. This is a, well, it's not table tennis, right? And it's not, it sounds like it's not. No, really. But the bigger paddles, right? Like racket ball. Does it have a net? I wouldn't call it, I call them, racket, I would call them bats. Bats. Oh, bats. Well, let me plan it. This is similar to tennis, but there are always two couples playing. There's no single. Okay. The main difference is, apart from the size of the court that is smaller, there are two walls, one at the end of each side of the court. So there are two options or two chances to hit the ball when it's coming towards you and when it's after hitting the wall behind you. Great. Thanks for educating me. Are you, are you, are you good at this? Are you good at paddle tennis? Are you a professional? Not really, but I like playing paddle from time to time. Very good. Well, we're going to go on to a call. Nice talking to you. Thank you for calling. We're going to go on to Baskar. We're going to go on to Mara. Hello, Mara. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Mara, are you there? Can you hear us? All right. Well, let's see. We are, yeah, sure. Let's, let's, yeah, let's, okay. Oh, our old friend Bonita is calling. Hi, Bonita. How are you? Bonita, are you there? Hello. Hey, how are you? Fine. It's been a while. How are you? Long time haven't seen you online. Where are you? I'm from Uzbekistan, Tashkent, but right now I'm in another country in Russia. Oh my gosh, on business or pleasure? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on a business trip here. So after three days, I'm coming back, going back to my country. Oh, yes. Is this your first time in Russia or no? No, it's already the third time. What do you think about Russia? It's great, but it's right now, it's very cold here. In my country, it's very hot. And, you know, we've been longing for summer for so long this year, and now it's like autumn again. Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, Bonita, well, thank you for calling. We're going to go on to, we've got a call coming in from India. So we're going to talk to, okay, bye, Bonita. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Victor. Hi, Victor. Hello, Victor. Hi. Hi, Victor. Welcome. Tell us a little bit. What's on your mind? Well, here, go ahead. Where are you from in India? Hello, Victor. Are you still there? Can you hear us? Hello? Hi, can you hear us? Yeah, I'm from Polkata. Polkata. Yes, I can hear you. Great. You sound young. Are you a student? Yes, I'm a student. I'm studying computer science. Your English is very good. Thank you. It's because I had English as my first language since my school days. So that's fine. I just saw the status update on your page that you're taking Skype calls, so I was like excited to talk to you guys. Great. Are you watching us also on Ustream? I was actually watching you on Ustream, but then I disconnected because I just wanted to talk. That's fine. Well, that's cool. That's fine. So what's going on? Do you have any big, as we say here, do you have any big plans for the weekend? What are your plans? No, I'm taking my first semester test at the university. The next example would be on and guess what the subject is? It's English language. Oh, well, you'll ace it. I'm sure. Is it written? Do you speak it? Or is it written test or do you just speak it? It's written test. It's basically like paragraph writing and note writing and then story writing and stuff like that. You talk about like, global warming or, you know, politics or stuff like that, you know, the different topics they have. So that's it really. It's really nice talking to you guys, really. So we're from like from the US. Oh, yeah. We're here in Washington. Victor, we've got a call coming in from Thailand. It's been nice talking to you, Victor. Good luck on your test. Yeah, best of luck. We go on to John Aouisa. Hello. Hello. Hi. Victor. I like your picture with the snowmobile in your picture. On your Skype profile. We see you on a snowmobile. Is that you on a snowmobile? Yeah, in Norway. In Norway. Oh, not in Thailand. Last year, last year. Great. I was in Thailand back in 1990. I loved it. I was in Bangkok and actually we went on to Hanoi from there. But the time I spent in Bangkok, I really enjoyed it. I don't know. Where are you from in Thailand? I'm at Bangkok. Oh, you are? There you are. That's on my bucket list. Have you ever heard that term? It's a list of places that you want to go to, things you want to do before you, what we call kick the bucket, before you die. So it's just a saying. It's an American saying. It's a bucket list. So one of Carolyn's items on her bucket list is to visit Bangkok. Yes. Visit Thailand. Today is very nice to hear our teacher, both of you. Yes. You're doing well. I can't really, I can't contact with you. I'm really glad. Well, are you watching us on Ustream also or just talking to us on Skype? Talking on Skype. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. Pardon? I use my iPhone. Oh, okay. Excellent. What do you do in Thailand? Do you go to school? Do you work? What do you do? I'm working now. I take a break. You took a break from work. We won't tell your boss. We won't tell that you took a break. You're on a break from work right now? Yeah. You can hear it. What time is it there? It's now it's 2 a.m. Oh my goodness. You work overnight. Yeah. What do you do, Jaynawesa? What kind of job do you do? I am air traffic controller. An air traffic controller. So hopefully right now. I hope this brings me to America. Actually, with a name like Avi, you might understand that I have an interest in aviation English and actually have gotten to know about air speak and the English proficiency standards. You know that until recent years, there were no international proficiency standards for air traffic controllers. And now what the international civil aviation organization, part of the UN, is requiring standards for controllers. Your English sounds excellent. How did you work on your English or how did you improve it? Oh, around two years ago, we had a new rule in aviation. You know, I.K.O.? Oh, that's right. I can, right? Yeah. Air traffic controllers have to pass the I.K.O. test. And I.K.O. tests, there are the four levels. Level three is mean unpassed and level four up to level four to level six. So what level are you? So we have to pass level four. But you do much better than level four, right? Oh, no, no, just four. My English is not so good, but I try to improve and allow the last three months go. I contact with you and I'm very happy, you know, because your style is very interesting. We can improve every day with you. So sometimes I wonder how can you test your student like that because it takes more time. Like two times for one day, one night, I think you're very kind of you to do like that. Well, I mean, we do audio programs every day of the year for this exact reason to help people in their education and their work with reading and especially listening comprehension. Obviously, as an air traffic controller, that's critical for you to understand the pilot and the pilot to understand you. And so a lot of people, I know we've actually, we have a fan who's in air traffic control at the Baghdad Airport. We hear from him every every year he sends us a card at the New Year. So I think we have, you know, fans who use our programs. So go to go to voa special English.com. You probably do that every day, voa special English.com to read and listen to our stories and also see and to watch what I'll be doing in like five minutes. That's right. That's right. Carolyn's going to be heading down to our studio to host this week's series of special English videos. But what's your favorite expression? You know the term like hold short? It's obviously it's an air traffic control term, right? Yeah. Okay, do you have a term that you really like that that you want to giggle or something when you when you and I'm talking to a pilot and you you know use a technical term or what's your favorite expression or your favorite term from aviation English? I like to do that. But sometimes I I don't have the idea how to how to talk with you about about our our topic like us when I I get when I go going to test sometimes they show they show me about the picture accident picture and and order me to explain about that picture. It depends on our imagination. So sometimes I cannot explain fully, right? Because my job we use a lot of physiology, physiology. But sometimes our pronunciation is not so good. So when I learn with you, I think I think I hope I hope and I pray oh how can we have a two way communication like sometimes we can talk together to a communication like like this is very good, very excellent. Exactly. Well here I have I have a suggestion for you. If you go to voisspecialenglish.com, if you look on our front page, there's a link to something called englishcentral.com. If you're looking for a way to practice with basically with a headset, it's speech recognition. It will help you correct and improve your pronunciation with speech recognition. It's all the voa materials on that site. I mean this this all the voa materials on that site are free. Other materials are not free but we're not we don't promote those but the that company takes voa videos and makes them so that you can interact with them with a headset and it will help you improve your your pronunciation and show you where where you can improve it. I will leave you with one anecdote a friend of mine who's a linguist at Boeing the the maker of the airplane told me the story of how whether this is true or not no one knows but this aircraft mechanic who thought that the word replace okay what do you think the word replace like if you have to replace replace apart let's say it's a broken part on an airplane this mechanic supposedly thought that the word replacement take the broken part out dust it off you know try to repair and replace it no no no so that word in in simplified technical english the the language of aviation mechanics replace is is defined to mean uh substitute right as opposed to right you only use that term to mean substitute not to could could you tell me again voa.com like it's voa special english dot com voa special english dot com and then there's a link to the english central company it's but again all the voa materials on that site are are free to you so it was great great talking to you and we'll let you get back to uh to landing planes so okay land them safely please that's right land them safely and we i know now caroline has got to go down to um our studio uh to host the uh this week's uh special english segments and we want to thank you all for joining us uh on our our skype call-in show and watching us on you stream and we will talk again very soon take care bye