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This is an English lesson designed to help you practice and improve your English listening and pronunciation skills. The listening lesson is a short story about something that happened in my life in Canada. There is also a short pronunciation explanation about a word or sound I used in the story.

Story: Watching my cousin perform in an opera!
Pronunciation lesson: How the / dʒ / sound is usually spelled!

If you have trouble with your listening skills, here’s something that may help:
How to practice listening

Listen to the podcast:
*Try to listen at least once without looking at the words!

*music by Incompetech

Download the podcast in .mp3 from Podbean.com or itunes!

Listening Comprehension Questions:

1. Who is performing in the opera?

2. What is the name of the opera?

3. What is the opera about?

4. What did I think of the opera?

5. Have I been to Venice, Italy?

6. In what part of Venice does the story take place?

Transcript:

(*Click on the links to learn more about the grammar, vocabulary and expressions used in the story!)

One of my cousins is a dancer and she recently graduated from university with a degree in performance dance. Last weekend, I went to see her in her first job as a professional dancer. She’s performing in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of A Death in Venice. Now, you’re probably thinking the same things I first thought when I heard about this: why is there dancing in A Death in Venice? -and- why is A Death in Venice an opera?

A Death in Venice is a novella – a short novel – written by Thomas Mann in 1912. It’s about a writer whose life falls apart while he’s on vacation at the beach in Venice, when he finds himself attracted to an adolescent boy and struggles to understand why. I thought it was a strange story to make into an opera, but it’s been getting rave reviews, and this production has been travelling around the world.

My cousin was really good and she looked like she was having fun on stage. In one scene the dancers were gondoliers, setting the stage for the writer’s arrival in Venice. In other scenes the dancers were a group of friends frolicking at the beach. I’m not crazy about opera in general – I prefer musicals like Rent, Les Miserables, or Mamma Mia! – and the story line didn’t really interest me, but I thought it was a good production.

I’ve actually been to the real city of Venice in Italy! The story takes place on the Lido, one of the islands in the Venetian Lagoon, not the more famous island of Venice. The Lido was a popular summer vacation spot for wealthy Europeans and it’s where the Venice film festival is held each year. It was fun to picture this story unfolding in places where I have walked.

Pronunciation: the / dʒ / sound

Listen to some words I used in the story:
graduated
job
strange
onstage
general

What sound do all these words have in common? The / dʒ / sound.

The / dʒ / sound is the exact same mouth position as the / tʃ / sound. The / tʃ / sound (normally spelled ‘ch’) is the unvoiced sound, while the / dʒ / sound is voiced. It’s a blend of the /d/ and / ʒ / sounds.

This sound is often confusing for English learners, because it can be spelled different ways.

The / dʒ / sound is most commonly spelled with the letter ‘j,’ like in the words: jeans, job, enjoy, subject

It could be spelled ‘gi,’ like in the words: giant, giraffe, magic, original

It could be spelled ‘ge’ at the beginning of a word, like: genius, gentle, gesture

…in the middle of a word, like: intelligent, danger, gorgeous

…or at the end of a word, like: change, huge, college, large

It could be spelled ‘dge,’ like in the words: judge, edge, fidget, bridge

Finally, it could be spelled ‘du’ like in the words: education, graduate, individual, procedure

Take a few minutes now and try to make a list of more words that you know that have the / dʒ / sound!

Vocabulary:

a production
…the Canadian Opera Company’s production of A Death in Venice.
= a series of performances of a play or other show presented to the public

to fall apart
It’s about a writer whose life falls apart…
= generally: to break into pieces; when a person falls apart, they experience emotional pain or confusion, and because of that they cannot continue living normally.

rave reviews
…it’s been getting rave reviews…
= if a play or other show gets ‘rave reviews’ it means that a reviewers or critics have given it excellent good reports

a gondolier
In one scene the dancers were gondoliers…
= a man who steers and pushes a gondola through the canals of Venice

a musical
I prefer musicals like Rent, Les Miserables, or Mamma Mia!
= a theatre show with songs and dancing

the Venetian Lagoon
The story takes place on the Lido, one of the islands in the Venetian Lagoon…
When most people think of Venice, Italy, they are actually thinking of just one island. The city of Venice is made up of many different islands and part of the mainland. The islands of Venice are all in the Venetian Lagoon. The islands are separated from the Adriatic Sea by the Lido – an island that is also a sandbar.
More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Lagoon
Satellite image from Google Earth

to picture
It was fun to picture this story unfolding in places where I have walked.
= I can imagine in my mind the character in this opera walking around Venice