at M J M

Receptionist: Mosquito City University. Engineering Faculty.
Journalist: Hello. My name is Mark is Mark White. I am a journalist for the Mosquito City Herald and I am working on a story about the hydrogen engine. I was wondering if there was somebody there who I could come along and talk to about that?
Receptionist: Nobody is here right now. But if you come in tomorrow Professor Trafalgar should be here.
Journalist: Ok. Thanks very much. Where should I go to find him?
Receptionist: Oh just go straight to the HEF.
Journalist: HEF? What does that stand for?
Receptionist: Hydrogen Engine Facility.
Journalist: Ok. Well. Ok so I will go along there tomorrow afternoon and find Professor Trafalgar at the Hydrogen Engine Facility.
Receptionist: Yeah. Somebody will take care of you over there.
Journalist: Ok. Thanks very much for your help.
Receptionist: You are welcome. Goodbye.
Journalist: Bye.
Receptionist: Take it easy.

at Tambako

Mark: So John..
John: Yeah.
Mark: You are working on a dissertation for a PhD. That is for an American university?
John: Yeah, that is right. It is a university in San Francisco, California
Mark: And what is the area?
John: I am studying..It is philosophy but with an emphasis on Buddhist studies, you know, and Buddhist philosophy.
Mark: In any particular country?
John: Well, yeah, I am mainly interested in Thailand even though I live in Japan, you know. I like Thailand’s version of Buddhism better.
Mark: Is that theravada?
John: Yeah. That is right.
Mark: Ok. So are you studying any particular temple or any particular aspect of Buddhism?
John: Yeah. I am doing research on a couple of temples there in Thailand. One is called Suen Mok, which is pretty famous. It is got a very good program for ten day meditation retreats and they are geared for teaching foreigners meditation; meditation techniques.
Mark: What is the other temple?
John: The other one is north of Bangkok about three hours bus ride and it is called Tam Krabok.
Mark: Uh-huh.
John: And it is… Well it does different things but one thing it does is it helps addicts recover, you know. It has probably cured about one hundred thousand addicts; mostly heroin or opium addicts, you know, and so I am really interested in how meditation can replace an addiction. You know what I mean?
Mark: Wow! So they are like teaching people to meditate and overcome the problems that caused them to become addicted to drugs?
John: Right. Exactly.
Mark: Wow! Isn’t that a wonderful thing. A hundred thousand.
John: Yeah.
Mark: Wow! That is really amazing. You have been to the temple?
John: Yeah and interviewed several of the head monks and some of the other people there and it is just a really really, to me, an effective way of applying Buddhism, you know?
Mark: Right.
John: To eliminate our addictions and work toward something more significant
Mark: Right excellent. That is really…That is great. Like. To use something like that to…That is really good.
John: A real practical form of Buddhism. As I understand it to try to help people live better lives and things like that and this seems to be a real, you know, obvious way to do it.
Mark: Drug addiction is a big problem in a lot of different countries.
John: Yeah.
Mark: And if they are finding something they can do about, it that is really great.
John: Yeah I agree totally there. And it was a big problem in Thailand. You know until 1959 opium was legal in Thailand.
Mark: Really?
John: And suddenly they made it illegal and all these people who would take it as a normal part of their life suddenly were illegal addicts.
Mark: Wow!
John: And so this place has really done something that I think is really important.
suddenly they made it illegal
Mark: What is the name of the temple again?
John: Tam Krabok. It means cave of the “prabok”.  It is kind of like “telling it like it is” or something like that. Originally it was just a group of monks and they lived in caves
Mark: Wow!
John: And then they started making a big temple out of it.
Mark: The caves of truth.
John: Yeah. That would be a good way to translate it. (laughs)

at Your Guide

Mark: So you were born in Brooklyn and you like did you go to high school there?
Steve: Correct.
Mark: And then you went to university?
Steve: University actually was in the Bronx.
Mark: Right. That was during the Vietnam war?
Steve: Yes. Ahm. Yeah.
Mark: And you worked at a high school during the Vietnam war?
Steve: Junior high school.
Mark: To avoid the draft. (laughs)
Steve: Correct.
Mark: You did not want to go to Vietnam and fight in the war?
Steve: Correct. That is for sure.
Mark: Yeah.
Steve: So I taught in a ghetto school in Brooklyn. That was in Brooklyn.
Mark: Right. What did you actually study like in your degree at university?
Steve: Literature English and American literature, I guess.
Mark: Which writers did you like?
Steve: Joyce, Beckett, Salinger, Melville.
Mark: That is right. You loved…. What is that story you like by Salinger?
Steve: The Catcher and the Rye.
Mark: The Catcher and the Rye.
Steve: Well it is a novel.
Mark: There is a saying. What is the name of the main character?
Steve: Holden Caulfield.
Mark: Holden Caulfield. And there is something that he always says that you used to say for a long time.
Steve: Is that right?
Mark: Yeah there is some sentence that…
Steve: You know I think you are thinking of “Bartleby the Scrivener“. “I’d prefer not to”.
Mark: That came later but earlier on it was Holden Caufield. I remember you saying to me once when we had lunch at Kerala, that earlier in life you used to say this thing that Holden Caulfield used to say or maybe it was something that Salinger used to say and later you changed it to Bartleby.
Steve: Is that right? It very well could have been.
Mark: So you taught at the school in the ghetto. Where was that?
Steve: A neighbourhood called Brownsville.
Mark: Brownsville. Which borough is that in?
Steve: In Brooklyn. The black ghetto in Brooklyn.
Mark: And then later, like, were you from a Jewish area or an Italian area?
Steve: At first a Jewish area and then… Actually when I was…You will find this interesting. You tapped into something here. When I was about six years old my parents moved. When my sister was born, when I was six years old or seven years, we moved from renting an apartment to buying a house a few blocks away.
Mark: Right.
Steve: But the house a few blocks away was no longer in the Jewish neighborhood. It was in an Irish Italian neighborhood. I was the only Jewish kid.
Mark: Right. Mixed it up a little bit.
Steve: ah from time to time I got picked on but I would not stress that.
Mark: When they say like a Jewish neighborhood or an Irish neighbourhood, how long is a neighbourhood. Like two blocks, three blocks?
Steve: No no. Could be much bigger.
Mark: Could be like big ones and small ones, I suppose.
Steve: Yeah.
Mark: Some times you see like in Sydney you might see a couple of streets with some Chinese stuff. You can call it a Chinese neighbourhood…
Steve: There is a Chinatown in New York City now.
Mark: Yeah a big one.
Steve: It was one of my favourite places always. Even before I thought of studying anything about Japan and China I was always fascinated with … Asia… Japan and China.
Mark: When you go travelling in little towns in Australia, the two cultures that got there first are the Chinese and the Italians.
Steve: Is that right?
Mark: There is nothing from the outside. The first that gets there; it will be either pizza or a Chinese restaurant.
Steve: Yeah America too. Every place has a Chinese restaurant.
Mark: Although Chinese food is pretty different from… chop suey is pretty different from the stuff you get in China or Taiwan.
Steve: Yeah but like in California and New York you can get just as good…authentic…
Mark: I had good Chinese food in San Francisco.
Steve: I was once driving across country recently and late at night … I ended up in…I was in Oklahoma somewhere and the highway sign says the next stop is Shawnee. I am thinking I know Shawnee. I know the name but I was tired. I got off there and found a motel. And there was a Chinese restaurant buffet style and the thing was they had a hundred different dishes to choose from.
Mark: M-hm
Steve: So there were these really really really fat Americans were going up big pile after big pile and they are fat and that is why they are fat and they were taking from a hundred different things … you know … picking this and picking this and I am sitting there… I took a modest thing myself. I did not want to stuff myself..you know
Mark: Mm.
Steve: And then I remembered Shawnee is the hometown of a notorious gangster called “Pretty Boy Floyd”. The song they sing about him ..
Mark: Pretty Boy Floyd?
Steve: Pretty Boy Floyd from Shawnee and of course it was..his being a bad guy was totally unjustified. It was the authorities fault. You know. They spoke rudely to his wife one Saturday afternoon.
Mark: They done him wrong.
Steve: They did indeed. They done him wrong. Whatever the specifics of it was and he had to lay that policeman down. That is how the song goes I think.
Mark: Shawnee is a town?
Steve: Shawnee is a town in Oklahoma.
Mark: Right. ok
Steve: Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Mark: It is an Indian tribe too, isn’t it?
Steve: Yeah. Yes.
Mark: Yeah.

at clstal

Mark: I am just sitting here at a cafe in the Pahar Ganj area of New Delhi with Michael. Michael, you are not feeling very good?
Michael: No, I am certainly not.
Mark: What is the problem?
Michael: Well. I got diagnosed with amoebic dysentery about eight nine weeks ago when I was up in the mountains and I got treated for it then by a very good doctor with antibiotics but I fear that it has not yet gone away as I have had recurring problems.
Mark: You vomited this morning?
Michael: That is right. I got some new pills, that somebody at this very cafe recommended, that I take.
Mark: Ayurvedic?
Michael: No, no. Not those ones. These were some other pills. I forget what they were called. This man said that his sister was a nurse and these were the pills to take and I found them at a chemist, took a couple and I was violently sick this morning not long after taking one of these pills on the street, which was quite interesting.
Mark: Mm. That is terrible. How are you feeling now? Are you feeling a little better?
Michael: Not really I am feeling very weak I have to take some of these… you know… what do you call them…re-hydration salts.
Mark: And you are going to eat some banana and papaya as well?
Michael:Well I have got a papaya juice coming and yeah perhaps I will have some banana. I have heard that that is good for you.
Mark:I hope you feel better soon.
Michael: Thank you very much.
Mark: This man wants to clean your shoes.
Michael:Yes, I…

at Matt Hintsa

Mark: Hello, Mr Bestluck?
Peter: Hi there. Come on in. Welcome.
Mark: My name is Mark White.
Peter: Hi Mark. How are you doing?
Mark: Good.
Peter: Take a seat on the black leather sofa.
Mark: Thanks a lot.
Peter: Make yourself comfortable.
Mark: Thanks for agreeing to see me today. I am sure you don’t have much time.
Peter: No problem whatsoever.
Mark: I have come to ask you about your recent acquisition of Mosquito City…
Peter: U-hum.
Mark: … Airlines.
Peter: Yes.
Mark: Was it a sudden decision to buy the airline company?
Peter: It is one of my dreams come true actually. I had been thinking about this for quite a long time, although I hadn’t told anybody until very recently.
Mark: Oh wow! I have got a scoop.
Peter: You have got a scoop. Yeah. (laughs) It has just all happened (at the) beginning of last week.
Mark: Right..So..?
Peter: I phoned David Bowie. You know David?
Mark: Yeah
Peter: And he has..He said that I can buy his jets from him. Marvelous. At a very reasonable price as well.
Mark: you are buying a new fleet.
Peter: Yeah. That is right.
Mark: Right. So you have always wanted to be in the airline industry?
Peter: Not really. It is just something to do. You know. Something. A little bit of fun on the side.
Mark: With all your money?
Peter: Well, that is true.
Mark: Yeah. well. You plan to expand the airline company. Do you think that the Mosquito City Airport is big enough for this new fleet of jets?
Peter: Well, I do because I think that Mosquito City is becoming quite a phenomenon.
Mark: Uh-huh.
Peter: Everybody wants to come here.
Mark: Right.
Peter: And I can understand why because it is “Happy Happy Land”, if you know what I mean.
Mark: I must say it is a beautiful place. I have only just arrived myself a couple of days ago. I got a job. I am making a lot of money. I am staying at the hotel for nothing. This is a great place.
Peter: Just one day. Just imagine… one week … one month…one year.
Mark: How long have you been here?
Peter: I have been here sort of most of my life actually.
Mark: Were you born rich?
Peter: Well, I was born rich inside.
Mark: Inside?
Peter: it sounds a bit sort of corny doesn’t it but ahh..
Mark: No. Not really.
Peter: What is the point of being rich if you are not rich inside?
Mark: All that glitters is not gold.
Peter: Very true.
Mark: Money isn’t everything. So your fortune has grown since you inherited it?
Peter: It has grown considerably.
Mark: M-hm. What kind of industries have you invested in?
Peter: Well…actually I am building a golf course next to the new airport.
Mark: Right. Ok.
Peter: So you will have to come down and see it with me.
Mark: Yes.
Peter: How about tomorrow?
Mark: Ok. Yeah. That sounds great. I would love to.
Peter: Great. Fantastic.
Mark: What time?
Peter: Maybe..how about… I am laughing now … six o’clock in the morning?
Mark: Six o’clock in the morning.
Peter: Yes.
Mark: So early?
Peter: There will be my stretch-limo waiting for you outside your hotel.
Mark: Oh wow! Yes!
Peter: With a chauffeur.
Mark: Ok. Yes.
Peter: No problem.
Mark: Wow!
Peter: See you tomorrow, ok?
Mark: Ok. See you tomorrow. Bye bye.
Peter: Bye.

at B G Johnson

Note: This is an OLD recording of Episode 4. It is NOT from the new and improved full version of The Water Car, which you can download now.

4. The Change  (present continuous tense)

Daithi: It is early in the morning in a Japanese guy’s apartment.
Mark:
Daithi: He is asleep in his bed.
Mark:
Daithi: He is dreaming about global warming.
Mark:
Daithi: The ice at the north pole is melting.
Mark:
Daithi: The ice at the south pole is melting.
Mark:
Daithi: The sea level is rising.
Mark:
Daithi: Is the sea level really rising?
Mark:
Daithi: There are typhoons and tornadoes.
Mark:
Daithi: Are there tornadoes in Japan?
Mark:
Daithi: The earth is changing.
Mark:
Daithi: Is it getting cooler?
Mark:
Daithi: Many people are dying.
Mark:
Daithi: Suddenly the guy wakes up.
Mark:
Daithi: He looks out the window.
Mark:
Daithi: The sun is shining.
Mark:
Daithi: Is it raining?
Mark:
Daithi: It is a beautiful day but it is very very hot.
Mark:
Daithi: The guy gets ready for university then he leaves his house.
Mark:
Daithi: He walks to the station.
Mark:
Daithi: How long does it take?
Mark:
Daithi: At the station he sees a friend.
Mark:
Daithi: What is the friend doing?
Mark:
Daithi: What is he wearing?
Mark:
Daithi: Do they talk?
Mark:
Daithi: On the train the guy sees the beautiful woman.
Mark:
Daithi: She is wearing a colorful shirt.
Mark:
Daithi: Is she wearing jeans?
Mark:
Daithi: What kind of shoes is she wearing?
Mark:
Daithi: Is she wearing a headscarf?
Mark:
Daithi: Is she wearing make-up? Is she wearing any ear-rings?
Mark:
Daithi: She is wearing a necklace.
Mark:
Daithi: What is on it?
Mark:
Daithi: The guy talks to the woman.
Mark:
Daithi: He asks her for a date but she does not want to go on a date with him.
Mark:
Daithi: She does not like him.
Mark:
Daithi: She thinks he is boring.
Mark:
Daithi: She is interested in environmental problems and political problems but he is only interested in shopping and money.
Mark:
Daithi: She thinks he is superficial.
Mark:
Daithi: At school that day the guy has three classes.
Mark:
Daithi: One class is chemistry.
Mark:
Daithi: Another class is design.
Mark:
Daithi: During the class he looks around.
Mark:
Daithi: A lot of the students are sleeping.
Mark:
Daithi: What percentage of them are sleeping?
Mark:
Daithi: The third class is an English class.
Mark:
Daithi: During that class a lot of the students speak Japanese.
Mark:
Daithi: During the class the guy thinks about the beautiful woman.
Mark:
Daithi: At one point he looks around.
Mark:
Daithi: Some of the students are sleeping and some of them are speaking Japanese.
Mark:
Daithi: They are wasting their time.
Mark:
Daithi: Only a few of them are speaking English.
Mark:
Daithi: Only a few of them are using their time wisely.
Mark:
Daithi: How many people are there in the class?
Mark:
Daithi: How many of them are sleeping?
Mark:
Daithi: How many of them are speaking Japanese?
Mark:
Daithi: After class the guy talks to another student.
Mark:
Daithi: The student speaks really good English.
Mark:
Daithi: He always asks questions in class.
Mark:
Daithi: He is different from the others.
Mark:
Daithi: He is not like everybody else.
Mark:
Daithi: Are you different from other people?
Mark:

You can check your answers by reading the full transcript.

Update: you can now download the new, high quality version of The Water Car.

Download the text: International Business Story (pdf), by Mark White

at irp

(Swami talks for the first 25 seconds of recording. Then transcript begins.)
Mark: So the creation is sustained by prayer?
Swami: It is sustained by divine will. It is sustained by divine will and the divine order; the cosmic order. The cosmic order…In the beginning five basic things were created…
Mark: The relation with us? We are praying…?
Swami: Because we are in error.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: Ignorance means. It is not a…it is not a.. You don’t…If you say someone is ignorant, you are not accusing him. You are not blaming him. You are not scolding him. You are saying that he does not … that you do not know your essence. “Hey you ignorant fool!” If a monk; if a saint out of compassion says to a normal person “Hey you ignorant fools. Foolish children.” They should not get angry. “Hey there I am a big man. I am a big officer. I am so wealthy. This fool; he looks like a fool and he calls me a fool; he should be punished.” The way our foolish kings used to punish saints and they used to bear the consequences later. Ignorance means not knowing your true nature;
Mark: Mm.
Swami: Not knowing the true nature of your self. Who are you in essence? You are alive. You say this is your body. You are not the body. This body is changing all the time. It was in the mother’s womb for nine months and then the boy is born and the body is grown and it grows up. It becomes old. So where is the essence?
Mark: Mm.
Swami: You are not the body. The body is not the essence. You are the speck of consciousness, the speck of the infinite light that shines in the heart.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: You are that piece. You are that fragrance of the infinite light. That is God! So you are but that. But then you think that you are…you are different from the other boy. An Australian is different from an American?
Mark: No, he is not. (laughs)
Swami: He is not?
Mark: No, he is not.
Swami: No he is not! (laughs) The essence is one. The essence is one. The essence is one and to realize that; to realize your true nature as the essence of all, you have to pray. You have to practise. You have to do penance. You have to seek the Vedic gods who are given by the grace of the infinite; by the grace of the infinite Vedas as; it is called; you can say they are like schemes. They are like schemes. The government forms so many schemes for the welfare of so many sections of society.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: This scheme is for the handicapped. This scheme is for the blind. This scheme is for the downtrodden. This scheme is for the tribal people.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: This scheme is for orphaned children. So many schemes are laid. All for the good of them. The government which looks to the welfare of all; it forms specific schemes that they may live happily;
Mark: Mm.
Swami: That their livelihood will be taken care of. So God too; the formless infinite has formed several schemes.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: Ok you worship this god. Your nature will suit this Lord Shiva. Your personal nature; you are too pure; your nature will suit this Lord Vishnu.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: Ok you form this divine mother. You are attuned. You like your mother very much. So nature is about mother; the divine mother. But you you want to see a God every day in the form. So that Lord Surya; the sun god is there. Without him there is no life. He too is my own form. Lord Surya the Sun God is there. You worship him and you will attain the higher truth, the highest truth. So god has formulated all these schemes. So these are the schemes of the infinite to get back to your true nature as the infinite. So that is why you have to pray. You have to meditate on these forms. If those forms are pleased the same inner essence that is there within your heart; that too will get pleased.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: The method of pleasing the inner one is to please the outer ones.
Mark: Mm.
Swami: The formed ones.
Mark: Yesterday I came here and I got lost.
Swami: Ah.
Mark: And…

at drp

Axel: What kind of churches were they?
Isabel: There are churches now, but they were not obviously churches then, but they are temples in the shape of a cross…
Luis: You know this…?
Isabel: And they are all hewn out of rock from the top down.
Luis: They are like huge sculptures.
Isabel: Mm.
Luis: Yeah, Sculptures. They are carved in rock.
Isabel: Mm.
Luis: They are not built buildings but…
Axel: Excavated from the rock face.
Mark: Caves?
Luis: Not exactly.
Isabel: No no no. It is a very geometric building when you look down on it.
Mark: It is cut out of the rock?
Luis: Look from a helicopter! You arrive to Lalibela for example which is where we are talking about…
Isabel: Mm.
Luis: You get to Lalibela and you see, Lalibela is a flat place with huts and palm trees, and you say, “where are the buildings?” Then you look from the air…
Mark: From the air?
Luis: …from the air and you see a huge square like I don’t know five hundred metres on every side.
Mark: M-hm.
Luis: Here is like an empty corridor of perfect flat walls and in the centre a building in the shape of a cross, for example but this building has not been built there. It is that all this around and all this stone inside the building has been taken out.
Mark: Taken out. It has been sculpt…cut out of the rock.
Luis: They are like huge sculptures rather than buildings. They are not built actually. They are carved.
Mark: Three thousand years old. Monasteries? Temples? Churches?
Isabel: They are connected with…
Luis: Monasteries.
Mark: Coptic Christian? What is the religion?
Isabel: No. Now they are Christians.
Luis: They are Christian. Ethiopian Christians.
Mark: Coptic Christians.
Luis: No. Ethiopians.
Mark: Ethiopian…I think…
Luis: It is not exactly the same
Isabel: Yeah, there is a difference. It is not quite Christian. It is almost a Zionist Christian.
Luis: No no no no! But…
Mark: But who are the people who built these buildings? What is the name of the place…where these buildings are…?
Luis: Lalibela.
Isabel: Lalibela.
Mark: What is the name of the people who built the buildings?
Luis: The Amharas. The Amharic people is the big ethnic group in Ethiopia and the one which has been on the throne for, I think… The problem is the Amharic are black, but they trace their path from King Solomon.
Isabel: That is right. They are also totally connected with King Solomon.
Mark: So there is a linguistic genetic thing (that) doesn’t link up somehow?
Luis: There is a temple …in Lalibela…in which only the priest; only one priest can accede (access) to the big relic inside and the big relic are supposed to be the Ten Commandments.
Isabel: The Holy Grail.
Luis: Well, I have heard the Ten Commandments.

at Write Pics

The Canadian: It is a land-based rig.
The Aussie: Uh-huh.
The Canadian: And we are drilling mainly for gas.
The Aussie: M-hm.
The Canadian: Natural gas. The wells range between two thousand five hundred metres to three thousand five hundred metres in depth.
The Aussie:Wow!
The Canadian: Yeah. It is really interesting. My position is called “motor man” and it is kind of like a middle position almost like a sergeant.
The Aussie: Right ok.
The Canadian: So basically I am in charge of the three workers under me. I am in charge of all the mechanical and electrical systems. The air systems. Pretty much everything that is moving on the rig.
The Aussie: Right.
The Canadian: And also…
The Aussie: How big is the rig? It is like a big machine or?
The Canadian: It is a series of machines. The actual drilling platform itself, is called “the rig”.
The Aussie: Right.
The Canadian: It is It comprises (of) a working floor.. It is about four metres off the ground.
The Aussie: Uh-huh.
The Canadian: A derrick which is about thirty meters in height
The Aussie: Right.
The Canadian: And then you have got a system of mud tanks and pumps off to one side. There’s generators to supply electricity to the rig. Off there is a changing room. There is a catwalk where all your drilling pipe is stored on.
The Aussie: Uh-huh
The Canadian: There are various components.
The Aussie: Right.
The Canadian: All in all you are looking at maybe about a hundred and fifty square metres in area.

(the sound of bells ringing from two dogs with bells on their collars playing)

The Canadian: I am also in charge of the well control so if while you are drilling into the production zone; the area down in the earth where the gas is stored…
The Aussie: Down under?
The Canadian: Yeah. It is under really high pressure so you have to control the weight of your drilling fluid.
The Aussie: It is pretty dangerous. They have explosions sometimes?
The Canadian: Sometimes. That is called a blowout
The Aussie: Right. (to the dogs) Can you guys be quiet? Do you guys mind being quiet?
The Canadian: My job is to stop that from happening and if it goes there’s warning signs and when we get these warning signs we shut the well in …
The Aussie: Right.
The Canadian: … and we divert the flow of the drilling fluid through a system of manifolds and high pressure valves … divert it into different mud tanks and if there is any gas coming up we light a flare to burn off the excess gas.
The Aussie: Right. I have seen that in pictures of oil wells.
The Canadian: Yeah, you would have. Yeah. It is interesting work. You are dealing with geology. You are dealing with fluid dynamics. Physics.
The Aussie: Do you have a background in like engineering or anything like that…mechanical…?
The Canadian: No, actually it is pretty much learn as you go. It is always on the job training. You are learning something new every day. You don’t really stagnate at work.