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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Discussion

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The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by vsanchez75 on Sat, 24/10/2020 - 14:25

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I used many apps to learn and practice English, some of them are british and others americans, Let me share some of them Duolingo All ears english Cake ABA BBC Learning english Sounter Rosetta Stone Quiz your English Maybe The problem is when you dominated the app, it could be boring

Submitted by Ugulhan on Tue, 20/10/2020 - 09:19

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I would like to say as a learning app I have been using a wide range of Language platforms like the British council, Futurelearn, and Engvig. I think they have been offering numerous English lessons with tasks. You can come up with an idea of doing tasks on the platform, and solve your problem in English. Students can meet their needs there in the field of English. Platforms can speak for itself in each task, and you readjust the task. I think we should secure the lesson's own desktop of computers for accessing all of the time. Overall, these platforms will offer a range of services.

Submitted by Sulagna Das on Sun, 18/10/2020 - 17:55

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The app I am using right now for learning English and improving grammar is British Council Grammar. This not only makes our grammatical skills strong but helps in improving the concept of sentence construction.

Submitted by habibao.medo on Sat, 17/10/2020 - 08:43

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actually i don't have something like favorite app or any thing else i don't even have space on my phone :)

Submitted by VeraN on Mon, 12/10/2020 - 14:46

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I do not have a particular app for English language although I read a lot of local and international newspapers. For sometime, I have been using the YouTube to learn from good English scholars. I won't forget to mention the use of this website "learn and watch series" which has indeed been helpful.

Submitted by l.jiang. on Sat, 10/10/2020 - 03:05

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Recently, I usually use an app that called Duolingo, I think it is my favorite tool of study within five years. You can find each area about english to learn and same as exam, it also has limitation when you test. The Duolingo help me to improve my reading and listening and writing, I will use it for a long time.

Submitted by Lilly098 on Thu, 08/10/2020 - 05:14

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My favourite app for leaning is Duolingo. Because it is easy task to do daily and very clear to see your progress. This is the best app for those who are looking for studying new languages in their own spare time. It is addictive in a good way. In fact, it has been 5 years since I started.

Submitted by Cami on Fri, 02/10/2020 - 11:57

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My favourite app for learning is BBC Learning English. Trough it anyone can hear a lot of interesting contents improving his hearing's skill. I suggest anyone wants to improve his hearing's skill to use it. It is also free.