Living in London

Living in London

Listen to Luke talking about London life and the best and worst things about living there.

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

Preparation

Transcript

Interviewer: Hi, Luke. Thanks for talking to me today.

Luke: Hi, Jo. Nice to meet you.

Interviewer: Erm, what would you like to talk about?

Luke: I'm going to talk about living in London, erm, and the kind of love–hate relationship I have with it – and I assume most people do. I've been living in London for about 15 years, maybe a bit longer. And I've lived kind of mostly in kind of north and east London. So I moved to Camden originally and now I live in Hackney, which is probably the kind of trendiest area of London, and that's not necessarily why I live there, but it's a nice area of London. And most people that come to London, visit London, think that central London is London. And, but, where – generally people don't live in central London. Erm, people don't spend too much time in central London. They might work there, but they don't visit there. So, you might come to London as a tourist and go to somewhere like Leicester Square, er, Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street, Regent Street, that kind of area. And I'm very rarely in that area. Erm, so, I live, erm, slightly on the outskirts but it's not really on the outskirts 'cause it's kind of Zone 2, Zone 3, which for most people that live in London, that's quite close to the centre. So, it takes me about half an hour to get into town. And when you live in London you say 'town' as in 'central London'. And things I love about London is that I've got two children that live in London. Well, my oldest is nine and there's so many things to do, constantly, and so many events every weekend. Erm, you go somewhere like the South Bank and there's always something happening throughout the year. You can always go to the theatre, go to the cinema, there's amazing restaurants and cafés. Erm, there's lots of things to experience but there's also … the downside is it's, there's a kind of lack of stillness and quietness that you might get if you live outside the city. But of course you can always go to Royal Parks which are amazing. Erm, I think my favourite thing about living in London is, erm, the kind of, well, where I live particularly there's a bit of a local community, it's kind of like a small village. It's called Stoke Newington, which everyone that lives in London has heard of but tourists haven't necessarily heard of and it's actually quite a nice place to visit. 

Interviewer: What's the worst thing about living in London for you?

Luke: Erm, the Underground's pretty horrific, erm, and what I find is, I used to come up to London when my dad worked in London when I was a kid, sort of 20, 30 years ago. Maybe even longer. And there was, there was rush hour, and rush hour was the morning and the evening or the early afternoon, and now London is just one constant rush hour. Doesn't matter what time you get on the Tube or what time you get a bus, it's packed. It's always packed, and if you drive in London as well it's the same thing. It just takes forever to get anywhere. Erm, so, I, my worst thing is how busy it is. It's hectic.

Interviewer: OK. Thanks so much for talking to me.

Luke: Pleasure!

Discussion

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Average: 4.3 (18 votes)

Submitted by Bienvenumbairané on Sat, 17/10/2020 - 21:08

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Hi! I am MBAIRANE from Chad. I love ever learning english as foreign language. I got my high school diploma in 2014 and the same year I was admitted at university of N'Djamena. But I unfortunately dropped out my major program which is Letters and English Studies. In my country, all good study domains are only at the University of N'Djamena. So if any student has problems with a tutor perhaps, he or she will move to neighbour country to achieve his or her further studies. Despite its beauty and its characteristics as national capital of Chad. Moreover, whether you are graduated or having not any professional training you will get life hard.

Submitted by Bienvenumbairané on Sat, 17/10/2020 - 20:53

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Good evening! I am MBAIRANE from N'Djamena. I have been living in this city since 2014. It's a larger city with so much more people. And it's unique beautiful city that you can see good buildings. But N'Djamena is better to those who are graduated and managed any business. And then in rainy season there's nothing good I mean no good way to pass because of lack of infrastructures. Anyway, I love it because it's my home place better than anywhere.

Submitted by Bienvenumbairané on Sat, 17/10/2020 - 20:42

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I am MBAIRANE from the national capital of Chad. I have found him so fast but I can't blame him because speaking fast is already included his second manner. I hope I can do exactly as well as he does now. Thank you.

Submitted by mcambindo22 on Sat, 29/08/2020 - 19:58

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Hi, my name is Mauricio, I'm from Colombia and living in Cali city. Living in Cali has a lot of advantages but disadvantages, too. The main and most important feature regarding Cali is the enormous diversity and different environments such as parks amid the city for taking lunch or if you want to go out and feeling the breeze on your face, you can do it because there're are different choices, for instance, Pance or 'El Kilometro 18'.

Submitted by sheida on Sat, 08/08/2020 - 16:31

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Hi.I live in a city.I have been living here since i was born. The thing i like about my city is that there are a lot of old palaces to see.There is a long river at the center of my city surrounded by trees and parks, and that is why it is one of the most beautiful cities. The thing that really annoys me is the way our people behave. they disobey rules.Their driving habits are awful. Although,they are kind,they are so curious about what you do,what you wear,how you look, and etc. Despite all these, I love it.

Submitted by Julia19 on Thu, 06/08/2020 - 09:48

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I live in a big city. I love it speed and a lot of different events being arranging every day wherever you go. But sometimes I'm really tired from its constant tension on traffic and crowded public transport. So many peole on every place don't afford just to relax. For some times I'd like to live in a more quiet and small town but I still love place where I live though it has disadvantages.
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Submitted by Monserrat HES on Wed, 05/08/2020 - 00:57

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Yes, I lived in Europe, I am from Mexico City. Bilbao is a great city. But it is a small city. It´s like a little village. So, sometimes it was boring. For the morning, I went to school, in the afternoon back to my home, but in night don't have many things to do. Mex City is a big city, actually is the bigger city in the Latin American. It's good. Here you have to many things for to do. But, the city is very very dangerous.

Submitted by senes19 on Mon, 06/07/2020 - 13:57

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I live in a downside. It is quite near of Frankfurt. There is many advantages. For example, when you want to visit city center, you are very closed. And also if you want a bit quitenes, you have of course. Both you can arrive what you are needing easily, and you can live slightly quite and calm life. In addition this, you may attend different events in downside and city. Besides you can reach your basic goals and objectives in the city. For example you have a kide,
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Submitted by OlaIELTS on Tue, 19/05/2020 - 02:00

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I live in the city. The best thing about where I live is that the area is lively, commercialized and infrastructured with sophisticated facilities, while the bad side about it just like London, there's constant rush hour mostly in the morning, afternoon and evening, as well as fullness of buses which sometimes keep someone waiting.

Submitted by Nanya on Sat, 16/05/2020 - 21:14

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To live in a central city or village, it seems related to ages. Older people love quietness and they like to live in a village where young people may feel boring to live in. Anyway, I yearn for rural life.