English.” the donkey says.
“Why do you need English?” Tatsuki asks.
“You don’t understand, Tatsuki. We need English to watch YouTube videos, to read American and English books and, of course, to talk with other animals from different countries”, the animals say.
“Okay”, says Tatsuki. “I know English, but I can’t teach you English. So I can’t help you”.
“Maybe you know someone who can?” the animals ask. And at this very moment, the farmer remembers Alex, the English teacher. And he goes, “Wait, wait, I know. If there is anyone who can help you, it is Alex. Alex can teach you to understand and to read and to speak true, real and excellent English.” All the animals are elated. “But”, says the farmer. “But?” ask the animals. “But I have lost his telephone number somewhere. So I can’t call him. Sorry, guys.”
Immediately, the wisest donkey comes up with an idea! “We must find it. How about doing a big search on the farm? I am sure, we will find it.”
“That’s a great idea!” Tatsuki says.
For three days and three nights, the farmer and the animals have searched everywhere. And finally, a young pig finds a small, dirty and crumpled piece of paper with Alex’s telephone number on it.
The farmer immediately calls Alex. He asks him to come and teach his animals English. But Alex cannot come. Why? Because Alex is far away. Now he lives in Russia. But Alex says, “I cannot come to you, but you can buy my books, my English courses. And if you do the courses, I promise, you will understand English. You will read in English and, of course, you will speak true, real and excellent English”.
The farmer and the animals are very happy and very excited.
This is the end of the story for “The Japanese Farmer” What are you going to do next? Right! Next, you are going to listen to this story. And you are going to enjoy the story. And then you go and grab your vocabulary lesson. See you there.
Unit 1. The vocabulary lesson
Hello, this is Alex and this is your vocabulary lesson for “The Japanese Farmer.” Let’s start it immediately.
I am going to start with the phrase “to answer the door”
Let me read this sentence for you again so that you can hear this phrase again.
When the farmer answers the door, he sees all of his animals standing on their heads on the porch.
To answer the door simply means to open the door. It is when you go and open the door because a visitor has knocked on it or rung the bell. So, in our case, the animals have knocked on the door and the farmer goes to the door and opens it. In other words, he answers the door.
Next we have another fantastic expression which is “on behalf of someone”
Well, actually, it is an English idiom. We use this idiom when we want to say something on the part of someone or instead of someone or in support of someone because you are representing the interests of that person or the interests of that group of people. In our case, the oldest and the wisest donkey represents the interests of all the animals. So he speaks for all the animals. He speaks instead of the animals. All the animals have chosen the donkey as he is the oldest and the wisest and he knows how to speak well and they let him speak on their behalf. They let the donkey represent their interests.
Okay, we move on and we see one more idiom which is “at this very moment”
At this or at that very moment simply means at the present moment or at the same moment or simply right now. It’s easy, right? At the same moment, when the animals ask the farmer if he knows anyone who can help to teach them English, he remembers Alex, the English teacher who was his English teacher many years ago. At this very moment, the farmer remembers Alex, the English teacher. I think you get the idea, right?
In this lesson we also have the verb “to go”
You may say what “to go”? Who doesn’t know this verb? Everybody does. Everybody knows this verb. Yes, you’re right. Of course, you know the meaning of this word, no doubt about it. But you also know that English is crazy. Let me prove it to you. Here “to go” means “to say”. Yes, you see. English is really crazy. I go it means I say. That is why in the story you hear me say. I go, “Wait, wait, I know if there is anyone who can help you it is Alex. Alex can teach you to understand, to read and to speak true, real and excellent English”.
Our next expression for today is “to get elated”
The sentence says, “All the animals get elated.” To get elated means to become extremely happy and excited often because something has happened or been achieved. If you want to say that you are full of joy, you are extremely happy about something you say, “I am elated by something”. For example, your friend has a child, a new daughter. You are extremely happy for him and you say, “I am elated by the birth of your daughter”. In our case, the animals become supper happy when they learn that the farmer knows how to help them learn English better and faster and that very fact makes them extremely happy and excited. They are full of joy. They get elated by that fact.
Next we have the expression “to come up with something”
The sentence says, “Immediately, the wisest donkey comes up with an idea!” When someone comes up with something it means that they suggest or think of an idea or of a plan. So the wisest donkey suggests the idea. He has an idea in his head. It has the meaning that an idea comes to his mind and he produces it. He gives an idea. He produces an idea. He comes up with an idea. “Immediately, the wisest donkey comes up with an idea!” And, of course, you remember the idea that the donkey comes up with, right? The wisest donkey says, “How about doing a big search on the farm.”
This is our next sentence that we are going to focus on in this vocabulary lesson. “To do a big search”
When someone decides to do a search it means that they try to find something by looking for them carefully because they want to find something every important, something that they have lost, for example. It may be anything. It may be the key to your room; it maybe the book you’re reading now, or it may be, like in our case, the telephone number. So the wisest donkey suggests doing a big search on the farm in order to find Alex’s telephone number. The telephone number is very important for all of them. I think you get the idea, right?
And our final word for today is “to search”
In the previous vocabulary item, you see this word “search” as a noun, as a thing. Do what? A search. And “a search” there means a thing which is expressed by the object. But here we have the verb. Yes, in English the same word can be a noun and can be a verb. It all depends where we put it in the sentence. In the story I say, “For three days and three nights, the farmer and the animals have searched everywhere.” I use the word “search” as a verb which means to go around a place and look around everywhere very carefully. I put the word between the subject (the farmer and the animals) and the adverbial modifier “everywhere”. This is where we usually put verbs, because we are talking about actions. We put verbs between subjects and objects or adverbials. By doing it we show what the subjects do. This is how we usually structure all the sentences in English, and not only in English. We do it in Russian, in Spanish and in many other European languages. So the farmer and the animals search everywhere wanting to find Alex’s telephone number to start speaking English. And as you remember, they find it. They telephone Alex and everything ends well.
That’s the end of the vocabulary lesson for “The Japanese Farmer” Okay. See for the mini-story.
Unit