Podcast 19

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

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

Rich: This week, we’re going to talk about an interesting story from a Premier League match, some vocabulary related to injuries and I’m going to make another Premier League prediction.

Jack: Have you forgotten?

Rich: What?

Jack: We’re also going to announce the winner of the first ‘What’s my team?’ competition. And we’ve got a new riddle from a new fan this week.

Rich: Of course. So, last week, we had Sarah talking about her favourite team. Sarah’s team is Liverpool so congratulations to everyone that took part. We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers...

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

Rich: Well done Chris! 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: But, before we start: we recently had a comment from Abdallah from Kuwait - our new leaderboard leader on the website. He made a comment on one of the lessons in our video series The English Game, which you can find by clicking skills then watch from the homepage.

Rich: He described something you can buy in the supermarket and challenged other users to guess what it is.

Jack: He said this object is used to beat eggs and is made of metal and plastic.

Rich: Well, we’re going to solve the challenge here Abdallah.

Jack: The answer is a whisk. You use a whisk to beat eggs when you’re making cakes and similar things.

Rich: If you want to check out this video series or, like Abdallah, you want to set a challenge to other users on the website, I’ve put a link to this lesson - Supermarket shopping - on the side of this page.

Jack: And remember if you have any questions about Football English or more general language learning, add a comment and we’ll be happy to answer your message either in the comments section or here in our podcast.

Jack: There were some great matches in the Premier League last weekend. Tottenham beat Man City 4-1 after a great second half performance, Leicester were defeated for the first time this season - 5-2 by Arsenal - and we have new leaders in the Premier League.

Rich: Manchester Utd have gone to the top of the table for the first time this season after a 3-0 win against Sunderland and replace their city rivals in first place.

Jack: But that’s not the big story in the Premier League this week. Did you hear about the canary saving the pigeon?

Rich: Ha ha, yes, I did hear about this!

Jack: It happened during the 2-2 draw between West Ham and Norwich City. During the second half, an injured pigeon limped onto the pitch and the match was stopped.

Rich: One commentator thought that the match might be abandoned!

Jack: It wasn’t abandoned though because Norwich City midfielder,  Jonny Howson, came  to the rescue. The canary, Norwich’s nickname of course, picked up the injured bird and took it to safety at the side of the pitch.

Rich: I’ve heard that the pigeon will be examined by West Ham’s club doctor and we should get some news about the bird’s condition next week!

Jack: I hope it will be alright. A football stadium can be a dangerous place for a pigeon!

Rich: Anyway, we used some useful language there Jack, what about the word abandoned?

Jack: To abandon something means to stop doing something before it is finished.

Rich: Football matches are sometimes abandoned. Usually because of really bad weather like snow or thunderstorms.

Jack: I’ve never heard of a match being abandoned because of a pigeon on the pitch!

Rich: No, neither have I. There are some similar words to abandoned like delayed or postponed.

Jack: Yes, a match might be delayed by 15 minutes because one team arrived at the stadium late or maybe fans are having problems getting into the stadium so the start of the match is delayed.

Rich: To postpone a match means to arrange a match at a later date. Again this might be to do with bad weather. The referee will look at the pitch in the morning and if the pitch isn’t safe he will postpone the match.

Jack: Yes, if players played when the pitch is unsafe there might be a lot of injuries.

Rich: An injury is when some damage or harm has been done to your body.

Jack: Like the pigeon.

Rich: Yes, the pigeon was limping because it had injured its leg.

Jack: To limp means to walk slowly and with difficulty because you’ve hurt your leg.

Rich: And that’s when Jonny Howson carried the pigeon off the pitch.

Jack: When a player is injured and limping they are often stretchered off the pitch.

Rich: Yes, the paramedics run on to the pitch and if the player can’t continue they put him on a stretcher and he’s carried off.

Jack: I saw Man Utd’s Luke Shaw being stretchered off last week. That was a really bad injury.

Rich: Yes, he broke his leg in two places and we wish him a good recovery.

Jack: Yes, he could be out of action for a long time with that injury.

Rich: Right! It’s time for our new competition - What’s my team? (this could be louder or we could use some sound effects on the voice?)

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 below on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Justyna:  We’re the only Premier League team from London that is based south of the River Thames. At the beginning of every home game, our mascot, a bald eagle called kayla flies around the stadium to bring us good luck. Come on you Eagles!’

Rich: Well, that was an easy one!

Jack: Didn’t you say that last week? I think that one was quite difficult. Let’s see how our listeners do... If you know which team Justyna was talking about, write your answer in the comments section below. I think it’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction.

Rich: There is only one match on my mind this week - the 225th Merseyside Derby. I’m hoping, of course, for a Liverpool win but these matches are always difficult ones to predict. Everton have home advantage and their last home match was a fantastic win against Chelsea. Liverpool have got Daniel Sturridge back in the team and scoring goals so I’m going to go for an optimistic win for the Reds. Final score: Everton 1-2 Liverpool.

Rich: You were asked this week why you had stopped making predictions Jack?

Jack: It’s because I’m so bad at them, but I’m going to make one this week. There’s another big match this weekend and it’s Arsenal against Man Utd and I think the Gunners will close the gap at the top of the table. I think it’ll finish Arsenal 2-0 Man Utd.

Rich: If you’ve got a prediction for this match or any other Premier League match this weekend 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!