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

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.5 (182 votes)
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Submitted by MARCELO EUGENI… on Tue, 28/02/2023 - 14:02

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I love Britsh Council. I mean, here I can find and work all my skills and improve the language. The vocabulary is very rich and wide-ranging.

Hello Marcelo,

We're so pleased to hear this! Thanks for your kind words.

Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

Submitted by Taofeek Adetunji on Mon, 27/02/2023 - 06:41

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It's really helpful

Profile picture for user Rubel briten

Submitted by Rubel briten on Sat, 25/02/2023 - 14:37

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Where is the next practice?

Submitted by 611Andres on Thu, 23/02/2023 - 23:38

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Well, i don't really use any app to learn, i've had to learn english almost entirely by myself, but today i found this program from BC, and i love it, i can practice some skills that i can't with books (hearing, for example) and i enjoy the activities

Submitted by arashjahanbakht on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 17:23

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I've got a useful app on my phone named IELTSFlashcards which highly aids me in learning and remembering new words and expanding my vocabulary bank. The English words of the app are classified into several sections from easy words to very hard words, and all of them are likely to be seen in the IELTS reading sections. The app shows you each word separately and asks you whether you either know or don't know the word, and if you wouldn't know the word it organises a method with a lot of repeats until you have learnt the word.

Submitted by Godot on Tue, 24/01/2023 - 19:39

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I think this web page is a good idea, even for adults too. Because is a cheaper way to learn than going to an academy and you can learn at your own pace and in the schedule that you prefer

Submitted by Ganna Hamdy Hissain on Sat, 21/01/2023 - 20:12

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For me, I usually find explanation videos on YouTube and books more useful than the apps to learn English.

Submitted by nickuwu01 on Mon, 16/01/2023 - 20:50

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Actually I am using two apps one is to improve my reading skill and it is called Readable it is very helpful it has different reading on many topics and different level of English. The second one is Falou to improve my speaking, but after finishing the first lesson, you have to complete one lesson per day or pay for the whole lessons.

Submitted by Abu23 on Mon, 16/01/2023 - 15:34

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i have british council app to use for my english improving skills