Adam and Rob
Both: Hello!
Adam: Welcome to episode 11 of LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts.
Rob: You’re going to hear from Tess and Ravi again today. They’re talking about something British that lots of people around the world think is ‘bad’.
Adam: Any idea what it might be? You’ll find out in a moment.
Rob: But first, let’s take a look at your comments. We heard Carolina complaining about her job and we asked you about your jobs.
Adam: And we got some really interesting responses. Umi from Indonesia sent us this message:
It's hard to say whether I like my job or not. I'm working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. My duty is to look after two children, helping with their school work if necessary and to do all the household chores. Sometimes I like my job because it has no real pressure. I don't like my job because it's not a professional job, most of the time others look down on us and I've no freedom at all because I have to live with my employer and I work 6 days a week. I also enjoy it because my employer lets me study, that's why I keep studying from one course to another. I aim to take an online degree. Never lose hope, it’s only a stepping stone for a better future.
Rob: Well, we definitely wish you luck. That’s a really well-written post, so we can see that your English practice is working.
Adam: Yeah. Rony works in an import/export company in Egypt and loves it although it’s sometimes boring. Rony’s advice is that ‘at the end we have to love what we do until we do what we love’.
Rob: Alexman is also in Egypt and he does two jobs!
I work in two jobs in one, it's somehow like the shampoo – 2in1! I am a customer service agent and also a cashier at the same time. I work a full time shift, my day starts at 9AM and ends at 9PM. I will never forget one day after finishing my work I looked at my report to find out that I'd served 360 customers in a day.
Adam: 360 customers!
Rob: In one day!
Adam: Thanks to all of you who commented. I’m happy to hear that you so many of you seem to like your jobs. I wonder how many of you use English in your work.
Rob: Maybe that’s why you’re learning English. Why not let us know? Remember that the address for your comments is www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish and you can find us on Facebook too – look for ‘Elementary Podcasts’.
Adam: Now, let’s hear from Tess and Ravi. We’ve already told you that they’re going to talk about something British that lots of people think isn’t very good. Any idea what it is? Let’s find out.
Tess and Ravi
Ravi: Hello again, everyone. I’m Ravi.
Tess: And I’m Tess and once again we’re going to talk about something you think you know about Britain.
Ravi: We asked lots of our listeners what they think about when they think about Britain. They said things like ‘drinking tea’, ‘queuing’, ‘Big Ben’, ‘bad weather’ and lots of people mentioned another thing they think is bad – any ideas, Tess?
Tess: Something else that’s bad in Britain? Erm… what?
Ravi: British food. Lots of people think that the food in Britain is terrible. And, do you know what, Tess? I can understand why people think that.
Tess: Really? I think it’s a bit unfair. I mean, what is British food anyway? What do you mean by British food?
Ravi: Well, I don’t know... erm… fish and chips, roast beef, sausage and mash…
Tess: It’s difficult isn’t it, to think of what British food is exactly, but I’m sure you can think of lots of examples of French dishes or Italian or Chinese or Indian dishes, of course.
Ravi: Yeah, lots of ‘em.
Tess: And it’s definitely true that we don’t have the same tradition of food and cooking here in Britain that lots of other countries – France, Italy, China – have.
Ravi: Right.
Tess: But that doesn’t mean you can’t eat well in Britain. I think one of the best things about living in London is how many fantastic different types of food you can eat. You can eat food from anywhere in the world in London, can’t you? Greek, Lebanese, Japanese, Polish …
Ravi: Hey, I had a fantastic Thai meal on Saturday, Tess, I’ll have to take you to this restaurant.
Tess: Thai food, mmm. I’d forgotten that one. There are just so many different great types of food to eat in London.
Ravi: It’s not just London, Tess. Other places have loads of different restaurants too. There are some brilliant Brazilian restaurants in Manchester.
Tess: That’s true. Even really small places will probably have a Chinese restaurant and an Indian or Pakistani restaurant. I don’t know about you but I hardly ever eat ‘British’ food.
Ravi: Me neither.
Tess: That’s restaurants, though. My Spanish friend told me that she came here when she was a teenager and stayed with a British family and the food was terrible. She said they ate frozen meals from the freezer every night and it was just horrible.
Ravi: It’s awful when you go to someone’s house and the food is really, really bad and you have to eat it. But I don’t think everybody eats really badly at home, do they?
Tess: I think cooking has never been more popular. Just look at all the cookery programmes on TV.
Ravi: There are hundreds of cookery programmes on TV. Terrible. I never watch them.
Tess: You should. You might learn something. It’s true, though, there are lots and lots of cooking programmes on TV and lots of famous chefs. People are really interested in cooking, don’t you think?
Ravi: I suppose so. They’re not really cooking British food, though, are they?
Tess: They are sometimes. They’re cooking all kinds of food. Anyway, I think that’s what we have to say about British food. We don’t have the same kind of food traditions as other places, but you can eat really well here. Agreed?
Ravi: Agreed.
Adam and Rob
Adam: So what do you think, Rob? Is British food really bad?
Rob: Well, I’m not sure about British food, but I think eating in Britain is fantastic. There’s so much variety. You can find Italian restaurants, Thai restaurants, Chinese restaurants, restaurants from lots of different countries.
Adam: Yeah, even in quite small towns.
Rob: But if I go to Italy, for example, I only really find Italian restaurants. I’m not sure about British food, though.
Adam: Well, I think that one area that Britain does really well is puddings and desserts. There are so many great crumbles and puddings and afters and pies, they’re all delicious.
Rob: Yeah, sticky toffee pudding!
Adam: Yummy!
Rob: As usual, we’d like to hear what you think. Have you ever tried British food? What did you think of it? Or even if you haven’t tried it; what do you think British food is?
Adam: And what about eating out in your country? What sort of restaurants do you have? What’s your favourite cuisine? Why? You can leave your comments at www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
Rob: So, Tess and Ravi said that although British food might not be the best in the world, it’s possible to eat very well in Britain. And that’s what I want to take a look at next. Listen again to something Tess and Ravi said:
Tess: But that doesn’t mean you can’t eat well in Britain.
Ravi: It’s awful when you go to someone’s house and the food is really, really bad and you have to eat it. But I don’t think everybody eats really badly at home, do they?
Tess said that it doesn’t mean you can’t eat well in Britain and Ravi said he doesn’t think everyone eats badly. ‘Well’ and ‘badly’ are…
Adam: …adverbs! ‘Well’ is the adverb, ‘good’ is the adjective. And remember that an adjective describes a noun and an adverb describes a verb. So, we’d say ‘you speak very good English’, but ‘you speak English very well’.
Rob: The adjective ‘good’, describes the noun, ‘English’, and the adverb ‘well’ describes the verb ‘speak’. You see?
Adam: We’ve put some exercises on the website to help you with adverbs and adjectives.
Rob: And there are also some exercises about another thing you heard. Listen to this bit again:
Tess: It’s difficult, isn’t it, to think of what British food is, exactly, but I’m sure you can think of lots of examples of French dishes or Italian or Chinese or Indian dishes, of course.
Ravi: Yeah, lots of ‘em.
Tess: And it’s definitely true that we don’t have the same tradition of food and cooking here in Britain that lots of other countries – France, Italy, China – have.
Ravi: Right.
Adam: We heard countries – France, Italy, China – and the adjectives to describe things or people from those countries – French, Italian, Chinese. The exercises on the website will help you practise countries and adjectives – have a look.
Rob: Well, that’s all we’ve got time for today. We’ll be back soon when we’ll hear how Carolina and Emily are getting on with Jamie’s new friend. Bye!
Adam: Bye!
Comments
I don´t have been in Britain, but I have ate some meals similar.
For example, the sausage, beans, ships, roast beef. in my country Colombia are variety dishes.
About of British Food, I like the corn more than the beef.
In my country Colombia eat out is a thing very important, here are a lots of places, restaurants of many kinds of foods around the world, Italian pizza spaghetti, Argentina food, Chinese food, Arabs food, American Food, Mexican Food.
All the food in Colombia is very very well. here are restaurants knows around the world like McDonalds, KFC, Dunkin Donuts. the restaurants are well. excellent service to customers.
I prefer or I like the corn, beans, and pizza and spaghetti. because i like the smell of the flour cooked and its flavor, the spaghetti too, the same for beans. these meals are free of fat.
Eat out is well any day in Colombia. at night, in the morning, midday or in the afternoon.
Here are locations very well and pleasant for eat.
from Colombia South America
Juan
I was in London when I was a teen and I remember the good breakfast in the hotel(eggs,sausages...and a good orange juice).I ate in a good japanese restaurant,but the rest of the days were hamburgers,sandwich and fish and chips.I know there s a lot of restaurants in London,but a little expensive if you want to eat good food.I love mediterranean and spicy food.I think Spain is one of the best countries to eat,because there s a good relation between quality and price.We ve got a great variety of food(paella,cocido,fishes,meats,omelettes,,,).In my country food is very imaginative,because with 3 or 4 ingredients,you can do a delicious meal.Here all people enjoy eating.There are restaurants with tapas and spanish people are always eating and drinking with friends on festivities.
Hello to all of you before I am starting for further information about the food what I like I just want to introduce myself first I am from The Philippines and English are my second languages aside from Filipino and I am a chef in one of the famous restaurant here in my place. Food is my passion the most interesting facts about the food you can eat a lot of meals if you are a Chef. English meals are the most delicate food to make because it has a varied ingredients but these types of meals are lighter one and easy to make because English people want to eat a lot of mashed potatoes and roast beef, vegetables and healthy olive oil rather than normal oil we are using in some parts of Asian countries. For me I inclined to eat binge of snacks but my meals are very heavy I ate a lot of rice usually in one day I had eaten 5 to 6 meals in a whole day and I fond to eat of Thai food. Thai food because of the ingredients are very healthy they are comprised of herbs and vegetables I don't eat meat from pork for almost 4 years in time. Thank you English team for providing this kind of exercises now I have time to express my opinion and comments. More power to all of you.
When I came to Britain first, I stayed in a hotel in Abbington, Oxford. My first meal was breakfast. I remember the British breakfast menu was quite interesting for me :) For instance, there were baked beans and sautéed mushroom. Actually, in Turkey, we eat these two on dinner rather than breakfast. On the other hand, similar to Turkey, there were scrambled egg, sausages (not pork) and toasted bread on the menu.
Then i saw a British woman preparing fruit milk with fresh fruits. That is okay, delicious also. But she added lemon juice on top. I was shocked. Milk and lemon, oh, come on! :)
Different from Britain, in Turkey, we have some kind of cheese, honey, olives, fresh tomato, cucumber, fried potato on our breakfast table.
I ate some fruits, corn flakes with milk. And that was so good and enough for me that day. :)
In Oxford, Ask Italian was the best for me to eat for dinner. I believe i prefer italian pasta, garlic bread, pizza and water to British dishes and water. :)
In my country you can find both Western and Eastern dishes. In addition, Turkish food, espicially types of kebaps, soaps, desserts and side dishes are fantastic.
mmm i 'm not so interested in food but here in Egypt you can always enjoy eating traditional meals like FOL & FLAFEL they are mainly beans and some additives and also there's the deserts that well know ''eastern deserts'' like KONAFA,KATIF and BASBOOSA as well
Hi everyone
I've never been in Britain so I've never tried British foods.
Many British people prefer to spend their summer holidays in beautiful coasts of Turkey, so I met some British friends when I was on my holiday in my country. there are some Turkish restaurants serve English breakfast for tourists. When I read the English breakfast menu, I was a bit surprised. because ıt contains high calori foods like bean, sausage. we never eat bean at breakfast. It is eaten at lunch or dinner.
Anyway, I've had a chance to try the most famous international cuisines,as you mentioned Italian, French, Thai, Indian dishes. I think Turkish cuisine is the best all over the world. We have many kinds of delicious traditional foods and deserts such as sish kebap, lahmacun, içli köfte, mantı, baklava. When I was in abroad, I found out that Turkish restaurants are very popular around there. It is suprised me that you never mentioned about Turkish cuisine in the podcasts. It is excellent I highly recommend you to taste it:)
Hello! New here :) English is my mother tongue, and Malay. Arabic is my second language, other than my real mother tongue- Bangla xD
I love learning languages! I'm currently learning Spanish, franch and I'm quite good in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Urdu :)
I love you, LearnEnglish! you are Amazing, and I enjoy these podcasts, especially Word on The Street :)
And Ashley & Stephen, Tess & Ravi, and Adam & Rob xP
Oh, I also love Fish & Chips, and roast beef, and sausage and mash.
Ok thus good is the same to me English is not my language but i real like it. So guys help me thru this website to gain more things. Am a Tanzanian living in Dar es salaam the capital city our favorite food is Posho,Rice, and Beans you real welcome guys in our city.
Hi Friends, My native language is Bangla. I want to develop my English writing skill. anyone help me to be a good pen-friend.
Salam. (Are you a Muslim?)
Apne kamon achen?
Hello, I'm a Singaporean, pure Bangladeshi. From Chittagong :)
One problem, i don't speak bangla that much because I can't say properly(I stop going to bangla shcool at 7 years old, that's why). But I understand bangla 100%... don't worry :) i also know Sylheti & Chittagonian & Noakhali.
do you agree to m as your pen pal? I can help with your English :)
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