These audios were created during Duolingo Events and transcribed with the attendees.
Calling the call centre
Audio 1
– (B) Hello, is it Donald & Brother Airlines? + (Mo) Yes, this is Donald & Brothers Airlines, my name is Andrew. Can I help you? * (Mi) We would like to change our ticket + Yes, it’s not a problem, We can change your ticket – (B) I would like to change my flight tomorrow morning 9118 to another one tomorrow evening. Is it possible? * (Mi) Yea, I pay by credit card. + (Mo) I can see this information. And which is your correct e-mail address? – (B) john@gmail.com + (Mo) Great now I have all information what I need. And I can change your ticket. I sent your message on your email. * (Mi) Okay, thank you very much. We have the ticket. Bye bye!
Audio 2
– Hello, this is the callcenter for the Nirvana concerts. How can I help you? The electronic version of your new tickets have been sent to your e-mail account. Thank you for calling our center.
Audio 3
B- Good day Burak speaking and you are calling Turkish Airlines, what i can do for you?
M- mmm i was wondering if i can change my ticket to Istanbul?
B- Could you tell me your name please?
M- It’s Mithra Seyedi, do you want me to spell it out for you ?
B- Thank you and it’s not necessary. Now can I get your National ID or Passport number please?
M- My passport number is 1234
B- Would you mind waiting for a few seconds while I check your information
M- Sure……….
B- Do you want to change the one on February the 28th?
M- Yes and I want to change it to the next flight available
B- Okay so we have a flight tonight at 11.00pm, would that be good enough for you?
M- So is it 11.00pm in Istanbul time or my local time?
B- It’s in Tabriz time M- Yeah, that’ll do B- Could you wait for a second while I make the changes and for security, could you tell me the 3rd letter of your mother’s maiden name
M- It’s D
B- Thank you and I making the changes about your ticket to Istanbul on 28th of February 3pm in Tabriz time to
B- Thank you for calling Turkish Airlines, have a nice flight!
Audio 4
M: hello
O: hello you reached call center my name is Oleg how may I help you
M: my name is Mobina I have two tickets for Sunday from New York to London and I would like to cancel it.
O: no problem sure we can do this…also I can offer you another flight to another place, … right now on Sunday we have a flight to Paris with the same price If you like?
M: no
O: may I ask why?
M: that was for my honeymoon and since the wedding is off I don’t need any ticket.
O: so do you want a refund?
M: yes please
How to commit murder
Audio 1
– I guess there are 2 weak points. How to kill and how to avoid responsibility. + Now imagine you have killed someone and you want to save some part of their body as a souvenior, what part would you choose? – It depends, female or male body I have + Whoever you killed, I don’t know. Imagine like a 25 year old guy. – Frankly I don’t wanna kill anyone, especially pretty young ladies. + For me I would like to save one ear, specially right ear. – Skull I guess, it would remind me about the death
Comments
The word order in
“It depends, female or male body I have” is not correct. It
could be “It depends, do I have a female or a male body?”
As the last point was about Death in general we thought “remind me of Death” might be better.
Audio 2
S1: so guys did you ever wanted to try eating human meat? S2: no way, I don’t want to try it. S3: I’m a vegetarian and I could kill the plant and eat it. S4: if you buy sausages in the shop you cant be sure you don’t eat rats, cats, dogs, and humans.
Comments
Instead of saying ‘kill’ a plant to eat it we might say we ‘pick’ it.
Audio 3
S1: I think that if you want commit the murder, you just need to have only three thing, first is the person which you want to kill, second is the wood shredder, and third a lot of mister proper
S2: I think the most tragic situation is when someone kills someone else by accident and then his life has been destroyed by this accident.
Comments
The ordering of 1,2 and 3 is very nice
“if you want commit the murder”
could be replaced by
“if you want to commit a murder”
“the person which you want to kill”
should be
‘the person who …’
or
‘the person that …’
or even just
‘the person’
Choosing music for a party
Audio 1
Person 1: I am having my birthday party on Sunday, I am trying to decide what type of music we should play. Do you guys have any ideas?!
Person 2: Do you have any theme for it?!
Person 3: I think music is difficult topic. And it’s matter of personal choice, everyone of us. In my opinion, the best way to have a great music on the parties, to hire a famous DJ, who just knows some general choice.
Person 4: I say just for example, a party with a theme Harry Potter, why not?!
Person 1: We can do silence party. You know with headphones. There is more than one DJs. And we can listen to which ever music we want to that they play. And we can hire some DJs, like famous DJs for that, yes! And for the type of the music I think we should go with electro, or like techno music, because it’s gonna fit than more other types.
Person 4: Techno, yes. It’s a very good idea. But not only techno, because I don’t know …. This party. One day, two day, three day for example. And not only techno. Because techno for so long time is boring. The different kind is … the music for example. Or the heavy metal or the other music come from England because I love it.
Comments
“I am having my birthday party on Sunday, I am trying”
Uses present continuous for the future (Sunday) and present continuous for the present (I am trying, now).
“for every one of us” may be what Person 3 wants to say.
We don’t say “on the parties”, see below.
Audio 2
S1: In our global village we have now a variety of options musical options for our party. S2: I think that music on a party depends on them of this party for example if you have some hard party and if you want to destroy anything around you, you must choose the music like manowar like slipknot some kind of hard metal. S3: Why don’t we choose someone to be the elected one who creates a collaborative play list and then everyone who is invited can add their own music and we can enjoy it so we can all have a great time. S4: For our next party we need jazz and cognac. S2: Cognac no no, I think maybe something about whisky or maybe rum I guess. S4: hum, rum is a good solution I’m agree but then not simple jazz, acid jazz, with rum . would be great. S2: yes yes it’s a great idea. S4: music radio is a good solution for looking for a music for our next party.
Comments
Instead of “music on a party” say “music for a party” (we have music in a party and music at a party. We choose music for a party.)
“them” should be “theme”
“I’m agree” should be “I agree”
The process we try to follow is
Stage 1 – Reflection
Stage 2 – Recorded conversation
Stage 3 – Discussion
Stage 4 – Transcription
Stage 5 – Language analysis
Stage 1
Students decide by themselves what topic they want to talk about
Stage 2
Students decide what they want to say and ask the event organiser for parts of language to express themselves
Each person records their part – one by one – student refers back to organiser whenever they want help
Stage 3
Whole group talk about how they felt about the conversation
(this is not recorded)
Stage 4
Students are given the finished audio and transcribe it
Stage 5
Look at any interesting pieces of language
