Episode 03

Episode 03

Tess and Ravi discuss a topic that many British people like to talk about all the time. Can you guess what it is? Adam reports on some of the different ways you said you greet each other.

Transcript

Adam

Adam: Hello and welcome! My name is Adam. Rob is on holiday this week – lucky man! He’ll be back for the next episode.

Thanks for your comments – we love hearing from you. It was really interesting to hear how you greet each other. Adilson Santos sent us a great message telling us the different ways to greet people in Brazil. He said that people who are not close friends just say ‘hi’. If they are better friends, a girl might hug a boy and kiss his cheek, but boys never kiss each other, they only shake hands and boys who are very good friends might hug quickly. He also said that boys don’t really shake hands, they slap their hands together, and that at church he kisses men on the cheek and shakes hands with women.

Isn’t it interesting how complicated greetings can be!

Langtucoiam from Vietnam said that, when meeting an old friend, people will normally shake hands, but again it can be different depending on how close you were, how old your friend is and your friend's sex.

Finally, Hess in the Ivory Coast said that people in his tribe always ask for news when they meet, but they don’t bow or shake hands. He said that two people who slept in the same room will even ask what the news is when they wake up in the morning! I found that fascinating.

Do you remember what Tess and Ravi are doing in this series? They are looking at all the things that people think about when they think about Britain. So, what’s the topic today? Well, it’s something that British people love to talk about. Can you guess what it is?

Tess and Ravi

Ravi: Hi everyone, hi Tess!

Tess: Hi Ravi.

Ravi: Right. I think you know that Tess and I are here to talk about some of the things you think you know about Britain.

Tess: Things like ‘drinking tea’, ‘the Royal Family’ and ‘fish and chips’ – things you think are very British.

Ravi: And what could be more British than today’s weather? It is horrible out there, Tess.

Tess: Is it raining?

Ravi: No, it’s not raining but it’s grey and cold and miserable and… it’s exactly what people said about British weather. We asked our listeners around the world what they think about when they think about Britain and lots of people said ‘British weather’.

Tess: Do people think the weather here is bad?

Ravi: Well, they think it rains a lot – and it does. They think the summer is wet – and it often is, they say that…

Tess: I don’t think British weather is so bad though, do you?

Ravi: I do today.

Tess: It’s true that we don’t have very hot summers but, you know, we don’t have very cold winters either. Britain’s got a temperate climate – that means …

Ravi: A what climate?

Tess: Temperate climate. It means that we don’t have extreme weather – we don’t have very hot summers or very cold winters. But that also means that the weather is quite changeable – the weather changes quite often.

Ravi: Yeah, it can be raining, then five minutes later it’s sunny, then it starts raining again. You never know what the weather is going to be like.

Tess: But that’s a good thing, Ravi. I like that. People sometimes say you can have four seasons in one day in Britain and it’s true.

Ravi: But how can you decide what clothes to wear, Tess? You don’t know if it’s going to be cold or hot or what...

Tess: That’s typical of you, Ravi. And, because the weather does change quite a lot, that’s why British people seem to talk about the weather so much. It’s typical small talk, isn’t it? The sort of thing you say to people when you’re waiting for a bus or something. ‘Nice day today’ or ‘I think it’s going to rain later’. That kind of thing.

Ravi: That’s true. It’s difficult to talk about the weather if the weather’s the same every day. We say ‘I think it’s going to rain later’ because it usually is going to rain. It does rain a lot here.

Tess: Well, I don’t know. I think it’s about the same as other countries in the north of Europe. It’s just that we get rain all year round rather than just in one season. Anyway, the rain means that we have beautiful green countryside. Lots of visitors love the countryside because it looks so green – and that’s because of the rain.

Ravi: Hmm. You know how I feel about the countryside, Tess, but I suppose it does look nice, if you like that kind of thing.

Tess: Lots of people do. I think the British countryside is beautiful – and so do lots of visitors. And it wouldn’t look so green if we didn’t have all that rain!

Ravi: Hmm.

Adam

Adam: Mmm, I agree with Tess. I grew up in Scotland and the weather there can be very changeable. You can have hot sun, snow, rain and wind all in one day. People say "If you don't like the weather in Scotland, don’t worry - just wait half an hour and it will change!"

Many people love talking about the weather and there are lots of words about it. I think there are a lot more words to describe bad weather than good weather! Perhaps that’s because when the weather is good, people are too busy enjoying themselves to discuss it.

If it’s dark, you can say that it’s a grey day, perhaps because there are lots of clouds covering all the sky – which means that it’s overcast. That probably means that the weather is miserable and dull. If there’s a very light rain that doesn’t stop, then you can say it’s drizzly – this sort of rain is called drizzle. If the clouds look like they will rain hard soon, then you can say there is an angry sky.

Oh, it’s so much fun complaining about the weather! Now you know why we do it.

Write in and tell us about the climate in your country. Is it always the same or does it change a lot? What are the best times of year and the worst? What temperature do you think is a hot day and what temperature do you think is a cold day?

You can leave your comments on LearnEnglish which is at www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish or on Facebook - we’re at ‘Elementary Podcasts’. Look out for the next episode with more news about Carolina! Bye!

Discussion

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Average: 4.3 (6 votes)
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Submitted by Mamo19 on Mon, 02/09/2019 - 23:08

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Sorry, I fail one sentence : "...but the temperature is not changeable."

Hello Mamo19,

We often describe the weather as changeable but we don't usually use the word to describe temperature.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Mamo19 on Mon, 02/09/2019 - 23:03

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Repeatedly, we consider having one season in Haïti : the sunny one. Perhaps from June to December we are under cyclone threat which could be a raining time, and that could be called the worst season. That doesn't mean we could not have one or more raining day (s) at any time ; nut the temperature in sot changeable. In Summer it is very hot time (less than 30 °C a day) while in December it's cold (about 20°C a day). To summarize almost the whole year maintain great temperature. It's the reason why lots of foreign people love this country.

Submitted by DenM on Wed, 26/06/2019 - 08:32

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In Russia, actually, the weather is depend on the region. In Krasnodar, for example, the weather is hot mostly. Black sea coast is the main resort of Russia with very hot summer, warm sea and so on. And, there is the Verkhoyansk on the other side of the country. It is the coldest city in the world. The temperature can go down to minus 67 C there (I've never been there actually). I think, in St. Petersburg the weather is as changeable as in Britain. In a whole, in the centre of Russia, the weather is very different depending on the season. The temperature can vary from + 30 in summer to - 30 in winter. There is a lot of snow in the winter, and it's very cool. But I suppose Russians in the central Russia and especially on the North of the Country don't have enough sundays. Please, don't be shy to point me to mistakes. Thank you very much.
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Submitted by Duy Nguyen on Sat, 22/06/2019 - 08:58

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I live in Vietnam and the weather here is different between the north and the south of my country. We have 4 seasons in the north: spring, summer, autumn and winter while there is two clear seasons in the south: dry and rainy season. I grew up in Southwest of Vietnam where belongs to Mekong Delta area, so we have a typical season is the flood season. It begins from June to November annual. To most of people, flood seems not to be an expected thing but the farmers in my hometown treasure it much. It brings fishes, shrimps and alluvial soil to this land. I love the seasonal transition when I can feel the change of people and natural landscape clearly. This time is in rainy season so you can see all type of rain such as heavy, drizzle, pour, spit even iced rain but it's fairly rare

Submitted by parisaach on Sat, 27/04/2019 - 05:01

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The weather in my country change in every city . in the north of my country the climate is temperate it usually rainy and it can has hot summers but it usually mild and lovely. In the south of my country the weather is hot and it rearly rains . in deserts the weather is hot by days and cold by nights. in some part of west and east and north of my country the weather is cold and snowy in winters. but in my city weather is dry it rearly snowy and most of the year it is sunny or cloudy and sometimes rainy

Submitted by anton from tyrol on Fri, 22/03/2019 - 17:04

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I live in the north of Italy, here the winter is cold and damp, and the summer is very hot. The best season is the spring, specially May and June the weather is mild and there are many flowers. But if you go in the Alps the winter is very cold and snowing and the summer is fantastic, with mild weather.
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Submitted by Ethel on Thu, 14/03/2019 - 14:02

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The climate is mild in my region of my country. Winter is not very cold and summer is quite warm. But my country is so extensive, that in the Northeast it is very warm, subtropical; in the Northwest it is a mountain climate, dry and cold; and in the South it can be extremely cold, with snow and icy wind, like in our Antarctic.

Submitted by cadu on Fri, 01/03/2019 - 16:58

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The weather changes a lot in Bogota, COLOMBIA, In the same day do you have a bright sun and a cold rain. It’s very important that you wear all climate clothes. The cold temperatur could be 6 Celsius degrees and the hottest 23 Celsius degrees. I think that the weather is very similar to London
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Submitted by Brenoabarbosa on Fri, 01/03/2019 - 14:46

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Hi, my name is Breno and I'm from Brazil. In my country, the weather is the same. It is always very hot. It raining only in the summer. And not to do cold. I never saw snow.