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Episode 11: Cricket

Episode 11: Cricket
Join Shobbie and learn a little about both cricket and English.

Transcript

Today Shobbie learns how to play cricket and enjoys a BBQ.

I've never had a picnic in Australia before. I've never played cricket before either so it's quite exciting for me. I'm actually looking forward to just having fun outdoors and learning how to play a new sport, having fun with my family and some of my friends.

Okay. Do you want salt on something that's going to kill you or something that's going to kill you with salt?

A bit of both.

Okay. That's good to know.

Salt 'on' something that's going to kill you or something that's going to kill you 'with' salt. You can say that you have salt on something – do you want salt 'on' that? And you can also say 'with salt' – do you want that 'with' salt?. Listen again:

Okay. Do you want salt on something that's going to kill you or something that's going to kill you with salt?

A bit of both.

Okay. That's good to know.

Both are the same. Both is two. If you want both you want the two things that are offered. Here the two things are the same. What's another word that refers to two things?

I've never had a picnic in Australia before. I've never played cricket before either so it's quite exciting for me.

either. (eether). She hasn't had a picnic and she hasn't played cricket either. She hasn't done those two things. And you can also pronounce it "eyether".

Give me the general explanation. How do you play cricket? Basically, you've got two sets of wickets, just out there and you've got two batsmen.

Okay.

So, what happens is at one end you've got their facing batsman, who will probably be you to start off with. The ball will be thrown at you.

Okay.

You have to hit it.

And the idea is every time you swap sides, that's a run, and you have to try and get as many runs as you can.

The ball 'will be thrown'. This is a passive sentence because the subject, the ball, is not doing the action:

The ball will be thrown at you.

Okay.

You have to hit it.

And the idea is every time you swap sides, that's a run, and you have to try and get as many runs as you can.

Sporting game this cricket. I was asked to bat first. I was the first batter, batsperson, bat man, bat girl, whatever, and I actually had no idea what I was doing. I just thought you were meant to hit the ball and stand there looking blankly until of course people started yelling at me, 'Run!' so I figured I had to run.

The term for the person batting is either batsman or batter. It's both.

It's a hard game. It's hard. It's like you are running up and down. Then you're hitting the bat and then.. you're hitting the ball at least – you're meant to hit the ball. You're hitting the ball. I'm getting the hang of this.

She's 'getting the hang' of it. She's beginning to understand how to do it. Next listen for who they are laughing at:

it was fun because everyone was involved in every part of it. There wasn't any 'Okay, you're a batter and figure it out yourself,' kind of thing. So people were coming up and they were helping me and they were laughing at themselves and we were laughing at each other and it was all just really funny.

'We were laughing at each other' - they were laughing at her and she was laughing at them. 'Each other' refers to both sets of people involved. We'll finish with the slang for BBQ – barbie:

I learnt that the Australian lifestyle is actually a lot more involved. It's not really, you know, an observational type culture. You gotta be a part of it. There's no point watching cricket, you've gotta try to play cricket. There's no point in watching a barbie, you've got to try to set it up and cook it and burn stuff and it's.. part of it is laughing at your mistakes. Did you get that? Totally do something like this again and I definitely think it was worth it.

Cheers.

Cheers!

English Bites is an informative and entertaining way to improve your knowledge of the English language.