Learning Vocabulary: Helping others

Welcome - Learning Vocabulary - Good Causes

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: We recommend that you listen to this podcast on the Premier Skills English website because that is where we have the transcript, language examples, activities, quizzes and a discussion page to help you understand everything we talk about.

Jack: However, if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave answers to our questions in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re going to help you with vocabulary connected to supporting others.

Jack: You might support or follow a football team but there is another important meaning to the word support.

Rich: Support also means to give help to someone or something. You might support a person through something difficult like an illness or you might support an organisation that helps people in your local community.

Jack: We got the idea for this podcast from some of our listener's comments on last week’s podcast.

Rich: That’s right. If you remember, last week’s task was to imagine you were a Premier League footballer and we asked you how different your life would be and what different things you would do.

Jack: Idzingirai from Zimbabwe said he would help poor children in his community achieve their dreams and TheNext75 from Italy also said he would do lots of charity work for people who need it where he lives.

Rich: In the Premier League, there are plenty of players who support good causes and many even do volunteer work or have their own charities.

Jack: I’ve heard of players climbing mountains for charity in Tanzania and also players setting up boarding schools in Sierra Leone.

Rich: So, in this week’s roleplay, we’re going to talk about things that we do, or would like to do, to help people in need and the types of voluntary work we could do in our communities.

Jack: And after the roleplay, we’ll look at some words and phrases that will help you talk about supporting different groups of people in your community.

Rich: Your task this week will be to use some of the vocabulary we introduce to talk about things you do now or would like to do to help people where you live.

Last week’s Football Phrase

Rich: But, before we look at all that, let’s look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week we’ll give you one more chance to guess and give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase.

Jack: I was surprised by our listeners last week as I wasn’t sure anyone would get the right answer. It was a very difficult phrase.

Rich: Yes, a big well done to Rafael Robson from Brazil, Alex and Liubomyr from Ukraine, Romakisel from Russia, Lakerwang from China, Poopak from Iran, The Next75 from Italy, Idzingirai from Zimbabwe and Elghoul from Algeria.

Jack: They all got the right answer but we’re giving you another chance to get the right answer if you weren’t listening last week. We’ll give you the answer to this phrase at the end of the show and also have a new phrase for you to guess.

Rich: The phrase was *** ********** *********. I think the phrase was first used by the media to describe Alex Ferguson and how he would shout at his Manchester Utd players if they were not playing well. As far as I know, *** ********** ********* is usually given by the manager at half-time in order to make the players work harder in the second half. I suppose we use the phrase because a lot of hot air comes out of the machine that is used in this phrase.

Jack: Have a think and we’ll give you the answer at the end of the show. I will also have a new football phrase for you to guess. This week it’s going to be a bit easier.

Introduction to roleplay

Rich: In this week’s roleplay, we are going to talk about how we help and would like to help people where we live.

Jack: We also have a special guest this week who is going to speak about some volunteers that she works with.

Rich: While you listen, we want you to answer a question. The question is:

Jack: How can the charity I talk about make money from Rich’s clothes?

Roleplay

Rich: Are you going on holiday Jack?

Jack: Ahh this? No, I’ve had my holidays for this year. I’m just putting some clothes in these bags to take to the charity shop in town.

Rich: This shirt looks alright …

Jack: Put it back! You’re not a good cause.

Rich: OK, so what is the good cause?

Jack: It’s a charity that supports homelessness in the UK.

Rich: So you might see a homeless person with your shirt on? You could give it to me!

Jack: It doesn’t really work like that. I donate these clothes and they’ll look through them at the shop and see what they can sell.

Rich: Like that shirt. I bet they can get a tenner for that.

Jack: Yes, maybe. The money they raise goes to the charity. They will spend the money on supporting people who live on the street. I know that they’re currently raising money to build a soup kitchen and refuge for the homeless.

Rich: That is a good cause.

Jack: They also provide training and workshops to homeless people with the money they raise. You know, to help people get back on their feet.

Rich: Is it only clothes they are after? I have loads of old clothes but I don’t think they’d be able to sell anything of mine in the shop!

Jack: Yeah, you’ve never had much fashion sense but you can still give it all to the shop. They’ll sell it to a recycling company so they’ll still raise some money.

Rich: Anything else apart from clothes?

Jack: Yes, they are always appealing for old clothes but also other things like furniture, books and electronics. And it’s not the only way to help. You can volunteer in the shop. I haven’t volunteered yet but I think it’s a really good way of giving back to the local community.

Rich: Volunteering is good but time is always a problem. I never have any. I am thinking of doing a fun run for charity this year, though.

Jack: Really? Which charity are you going to raise money for?

Rich: Not sure. Probably a charity that cares for children. Yeah, that raises money for sick children or something.

Jack: That’s a good idea. But this year’s fun run is 10 miles. I’m not sure you’ll make it. I tell you what, I’ll sponsor you a pound for every mile you do.

Rich: A pound? You can give me more than that.

Jack: Alright. I’ll sponsor you two pounds for every mile if you wear an Arsenal shirt!

Language Focus: Good Causes

Rich: Before we forget, did you get the answer to the question we gave you before the roleplay? It was: How can the charity Jack talks about make money from my clothes?

Jack: Well, it’s a bit complicated. Normally, the charity would sell the clothes in its shop but when clothes are impossible to sell they are sold to a company that will recycle them.

Rich: And why are my clothes impossible to sell?

Jack: Because you have no fashion sense Rich! Who would buy them??

Rich: Let’s move quickly on to this week’s language focus. We were talking about language connected to good causes and charities in the roleplay.

Jack: We’re going to look at some verbs that will help you talk about good causes and how people help others in your community.

Rich: Let’s start with the verb to support. As we said at the start of the show, you can support a football team which means to follow and cheer for a specific team. You are a football supporter or a football fan.

Jack: More generally, we use support to mean give help to somebody or something. This help can be financial, help through our actions or help through our words.

Rich: In the roleplay, Jack spoke about a charity that supports people who are homeless. Support can also be a noun. Jack gives this charity his support by giving clothes for the shop to sell. He is also thinking of lending his support by working in the shop.

Jack: To give or lend somebody or something your support are strong collocations and useful to learn. Charities rely on the support of generous people. Another useful phrase: to rely on... You can rely on someone or something if you trust that they will help you.

Rich: We talked about giving things to charities in the roleplay but we used a more specific verb. The verb is ‘donate’. Jack donates his clothes to charity.

Jack: Donate is a verb that means to give money, food or clothes and other things to charity. People donate to charities and charities ask for donations.

Rich: Yes, charities ‘ask’ or ‘appeal’ for donations. We used ‘appeal’ in the roleplay. ‘Appeal’ means the same as ask but it is stronger and is used when something is urgent or an emergency.

Jack: Hospitals often appeal for people to donate blood after an accident.

Rich: A charity raises money for a good cause. To raise money is another useful verb-noun collocation connected to this topic.

Jack: To raise money usually means to collect money from other people or organisations in order to do a specific thing. In the roleplay, I spoke about a charity that was raising money to build a soup kitchen for homeless people.

Rich: We often speak about people who are ‘raising money for charities or good causes’.

Jack: When people run a marathon they often raise money for charity. There were 43,000 runners in this year’s London Marathon and the runners raised over one billion pounds for good causes.

Rich: The noun is fundraising and individual runners raise money through sponsorship. They ask people to give them money to complete the race or for every mile or kilometre, they complete. People sponsor the runners.

Jack: Rich couldn’t do a marathon, he’s not fit enough but he is thinking of doing a fun run. A fun run is a less serious race. They are common in UK cities and they usually involve raising money for charity.

Rich: We also spoke about volunteering. Jack said he’d like to volunteer in the charity shop. To volunteer means to work without pay. Charities usually rely on the support of volunteers. Jack said volunteering would be a nice way to give back to the local community.

Jack: Give back is a phrasal verb that means to return something to someone else. When we talk about supporting our local community we often talk about giving back.

Rich: Volunteering is a common way to give back to your local community; some other ways include donating to a local charity or offering your skills to others.

Jack: There were a few more words and phrases we used in the roleplay and we’ll look at these on the Premier Skills English website with more examples and some activities.

Interview

Rich: Before we move on, we’re just going to mention some of the work that is done by the Premier Skills project

Jack: Yes. You may not know, but Premier Skills is not just about learning English. We’re part of a much bigger project and we’ve got a special guest from the British Council in Indonesia. When we talk to her, try to listen out for some of the vocabulary from this week’s language focus.

Jack: Hello Karin

Karin: Hi Jack. Hi Rich.

Jack: How are you?

Karin: I’m good thank you. how are you guys?

Jack and Rich: I’m very well thank you, We’re great thank you.

Jack: So Karin, can you tell us what you do

Karin: Sure, I mean thanks for having me. So, I’m the programme manager for the Premier Skills in Indonesia. We organise the coaching courses for community coaches so I work with the British Council colleagues and the Indonesian coaches and the UK coaches.

Rich: Some of the coaches come from the UK. Where do they come from?

Karin: They come from different clubs, such as Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Stoke.

Jack: Wow - that sounds really cool. Today in the podcast we’re talking about good causes and volunteers so with your coaching projects do you work with any volunteers?

Karin: Er... yes. So, we also work with the local communities and local university, providing an opportunity to be part of the programme and use the power of football to do something great in the community.

Rich: And what do they do, the volunteers?

Karin: So, the volunteers actually work with the coaches to set up a coaching programme or a mini football tournament within their community.

Jack: And who do these volunteers support?

Karin: So, the volunteers support the grassroots base football communities and they also support the young people to be able to create their own tournaments.

Rich: And Karin - why do you think the volunteers do it?

Karin: Er.... because I think they want to be part of the community like contribute to their community and feel good to show that they do care. From the feedback that we got, most of the coaches say that the development of grassroots football is crucial in Indonesia. Most of our volunteers are actually either PE teachers or they are actually college students who are studying sport science and the majority of them say that they never realised that there’s another potential of their studying sport science. They really enjoy helping other people and feel valued.

Rich: What team do you support, Karin?

Karin: My team?

Rich: Your team.

Karin: An Indonesian team?

Rich:Alright, an Indonesian team first.

Karin: So, I support this small local club from one of the cities in central Java.

Rich: What’s their name?

Karin: Persis - Persatuan Sepakbola Surakarta. So, it’s a small local club in Solo, the city where my parents come from.

Rich: And do you have a Premier League team?

Karin: I support every club in the Premier League but I do have a soft spot for Tottenham... Spurs.

Rich: If you want to find out more about the Premier Skills project, I’ve put a link on the side of this page.

Task

Rich: Your task this week is to tell us how you help or would like to help people in your community.

Jack: Have you ever helped a group of people in your local area? Who have you helped?

Rich: Have you ever done any voluntary work? What was it?

Jack: If you had the chance to work or volunteer in your local community, what would you do?

Rich: Which good causes or charities would you choose to donate to?

Jack: Right, OK, try to use as much of the vocabulary we introduced in the podcast as you can.

Rich: Write all your answers at the bottom of the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Football Phrase

Jack: OK, it’s time for this week’s football phrase.

Rich: It’s your turn Jack so I guess you are going to keep it nice and easy.

Jack: You guess correctly. This week’s football phrase is ************ *****. The ************ ***** is when there are no Premier League matches because national teams are playing each other in qualifying matches or friendlies.

Rich: No Premier League!!! What kind of weekend is that?

Jack: Let’s see who gets it right. Write your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website and we’ll announce your name on next week’s show.

Rich: Before we forget we need to give you the answer to last week’s football phrase. The answer was the hairdryer treatment which is what Jack is going to get now for choosing a football phrase we’ve done before!

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week. Bye for now and enjoy your football!