British Council-04

Section 1 – “How are you feeling?” –
being sympathetic

Ravi: Hello again and welcome to LearnEnglish
Elementary podcast number four. I’m Ravi – from
Manchester
Tess: And I’m Tess – from London. Hi. Now, as
usual we’ve got loads of great stuff for you to
listen to but before we tell you about that - Ravi, I
have to ask you, are you feeling better now?
Ravi: Oh, a lot better now thank you.
Tess: On Saturday morning Ravi called me and
he sounded terrible. “Oh Tess, I feel really bad.”
Ravi: Yeah, OK. I did feel terrible. I had a really
bad cold, a headache, ugh! I had a football match
on Saturday afternoon too.
Tess: You didn’t play football, did you?
Ravi: No, I felt too bad. Do you know what I did?
Tess: What?
Ravi: A friend came over and we watched all of
the Lord of the Rings films – all three of them. Ten
hours of DVDs!
Tess: You’re joking. I can’t watch TV for that long.
I get bored. Anyway, I didn’t really like Lord of the
Rings. I liked the book. The film’s never as good
as the book, I think.
Ravi: I haven’t read the book so I don’t know but,
believe it or not, that’s exactly the question we
asked people in ‘Your Turn’ this week – ‘Which do
you prefer – the book or the film?’
Tess: Really? I bet everyone says that books are
better.
Ravi: I’m not so sure. Anyway, that’s for later.

Section 2 – I’d like to meet

Ravi: Now it’s time for ‘I’d like to meet’. In this part
of the podcast we ask people a simple question –
which famous person, dead or alive would you
like to meet? And we ask them to explain why.
So let’s say hello to this week’s guest, Marcus,
from London. Welcome to ‘I’d like to meet’
Marcus.
Marcus: Thank you Ravi.
Tess: Hello Marcus.
Marcus: Hi Tess.
Tess: And you’re from London Marcus. That’s
where I’m from.
Marcus: That’s right. I was born here - and I’ve
lived here all my life.
Tess: And what do you do?
Marcus: I work in a supermarket, but I want to be
a professional musician – that’s my ambition for
the future.
Tess: We all need ambitions Marcus – and that’s
a good one. Now I’m going to ask the question.
So Marcus, which famous person, dead or alive
would you like to meet? I think I can guess –
you’re going to talk about a musician aren’t you?
Marcus: You’re right Tess.
Ravi: Hmm. She’s always right!
Marcus: I’d like to meet Bob Marley.
Tess: Bob Marley! He’s one of my heroes. I’m
sure all our listeners know Bob Marley, but could
you explain who he is for us?
Marcus: Bob Marley was Jamaican – and he was
the man who gave reggae music to the world –
the world outside Jamaica of course. And the
Rastafarian religion too – he was also famous for
his religious beliefs. He was born in 1945 and
died in 1981. So, he died very young – he was
only in his thirties.
Tess: Hmm.
Ravi: How did he die?
Marcus: He had cancer.
Ravi: And why did you choose him to talk about
today?
Marcus: Bob Marley never wrote a bad song. My
father was a big Bob Marley fan so I grew up
listening to his music at home when I was a kid – I
used to listen to it when I was sad - it’s impossible
to listen to Bob Marley and feel unhappy - that
was his message to the world –“‘Don’t worry, be
happy”. He wasn’t interested in negative things –
his music was always positive. He’s a legend. He
was the first ‘superstar’ from a poor country – and
that’s why people from poor countries all over the
world love him so much – his music speaks to
them. Everywhere you go, everywhere in the
world, people know and love Bob Marley –
everywhere. He was poor, he grew up in an area
called Trench Town - a very poor area in Jamaica,
with gang problems and drug problems. He left
school when he was fourteen and started work.
His message is universal – it’s a protest really. It’s
about how human beings are all the same, black
or white, rich or poor, and his religion helped him
to understand that. He once said “I don’t stand for
the black man’s side, I don’t stand for the white
man’s side – I stand for God’s side”. God was
very important to him - he was a very spiritual
man. I’m a musician and I want my music to have
a message – I want to make people feel good.
Like in the song “One love, one heart, let’s get

together and feel all right” – that’s the message -
it’s so simple.
Tess: And is there a special question that you’d
like to ask him Marcus?
Marcus: Thousands! But no, not really, not one
special question. I’d like to sit and talk to him for a
long time – all night if I could - but no, not one
special question.
Ravi: I enjoyed that Marcus. Thanks a lot.
Tess: Me too. Thank you.
Marcus: Thank you
Ravi: And remember listeners, that we’d like to
hear from you. Which famous person, dead or
alive, would you like to meet? And why? Email
us at ‘learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org -
that’s learnenglishpodcast - all one word - AT-
britishcouncil – all one word - DOT org, that’s o-r-
g. Let us know which famous person you would
like to meet.
Tess: Oh, I feel like listening to some Bob Marley
now.

Section 3 – Quiz

Ravi: No time for that Tess, it’s time for our quiz.
Every week we have a little quiz to make you
think. This week we’re going to play Hot Seat
again. Here to play are Hannah and Max. Hi
Hannah.
Hannah: Hello
Ravi: Hi Max
Max: Hello.
Ravi: You’re both from Sheffield, is that right?
Max: Yeah
Ravi: And how old are you?
Max: I’m seventeen
Hannah: And I’m sixteen. We go to the same
school. St Joseph’s.
Ravi: Are you in the same class?
Hannah: We are, yeah.
Ravi: OK. And who’s doing what? Who’s going to
explain the words and who’s going to be in the
Hot Seat?
Hannah: I’ll explain and Max’ll guess.
Ravi: OK. OK, Max?
Max: OK.
Ravi: Right. Remember how to play? These
cards have all got words on. Hannah has to
explain the words and Max has to guess them.
But remember Hannah, you can’t use the words
on the card. Max, you have to guess as many
words as you can in one minute. OK?
Hannah and Max: OK
Ravi: Then let’s go. You’ve got one minute
starting now!
Hannah: Erm .. big thing. On the sea. You sail in
it.
Max: Boat? Ship.
Hannah: Ship! An animal. Small. Big ears.
Max: Elephant.
Hannah: No. It’s small. Carrots! It eats carrots.
Max: Rabbit.
Hannah: Yes, yes! Erm .. you do it at the disco.
Max: Dance.
Hannah: Yes! It’s a fruit I think. It’s very hard. It’s
got milk inside. You can eat part of it but not the
outside.
Max:Coconut!
Hannah: Yes! Erm, you go there when you’re sick.
Max: Hospital. Doctor’s.
Hannah: Hospital. It’s white. Comes from a cow.
You drink it.
Max: Milk.
Hannah: It goes across the river. You cross it.
Max: A bridge
Hannah: You stand under it in the morning and
you wash yourself.
Max: Shower!
Hannah: It’s a day. Erm …you’ll be eighteen
Max: Birthday.
Ravi: We’ll give you ‘birthday’. Fantastic. How
many was that? I make it nine. Is that right? Yes,
nine. Brilliant. Well done Hannah and Max!
Tess: Well done! And if any of you listening have
a good game we can play in quiz time, write to us
and let us know. The address is
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org. We’d
love to hear your ideas for games we can play.
Phew! It makes me tired just listening to Hot Seat
so now we’ll have something a bit more relaxed.

Section 4 – Our person in

It’s time for ‘Our Person In’. This is the part of the
podcast where we listen to people in interesting
places all over the world telling us something
about life in the country they’re in. This week
Robert Watson is Our Man in Hong Kong.
Robert: In the centre of Hong Kong everything is
new, modern and busy. It’s difficult to think what
the city was like a hundred years ago. But only
forty-five minutes away from the centre, on the
small island of Cheung Chau we can see another
side of Hong Kong – a side that is not very
different from how it was centuries ago.
Every year, in May, Cheung Chau celebrates its
Bun Festival. The buns are small, white, bread
rolls and huge towers made of bamboo are
covered in the sweet buns in the festival, which
lasts for a week. No-one knows exactly why the
festival started but there is a procession to honour

Pak Tai – the sea god. In this procession, children
in fantastic costumes are carried through the
village. The costumes hide the seats that the
children are sitting on and it looks like they are
flying.
For three days before the festival no-one on the
island eats meat. The butcher’s shop is closed
and restaurants serve only vegetarian dishes.
Even the small McDonald’s on the island sells
only vegetarian food for these three days.
Perhaps, for three days, this quiet corner of one of
the busiest places on earth is the only place
where you can’t buy a Big Mac at McDonald’s!
Tess: No Big Macs. Sounds great.
Ravi: Oh come on Tess, everybody eats a Big
Mac now and then.
Tess: I don’t. Ugh!
Ravi: You never eat fast food?
Tess: I try not to. Horrible stuff!
Ravi: Actually, fast food might be a good idea for
Your Turn – but not this week. Your Turn,
listeners, is when we go into the street
Tess: Oh, you forgot to give the address.
Ravi: Oh right. Yes. Sorry. If you’d like to write in
and tell us something interesting about your city
or town, we’d love to hear from you. You can send
it to us at learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org.

Section 5 – Your turn

Ravi: OK. Now we can move on to Your Turn. We
went out into the street to find out what people
think about this question: “Which do you prefer –
the book or the film?”
Tess: Book or film? For me, the book, but let’s
hear what people said.

Voice 1: I definitely prefer the book. I love going to
the cinema but if there’s a book and I’ve read it,
then I never go to see the film. Reading books is
all about imagination and the film spoils that. Like
when you read a book and you can’t imagine the
character because you keep thinking of, say, Brad
Pitt’s face.

Voice 2: The film definitely. Look at Lord of the
Rings. It’s a really long book. In fact it’s three long
books – it takes months to read and with the film
you get all the special effects and it looks fantastic
– much more exciting than the books.

Voice 3: It depends. It depends on the book. If it’s
a serious book by a good writer then the book is
always better than the film but if it’s not a great
book – a thriller or something like that – the film
can be better than the book.
Voice 4: Uh, the book, for me. You have to work
harder with a book – you have to make the
pictures in your head but when it’s a good writer
it’s like watching a film – you make the book into
your own film, in your head, and everyone has a
different film – that’s much better!

Voice 5: I think I prefer films. You get more from a
film. In a book you only get the story and you
have to imagine how things look. In a film you get
the story and you get the actors and music and
everything. For example, if a film is set in Japan
you get to see Japan. I’ve never been to Japan – I
can’t imagine it! A film shows you more.

Tess: Well, I disagree with him but there were
some interesting opinions there.
Ravi: Remember that we’d love to know what you
think. ‘Which do you prefer – the book or the film?’
Or do you have an idea for a question that we
could ask on Your Turn? Send us an email at
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org and we
can ask your question in another podcast.

Section 6 – Carolina

Tess: Now it’s time to meet Carolina again. As
you probably remember, Carolina is a Venezuelan
student and she’s visiting Britain for the first time.
She’s going to Newcastle, in the north east of
England. She’s going to live and study there, and
of course, have a lot of fun – we hope! In the last
podcast we listened to Carolina’s conversation at
the underground station. She was going to King’s
Cross station to get the train to Newcastle.
Ravi: That’s right. And she was worried that she
didn’t have time to get to the station to catch her
train.
Tess: But everything was all right. Carolina caught
her train – with only a few minutes to spare. So
let’s listen now to what happened on the train to
Newcastle.

Carolina: Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?
Jamie: No, it’s free. Sorry, I’ll move my bag.
Voice over PA system: …situated towards the
front of the train. We would like to remind
passengers that coach F, at the rear of the train,
is the Quiet Coach. If you are sitting in coach F,
please use all electronic equipment quietly and
switch mobile phones to silent mode. Please be
considerate to other passengers. Thank you.
Carolina: Coach F?
Jamie: Yeah, this is a Quiet Coach. There’s a sign
- look. No mobile phone conversations. No noise.

It’s cool. I hate listening to other people’s
conversations.
Carolina: Oh, OK. I didn’t know. It’s a good idea.
Jamie: Yeah. Where are you going?
Carolina: Newcastle.
Jamie: Me too. Do you live there?
Carolina: No, I’m going to study there – at the
university. What about you? Do you live there?
Jamie: Yeah. I’m at the university too. It’s a great
city. You aren’t English are you.
Carolina: No, I’m Venezuelan.
Jamie: Cool. You speak really good English.
Carolina: Thank you. My mother’s English, but
I’ve never been to Britain before. It’s all a bit
strange.
Man on train: Hello? Dan? Yes, hi, how’s it
going? Yes, I’m on the train. Yeah? Yeah it
finished at six o’clock more or less….
Woman on train: Excuse me! This is a quiet
coach. Could you have your conversation in the
corridor?
Man on train: What? Uh? Yeah, OK, sorry. Yeah,
Dan, sorry, what did you say? I didn’t hear you,
I’m in the quiet coach - some woman was
complaining about …
Jamie: I’m going to get a coffee or something.
D’you want anything?
Carolina: Erm, I don’t know, what have they got?
Jamie: Come with me then, you can have a look.
They’ve got sandwiches and stuff too.
Carolina: OK.

Jamie: There you go – there’s the list on the wall.
What d’you fancy?
Carolina: Fancy? What do you mean?
Jamie: Sorry. What would you like. What do you
fancy means what would you like.
Carolina: Do you think I can pay with my visa
card? I still haven’t got any English money – I lost
my bag, and then I nearly missed the train …
Jamie: Don’t worry about it. This one’s on me. I’ll
pay. Have a toasted sandwich – they’re good.
Cheese and tomato?
Carolina: Cheese with tomato? In a toasted
sandwich?
Jamie: Delicious!
Carolina: Oh no!
Jamie: What about cheese and ham then?
Carolina: Yes, cheese and ham please
Jamie: And to drink? Coke? Orange juice? A
beer?
Carolina: Erm, orange juice please.
Assistant: Can I help you?
Jamie: Yes, erm two toasted sandwiches please -
one cheese and tomato, one cheese and ham -
an orange juice and a coke. How much is that?
Assistant: Two toasted sandwiches, three forty-
five each, coke ninety p, orange juice one pound
forty, that’s nine pounds twenty please.
Jamie: Here you are.
Assistant: And that’s eighty p change. Thank you.
Carolina:That’s very kind of you. It’s a lot of
money. That’s nearly ten pounds.
Jamie: Don’t worry about it. I’m a real gentleman.
Tell you what, you can take me out for lunch one
day in Newcastle. You can pay for me. I’ll give
you my phone number. Is that a deal?
Carolina: OK. It’s a deal.
Jamie: Good. Now let’s sit down and eat these.
Carolina: OK

Tess: Hmm. Jamie sounds nice.
Ravi: Uh, honestly, you women!
Tess: What?!
Ravi: Never mind.

Section 7 – The Joke

Ravi: Right, that’s almost the end but we can’t go
before we hear from Gordon, our producer. Hey,
Gordon, I’ve got a joke for you this week.
Gordon: Oh yes? Erm, come on then, let’s hear
it.
Ravi: OK. What’s red and invisible?
Gordon: Erm, I don’t know. What’s red and
invisible?
Ravi: No tomatoes!
Gordon: Ho, ho, ho! That’s worse than mine.
Leave the jokes to me Ravi.
Ravi: Come on then, let’s hear it for this week.
Gordon: Right. I’ve got the perfect joke for this
week’s podcast. Ready?
Ravi: OK.
Gordon: OK then. A man goes into a cinema to
watch a film. He sits down and in front of him
there’s a man and a dog.
Ravi: You can’t take dogs into a cinema, can you?
Gordon: You can in this cinema. Anyway, the
film’s a romantic comedy. After a little while
there’s a funny part in the film, and – amazing –
the dog starts laughing at the film.
Ravi: Uh-huh.
Gordon: Yeah. A little while after that there’s a
very sad scene. The dog starts crying its eyes out.
This goes on for the whole film – the dog laughs
at the funny parts and cries at the sad parts.
Well, at the end of the film, the man waits outside
the cinema until the man with the dog comes out.
“Excuse me” he says, “I watched your dog crying
and laughing all through the film. It’s absolutely
amazing”. “I know” says the man with the dog. “It
is amazing. He hated the book”.

Tess: Are all your jokes about funny animals
Gordon?
Gordon: Ah well, most of them, yes.
Ravi: OK. We have to go now but don’t go away.
After this little break you’re going to hear Tom, our
English teacher. After every show, Tom talks
about the language you heard and gives you
ideas to help you learn. So, don’t go away, but
we’ll say goodbye now. See you next time.

Tess
Bye! Don’t forget to send us your emails! Here’s
that address one more time. It’s
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org.


Tom the teacher

Tom: Hi, my name’s Tom – you’ll hear from me at
the end of every podcast. I’m going to talk about
some of the language that you heard, and talk
about ways to help you learn English. The first
thing I want to talk about today is British money.
British money is ‘pounds’ and ‘pence’. One pound
is one hundred pence - there are a hundred
pence in a pound. Listen to Carolina and Jamie
buying food on the train. Listen to how much
everything costs.

Assistant: Can I help you?
Jamie: Yes, erm two toasted sandwiches please -
one cheese and tomato, one cheese and ham -
an orange juice and a coke. How much is that?
Assistant: Two toasted sandwiches, three forty-
five each, coke ninety p, orange juice one pound
forty, that’s nine pounds twenty please.

Tom: Did you notice that she didn’t say ‘three
pounds and forty-five pence’? She said ‘three
forty-five’. British people often say prices like this.
Sometimes they say ‘pounds’ and sometimes they
don’t. The woman said ‘nine pounds twenty’ for
the total. You will hear people say prices in both
ways. But – it’s important to remember that if the
price is only pounds – when there are no pence in
the price, then we always say ‘pounds’. For
example, we can say ‘three pounds forty-five’, or
‘three forty-five’ – but we must always say ‘three
pounds’. Now let’s think about the pence. Listen
again to the prices.

Assistant: Two toasted sandwiches, three forty-
five each, coke ninety p, orange juice one pound
forty, that’s nine pounds twenty please.

Tom: Did you notice that she didn’t say ‘pence’?
British people don’t usually say ‘pence’. If the
price has pounds first, then we understand that
the second number is pence. We don’t need to
say anything, just the number. But Jamie’s coke
was ‘ninety p’. If the price is only pence, then we
say p. It’s a short way of saying pence. ‘p’ means
pence.

I’d like to say something else about Carolina and
Jamie’s conversation. Jamie uses a lot of phrases
that are probably new for you. They are phrases
that you don’t often read in coursebooks or learn
in classes. But they’re phrases that British people
use a lot. Here’s an example.

Jamie: There you go – there’s the list on the wall.
What d’you fancy?
Carolina: Fancy? What do you mean?
Jamie: Sorry. What would you like. What do you
fancy means what would you like.

Tom: ‘What do you fancy?’ is very informal.
Carolina doesn’t understand so she asks Jamie.
She says “What do you mean?”. Then Jamie
explains that ‘What do you fancy’ means ‘What
would you like?’

Here’s another example, from Jamie again. Listen
for a phrase that’s new for you.

Carolina: Do you think I can pay with my visa
card? I still haven’t got any English money – I lost
my bag, and then I nearly missed the train …
Jamie: Don’t worry about it. This one’s on me. I’ll
pay. Have a toasted sandwich – they’re good.
Cheese and tomato?
Carolina: Cheese with tomato? In a toasted
sandwich?

Tom: Jamie says ‘This one’s on me’, which is an
informal way of saying ‘It’s OK, I’m going to pay
for this’. Try to remember phrases like this when
you notice them. And do what Carolina did – ask
‘What do you mean?’ if you don’t understand.

Now, I’ve got an interesting word to talk about
next. The word is ‘stuff’. Listen to Tess speaking
and see if you can understand what ‘stuff’ means.

Tess: And I’m Tess – from London. Hi. Now, as
usual we’ve got loads of great stuff for you to
listen to but before we tell you about that; Ravi, I
have to ask you, are you feeling better now?


Tom: ‘Stuff’ just means ‘things’. British people use
it a lot when they’re speaking. Here’s another
example.

Jamie: I’m going to get a coffee or something.
D’you want anything?
Carolina: Erm, I don’t know, what have they got?
Jamie: Come with me then, you can have a look.
They’ve got sandwiches and stuff too.
Carolina: OK.

Tom: Jamie doesn’t want to tell Carolina all of the
things that she can buy, so he just says
‘sandwiches and stuff’ – all the other things that
they can buy to eat on the train. The next time you
listen to a film or a TV programme in English,
listen for people saying ‘stuff’. I’m sure you’ll
notice it a lot now.

It’s nearly time for me to go, but first, I want to
give you a phrase for you to try and use this
week. Do you remember the question in today’s
‘Your Turn’? It was ‘Which do you prefer – the
book or the film?’ Listen to one of the answers.

Voice 3: It depends. It depends on the book. If it’s
a serious book by a good writer then the book is
always better than the film but if it’s not a great
book – a thriller or something like that – the film
can be better than the book

Tom: He says ‘It depends’. We talked about ‘it
depends’ in the first podcast. This time ‘it
depends’ means ‘I’m not sure because sometimes
I have one opinion and sometimes I have a
different opinion.’ Let’s look at how to use it in a
sentence. The man says ‘it depends on the book’.

Notice the preposition. We say ‘it depends on
something’. So if someone asks you a question,
like ‘Do you like dogs?’ you can say ‘Well, it
depends on the dog – I like small dogs, but I don’t
like big ones’. Try to use it this week.

OK. That’s all from me today. I’ll talk to you all
again on the next podcast. Remember you can
send your questions to me at
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org. I’ll be
happy to answer your questions! In a moment
you’ll hear the address for the website where you
can read everything you’ve heard in this podcast.
So bye for now! See you next time.