This Week: Teething Problems

Introduction  

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English.

Rich: Hi there. I’m Rich. We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English.

Jack: We hope you are all staying well whether you are staying home or still going to work.

Rich: With no Premier League football at the moment we’ve changed the format of This Week a little. We’ve looked high and low for three news stories that we want to share with you.

Jack: We hope you find the stories we’ve chosen interesting and funny. 

Rich: We have chosen these stories because they are topical but also so we can focus on some interesting bits of vocabulary that we think are useful to learn.

Jack: And we want you to use and practise these words and phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: You can find all our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: Don’t forget that we also have our weekly Premier Skills English Podcast that is released every Friday. Every week we help you with some different vocabulary or an aspect of grammar.

Jack: Our latest podcast is called Understanding Grammar: Obligation and Permission. We talk about rules under lockdown, rules we set our children as parents and rules we had to follow as kids. You can find the lesson on the Premier Skills English homepage, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and most other podcast platforms now. 

Rich: This week, after each headline, we will have a little discussion and look at some vocabulary. The words we are looking at this week are: homeschooling, unfit, restrictions, cancelled, teething problems and video conference.

Headlines

Jack: Puffed out parents fail PE challenge.

Rich: Parents across the world have begun homeschooling their children due to school closures in many countries. Maths, English and science are on the curriculum but PE seems to be the subject parents are finding most difficult. Help is at hand from fitness expert, Joe Wicks, who is live-streaming fitness classes at 900 every weekday morning but unfit parents don’t seem able to keep up with Joe or their children.

Jack: What’s this story about then, Rich?

Rich: Well, with schools closed due to Covid-19, parents are teaching their kids at home and this guy called Joe has become the UK’s PE teacher. 

Jack: I’ve seen him on YouTube. He’s a fitness guru! We’ve had a go as a family. I was exhausted afterwards. He said in the video that it would energise me for the rest of the day. I wanted to go back to bed.

Rich: We’ve done it too. I did it on Saturday and I’m still aching now - it’s Monday!

Jack: Millions of families are following his morning routines and not just in the UK. It’s a good way to keep fit and listen to some English at the same time.

Rich: And many parents, like us, are realising we’re not as fit as we thought we were.

Jack: Let’s look at some vocabulary we used in the headline. We said that lots of parents are homeschooling their children.

Rich: Homeschooling is teaching children at home rather than at school. Some people choose to do this but others like a lot of us at the moment are homeschooling our kids because the schools are closed.

Jack: We said that a lot of parents are realising that they are a bit unfit. Unfit means not in good physical condition. 

Rich: I’m a bit unfit. I need to get fitter. Joe Wicks should help!

Jack: In the headline, I used the expression puffed out. Puffed out or out of puff is an expression we use when we are breathing heavily and quickly because we’ve been doing lots of exercise.

Rich: I like this expression - I’m out of puff - I’m out of air - puffed out.

Jack: I’m going to set you and all our listeners a fitness challenge later on. Are you ready for it?

Rich: Probably not but I’ll give it a go. All right, let’s look at our next headline.

Headline 2

Jack: Social distancing rules bring birthday joy for young Aussie

Rich: With social distancing restrictions in place one family in Australia decided to throw a drive-by birthday party for their five-year-old son. The boy’s original party had to be cancelled so his mum asked local residents to beep their car horns as they drove past. The five-year old’s day got even better when many drivers threw presents into his garden.

Jack: This is a nice story about communities coming together. There is so much happening online that usually happens face to face.

Rich: My kids went to the circus, theatre and to a magic show over the weekend!

Jack: You can even go clubbing online. DJs are live-streaming their sets and people are dancing in their own homes. All kinds of things are happening online.

Rich: Let’s look at some vocabulary we used in the headline. We spoke about restrictions. There are lots of restrictions at the moment. Mainly restrictions on our movement.

Jack: A restriction is a rule or a law which limits or restricts what you can do or in some places what you can say.

Rich: At the moment we’re hearing a lot about social distancing restrictions. These are restrictions such as staying two metres apart from other people and not gathering together in big groups.

Jack: Another useful word that we used in the headlines was cancelled. 

Rich: If we cancel something it means that something that we have arranged won’t happen.

Jack: Lots of things are being cancelled at the moment; birthday parties, weddings, sports events … the Premier League season  

Rich: It’s not been cancelled, it’s been suspended temporarily

Jack: Worried about Liverpool not winning the title, are we?

Rich: Let’s look at our final headline.

Headline 3

Jack: Online alternatives catch workers out

Rich: There have been some teething problems with tech for the millions that are now working from home. Did you see the priest in Italy who accidentally activated the video filters as he gave an online mass? The priest looked good with fake sunglasses and at one point his face changed into a cat. Or what about the poor woman who decided to visit the bathroom during a video conference with colleagues and she forgot to turn her camera off. How embarrassing!

Jack: Yes, that last one was awful. I think I’d have to resign if it happened to me. 

Rich: Oh come on!  A bit embarrassing yes but everyone needs to go to the toilet. I preferred watching her colleagues' reactions. Nobody wanted to say anything.

Jack: And what about that priest. It’s easy to press the wrong button online!

Rich: I’m not sure if it was an accident - maybe he just wanted to add a bit of excitement to mass!

Jack: I can understand a few fireworks in the background but I’m not sure if he really wanted to turn into a cat!

Rich: OK, let’s look at a bit of vocabulary. We said that there have been a few teething problems with tech while working from home.

Jack: Teething problems is an expression we use to say that something has a few problems, to begin with.

Rich: A new company or product can have teething problems or a new system. 

Jack: There might be a few teething problems as people get used to working from home - it’s a new system or way of working for many.

Rich: The phrase actually comes from the verb to teethe. When a baby is teething it is growing its first teeth.

Jack: People often have teething problems with new technology. Many people might be using Skype or Zoom for the first time.

Rich: We use Skype and Zoom for calls or video calsl or video conferences.

Jack: Videoconferencing is something we’re hearing a lot about at the moment. This technology allows people in different places to meet by sharing their cameras and microphones so they can see and talk to each other.

Rich: When we use the word conference on its own it is usually to describe a more official meeting involving lots of people or where people come together to discuss a specific subject - maybe for two or three days.

Jack: For example, political parties and unions have annual conferences that attract hundreds of people. 

Rich: But a video conference is smaller - it would involve three or more people on Skype or Zoom or something similar.

Jack: OK, we’ve looked at three stories that are in the news and six bits of vocabulary. The words we’ve looked at are: homeschooling, unfit, restrictions, cancelled, teething problems and video conference.

Rich: Have a listen to the headlines again and see if you understand the vocabulary we’ve looked at.

Jack: Puffed out parents fail PE challenge.

Rich: Parents across the world have begun homeschooling their children due to school closures in many countries. Maths, English and science are on the curriculum but PE seems to be the subject parents are finding most difficult. Help is at hand from fitness expert, Joe Wicks, who is live-streaming fitness classes at 900 every weekday morning but unfit parents don’t seem able to keep up with Joe or their children.

Jack: Social distancing rules bring birthday joy for Aussie boy.

Rich: With social distancing restrictions in place one family in Australia decided to throw a drive-by birthday party for their five-year-old son. The boy’s original party had to be cancelled so his mum asked local residents to beep their car horns as they drove past. The five-year old’s day got even better when many drivers threw presents into his garden.

Jack: Take care with your camera

Rich: There have been some teething problems with tech for the millions that are now working from home. Did you see the priest in Italy who accidentally activated the video filters as he gave an online mass? The priest looked good with fake sunglasses and at one point his face changed into a cat. Or what about the poor woman who decided to visit the bathroom during a video conference with colleagues. How embarrassing!

TASK - Fitness Challenge

Jack: I mentioned earlier that we’re going to set a fitness challenge for you all.

Rich: We spoke in the headlines about Joe Wicks, the fitness instructor that has become the UK’s PE teacher.

Jack: He live-streams a PE class every morning Monday to Friday on YouTube. We want you to have a go at one of his classes.

Rich: You need to go to his YouTube channel which is The Body Coach TV and do one of his fitness workouts.

Jack: If you are at home with the family, we want you to get them involved, too, kids, parents, brothers sisters, everyone.

Rich: Then, let us know in the comments section how you did and you felt afterwards. Did you feel energised or were you out of puff?

Language Challenge

Rich: To finish up the show we’ve got a quick language challenge for you which is connected to this week’s vocabulary.

Jack: We want you to listen to three sentences and tell us which sentence is correct.

Rich: After doing the Joe Wicks fitness session I was out of puff.

Rich: After doing the Joe Wicks fitness session I was out of air.

Rich: After doing the Joe Wicks fitness session I was out of wind. 

Jack: OK, we want you to write the correct answer on the Premier Skills English website where we have some more questions and activities connected to this week’s show for you.

Rich: Or write your answer on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us. We want you to use the correct noun. Write:  After doing the Joe Wicks fitness session I was out of _____. 

Jack: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope that all of you stay healthy and we’ll all be back watching Premier League football very soon.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.