节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-05-14
难易度:Medium
关键字:interaction, imply, stifle, body language, emoticon
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us.
We're talking about How Not to Use a Smartphone today.
Yesterday we learned a couple of ways which you should not use your smartphone.
You don't want to ignore your surroundings when you are on your smartphone.
You also don't want to record other people without their permission.
Now do you have a smartphone, and how do you use it most often? - because
smartphones can be good.
Carolyn, how do you use your smartphone?
Well, if I had a smartphone, I would probably use it to look up information
online because I have a very high tendency to get lost.
And so it would be very useful to have a map on my smartphone.
Carolyn, it is very useful.
I also use the map on my smartphone sometimes.
The way I use my smartphone most often is for connecting with people that are
not around me all the time, like through Facebook and things like that.
Um, so you can use... your smartphone in good ways.
But of course, there are some downsides to having a smartphone.
Don't use it in the wrong way.
Let's continue learning about this in today's lesson.
(Music).
How Not to Use a Smartphone.
Disconnecting from people.
Smartphones are great tools for communication - except when they replace
personal interaction.
It's not uncommon to see people sitting together not speaking, but staring
silently at their smartphones.
Real friendships require face-to-face interaction.
Facial expressions and body language express far more than words - or emoticons.
What you focus on reflects your priorities.
Interrupting a conversation to check your phone implies that the person you're
with is less important than your messages.
(Music).
Well, this is a very interesting section titled Disconnecting from people.
And right there in heading we see the word "disconnecting." And it's a word from
our Word Bank.
If you are disconnected from something, then you are not connected.
You're away from it, maybe very far away.
Gabe, how do we usually use this word?
Well, I think about it when I'm thinking about devices like computers or phones
or tablets, things that need to be plugged in.
You need to connect it to an electric source so that you can have power.
And then you can disconnect it.
You can pull the wire out of the wall.
You can disconnect these things.
But then of course, they might run out of batteries if you disconnect them for
too long.
But how else can you use this word?
Well, here we're talking about and disconnecting from people.
So this is not an electronic device - your smartphone or your tablet that's
plugged in, and then it's not plugged in.
This is talking about your relationships with the people around you.
And if you're disconnected from a person, then you're not really paying
attention to them.
You're not close to them, even though perhaps they're right next to you.
So how does this start, Gabe?
Well, smartphones are great tools for communication - except when they replace
personal interaction.
I think this happens a lot.
Smartphones and other kinds of technologies can replace personal interaction
with people.
Let's talk about that key word: interaction.
When you interact with somebody, that means you're having a conversation with
them, or you're communicating with them somehow.
That is interaction.
Carolyn and I are co-workers.
And so we have personal interaction almost every day.
How else can you use that word?
Well, I do think of it as a personal interaction when you are talking to another
person.
You are interacting with them.
There's also a verb form: interacting.
So if you have this interaction with others, then you are developing a
relationship with them.
However, continuing in the article we see:
It's not uncommon to see people sitting together not speaking, but staring
silently at their smartphones.
That's right.
It's not uncommon.
You could also say it's common to see this kind of thing happening.
It's not uncommon.
They want to emphasize that this happens a lot.
People just stare silently at their smartphones, and they don't really talk to
each other.
But what can we find out about real friendships?
We continue.
Real friendships require face-to-face interaction.
Carolyn, do you agree with this?
Do all real friendships need face-to-face interaction?
Well, I know that in our world today, we're so connected through technology that
people enjoy just sending e-mails,
chatting online, talking on the phone, sending text messages.
And there are so many ways to communicate with people that sometimes we don't
think about face-to-face interactions as being very important.
But I think that if you really want to have a close relationship with someone,
you need to see them in person and sit down and get to know them, not just
chatting online.
I agree.
And we continue learning more about this.
Facial expressions and body language express far more than words - or emoticons.
Well, there's a lot in that sentence.
But of course, if you're talking with someone, communicating with somebody, 90
percent of your communication is nonverbal.
It's not what you say.
It's in your body language and facial expressions.
So what is your body language, Carolyn?
Well, your body language is what you're doing with your body.
We say language is what you're saying, what you're speaking.
But you can also use your body to communicate things, and especially facial
expressions.
If you are happy, you have a smile.
If you're not happy, maybe you have a frown or you're angry.
And it's very obvious from the way that your body is reacting to what someone
else is saying, how you feel.
And sometimes you can express those feelings with emoticons if you're writing or
texting someone.
Let's take a look at the Info Cloud for more information about this.
Emoticons are pictorial symbols that people include in their e-mails, blogs and
instant messages to communicate feelings that words simply can't express by
themselves.
There are hundreds of emoticons in use today.
However, the most popular still remains the smiley face.
In the Western world, they're made by hitting the colon key for the eyes,
a hyphen for the nose, and then a right parenthesis, which represents the
upturned mouth.
Now most Western emoticons like the smiley face are vertical - that is you have
to tilt your head to the left to read them - compare them with Japanese
emoticons, which tend to be horizontal.
Right.
They might require a few extra steps to make, but there's no head tilt required.
For example, a Japanese style happy face emoticon has an underscore for the
mouth,
carets for eyes, and parentheses symbolizing the outline of the face.
Asian people will also sometimes use language characters as emoticons.
For example, the Chinese character (Chinese), which means bright.
But because (Chinese) kind of looks like a wacky square face, when it's used as
an emoticon,
it can express annoyance, embarrassment awkwardness and frustration, depending
on the context.
(Chinese).
Thanks, Steve and Ken.
Well, emoticons are pretty interesting.
And I actually have one right here.
Yeah, that is a very popular emoticon.
I've got one, too.
What could these things be expressing?
Well, we don't know.
But emoticons do express different emotions.
And it's important not just to express through emoticons, but to be able to have
face-to-face interaction with people.
Well, we continue with our lesson.
What you focus on reflects your priorities.
So interrupting a conversation just to check your phone implies that the person
you're with is less important than your messages.
Well, Carolyn, we have a key word there in that sentence.
We do, the word "imply." And if you imply something, then that is what people
are going to think.
So if you're not paying attention to the people around you, you're just playing
with your smartphone or fiddling with your smartphone,
it makes other people think that really they aren't very important, and maybe
you don't want to talk to them.
That's right.
Sometimes you imply something in life.
You don't say it directly to your friend.
But your actions show something.
That... that's how you imply something to your friend.
Well, it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).