Podcast 18

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 pressure in the Premier League, some collocations with the word under and I’m  going to make another Premier League prediction.

Jack: That’s right! And we also have our brilliant new competition for you. You can win a fantastic Samsung Galaxy Tablet in our new Premier Skills English ‘What’s my team?’ competition. You’re going to listen to a riddle from a Premier League fan. If you can work out which team the fan supports, you might win a prize.

Rich:  If you don’t win this week, we’ll have another fan talking about another team in next week’s podcast and the week after that. In fact, we’re going to be giving away a Samsung Galaxy Tablet in the next 20 Podcasts! We’ll tell you more about how you can win the ‘What’s my team?’ competition later on!

Jack: But, before we start: we recently had a comment from Gilbers51 from Brazil. He wanted to know what has happened to the leaderboard on the site and to all of his points.

Rich: Just like the Premier League we have started a new season.

Jack: This gives new users of Premier Skills English an opportunity to get to the top of our leaderboards and be Premier Skills English Champions 2015/16.

Rich: Congratulations Rema, from Serbia who finished top in 2014/15. He got an amazing 1,332 points - send us an email with your address... we’ve got a prize for you.

Jack: Yes, it was a fantastic performance and we hope that all the language activities have helped him with his English.

Rich: If you want to know all the results from Premier Skills English 2014/15 I’ve put a link on the side of this page.

Jack: If there is phrase or word that you’re not sure how to use.

Rich: Or like GIlbers51, you have a question about the Premier Skills English website, then leave us a comment below and we’ll get back to you either in the comments section or maybe in a future podcast.

Jack: There were some great matches in the Premier League last weekend. West Ham beat Manchester City and Leicester are the only Premier League team that haven’t lost a game this season.

Rich: West Ham have now won away matches at Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal. They’re having a great start to the season under their new manager - the Croatian Slaven Bilic.

Jack: But the big game was, of course, Chelsea against Arsenal.

Rich: Both managers came into the match under pressure. Jose Mourinho’s team had already lost three Premier League matches this season, which is the same amount that they lost in the whole of last season.

Jack: And Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger is always under pressure when playing Chelsea - he has a terrible record against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea team.

Rich: He hadn’t beaten Mourinho’s Chelsea in 13 matches.

Jack: And you can make that 14 now because Chelsea lifted the pressure on Mourinho with a 2-0 win.

Rich: There were a couple of interesting expressions or collocations that we used with the word under there.

Jack: Yes, you said West Ham are having a great start to the season under their new manager.

Rich: Here. under is used to mean represented by or controlled by so you can say the restaurant is under new management or the student wrote an excellent essay under the guidance of the professor.

Jack: You also said that the two managers were under pressure before the match. In this case, under means facing or experiencing, so managers experience a lot of pressure or are under pressure.

Rich: Yes, especially when they are not winning matches. You could also say they are under stress, which means they feel a lot of stress.

Jack: Of course, it’s not only football managers that are under pressure or under stress -  when I was at school, about to take my exams, I was under a lot of pressure from my parents. I think that exams and tests put people under too much stress.

Rich: Whenever I’m under pressure, I like to relax in front of the TV watching liverpool.

Jack: I like to watch football to relax too... except when Arsenal are playing against Chelsea.

Rich: Yes - far too stressful. There are many collocations that use the word under. The phrase under control is a good one. In a football context, you could say Eden Hazard has the ball under control, which means that the ball is next to him and he’s not going to lose it.

Jack: More generally, when you’re doing something difficult and you want to reassure people that you know what you are doing and feel confident, you could say, Don’t worry, everything is under control.

Rich: I like the phrase under the weather, which is a phrase you also sometimes hear in football.

Jack: Yes, like Sanchez isn’t playing today because he’s under the weather. It means that he’s feeling unwell; he is a little bit ill, but it’s something that is not too serious.

Rich: I’m feeling a little bit under the weather today.

Jack: Ah - what’s wrong?

Rich: I’ve got a cold and a sore throat.

Jack: Sorry to hear that. Have you got some medicine?

Rich: I’ve got a nice cup of tea. That’ll make me feel better. Let’s look at one final one. We can say something is under construction, which means that something is being built or repaired.

Jack: So West Ham’s new stadium is under construction at the moment and will be ready for them next season.

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.

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 next 20 podcasts 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 our first Premier League fan is Sarah. Listen to her riddle and try to work out what’s her team?

Sarah:  You must have heard of us. We’ve won the European Cup 5 times and you’ve probably heard songs from one of the most famous bands to come from our city - We love music here. Our stadium has the best atmosphere and the most passionate fans. When you hear 40,000 fans singing ‘you’ll never walk alone’ it’s absolutely brilliant.

Rich: Well, that was an easy one!

Jack: You think? We’ll see how our listeners do... If you know which team Sarah was talking about, write your answer in the comments section below. I think it’s time for this week’s Premier League prediction.

Rich: This week I’m going to watch Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City. I think this is a very difficult match for City. They have lost two consecutive matches now and might be thinking about their trip to Germany in the Champions League which follows this match. Tottenham haven’t had a great start to the season and Harry Kane hasn’t scored yet. However, I think Tottenham will surprise City and I’m going to go with the home team. Final score: Spurs 2-1 Man City

Jack: A Spurs win?

Rich: Well, Arsenal fans never predict Spurs wins, do they?

Jack: 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.

Rich: 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.

Jack: 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      .

Rich: 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.

Jack:  Bye for now and enjoy your football.