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Episode 21: Grape Picking

Episode 21: Grape Picking
This story is about grape picking. First, listen to Akki talk about where he’s staying:

Transcript

So this is my room, it's a big tent and with a small bed and I brought my guitar.

He brought his guitar. Brought is the past tense of bring. Listen for the ‘r’ sound after the ‘b’ brought.

I brought my guitar.

Now listen for the past tense of buy, bought:

I bought Korean curry powder.

I bought Korean curry powder. There’s no 'r' sound. Listen again:

I bought Korean curry powder.

Bought. These 2 words are easy to confuse. Bring- brought, buy - bought. And where is Akki with the curry powder he bought?

So this is where I always hung out with my friends. This is the kitchen dining area.

He’s in the kitchen dining area - the place in the caravan park where you prepare and eat your food. That’s where he ‘hung out’. To hang out in a place is to spend a lot of time there. Notice that he uses the past tense of hang, hung:

So this is where I always hung out with my friends. This is the kitchen dining area.

He hangs out in the kitchen dining area in the evening, but when does he work?

We start working at five o’clock am, it’s still dark.

Five o’clock am.AM means in the morning. You don’t need to say o’clock. Listen:

So it’s around six am now, this time of the day is a very, very comfortable to work in because sun is not too bright and vine is kind of like a shade. It’s not too hot.

Next, listen for the way the word pick is used to mean remove the grapes from the vine and pick up means to collect:

This whole box I pick, these whole grapes I pick, is going to be in Australian families’ home. Make a lid. I work usually this fast and put it on. I usually work like this. Then I put my bar code on. This is me, 3241. That’s me. The tractor comes so I’m just going to put it here and those guys, the cart crew, come and pick it up.

Pick it up - to ‘pick up’ means to collect and to pick is to take fruit from a vine or tree. So what is Akki going to do after work?

I finish my last box for today. Look at the sky. It’s beautiful. There’s no clouds. The temperature is 35 degrees Celsius. Maybe I’m just gonna go home and ask my friends if they wanna get some beers with me, at the pub or something.

He’s going to drink some beer with his friends. So what do you say when drinking beer with friends?

Cheers.
Cheers guys.
Cheers.
Cheers mate.
Hot day.
Yeah, hard work, after hard work.

Cheers. You can even say ‘cheers’ to mean thank you. We’ll finish with Akki saying what he thought of the experience:

I really like it and it was great. Great experience and I’m really happy that I did.

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