Stay Cats

Fred, Katia and Todd discuss what should be done about the stray cats in their area.

Todd: So, we're here... first of all, how about everybody introduces themselves.

Fred: OK. I'm Fred from Canada and it's a pleasure to be here.

Katia: Hello. I am Katerina. I'm from Mexico and I'm also very glad to be here.

Todd: Thanks guys. And then, I'm Todd. I'm from the U.S. Now for the listeners, we all live really close to each other and we live in a neighborhood, where I guess, all of your houses are probably within two or three minutes of each other.

Katia: Very close.

Todd: So, we thought we would talk about the neighborhood, and the first topic would be the stray cats.

Katia: Which are also are neighbors?

Todd: Right. First of all, how many stray cats do you think there are in the neighborhood?

Katia: At least at night, you see them all together, especially in one corner, and I see at least about six cats, at least. All together.

Fred: I would say much more than that.

Todd: Yeah, I would too actually. How many do you think?

Fred: I would go for maybe twenty of those around the neighborhood.

Katia: But this is just one corner.

Fred: OK, just one corner, so multiplied by four or five corners, yeah, twenty, twenty-five cats.

Todd: OK, so then, what do you guys think about the cats? Like should something be done about the cats? Should the people feed the cats?

Katia: I think especially for a lot of the elderly people that live here, I think for them it's very nice to have the cats around and they feed them and I think as long as they don't go into the trash, I think it's OK, but for me, I haven't seen any trash, and I don't think it would be a problem.

Todd: Well, you know, they break into my house. I don't know if they break into yours, but they're amazing. If I don't lock the windows, the sliding glass doors they pull the door open with their paw and they come in and they look through my trash and then they leave.

Fred: Those are very clever cats.

Todd: Yeah, I thought it was a raccoon. I thought I had a raccoon, and I went to talk to my landlady, and she's like, " No, that's just the cats."

Katia: I think you were just not feeding them.

Todd: Well, yeah, I guess that's it. Like, they're so hungry that they break into peoples houses for food.

Katia: OK, I don't have that problem. I live on the third floor.

Todd: Oh, really.

Katia: So, maybe that's why.

Todd: Right.

Fred: I don't have that problem either, although I do live in a house similar to yours, Todd, where we live on the first floor and there is a lot of stray cats around the neighborhood but I've never had any problems of them breaking into the house.

Todd: Yeah, I don't know. They're pretty amazing. Like, I did not even know that cat's could break into a house, but they can.

Katia: Very smart cats.

Todd: Yeah. Or very hungry cats.

Katia: Or friendly cats. They want to visit.

Todd: Yeah, right.

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Hotels
Mini discusses hotel and compares prices from three-star hotels and and up.

Юклаб олинг

Todd: So, Mini, your country, Sri Lanka, is a very popular tourist destination. Can you talk a little about costs? Like how much does it cost to have a nice vacation in Sri Lanka?

Mini: It's a very cheap place to have a vacation, so for example if you have... your budget is around 50,000 yen in terms of rupees around 45,000 rupees, you can have a good vacation. You can have a good hotel. You can have good food. You can shop as well - by clothes and all the stuff and go around the country as well.

Todd: That's pretty cool. So, how much is a nice hotel, like a five-star hotel?

Mini: For one day, it's around 10,000 yen. Around 9,500 rupees.

Todd: Right. So 10,000 yen. OK, so that's pretty cheap. That's about 100 dollars I think. Right? One hundred U.S. dollars? So, a five-star hotel, you're talking about beautiful room, nice swimming pool, nice facilities, everything.

Mini: Everything is there, and it's near the beach as well.

Todd: Oh, man, that's great. So, what if you want something cheaper. What if you just want a small room, very basic, just a bed, a bathroom, no swimming pool, nothing nice. How much would a hotel like that cost?

Mini: OK, for that, you can pay around a thousand yen. Around nine hundred rupees.

Todd: A thousand yen.

Mini: A thousand yen. A thousand, five hundred yen.

Todd: Ten dollars.

Mini: Mm-hm. That's cheap.

Todd: For one night?

Mini: Yeah.

Todd: Really.

Mini: Mm-hm.

Todd: I wanna go.

Mini: I'm sure.

Todd: That is really, really cheap.

Mini: Yeah, it's very cheap.

Todd: OK, what about things like internet access? So can you get high-speed internet access?

Mini: If you want to stay in a hotel like that, no, you can't internet access from those kind of hotels, but if you stay in four-star hotel, maybe three-star hotel you can get high-speed internet access.

Todd: OK.

Mini: But you have like centers, internet media centers, kind of stuff. You can pay like fifty rupees and access to the internet. You can do it anytime.

Todd: Right. OK. And just lastly, what about meals? How much do meals cost?

Mini: If you want to go for a nice buffet, maybe around two thousand yen, a thousand, five hundred rupees around.

Todd: Oh, that's actually kind of expensive, isn't it. Two thousand yen.

Mini: But you have everything there. It's really nice. I love it.

Todd: OK. Well, it sounds like a great place to go. Thanks Mini.

Mini: You're welcome.

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Todd: OK, Tini, you were saying that you enjoy being a student.

Tini: Yes.

Todd: So, I'm a teacher. I have a couple of questions for you.

Tini: Sure.

Todd: First one, what type of teacher do you like?

Tini: What type of teacher? Well, I would prefer a teacher who has like very high standards towards their students, but at the same time, very understanding.

Todd: Well, that's interesting. So, by high standards, do you mean that they're very demanding?

Tini: Yes.

Todd: So, you think that the teacher should give difficult assignments and give lots of homework?

Tini: Well, demanding in the sense that probably because they know that the students can do more than, is more able, is able to do more but what they can do right at the moment, and probably in that way the teacher can, how do you say, develop the students more.

Todd: Interesting. OK, so that's the most important thing is the teacher is somewhat demanding and sets high expectations.

Tini: Well, I like teachers who are demanding but of course I give very much respect to teachers who actually care about their students and try to understand their students.

Todd: Right, so they have empathy and understanding.

Tini: Yes.

Todd: Well, what about qualities you don't like in a teacher?

Tini: Qualities I don't like in a teacher? Favorites.

Todd: Favorites.

Tini: Favorites. You know, teacher's pet.

Todd: Right, can you explain teacher's pet?

Tini: Teacher's pet is that, you know, sometimes teachers like one student more than the other students, and then so they give like, I don't know, like more attention to that student, and then they are nicer to that student, or. Yes, sometimes gives better grades. I don't know.

Todd: Do you think that maybe that's just human nature, that all teachers have favorites, or do you think some teachers, no matter what, treat everybody equally?

Tini: Well, I think that it also deals with experience, and you know, the period of time you are engaged teaching activities. I think, probably, initially, like, you know, like teacher, initially are human nature, we all have favorites, like we all have like people who we want to be around with and people who don't want to be around with. That is human nature, I think, but then like, probably, as time goes by, and as experience is gained, I think that, like if I'm a teacher, I think I will gain a more, like objective perspective towards the student and teaching I guess

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