节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-06-29
难易度:Low
关键字:fluent, remain, career, strive, nominate
Welcome back, everybody.
Hope you had a great break.
After years of hard work and sacrifice,
Vanness Wu found himself acting in the fantastically successful TV drama Meteor
Garden.
Then his fame grew even more with his involvement with the boy band F4.
With all his success, Wu still had a burning question inside him:
Do I have what it takes to make it on my own?
The answer to that starts down on line 12.
Vanness Wu.
Wu showed his musical ability on his first individual album in 2002.
Since then his career has included dancing, singing and acting in movies and TV
shows.
Once he was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award.
Wu says that singing and acting and dancing all challenge him in different ways.
As an actor, he strives to create deep, real characters.
When singing and dancing, he pushes himself to improve his voice and dance
steps.
Wu started off in Taiwan with nothing but his dream.
But after being in a few beauty contests and performing, he quickly became
successful after starring on the show Meteor Garden.
Then he decided to start a band.
That's right.
He started a band with his friends from the show, and they enjoyed instant
success.
And even though Wu was experiencing success, he still wanted to prove himself as
an individual who is talented on his own.
OK, so now we get to see how he did that.
He showed his musical ability on his first individual album in 2002.
Whoa, wait a second, Ryan.
Let's look at these dates.
He came to Taiwan in 2001.
And by 2002, he was already... had already been on a TV show, has started a band
and was starting his own album by himself?
That's right.
Just a year later, he went from having nothing but his dream to being an instant
success.
That's incredible.
I wish we could say the same for everyone, but I am glad to see that Vanness Wu
has done that for himself.
Right. And it's only been 10 years since this time.
And so since that time, his career has included dancing, singing and acting in
movies and TV shows.
He is doing all three things that we call in show business...
We call that a triple threat because he is good at singing, dancing and acting,
which means he's good at three of the most important parts of show business.
Right.
There you said triple threat - triple meaning three, and threat meaning
something that could be a little bit dangerous.
That's right.
He's... he is someone that's a challenge to go against because he is so
talented.
OK. So he has quite an amazing career.
Now the word "career" there means the jobs that you do in your lifetime.
That's right.
Now once he was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award.
So we're talking about all that he's done, and on top of all that, he's already
had a nomination.
Yeah. Now the word to be "nominated" there, that's the verb.
You just said the noun, nomination.
That means to be suggested to win a prize; so someone suggested or they said he
should win a prize at that film award.
Now what's important about nominated is that's an official suggestion.
It does not mean to say: Ryan, you're so good at that, I think you deserve an
award.
It's a professional and official recognition that you could receive some sort of
award.
Yeah. He probably could have received a Hong Kong Film Award.
Well, he says that singing and acting and dancing all challenge him in many
different ways.
Now I think that makes sense because it's three very different parts.
One is using your voice.
One is using your... your body to... to express through movement.
And the other one is kind of combining the two to create a new character.
So it's always an interesting challenge to see people like Vanness Wu who do all
three so well to see what they can come up with next.
Yeah. It does take a lot of talent to be able to do all three and to be able to
be successful at all three.
It's actually really impressive.
Well, as an actor, he strives to create deep, real characters, which
unfortunately we don't see very often in film.
Especially in dramas and in soap operas, characters aren't very deep.
But this is what he strives for.
Yes. And when you're "striving" to do something, that means you are trying as
much as you can to do it.
So he really wants to create these meaningful and deep and real characters.
Now when we say a deep character, that doesn't mean maybe his voice is really
low.
It means that it has... has some meat to it.
So it's not just a very top-layer, surfacy... you don't really understand him.
Maybe he just says his lines.
Instead, you feel like he actually has become that character.
That makes him a deep character.
Yeah. Characters that are deep show real emotions.
Sometimes you can say a character is shallow.
That means they're not very deep.
That means they don't really show real emotions very well.
You can also use this to describe people.
Yeah. Some people can be shallow as well.
That means they don't really care a lot.
And again, they don't... show very many emotions.
But if someone is deep, then they're very thoughtful.
So the fact that Vanness Wu is striving to create a deep character shows that he
actually cares about his acting.
He doesn't value this dancing and singing above that.
Instead, he wants all three to be a fully developed character, fully developed
part of who he is.
That's right.
So we're seeing how he wants to continue to improve in his acting.
But what about in singing and dancing?
Well, singing and dancing, he pushes himself to improve his voice and his dance
steps.
And I think that makes sense.
Well, yeah. When you're singing, you're using your voice.
And when you are dancing, you are using your dance steps, so.
It makes sense.
These are good areas for him to continue to improve.
And you know, Kaylah, I think it's wonderful that he always wants to keep
improving.
We should all be striving to improve ouselves all the time.
We should work towards being better individuals, better people.
And just in developing our talents as well, not just our studies,
but striving to be a really deep person meaningful and thoughtful and expressing
real.
And he does that not just in his acting but also with his voice and his dance.
Yeah. I think this is great.
He knows his talents.
He knows what he's good at.
But he also knows he needs to continue to try and improve, which means to keep
getting better.
And I would assume that means he practices a lot.
Because to get better, that's the only way to get better is to practice, which
means he is out there practicing frequently.
And since he is doing three different talents, that's a lot of time.
Right. So all this he makes it seem easy, but really, it is a challenge for him.
So if you deal with challenges, take a look at Vanness Wu's life and learn from
him, learn to keep improving.
That's right.
Well, that's all the time we have for today with Vanness.
We have one more day looking at his career and where he is now.
But first, let's visit the Chat Room.
I'm sorry that the book isn't back yet, but there isn't anything else I can do.
Look, I already e-mailed the person who took it out.
But until he returns it, I can't do anything else.
Sorry.
Is everything OK, Bryan?
Well, I just got yelled at by a lady who wants to check out a book that's
overdue.
I e-mailed the person who checked it out.
But I can't force him to bring it back.
Pushing me to do something isn't going to make the book come any faster.
That sounds frustrating.
But what did you mean when you said she was pushing you?
She couldn't really have pushed you since she was just talking on the phone.
No. But "push" has another less common meaning.
To push someone to do something means to urge or pressure them to do it.
For example, a lot of parents push their children to work hard in school.
Oh, I see.
Is that the same thing as pushing someone around?
Not exactly.
Pushing someone around means bullying or threatening them, especially if they're
weaker than you.
So pushing someone can be either good or bad depending on what you're pushing
them to do,
but pushing someone around is always bad?
That's right.
And pushing someone around isn't always trying to get them to do something.
It sounds like that woman was really pushing your buttons.
Yes, she was.
And by the way, that's a good use of the idiom, Ken.
Thanks.
It means to upset someone, right?
On purpose.
Pushing someone's buttons means acting in just the right way to upset someone.
Like triggering a bomb to go off.
Yes, exactly.
So are you going to send another e-mail to whoever took that book out and push
him to bring it back?
I think I'll give him a few more days.
After all, it's only a day late.
That sounds good.
Don't let impatient people like that woman push you around.
(Chinese).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And that's it for today's Language Tips.
Take care and bye-bye.
Vanness Wu finally made it big.
His dream of becoming a successful performer finally came true.
Now Wu has an exciting job, plenty of money and thousands of fans.
And he's pretty handsome too.
What guy wouldn't want to trade places with him?
Ah! But not all is as it seems.
Tomorrow we'll find out that for this talented singer, dancer and actor,
making it to the top didn't give him what he needed most - purpose.
Friends, join us tomorrow for the conclusion of our PROFILE on Vanness Wu.
And as always, take care.