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Episodes
- Welcome...
Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:46:08 -0400..to Listen to English, the podcast website for people learning English.
The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are three short (2 or 3 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. You can download them to your computer, or subscribe using a programme such as iTunes or Yahoo, or simply listen to them by clicking the Flash player on the web page beneath each episode. You can put the podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player, and listen to them on your way to school or work. The full text of each podcast is on this site (and will also appear on your iPod screen), so you can look up the meanings of words that you do not understand in a dictionary. Then close your eyes and listen! Have fun!
NEW : you can now subscribe to Listen to English – learn English! by Email
- Rigoletto - Act 1
(2mb)
Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:37:00 -0400
I have been very busy for the past week. I have been playing my violin in the orchestra for an opera. An opera is like a play, but instead of spoken dialogue it has singing and music. The opera that we are performing is called Rigoletto, and it is by the famous 19th century Italian composer, Giuseppe Verdi.
Verdi wrote his operas in Italian, of course, but we are singing Rigoletto in English. This is a bad idea. Because the opera is in English, the audience will be able to understand what is happening. It would be better if they simply enjoyed the singing and the music, without worrying about what the words mean. Why? Because the plot of Rigoletto, like the plots of most operas, is complicated and unbelievable.
This is what happens in the opera. The Duke of Mantova is well-known for chasing pretty women. Recently, he has seen a very attractive girl in church. He has flirted silently with her during prayers. She does not know that he is the Duke of Mantova, because he has disguised himself as a poor student. And he does not know that she is Gilda, the daughter of Rigoletto. Part way through the first act of the opera, the Duke/poor student visits Gilda secretly. They declare their love for each other, and there is a lot of passionate singing and music that makes you feel warm inside.
Rigoletto – Gilda’s father – is the Duke’s jester. That means, it is his job to play the fool, tell jokes, make mischief and generally make people laugh. I do not think he is a good jester. There are no good jokes anywhere in the opera, and Rigoletto has made enemies of many other people at the Duke’s court.
Rigoletto’s enemies have discovered that he has a mistress. As a joke, they kidnap her. But she isn’t Rigoletto’s mistress at all. She is Gilda, his daughter. And Rigoletto is very upset. He is very protective of his daughter and forbids her to have any contact with men. He comes to the court in a very bad temper, and finds Gilda. Gilda – the silly girl – thinks this would be an excellent time to tell Rigoletto about the handsome young man at church. The news makes Rigoletto even more unhappy. His beautiful innocent daughter – first she is kidnapped, and now she is pursued by handsome young men in churches. His honour is insulted. He must have revenge. He decides that the handsome young man must go. He hires an assassin – a professional killer – to kill the handsome young man. But due to some unfortunate circumstances which are too ridiculous to explain, the assassin kills Gilda instead. She dies in Rigoletto’s arms. Rigoletto has destroyed the only person in the whole world that he loves. It is all very sad. The audience dab their eyes with large spotted handkerchiefs. The opera comes to an end.
Maybe I am wrong. Maybe things like this happen every week in Italy. But I think that Rigoletto would find it difficult to explain to a British policeman why he is standing in the street in the middle of the night holding the body of his daughter. “I see, sir. So you hired an assassin to kill a young man whom you now understand to be the Duke of Mantova. But he kills this young lady instead. Quite so, sir. I think you had better come with me to the police station, sir.”
More about Rigoletto next time.
Picture of the statue of Rigoletto at Mantua by febs/flickrFile Download (4:35 min / 2 MB)
- Talking rubbish (3mb)
Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:17:00 -0400
Recently, I found a postcard. You can see a picture of it on the website or on the screen of your iPod. On the front of the card it says “Birmingham’s total rubbish…”
What does this mean. Does it mean that “Birmingham is total rubbish” – in other words, Birmingham is an awful place and no sane person would like to live in Birmingham or visit the city?
Happily, it does not mean that. “Birmingham’s total rubbish …” is the beginning of a sentence about rubbish in Birmingham. On the other side of the card, there are facts and figures about how much rubbish each of us produces, and what happens to it.
Let’s start with some vocabulary. Every day, we throw things away that we do not need any more. We call this “rubbish” or “waste” or “refuse”. In America, they call it “garbage”. Rubbish that comes from people’s homes is called “household waste”. If it comes from shops, offices, restaurants etc, it is called “commercial waste”. And if it comes from factories, it is called “industrial waste”. In England, it is very common for people to put their household waste into big black plastic bags. Once a week, or once a fortnight, you put your plastic bags outside your house, and the local authority collects them. But some people, especially people who live in flats, put their waste into a large plastic container, about 1.50 meters tall. The container has a lid on the top, and wheels on the bottom. There is probably a proper, official name for these containers, but everyone calls them “wheelie bins” (because they have wheels on the bottom!) There is probably also a proper, official name for the wonderful people who collect the plastic bags, and empty the wheelie bins, but everyone actually calls them the “bin men”.
A lot of the things that we throw out can be recycled, that means, they can be used again. We can use waste paper to make new paper. We can use aluminium drinks cans to make new cans. And some things that we throw out, such as old batteries or fridges, contain materials which can damage the environment, so it is good if we do not put them in the general rubbish. The local authority therefore encourages us to separate paper, cardboard, cans, tins and plastic bottles from the rest of our rubbish so that they can be recycled. And what happens to our waste after it has been collected? In Birmingham, the paper and cardboard is taken to a factory just north of the city centre, where it is turned into new cardboard packaging. There are also factories not far from Birmingham which take recycled glass, cans and plastics. And the rest of our household waste goes to a modern incinerator in the south of Birmingham, where it is burnt at a high temperature. The heat from the incinerator is used to generate electricity, and some of the ash can be used in the building industry.
That is the good side of the story. The bad side is that we do not recycle very much. In Birmingham, we recycle only 20% of household waste. This is much better than a few years ago, but a lot worse than many other towns in England. And in comparison with other European countries, our recycling rates in England are very poor. In Belgium and Austria, for example, well over half of all household waste is recycled. We still live in a society where it is normal to throw things away without thinking about how to re-use them. How can we persuade people to recycle more? Our government has suggested that people should pay for every kilo of rubbish that they produce and do not recycle. They have also said that fortnightly rubbish collections, instead of weekly collections, may encourage people to recycle. However, these ideas are controversial. It is easy to see the problems and difficulties in them, and less easy to see the solutions to the problems. It will not be easy to change people’s behaviour. But equally we cannot go on throwing things away as we do at present.
Picture of wheelie bins by Richard Smith/flickrFile Download (5:40 min / 3 MB)
- Contemporary (2mb)
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:42:00 -0400
Today we are going to meet the Duke of Wellington, and talk about the word “contemporary”.
In fact, both the Duke of Wellington and the word “contemporary” were in the podcasts about Glastonbury. You can’t remember the Duke of Wellington? Was he perhaps one of the pop singers at Glastonbury? No, he wasn’t. But you remember that, because of the mud at Glastonbury, many festival-goers wore wellington boots. Wellington boots are waterproof boots made of rubber. In America, people say “gumboots”. In Britain we often say “wellies”. And the name “wellington boot” comes from the Duke of Wellington, who was the first person to make this type of boot popular.
In 1815, the Duke of Wellington was the commander of the British army at the Battle of Waterloo, which is a place just outside Brussels in Belgium. At Waterloo, Wellington and his allies defeated the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte. Later, Wellington became Prime Minister of Britain for a short time. He persuaded Parliament to pass laws to give rights to Catholics in Britain, for the first time in 200 years. But in all other respects, he was deeply conservative. He opposed any other sort of political reform. The London mob gathered regularly outside his home to shout slogans and throw stones at the windows.
So, you now know something about the Duke of Wellington. Let’s meet the word “contemporary”. Contemporary means “belonging to the same time”. If we are talking about the Duke of Wellington, “contemporary events” means things that happened during his life – things like the revolution in France, and the rise to power of Napoleon; or the industrial revolution; or the movement for political reform in Britain, which Wellington opposed. “Contemporary newspapers” means newspapers from that time – the newspapers which reported the victory at Waterloo, for example, or the riots and demonstrations in London for political reform. We can say that Wellington and Napoleon were contemporaries – they lived at the same time; in fact, they were born in the same year, in 1769. On the website and, I hope, on your iPod screens there are pictures of both Wellington and Napoleon. They are wearing contemporary dress, or contemporary fashions; that means, the sorts of clothes that important people wore at that time.
But often in English we use the word “contemporary” to mean “belonging to the present time”, in other words to mean “modern”. We talk about contemporary art or contemporary music or contemporary fashions or contemporary furniture. We mean modern music, modern art etc – music or art of the 21st century. You remember that, in the last podcast, Hilary talked about contemporary bands that played at Glastonbury. She meant modern bands, bands that young people today like to listen to.
So, contemporary is a word that can mean different things depending on its context, that is, depending on what you are talking about. If you are talking about Wellington, it means “of the early 19th century”. If you are talking about the Beatles, contemporary means “of the 1960s”. And if you are talking about today, contemporary means very modern, or up-to-date.File Download (4:45 min / 2 MB)
- We Have Moved to a New Home
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:34:00 -0400Listen to English has moved to a NEW WEB ADDRESS:
We are now at www.listen-to-english.com
We have arranged that all requests for the old address are automatically sent to the new address. So there is no need for you to change anything on your computer. But if you have bookmarked the old Listen to English address, it would be a good idea to replace it with a bookmark for the new address.
I have moved the FeedBurner RSS feed to point to the new address. If you subscribe to the feed with iTunes or another podcatcher, or via the FeedBurner e-mail service, you will continue to receive the Listen to English podcasts. You do not need to change anything in your computer or in iTunes.
I am sorry that, when we made these changes, we lost two podcast episodes (Goodbye Tony and Let me Know) and also the download data for them. I have put the podcasts back on the website and you now should be able to download them. If you find problems, please let me know.
Many thanks for continuing to support Listen to English. I love receiving your comments and your e-mails. Your suggestions often help me to make Listen to English even better.
Technorati Profile - Glastonbury - mud and music (2mb)
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:55:00 -0400
We return to Glastonbury today for a first-hand account of the mud and the music from Hilary. The full text of my conversation with her is in a pdf file in the posting immediately before this one.
First, listen to the podcast without looking at the transcript. Probably there will be parts which you do not understand, but that doesn’t matter. Then have a look at the quiz (link at the end of this posting) to see how much of the podcast you understood. Then look at the transcript, to check the words or expressions that you did not understand.
Picture of flags in the Jazz Field at Glastonbury by Ian Watkins/flickrFile Download (5:00 min / 2 MB)
- Glastonbury - mud and music - transcript (0mb)
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:52:00 -0400Click on the link below to download a pdf file with a full transcript of the podcast “Glastonbury – mud and music”. You will need to have Adobe Reader on your computer.
File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)
- Let me know... (2mb)
Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:47:00 -0400
“Suppose you are planning a holiday in England. Your friend in England might say to you, “Please let me know when you are going to arrive.”
Or suppose I am talking to a friend who is planning to move to another town. I might say, “Please let me have your new address.”
What do these expressions mean – “let me know”, and “let me have”?
You have probably guessed the answer. “Let me know” means “tell me” and “let me have” means “give me”. Easy. Simple.
Well, actually it is a more complicated than perhaps you think. If I say to you, “Tell me how to get to your house”, I expect you to answer straight away. I expect you to say, “Take the underground to Highgate station, and a bus from there.” But if I say, “Please let me know how to get to your house”, I mean “Please don’t explain now if that is inconvenient; please tell me later, when you are ready, when you have time”. So, “let me know” is a less direct way of saying “tell me”. And because it is more indirect, it is often more polite and formal as well.
Here are some more examples:
Joanne’s friend Judy and her boyfriend have decided to get married. They still haven’t made any detailed plans, about when the wedding will be and what sort of wedding they want. Joanne is very pleased and excited when Judy tells her. Here are some of the things that Joanne says:
When you have decided, let me know the date of the wedding.
And let me know where the wedding will be.
Please let me know how to get there.
And let me know whether there is anything I can do to help.
Let me know what I should wear.
Let me know what you would like as a wedding present.
And let me know who else is coming.
And after the wedding, please let me see all the wedding photos.
And as for Kevin, he has just finished writing a report at work. It is a report on new developments in the market for cat food. It doesn’t sound very interesting, does it? But Kevin is very proud of his report, and he wants to impress his boss and his work colleagues. “I might be able to let you see my report,” he says to one colleague, loudly so that the whole office can hear. “When you have read it, perhaps you could let me have your opinion on it.” Poor Kevin. Perhaps someone should let him know that there are more important things in life than the market for cat food.
Picture of Yosemite Wedding Chapel by Dalebert/flickrFile Download (3:24 min / 2 MB)
- Goodbye Tony, Hello Gordon (2mb)
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:34:00 -0400
We do not often talk about politics on this podcast, but today is different. Today is a special day. Our Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has been Prime Minister since 1997. But today he will resign. In fact, Tony Blair told us many months ago that he was going to step down. But instead of quitting immediately, he decided that he needed time to say goodbye properly. Since then, he has been saying goodbye to everyone – goodbye to his party, goodbye to Parliament, goodbye to President Bush, to the European Union, to the whole world. He has made speeches, he has gone to meetings, and attended receptions and dinners. He has appeared on chat shows and children’s programmes on television. He has been like a pop star making one last tour, to bid farewell to his fans. Do his fans still love him? How many fans does he still have? I don’t know and I don’t care. After today we will have a new Prime Minister, and Tony Blair will be yesterday’s man.
Who will our new Prime Minister be? We have known for months, or even years, that Tony Blair’s successor would be Gordon Brown. For the last ten years, Gordon Brown has been Chancellor of the Exchequer – that is, he has been Minister of Finance. He has been the second most powerful man in the government. He and Tony Blair have not had an easy relationship. The problem has not been about policy – it is difficult to see any real political difference between them. Rather it has been a clash of personalities. Tony Blair thought that Gordon Brown was trying to push him out. Gordon Brown felt that Tony Blair stayed as Prime Minister for far too long. Every week the press has reported some new row, or some new problem in their relationship. It has been like a national soap opera. We all looked forward to the next episode.
What is Gordon Brown like? Well, he is Scots. He is serious-minded. He may have a sense of humour, but he hides it well. (The famous 18th century English writer, Dr Johnson, once said that it requires a surgical instrument to insert a joke into a Scotsman’s brain. He was perhaps thinking of Gordon Brown). And Gordon Brown is a very skillful politician.
His political skill is clear in today’s newspapers. He has persuaded a Member of Parliament from the opposition Conservative Party to leave and join the Labour Party instead. In other words, on the day that he becomes Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has made his political opponents look foolish.
His main opponent is the leader of the opposition, David Cameron. David Cameron is young – only 40 years old. He has an informal and easy style. People have described him as the “new Tony Blair”. This may not help him very much; many people do not want a new Tony Blair. David Cameron comes from a rich family, and was educated at one of England’s leading and most expensive private schools. Despite this, he would like people to think that he is in touch, particularly with younger people. So he has a You Tube site, and a podcast. Several months ago, I sent him an e-mail asking him if he would make a special guest appearance on this podcast. I regret to tell you, dear listeners, that I received no reply. Until David Cameron takes the Listen to English podcast seriously, I cannot advise you or anyone else to vote for him.File Download (4:59 min / 2 MB)
- Goodbye Tony, Hello Gordon - vocabulary note
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:30:00 -0400We have lots of possible ways of talking about Tony Blair’s resignation. Here are some of them:
- Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister
- he steps down as Prime Minister
- he leaves office/ he leaves No 10 Downing Street
- he retires
- he quits
- he goes
- he steps aside
- he makes way for Gordon Brown
- Podcast ::
- Mud (2mb)
Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:19:00 -0400
Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset in south-west England. It contains the ruins of an old abbey, and has some beautiful countryside around it. There are many myths and legends associated with Glastonbury. Many of these are stories about the Celtic people who lived in England before the Anglo-Saxons came in the 5th and 6th centuries. Today Glastonbury is a favourite place for people who are interested in alternative lifestyles. Here are some of the things you can do in Glastonbury: – you can buy organic toothpaste, or aromatherapy for your cat; – you can visit the burial place of the ancient (and probably mythical) King Arthur and his wife Guinevere; – you can try on a jumper covered in special Celtic patterns; – you can browse in a bookshop that specialises in things like New Age Ecology and Geomancy; – you can attend courses on Shamanism and witchcraft.
In other words, if you believe in fairies, you will love Glastonbury.
Glastonbury is famous as the home of the Glastonbury Festival. This is a festival of music, dance, theatre and comedy. It takes place on a farm a few miles from Glastonbury. People come from all over Britain and abroad to camp in the fields, listen to the music, make new friends and enjoy themselves. Glastonbury is in fact the largest festival of its sort in the world. It started back in 1970, and has been held on most years since then. Every year it becomes bigger, with more people, more bands and more to do and see. This year, about 180,000 people will come to the Festival to hear bands like the Arctic Monkeys, and singers like Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, to listen to new poetry, and to see cabaret, circus and comedy performances.
Unexpected things happen at Glastonbury. In 1994 the main stage burned down. In 2001 a fence collapsed and thousands of gatecrashers were able to get in. But above all Glastonbury is famous for mud. There was heavy rain in 1997 and again two years ago, in 2005. The rain itself is not a problem. We are English. We are used to rain. We are happy standing in the rain, eating sandwiches and listening to a pop concert. But the rain caused the streams to overflow, and because there were so many people at the festival, the fields turned to a sea of mud. There were pictures in the newspapers of festival goers covered from head to toe in mud. They looked very happy too. They obviously thought, “If we are going to get muddy, we might as well enjoy it”. Sensible people now bring good waterproofs and several pairs of wellingtons with them to Glastonbury. The man who owns the farm where the festival is held – his name is Michael Eavis – is determined that this year the mud will not be a problem. He has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on new drains and other improvements. However, all parts of England have had very heavy rain in the past two weeks, and the weather forecast for Glastonbury this weekend is – yes, more rain. So, which will win – Michael Eavis’s new drains, or the mud? I am betting on the mud.
Picture of mud at Glastonbury by Ian Miller/flickr- Vocabulary Note ::
- Webcam in Glastonbury :: - so that you can see whether it is raining.
File Download (4:36 min / 2 MB)
- Mud - vocabulary note (0mb)
Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:16:00 -0400Here is a pdf file which contains a vocabulary note to go with the podcast on Mud. You will need Adobe reader to read it.
- Podcast ::
File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)
- Madeleine (2mb)
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:57:00 -0400
Madeleine McCann is four years old. Everyone in Britain knows about her. This is why.
Madeleine lives with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, and her younger brother and sister. Their home is in a town called Rothley in central England. It is a small town – the sort of town where nothing ever happens, certainly nothing that gets into the newspapers.
At the end of April, the McCann family went on holiday to Portugal, to a resort called Praia da Luz. On the evening of 3 May, Gerry and Kate put their children to bed. When the children were asleep, at about 9.30pm, Kate and Gerry went to a restaurant close by to have a meal. At 10pm Kate came back to see that the children were OK. Madeleine was gone.
It quickly became clear that Madeleine had not just woken up and gone for a walk. Someone had taken her. She had been kidnapped.
The kidnapping of Madeleine McCann, and the search for her, has been a huge story in the British press and on TV and radio. Kate and Gerry have done everything they can to get publicity. They believe it is the only way they will ever see their daughter again. They have contacted everyone whom they think might be able to help them. They have met government ministers in several countries in Europe, and had an audience with the Pope. They have appeared on TV, and answered questions from journalists at press conferences. Newspapers have offered big rewards for information which may help to find Madeleine. There are “Find Madeleine” websites, and people have put pictures of the missing girl on advertising hoardings and in shop windows all over Europe, and on big screens at football matches.
Despite all of this, there seems to be very little evidence to help the Portuguese police. One witness reports that he saw a man carrying a small girl wearing pink pyjamas at about the time that Madeleine disappeared. The Portuguese police have questioned a British man who lives near Praia da Luz, but they now say that they do not have any evidence against him. There has been a report that a girl who looks like Madeleine has been seen in Morocco. The police have asked people who were on holiday near Praia da Luz to send them their holiday photos. The police hope that somewhere in these photos, in the background perhaps, they will see a face that they know – the face of someone who has previously been involved in kidnapping or abusing children.
And last week a Dutch newspaper received an anonymous message that Madeleine was dead, and that her body could be found in an area close to Praia da Luz. The police searched the area and found nothing.
So Kate and Gerry McCann wait for news. They continue to try to create as much publicity as they can. Someone may have seen something which could help the police. Certainly someone, somewhere, knows where Madeleine is and what has happened to her. But for the moment, there is nothing.File Download (4:08 min / 2 MB)
- Blessed (2mb)
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:00:00 -0400
In a podcast last week, I talked about a pop group called the Zimmers. The Zimmers are all elderly people, who want to show the world that old people can be fun and creative. A few days ago I found a short poem about being old. It is by Barbara Beuler Wegner, but I am afraid that I have not been able to find out anything more either about the poem or about the writer. Here it is:Blessed are they who understand
My faltering steps and shaking hand.
Blessed are those who know my ears today
Will strain to catch the words they say.
Blessed are they who with a cheery smile
Stop to chat for a little while.
Blessed are those who never say
“You’ve told us that story twice today”.
Blessed are those who make it known
That I’m loved, respected and not alone.The word “blessed” is a religious word. It means being favoured by God. In modern English we would normally say “blest”, rather than “blessed”. But the writer was thinking about a famous passage in the Bible in which Jesus tells us what sort of people are closest to God. They are not the rich people, or the powerful people, or the famous people. They are poor people, people who carry great sorrow, people who show mercy, people who suffer, and so on. In a modern English Bible, the word that Jesus uses for these people is “blest”. But older people like me remember a much older English translation of the Bible. In England we call it the Authorised Version of the Bible. In America, they call it the King James Bible, because it was translated into English at the beginning of the 17th century, in the reign of King James I. (Do you remember the podcast about the Fifth of November? King James was the king whom Guy Fawkes tried to blow up.) The Authorised Version of the Bible is sometimes difficult to understand, because it uses English which is very different from modern English. But it is very beautiful and poetic, and it was the version of the Bible used in churches in England for more than 300 years. And in the Authorised Version, the word which Jesus uses to talk about people who are close to God is “blessed”. And that is why the word “blessed” is used in this poem.
File Download (3:30 min / 2 MB)
- Ago, for and since, and why it is a good idea to learn French. (3mb)
Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:38:00 -0400
Many English learners find that they get confused between words like “ago”, “since” and “for”. Today’s podcast gives you lots of examples of how to use these words; I hope it will help you to use them correctly.
Suppose that we want to talk about when we did something, or when something happened. We can use the word “ago”. We can say, for example, “it happened two weeks ago” or “a year ago” or “five minutes ago” or “a long time ago”. With “ago” we always use words which describe a period of time – a week, a month, 10 minutes.
If we want to say for how long we did something, or how for how long something happened, we can use the word “for” – “for about a week”, “for 10 years”, “for a short time”. And, like “ago”, we use “for” with a period of time – a week, a year etc.
Another way of talking about how long we have done something is to use the word “since” – “I have been ill since Monday”, “since Christmas”, “since I got up this morning”. With “since” we always have to use words which describe a point in time – words like “last week” or “Winter” or “1998”. We do not say things like “since a week” or “since 10 minutes”. Everybody clear? Then let’s begin.
Kevin and Joanne have just had a holiday. First, they looked at lots of travel brochures. Perhaps they could take a cheap flight to Marocco. “We went to Marocco two years ago”, said Joanne. “Lets go somewhere different.”
“We could go to Scotland again”, said Kevin. “I like Scotland”.
“We went to Scotland a year ago,” said Joanne. “It rained for the whole week.”
“Well, how about France”, said Kevin. “I haven’t been to France since I was at school.” So they decided to go camping in France.
They set off in the car. But they had forgotten that there were roadworks on the motorway. There have been roadworks on the motorway for the last two years, since the beginning of 2005. They arrived at Dover late.
“Our ferry left 10 minutes ago”, said Kevin. “We shall have to wait for an hour for the next ferry.”
They got on the next ferry without problems. For the next hour and a half, they relaxed, drank coffee and ate a sandwich until the boat arrived in Calais. Then they drove through France for another 3 hours.
“We must be near the campsite now”, said Joanne. “But I am sure we came through this village before, about 20 minutes ago”.
They turned left and found themselves in a farmyard with cows and hens. So they went back and turned right, and found themselves in an industrial estate with factories and warehouses. They stared at the map, but they could not work out where they were. “We will have to ask someone”, said Kevin. And this was a problem. First, because there was no-one around to ask; and second because neither Kevin nor Joanne spoke more than a few words of French. They drove for another 10 minutes, looking for someone who looked as if they could speak English. And this was difficult, because you cannot tell, just by looking at someone, what languages they speak. Then they saw a man working in his garden. They stopped the car. Joanne tried to remember the French that she had learned at school. “Excusez- moi, monsieur. Parlez-vous anglais?” And the man said that he did speak English – in fact, he was English.
He explained where the campsite was. “We passed it 10 minutes ago”, said Kevin. And he asked the man how long he had lived in France.
“We bought our house 10 years ago,” the man explained. “For the next six years, we came here every summer for our holidays. Then, four years ago, I retired from my job. Since then, we have lived permanently in France.” Kevin asked the man whether he could speak French. “Of course,” said the man.”We did not want to be like all those English people who go to live in France or Spain and never learn a word of the language. My wife and I started learning about 8 years ago, and since 2003 we have been to classes in French in the nearby town.”
Well, Kevin and Joanne found the campsite. For the whole of their holiday the sun shone, and they relaxed and enjoyed themselves. And when they returned home, they decided that it was not good enough that neither of them could speak French. So they have enrolled in an evening class, where they are now struggling with the mysteries of French irregular verbs.
Photo “Au Camping” by light guard/flickrFile Download (6:33 min / 3 MB)
- Hoovers, Zimmers and Sellotape (2mb)
Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:59:00 -0400
A “thermos flask” is a vacuum flask (or bottle) used to keep drinks hot or cold. Originally flasks like this were sold under the trade name “Thermos”. “Kleenex” is a brand of paper tissues, that you might use to blow your nose. We often call any paper tissue a “kleenex” even if it is made by a different company.
Do you know what a hoover is? The Hoover company makes vacuum cleaners, that you use to keep your house clean. In fact, Hoover made some of the earliest vacuum cleaners. They were about the size of a supermarket trolley, and made as much noise as a jet engine. But people loved them, and we started to talk about a “hoover” instead of a vacuum cleaner, even if the cleaner was not made by Hoover. We still do this today – we talk about “hoovering the sitting room” or “doing the hoovering”.
There are several other things which we often call by the name of the company that first made it. “Sellotape” is a transparent, sticky tape which you use to stick paper, for example if you are wrapping a present to give to someone. We say “sellotape” even if the sticky tape is not made by the Sellotape company.
My final example has been in the news this last week. It is “zimmer”. A zimmer is a walking frame, generally made of aluminium, that very old people often use to help them to walk. The first walking frames were made by an American company called Zimmer. And why are zimmers in the news? If you are a keen student of the British pop music charts – I am, of course – you will see that a band called the Zimmers was at number 26 last week, singing a song called Who’s My Generation. And the Zimmers really do have zimmers. Their lead singer is Alf Carretta. He is 90. “I hope to die before I get old”, he sings. His backing group have a combined age of over 3000. I believe that Buster Martin, whom we met a few weeks ago in a podcast, is one of the group. The Zimmers want to make people think about the situation of elderly people. They want to show that old people can be creative, dynamic and fun. Alf Carretta says that singing in the band has brought him back to life. “I was 90 and stuck in a rut. And now I feel that I have come alive again”, he says. The Zimmers’ video has become a big hit on YouTube. When I grow up, I want to be a Zimmer too.File Download (3:33 min / 2 MB)
- Big Mac (4mb)
Thu, 24 May 2007 14:58:00 -0400
After my last podcast, I am sure that many of you have applied for jobs as spies for the British Secret Intelligence Service. But what will you do if they say no? If they say that they don’t want you; they have enough spies already; and they don’t think you would be very good at spying anyway?
Well, in most big cities nowdays, you can get a job in McDonalds, the chain of fast-food restaurants. You can make and sell burgers and chips (or “French fries” as the Americans call them). You can clear the tables and do the washing-up. Or you can sweep up the rubbish which people leave in the car park. It probably isn’t very interesting work, and probably McDonalds won’t pay you much money. But it is at least a job.
Or a McJob, as some people say. A McJob is a low-paid boring job with few prospects in a service industry, like McDonalds restaurants. The word McJob has been used for at least 20 years, and for the last 6 years it has been in the Oxford English Dictionary, which means that it is officially recognised as part of the English language.
But McDonalds don’t like this. They say that the word “McJob” is an insult to the wonderful, hard-working men and women who work in their restaurants. They say that work in the fast-food industry today is fun, exciting and well-paid. And they want the Oxford English Dictionary to change the definition of McJob. They have persuaded a number of leading business people to write a letter to the dictionary, and they have organised a petition that anyone can sign.
The Oxford English Dictionary will probably reply that it is not their job to change what words mean. If people use the word “McJob” to mean a badly paid job in a fast-food restaurant, then it is right for the dictionary to say that that is what the word means. There are lots of words in the dictionary which people use in cruel, unfair or insulting ways – but that is not the fault of people who write dictionaries. They might even say that it is insulting to poorly paid people to pretend that they have wonderful jobs when actually their jobs are not wonderful. And that it is insulting to French people for McDonalds to call their chips “French fries”.
The truth is that most jobs in fast-food restaurants are boring and badly-paid. There are few benefits or career prospects, and many people only work there for a few months until they find something better. Like a job as a spy for example.
I shall be away in Germany next week (Hallo, Deutschland. Ich komme euch zu besuchen!), but I will be back with a new podcast on about 7 June. To keep you company, here are the Nashville Session Players with Big McDonald.
Photos of mcDonalds by the zen master/flickr and by captain scurvy/flickr- Welcome to McDonalds... ::
- ...and welcome to a website for people who dont like McDonalds very much ::
- Vocabulary Note ::
File Download (7:35 min / 4 MB)
- Big Mac - vocabulary note
Thu, 24 May 2007 14:56:00 -0400A lot of Scottish and Irish surnames (family names) begin with “Mac” or “Mc”. It means “son of..” In general, Scottish names have “Mac” and Irish names “Mc”, but the picture is confused by the fact that lots of Irish people live in Scotland, and lots of Scots in Ireland, and that some people have changed the spelling of their names.
Sometimes in colloquial English, we use “mac” as a word in its own right. McDonalds restaurants call one of their burgers a “Big Mac”.The Apple Mac is, of course, the well-known computer from Apple Macintosh. (Did you know that there is a sort of apple – a fruit, not a computer – called the McIntosh apple? It grows very well in New York state, I believe).
In the 19th century, a Scotsman called Charles MacIntosh invented a waterproof material for making rain-coats. To this day, we often call a raincoat a “mac” or a “macintosh”.
And another Scotsman, John MacAdam, invented a new method for surfacing roads. It was called “Macadamising”. His method was later improved by adding tar to the road surface, to produce what today we call “tarmac” (=”tar MacAdam”).- Podcast ::
- Do you want to be a spy ...... (2mb)
Tue, 22 May 2007 10:10:00 -0400
Intelligence. What does it mean? The word “intelligence” has two main meanings in English. First, it can mean “mental capacity” – if you are intelligent, you can think clearly and rationally, for example. But “intelligence” also means information. For example, we can talk about “market intelligence” – and that means, information about what is happening in a market, such as the stock market or the international oil market. Very often, we use “intelligence” to mean information which is secret, or which has been obtained illegally. Many governments have “intelligence services” which collect secret information about other countries, or about the government’s opponents at home. Intelligence services employ agents – or, to use the more normal word, spies. To spy on someone means to watch them secretly, without them knowing.
A few days ago, an advert appeared in the jobs section of the newspaper which I read. “Don’t keep your intelligence secret!” it said. It was an advertisement for jobs in the British Secret Intelligence Service – the SIS or, as it is sometimes known, MI6. It was an advertisement for spies.
Many years ago, I worked in British Embassies in the Middle East and in Scandinavia. In the Embassies, there were some diplomats who were from the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). It was supposed to be secret, but everyone knew who they were. Of course, we were not allowed to call them spies, or people from the intelligence service – we had to refer to them as “our friends”. Sometimes we saw their intelligence reports. They were marked “Top Secret” and told us things that we knew already. I do not know how the SIS recruited people to work for them in those days. Perhaps they approached people in secret, and invited them to secret interviews with secret people.
In those days, too, the name of the head of the SIS was never made public. He was known only as “C”. He wrote things in green ink. No-one else was allowed to use green ink. It was all very ridiculous.
But nowdays it is different. The SIS advertises for spies in the newspapers, and even has a website which tells you what the SIS does and what sort of people it wants to recruit. It has a grand headquarters building at Vauxhall Cross in the centre of London. And we know that the head of the SIS is called John Scarlett. He is well-known in Britain. In his previous job, he advised our government that it was OK to say that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The fact that he was completely wrong obviously did his career no harm.
But that is how many organisations work. If you are a junior employee and you make a big mistake, they sack you. If you are a senior person, they promote you.
Photo of the SIS Headquarters at Vauxhall Cross by TPMpix/flickrFile Download (3:59 min / 2 MB)
- Star trek - Heavy lies the Crown
Thu, 17 May 2007 14:49:00 -0400
Do you remember the episode last June called To Boldly Go…? It was about a group of dedicated Star Trek fans who were making their own Star Trek film. I have just received a message from them to say that the film “Heavy Lies the Crown” will be released on 26 May. You will be able to download it from their website, where there are also lots pictures and other information about the making of the film.
What does the title of the film mean – “Heavy lies the crown”? Well, the title may be an echo of a line in Shakespeare’s play Henry IV, where the king complains that the responsibilities of state lie heavily on him so that he cannot sleep – “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Or it may be a reference to a line in a song by Limp Bizkit “Heavy is the head that wears the crown”. Or maybe it is something completely different.
Some of you are probably shaking your heads and thinking that the English truly are mad. (“Ils sont foux, ces anglais” as Asterix used to say). Only the English could spend several years making a Star Trek tribute film in their kitchens. Well, let me tell you something. The lads and lassies who have made the new film are from Scotland – which is a deeply wonderful country, but it is not England. So go easy on those national stereotypes! - Plastic Rubbish (2mb)
Thu, 17 May 2007 11:46:00 -0400
Rebecca Hosking makes documentary films. Recently, she worked on a documentary film for the BBC about the effect of plastics in the marine environment. She was shocked by what she saw as she was making the documentary. She found many sorts of sea creatures that were choked or poisoned by plastics. It is estimated that every year, over 100,000 sea birds, whales, seals and turtles are killed by plastic rubbish in the sea. Some of this rubbish comes from ships, when people carelessly throw things overboard. But most plastic rubbish in the sea comes from the land. People throw away things made of plastic. Some of it ends up in rivers and gets carried out to sea. Other rubbish is blown into the sea by the wind.
Plastic is very useful stuff. It is cheap, and it can easily be formed into all sorts of shapes. And it lasts a long time before it starts to break down. But this is also the problem with plastics. Plastic rubbish in the sea or on the land lasts for very many years. With time, plastic accumulates in the environment in greater and greater quantities.
And the strange thing is that we often use plastic things for only a very short time before we throw them away. We put our shopping into a plastic bag at the supermarket, and when we get home – perhaps 15 minutes later – we throw the plastic bag into the bin. Or we are thirsty and buy a plastic bottle of mineral water. Ten minutes later we have drunk all the water and throw the bottle away.
Some other countries have taken action to reduce the amount of plastic rubbish. In Ireland, for example, you have to pay for plastic bags in the supermarkets, and most people have stopped using them. In Britain, you can return used plastic bags to some supermarkets, and some local councils collect some sorts of plastic for recycling. But most used plastic in Britain is simply thrown away. I am afraid that our government talks a lot about environmental problems, but does not do much about them. Rebecca Hosking realised that it was no good waiting for our government to act; ordinary people had to take the initiative themselves.
Rebecca comes from a small town in Devon in south west England called Modbury. She decided that Modbury could become the first town in England where there were no plastic shopping bags. For many weeks, she talked to the traders in Modbury. She explained, time and again, about the damage which plastic does in the environment. She researched the possible alternatives to plastic bags, how much they cost, where they come from and how they can be used. Gradually she got all the shopkeepers in Modbury to agree. On 1 May this year, they all stopped offering their customers plastic bags. Modbury is the first plastic-bag free town in Britain, and perhaps in Europe. If you ever visit the beautiful county of Devon, be sure and shop in Modbury.
Photo by how can I recycle this/flickr- Modbury, South Devon :: Britain's first plastic-bag free town.
- Message in the Waves :: facts about plastic in the sea
File Download (4:01 min / 2 MB)
- Results (2mb)
Fri, 11 May 2007 06:30:00 -0400
My podcast today is about the word “result”, and the different ways we can use it.
Last week I said that I would tell you the results of the local elections in England and the elections in Scotland and Wales. That means, I shall tell you what happened – who won, who lost.
You remember that here in Birmingham we were electing councillors to run our local authority, Birmingham City Council. The result in my ward was that the Liberal Democrat candidate won. In the city as a whole, the Conservative party won three more seats than it had before, and the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition will continue to run the city. This is what we expected would happen – it was the expected result.
In Scotland, the result of the election was much more dramatic. For the first time for very many years, the Labour party is not the largest party in Scotland. The Scottish National Party, which wants Scotland to become an independent country, will have one more seat than Labour in the new Scottish Parliament. But it does not have a majority in the Parliament. It is talking with the other parties. The result of these talks may be a coalition between the SNP and some other parties. Or the result may be that the SNP forms a minority government.
We can of course talk about the result of a football match – that is, how many goals each team scored. We can talk about the results of an exam – did you pass the exam? how many marks did you get? If you do a Google search on your computer, Google will give you many pages of results for the search. If you are doing a scientific experiment, the data or information which you get from the experiment are called the results of the experiment. In maths, the answer to a calculation or a problem is often called the result. And if you are ill, your doctor may take a blood sample from you, and send it to be tested. Later, he will tell you the results of the test – things like how many white cells there are in the blood.
We can also talk about the results of a competition. This weekend, we shall learn the results of the Eurovision Song Contest. If you live outside Europe, I should explain that the TV companies in Europe each year run a competition to choose a song for Europe. Singers and groups from every European country take part. And it is bad, bad, bad! Only very specially bad songs win the Eurovision song contest. The British entry this year is called Flying the Flag. It is sung by a group called Scooch. They are dressed as airline cabin staff and sing wonderful lines like:
Ba-ba-da, Ba-ba-da, Ba-da-da-ba, ba-da
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Ba-ba-da, Ba-ba-da, Ba-da-da-ba, ba-da
Now that is bad. But is it bad enough? Is it possible that other countries have even worse songs? What will the result be? We shall find out on Saturday. I can hardly wait!- Watch the video of Flying the Flag :: - its really bad, isn't it?
- Vocabulary note ::
File Download (4:18 min / 2 MB)
- Results - vocabulary note (0mb)
Fri, 11 May 2007 06:26:00 -0400We can use the word “result” to mean “outcome” or “consequence”, like this:
Kevin’s brother Frank rides a motorbike. Or at least he used to ride a motorbike. Last year when he was riding it, very carefully, at 150 kph, he hit a tree. The motor cycle was completely wrecked. Frank was badly injured. He spent several months in hospital. He is home now, but he cannot walk properly.
So, we can say that the accident was the result of driving too fast. Frank’s injuries were a result of the accident. As a result of his injuries, Frank cannot walk properly.
And we can use result as a verb, like this:
The accident resulted from going too fast. Frank’s injuries resulted from the accident.
And:
The high speed of the motorcycle resulted in an accident. The accident resulted in Frank spending several months in hospital. The accident also resulted in the destruction of the motorbike.- Podcast ::
File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)
- Banksy (3mb)
Tue, 08 May 2007 11:47:00 -0400
In the podcast “In Disgrace”, I used the word “graffiti”. Do you know what it means? It is an Italian word, which has come into English. It means “things which are written” generally on an outside wall, or on some other public surface such as the side of a bus or a train. Graffiti became a big problem in British cities when shops started to sell aerosol cans of spray paint. With spray paint, it is quick and easy to cover a whole wall with a picture or writing. Many people say that graffiti make our towns and cities look ugly and uncared for. If there are lots of graffiti, it encourages other sorts of anti-social behaviour, such as litter, fly-posting, abandoning old cars and drinking alcohol in the street. Many local authorities spend a lot of money removing graffiti, and most people probably think that they are right to do so. But are all graffiti bad?
Let me introduce you to the controversial British graffiti artist, Banksy. We are not certain what his real name is – maybe he is called Robert Banks, probably he lives in Bristol in the south west of England, and people say that he is around 30 years old. He has painted some very famous graffiti in some very famous places. I have put a few examples on the website, and I hope you can see them on your iPod screens as well. Most of Banksy’s art is political and subversive. That means, it is intended to annoy governments and powerful people and to undermine them. Sometimes, his art makes people think differently about the world; very often it makes them smile.
Banksy has for example, painted pictures on the concrete wall that the Israeli government is building between Israeli and Palestinian areas. These pictures look as if they are gaps in the wall, through which you can see beautiful things on the other side. Banksy has smuggled fake pictures into art galleries and museums and stuck them on the wall alongside the real exhibits. One of these was a piece of rock, carved like a caveman painting, but showing a person pushing a supermarket trolley. Last year in America, he painted an elephant – yes, a real live elephant, so that it looked as if it was covered in wallpaper. You remember the podcast about the elephant in the room? Banksy’s elephant was a real elephant in the room – he was trying to tell people that global poverty was the big, important subject that no-one wants to talk about. At about the same time, Banksy smuggled an inflatable dummy dressed as a Guantanamo Bay detainee into Disneyland in California. My favourite however is this – in London there is a famous statue of the ancient British Queen, Boadicea, and her chariot – Banksy put a wheel clamp on the chariot, so that it looked as if as if it was illegally parked.
Why is Banksy in the news at present? Well, Transport for London, which is the organisation responsible for buses and underground trains in London, has recently painted over a famous Banksy graffiti near Old Street tube station. It shows a scene from Quentin Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta. Only, instead
