节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-24
难易度:Medium
关键字:garment, hopeful, mentor, globe, flea market
Hello, and welcome back to Studio Classroom.
Today Carolyn and I have been sharing our English language knowledge with you as
we learn about Wenlan Chia, or Chia Wenlan.
She has returned to her roots in Taipei, and she is teaching hopeful design
students about global fashion design.
Let's learn a bit more about this famous fashion designer in the next part of
our lesson.
(Music).
Wenlan Chia.
As a young designer in the U.S., Chia made mistakes because there was no one to
mentor her.
Chia hopes to mentor design students at Shih Chien to help them avoid the same
mistakes.
Her Twinkle collections are sold in more than 350 shops around the globe.
It's clear she has a mind for good design and good business, and she's taking
Twinkle to the top.
Her advice to anyone who wants to succeed in design?
"Know yourself and do your best."
(Music).
(Chinese).
And now let's go to our teachers.
Thanks, Michelle.
Wow, Wenlan sounds like a very positive and encouraging person.
Now let's talk a little bit about her history in the fashion world.
All right.
In the first part of this section, we see the words "as a" at the very
beginning.
So let's talk about how to use this short, simple phrase to introduce something.
When you use the words "as a," you show that you are going to describe a quality
about something.
For example, "As a writer, she enjoys traveling to keep her story ideas fresh
and interesting."
So the fact that she is a writer is important to her joy of traveling.
It also gives the impression that if she wasn't a writer, she wouldn't travel as
much.
Right.
You can also say, "As a fashion designer, he spends a lot of his time
researching fashion trends."
So he wants to know what is and isn't in style because he is a fashion designer.
And as a young fashion designer, Wenlan made mistakes.
Now she wants to help other young fashion designers avoid the same mistakes that
she made.
And that is a wonderful thing to do.
And if you avoid making the same mistakes as someone else, that means that you
learn from their mistakes.
And that's a great phrase to talk about.
It sure is.
If you "learn from someone's mistakes," that means you know what happened
before, and you know how to prevent yourself from doing the same thing.
For example, Tommy learned from his older brother's mistakes and knew that it
was important to eat healthy and exercise regularly.
So you know that his brother wasn't very healthy, but Tommy knows what to do to
prevent that from happening to him.
So it's good to pay attention to what other people do so that you can learn from
them and know how to live a happy and successful life by not repeating the
mistakes that other people have already made.
Right. Well, despite her early mistakes, Twinkle is now a very successful line
of clothing that is sold in over 350 shops around the world.
And here in our lesson we see the word "shop."
There are many ways to talk about the place where you buy something.
You can go to a shop, a store, a mall, an outlet, a retailer or a boutique.
And each of these names has a slightly different meaning.
And if you go to a shop, then it is probably small with friendly staff, and it
might have a limited selection of items or it has certain special items for
sale.
A store is more of a general name for a place that you can buy things.
It can be big, small, cheap, expensive.
If you don't know what to call a place that sells things, you could probably
just call it a store.
And then there are other places like malls that have a large number of stores in
one area, or an outlet that sells items at a discounted price.
Then there is a retailer, which is a store that carries specific items and
probably isn't very fancy.
On the other hand, a boutique also carries specialized items, but it is usually
a small store that is very nice and can be quite expensive.
So what kind of stores do you like to shop at?
Twinkle is sold in many different types of shops or stores, and it can even be
ordered online.
Wenlan certainly has a good mind for business.
And we should improve our minds by looking at that phrase: to have a mind for
something.
That means that you are particularly good at doing something that requires
thinking.
For example, you could say, "She has a mind for math."
She is able to solve math problems quickly and easily.
Or... He has a mind for languages.
He's very good at learning languages.
You could also use this to talk about something that a... person is very focused
on.
For example, "He has a mind for God."
That means that he spends a lot of time thinking about God, praying, and doing
what God wants him to do.
All right.
Well, this is all very great, but right now it's time for us to learn something
new with Liz in the Grammar Gym.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
Thanks for joining me here.
My name is Liz.
For today's Grammar Tip, we're looking at the following two sentences:
Her advice to anyone who wants to succeed in design?
Know yourself and do your best.
The first sentence is actually a question, and the second sentence is the
answer.
But notice how the first sentence being the question doesn't have a W-H word and
the Be verb at the beginning.
This is actually something you might hear native speakers do.
They drop the W-H word plus the Be verb, and just go straight into the object
phrase.
This is an informal way of pointing out or introducing an idea which appears in
the next sentence.
Here are some examples:
The fashion editor's number one beauty tip?
Get plenty of sleep.
Or: The first thing Sam plans on doing after he retires?
Travel around the world.
Now it's your turn.
Think of an idea to introduce but begin with a question without the W-H word and
the Be verb, and then present the idea.
If you want to see some more examples, you can check out today's Grammar Tip
section for more ideas.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Hey, wait! Stop! Stop!
Stop? What for?
I want to ask you about the items that you're wearing.
I'm not surprised.
People often stop me in the street, and then they give me compliments about the
clothes I wear.
Oh, really! Wow!
Yes. That's one reason I turned my focus to fashion.
Oh! Are you a fashion designer?
Yes. I created Twinkle by Wenlan.
I launched my first collection in 2000.
Twinkle... I can see why.
Your outfit sparkles and shines.
Yes. And Twinkle fashions are worn by famous stars.
Twinkle, twinkle, famous stars.
Yes.
So tell me, what inspires you?
Well, lots of things, everyday things like art, food, music and travel.
I also visit flea markets for ideas.
What?! Flea markets? Really?
Yes. People know me for playful knitted items and antique jewelry.
Well, that's wonderful.
I'm so happy to meet a New York City designer.
Well, I'm saying goodbye to New York City.
I'm returning to my roots.
Your roots?
Yes. I want to share my knowledge with hopeful desingers in Taiwan.
But what about Twinkle?
Twinkle fashions are sold in over 350 shops around the globe.
Oh. So you're taking Twinkle to the top.
Yes, I'm doing my best.
Uh, can I cross the street now?
Oh, yeah, sure. Bye-bye.
Wenlan is known for her knitted items and old-fashioned jewelry.
She loves to get ideas for her clothing from flea markets and is inspired by
food, music and even books.
She has returned to her roots and teaches classes to hopeful designers at Shih
Chien University in Taipei.
Her hope is to help students by mentoring them and teaching them from her own
mistakes.
Her Twinkle collection can be found all over the globe.
She advises people to know themselves and do their best.
That was a great review skit.
And thank you, Linda, for the Editor's Summary.
This has been a very encouraging lesson for anyone who is trying to succeed in a
competitive industry.
And just remember some of the great points that we learned today like learning
from other people's mistakes.
And we will see you for our next lesson right here on Studio Classroom.
(Music).