Tintin in: The Black Island #11
Tintin in: The Black Island
Episode 11
Beginner
Hi, my name is Ben, and welcome to Ben's Language Lab. Stories are one of the best methods to improve at a language, and stories with pictures are even better. And so today, we're going to read a comic together. This video is meant for beginner-level English learners, and if you need, there are subtitles available, or you can see the entire transcript on benslanguagelab.com. Make sure you subscribe for more videos like this one. Right now, your job is to watch, listen, and enjoy. We're currently reading Tintin and the Black Island. If you haven't seen the other episodes, click the link in the description to watch from the beginning. Alright, let's start learning. So last time, Tintin and the pilot had crashed their plane, and they stayed with this very nice Scotsman. And he was giving Tintin directions. Go that way, go that way to find the thing you're looking for. And so Tintin and Snowy were going to set off to find the bad guys who had crashed apparently into the water, into the ocean. And so let's see what happens. And Tintin starts walking. He's walking along with Snowy next to him who looks tired, right? He's got his tongue out. He looks tired. And Tintin says, 15 miles? That's quite a step. We shan't get to Kiltoch before evening. So shan't is an old way of saying won't or shouldn't. And he's saying that it's quite a long way, right? They have to go all the way around here to get to Kiltoch. And that's going to take a long time. And so the entire day is going to go by. The sun comes up, goes all the way over and then starts to go down again. It becomes night before evening. That's right before night. And so they're not going to get there before evening. And so here we see a nice landscape of Snowy and Tintin walking along together. There's a tree here, a nice big tree. This looks like a creek or some kind of river. There's a big mountain in the background, right? That's what this is, a mountain. And we see Tintin in his kilt and his hat with his little cane. And then Snowy sees a rabbit. There's a rabbit here. And so Snowy starts to chase the rabbit. He's going after the rabbit. Snowy, come here. Woo, woo, woo, woo. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. And so he's barking at the rabbit, and he chases the rabbit down the hill, and whoops, he falls. He trips over the rock, and he starts to fall. Toomph. Boom. Foof. He lands, and he lands right into some prickly bushes, some sharp bushes that, ow! Whoa! He yelps, he cries out in pain, and he runs back up the hill to find Tintin again. And he says, my poor Snowy, oh you poor thing, are you okay? And he goes over to him And he starts to pull out thistle. Thistle is this plant, right? And so, oh, whatever made you sit on a thistle, you silly dog? What made you decide to sit onto a thistle? And so now they keep going and now Snowy's upset. He's angry because he hurts, right? But then Tintin says, I can smell the sea. It smells salty. I can smell the sea. We must be fairly close by now, right? And so they're sort of getting close, right? It's still down there, right? They still have to walk that whole way and walk very far, but they're pretty close, right? And look, there's Kiltoch. And so now they're walking down the hill together, and now they're in the town. And they're looking around, and we see, oh look, there's a public bar here, and this sign says the Kiltock Arms. And so they're walking down the street together, and they go into the bar. They go into here. They go inside and Tim says, evening. which is a way of saying good evening, right? That's what this little apostrophe is doing. It's saying there's something else here that he's not saying, which is good. Good evening. And he asks the barman or the innkeeper, I wonder if you could put me up for the night. Aye, for sure, he says. To put someone up for the night or to put someone up in general, to put me up, is to give them a bed, to give them someplace to stay and some food. He's going to sleep there, he's going to eat there, and that's called putting someone up. He'll pay, of course, Tintin will pay for his bed, but it's just called putting up for the night. And the bachender says, aye, for sure, of course. And then, that's fine. I'd like something to eat, too, please. I've just arrived in Kiltah and heard about the air crash. Poor fellows. Do you know have they recovered the bodies? And so now Tintin's looking for more information. So first he wants some food. He's hungry. I want some food. I'm hungry, please. I just got here. I just arrived. Not five minutes ago, I got here to Kiltakh. And he heard about the air crash, right? Remember the airplane crash that we heard about last time, right? That was where, wait, where are we? Yeah, here on the television, they were talking about the wreckage that crashed from the other planes, from the bad guys' planes. And so he's asking about the air crash. Have they found, have they recovered the bodies? Did they go and grab and take the bodies somewhere else? But then he says, no, there's no sign of them yet. Nothing. And then he grabs his beer here, and then we hear from off the panel, and no more there will be neither. And then we see this old man who's sitting at the pub and he puts his hand on the table and says, never, which is never, right? Never. We're in a part of the UK, of Scotland, where the accents are a bit thick. And so they write them. And no more there will be neither. Neither. However you want to say these, right? And that's what he's saying. He's saying, we won't hear about the bodies. They're not going to find the bodies. Why not? Asks Tintin. Why won't they find those men? And he says, why not, you say? Ha, ha, ha. A body can see you're near from these parts, laddie. Else you'd can, for me, they'll no be seen again. Have you no air, dello, o' that beast? And so now let's break this down. And this is some thick, some thick-accented English. He says, why not, you say? Anybody, everybody can see you're no, you're no from, you're not from these parts. You're not from here. You are from somewhere else, right? Laddie is boy, tin tin, right? Kid, however you want to say it. Laddie. You're no from these parts, laddie. Else jid ken fer why they'll no be seen again. Which is, Or else, you'd be able to see why. You would know already. And again, it's sort of thickly accented English, but he's saying, you would already know why. Have you not heard tell? Have you not heard of the beast? Right, the beast we're now talking about. Heard is heard, right? And heard tell of is a bit of an old way of saying heard about, right? Have you heard the story? Have you heard of benslanguagelab.com? Oh my word, it's amazing. Have ye ne heard tell of the beast? And then Tintin goes, the beast? Uh-oh. And now we have a lot of text here. I'm just going to try to read it in normal English, because I don't speak this dialect. Let's see. And so Tintin says, the beast? What beast? The Loch Ness monster? And then he says, how do you ask laddie? I'm spearing a beast that bides in the black. I'm honestly not sure how to read all of this. That's a lot of text. Let's see that bides in the Black Island in the ruins of the castle of Craig Dwee the critters for devouring every man that's so bold as to going near that place. So he's saying here that I don't know what this part is. How's your whist, laddy? And then he's talking about the beast. So the big creature, the beast that lives near the Black Island in the ruins of the castle of Craig Dwee. So there's a castle and it's been destroyed. It's really, really old. And that's where this creature lives. critters eats home it devours every man that is so bold as to go near the place don't go there or at home it'll eat you and then he says I mind It'll be three months back, three months ago, there was two young laddies were for exploring the island for a words, a warning, a word for our words of warning. They didn't listen to these people. They went out to the island to see what was happening and then They went off in a little wee boat, in a wee boat. And so a tiny little boat, and they went out into the water, and it was dead calm. Dead calm, no sound. Not even a breath of wind. There was no wind at all. And they were never heard from again. And yeah, Ken, they were never heard of again. His accent's hard to do. But they were never heard from again. They were dead. Nobody ever heard them call or talk to them. Nothing. And it'll be last year, so a year ago, a Kiltok fisherman vanished without a sign. Gone. Nowhere to be seen. Where'd he go? Poof. Vanished. Here, I can vanish. Okay, I'm back, but I vanished. All right. And their mist was that day. Poor McGregor, a man, tis sure he ran aground on the island. To run aground is when you're on a boat. You're in a boat, right, and you hit something, the ground. Because a boat doesn't belong on the ground, it belongs in the water. And so we call it run aground on the island. And he's never been seen since. Right. We see here. Because nobody knows where he is. They're all lost. Right. They get lost. They get eaten by the monster. Oh, but there's no end to the tales of them that's gone. Pure souls, pure souls, poor people, poor souls. What happens to these people when they are gone forever? They're dead. Are they missing? We don't know. Okay, let's move on. Oh, he's got more. Oh, tis a terrible beast. Awful, big beast, roar, right? There's times in the nicht, the night, right? That's actually from older English, right? Nicht, night. When the winds, the wind, right? Fare the sea, you can hear it, you can hear it. Hrist. Do you hear? And so now, Tintin is listening because the old man is telling his story. He's talking about Roar the Monster. And then we hear thump, thump. Thump, thump, right? And Tintin is listening. Hmm, I wonder. And then the innkeeper brings Tintin his tea and says, here's your tea, sir. Thanks, he says, I appreciate that. You know, it's odd about that crash. I think I'll visit the Black Island tomorrow. Tintin, not afraid. Nope, not afraid at all. He's going to go see the island, despite there being a monster. So we'll see what happens. The next morning, Right, so he wakes up and he goes to this man on the boat. And he asks, will you take me across to the Black Island? And then the man says, the Black Island? For why are you wanting to go to the Black Island? Are you weary to live in? So here he says, why do you want to go to the Black Island? Are you crazy? Why? Are you tired, wearied? So wearied is, oh, I'm so weary. We don't really use it like that, but it means the same thing as tired. So are you tired of living? Do you want to die? Maybe. That's what this man thinks. Obviously he's frightened. He's scared of the Black Island. And so here he's asking another man, who is that? Take you to the Black Island? Not for all the barbies in the world. I'm not for dying yet, laddie. And so here he says, no way. Not for all of the money in the world. I don't want to die. I'm not for dying. That would be death. And this one, so this man won't take him. This man won't take him. This one won't take him either. To the Black Island, mind what I say, there's no man here that'll dare you go that cursed place. So when something's cursed, right, there's a problem with it. There's a curse, a spell, and you can't go for whatever reason. You will die. Something bad, something terrible will happen. And so, Nobody will take him. Nobody wants to go to the Black Island. And so Tintin finds and says, Aha! Just what I'm looking for. Ahoy there! Will you let me hire your boat? To hire is to pay money for, to use. And that's when you ask, when you pay somebody to hire their boat or their services or whatever. So here, he's paying the man, right? So he gave this man money. Here you go. And he's going to take his boat. Because the man says, Aye laddie, but de can work out the outboard motor, but can you use, do you know how to use the motor? That's what he's saying. D is do you do you know Ken is like do you know how do you are you able to and Use the the motor right? Can you? Drive the boat basically And then he asks Tintin, what are you making for this bra day? Where are you going? What are you doing? And then Tintin says, I want to have a look at the castle of Craig Dwee. And he tells him, I want to go see the castle, the big castle on the Black Island. And the man says, the Black Island? Nay, fear. You'll no come back again, and my boat will be lost. He's going to lose the boat because he's going to die if he goes to the boat. He also doesn't want him to go to the island. He's scared. Don't go, don't go. But then he says, what if I buy your boat? What if I give you all of the money and I buy your boat? And so the man says, okay, sure. Give me more money and the boat is yours. You can have the boat. And he says, off we go, here we go. And he's going out to the black island. Another, another away to his doom, right? And so this is another one away to his doom. Bam, bam, bam. However, we're going to have to find out what happens to Tintin in the next episode, because we're going to leave it there for today. Thank you for watching and enjoying. Despite all of that sort of difficult English and story part, I hope that you understood. Anyways, make sure that you subscribe to the channel and comment with how this episode went. What did you learn? What was interesting to you? And remember, all the transcripts for all episodes are available on benslanguagelab.com. I'll see you next time. Bye!
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