Podcast 27

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 Premier League strikers, the language focus is on phrases that are used to agree and disagree and later I will make another Premier League prediction.

Jack: I’m going to talk about the striker I think is the best in the Premier League.

Rich: And I don’t agree with you, but let’s talk about that later.

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 Ellie... her favourite Premier League team is West Ham Utd.

Rich: We had lots of correct entries so congratulations to everybody who got it right. I think this one was quite difficult because of the name Ellie used to describe West Ham’s ground. She correctly called it the Boleyn Ground.

Jack: But, it’s more commonly known as Upton Park, which is the area of London where the stadium is.

Rich: The stadium is named after Anne Boleyn, who was Queen of England in the 16th century and the second of Henry VIII’s six wives.

Jack: I never know why it’s pronounced the Boleyn Ground like ten pin bowling rather than Boleyn like Anne Boleyn.

Rich: No idea, on that one. It could be the local accent. Maybe a West Ham fan can let us know?

Jack: Right, anyway, who is this week’s winner?

Rich: We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers and the ninth winner of the What’s my team? competition is Elghoul an Arsenal fan from Algeria. Congratulations Elghoul, we’ll be in contact with you this week.

Jack: Well done Elghoul! Later on in the podcast, you can listen to this week’s What’s my team riddleRich: Last week, we spoke a little bit about the environment and asked you what environmental problems there are in your country.

Jack: We had lots of responses and it was really interesting to learn about some of the problems that people face in countries across the world.

Rich: Sadulla, GunnerUZ and RuslanJon, all from Uzbekistan spoke about the Aral Sea, which has been shrinking, which means getting smaller, for the past few decades. This is a big problem in the region and means there is less drinking water for the local population.

Jack: Volodymyr from Ukraine and Polevoy2000 from Belarus spoke about the continuing problems of nuclear radiation from Chernobyl after a nuclear accident there nearly 30 years ago.

Rich: Volodymyr also spoke about soil erosion, which is when the top level of soil disappears, because of people digging in the ground for amber.

Jack: Amber is a fossilised part of the tree that is orange and often used in jewellery like necklaces and bracelets.

Rich: Abdallah from Kuwait and JelenaN from Bosnia spoke about old cars on the street that cause lots of pollution.

Jack: And Michelterzikhan from Armenia talked about water pollution and how rubbish or waste is often just thrown in rivers and streams.

Rich: Antonio Contreras from Portugal and Rafael24 from Ecuador both said the biggest problem was that people aren’t aware of these problems because they aren’t taught about them. They have no awareness of the problems.

Jack: ‘Awareness’ that’s a good word. It means to know that something, often a problem, exists and usually to be interested in it.

Rich: So in last week’s podcast we were trying to raise awareness about issues connected to the environment.

Jack: And we also had lots of responses about what you do help the environment or to be environmentally friendly.

Rich: Aragorn1986 from Montenegro helps clean up the area he lives by picking up any plastic and waste every Saturday.

Jack: Safwan 20000 from Saudi Arabia saves water when he shaves and brushes his teeth.

Rich: Nyinyi from Myanmar is part of a group at university that helps clean the local neighbourhood and talks about environmental problems.

Jack: And Shefeek, in India, reuses rain water and grows his own vegetables without fertilisers because they often contain chemicals that harm the environment.

Rich: Rafael24 in Ecuador will go on a march, which is a kind of organised protest, with many others this month to put pressure on global leaders to take action on climate change.

Jack: It’s great to see so many of our listeners doing things to help the environment.

Rich: But our favourite comment from last week has to be Nikosonris from Ukraine. He says to save electricity he has a candlelit dinner with his wife once a week. How romantic!

Jack: You said earlier that we were going to talk about Premier League strikers.

Rich: Yes, I did. Last weekend, Leicester City striker, Jamie Vardy, scored for the 10th consecutive Premier League match.

Jack: And by doing this, he equalled the Premier League record. Ruud van Nistelrooy did the same thing for Manchester Utd back in 2003.

Rich: And Vardy will want to break that record this weekend when Leicester play, surprise, surprise, Manchester Utd.

Jack: It’s not the only surprise. Leicester, thanks to Vardy’s goals, are now top of the Premier League. So this weekend’s match will be first against second. Who would have predicted that at the start of the season?Rich: Not me, that’s for sure - you know what my predictions are like!

Jack: And Vardy, the best striker in the Premier League on current form will be playing against, probably the best Premier League striker of the last 10 years - Wayne Rooney.

Rich: Wayne Rooney? I’m not sure about that, but, first, let’s look at this word ‘form’, it’s one that we often use. We say ‘current form’, ‘in great form’, ‘in bad form’.

Jack: It means how well, or badly, a player or team is performing, so we say Jamie Vardy is  ‘in great form’ or Leicester City are the best team in the Premier League ‘on current form’ and ‘current’ means ‘at the moment’.

Rich: Anyway, you say Rooney is the best striker of the last 10 years. I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you there. What about Sergio Aguero, Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie??

Jack: Yes, I know. I knew this might cause a few disagreements.

Rich: How did you decide? What was your criteria?

Jack: Well, the first thing I thought about was the amount of goals they had scored. I didn’t want to include strikers that only played in the Premier League for one or two seasons. I wanted to find the best Premier League striker of the last 10 years.

Rich: So what did you do?

Jack: I only included strikers that had scored more than 100 Premier League goals.

Rich: That’s not right! You can’t do that! By doing that it means you can’t choose Luis Suarez, who only got 69 goals or Sergio Aguero who’s currently got 85.

Jack: Well Suarez only played in the Premier League for three and a half seasons and I’m looking at Premier League strikers so we’re going to have to agree to disagree there.

Rich: And Aguero?

Jack: Well, I see your point and he might become the best Premier League striker but he’s still only got 85 goals and Rooney has got 187 - more than double Aguero’s total and he’s been doing it for over 10 years.

Rich: Well, we don’t see eye to eye on this one but I suppose we can agree on Jamie Vardy being the best on current form?

Jack: Yes, absolutely! I’m with you 100% on that one!

Rich: You may have noticed that we used some different phrases to agree and disagree there. We’ve put some activities to help you with these below and a link to  our Learn English Teens website to help you with this topic.

Jack: And in the comments tell us if you agree or disagree with what we said by using the same phrases or any other phrases you use to agree or disagree with someone.

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

Jack: 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.

Rich: And for each of the 20 podcast competitions the lucky winner will receive a fantastic Samsung Galaxy Tablet. We wish you the best of luck!

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

Chris: The area around our club was really well-known for coal mining and our new stadium was called The Stadium of Light - named after the thousands of coal miners and Black Cat supporters who would come back to the surface after working all day underground. There aren’t as many miners these days but we all still get behind the team especially when we play the Geordies from up the road!

Jack: The Stadium of Light - what a great name for a football stadium. Now, it’s time for your prediction Rich. How did you do last week?

Rich: Not many of you predicted a Liverpool win last weekend but well done to SasaDj from Bosnia and to Ruslanjon, GunnerUZ and Alexsandr who all predicted a Liverpool win. There are some great predictors in Uzbekistan!

Jack: And you?

Rich: Last week I got my prediction wrong again. I said Manchester City would draw with Liverpool but I did say that Liverpool might surprise CIty and they definitely did that in an amazing 4-1 win. The first 30 minutes were probably the best any team have ever played anywhere…

Jack: Ok, Rich, calm down. Liverpool played well, I totally agree..now what about this week.

Rich: Well, I’m going to talk about the top of the table match between Premier League leaders Leicester City, let me repeat that, Premier League leaders Leicester City and Manchester Utd in second place. Jamie Vardy could break the record for scoring in consecutive matches and Leicester could continue their amazing form and increase their lead at the top of the table. I usually want the underdog to win and my heart says a Leicester win and a Jamie Vardy hat-trick but I’m going to listen to my head. Final score: Leicester City 0-1 Manchester Utd

Jack: That’s a bit miserable Rich. I think you’re wrong on this. Can’t you remember last season? Leicester beat Man Utd 5-3 in one of the the best matches of the season. I’m predicting a Leicester win!

Rich: That’s it for today - we’ve run out of time! Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to the competition, whether you agree or disagree with our Wayne Rooney discussion, your predictions and any questions you have about the website or football English in the comments below.

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.