Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 40. You're listening to English as a Second Language podcast number 40. My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillen coming to you today from the Center for Educational Development. here in Los Angeles, California. For more information on this podcast, visit our website at www .eslpod .com. Today's topic is homecoming. Homecoming is a traditional American celebration in schools usually during September and October. Now let's get started.
Fall is once again upon us and that means that homecoming celebrations are just around the corner. Homecoming is an American tradition each September and October for high schools and colleges where they celebrate their school spirit with a football game and other celebrations. I remember the homecoming events when I was in school. First, there was the election of a homecoming king and queen. Each class had its own representative, one boy and one girl, usually the most popular jock and
the cutest cheerleader. Needless to say, I was neither, so I never stood a chance of being elected. The king and queen, though, were always from the senior class. All the events led up to the big game, played on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon, always a home game, for the school celebrating their homecoming. In my school, we had a pep rally the day before the game, where the cheerleaders and dance team would do their
thing on the stage. We also had a small parade before the game, where all the homecoming royalty and the marching band would go around the track of the stadium where the game was held, cheered on by alumni, parents, and students. Then we would watch the football game, which at my school we usually lost. Our topic today was homecoming.
Homecoming means literally when someone comes back to their home or their house, but here it refers to a usually a football game and other celebrations that a school has when their graduates people who have gone to that school and have left come back to support the school to show their interest in the school and we call this homecoming every high school and university or college has a homecoming celebration in the fall I began talking about homecoming by saying that
fall is once again upon us The expression upon us here is used when we talk about events or time For example The spring is upon us means we are now in spring We can also say for example Christmas is upon us means It is now time for Christmas. It's a slightly more formal way of saying, now it's fall. Fall is upon us. I said that the homecoming celebrations are just around the corner. When we say something is just around the corner, We are not talking about physically
where something is located, but time. When we are very near in time to something, for example, next week is just around the corner, means it's just a few more days or a short amount of time before that happens. I said that one of the purposes of homecoming is so that those who are students at the school and those who have graduated from the school can show their school spirit. School spirit means interest or enthusiasm about your
school. It is sort of like loyalty to your school and usually means that you do something to encourage members of a sports team or the school to do better at some activity. To show your school spirit then means to support your school or your former school. the school you used to go to. In the United States we have the homecoming celebration which is almost always associated with a big football game or an American football game you might call it. Not soccer, but traditional American
football. I said that in a homecoming celebration, the students in the school select a homecoming king and queen. I mentioned that these are usually the boy who is a popular jock. A jock is an informal expression referring to someone who plays sports. football, basketball, hockey, tennis, and so forth. To say he's a football jock or a baseball jock means he plays those sports. It's a informal expression. Usually refers to boys or men, but
it could refer to a girl, I suppose. The cutest cheerleader a cheerleader is someone who you probably know dresses up in the colors of the school and jumps up and down Yelling and shouting to support the team Usually it's a girl, but it can also be a boy cheerleader they stand on the playing field, usually a football field,
and they do their cheers. Cheerleaders and jocks are often very popular in American high schools and colleges and so they usually are the ones who get elected to be the representatives for the homecoming celebration. I said that I was not a popular jock, and I certainly was not a cute cheerleader, so I didn't stand a chance of being elected homecoming king or queen. To stand a chance means to have a chance, to have
the possibility of being something. The expression can be used in a positive or a negative way. For example, here I said, I don't stand a chance of being elected. If I were a popular jock athlete, it would be the opposite. I stand a good chance of being elected. So either way, is possible to stand a chance is to have a good chance or good possibility of something happening. There is a homecoming king and queen. The king and queen are usually, I said, from the senior class.
You probably know that there are freshmen, sophomore, junior, and seniors. There are four years of a traditional American high school and four years of a traditional undergraduate or bachelor's degree college. The first year is freshman, the second year is called sophomore, the third year is junior, and the fourth or final year is senior.
When we say the senior class We aren't referring to a group of 30 or 40 students with a teacher To say the senior class means everyone who is a senior at that school So you can say for example, I'm in the sophomore class That means I am a sophomore. It is my second year at the school We also also use this expression class when we say for example I am starting school in 1977 and I am going to graduate four years later in
1981 I'm in the class of 1981. To say you're in the class of a year means that's the year you graduate. If you enter college in 2001, you will be in the class of 2005 because it will be four years before you graduate. I said that the events of a homecoming celebration lead up to or are anticipating the big game. Here the big game is the big football game. I said that this game is a home game. A home game means where the game is played in the stadium. or on the
field of that school. So if the University of Minnesota has a home game against the University of California, Berkeley, well, that game would be played in Minnesota, not in California. A few other terms I used today. One was a pep rally a pep rally spelled P E P pep a pep rally is a gathering where all the students come together usually in the school gymnasium or the school gym and they Cheer or they encourage the team that is going to be playing in the game or the
football game for homecoming. So you have the cheerleaders and what's sometimes called a dance team or a dance line. These are usually girls that do special dances to music and they have this big rally or meeting and all the students get excited about the game that's coming up. This is called a pep rally. I said that the dance team and the cheerleaders go up on usually to the stage of an auditorium or in a gym and they do their thing. To do your thing is an informal
expression. It means to do what you are supposed to do. So if you are a dancer, to do your thing
is to dance. I said that at the homecoming game there is often a parade of cars and people who march that's the verb we use for a parade to march a parade is a celebration on a street often or sometimes in a stadium or a place where a game is being held you can have sometimes a parade around the playing field Part of a parade at a homecoming celebration would include the marching band to march means to walk and The marching band is a band that plays music while it is walking
Usually they have special uniforms I'm sure you've seen marching bands. If you have ever watched an American football game for college, there is always a marching band from the college there. So they play music and cheer on the team. To cheer on the team means to encourage the team, to yell, to shout the name of the team, to support the team. Finally, I use the term alumni in talking about who goes to a homecoming celebration. Alumni is anyone who graduates or completes schooling
at a certain place. So I graduated from the University of Minnesota. I am one of the alumni. Alumni is a Latin word. It is plural. It means more than one. The singular for a man is alumnus. So I am an alumnus of the University of Minnesota. A girl would say I am an alumna. A -L -U -M -N -A for a girl. or U .S. for a boy, alumnus, alumna. If you have more than one, that's alumni, with an I at the end. It comes, of course, from the Latin word. That's going to do it for today's
ESL podcast. As always, we encourage you to email us. Tell us who you are and where you are listening from. Our email address is eslpod at eslpod .com. I'm Jeff McQuillen from Los Angeles, California. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast. This podcast is copyright 2005.