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. 

Task 1

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Discussion

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Average: 4.5 (270 votes)
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Submitted by Benjamin on Thu, 30/04/2020 - 04:54

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There are a lot of people who really need help to learn education especially in the remote and urban areas. It is really good to support them this kind of app which might be benifited very much in a productive way.
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Submitted by vanenglish on Wed, 29/04/2020 - 01:21

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What's your favourite app for learning and why? Hello, I really don't have a favourite app for learning... hehehe... but I use youtube to watch some videos to learn more English. I would like to know more about apps if it's possible to you tell me, English tutors here.

Submitted by Maddalena on Sat, 25/04/2020 - 19:59

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I don't use app apps at the moment. I used to entraining my languages skills with Duolingo, but I didn't like it very much, it was too "false" for me. The sentences didn't have so much sense and I had bored of using it.

Submitted by Musawer on Sat, 25/04/2020 - 17:22

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Honestly I haven't used the app for learning English yet
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Submitted by OlaIELTS on Fri, 24/04/2020 - 13:33

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My favourite app for learning is 'Opera'. The popularity and its efficiency obviously enhances optimum service.

Submitted by ericcoloma on Thu, 23/04/2020 - 21:42

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It's a very good app to learn english and isn't very complex

Submitted by Monica Rodriguez on Sun, 19/04/2020 - 15:08

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For me, EDX offer a different kind of courses in english. EDX is associate with the better universities in the world, and you can enter to their courses for free.

Submitted by jazmin marquez on Thu, 09/04/2020 - 15:21

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Right now, my favorite app is Learning English, because you can learn english from basic to advanced level, and best of all, you don't have to pay for it. On the other hand, in this application you learn to use this languaje with everyday expressions.

Submitted by Joanagr96 on Wed, 08/04/2020 - 18:59

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I usually use the e learning website and futurelearn courses to improve my English. Since I heard so much about BBC English I will give it a try.

Submitted by Nourhansss on Sat, 28/03/2020 - 11:34

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How can I know that I passed the listening skill? And how can I know that I finished my course?