British Council-02-01

Section 1: "It's Tess's birthday today…!"

Ravi: Hello and welcome to the Second series
of the LearnEnglish Elementary podcast. This is
podcast number one. If you listened to the first
series you’ll remember – I hope – that my
name’s Ravi…
Tess: … and I’m Tess. Yes, we’re back again. I
hope you didn’t miss us too much. We’ve had a
little break – did you go anywhere nice Ravi?
Ravi: No.
Tess: – and now we’re back with more good
stuff for you to listen to. We’ve got…
Ravi: Aren’t you going to tell them, Tess? I’ll tell
them if you don’t. We’ve chosen a special day
to come back – it’s Tess’s birthday today, isn’t
it?
Tess: Yeah, it is.
Ravi: Happy birthday!
{sound of kiss on the cheek}
Tess: Thank you.
Ravi: Are you doing anything special?
Tess: Well, I’m going out for dinner with some
friends tonight and then we might go to a club.
I’m not really sure.
Ravi: Sounds good. Where are you going to
eat? Is it somewhere a bit special or …
Tess: Yeah, it’s a French place. I’ve heard it’s
really good but I haven’t been there.
Ravi: I’m sure it’ll be great. Any good presents?
Tess: Well, I got some money from my mum
and dad to buy myself something nice so I’m
going to get some new boots with that. And
that’s it, so far ….
Ravi: Well, I’ll get you a coffee when we finish
here, OK?
Tess: OK. And a cake?
Ravi: Oh go on then. A small one. But let’s get
on with it. What have we got today?
Tess
We’ve got our quiz, then we’ve got people
telling us about their favourite food. And
Carolina’s back again.
Ravi: Right. If you’re listening and you don’t
remember Carolina, she’s a student from
Venezuela who’s come to Britain to study and
we follow her in every podcast to hear how
she’s getting on.

Section 2: I’d like to talk about…

Tess: But to start with, we’ve got something
new. This section is called ‘I’d like to talk
about…’ In every podcast, we’ll talk to someone
who wants to tell us about something that
they’re interested in. It could be anything – a
hobby, a person, a place, a thing – something
that you know a bit about and would like to
share with Ravi and me – and all our listeners of
course. And to start us off with ‘I’d like to talk
about …’ we’ve got Esther here with us. Esther.
Hello.
Esther: Good morning.
Ravi: Hi Esther. Welcome to the podcast.
You’re a student aren’t you?
Esther: Hello Ravi. Yes, that’s right.
Ravi: Here in London? What are you studying?
Esther: Yeah. Chemistry. I’m doing a Masters.
Ravi: Blimey. Is that what you’re going to tell us
about? I’m lost already.
Esther: No, actually. I’d like to talk about
knitting.
Ravi: Knitting?
Esther: Yeah, knitting. It’s really popular
nowadays you know. Lots of young people are
doing it. There’s a university knitting club that
I’m in.
Ravi: But why do people want to knit?
Tess: To make things Ravi! To make things to
wear! You’re wearing a jumper – it’s made of
wool – well, it’s knitted, isn’t it? You get the wool
from a sheep and you knit a jumper! Or socks!
Or a scarf!
Ravi: OK, OK, OK, don’t go crazy - it was a
stupid question. Sorry Esther.
Esther: That’s OK. But you know, there are
some men in our knitting club too, and some of
them are really good at it. Knitting’s really quite
fashionable now. There are celebrity knitters
and everything.
Ravi: Yeah?
Esther: Yeah. There’s Madonna, and erm …
Julia Roberts and Uma Thurman. Lots of
people. And of course, nowadays people are
more worried about the environment and trying
to recycle things, and so knitting’s perfect. You
can take an old jumper that you don’t like any
more and make something new. It’s a cheap
way to get clothes.

Tess: Good point. Do you know anything about
the history of knitting Esther? When did it start?
Esther: Not really. Some people say that it
started with people making nets, you know, for
catching fish or animals, but nobody knows for
sure. I saw a pair of socks once in a museum.
They were from Egypt, about a thousand years
old I think. They were beautiful, really
complicated, but that’s the oldest thing I know.
Ravi: That’s interesting.
Esther: Remember that they didn’t have
machines for knitting till the nineteenth century,
so everything was done by hand - even clothes
for kings and queens. In England it was always
men that knitted for the rich people. They had to
do six years’ training to become ‘master’
knitters.
Ravi: Six years!
Tess: So women didn’t knit?
Esther: Well poor women did of course. In fact
the whole family used to knit – the fathers and
the children too - making socks and things that
they could sell to make money.
Tess: Did you make that jumper you’re
wearing?
Esther: Yes, I did.
Tess: It’s really nice.
Esther: Thank you. It took me ages.
Tess: I could never make something like that.
Esther: You could. You have to practise but it’s
not that difficult. That’s another thing I like about
knitting. When you start you can just do kind of
simple things like scarves and stuff and then
when you get a bit better at it you can make
more difficult things like this.
Tess: Well, that’s great. Thanks very much
Esther. Really interesting.
Esther: Thank you.
Tess: Ravi? What do you think? Want to start
knitting?
Ravi: Hmmm. Maybe. Hey, Tess. What do you
get if you cross a sheep with a kangaroo?
Tess: A father sheep and a mother kangaroo?
Or the other way round?
Ravi: I don’t know – it doesn’t matter Tess. The
joke’s just ‘what do you get if you cross a sheep
with a kangaroo?’.
Tess: Go on
Ravi: A woolly jumper.
Tess: You’ve been waiting to say that, haven’t
you?
Ravi: Yeah.
Tess: Well, Esther is going to give us some
knitting pictures and links to put up on the site if
you want to find out more.
Ravi: You enjoyed that, didn’t you? Why don’t
you try and knit something?
Tess: I could, couldn’t I? I could make you a
scarf for your birthday. When is your birthday?
Is it in June?
Ravi: Yeah, the fifteenth. You’ve got plenty of
time if you start now.
Tess: Ho, ho. …. Oh. I forgot to say, listeners, if
you want to write something or record
something you can send it to us at learn English
podcast at British Council dot org, that’s
learnenglishpodcast - all one word – at -
britishcouncil – all one word DOT org, that’s o-r-
g. Like I said, it can be whatever you want – a
hobby, a person, anything. Or just tell us if you
like knitting. Send it to us and we’ll put the best
answers on the site.

Section 3 – Quiz

Ravi: OK. Time now to go to the phone to talk to
today’s quiz contestant, who is Mark from
Nottingham. Hello, Mark? No. Er ..OK ..
Mark: {on phone} Hello?
Ravi: Mark! Hi. How are you?
Mark: I’m fine thanks, Ravi.
Ravi: What are you up to today?
Mark: Oh, nothing special. It’s my day off so I’m
not doing very much.
Ravi: What do you do?
Mark: I work in a clothes shop in Nottingham.
Ravi: Ah. OK. It’s not Paul Smith is it? He’s from
Nottingham isn’t he? Great designer.
Mark: No, it’s not Paul Smith, He is from
Nottingham though. No, I work in a small
clothes shop in the centre of town.
Ravi: Do you like it?
Mark: Yeah, it’s OK, yeah. It’s good.
Ravi: Great. Right. We’re going to play ‘Hot
Seat ‘, OK? Tess?
Tess
Yes. So you’re going to play with Ravi today
Mark. I’m going to give Ravi some words – he
doesn’t know what they are – and he’s going to
try to explain them so that you can guess the
words. All right?
Mark: OK.
Tess: And we’ll see how many you can get in
one minute. Oh .. and the other thing is all the
words are connected. This time the connection
is – people in your life. Let’s do one to practise.

So, for example, if I say, erm , it’s your father’s
brother. Or your mother’s brother’, who is it?
Mark: Uncle.
Tess: Right. You’ve got the idea. Are you ready
to go?
Mark: Ready.
Tess: OK then. Ready Ravi? Let’s start. Here
are the words. You’ve got one minute a starting
from …. now.
Ravi: Right … erm … the person who lives next
door to you … erm .. in the house next to yours.
Mark: Neighbour? Next door neighbour?
Ravi: Neighbour. Yes. Erm … your brother’s
daughter. Or your sister’s daughter. It’s
your ……?
Mark: Nephew. I mean niece. Niece.
Ravi: Yes, niece. Someone in the same …
no … someone who goes to the same school as
you and they’re …
Mark: Pupil?
Ravi: No. They’ve got the same teacher as you
and you sit next to them or something. They’re
your …?
Mark: Classmate?
Ravi: Yes! Phew! I couldn’t say ‘class’ Erm,
come on then … if you’re married this is, like,
your wife’s dad …
Mark: Father-in-law.
Ravi: OK. Next one. Someone who you work
with, like, Tess is my …. ?
Mark: Friend?
Ravi: No. Well, yes, but that’s not what I mean.
We work together so we’re …?
Mark: Erm .. I don’t know.
Ravi: We …
Mark: Oh. Colleagues.
Ravi: Colleague, yes. How’s the time? Erm ..
this person is … another word for ‘manager’.
The person who’s in charge at work is your ..?
Mark: Boss?
Ravi: Yes. Boss. Your uncle’s children are
your …?
Buzzer sounds
Mark: Cousins?
Ravi: Yes. OK, I’ll give you that one. Phew. That
was really stressful. Well done Mark. How many
is that Tess?
Tess: Neighbour. Niece. Classmate. Father-in-
law. Colleague. Boss and Cousin. Seven. Well
done Mark. And Ravi.
Mark: Thanks.
Ravi: And thanks for playing. We’ll send you a
book token and anything else we can find lying
around the studio. Thanks Mark.
Tess: Right. We’ve got more to come. We’ll
hear what some of our listeners say about their
favourite food and we’ll catch up with Carolina
again after this ….

Section 4: Your turn

Ravi: Now we can move on to Your Turn. This
is the part of the podcast when we go out and
ask different people what they think about
something. We ask a different question in every
podcast, and this time the question was ‘Which
country’s food is your favourite?’ – and of
course, ‘Why?’.
Tess: OK, let’s hear what people said.
Voice 1: That would be Vietnamese food,
especially southern Vietnamese food around
the city of Ho Chi Minh. I’ve been there many
times and each time I go there my friends will
bring me to restaurants where they serve food
that has ... ah ... that was cooked with a lot of
rich ingredients such as lemon grass, herbs,
pepper, and they put in lots of different types of
seafood so I think that’s a lot of effort put in to
cook up such a dish. So I actually like
Vietnamese food very much. And in addition I
think the food there is very healthy. They don’t
use a lot of oil they use a lot of natural
ingredients such as herbs and also fish sauce
so what comes out of that is a lot of flavours of
seafood plus herbs, which I like very much.

Voice 2: Um, well, I live in Italy at the moment
so I’m very fond of Italian food, but really if I had
to choose I would say Indian or Thai food
because I like spicy food.
Voice 3: My favourite food is food from Italy
because I really like pasta and I really like
tomato sauce and ... um ... olive oil, and I also
like wine and the wine from Italy is very good.
Voice 4: Oh I think I’d have to say France …
ah … ‘cos French cooking is superb, so much
variety and they just take it so seriously.
Voice 5: Mmm, I’m going to say two countries,
aah maybe Italy, from Europe, because I really,
really like pizza and aah the different types of
pasta they have there, but probably my real
favourite type of food comes from Mexico,
which aah I just enjoy everything I’ve ever tried
from Mexico. It’s always a little bit spicy, maybe
a little bit heavy, umm, but really, really good
food.

Voice 6: Aah, I think Thai food because it’s … I
like spicy food and it’s really kind of fresh, as
well, lots of interesting different tastes.
Ravi: So what’s your favourite food Tess? I bet
it’s French.
Tess: No. Why? Why French?
Ravi: You’re going to a French restaurant for
your birthday aren’t you?
Tess: Well yes, but I’m not sure it’s my
favourite. I don’t know, it’s a difficult one. Maybe
Italian. I mean good Italian, not just fast food
pizzas. What about you?
Ravi: No contest. Indian every time. I’m a
traditional boy about food. But I love fast food
pizzas as well. All fast food actually.

Section 5: Carolina

Ravi: But now it’s time to find out what’s
happening to Carolina. If you listened to the first
series of the podcast you’ll know that Carolina is
from Venezuela and she’s just started a course
at Newcastle University in Britain.
Tess: Yes. In every podcast we hear what
Carolina’s been doing. She’s already met a lot
of people in Newcastle. She shares a flat with
her friend Emily and some other students. And
her special friend is a guy called Jamie.
Ravi: Yes, Tess likes Jamie.
Tess: Thank you Ravi. Now let’s hear about
Carolina
{In the street}
Carolina: So I told Emily that she .... . Oh, wait a
minute. They’re nice.
Jamie: Which ones? Those boots?
Carolina: No, those shoes at the back. The red
ones. Let’s go in and have a look.
 Jamie: OK.
{In the first shoe shop}
Carolina: Here they are. They’re beautiful.
Jamie: What size are they?
Carolina: Um, five and a half. What does that
mean? I’m a thirty-six in Venezuela.
Jamie: Yeah, British sizes are different. Try
them on. See if they fit.
Carolina: No, they’re too big.
Jamie: So try a five – that’s the next size down.
Excuse me, have you got these in a five?
Shop Assistant 1: The red ones? No sorry.
We’ve only got the sizes on the shelf.
Jamie: OK, thanks. Bad luck. Come on. Let’s …
…
{In the street}
Carolina: OK. But you know, I really do need
some shoes. If we’re going to stay with your
parents I need to look nice.
Jamie: I don’t think they’ll care what shoes
you’re wearing.
Carolina: You know what I mean. Let’s have a
look in here.
Jamie: OK.
{In the second shoe shop}
Jamie: What about these red ones?
Carolina: They’re horrible! And they’re too high.
I can’t wear very high heels – I can’t walk.
Jamie: Those brown ones then, they’re nice.
Carolina: No, I don’t want brown - I haven’t got
any brown clothes.
Jamie: These black ones then. They’re a size 5.
Carolina: Mmm. They’re quite nice. How much
are they?
Jamie: Ninety-five pounds.
Carolina: Ninety-five pounds! I’m not paying
ninety-five pounds for a pair of shoes! No, let’s
go somewhere else. Come on Jamie.
Jamie: But if you like them why don’t you…
…
{In the street}
Jamie: So what exactly do you want? What
colour?
Carolina: I don’t know exactly, but I’ll know
when I see them. Here’s another shop. Come
on.
{In the third shoe shop}
Carolina: Now these are nice. Black. Not too
high. And not too expensive.
Jamie: Why don’t you try them on?
Carolina: Wait a minute. They’ve got them in
grey too. Maybe they’re nicer. What do you
think?
Jamie: Try them both on.
Carolina: Excuse me? Have you got these in a
size 5?
Shop Assistant 2: In a 5? In black or grey?
Carolina: I’d like to try both of them please.
Shop Assistant 2: I’ll just go and check.
 Jamie: Phew. Let’s sit down. Shoe shops make
me tired…
…
Carolina: …so which ones do you like best – the
grey ones or the black ones?
Jamie: They’re both nice.
Carolina: But tell me which ones you like best.
Jamie: OK then, the grey ones.
Carolina: What’s wrong with the black ones?
Jamie: Nothing’s wrong with the black ones. I

said I liked them both.
Carolina: I think I prefer the black ones.
Jamie: OK, if I say I prefer the black ones, can
we just buy them and get out of here?
Carolina: Yes, I think I’ll get the black ones. Do
you like them? Or do you prefer the grey ones?
Jamie: Aaaargh!
Carolina: Excuse me,
Shop assistant 2: Yes?
Carolina: I’ll take these please.
Shop assistant 2: The black ones?
Carolina: Yes, the black ones. Now where do I
pay?
Shop assistant 2: Over here love.
Carolina: Come on Jamie – why are you being
so difficult today? …

Ravi: Poor old Jamie. I think he was a bit bored.
Do you like buying shoes Tess?
Tess: Well, yes, I do. I like shoes. Don’t you?
Ravi: Well yes, of course I do, but …., usually I
know what shoes I want and I go to the shop
and I buy them. I don’t go round lots of shops
trying them on. I think men and women are
different about shoes. OK. I won’t say any more.
I don’t want to upset anybody.
Tess: Good! Anyway, did you hear Carolina say
that they’re going to visit Jamie’s parents?
Ravi: Yes.
Tess: So…
Ravi: So what?
Tess: So… they must be together… you know –
a couple.
Ravi: Well yes. Men don’t go to shoe shops with
women if they’re not serious.
Tess: Don’t start the shoe thing again.
Ravi: Sorry.

Section 6: The End

Tess: So that’s the end of this podcast. You
might remember in series one, we always
finished with a joke from Gordon. Well, Gordon
isn’t with us any more. He’s got a new job.
Ravi: Yes, and we hope everything goes well for
him. Hey Tess, I’ve got a little surprise for you.
Tess: Really?
Ravi: Here you are. Happy birthday.
Tess: Oh thank you! What is it?
Ravi: Well open it and see.
{sound of present being opened}
Tess: A French cookery book! Thank you Ravi.
That’s really great.
Ravi: Well, I thought French food was your
favourite, but now…
Tess: Oh, silly, I love French food – and I love
cooking. It’s a lovely present. Thank you. Come
here.
{sound of a kiss}
Ravi: So do you want to say the last bit, birthday
girl? Before we go and get that cake?
Tess: OK. Well, that’s the end of our part of the
podcast, and remember, the address for
anything that you want to send us is
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org. In a
moment you can listen to Tom, our English
teacher. He’s going to talk about some of the
language you heard in this podcast and things
to help you learn. So, stay around to listen to
Tom but we’ll say goodbye for now.
Tess & Ravi: Bye!
----------------------------------------------------------------

Tom the teacher

Tom: Hi, I’m Tom. At the end of every podcast
you’ll hear from me. I’m going to talk about
some of the language you heard in the
programmes and talk about ways to help you
learn English. The first thing I want to talk about
is the word ‘one’. Listen to Ravi at the beginning
of the podcast.

Ravi: Hello and welcome to the Second series
of the LearnEnglish Elementary podcast. This is
podcast number one.

Tom: OK. No problem there. Ravi says ‘this is
podcast number one’. He uses ‘one’ as a
number. One, two, three, four, five etcetera.
Now listen to Tess and Ravi. Listen for ‘one’.

Ravi: Well, I’ll get you a coffee when we finish
here, OK?
Tess: OK. And a cake?
Ravi: Oh go on then. A small one.

Tom: ‘One’ isn’t a number here. Ravi isn’t
saying ‘a small one, a small two’. ‘One’ here is a
pronoun – it’s used in place of a noun – a thing.
Listen again. What does ‘one’ refer to?

Ravi: {oblivious} Well, I’ll get you a coffee when
we finish here, OK?
Tess: OK. And a cake?
Ravi: Oh go on then. A small one


Tom: Yes, that’s right. ‘One’ refers to the cake.
Ravi doesn’t repeat the word ‘cake’ – he uses
‘one’ instead. Tess said ‘cake’, so Ravi doesn’t
need to say it again – they both know what
they’re talking about. So he can use ‘one’. We
do this a lot in English. We can also use ‘ones’
when we’re talking about something that’s
plural. Listen to Jamie and Carolina in the shoe
shop. What does ‘ones’ refer to?

Carolina: {fade in} So which ones do you like
best – the grey ones or the black ones?
Jamie: They’re both nice.
Carolina: But tell me which ones you like best.
Jamie: OK then, the grey ones.
Carolina: What’s wrong with the black ones?
Jamie: Nothing’s wrong with the black ones. I
said I liked them both.

Tom: Yes, they both use ‘ones’ to refer to the
shoes. ‘Shoes’ is plural, so they use ‘ones’, not
‘one’. They can use ‘ones’ because they’re
standing in the shoe shop looking at the shoes
and so they both know what they’re talking
about. In some languages you can make
adjectives plural – you can say ‘I like the blacks’
or ‘I prefer the greys’, but you can’t do that in
English. We say ‘I like the black ones’ or ‘I
prefer the grey ones’.

‘One’ is very common with ‘this’ or ‘that’. We
can say ‘Do you prefer this one or that one?’.
And of course, we use it a lot with ‘which’.
‘Which one do you like best?’ or ‘Which ones do
you prefer?’ or for example, in a car park with a
friend, we can ask ‘Which one is yours?’ – we
both know that we’re talking about a car. And if
you’re eating chocolates you can say to a friend
‘Would you like one?’

There are lots of words in English that we use to
refer to things or people. Words like ‘it’ or ‘her’
or ’them’ or ‘mine’ – pronouns. Also words like
‘this’ or ‘that’ or ‘these’ or ‘those’. Listen to Tess
talking to Esther about knitting. Notice the
words that refer to other people or things.

Tess: Did you make that jumper you’re
wearing?
Esther: Yes, I did.
Tess: It’s really nice.
Esther: Thank you. It took me ages.
Tess: I could never make something like that.

It’s important that you notice these words when
you’re listening or reading, and that you know
what they refer to – if you don’t, then you won’t
be able to understand exactly what people are
talking about. A good way to practise this is to
take a piece of English, for example, a part of
the tapescript of the podcast, and draw a circle
around all the words that refer to something
else. Then draw a line from the word to the
thing that it refers to. So, for example, you draw
a circle around the word ‘him’ and then draw a
line to connect ‘him’ to what it refers to – maybe
‘John’ or ‘Ravi’. I’ll put an example on the site
for you to see if you don’t understand what I
mean. But please try it. It really will help you to
understand things better.
Now I’d like to talk about something different.
Listen to this. What does ‘poor’ mean?

Tess: So women didn’t knit?
Esther: Well poor women did of course.

Tom: Yes, ‘poor’ means someone who hasn’t
got very much money. It’s the opposite of ‘rich’.
Now listen to this. What does ‘old’ mean?

Esther: You can take an old jumper that you
don’t like any more and make something new.
It’s a cheap way to get clothes.
Tom: Right again. An old jumper is a jumper
that you’ve had for a long time. It’s the opposite
of ‘new’. But now listen to what Ravi says after
he listens to Carolina and Jamie in the shoe
shop.
Ravi: Poor old Jamie. I think he was a bit bored.
Tom: It’s interesting, isn’t it? ‘Poor old Jamie’.
Ravi doesn’t mean that Jamie hasn’t got any
money. And he doesn’t mean that Jamie is old –
he’s a young man. Ravi uses ‘poor’ because he
feels sorry for Jamie because he was bored in
the shoe shop. We use ‘poor’ in this way a lot –
to show sympathy. You can say ‘look at that
poor dog – it’s hungry’. Or ‘poor Susan hates
her new job’. You can use ‘poor’ in formal or
informal situations. But Ravi says ‘Poor old
Jamie’. The ‘old’ makes it more informal – you
would only say it to friends or people that you
know well. If a friend has a problem you can say
‘Oh poor you’ or ‘Oh poor old you’ to show that
you sympathise – that you feel sorry for them.
And sometimes we say ‘you poor thing’ or ‘you

poor old thing’ too. See if you notice it in any
English films or songs that you listen to.
And now for a simple phrase that you can use
this week. Listen to Tess at the end of the quiz.

Tess: Neighbour. Niece. Classmate. Father-in-
law. Colleague. Boss and cousin. Seven. Well
done Mark. And Ravi.

Tom: She says ‘Well done Mark’ because he
got seven words in the quiz. We say ‘well done’
when someone does something well – when we
want to congratulate them. Use it this week
when you’re speaking English. Say ‘well done’
to someone.

OK. I’m going to stop there. I’ll talk to you all
again next time. Remember you can write to me
about any language that you noticed in this
podcast. The address is
learnenglishpodcastATbritishcouncilDOT org. In
a moment you’ll hear the address for the
website where you can read everything you’ve
heard in this podcast. You can also find some
practice exercises to do online and a support
pack that you can print. Right. That’s all for this
time. Bye for now! See you next time.