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. 

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Average: 4.5 (251 votes)

Submitted by lio_2028 on Sat, 25/01/2020 - 16:40

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my favorite app for now is bbc learning english i love this app a lot , i can't appreciate it in one word , it's always updated with new features ,it's really good app with a lot of options so that's help me a lot to improve my skills in english ,however this site too help me a lot i wanna appreciate who works in this site too which help a lot in english. thanks a lot ^_^

Hello lio_2028

Thanks very much for your kind words -- we're really happy that you find our work helpful.

Best wishes

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by vidialzara on Thu, 23/01/2020 - 10:50

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I love to learn about hand lettering and bullet journal and my favorite application to go to are, of course, youtube and Instagram. There is a lot of art stuff there and the more important thing is it is free to access.

Submitted by swaminathan on Thu, 23/01/2020 - 06:32

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hi am swaminathan mechanical engineer from ssit chennai this is really un usual and i like it
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Submitted by Dieudonné on Sat, 28/12/2019 - 14:37

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My favorite app for learning is "irregular verbs"; It is a really good app with a lot of options. You can find most of the irregular verbs in it? Besides, there is a lot of manner to assess your level. What I find really interesting is that they divide the irregular verbs into 3 parts from easier to more difficult. Interestingly, It is like this website, they classify the verbs for every level. I really love it.

Submitted by taghi on Sat, 07/12/2019 - 08:14

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my favoutite app is Instagram because i can see many posts from English teachers all around the world just by scrolling up and down among pages.as a daily habit i start every morning by reading different posts from various area such as science,national geography,news and so on.these pages and reading their new posts,help me to improve my reading skill.

Submitted by son76 on Thu, 05/12/2019 - 13:21

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my name is son, i am from vietnam, i want learn english for test ielts 5.0, i need everyone help me, thank

Submitted by groverivan on Sun, 01/12/2019 - 02:42

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Hi everybody, my favorite app is Duolingo too, because it has many tools an interesting things to learn english everyday.

Submitted by Yeasman on Mon, 25/11/2019 - 15:42

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My favourite app is duolingo In this app I have many diffrient lessons