Video script

 

Harry: Why don't you tell me the story of your life.

Sally: Story of my life?

Harry: We've got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.

Sally: The story of my life isn't even going to get us out of Chicago I mean

nothing's happened to me yet. That's why I'm going to New York.

Harry: So something can happen to you?

Sally: Yes.

Harry: Like what?

Sally: I can go into journalism school to become a reporter.

Harry: So you can write about things that happen to other people.

Sally: That's one way to look at it.

Harry: Suppose nothing happens to you. Suppose you lived out your whole life

and nothing happens you never meet anybody you never become anything and

finally you die in one of those New York deaths which nobody notices for two

weeks until the smell drifts into the hallway.

Sally: Amanda mentioned you had a dark side.

Harry: That's what drew her to me.

Sally: Your dark side.

Harry: Sure. Why don't you have a dark side? No you're probably one of those

cheerful people who dots their eyes with little hearts.

Sally: I have just as much of a dark side as the next person.

Harry: Oh really. When I buy a new book I always read the last page first

that way in case I die before I finish I know how it ends. That my friend is

a dark side.

Sally: That doesn't mean you're deep or anything I mean... yes, basically I'm

a happy person...

Harry: So am I.

Sally:...and I don't see that there's anything wrong with that.

Harry: Of course not you're too busy being happy. Do you ever think about

death?

Sally: Yes.

Harry: Sure you do, a fleeting thought that jumps in and out of the transient

of your mind. I spend hours, I spend days...

Sally: And you think that makes you a better person.

Harry: Look, when the shit comes down I'm gonna be prepared and you're not

that's all I'm saying.

Sally: And in the mean time you're gonna ruin your whole life waiting for it.

 

DISCOVERING OTHER CULTURES

Can you hear me? [12]

Some cultures seem not to mind at all if people sitting very close to each other in public spaces talk in very loud voices. An Englishman was once on a plane and the Dutch person in the seat behind was telling another passenger (who he had never met before) about his work as a secondary school teacher. The other passenger was interested, and listened to the long monologue until the plane landed. The Englishman was astonished to find that the Dutchman had been sitting five rows back!

Conversely, after spending some time in a Mediterranean country, you can get the impression on returning to northern Europe that people are in mourning and only allowed to speak in low voices.

There are exceptions. The difference in volume between Spanish and Portuguese people is very striking indeed. Which do you think tend to speak loudly, and which quietly?

 

How loud do you think people in your culture are compared to other cultures?

Are people who speak very loudly tolerated, ignored or considered irritating in the cultures you are familiar with?

What do you think the reasons for loudness could be in some cultures (for example, cheerfulness, self-confidence, spending a lot of time outdoors)?

 

UNIT 7