This Week: The Real Deal

Introduction

Laura: Hello my name’s Laura 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: And I’m Jack and we hope you are all staying well whether you are staying home or still going to work.

Laura: We’ve looked high and low for three news stories that we want to share with you.

Rich: This week, we talk about Alex Ferguson’s favourite players, the latest winner of the Premier League’s e-tournament and Paul Pogba’s favourite meal.

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

Laura: 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. 

Laura: 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.

Rich: Our latest podcast is called Understanding Grammar: Wishes. In the podcast, we look at the language of wishes and have a fun roleplay for you to listen to. It involves two players finding a magic trophy after training - you should have a listen.

Jack: You can find the lesson on the homepage on the Premier Skills English website. 

Laura: You’re now going to hear our three headlines. After each headline, we will have a little discussion and look at some vocabulary. The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: dressing room, the hairdryer treatment, a brace, a consolation goal, well done and rare.

Rich: After the headlines, we’ll have another fitness challenge and a language challenge for you to have a go at.

Headlines

Jack: Giggs reveals Fergie Favourites.

Rich: Wales manager and Manchester United legend, Ryan Giggs has revealed for the first time the players who escaped Alex Ferguson’s famous hairdryer treatment. The players that Gigs says were immune to Fergie’s angry dressing room outbursts were: Eric Cantona, Bryan Robson, Roy Keane and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Laura: I didn’t think any Manchester United player could avoid the hairdryer treatment from Alex Ferguson. Looks like I was wrong!

Jack: I’m not sure how happy he will be that Ryan Giggs has revealed this secret. I’m sure he’ll be in for some Fergie hairdryer treatment the next time they meet.

Rich: I’m sure he’s more chilled out now he’s retired. OK, so that has to be the first phrase we look at this week - the hairdryer treatment. What is it and where does it come from?

Laura: The phrase was first used to specifically describe how Alex Ferguson would shout at his players when they weren’t playing well.

Jack: I suppose the term hairdryer is used because a lot of hot air comes out of a hairdryer. A lot of hot angry air came out of the manager’s mouth.

Rich: It’s used more generally these days to speak about manager’s getting angry with their players in the dressing room.

Laura: The dressing room, that’s the other phrase we want to look at from the headline.

Jack: The dressing room is the place where the players get changed or dressed before and after a match - the dressing room.

Laura: Yes, and players also get the hairdryer treatment in the dressing room.
____

Rich: Maddison wins it for Leicester.

Laura: Leicester City’s James Maddison is the latest winner of the ePremier League invitational. The midfielder beat Sheffield United’s John Egan in the final with braces from Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Ihenacho and one from his own character. Egan got a late consolation from John Fleck. The tournament was streamed around the world on Premierleague.com and social media.

Jack: It’s the only football we can get at the moment; efootball on FIFA. It’s not the same but lots of people are tuning in.

Rich: And we can look at some real football English by looking at what happened in FIFA matches. The first word is brace. We said that Jamie Vardy scored a brace.

Laura: A brace is two goals in the same match. It’s the same as a double. Jamie Vardy got a double. Jamie Vardy got a brace. He scored two goals.

Jack: The other word or phrase we want to look at is consolation or consolation goal. We said that John Egan got a late consolation goal.

Rich: A consolation goal is a goal that is scored late in a match for the team that is losing and won’t affect the result of the match.

Jack: The idea of a consolation goal is that it’s supposed to make you feel a bit better but if you score one when you’re already losing five-nil it’s not much of a consolation.

Laura: Yeah, I think they should be called waste of time goals. They’re never much of a consolation.

Laura: Pogba Steak is the real deal.

Jack: Professional chef and chef to Premier League footballers Johnny Marsh has been sharing favourite Premier League recipes. His latest on the BBC is Pogba steak. It appears the Manchester United midfielder likes his steak well done rather than rare with a tangy Argentinian sauce on the side.

Rich: OK, we’re moving away from the football here. This chef, Johnny Marsh, cooks for lots of footballers. We’ve put a link to a video from the BBC on the website. You can learn the steak recipe that he cooks for Paul Pogba.

Laura: You cook steak in a few different ways. If you order steak in a restaurant, the waiter will often ask you how you like it cooked.

Jack: Paul Pogba has his steak well done. This means that it’s not very pink. 

Rich: I like to have my steaks rare. This means that the steak is still dark red and there’s lots of red juice still flowing. It’s not cooked for very long.

Laura: If you want your steak between well done and rare you can ask for it to be medium or you can ask for medium-rare if you want it to be nearer to rare than well done.

Jack: And you can also ask for it blue. This means it’s only been cooked a tiny bit. How do you like your steak cooked Laura?

Laura: Not at all. I’m vegetarian.  

Rich: OK We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words we’ve looked at are: dressing room, the hairdryer treatment, a brace, a consolation goal, well done and rare.

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

TASK - Fitness Challenge

Laura: Each week we’re trying to set you a fitness challenge and this week’s challenge comes from the Premier Skills coaches. It’s the Premier Skills FC International Fitness Challenge.

Rich: This week’s fitness challenge is presented by Premier Skills coaches from India, South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt and the UK. 

Jack: As well as doing the exercises, the different coaches count to ten in different languages so you can learn how to say numbers in Hindi, IsiZulu, Yoruba, Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, Arabic and Swahili.

Rich: It’s a really tough challenge this week. 

Laura: Take a look at the website where you’ll find a link to the video and let us know if you do the exercises in the comments section.

Language Challenge

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

Jack: We spoke about a consolation goal in the headlines and we’re going to give you three more sentences that use goal. Can you complete the sentences?

Laura: And there’s the ___________ goal. It’s 2-2 and it looks like this match is going to extra-time.

Rich: He’s gone round the goalkeeper, he only needs to put it in the  ________ goal and he’s put it over the bar. I can’t believe he’s missed it.

Jack: The ________ goal arrived in the 67th minute when Pogba scored from the spot. Final score 1-0.

Laura: We want you to write the correct answers 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. Just write the answers in the review section and say hi.

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 fit and healthy and we’ll all be back watching Premier League football very soon.

Laura: Bye for now and enjoy your football.