Football English: New Clubs Part 3

Football English: New Clubs (3)

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rowan: My name’s Rowan

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

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English. 

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: This week’s podcast is connected to the three new football clubs in the Premier League this season: Norwich City, Watford and Brentford.

Jack: You’ll hear Rich and me hosting a phone-in on our radio station: Radio UK and we’ll be joined by our expert sports reporter - Rowan.

Rowan: In the phone-in, we speak to three football fans, one Norwich fan, one Watford fan and one Brentford fan, and we ask them how they are feeling now that the new Premier League season is only a few weeks away.

Rich: After we speak to each fan we’ll focus on some language. This week we’re going to focus on football English and the language we use to talk about promotion and relegation as well as how we feel about our team.

Jack: You will hear this week’s podcast in three different parts and we will have a task for you to do after each part and there will be an opportunity for you to talk about your team’s chances as the new Premier League season approaches.

Rowan: If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rich: On the Premier Skills English website, you’ll find the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete with other listeners.

Rowan: And don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess!

SOCIAL

Jack: Before we start this week’s roleplay we’d just like to thank everyone for all their comments on the Premier Skills English website. It’s great to know that you’re enjoying the podcasts and all of the free learning materials we have on the website.

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re talking about the three newest members of the Premier League so we thought it would be nice to say hello to three of our newest members on the website.

Rowan: I’d like to give a shout-out to Kazu from Japan who has recently joined Premier Skills and has been making lots of comments.

Jack: Amongst other things, Kazu has told us about his house in Japan and the football heartache his team suffered against Belgium and in penalty shootouts. I hope you’re enjoying the Olympics, Kazu!

Rich: I’d like to say a big hello to Ali Kalhor from Iran who has recently joined our website. Ali has been commenting on our pre-season article and thinks Raheem Sterling is the player with the most pace in the Premier League.

Jack: And finally I’d like to say hi to Gitaandari from Indonesia who is also new on Premier Skills. Keep on guessing our football phrases and you’ll get there in the end!

Rich: Keep the comments and questions coming - we do enjoy reading all of them!

Introduction to roleplay 3

Rich: As we said earlier, in this roleplay you are listening to a phone-in on a radio station called Radio UK.

Jack: The topic is football and we’re asking listeners to phone in and talk about their club ahead of the new season. 

Rowan: You’re about to listen to the final part of the phone-in, while you listen we want you to answer two questions and after you listen we’ll look at some of the language we used.

Rich: Here are the questions: Question one is: Which team does this fan support?

Jack: Question two is: How does this fan feel about his team playing in the Premier League?

Roleplay 3

Rich: Welcome back to Radio UK. Let’s get back to the phone lines. I think we have Nathan from Norwich on line three. Hello Nathan?

Nathan: Come on you yellows!

Rich: Champions of the Championship for the second time in three seasons. A brilliant season for the Canaries. How are you feeling?

Nathan: I suppose the biggest feeling I have is one of pride. I’m proud of what we’ve done at this club over the last few years. Finishing bottom of the Premier League two seasons ago hurt our pride but we stuck by our principles and this is bringing us more success.

Rowan: And will it bring you success in the Premier League this season?

Nathan: I think we can be more successful, yes. We had a taste of it the season before last and now I think we’re more prepared. We’re ready. The people of Norwich are ready and they can take pride in their football team.

Rich: Does it mean a lot to the fans to be back in the Premier League?

Nathan: Yes, being a Premier League city brings a lot of prestige and this team has done us proud. 

Rich: Well, thanks for calling Nathan. It’s good to know that you’re looking forward to the season starting. So, Rowan what do you think of Norwich City’s chances this season?

Rowan: I think Nathan is right to be proud of his team. Norwich swallowed their pride when they got relegated and have gone back up at the first attempt. My only worry is that they have a similar team to the last time they got promoted. 

Rich: Ahh yes! Albert Einstein. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Jack: A bit like some of the Arsenal matches I watched last season! But that wasn’t Einstein, just the bloke I sit next to at the Emirates.

Rich: We’ll be back after this next track brought to you in association with Winning Windows - the best window deals in the UK.

Language Focus 3

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions. The first question was: Which team does this fan support?

Jack: The answer is Norwich City. What do we know about Norwich? I’m going to give you 10 seconds each - go.

Rowan: Norwich. They are called the Canaries. They play in yellow and green. Their stadium is called Carrow Road. The owner is a celebrity chef and one of my favourite comedians is their biggest fan - Stephen Fry.

Jack: Rowan. Stop. Rich. Go.

Rich: Norwich. Their biggest rivals are Ipswich Town and the matches between the two teams have been called the Old Farm Derby. Norwich have got a song called On the ball, City and it’s the oldest football song in the world. They’ve been singing it since the nineteenth century.

Jack: Rich. Stop. Good knowledge. That song … How does it go? 

Rich: No chance. I leave the singing to you, Jack. 

Rowan: We also asked you another question. It was: How does this fan feel about his team playing in the Premier League?

Jack: Well, I’d say Nathan was proud. He’s very pleased to be connected with Norwich and what they have achieved in the last few years.

Rich: Yes, and I think he’s right to be. Norwich have done very well. Let’s look at some more language from the roleplay.

...

Rowan: Nathan is very proud of his football club and in the roleplay, he used lots of phrases and collocations with the word proud and pride. We’re going to look at some of them now.

Jack: Proud is an adjective. It means to be very pleased and satisfied with something that you are connected to in some way. You can be proud of something you have done or proud of something a relative or a friend or a football club has done.

Rich: Proud of, that is the first useful collocation. We are proud of something or proud of someone. Nathan is proud of his football club.

Rowan: So, proud is the adjective. The noun is pride. Nathan spoke about the pride he feels when he speaks about his football club. This is the pleasure and satisfaction he feels.

Jack: Nathan used a few collocations with pride in the roleplay. He said that relegation had hurt our pride. 

Rich: To hurt one’s pride means to damage those feelings of respect for something that you had, including yourself or your football team. 

Rowan: Another common collocation is to take pride in something. We should take pride in what we do - have respect for it. Have a sense of satisfaction and pleasure in something.

Jack: Nathan said that the people of Norwich can take pride in their football team. We take pride in something. We could also express or feel pride in something.

Rich: Another expression with pride is to swallow your pride. Rowan used this in the roleplay when she said, Norwich swallowed their pride when they got relegated and have gone back up at the first attempt.

Rowan: To swallow your pride means to do something even if it’s embarrassing. Norwich were relegated but they decided to work hard at a lower level and were rewarded with promotion.

Jack: The final phrase I want to look at is done us proud. This is an informal phrase that means something has been done really well which makes you or others proud.

Rowan: Listen again to how Nathan answered this question:

Rich: Does it mean a lot to the fans to be back in the Premier League?

Nathan: Yes, being a Premier League city brings a lot of prestige and this team has done us proud.  

Rowan: You can look at this vocabulary in more detail on the Premier Skills English website where you’ll find free activities, the transcript and a quiz to help you understand.

TASK 

Jack: In the roleplay, Nathan was very proud of his team.

Rich: In this task, we want you to talk about something or someone that you are proud of and tell us why you are proud of this thing or person.

Rowan: You might want to talk about your football team like Nathan did.

Jack: Or you might want to talk about something that you have done that you are proud of. 

Rich: Or maybe you want to talk about someone that you are proud of. 

Rowan: Try to use some of the phrases and collocations with proud and pride we’ve introduced in this podcast.

Jack: Write all your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple podcasts if that’s where you listen to us.

Football Phrase

Rowan: It’s time for this week’s football phrase. Have you got one, Jack?

Jack: I have. This week’s football phrase is * ***-*** ****. When neither team win a match and no goals are scored we say that the match finished in * ***-*** ****. This is much more common in British English than in American English where someone might say that the match finished in a tie or finished zero zero.

Rich: If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know and if you are still wondering what the answer was to last week’s football phrase it was in the flesh.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast. 

Rich: If you have a question for us about football or English you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org

Rowan: or you can leave your questions and comments on the website in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

Jack: or you could give us a rating and a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!