Speaking Skills: Interrupting

Speaking Skills - Interrupting

Intro: 

Rich: I love knock knock jokes.

Jack: What?

Rich: Knock, knock jokes. You know ... I say knock, knock you say who’s there and …

Jack: I know knock, knock jokes. Have you got one?

Rich: Yep. Loads. Knock, knock.

Jack: Who’s there?

Rich: Water.

Jack: Water who?

Rich: Water you doing in my house!

Jack: Knock, knock jokes are always awful!

Rich: No, they’re not. Listen. This is my favourite. Knock, knock.

Jack: Who’s there?

Rich: Interrupting cow.

Jack: Interrupting c ...

Rich: Mooooo!

Welcome - Interrupting

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich

Jack: and I’m Jack

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

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Jack: What’s happening this week, Rich?

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re going to talk about ...

Jack: What are we going to talk about?

Rich: I was just about to say. In this week’s podcast, we’re going to talk about …

Jack: I was just getting a bit of revenge for that silly interrupting cow joke.

Rich: Alright … alright … In this week’s podcast, we’re going to talk about the language we use when we want to interrupt somebody.

Jack: That’s right. We’re going to look at the language of interruption and how we can interrupt somebody politely and not so politely.

Rich: We’ve got lots of language to teach you and we’ve got a game you can play with friends or in the classroom that’s great for practising your English.

Jack: And don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we’ve got a new football phrase for you too.

Topic Focus

Rich: That cow joke is really funny. I love it.

Jack: It’s not that …

Rich: Mooo!

Jack: Stop it. As I was saying, it’s not that funny but it does allow us to introduce something that we often need to do in English. We often need to interrupt someone when they are speaking. We might have something important to say or we might want to respond to what a person has just said. 

Rich: That’s right and when we want to interrupt it’s probably best not just to say moo!

Jack: No, probably not!

Rich: Anyway, before we start I’d like to talk about a match that I saw recently. It was …

Jack: Sorry, which match was it?

Rich: I was just getting to that. It was Tottenham’s match against Real Madrid. I went to watch it in a cafe with a couple of friends and I …

Jack: Sorry for interrupting, but why didn’t you invite me?

Rich: Erm … you’re an Arsenal fan you never show much interest in Tottenham matches. In any case, I think it might be too far to meet up to watch a match.

Jack: You’re right it is and it’s true I didn’t watch the match.

Rich: Where was I? Ah yes, the Spurs match. We got a drink but …

Jack: What did you have?

Rich: I had a coke because I was driving. 

Jack: Really not very good for you.

Rich: What?

Jack: Coke - fizzy drinks. They aren’t very healthy.

Rich: I know, I know ... but it’s not important. Anyway, the cafe was packed and we had to stand to watch the match. 

Jack: Could I ask something?

Rich: What? I mean, sure.

Jack: Which cafe did you go to?

Rich: The one by the square.

Jack: Near the fountain?

Rich: No, at the other end. As I was saying...

Jack: It’s nice there. You could have invited me.

Rich: Yes. That’s why I went. As I was saying, my friends were Real Madrid fans so …

Jack: Excuse me for butting in. Are your friends from Madrid?

Rich: Not far from Madrid, yes. Anyway, as I was saying, they’re Real Madrid fans so they didn’t have a great time. I think it was already 2-0 at half-time.

Jack: Actually, just 1-0.

Rich: OK, just 1-0. But in any case, they weren’t having much fun and we actually left before Ronaldo scored a consolation goal for Madrid.

Jack: It finished 3-1. 

Rich: It did. What did you do yesterday?

Jack: Well, I’m glad that you asked because I went...

Rich: MOOOOO.

Jack: Not you again.

Language Focus

Jack: In the last section, Rich was speaking about a football match he saw. While he was speaking I interrupted him quite a few times. I used different words and phrases to let Rich know that I wanted to say something.

Rich: After the interruption, I wanted to return to the topic I was speaking about - the football match. To return to the topic I used a few different phrases too. 

Jack: Let’s start by looking at the phrases that I used to interrupt. The most common way to interrupt someone is to say sorry or excuse me. If you want to be polite you should use these words all the time even if you are not sorry!

Rich: Jack said sorry for interrupting and excuse me for butting in and then asked his question.

Jack: Butting in, that’s an interesting phrase. It’s more common to use it when you want to join a group conversation and if someone says stop butting in the phrase can mean interrupting a conversation in a rude or impolite way.

Rich: But if you say sorry or excuse me and use the phrase yourself it means the same as sorry for interrupting.

Jack: After my interruptions, Rich wanted to return to the topic of the football match. He used different phrases to do this. One very common phrase that he used was anyway. Other common phrases are Where was I? And as I was saying.

Rich: I actually used both when I said: Anyway, as I was saying, they’re Real Madrid fans so they didn’t have a great time. 

Jack: Have a look at the language activities on the website below this podcast to practise these phrases a little more.

Game

Jack: We’re going to play a speaking game which you can practise at home with a friend or in the classroom.

Rich: We’ve got a list of topics. Jack is going to choose one and try to speak for one minute. I’m going to try to interrupt him as much as possible. 

Jack: Which phrases does Rich use to interrupt me and which phrases do I use to get back to the topic?

Rich: There are the topics Jack. Take one and see what you get.

Jack: A place you’ve visited recently.

Rich: OK, you’ve got one minute to tell me as much as you can. I’ve got my watch. Are you ready? 

Jack: I was born ready!

Rich: Right then, three, two, one, go!

Jack: I’d like to tell you about Cambridge. It’s a city …

Rich: Sorry to interrupt but I don’t want to hear about the city, I’d like to hear about your visit to Cambridge.

Jack: Of course, alright. As I was trying to say, I’ve recently visited Cambridge. It’s a city …

Rich: Do you mind if I interrupt again? When did you visit Cambridge?

Jack: Yes, err, it was about a month ago. Anyway, I visited Cambridge about a month ago. It’s a city that’s about an hour’s drive from London.

Rich: Can I just add something here? It’s north of London, isn’t it?

Jack: Yes, err I think so but I wasn’t driving from London. Can I get back to what I was talking about?

Rich: Please, go on.

Jack: Cambridge is most famous for its university and I went to see …

Rich: Sorry for butting in but I was wondering if you knew if Cambridge University was older than Oxford?

Jack: No it’s not. Oxford was founded in .... nevermind, we’re not talking about Oxford… where was I?

Rich: Talking about your visit to Cambridge.

Jack: Yes, thanks. As I was saying, I visited …

Rich: Moo! That’s one minute! I think I win.

Jack: What do you mean, you win?

Rich: You had one minute to tell me about your visit to Cambridge and you told me absolutely nothing!

Jack: That’s because you were interrupting me all the time!

Rich: That was the point of the game!

Jack: Right! Your turn. Let’s see how well you deal with an interrupting cow!

Task

Rich: Our task for you this week is to challenge someone to the game that we have just played.

Jack: Do you know a friend that is learning English too? Or maybe you can ask your English teacher to play the game in class? 

Rich: Or maybe if you’re listening to this in class you can do this game right now.

Jack: There’s a worksheet for you to download on the side of this page with a list of topics that you can speak about in class. If you haven’t got it, pause the podcast and download it now.

Rich: On the worksheet, there are lots of topics to choose from - favourite football team, family, best holiday, favourite food, the environment and many more.

Jack: Tell the person who is going to speak to choose one topic and tell them they have to speak about it for one minute. Give them 30 seconds to think about what they are going to say first.

Rich: Tell them you or someone else is going to interrupt and ask questions and they have to answer the questions but try to return to their topic as soon as they can.

Jack: Try to use the phrases we have used in this podcast when you are speaking. You can also look at the phrases on the lesson page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: In the comments section, tell us who you played the game with and where.

Jack: And only be an interrupting cow when the time is up! 

Football Phrase

Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us this week? 

Jack: Yes, I have, but first, last week’s football phrase. The phrase was to be over the moon. It’s an idiom which means to be very, very happy and it is something that football managers often say after their team has won. 

Rich: Quite a lot of you got it right this week so well done to Violinka, Sabanoleg and Liubomyr from Ukraine, Lakerwang from China, CaroleAnnMarie from Italy, Ahmed Adam from Sudan and Khaldoun83 from Algeria. What’s this week’s phrase, Jack?

Jack: This week’s phrase is **** *** match or just **** ***. A **** *** is a match between two teams that decides which team progresses to the next round. At the end of the season, there are a series of **** *** matches to decide the third team that is promoted to the Premier League. It can also be a verb. The teams that finish between third and sixth **** *** against each other.

Rich: Ah, yes. I know it. Actually, this weekend there are **** *** matches to decide which countries will qualify for the World Cup this summer.

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.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!