
Transcript
Adam and Rob
Both: Hello!
Adam: Welcome back, listeners – and welcome back, Rob! How was your holiday?
Rob: It was really nice, Adam, thanks. I went to Slovenia and the weather was fantastic.
Adam: Sounds great. And the comments you sent about the weather in your countries were great too! Many of you have very hot weather. Abuhekmat in Oman told us about weather that reaches 49 degrees! I can’t imagine being that hot. Fazliddin12 in Uzbekistan sees temperatures of 45 degrees and Saandari in Mongolia told us about weather that was hot, but not quite as hot as Oman, 35 degrees. The big difference in Mongolia is that in winter it reaches -35 degrees! That’s a huge difference between summer and winter.
Rob: That’s very cold. Many of you also wrote to us about cold weather in your countries. Kosovac in Serbia says it can be -20 degrees. ValiantSpirit in Pakistan says it can be -15 degrees. But what is cold? In other countries, maybe it’s a bit different. In El Salvador, Daxrosales says 15 degrees is a cold day, while in Malaysia, Shokmin says 24 degrees is a cold day. You also told us about other weather conditions in your countries. For example, in China Diqiudashi told us about the typhoons that come to the mainland and bring heavy storms.
Adam: Tkazerooni in Iran told us about weather called ‘Wolf & Ewe’. (A ewe is a female sheep.) ‘Wolf & Ewe’ weather is when dark clouds and white clouds are in the sky at the same time. The ‘wolf’ (the dark clouds) chases the ‘ewe’ (the white clouds) and Iranians say that this is very changeable weather, with a very high chance of rain. Remember, you can write to us at www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish or via Facebook – look for ‘Elementary Podcasts’.
Rob: Now, do you remember what happened last time with Carolina, the student from Venezuela at Newcastle University? She returned from her summer holiday and talked with Emily about her new clothes, about missing English and, of course, about her boyfriend Jamie. Let’s see what’s happening this time!
Carolina
Carolina: Let me see. Oh dear. No, that's not right. Emily, what's seventy times twelve?
Emily: What?
Carolina: What's seventy times twelve?
Emily: Err, ten times seventy is seven hundred and two times seventy is a hundred and forty, so that makes erm, eight hundred and forty.
Carolina: What's seventy divided by fifty-two?
Emily: I don't know! I'm trying to read my book! Haven't you got a calculator on your phone?
Carolina: Oh, yes. Oooh. Oh dear!
Emily: What's the matter, Carolina?
Carolina: Nothing.
Emily: It doesn't sound like nothing. I can't read my book with your {big sigh} and {big sigh}. What's the problem?
Carolina: Well, I'm trying to work out my money. My money for the year.
Emily: Your money for the year. Mmm…
Carolina: And it's not very good.
Emily: It's not very good?
Carolina: Well, I haven't got enough.
Emily: You haven't got enough?
Carolina: Stop repeating everything I say!
Emily: Sorry.
Carolina: I don't know what I'm going to do.
Emily: Well, you did spend a lot of money in the summer, didn't you? You bought a lot of clothes and things.
Carolina: Yes. I did. And presents for my family and friends in Venezuela.
Emily: Oh dear. So, how bad is it?
Carolina: A disaster. After I've paid my rent for this room and the electricity and water, and my phone, and my travel card, well - there isn't very much left.
Emily: How much?
Carolina: About 20 pounds a week.
Emily: Twenty pounds a week!
Carolina: You're doing it again.
Emily: Sorry. But twenty pounds a week - you can't live on that. You have to buy food and books…
Carolina: And go out sometimes.
Emily: Can you ask your parents for some money?
Carolina: Oh, no. They've already given me a lot. I can't do that.
Emily: What about…
{doorbell}
Carolina: I'll go. It's probably Jamie.
Carolina: It’s so good to see you.
Jamie: It’s good to see you too. You been OK? Oh, hi Emily!
Emily: Hi Jamie. How's it going?
Jamie: Good, thanks. And you?
Emily: Yep.
Carolina: I'm going to get a job.
Emily and Jamie: Get a job?
Carolina: Now you're both doing it. I have to do something, Jamie. I can't live on the money that I've got for this year.
Jamie: Are you allowed to work here? Don't you need a special visa?
Carolina: No, I can work on my student visa - part-time. I'll check but I think I can work up to 20 hours a week.
Jamie: I'm not sure about this. You need time to study. And to go out and enjoy yourself - with me.
Carolina: I can't go out and enjoy myself if I haven't got any money, can I?
Jamie: I’ve got some money, I can pay.
Carolina: That's it. I've decided. Tomorrow morning I'm going to start looking for a job.
Adam and Rob
Adam: Oh dear. I hope Carolina manages to find a job or some other way to get more money.
Rob: It will be a lot easier for her if she has some experience, if she has done a job before. What was your first job, Adam?
Adam: I worked as a paperboy. That means I delivered newspapers to people’s houses early in the morning. It was quite interesting, although I didn’t have time to read anything more than the headlines. The real problem came when it was raining. What about you?
Rob: I worked as a waiter in a restaurant. It was quite hard work, but I didn’t earn a lot of money, unfortunately. Tell us about your first job. What did you do? Remember, you can write to us at www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish or via Facebook – look for ‘Elementary Podcasts’.
Adam: Now, do you notice anything about these sentences? Have a listen:
Emily: How much?
Carolina: About twenty pounds a week.
Emily: Twenty pounds a week!
Carolina: You’re doing it again!
Jamie: Are you allowed to work here? Don't you need a special visa?
Carolina: No, I can work on my student visa - part-time. I'll check but I think I can work up to 20 hours a week.
Rob: Carolina says she has about twenty pounds a week. She also says she thinks she can work up to twenty hours a week. ‘A week’ means ‘every week’. We use ‘a’ and ‘an’ with other words, too. For example, ‘hour’. I earned three pounds an hour when I was a waiter.
Adam: And I see my family three or four times a year. There will be some exercises about this and other language areas on LearnEnglish. That’s all we’ve got time for today – remember to write to us and tell us about your first job at LearnEnglish or on Facebook.
Rob: We’ll be back next time with Tess & Ravi. So, until then…
Adam and Rob: Bye!
Check your understanding
- Task 1
- Task 2
- Task 3
Hi everyone
My first job position a Relat selas Manger in 2016, I was steady in university, I have part time job, It is help me learn how to convince the celuin, and take course's for marketing I worked for 4 months abter that I foxes on my scientific specialty
My first job was on ten years ago after graduated from high school, my job is regulated people in the airport for embassy to check the visa valid or not, when i got my salary spend it on bought new cellphone, lol
Hello Muhammad Erad,
The meat has been cut (present perfect passive) tells us that the process has finished and the meat is ready.
The meat has been being cut would be the continuous equivalent (present perfect passive continuous) but I can't think of a situation when you would want to use such a sentence. Perhaps if the time taken were somehow noteworthy:
You can read more about the continuous aspect here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/continuous-aspect
You can read more about the perfect aspect here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/perfect-aspect
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Muhammad Erad,
Provided you are taking about actions rather than states, you can use either used to or would. Stylistically, I think it would be more usual to use one for both actions in the same sentence, but grammatically there is nothing wrong with your sentence.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Fares1980
Thanks for your comment. I just thought I'd give you a few ideas to work on improving your speaking. One thing you can do as you listen as these podcasts (or any audio or video) is to make a note of phrases that you think might be useful ones for your speaking.
Choose phrases that are useful in lots of situations and which you don't currently use. Listen to them a few times and then repeat them yourself. Do this as many times as it takes for you to feel more comfortable saying them. Then, write these down somewhere so you can refer back to them. Also, as you go about your day at work and at home, say them to yourself (silently is OK, but even better if you say them aloud), especially when they are relevant to the situation you are in.
If you keep at this, slowly, your vocabulary and speaking fluency should improve. Your listening comprehension should also improve. It will take time, but imagine if you could just learn one new phrase every day, after a couple of months you would know a lot more!
Have you seen our Speaking videos? Those might be useful for you as well. I should also mention that we are working on some new Speaking videos. It will still be some time before they are ready, but please check the speaking section again from time to time.
Best wishes
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Muhammad Erad
It can indeed be confusing! I would recommend you have a look at this dictionary page, which gives a nice summary of how 'at', 'on' and 'in' are used to speak about places. I think the explanation there should answer many of your questions, but if you have any other after reading it, please don't hesitate to ask us here.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Muhammad Erad,
The correct preposition after 'object' is 'to', so the second sentence is correct. I think we would say 'the colour yellow' and not just 'colour yellow', however.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Muhammad Erad
The most common structure for this is actually 'I want to ask you a question.' But 1 is also correct (though 'a' is needed before 'question'). My students say 2 and it may be used in some varities of English, but is non-standard in British and American English.
Traditionally, 'he/him' was used to refer to unknown genders, but most people don't see it that way any longer. It is much more common to use 'they/them' instead, which makes it clearer than either gender could be referred to. You can see a little more about this on our Personal pronouns page.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Muhammad Erad
If you'd like to ask us a specific question about a specific word or short phrase, then please feel free, but otherwise I'm afraid we can't help you with this kind of proofreading.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Muhammad Erad
I'm afraid that I'm not sure what this prayer is meant to communicate, but if I do, I would recommend 'O Lord, supplications are mentioned in the book; accept them in our favour'.
Does that look right to you?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Muhammad Erad
You're right in thinking that the verb 'leave' can be used to communicate this idea, but here you need to use it in the active voice to say what you want to: 'He left (us) 13 brilliant books.' I put the word 'us' in there, as usually there is an indirect object in this kind of construction.
Does that make sense?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team