Adam and Rob
Both: Hello!
Adam: I’m Adam.
Rob: And I’m Rob.
Adam: Welcome back, Rob.
Rob: Thanks very much.
Adam: How was your trip?
Rob: It went very well, thank you. And welcome listeners to Episode 7 of LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts. Once again, thanks for all your comments – great to read them as usual.
Adam: You remember that we asked you about your favourite time of day. I said that my favourite time was night. A few of you agreed: Yakup in Turkey, Madera in Russia who likes to go dancing at night and Sergio in Italy who said:
I love the night too, Adam, even though it's not healthy... After spending a day working, eventually the night is my own time in which, when my wife and my daughter sweetly sleep, I can read what I want, listen to my favourite music, write my physics books, watch sci-fi movies and so on... To wake up in the morning become really tough, but this is the way I feel alive!
Rob: That’s a very nice comment, Sergio. But you’re in the minority – there are more people who prefer the morning. Too many to mention all of you, but let’s have a look at some of them. Emin in Turkey says:
It’s the very early morning, when most people are asleep and there is a soothing and peaceful silence. It's a little difficult to wake up very early, but I think there is no moment in the world that makes me feel better than that.
Adam: Lamai in Thailand agrees:
My happiest time of the day is in the morning, I get up at 5.30 am, with the singing of the birds in the trees near my house and then with a cup of coffee, I walk in my garden, fresh and at peace.
Sounds lovely.
Rob: It does. FRG likes ‘breakfast time’, but I think that’s because he likes breakfast! Baijuka, who’s in the UK, likes mornings but not Monday mornings when she starts work again.
Adam: Last word to Mohammed in Iraq:
You can see me happy at any time of the day when I don't have something to worry about. For example, when I'm off work, considering I'm a junior doctor working in a public hospital in Baghdad. I try to relax and enjoy each and every minute I get because the next day I could be staying in the emergency room or in the ward looking after patients.
Rob: Thank you once again for all your comments and remember you can join in and add your own comments by going to www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish or by finding us on Facebook – look for Elementary Podcasts.
Adam: OK! Tess and Ravi are back. Before you listen to them, do you know what a ‘queue’ is? It’s a line of people, one behind the other and some people think it’s very British. Let’s see what Tess and Ravi think.
Tess and Ravi
Tess: Hello again. I’m Tess.
Ravi: And I’m Ravi and as usual we’re going to talk about something you think you know about Britain – fish and chips, the British weather, drinking tea – all those typically British things.
Tess: And we’ll tell you just how typical they are.
Ravi: Or aren’t.
Tess: All the things we talk about were suggested by you, our listeners, and our topic for today is something I think you’ll enjoy, Ravi – it’s queuing – standing in line to wait for things.
Ravi: Aaargh. I hate queuing! I hate waiting for things!
Tess: I knew you would hate it. But lots of people said that they thought queuing was very British and I think it’s true. Think about the things we queue for; we form a queue when we wait for a bus, we queue up in supermarkets, to buy tickets for things, in the bank, we’re always queuing.
Ravi: But people queue for things all over the world, Tess. How can you say it’s typically British?
Tess: True, but what we heard from our listeners is that British people are very good at queuing.
Ravi: How can you be good at queuing? All you have to do is stand behind the person in front of you.
Tess: Well, have you ever tried joining a queue in… No, I don’t want to say a country, in case some of our listeners get upset. Have you ever tried joining a queue in another country?
Ravi: Erm… yeah, I suppose I have.
Tess: People say British queues are more polite than in… some places. Like we almost enjoy queuing.
Ravi: My grandma does. She joins a queue whenever she sees one, even if she doesn’t know what it’s for.
Tess: I bet she never jumps the queue though, does she?
Ravi: You don’t know my grandma.
Tess: Jumping the queue is when you don’t go to the back of the queue but you try to push your way to the front of the queue instead of waiting for your turn. Do you ever jump the queue, Ravi?
Ravi: Me? I’m too polite to do that.
Tess: See? That’s what people think about the British, that they like queuing and they’re very polite so they make nice, tidy queues.
Ravi: Hmm.
Tess: I think it’s true, more or less. British people do make very organised queues. What about the queues for the winter sales, Ravi, or to buy tickets for the tennis at Wimbledon? It’s almost a national tradition; it’s on the TV news and everything. Every year, some people queue up for days to get the best bargains at the start of the winter sales in the shops after Christmas. They sleep outside in the cold and they seem to enjoy it – that’s a bit crazy, isn’t it?
Ravi: It is a bit. Do people in other countries do that sort of thing?
Tess: I don’t know, actually. Maybe our listeners can write in and tell us about queuing in their country? I bet they don’t queue like the British do.
Ravi: OK. If you’re listening, write and tell us about queuing in your country. Do you think the British queue differently?
Tess: We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Adam and Rob
Adam: What do you think about queuing, Rob?
Rob: I hate queuing. I can’t stand it.
Adam: I don’t mind it. And it’s interesting, because when I go to a foreign country where people have a different approach to queuing, I find it very hard to change my style.
Rob: How do you feel about queuing? If you’ve been to Britain, do you think it’s true what Tess and Ravi said – are the British good at queuing?
Adam: How about queues in your country? Do people queue up politely or do they jump the queue? Do you jump the queue? We’d love to hear from you. Write and let us know at www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
Rob: Right, let’s look at some of the language Tess and Ravi used:
Ravi: Aaargh. I hate queuing. I hate waiting for things.
Tess: People say British queues are more polite than in… some places. Like we almost enjoy queuing.
Tess: See? That’s what people think about the British, that they like queuing and they’re very polite...
Adam: Firstly, Tess and Ravi used different ways to talk about liking and not liking things. Ravi said he hates queuing and Tess said that British people enjoy queuing. We can use positive words like ‘like’ ‘love’ ‘enjoy’ and negative words like ‘hate’ ‘can’t stand’ ‘dislike’. How many more can you add to each list? Try the exercise on the website.
Rob: Next, though – listen to what comes after the like and dislike words:
Ravi: Aaargh. I hate queuing. I hate waiting for things.
Tess: People say British queues are more polite than in… some places. Like we almost enjoy queuing.
Tess: See? That’s what people think about the British – that they like queuing and they’re very polite...
Rob: I hate queuing – we enjoy queuing – they like queuing. That ‘ing’ form is the gerund and we use it after some verbs – like those verbs of liking and disliking. We also use gerunds after prepositions – words like ‘at’ ‘on’ or ‘in’ – like in this clip:
Tess: True – but what we heard from our listeners is that British people are very good at queuing.
Rob: If you use a verb after a preposition – use a gerund – the ‘ing’ form. For example, ‘good at queuing’, ‘interested in learning English’.
Adam: We’re running out of time now, but there are lots of exercises about this on the website, so if you want to know more – check it out there.
Rob: That’s all for this time. We’ll be back with Carolina next time.
Both: Bye.
Comments
I hate queue. In my country usually people very impolite and want to jump queuing.
in my country people queue 50/50 in some area some people jump. They say sorry i am in hurry up or i am official worker. but one thing important i want to mention it, people give priority to women. women do not queue or making separate queue. They do not like to stand some one behind them.
i have lived in London for more than 6 years. British people are so much polite.
Actually, this topic make me felling sad. Because i'm from Vietnam and i think Vietnamese people, they are really impolite at queuing. we don't see queue usually in my country. They just stand around the shops, stores and buy things. Sometime, we have to queue to buy things, but some people, especially the elder people, they think they are old so they can jumping the queue and nobody care. This is too impolite. But young people now i think they are changing. (sorry i don't talk all of the elder people if you can read it). Hope one day, their behaviour can change.
thank you, best wishes
Hi team!
I think that in my country some people jump queueing. Really, no one doesn't like queueing but we need it and we should polite and patient. I just once jump queueing in front of the bank and after that i promised myself i would never jump :)
thank you very much for your interesting topic
Ps: i always hear that British people are very polite
Here in Brazil you also have to queue whatever you have to do. It is a nightmare. People allways jump the queue. I hate queue but i never jump it.
Queue it could be a good time for read, calling people, etc. The problem is when you are in a hurry or in an difficult moment.
Queuing, I don't like queuing, but sometimes we have to queue to get your turn. Before when Chinese spring festival comes, people almost who live outside will go home to meet their relatives. So many people take train back home in that very short time, it becomes very hard to get one ticket. At before when you can not buy ticket on internet, you have to go to the railway station buy the ticket. At that time you will suffer the very long queue and very anxious feeling. Now we can buy the ticket by internet, the feeling is better but it is also not easy to get one ticket at that special time. But anyway we queue on the internet instead suffer the cold.
I thing that everybody hate queque, is so disgusting and moré when te people don't respect it. Pd: sorry if I wrote bad, I'm trying to practice English.
In Colombia, the queues are very untidy, especially in Bogota at the bus stop "transmilenio". When there are many people they form many queues in the same queue, the people despair of and becoming violent....
The only time that i like to queuing it's with my mother because she like to do friends everytime, so during the queue we do many friends =). I love her!
I can't stand queuing, it get me bored. In my country sometimes occur very big queue, but mostly people are polite. And like in other places there are some people which try to jump queue.
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