Episode 01

Episode 01

LearnEnglish Podcasts is back! Some things are the same (Tess, Ravi and Carolina) and some things are new, for example the presenters. So whether you're new to LearnEnglish Podcasts or have been listening since Series 1, give it a try!

Transcript

Rob and Adam – Welcome back!

Adam: Hello and welcome to the all new Learn English podcast from the British Council. My name’s Adam.

Rob: And I’m Rob. In just a moment you’ll hear from Tess and Ravi, but first I’ll tell you something about the new podcasts. We’ve changed the way we give the podcasts to you and there are two important things. Firstly, the podcasts are shorter, but there are more of them. We’re going to have a podcast every two weeks. Secondly, there are more ways for you to get in touch with us and we can answer your questions or your comments. If you have a question about English or about the podcast or about Tess and Ravi, then send it to us. Here’s how you can do it.

Adam: You can leave a comment on LearnEnglish at www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish. You can follow us on Facebook – look for Elementary podcasts. And you can follow Tess and Ravi on Twitter – they’re tessandravi. Ask us a question or tell us what you think and we can answer it in the next podcast.

Rob: Now, we’re new presenters, so where are Tess and Ravi? Well, we’ve given them something new to do. In this series of podcasts Tess and Ravi have a project and we hope they’ll help you learn.

Adam: Now, when you think about Britain, what do you think about? Do you think about big red buses? Cups of tea? Something else? We asked that question to hundreds of our listeners around the world – what do you think about when you think about Britain? And Tess and Ravi have the answers. They’re going to help you find out more about some of the most British things you can think of. So, let’s find out what the topic is this week.

Tess and Ravi

Ravi: Hi everyone, I’m Ravi.

Tess: And I’m Tess.

Ravi: And our job is to tell you about some of the things you think are typically British. In this series we’ll tell you about British weather, the Royal Family, British pets… lots of ‘typical’ British things. But today we’re going to tell you about a very famous British food – a dish that lots of people think is the typical British thing to eat. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s fish and chips.

Tess: Mmm, nice. It’s true that lots of people think that fish and chips is what British people eat all the time. My Spanish friends really wanted to try fish and chips when they came to visit. So, OK then Ravi – tell us what you’ve learnt.

Ravi: Well, first of all, I’ll say a little bit about what fish and chips are – people don’t always know. It’s a piece of fish, covered in batter and deep fried.

Tess: Can you tell us what batter is?

Ravi: It’s a mixture of flour and water, usually. You cover the fish...

Tess: What kind of fish is it?

Ravi: Good question. It can be different kinds of fish but the most popular are cod and haddock – two fish that were very common in the sea around Britain.

Tess: Are they not so common now?

Ravi: No, they aren’t – but I’ll talk about that in a minute. So, you cover the fish in batter and then you deep fry it – that means you cook it in a deep pan of very hot oil, vegetable oil usually. You cook the chips the same way, you deep fry the potatoes in very hot oil.

Tess: And chips are chips, aren’t they? Americans call them ‘fries’ or ‘French fries’ but we call them chips.

Ravi: I think chips are sort of bigger and thicker than French fries but yes, you’re right. Anyway, you deep fry the fish and the chips, then you serve them with salt and vinegar.

Tess: Ugh, I hate vinegar.

Ravi: When I was a kid, fish and chips would always be served in newspaper. They wrapped your fish and chips up in a sheet of old newspaper, but they don’t do that any more. They use special paper, not newspaper.

Tess: Yeah, I remember the newspaper. But, you know what, I hardly ever eat fish and chips any more. All that oil and deep frying, it’s not very healthy, is it?

Ravi: It’s not, no. But once every now and then, Tess, it’s OK to eat unhealthy things, you know.

Tess: How often do you eat fish and chips, then?

Ravi: Well, I found some information about this. Nowadays, fifty per cent of British people say they eat fish and chips once a month and fourteen per cent say they eat them once a week. I’d say I’m about once a month.

Tess: I’d say about once a year, for me. Are the numbers of people eating fish and chips going down? As I say, it’s not very healthy and people are more concerned about healthy eating these days.

Ravi: People are more concerned about healthy eating but the British still eat a lot of fish and chips. There are more than ten thousand fish and chip shops in the country and they sold more than two hundred and fifty thousand meals last year. One thing is, having fish and chips is cheaper than going to a restaurant so sales are even going up when people haven’t got a lot of money to spend on restaurant meals.

Tess: What about the fish, though? You said there weren’t so many fish any more.

Ravi: That’s right. Cod, the most popular fish for making fish and chips, is not as common in the sea around Britain any more – numbers have really gone down. And if the numbers go down, the price goes up, so fish and chip shops now sell lots of other kinds of fish as well – but lots of people think they’re not as nice… Do you know, Tess, I could talk about this for hours – I’ve not even mentioned the history of fish and chips yet, but we’re running out of time. Shall we go and get some fish and chips?

Tess: OK, then, let’s go.

Rob and Adam

Adam: That talk about fish and chips earlier has made me really hungry. How often do you eat fish and chips?

Rob: As often as I can, but not as often as when I was young.

Adam: Mmm. Right, if you’ve listened to the LearnEnglish podcast before, you might remember Tom the Teacher. Tom talked about the English you heard in the podcast. Tom’s not around this time – he’s got a job teaching in China – but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about what you heard. Listen to this:

Ravi: So, you cover the fish in batter and then you deep fry it – that means you cook it in a deep pan of very hot oil – vegetable oil usually. You cook the chips the same way – you deep fry the potatoes in very hot oil.

Rob: Ravi talked about how to cook fish and chips. He said you ‘cover the fish in batter’ and you ‘deep fry it’. Frying is a way of cooking something in oil – olive oil, vegetable oil or another kind of oil. What other ways of cooking are there?

Adam: Well, you can boil things – vegetables usually – in hot water. Errr… You can grill things. Umm… and you can bake things, in an oven. And how about the language of preparing food?

Rob: You can chop meat or vegetables, slice things, erm... grate things like cheese. We’ll put a list on the website for you. And you’ll find some other activities to help you learn and a transcript of what Tess and Ravi said.

Adam: I’ll tell you what would be great though. Ravi told you how to cook fish and chips – the instructions on how to cook something are a recipe – and it would be great to hear some recipes from you. If you send them to us we can put them on LearnEnglish and on Tess and Ravi’s Facebook page. Remember the ways you can get in touch with us?

Rob: On LearnEnglish, that’s www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish. On Twitter - TessandRavi – or on Facebook – we’re Elementary podcasts on Facebook. Just time now to look at a couple of comments from LearnEnglish and the Facebook page. Khalid Al Busaidi said ‘I miss Tess and Ravi so much’ – well, I hope you’re happy you’ve got them back, Khalid – and lots of you saying you want to improve your English – Jinhee, Manjit, Abner – lots of you. Well, we’re here to help and I hope we’ll speak to you next week – we’d love to hear from you. That’s all for now.

Both: Bye!

Check your understanding

What can you remember about Tess and Ravi's conversation?

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Task 1

Can you remember what Ravi said about making fish and chips?

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Task 2

Practise words that describe ways of cooking, ways of preparing food or things you use when cooking.

Grouping_NzEwOQ==

Discussion

Language level

Average: 5 (8 votes)
Profile picture for user Maria Andrea

Submitted by Maria Andrea on Tue, 23/10/2018 - 20:55

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In my country the fish is prepared fried with rice or potatoes and salad, sometimes it is served as a fish sandwich, a fried fish with bread, tomato and lettuce.

Submitted by Gabriela Leal on Mon, 24/09/2018 - 16:51

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Hi,my favorite recipe is the "ajiaco" is a traditional like soup of Bogota, Colombia. This soup have chicken in small pieces, common potatoes, yellow potatoes or (criolla) how is known in Colombia, peas, and corncob in pieces. First put to boil water in a big pot, with salt and onion in branch. When de water is boiling we add the potatoes, the corncob and the peas; 20 minutes after put the chicken in the pot and left cook until the chicken is well cooked. And finally we can add chopped parsley.

Submitted by jdarc_17 on Thu, 20/09/2018 - 15:31

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Hi guys, I would like to share a recipe of very simple and delicious salada with you. Cut one tomato in slices. After that mix with it half lemon juice, salt as you like, oregons and two (soup) spoons of olive oil. Add to it some rocket and lettuce leaves, involve it all with the tomatos and enjoy it. If you prefer add some seeds. ;)

Submitted by anngan on Mon, 17/09/2018 - 10:09

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Hi! This is a really simple way to enhance any salad, rice, potatoes or meal. Fry seeds in oil för about ten minutes on medium heat until they are golden. You need to stir frequently. When they´re done add a pinch of salt and sprinkle them hot or cold on your food. I use sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds and sesame seeds. Both young and old sees to appreciate this, because the bowl is always empty when we´ve eaten! Anna

Submitted by Abeer92 on Sat, 15/09/2018 - 13:29

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The food recipe is klecha is common in my country Iraq on occasions Ingredients: kilo of white flour cup and half oil, a cup of liquid milk, a large spoon, vanilla and baking powder, hal, mix the ingredients and become a dough by the hands, and then make a small dum of dough and fillthem with dates, sesame or walnuts, put in oven for 10 minutes 180°c

Submitted by Jihad Badwi on Tue, 11/09/2018 - 23:01

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Thanks Adam and Rob, I enjoyed the podcast. In fact, the last few days were my peak for eating "Indomie", as you know it is instant noodles and all you need is to put it in a container with boiled water and leave it for few minutes. It's found in different flavors like chicken, curry, vegetables and so on. Some people prefer to make their own one by adding or mixing some spices, ketchup, meat or small vegetable pieces, others get rid of soup as they prefer to have it like Spaghetti pasta. To me, it tastes delicious by anyway
Profile picture for user mostafa.elkilany

Submitted by mostafa.elkilany on Thu, 06/09/2018 - 11:02

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hi this is the first participate for me , hope every one is ok. in Egypt the dishes is the same like Europe cities , we called " chips " not " french fries " I like it so much , i like also most kind of fish thanks for allowing me participate
Hey Mostafa, I am Egyptian and glad that I have an English Egyptian practitioner with me, my best wishes.
Hi Gehad, A really happy surprise, I did not expect a person from Egypt to participate here like me, so I invite you to share the training together, but I do not know how we can get to the email so how we can communicate , generally we can participate in the comments, which I always get a notification from her via my email Welcome again, best wishes
Thanks a lot Mostafa by the way, I can't find any icons for notifications here, how can you get them?