Multitasking 2 Image

Multitasking 2

Jul 13, 2014Canadian, Life&Food, Science&Tech

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Preparation
CONSIDER

Do you think multitasking is a good idea?

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Transcript
Alex Bodnar: So I I didn’t notice uh, you know if a woman or man wrote this article, so perhaps…José Cruz: Let’s take a look.

Alex: …this is an excuse for women to take a long time to do their shopping.

José: Let’s take a look here. This- well this is a a Voice Of America Learning English um, report. Let me see if I can um… (Mm-hmm) and sometimes at the bottom it says who wrote it, and it doesn’t say who wrote it. Uh, the the the person who actually read the article is Anna Mateo. (Mm) She she’s a woman but… she’s she’s the person who read it but I don’t know if she’s the one who actually wrote it. I don’t know.

Alex: Yeah, I don’t know either. So, but that’s one example only, uh…

José: Exactly. I think men and women think differently, but not specifically this. It’s- the multitasking thing is a new thing to me. (Mm-hmm) Uh, there was a book written um, a little while ago and I… Unfortunately I only know the title because I never actually read the book. But it was uh, the title was uh, “Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus”.

Alex: Yeah I’ve heard of that too. Yes yes.

José: Have have do you read it?

Alex: No I haven’t. Uh…

José: Okay same here then.

Alex: But my wife has uh, in in Japanese. And uh, I think she found it quite interesting. But, uh what did she learn from it, I’m not sure. Ma- maybe it was useful to our relationship.

José: I think um, a book will have a lot more to say. This is one article about one particular aspect of things. Um, and and there’sJosé should have said “there are”. (1:32) so many other aspects. This was specifically talking about how the brain works, right? This is like results from neurology and stuff, but there’sJosé should have said “there are”. (1:40) also aspects of psychology, learning styles, and things like that. And definitely, I got to agree: women are not men and men are not women.

Alex: Yeah there’s something there. I I must say there is something different going on uh, up in the noggin there. (Mm) Um, okay, there there was the example of the shopping. Wha- what about directions and using maps?

José: That’s so famous it’s almost stereotypical, but (yeah yeah yeah) it happens every time. I’ve never met a woman who can actually read maps well. And that sounds so, that sounds so, like almost misogynistic, you know.

Alex: I’m sure there are some that can read maps well. Uh, but maybe the problem is that there seem to be some that can’t, uh, I don’t know. (Uh, well OK…) Like you said, it sounds stereotypical, but uh, (yeah, yeah) maybe there’s an element of truth to it.

José: Yeah yeah. And um, and also too, it’s it’s… the idea it’s not just that um, you can always- the thing about science, and when you’re looking at things like this is that youpronounced quickly the two words “that” and “you” connect to make the sound “THACHU”. (2:50) have to account for the fact that there are always going to be exceptions to the rule. When you’re dealing with numbers that say 70 for- 75% of women and 25% of men exhibit this, this trait, then that means that you’ll always be able to come up with one out of four (mm-hmm) um, people who don’t adhere to that particular trait. And then you’re left with with saying well, whatever my bias is that’s what I’m going to stick to. But you got to stick with the numbers. Seventy-five percentNumbers over ten are usually written as Arabic characters unless they begin a sentence. of whatever or 60% of whatever, the data is not going to lie unless um the scientist who wrote it made a mistake in putting the data together, right? (Mm-hmm) so you’re always going to be able to find some women who can read a map properly and some men who are worthless at reading maps, rightIn this conversation, José often ended his statements with the word, “right?” This is not considered a good conversation habit. (3:39)?

Alex: Well that’s true too, yes. I know I know men are capa- There are men capable of uh, getting lost and not using maps correctly.

José: Oh sure yeah (Yeah) that’s why the whole GPS and and digital dash navigation systems that are being sold these days are making so much money because it’s just so much easier to do it that way. (mm) Right?

Alex: And isn’t it funny that uh, the the voice guidance often seems to be a a woman’s voice?

José: Yeah! So so basically it works out the guy drives and the women reads the map and tells the guy when to turn left and went to turn right, (Yeah) right? OK.

Consolidation
DISCUSSION

Are you good at reading maps?

Do you think you behave like a typical man/woman? In what ways are you not typical?

We don’t have any pointers for this conversation, but if you have a question, please ask in the ‘Comments’ below. We might use your question as the base for a future pointer.

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Speakers

Alex Bodnar Image

Alex Bodnar

Canadian

Harriston, Ontario

José Domingo Cruz image

José Domingo Cruz

Canadian

Vancouver, British Columbia


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5 Comments

  1. I’m good at reading maps,but my mother isn’t good at maps. According to this,I think it’s not typical woman’s behave that woman are not good at maps. I think that typical woman ‘s behave is taking to long shopping times. I think it is because that there are more woman’s clothes shops than man’s clothes shops.

    Reply
  2. My mother is good at reading maps but my father is not.
    They’re not typical men and women.
    Maybe me too.
    That is exactly why I’m interested in this article.

    Reply
  3. I felt that people who are typical men or women do not exist when I read the article about multitasking. This is because in my own case, I am not good at reading maps but my voice is low, so probably it is tough to hear my voice. I mean, nobody is true for all of the conditions of typical men or women. Therefore, I cannot judge whether women are better at multtasking than men or not.

    Reply
  4. The article says that voice guidance is woman’s voice. Certainly, I often hear female voice’s guidance and I think it’s normal, but I wonder why it’s woman’s voice. Probably, I think it’s easy for many people to hear woman’s voice because the voice is higher pitch than a man’s voice. I think it’s one of the reasons.

    Reply
  5. I’m not good at reading maps. I am typical woman. But my brother is also not good at it. He is not typical man. We must not forget that it may not be always typical example. And we should respect the good point of each other.

    Reply

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