A new language, a new culture

In this mini movie Jacquelyn, Emily, Sydney and Alex talk about learning English and about exchange
students at their high school. Which of these words do you think they will use?

Jacquelyn:Uhm, when Ali first came here, his first day I showed him around since I’m on this school – like I show new people around – and I remember … uhm … when I was showing him around, I would use like slang terms, and he didn’t understand what I was talking about. Like the word sketchy, like uh … that means like …
Emily:It’s unclear.
Jacquelyn:Unclear.
Sidney:It’s not-, like a weird situation.
Alex:Risky.
Jacquelyn:Yeah, risky.
Sidney:Risky.
Jacquelyn:Risky. Uh-, so yeah, it was – I had to reword a lot of my sentences accord-, to make him understand what I was saying.
Sidney:You kind of ... make your – You kind of speak more formally like you would speak to your boss or your teachers. You wouldn’t speak to your friends that way just so that they – Because I think that the language that they study over there’s a lot … very, very proper compared to what we speak. I talk to the-, I talk to my mom about this a lot how we don’t even speak correct English sometimes because we’re just used to being with our friends and family that we don’t even use things in the right context half the time anyways so … I don’t know, my advice is to … take one step at a time because we, I don’t know –
Jacquelyn:Well, and I think …
Emily:We’re still learning.
Sidney:Yeah.
Jacquelyn:Yeah, and I think that Ali especially has picked up on a lot of the slang and like –
Sidney:For sure.
Jacquelyn:– he pretty much gets everything everyone says now.
Alex:Yeah, it’s, and it’s amazing how well like … they know the English language for them being it, for … them having it as their second language. A lot of times they s-, speak it better than us … yeah. And we’re learning things from them and they also, like they teach us what their original language would be, and so it’s fun going back and forth and teaching each other new words and … new things.
Sidney:Oh yeah, uh, like Julian, he’s from Germany. Uhm, when he first came here he couldn’t pronounce the word “squirrel” [laughter], and we thought it was the funniest thing, but I guess it is harder for him. But he’s accomplished that which I think is amazing. [laughter]
Alex:Yeah.
Emily:Uhm, here in Dubuque we get foreign exchange students from … all over the world. We have Pakistan, uhm …
Sidney:Germany.
Emily:Germany, Russia, China, the Marshall Islands, uhm …
Sidney:Brazil, as well.
Jacquelyn:Brazil, yeah.
Emily:Yeah. So it’s really cool to experience a lot of culture in one small town, even though we necessarily don’t get that opportunity to travel, which I think it’s amazing that they have the … opportunities and courage to even … go try that. Especially living with like a host family.
Jacquelyn:Yeah.
Sidney:That’s crazy to me.
Emily:And being so far away from yours.
Jacquelyn:Yeah.
Sidney:For a year, basically.

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