Learning Simple Math

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another lesson with us here at EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And I’m Erica.

And today we’re going back to school.

That’s right. We’re talking about my least favorite subject.

Hehe. That would be math.

That’s right.

Okay, so, we’re gonna be talking about math. Now, I know that many of you, of course, know math.

Right.

But do you know the operations in English?

Many people find it hard to find the right words to talk about math in English.

Right, so, that’s what we’re gonna be looking at today.

And we’ll also look at some names, that you can call people, who are really, really, really smart.

Hehe. So, let’s listen to our dialogue for the first time and then we’ll come back and look at those math words.

Alright, so, that’s one smart little girl, ha?

Yeah, pretty smart. Actually, smarter than me in math.

Hehe. Alright, so, let’s take a look at some of those words, that the teacher used to ask her about certain operations in “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

Okay, so, like we said, you guys know how to do math. And you know the words in your language, but maybe in English it’s a little bit harder to find the right word, so, let’s look at those now.

Okay, so, let’s look at the first question that she asked. What’s four plus eleven?

Four plus eleven.

Okay, plus.

Plus.

Ah, alright, so, four plus eleven, Erica, is?

Uh, let me take a look at here, um, fifteen.

Fifteen, okay, so, we are adding, right?

Yes.

So, that’s how you would say. Let’s go with an easy one: two plus two.

Four.

Four, right?

Yeah.

Or five plus five.

Ten.

Ten, okay.

You’re really testing my skills.

Hehe. So, that’s how you would add numbers.

Now, what about taking away numbers?

Okay, so, taking away or subtracting. Alright, let’s test you again. In the dialogue she said “fifty six minus sixty”.

Fifty six minus sixty equals negative four.

Okay, minus, so that’s negative, right?

Minus.

So… and of course, if you have fifty six apples and you take away sixty, you’re left with…

Negative four…

Negative four.

Well, actually, you’re left with zero apples.

Hehe. Yeah, exactly. Now, that answer is also interesting - negative four.

Negative four.

That means minus four, right?

Four less than zero. [NOTE: don’t confuse this “less than” with another one, that used in inequalities. For example, five is less than six, which means 5 < 6; so, in the last case less than refers to the inequality symbol “<”]

Four less than zero, very good, negative four. Okay, so now, for our next operation. Twelve times twelve.

Twelve times twelve.

Twelve times twelve.

No, Macro, don’t ask me the answer.

Hehe. Alright, twelve times twelve equals a hundred and forty four. Now, that’s multiplying.

Right, or multiplication.

Multiplication. Okay, so, this times part, it’s very easy to remember, because, for example, four times four… You can just say “four”, the number four, and you add it, right?

Four times.

Four times. Four plus four plus four plus four.

Right, so, times.

Times. Aha.

Now, the opposite of times.

Alright, the opposite of multiplication is division.

Division.

Okay, so, in our dialogue the teacher said “zero divided by one”.

Zero divided by one.

Zero divided by one. Any number divided by zero is zero. [NOTE: “any number divided by zero is zero”, which is not true, of course; on the contrary, zero divided by any number is zero]

Alright, so, lets’ give another example, fifteen divided by three.

Alright, so, fifteen divided by three equals…

Five.

Five.

Uhu.

Exactly.

So, divided by.

Divided by, very good. So, after division the teacher was very impressed and now she asked a very hard mathematical operation, especially for a girl this age. The square root of two.

The square root of.

Square root.

So, let’s give some examples to show what is the square root.

Okay, so, if I ask you the square root of nine…

Three.

Three, right?

Yes.

What about the square root of four?

Two.

Two, okay. So now, one more. The square root of sixteen.

Four.

Four.

Uhu.

Okay, so you noticed the pattern, right? And I’m sure everyone knows this in their own language how you would get a square root.

Exactly. So, this language, um, is pretty simple, you all know it in your own language, but let’s hear it again in English one more time with the dialogue.

Okay, so, we understand the mathematical operations, that we saw here, very easy.

Uhu.

But now, there was another little kid in there, who was very, I think, envious or jealous [NOTE: we’ve already compared these words, envious and jealous; for more information, please see the link]

Yeah, Tommy.

Tommy, right.

Uhu.

So, he called her a couple of different names.

Well, let’s look at those now in “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder.

Okay, so the first one, that he called the Crystal, the little girl. He called her a teacher’s pet.

Teacher’s pet.

Teacher’s pet.

A teacher’s pet.

So… Erica, what exactly is a teacher’s pet?

It is the favorite student the teacher has in that class.

Alright, so, it’s always the student, that’s helping the teacher…

Yeah, the smartest student…

Yeah.

Yeah.

The teacher’s pet.

Yeah, and it has a negative meaning in English.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say that it’s a good thing to be the teacher’s pet.

Like the teacher thinks it’s good…

Yeah.

But all of the friends and the classmates, they think it’s bad.

Yeah.

Yep.

Exactly, the teacher’s pet.

And similar to teacher’s pet is a suck up.

Suck up.

Suck up.

Again, suck up, wha… what is this… what is a suck up?

A suck up is a person, who tries really, really hard to make the teacher like him.

Okay, now, we can also use it outside of the classroom, right?

Yeah, at work maybe.

Okay, there is always at work… there’s always one person, who is the suck up, right?

Yes. Um, now, again, this has a negative meaning in English.

Yeah, I guess in the workplace the rest of your colleagues don’t really like that person, who’s considered to be the suck up, who’s always trying to please the boss.

Exactly.

Alright.

Alright, so, the teacher calls Crystal a smarty pants.

Smarty pants.

Smarty pants.

Okay, so, this is also a little name-calling, right? [NOTE: name-calling is basically the usage of offensive names]

Uhu.

So, what is the “smarty pants”?

Somebody who is too smart.

Too smart.

Who tries too hard to be smart.

Now, this is only for little kids, right? You… I wouldn’t call you a smarty pants, right?

No, it’s definitely for children. Adults don’t say this.

Unless maybe you are joking…

Uhu.

Or… or having fun with someone.

Yeah, but if you say it, you are, um, suggesting that you’re being like a child.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay, smarty pants.

Uhu.

And our last one and this is also a very good phrase and a way to describe someone – know-it-all.

Know-it-all.

Know-it-all.

A know-it-all.

Sometimes you say “Mr. Know-it-all”, right?

Yeah, that’s right.

Okay, so, what is a “know-it-all”?

Somebody who, um, tries to show everyone, that they know it all.

May know everything.

Yeah, they so smart.

They have the answers…

Yeah.

To everything.

But they really, really try and show everyone, that they know everything.

Uhu, uhu. These people can be sometimes a little bit irritating, right?

Yeah, very, very annoying. [NOTE: we’ve have already discussed and compared these words: annoying, irritating and others; please, see the link for more information]

Annoying.

Yeah.

Alright, so, it’s not a good thing to be a know-it-all all the time.

Yeah, actually, all of these phrases are not good things to be.

Hehe. Okay, so, let’s listen to our dialogue one more time and then we’re gonna come back and Erica’s gonna tell us how much she hates math.

Alright, so, Erica you were telling me that you hated math or you still do.

Well, yes, that’s true.

Hehe.

I d… I really do hate math and even… even doing a simple, um, you know, like sixteen plus thirty two…

Uhu.

Is too hard for me.

Hehe. So, you were never really that type of person, that’s good with numbers.

No, I’m terrible with numbers. I can’t even remember my own phone number.

Really?

That’s true.

Hehe.

Like I… I really… if someone asks me for my phone number, I have look on my phone, um, in the address book to find it.

Hehe. Well, yeah, sometimes numbers can be difficult. I kind of liked, ah, math when I was younger, it’s… it… it just made sense, so…

Uhu. Well, I guess, there’s a reason why I’m an English teacher…

Yeah.

And not a math teacher.

And I was, actually, not very good at language.

But here you are.

Exactly. Well, I mean in Spanish, I… at like grammar…

Ouh.

Not very good at that, all those rules.

Yeah, but you’re pretty good at English.

Hehe.

So, that’s alright with me.

That’s alright.

Yeah.

What about you guys? Tell us what your favorite subject or your least favorite subject at school was. What about you? Do you have any favorite subject? Do… did you have a favorite subject?

Um, history.

History.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I liked chemistry… for a while.

Oh, god!

Hehe.

Chemistry involves numbers.

Hehe. Well, a little bit…

Yeah.

But it was interesting as well.

So, come to the website, everyone, englishpod.com and you can find lots of other resources there.

And also be sure to check out our activity stream, where you can answer and, uh, ask very quick questions depending on your level, so you can choose, if you are an elementary student, then you would be talking to other elementaries.

That’s right, well, thanks for downloading this lesson and until next time… Good bye!

Bye!