Episode 1
Forty Stories - "One"
I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper
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Season 3 Episode 1Thank you for downloading this episode.
👉The story begins at 03:10 and the tiny lessons begin at 14:30
👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!
👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/
A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.
All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.
Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Well. Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you are enjoying a little vacation, and staying warm.
This week’s story is the scariest one I’ve ever read on the show. Why is it scary?
Because I wrote it.
In fact, from now on, unless I say otherwise, all the stories will be written by me. That was actually my plan from the beginning, but I wanted to figure out how to….you know…make a podcast before I started sharing stuff that I wrote.
So here’s the plan: This year I will write and record forty stories. Each of the stories will have the normal three tiny lessons. If you pay close attention, you’ll see that all the stories are connected. The characters in each story are all connected to the characters in other stories. It’s all one world. And if you listen to all of it, I hope, one large story will emerge. But each story is complete on its own as well, so don’t stress about it too much.
This is the biggest, most complicated, project I’ve ever started, and I really hope I can get through it in a year. More than that, I hope you all enjoy it.
The name of this story, appropriately enough , is:
“One”
The timing is the most important thing. Ben knows that she will arrive at the bar just after eight o’clock, like she does every Wednesday night. She and her girlfriends will come in laughing and joking. They’ll pull off their scarves and blow into their cold hands and order enormous glasses of cheap red wine. Then she will sign up for karaoke. She will sing sad songs by U2. Ben knows this because she only ever sings sad songs by U2.
Ben knows that when it’s her turn, she will place her glass of wine carefully on the stool behind her, hold the microphone with both hands, and sing like this is the most important song in the whole world. Her voice will be flat, and she will probably forget some words, but Ben won’t care. He loves her because she sings from her heart. The timing is the most important thing because when she comes in just after eight o’clock tonight, Ben will be on the stage, singing U2’s best, saddest song.
He is nervous about singing the last part of the song. There are a bunch of very long, very high notes, like “ooOOooOO, and “HaaaaHaaHaAaaa.” Then he has to do some rock star “yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!” stuff. During his lessons, his voice cracked almost every time he tried to hit the high notes. When he tried to say “yeah!” like a real rock star, he always felt like an idiot. He practiced again and again, until his teacher said it was good, but he never agreed. The end of the song is the best part, the most important part, and it has to be perfect.
You can’t smoke indoors anymore, but somehow the bar still smells like an ashtray. None of the chairs match, as if they were bought from different yard sales. His cheap table wobbles, and if his beer falls off it, he can’t afford another one. He sees the bartenders look at him, then talk quietly to each other, then look at him again. He assumes it’s because he doesn’t drink as much as everyone else does. He wonders why she loves coming here.
It’s almost eight o’clock now, and she hasn’t arrived yet. Two boys are on the karaoke stage, singing some new rap song that Ben’s never heard. He only listens to real music. Music from before he was born. His name is next on the list. He is starting to panic. The timing is the most important thing. The rap song is finished, and the boys are cheering with their friends. Now the bar is silent. It’s 8:01. He got the timing right, but she’s not here. Ben is walking as slowly as he can to the stage, trying to take as long as possible, trying to give her a chance to arrive, to park her car, to do whatever she does before she comes in through that door.
The guitar intro is playing on the speakers, signaling the start of the song. Ben carefully places his beer on the stool behind him and grabs the microphone with both hands. The little ball on the karaoke screen is bouncing onto the first word. This is it, their big moment together, and she’s not here.
He only misses the first few words before he starts singing. He has been practicing this song and only this song with his music teacher twice a week for three months, ever since he realized that it’s the only sad U2 song that she never sings. He doesn’t have to think about it any more. It’s automatic now.
He’s finishing the first section. It’s slow and minimal, but the lyrics are already sad. They’re about loss and blame, yes, but also hope and love. The drums are playing softly and he has a moment to look around before the second verse starts. She still isn’t here. Maybe she was in an accident, or maybe she’s singing to someone else in another bar.
The second section is much heavier. There are more instruments, and the lyrics are darker. Ben is singing about regret, and he is singing from his heart, because he knows about regret, and about how relationships can fall apart. If only she were here to see him sing this verse. Then she would know about his pain. She would know that all he needs is someone beautiful to love him.
The song keeps building, adding strings and more guitars for the third section. This is the darkest part of the song, full of accusations and pain. She’s not here. How could she do this to him? He spent months and thousands of dollars learning how to sing this song perfectly and she didn’t come on time. He’s singing perfectly, but he wants to just give up and go home.
As the song reaches its climax, Ben is starting to cry. Everything was supposed to be perfect. If she had just come on time, she would know his heart by now. She would know his pain, and she would know that he loves the same music as her, and she would know that they’re supposed to be together. Now, of course, it’s all a disaster. She’ll never see him sing from his heart. She’ll never fall in love with him.
Ben is arriving at the end of the song. There are a lot of lyrics about hope and support and grief and loss, and then name of the song is repeated twice. Just as he is singing that second, “One…” he feels a blast of cold air from the other side of the bar. The door is halfway open. She’s alone, shivering from the cold, pushing the heavy door with her shoulder. When she hears what song is playing, she stops and stares at the stage.
This last part of the song is the most difficult for him. But now she is here. She is looking right at him and she is starting to cry. He has to do it perfectly. The timing is the most important thing.
So that’s it. That’s the first story in the collection. Only thirty-nine left to go! How did you like it? What do you think about these characters? how do you feel about Ben? Is he a romantic? Or a creep? Or both? I mean, I know how I feel about him. But actually….I’m not going to tell you. I want you to draw your own conclusions.
The thing is, one of my rules for this project is that nobody can be the protagonist more than once. So maybe Ben, or one of the bartenders, or this girl he’s got a crush on will show up later, but the story will never be ABOUT Ben again. So….bye, Ben!
Let’s do some tiny lessons.
First, let’s take our first look at the big picture.
My question for you is: what song is he singing? I think I made it clear in the story, but did you figure it out?
Yeah it’s “one.” Like the name of the story. I gave it away at the end there, by singing. Sorry about my singing , by the way. I recommend you go watch the video for that song, or listen on your phone or whatever, then read the story again, thinking about that music, in that moment. Does it change the story for you?
Now, how about a quick visit to the dictionary disco
The first vocabulary word is: flat. YOu probably know flat like not-curvy, or maybe even an apartment in UK English. But in this case, singing FLAT means that your melody is wrong. The pitch is just a little BELOW where it should be. Like my singing. Very flat.
The second one is grief. Grief is sadness, but it’s a very specific kind of sadness. It’s sadness about LOSS. Like after someone dies, or a relationship ends, you experience grief. You grieve.
And last, let’s rest for a melody moment.
I wanna talk about the word: O’clock. I teach English almost every day, and this one is really tough for students. There are two O’s in this word, But they make totally different sounds. If you’ve listened to the first season of ALE, the Winnie-the-Pooh episodes, you know the first one. It’s our old friend, the SCHWA. So it’s an unstressed syllable. UH. The second O, though. That one is even harder. It’s an AH sound. Yeah. The letter O, makes an AH sound. So the two vowels together are….uhAH. Try it. Don’t worry, the guy next to you on the subway won’t notice. Just say…uhAH. Now say, O’clock using those same vowels. How’d you do?
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 1 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
Transcript
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Well. Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you are enjoying a little vacation, and staying warm.
This week’s story is the scariest one I’ve ever read on the show. Why is it scary?
Because I wrote it.
In fact, from now on, unless I say otherwise, all the stories will be written by me. That was actually my plan from the beginning, but I wanted to figure out how to….you know…make a podcast before I started sharing stuff that I wrote.
So here’s the plan: This year I will write and record forty stories. Each of the stories will have the normal three tiny lessons. If you pay close attention, you’ll see that all the stories are connected. The characters in each story are all connected to the characters in other stories. It’s all one world. And if you listen to all of it, I hope, one large story will emerge. But each story is complete on its own as well, so don’t stress about it too much.
This is the biggest, most complicated, project I’ve ever started, and I really hope I can get through it in a year. More than that, I hope you all enjoy it.
The name of this story, appropriately enough , is:
“One”
The timing is the most important thing. Ben knows that she will arrive at the bar just after eight o’clock, like she does every Wednesday night. She and her girlfriends will come in laughing and joking. They’ll pull off their scarves and blow into their cold hands and order enormous glasses of cheap red wine. Then she will sign up for karaoke. She will sing sad songs by U2. Ben knows this because she only ever sings sad songs by U2.
Ben knows that when it’s her turn, she will place her glass of wine carefully on the stool behind her, hold the microphone with both hands, and sing like this is the most important song in the whole world. Her voice will be flat, and she will probably forget some words, but Ben won’t care. He loves her because she sings from her heart. The timing is the most important thing because when she comes in just after eight o’clock tonight, Ben will be on the stage, singing U2’s best, saddest song.
He is nervous about singing the last part of the song. There are a bunch of very long, very high notes, like “ooOOooOO, and “HaaaaHaaHaAaaa.” Then he has to do some rock star “yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!” stuff. During his lessons, his voice cracked almost every time he tried to hit the high notes. When he tried to say “yeah!” like a real rock star, he always felt like an idiot. He practiced again and again, until his teacher said it was good, but he never agreed. The end of the song is the best part, the most important part, and it has to be perfect.
You can’t smoke indoors anymore, but somehow the bar still smells like an ashtray. None of the chairs match, as if they were bought from different yard sales. His cheap table wobbles, and if his beer falls off it, he can’t afford another one. He sees the bartenders look at him, then talk quietly to each other, then look at him again. He assumes it’s because he doesn’t drink as much as everyone else does. He wonders why she loves coming here.
It’s almost eight o’clock now, and she hasn’t arrived yet. Two boys are on the karaoke stage, singing some new rap song that Ben’s never heard. He only listens to real music. Music from before he was born. His name is next on the list. He is starting to panic. The timing is the most important thing. The rap song is finished, and the boys are cheering with their friends. Now the bar is silent. It’s 8:01. He got the timing right, but she’s not here. Ben is walking as slowly as he can to the stage, trying to take as long as possible, trying to give her a chance to arrive, to park her car, to do whatever she does before she comes in through that door.
The guitar intro is playing on the speakers, signaling the start of the song. Ben carefully places his beer on the stool behind him and grabs the microphone with both hands. The little ball on the karaoke screen is bouncing onto the first word. This is it, their big moment together, and she’s not here.
He only misses the first few words before he starts singing. He has been practicing this song and only this song with his music teacher twice a week for three months, ever since he realized that it’s the only sad U2 song that she never sings. He doesn’t have to think about it any more. It’s automatic now.
He’s finishing the first section. It’s slow and minimal, but the lyrics are already sad. They’re about loss and blame, yes, but also hope and love. The drums are playing softly and he has a moment to look around before the second verse starts. She still isn’t here. Maybe she was in an accident, or maybe she’s singing to someone else in another bar.
The second section is much heavier. There are more instruments, and the lyrics are darker. Ben is singing about regret, and he is singing from his heart, because he knows about regret, and about how relationships can fall apart. If only she were here to see him sing this verse. Then she would know about his pain. She would know that all he needs is someone beautiful to love him.
The song keeps building, adding strings and more guitars for the third section. This is the darkest part of the song, full of accusations and pain. She’s not here. How could she do this to him? He spent months and thousands of dollars learning how to sing this song perfectly and she didn’t come on time. He’s singing perfectly, but he wants to just give up and go home.
As the song reaches its climax, Ben is starting to cry. Everything was supposed to be perfect. If she had just come on time, she would know his heart by now. She would know his pain, and she would know that he loves the same music as her, and she would know that they’re supposed to be together. Now, of course, it’s all a disaster. She’ll never see him sing from his heart. She’ll never fall in love with him.
Ben is arriving at the end of the song. There are a lot of lyrics about hope and support and grief and loss, and then name of the song is repeated twice. Just as he is singing that second, “One…” he feels a blast of cold air from the other side of the bar. The door is halfway open. She’s alone, shivering from the cold, pushing the heavy door with her shoulder. When she hears what song is playing, she stops and stares at the stage.
This last part of the song is the most difficult for him. But now she is here. She is looking right at him and she is starting to cry. He has to do it perfectly. The timing is the most important thing.
So that’s it. That’s the first story in the collection. Only thirty-nine left to go! How did you like it? What do you think about these characters? how do you feel about Ben? Is he a romantic? Or a creep? Or both? I mean, I know how I feel about him. But actually….I’m not going to tell you. I want you to draw your own conclusions.
The thing is, one of my rules for this project is that nobody can be the protagonist more than once. So maybe Ben, or one of the bartenders, or this girl he’s got a crush on will show up later, but the story will never be ABOUT Ben again. So….bye, Ben!
Let’s do some tiny lessons.
First, let’s take our first look at the big picture.
My question for you is: what song is he singing? I think I made it clear in the story, but did you figure it out?
Yeah it’s “one.” Like the name of the story. I gave it away at the end there, by singing. Sorry about my singing , by the way. I recommend you go watch the video for that song, or listen on your phone or whatever, then read the story again, thinking about that music, in that moment. Does it change the story for you?
Now, how about a quick visit to the dictionary disco
The first vocabulary word is: flat. YOu probably know flat like not-curvy, or maybe even an apartment in UK English. But in this case, singing FLAT means that your melody is wrong. The pitch is just a little BELOW where it should be. Like my singing. Very flat.
The second one is grief. Grief is sadness, but it’s a very specific kind of sadness. It’s sadness about LOSS. Like after someone dies, or a relationship ends, you experience grief. You grieve.
And last, let’s rest for a melody moment.
I wanna talk about the word: O’clock. I teach English almost every day, and this one is really tough for students. There are two O’s in this word, But they make totally different sounds. If you’ve listened to the first season of ALE, the Winnie-the-Pooh episodes, you know the first one. It’s our old friend, the SCHWA. So it’s an unstressed syllable. UH. The second O, though. That one is even harder. It’s an AH sound. Yeah. The letter O, makes an AH sound. So the two vowels together are….uhAH. Try it. Don’t worry, the guy next to you on the subway won’t notice. Just say…uhAH. Now say, O’clock using those same vowels. How’d you do?
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 1 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
