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Vocabulary Quiz
pleasure • consists • thing
related • oral form
  1. The five-day trip of mostly walking during the day and relaxing at night.
  2. Your weight is to the amount of food you eat and the exercise you do.
  3. Studying written literature is very different from learning a language in its .
  4. Your wife has been a good friend for a long time, so it's a to finally meet you.
  5. The with him is that he is really good at getting what he wants.
Comprehension Quiz
Answer the following questions about the interview.
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634 Island Language
Patricia discusses what languages she speaks on her island of Samoa.

  • Transcript
  • Audio Notes

it's a pleasure to meet you

I haven't made any friends here yet, so it's a pleasure to meet you.

'It's a pleasure to meet you' is another way to say 'it's nice to meet you,' and it is a polite way of greeting someone the first time you meet. Notice the following:

  1. I know we've talked a few times on the phone, but it's a pleasure to meet you in person.
  2. I've heard so much about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you.

consists of

Samoa consists of two islands: the American Samoa and the Western Samoa.

What something 'consists of' is what it is made up of or what it includes. Notice the following:

  1. What focus areas does this class consist of?
  2. This dessert really just consists of eggs, sugar and butter.

the thing with me is that

The thing with me is that I'm half-cast, meaning I have European and Polynesian blood.

You can use the phrase 'the thing with me is that' before you state something interesting or unusual about yourself. Notice the following:

  1. The thing with her is that her mood is so different every day.
  2. The thing with me is that I can tell when I'm going to get sick.

related to

Is the Samoan language related to any other language?

Here, 'related to' is like 'similar to.' Joel is asking if the Samoan language is similar to any other language that he might know. Notice the following:

  1. I think Italian would be easier for a Spanish-speaker to learn, because they are related.
  2. Math and science are related to each other in many ways.

oral form

I took a Samoan course which teaches more oral form of Samoan.

An 'oral form' of a language is the one that is spoken. This might be different from the one that is written. Notice the following:

  1. One of the reasons that many languages were lost is that they were used most frequently in their oral form.
  2. When you learn a language in its oral form, you may not learn correct grammar.