Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

INTERVIEWER:
It kind of turned you off from . . .
WOMAN:
Yeah, kind of had the-the idea that it would be 
much better to have something that had more security 
attached to it, compared with the glamour, if you will, of 
being an actor. But it was a wonderful—as a kid growing 

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Impr
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our Englis
h: Englis
h in Ev
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y Life
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up—it was a wonderful thing because, um, we met lots 
of interesting people, acting friends of my father and my 
mother, um, who were also very down-to-earth people as 
well but, you know, celebrities and the like, that was kind 
of fun. But . . . 
INTERVIEWER:
Did you get to see him perform?
WOMAN:
Yes, I did, and that was the most fun thing of all. 
Um, it’s-it’s a real unusual experience when one, you have 
a certain image of your parents, you see them around 
the house all the time, and then suddenly to see one’s 
father or mother appearing on the 
Broadway
stage or in 
a theater, uh, in costume and saying very diff erent sorts 
of lines and speeches, uh, is-is really an amazing experi-
ence. And I was very, very proud of him for everything 
that he did.
DEFINITIONS
American Sign Language (ASL):
A form of manual com-
munication used by deaf and hard of hearing people in 
the United States. ASL is an autonomous linguistic sys-
tem structurally independent from English. It is diff erent 
from sign languages used in other countries, such as Ital-
ian Sign Language or Japanese Sign Language.
antiquities:
Ancient civilizations and their remnants, 
ruins, and history.
Broadway:
A major street in New York City, New York, 
that is synonymous with live theater and is the major 
theater district of the city.