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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Hello Nourhansss,

The material on LearnEnglish is not a course which you can pass or fail. We make the material available for people to use in order to improve their English, but there are no tests or ways to pass or fail.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank u Okay.. Now how can I begin my course I did skills And grammar and all of that stuff What should I do next? And I downloaded the apps I don't understand what to do I am sorry
Profile picture for user Kirk Moore

Submitted by Kirk Moore on Sun, 05/04/2020 - 16:09

In reply to by Nourhansss

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Hello Nourhansss

As Peter said, this part of LearnEnglish is not a course. It's more like a library, where you can use what you'd like to. We do have a series of courses for subscribers if you would like to do a course.

But there are also plenty of other free materials here, particularly in General English. You can find hours of audio and video and quite a few things to read there, so I'd encourage you to explore it a little before choosing something.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Profile picture for user Hoàng Nhung

Submitted by Hoàng Nhung on Fri, 13/03/2020 - 09:16

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My favourite app for learning English is BBC news and British Council Website. I like to read World News and I like to study with you, the tutors from British Council. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn English. Thank you

Hello Hoàng Nhung

We're very glad to hear that!

Thanks for letting us know and for all your participation in LearnEnglish.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by shahhoseini on Mon, 09/03/2020 - 15:41

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Dear Kirk My favourite apps to English learning are those your web site has introduced in link https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/apps.
Profile picture for user Nazla43

Submitted by Nazla43 on Tue, 03/03/2020 - 03:40

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Hello, my favorite App is Edx it has a lot of free courses to practice among this obvious English.

Submitted by Johnny on Tue, 04/02/2020 - 19:32

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The lady in studio has atypical pronunciation and accent. She has read film review also. Her pronunciation is neither American nor Spanish for sure. I have never heard someone who speaks like this. It sounds strange but interesting also. I wonder where does "Anna" come from? What part of United Kingdom does she come from?

Hello Johnny,

Anna's accent is a fairly typical educated southern English accent. It's not very strong and doesn't have any very distinctive regional elements. You can hear people speak like this across the south of England in the Home Counties region - the various counties surrounding London - and beyond.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by kawa on Tue, 04/02/2020 - 11:11

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my favorite web-sites are British council, which, indeed, I find it very useful for everyone who wants to improve and master his or her English language, even for starters is suitable. The second favorite Web-site is BBC Learning English, it offers you a wide range of grammar lessons that help you improve your reading comprehension exponentially. As for apps, I get the benefit from Facebook enormously as there are many Facebook sites that post daily maltitude things related to English especially news, such as Reuters or some short clips that can help you improve your listening skills