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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Language level

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Submitted by nikoslado on Fri, 08/05/2020 - 20:15

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Dear Team and friends listeners, I' d like to agree with ''nicky62'', about the difficulties that we foreigners have in understanding fast, unclear and native speakers in many videos and I must say I myself have repeatedly commented on this problem.I'm sure the task Team know this issue. From all comments I've taken from the teachers of the Τeam, I realised that this is something we have to go through slowly and patiently even if it's difficult and frustrating for us. Because these are just the English that are spoken today in everyday life. .In fact, in the preface of the ''Audio zone'' states that ....'' people talking naturally about topics that interest them. The speakers are from all over the world, so you will hear a wide range of accents. There are audios for upper intermediate (CEFR level B2) and advanced (CEFR level C1) learners.'' Therefore, my friends, we just have to do it again and again and at some point, hopefully, we'll start to get acquainted. If it's still tough, skip it for a while, choose one more manageable and come back later. There is no other way in self learning... Many thanks to the Team and the listeners who communicate with this site. Nikoslado
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Submitted by nicky62 on Thu, 30/04/2020 - 01:26

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luke speaks very fast and very very unclear . if there is no transcript no one can understand his words unless a native english . do you agree with me?

Submitted by Rena on Mon, 27/04/2020 - 13:19

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Hi. Living in a small town surrounded by friendly people , beautiful nature is perfect . But there not so many events where would you like to go or take you children . You can find good places as a park , cafes , restaurants . So there are good and boring moments here

Submitted by elenaklimova on Sun, 26/04/2020 - 14:07

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Hello everyone! I live in Moscow. It`s the biggest Russian city with the population over 11 million people. And it`s aslo such a love-hate relationship. I`ve lived here for 3 years. I love my city for opportunities, lifestyle, entertainments. Here is always big choice of theatres, museums, restaurants and parks. Lots of trendy and talanted people live and work here. In my opinion it`s cool to have an apartment in the center or close to the center, because one of the worst things about Moscow is using public transport in rush hour every day. The underground is packed in working days despite trains go every 20-30 seconds. People who live on the outskirts spend 1-2-3 hours to get their offices. I`m a lucky person, my apartment is located very close to the center. It takes just 20 minutes on foot to reach my office. One more reason to live in the center is going out anytime. The downside is it's about prices for apartments, they are more expensive.

Submitted by ellytran on Fri, 24/04/2020 - 04:07

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for the better part of my life,i've been living in a small town, i have a love and hate relationship with it, it's not very polluted, the inhabitants are friendly. it's pretty hot though, and it's a bit far away from the city centre where most of the events are held
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Submitted by Nazla43 on Fri, 17/04/2020 - 01:05

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Hello I live in a town too, it is big has 144.000 inhabitants. It is really quiet and you can walk to go to someplace you need for example to the bank or the shopping market.

Submitted by GLADYSIGO on Thu, 02/04/2020 - 23:12

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I live in a zone intermedia called urban periferia, this zone is ventanilla in Callao - Peru, the most thing there i like is cheap food, cheap clothes and transportation. But its very polluted in this area.

Submitted by Uche_Blessing on Mon, 24/02/2020 - 18:53

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I live in the outskirts of the city of Abuja Nigeria, a place called Sokale. It's like a small town. The nice thing about the area is the serenity and the beautiful rocks. The downside though, is the distance from the central district, where all the lively events and conferences hold.