@ Manchester Speaking @ 獅子女愛吃愛玩

<曼城街頭一角, 公車上>

What is Rainchester?

Manchester with a lot of rain. They told me "You will get used to it very soon."

I learnt from a local person while I did my laundry. It was my first time to do laundry in Manchester, and I did not know how to use the washing machine, which way I should use to wash my clothes and how many coins I should put into the machine. Therefore, I asked a guy there to teach me how to use the machine. As the result, I found using machine here really needs a lot of 20 p coins. Washing machine cost me 2.4 p and it means two 1 ps and two 20 ps, using spin machine cost one 20p and for drying clothes need lots of 20 ps. How many minutes for one 20 p to dry clothes?

The answer is 4 minutes. As I said the beginning, you need to prepare a lot of 20 ps to do laundry.

Doing laundry need time and it’s a boring process and therefore find a guy to practice English is really important.

What is the best way to start a talk with strangers in Manchester? Of course, FOOTBALL. Although, I am not really interested in it and I have very little knowledge about UK football team but this is a good start to have chitchat. The guy I met in laundry is really big football fan of Manchester and he told me what the latest information about Manchester was. Such as, Manchester had beaten Saudi Arab yesterday. The reason he told me is that the owner of laundry is an Arabian. He was mocking to the owner. While telling me everything about football, he also showed me how to use the machine correctly and how to save money from laundry. 30 minutes was better than being in class because his accent really confused me and I had to guess what he said and I felt kind of sorry for him because I always asked him to repeat what he said. From his speaking, I think this is really Manchesterian speaking; strong accent with flying speed and this is what I want. The material I learn from class is sort of very formal English and it only provides me very few help. I don’t spend too much time to chat with classmates especially you know they are as good as you. Every time I had a talk with classmates and it’s like you repeat your information again and again. Otherwise, I don’t want to spend time with Asian students. I try to put myself in a really whole English environment so that I could adjust myself into better situation.

However, I still feel not very secure because my host family told me Newcastle is another place with very strange accent. You have plenty to learn when you go to Newcastle. May God bless me and help me out!

不想花錢讓host family賺我的英鎊, 所以我今天早上把一個禮拜多的衣服通通塞到大包包自己背去學校附近的洗衣店! 自己洗總比讓別人洗來的省! 在英國洗衣服需要很多20 p的硬幣! 因為洗衣服需要2.4英鎊, 脫水20p, 烘乾每四分鐘為一個單位也要20p, 所以多準備點20p 是很重要! 當然洗衣店的老闆也是可以換錢, 如果不會操作, 放心儘管問吧!

像我直接問裡頭一位也在洗衣服的先生, 一直問的結果, 他乾脆教我最省錢的方法洗衣服, 烘衣服, 例如: 洗完衣服之後, 不要直接丟到烘衣機, 最好在脫水一次, 讓它更乾再丟烘衣機, 這樣大約省40p左右, 另外, 你也可以直接將衣服丟進最熱那一台機器, 裡頭剩餘的熱度會讓衣服更乾, 搞不好還可以再省20p!

洗衣服大約需要30分到40分鐘! 等待的時間, 自己看小說有點浪費, 乾脆跟那位先生聊天吧! 跟曼城的男人聊天, 足球真的是一個很棒的開端, 即使我不太懂英國到底有多少支足球隊, 球員有那些! 但是一扯到足球, 男人們的足球經就停不了, 如同洗衣店的老闆馬上跟他扯蛋, 因為昨晚曼城打敗沙烏地阿拉伯, 因此他故意取笑老闆! 當然老闆也不甘示弱, 因為阿拉伯最不缺錢, 根據最近我閱讀到的最新資訊是有一位阿拉伯產油大亨打算要花天價將世界最紅的足球明星通通集中到曼城, CELESTE, 這裡頭還包括你的TORRES, 價錢不低咧! 所以老闆很不客氣的說, 明年就知道啦! 曼城爽不了太久了!

雙方一來一往, 覺得很有趣! 聽兩人之間的唇槍舌戰真的是很有趣, 我只能偶而插話, 因為我有時候真的是聽不懂那種很濃的曼城腔調的英文, 又不敢猜, 只好不斷的發問! 那位熱心的男士乾脆送我他買的太陽報, 讓我好好研究最新的狀況! 最後他要離開時, 還告訴我, 將來我去到Newcastle, 就算我的足球知識少得可憐, 去到那裏, 我一定會懂得, 畢竟Newcastle為了Owen也是鬧得不可開交!

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