A business interview

A business interview

Listen to the business interview to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Presenter: Welcome to today's show. We're very happy to have Anna Oliveira as our guest today. Anna is the creator and founder of HomeworX – spelled with an 'x' we should note – an app which helps teenagers with their homework. Thanks for coming in, Anna.

Anna: Thanks for having me.

Presenter: So, tell us about your app. How does it work?

Anna: Well, teenagers and their parents have numerous challenges when it comes to homework these days. In many families both parents work and don't have much available time to help their kids with their homework. And even if they do have time to help, they may not be able to offer support with the content. What I mean is, they may not know, or at least remember, enough in any given subject to support.

Presenter: You mean they might not be able to remember complex maths or might have never studied certain subjects, such as biology or economics, themselves?

Anna: Exactly. So they might want to support their children with their homework, but have neither the time nor the knowledge to do so.

Presenter: I see. So the app helps solve this problem?

Anna: Yes, and more. The next issue is that tutors can be expensive, and there may be long waiting lists for specialist tutors in the town or region you live in. Our HomeworX app brings students and tutors together online. Students can search a database of pre-approved tutors and sign up for live online support. They don't need to be in the same town or city.

Presenter: That sounds really great.

Anna: It is. And this approach also enables us to offer the tutoring services at lower prices because there's no travelling time involved for the tutor to get to the student's home. And tutors who live in remote areas are happy to get access to more students, and be able to work from home, even at lower rates.

Presenter: This all sounds great. So, how did you come up with the idea?

Anna: Well, as you might guess, I was one of those parents I described earlier. I really wanted to help my son with his homework, but I was either too busy with work or I didn't actually know anything about the subjects he was having difficulty with. Also, we live in an area where there aren't many tutors and the ones that are there are either very expensive or have long waiting lists.

Presenter: Yes. I can understand your predicament. Well, it sounds like a very useful app that is clearly meeting a need. And its popularity obviously speaks for itself.

Anna: Thank you.

Presenter: So, do you have plans for the future?

Anna: We've just secured some funding and hope to expand the range of services we offer using the app.

Presenter: We wish you the best of luck. Thanks again for coming in. That was Anna Oliveira, founder of the tutoring app HomeworX (with an 'x', don't forget!), which is available for both Apple and Android devices. Join us again next week for another business interview. Have a great week, everyone. 

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.6 (250 votes)

Submitted by Mi.m.ferreira on Thu, 20/06/2019 - 12:59

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My English is a work in progress. I´m not find the app for the study or practise the listening. Does anyone have ann app tip?

Hello Mi.m.ferreira

I'm sure other people will have some good recommendations, but I also wanted to mention that we have several apps for learning English in our Apps section. Good luck finding something!

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by zsofia1999 on Tue, 18/06/2019 - 15:58

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I don't use any apps for learning, but I would like to. I am searching the right one.

Submitted by Claudette Ndenzako on Tue, 18/06/2019 - 00:46

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I don't use an app for learning. I think to effectively learn a language for instance you need to listen to or read anything from radio, watching tv, people around you, news, books, magazines etc... Anything helps and try to interact as much as possible. That is how I learned English. And do not be shy to ask people to repeat what they said.

Submitted by Shuferu on Wed, 15/05/2019 - 15:39

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The app that assists listening skills because listening is basic for other skill
Profile picture for user Shamas Saeed

Submitted by Shamas Saeed on Tue, 14/05/2019 - 10:18

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There are so many apps available on the phone but my favorite app is "IELTS Prep". I am using it on my Andriod phone from some time. It's not only easy to use but also good to practice IETLS exams, as online exams are available on it. Other than that, I am using it for listening and grammar mistakes.

Submitted by ignacio perez on Fri, 03/05/2019 - 07:49

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An interesting resource to learn English, wich I use, is the Facebook group 'Learn English-British Council". I'm interested in downloading the app 'Learn English Grammar (UK edition) from this web as well.

Submitted by Karuppasamy.p on Tue, 30/04/2019 - 13:35

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My Favourite app is duolingo. It is a language learning app. Method of studying In this app is little bit different to any other learning apps. Every learning parts are realistic and you can directly apply these sentence in your day-to-day life and every word are comprehensible.Speaking Practice also possible in this app .That's why I Like this Application

Submitted by Gus2019 on Thu, 25/04/2019 - 23:17

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Interesting reading. In the course of the years I used many resources for learning diferents things such as internet, classroom courses, on-line courses and among others. However the most impotart is how determinated you are to learn something new and how useful is in your life. In these day I use a lot of apps and websites like this to learning english. I wish you the best of luck to all you! Sincerely, Gustavo