Podcast 21

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Hi everyone. I’m Jack and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: This week, we’re going to talk about change at the top at both Liverpool and Sunderland, the language focus is vocabulary connected to change and things we want to achieve and later I’m going to make another Premier League prediction.

Jack: And you have another chance to win a Samsung Galaxy tablet in our ‘What’s my Team?’ competition.

Rich: What was the answer to last week’s riddle Jack?

Jack: Ah, yes. Last week it was Ash ... his favourite Premier League team is Aston Villa.

Rich: We had lots of correct entries so congratulations to everybody who got it right. I think the part that helped everyone was when you told everybody that Aston Villa had never been relegated.

Jack: Yes, maybe I made it a little too easy. But as Rema from Serbia pointed out in his message - if we think the competition is difficult we will always give you small clues and ideas to help you make a guess.

Rich: We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers...

Jack: and the second winner of this week’s What’s my team? competition is JBKoopman from the Netherlands. Congratulations JBKoopman, we’ve already sent you an email and your prize will soon be on its way.

Rich: Well done to you! Later on in the podcast, you can listen to this week’s What’s my team riddle. If you want to listen to the riddle more than once, you can click on the podcast player where it says competition, or you can click on the link below.

Jack: Last week Rich, you made a few predictions because there weren’t any Premier League matches. One of your predictions was that Manchester City are going to win the league this season. And most people who got in touch agreed with you, didn’t they?

Rich: I’m happy to say they did yes, but I suppose it wasn’t a difficult to prediction to make as they have been the best team so far this season. Elghoul from Algeria, Abdallah from Kuwait, Otobongarchbong from Nigeria, Reda Armine from Morocco, and VerdMead96 from Poland are some of our users who agreed with my prediction.

Jack: But not everybody agreed with you Rich. Sir Mahdi 24 from Afgahnistan and Paja111 from the Czech Republic think Arsenal will win the league and Salloum from Syria thinks it will be Man Utd.

Rich: There were no matches last week in the Premier League but there has been a big change at two Premier League clubs this week.

Jack: Sunderland have changed their manager. Sam Allardyce is the new manager and Sunderland fans will be hoping he can change the club's fortunes. 

Rich: Allardyce has a great record of keeping clubs in the Premier League and has lots of experience.

Jack: His first home match will be the North-East Derby against Newcastle. That’s a match that I’ll definitely be watching. And your club Liverpool have a new man at the top too.

Rich: Yes, Liverpool’s new manager is the German, Jurgen Klopp, and I think it’s a great move from the club.

Jack: What do you know about Jurgen Klopp?

Rich: He is seen by many as one of the most exciting managers in Europe. At his previous club, Borussia Dortmund, he won the German League twice and got Dortmund to the final of the Champions League.

Jack: And what has Klopp said so far?

Rich: In his first official interview with the Liverpool website, Klopp said he was very excited to be Liverpool manager and that the fans are the most important thing in football.

Jack: Yes he said this “we have to entertain the fans - we have to make their lives better. That’s what we have to do because football is not so important - we don’t save lives, we are not doctors. It’s our job to let them forget their problems for 90 minutes and they can talk for three days about the last game and talk for two days about the next game.”

Rich: I think that’s great and my first impressions of Jurgen Klopp are all positive. If I was to describe him using three adjectives I would say that he's humble, eloquent and realistic.

Jack: Let’s look at those adjectives in a bit more detail. Humble is used to say that someone doesn’t think that they are better than other people. It’s kind of the opposite of proud.  Why did you say humble Rich?

Rich: He said that we are not doctors and that we don’t save lives. Here he is trying to say that football and footballers are not the most important things in the world, which is true, but sometimes we forget that.

Jack: The adjective eloquent is used to say that someone can express their opinion and use language very well, especially when you’re speaking in public. Klopp was famous for this in German and Germany but can he do it in English?

Rich: He’s said that he’s taking English classes and his English is already very good so I’m sure that he will be able to get his opinions across to the players and fans very clearly... very eloquently.

Jack: That’s certainly a very important quality for a manager to have. The last adjective you used to describe Jurgen Klopp was realistic. Realistic means to be sensible about what is possible to do.

Rich: Yes, and in his interview, Klopp said that he needs time to make changes and asks fans to be patient. I think this is realistic. Liverpool might not win the Premier League this season but they will start to get better and go up the Premier League table.

Rich: What about your manager Arsene Wenger?

Jack: Well, he’s intelligent for sure he’s known as the professor - but I think I will leave it there. What about our listeners? What adjectives would you use to describe your manager?

Rich: Yes, how would you describe your club’s manager or maybe one of your favourite players? We’d love to read your descriptions and see them on the website.

Jack: Right, I think it’s time for this week’s competition: ‘What’s my Team?’

Rich: Here is what you have to do. Listen to a Premier League fan, who will talk about their favourite team and then write the name of the team in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: It couldn’t be easier! And if you’re not sure you can always make a guess - there are only 20 teams in the Premier League.

Rich: But, remember, you can only write one answer and only your first answer will be accepted.

Jack: And for each of the 20 podcast competitions the lucky winner will receive a fantastic Samsung Galaxy Tablet.

Rich: Each competition closes on Monday at midnight in the UK.

Jack: And the winner will be announced the next day at 1200 in the next Podcast.

Rich: Right, so this week, our Premier League fan is Gabriel. Listen to his riddle and try to work out what’s his team?

Gabriel: My team is home to the manager they call the the Special One. Last season we won the Premier League by 8 points. That was the fourth time we’ve won the title. We also have the Premier League’s Player of the season - you know who I mean - our winger from Belgium. He’s brilliant.

Rich: The Special One? Not sure who he is but Jurgen Klopp called himself the Normal One when he arrived at Anfield last week.

Jack: Is that a clue?  I think it’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction

Rich: I was going to talk about Liverpool’s trip to Tottenham but we’ve been speaking a lot about Liverpool today so instead I’m going to make a prediction on Manchester Utd’s trip to Everton. An Everton win could see the Liverpool club overtake Man Utd in the table but a Man Utd win could see the Red Devils go back to the top. This is a difficult match for a Liverpool fan to predict and most would choose a draw but I’m going to predict an Everton win and little joy for Wayne Rooney playing against his childhood club.  Final score: Everton 2-1 Manchester Utd

Jack: An Everton home win... The last time they met at Goodison Park, Everton won 3-0. It will be an interesting match to watch. 

Rich: If you’ve got a prediction for the rest of this season let us know in the comments section below.

Jack: Well that’s all for now. Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to the competition, your Premier League predictions, and any questions you have about the website or football English in the comments below.

Rich: If you’re listening to this on itunes or elsewhere, come back to Premier Skills English for some language activities, a quiz and lots more. You can find us at www.britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish      .

Jack: Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Rich:  Bye for now and enjoy your football.