English Lesson

 
Poems image

"We are doing Chapter 6: Hobbies, I like doing..." Robert Seatter has been an English teacher, an actor and a journalist. This poem takes us into part of an English lesson for adult learners.

Instructions & downloads

Do the Preparation task first. Then go to Text and read the poem or story (you can also listen to the audio while you read). Next go to Task and do the activity.

Preparation

We suggest you do the vocabulary activity below before you read or listen. Then read and/or listen to the poem and do the task to check your comprehension.

Exercise

Text

English Lesson

By Robert Seatter

Roberto is playful and wants to talk about sex in cars
and gear sticks. We lose ourselves in body parts:
engine, carburettor, vroom, vroom.

Carla likes cooking, the gnocchi
her grandmother taught her how to make - a whole day set
aside, potatoes in piles, all the family peeling.
Her fingers forgetful of typewriter keys.

Giancarlo bicycles twenty kilometres every Sunday
(we imagine his overfed thighs in lycra and laugh).
He lists all the cups he won when the weekend was just
one long white road, his podgy hands making circles,
his moustached mouth the whirring of spokes.

Gianni goes back to his village, kisses his seven
little sisters, loves checking his row of reddening tomatoes.
He wears different shoes, screwing his face up at
buckled black leather. No briefcase. No boss.

Francesca likes going to the mountains, the lakes, the sea -
wherever her friends have houses. We are all invited.
When you open the windows all the houses have
beautiful views, and there is panettone for breakfast.

Franco plays cards in the bar with his friends.
Same bar, same friends: every evening playing poker
at Vittorio's place. He counts the years on his fingers
as if he had never counted before.

Lucia says she cries all weekend, every weekend -
since Massimo left her. She sits in the flat and cries.
There is nothing else to do.

The silence pulls at her words, dangling cut-out and
foreign on the air, begging to be mistakable:
a disappearing trick against the classroom's white walls.

Then Roberto claps his hands. He meant to say
he likes practising English. We all groan.

With kind permission of the poet, previously published in Poetry as a Foreign Language, edited by Martin Bates, White Adder Press, 1999

 

 

Task

Decide if the statements are true or false.

Exercise

Discussion
Your rating: None (56 votes)

Comments

HI

maryoom25's picture

hi every one
nice but i want to understand what this meaning please???? i mean poetry, if some body explain to me?? talk about what
thank allot
Good site
 

i find a good place

Gergana-G's picture

I am so exciting that i find a good place to improve my English .
Mistake makes us perfect,so i am not's afraid.

hello, im fiona from albania.

fjona1's picture

hello, im fiona from albania. im working in a project about the rules of behaviour in UK. Would you please help me?? or do you have a site for thr rules of behaviour in UK?? i really need some help. Wuold be so grateful, if u help me. thank you.
 

Hello Fiona, What sort of

AdamJK's picture

Hello Fiona,
What sort of rules of behaviour are you looking for? We have a video series called UK Culture and another called How to which might be useful for you. If you have some specific questions, feel free to ask them.
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team

   It's really a wonderfull

Brunamiranda's picture

   It's really a wonderfull reading...the author talks about the characters in a soft and realistic way, as if they in fact represent us, people who study hard to get a good level of english, but have at the same time a personal life full of good and bad fellings, dreams, changes, ideas, fears and more than anything, experiences.

Although I don't understand

Tiong's picture

Although I don't understand poem very much, but I can feel the great beauty of poetry, it makes my mind quiet and peace. Thank you.

 it s fine when you make your

el lee's picture

 it s fine when you make your mistakes. 

Since I finde this web

n.zehtab's picture

Since I finde this web site,my english improve and i think the this part of site i mean listning and watching is really amazing.thanks guys.

Hi there every one its really

felicidad_oracion's picture

Hi there every one its really exciting to do learning through listening though i'm not good in using computer i have to ask the help of my daughter help me do it since i'm really very willing to learn new trends which i could use in my teaching. Thank you to all those who made this idea possible and accessible to everyone. God Bless everyone.

hi guys i want improve my

shom's picture

hi guys i want improve my english.