<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>6:54 english is the worst english is the hardest language in the world to learn you think so oh yes i don't know whether it's so hard to learn but <&>7:00 i reckon it's a terrible language to write because there's so many words the same you know their there and <{1><[1>they're and where wear and ware and here hear and hare and <{2><[2>you know it's ridiculous isn't <{3><[3>it <[1>yeah yeah i know <[2>laughs <[3>mm mm you know <&>tape cuts out for two seconds we've got all these pamphlets from wallaceville house so <{1><[1>i'll drop a pamphlet round and it shows you all the gardens and things it's really nice <{2><[2>you have to write <.>ca i have to write isabelle a letter telling her all about <{3><[3>it <[1>yeah <[2>mhm <[3><&>sighs <{><[>oh dear laughs <[>maoris find it hard to learn english those that er they don't have to worry <{><[>now <[>that have you know that speak maori and have never heard anything else but maori take sam koromiko oh you wouldn't know him he was my fireman for five and a half years <,> um he asked me to he he used to go to a maori school where they spoke maori at ruatoki and er like for money he'd say doughs dough dough <{><[>dough <[>dough is the er you know i've got no dough <&>8:00 laughs but he would always pluralise it by saying i've got no doughs laughs instead of saying money see you know no doughs and things like that they um <.>a and they <{><[>always put things back to front <[>cos even the even the english had <.>th voc can say i've go no dough for money yes but he was putting the s on the <{><[>end <[>oh i see i see mm but er oh yeah and where's duncan today he's um i dropped him at joelle's house to fix the kingswood to put the tyre on laughs poor word laughs listen what what size wheel is it he's got one <{><[>a spare one <[>well yeah oh yeah <{><[>cos he was <[>he went out to the guy who we bought the car off and the guy gave him two for twenty dollars <{><[>wheels and tyres <[>well i <.>inte i've got some spare wheels here yeah no he <.>go poppa's got spare everything in his garage he has <{1><[1>the worst thing no i'd hate anything to happen to him you know i'd hate him to die because before me <{2><[2>because i'd <.>ha i'd have to clean that <&>phone rings garage out <{3><[3>word and <[1>word <[2>don't <&>9:00 <[3>don't lie you've been waiting for me to die ever since laughs <&>9:06 <&>GP answers phone and when he gets off phone participants talk about tape transcribing therefore resumes after this <&>10:40 well <.>b what's happened to duncan now well with his car the jack won't work he's got a bottle jack mm and er he keeps pumping it up and er the weight of the car it it's it's got a leak somewhere that it just won't lift the car laughs <{><[>laughs <&>11:00 <[>so um he can't lift <,> it just won't work so laughs that is SO typical i tell you what no matter what sort of jack he had with him i guarantee it wouldn't work that no matter what it was it would not work so we'll have to take a jack out to <{><[>him <[>mm laughs poor poor boy so er <{><[>i'll <[>never mind that's life isn't it <{><[>if you could've seen the look on his face when he came back up to say that he'd crashed the alfa if you could've seen it i mean it would've been magic to get it on camera and frame it it was like <[>he won't mind laughs laughs there was this amazement <{><[>sort of look <[>yeah what happened how did it happen he was he was going he had the car he'd brought <&>pronounced bought the car it was sort of by the carport mum's car was in the carport but it was backed in so its its nose was <{><[>facing out yeah facing out to the road <[>in your flat area yeah yes and he went to to drive it <{><[>straight out and round and he put his foot on the accelerator <&>12:00 and it went up a bit but there was a car coming and they and so he let his foot off the accelerator and went to put it on the brake and the brakes didn't come on and the car rolled back into the post of the <[>clears throat yes what about his handbrake didn't that work <{><[>either <[>well he said it was like he only had like this much room so by the time he'd pumped the brakes he'd hit the thing there was no and er was there much damage oh it's <,> the back the back of the car comes round like that yeah and one corner's been <{><[>crushed eh <[>just a little ding in it yeah it's not that bad oh and he rung he rung the panelbeater and the panelbeater said well if the mechanic won't do it for you he said i'll do a cash job under the table um and do it dead cheap <&>sighs MARVELLOUS isn't it <{><[>and it was their fault <[>i i think <{1><[1>most of it's not the panelbeater's fault but i think the <{2><[2>mechanic should have something <[1>no but it's not the panelbeater's fault it's the mechanic <[2>oh yeah yeah after paying three thousand dollars out to have a a blimmin car repaired you don't expect the brakes to fail laughs that's a damn certainty so duncan said it's got to do with the master <&>13:00 cylinder <,> <{><[>but he's got another master cylinder at o k road so he's gonna put the new master cylinder in on the weekend <[>yeah is he mm <{><[><&>sighs <[>because he said the mechanic told him that the master cylinder was on its way out and duncan said well will it last and the mechanic said yes so it's whether i mean really perhaps the mechanic's not liable because he did say to duncan you know your master cylinder's on the way out well if it was on the way why didn't duncan get him just to put that one in in the first place i asked him that but duncan just went i don't know laughs <{><[>laughs <[>oh that it was going to be more it it was going to be more expensive i can understand the <{1><[1>poor boy because he would be thinking of the money that he was going to already <{2><[2>pay out <[1>well it's it's <.>al already expensive <[2>well the the other thing is duncan knows how to put a master cylinder in so he didn't want to pay a mechanic to do it no no <{><[>oh well <[>he knows what he's doing and these little things you're likely to forget all the time mm yeah poor old chap <{><[><&>sighs <[>well you must come right soon thelma things must <,> must be on your side soon <&>14:00 <{><[>surely <[>we're winning lotto tonight i told you that oh good on you we're winning lotto yeah and has he got it registered no <{><[>he's doing all that on monday <[>has he got oh <{><[>yes oh yes well how are you going to how are you getting on about that <[>yeah what do you mean finance your poppa's <{><[>going on about <[>POPPA you've PAID for he's PAID for the registration for the bike for the kingswood no duncan's got five hundred dollars put aside in the bank <{><[>to pay the insurance premium and the registration <[>has he oh that's all right <{><[>then word <[>and we're having to borrow fifteen hundred dollars off mum and dad you have to borrow it well mum and dad we don't have to but they wanted to pay the rest of the bill so that we owe them the money not the mechanic oh yes yes yes er oh yeah <{><[>i knew that <[>oh so you had fifteen hundred dollars to pay the <{><[>mechanic <[>yeah yeah i knew er i had an idea that was coming up yeah dad's not happy about it but mum <{><[>word <[>uh uh no no you're wrong oh am i you're wrong yes you're wrong it's er <,,> <&>15:00 you mustn't <{1><[1>jump to <{2><[2>conclusions thelma <[1>if <.>da <[2>if if dad wasn't happy about it you can bet your bottom dollar this would not have <{><[>eventuated you know that <[>mm he's just been really bad lately like <{><[>duncan and i <[>but you must understand him dear that <,,><&>3 his father has never helped them in any way whatsoever <,,> in all the time that they've been married now your mother is different don't get me wrong i'm only explaining a situation <{><[>laughs <[>laughs now every time your mother has ever got in the car she's always had me <,,> right now malcolm is different <,> and he thinks twice <,> simply because of his upbringing mm his father has always thought twice his father would never help his children and malcolm you <&>16:00 know we are <.>w <,> <.>w <.>w we're a product of our upbringing aren't <{><[>we <[>mm absolutely and i'm sure that malcolm is a product of HIS upbringing in the fact that he would help most certainly but he likes to think first mm thinks of all the avenues so don't say that he was never don't jump to conclusions as nana said oh he just <{><[>like <.>y mum'll say oh you can come round it'll be about a week till we get that fifteen hundred dollars and mum WILL've talked to dad about this i mean she doesn't make decisions like that on her own and dad'll say we'll all be sitting round the table and he'll say WHAT FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS and then you'll feel like a real dick <[>because laughs and mum'll go the fifteen hundred dollars we're lending them for the car WHAT FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS IS THIS so then <{><[>you're thinking oh you know <[>you know he's got to go through the whole process and <{><[>and mum <[>he does it to to <{><[>annoy you <[>that's <{><[>that's his that's his form of humour <[>laughs <&>17:00 and then mum goes i've discussed that with you duncan <.>r er malcolm you remember that we discussed this last night OH i don't believe we came to a decision about it though and you're thinking oh no oh laughs yeah <{><[>that's his <[>and that's what i meant that's the sort of thing but we were round there for dinner the other night and i walked in and said hi and dad said oh gidday how ARE you i said fine and that was all he said to me for the whole <.>nigh he we all sat round and had dinner he got up went into the lounge and he didn't talk to us for the whole night when i left i said tut thanks for the tantalising conversation i really enjoyed it laughs mum said yeah give him heaps give him heaps he's just he's not talking to anyone at the moment he's got in one of his sort of <{><[>stink sort of <[>i know i rung this morning i rung your mother and she was out and he said can i get her to phone you and i said oh no he <.>s i said she was a bit of a bad mood last night and i just wondered if she was all right he said oh yeah i told her off so she's right now <{><[>laughs <[>laughs she was i put her in a bad mood <&>18:00 no it wasn't no it wasn't it was her mother in <{><[>law <[>oh yeah <{1><[1>but i didn't help i <.>stre i I caused the fight with nana radcliffe though cos mum was really stressed out and she couldn't handle what nana radcliffe was saying so she had a go at her nana radcliffe they they mum was invited to my cousin's wedding and she doesn't even know him very well i mean if she bumped into him in the street she wouldn't recognise him so they decided that they wouldn't go to it that it's not worth their while and she SENT the the invitation back saying that they wouldn't <{2><[2>attend <[1>it was her mother in law <[2>no she never sent the oh no she never sent it because it had no it had no return address on it or no phone number <&>18:40