Podcast 25

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 some of the things managers say after matches, the language focus is past regrets and later I’ll make another Premier League prediction.

Jack: And you have another chance to win a Samsung Galaxy tablet in our ‘What’s my Team?’ competition.

Rich: What was the answer to last week’s riddle Jack?Jack: Ah, yes. Last week it was Sophie... her favourite Premier League team is Southampton.

Rich: We had lots of correct entries so congratulations to everybody who got it right. I think if you know your Premier League nicknames, you would have got this one right.  

Jack: At the end, Sophie said ‘Come on you Saints!’ and the Saints are of course Southampton’s nickname.

Rich: You might also have got the answer if you know your geography! She said her club was one of only two on the south coast of England.

Jack: Maybe a few of our listeners had a quick look on Google maps!

Rich: We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers...

Jack: and the seventh winner of the What’s my team? competition is Rafael24 a Manchester Utd from Ecuador. Congratulations Rafael, we’ll be in contact with you this week.

Rich: Well done Rafael! Later on in the podcast, you can listen to this week’s What’s my team riddle.

Jack: Last week we asked you about superstitions in your country and asked you if you do anything that you think brings your team luck.

Rich: We had lots of responses and it was really interesting to read your answers.

Jack: Lots of your answers involved clothes. Aragorn1986 from Montenegro wears a special football shirt for big matches and VerdMead96 from Poland wears her Man Utd shirt or scarf. Chansophal from Cambodia makes sure he doesn’t wear a red shirt on Mondays. But NyiNyi from Myanmar says that if you wear your team shirt on match day your team will lose!

Rich: Besian from Kosovo has to watch Arsenal because if he doesn’t watch the match, he thinks his team will lose and Cvanessa13 from Ecuador believes in the power of positive thinking.

Jack: Many of you said that you don’t believe in superstitions and luck but you do pray for your team. Louma from Algeria and Juanito from Jordan pray for their team, and Abdallah in Kuwait holds prayer beads.

Rich: You also told us about some superstitions in your country. Mkoriev from Uzbekistan told us that people sometimes hang horseshoes on their doors to bring good luck. SalvaGH form Spain says that breaking a mirror will bring you bad luck but throwing rice at couples getting married will ring you good luck.

Jack: Nikosonris from Ukraine said that if you buy flowers for someone, you should buy an odd number because an even amount is for funerals! But my favourite was what Shefeek from India told us. He said that a goalkeeper in a local team always needs chewing gum when he plays and sometimes his teammates hide it and the keeper goes bananas!

Rich: The expression ‘to go bananas’ means to go a bit crazy or angry and I would go bananas if my teammates kept taking something that belonged to me!

Jack: Sorry if we didn’t mention your comment this week, but please continue to write to us with any your comments or questions and we’ll get back to you.

Rich: And if you see an interesting comment on the website don’t forget you can write back to all our listeners by clicking on reply below their comment

Jack: The top of the Premier League table looks very exciting this week, doesn’t it Rich?

Rich: Yes, there are only two points between the top four clubs after wins for Man Utd and Leicester and Arsenal and Manchester City only managing draws.

Jack: Jamie Vardy scored again for Leicester and Arsenal drew 1-1 in the North London derby against Tottenham.

Rich: Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham manager, said that his team deserved more but he was happy because it had been a busy week for his team.

Jack: But Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said it was a fair result. He also said that he felt a mixture of relief and regret.

Rich: I imagine he felt relief because he didn’t lose the match. When you are losing and you come back to draw it’s always a good feeling, especially in a local derby.

Jack: Relief means the happiness you feel after something that was stressful has finished, so I imagine Wenger was relieved but he said he felt regret too. This is probably because Arsenal didn’t win the match.

Rich: He probably regrets not attacking more in the first half when Tottenham were the better team. And I imagine he wishes that he had made some different substitutions or changed tactics earlier.

Jack: I imagine he was really kicking himself after the game!

Rich: That’s definitely a good idiom to use in this situation. To kick yourself means to regret doing something and can be either something bad you’ve done or something good that you didn’t do.

Jack: So after an exam for example you could say ‘I’m really kicking myself for getting that question wrong’ when you realise that the correct answer was easy.

Rich: And maybe Wenger was kicking himself for not making the correct substitutions or changing Arsenal’s tactics.

Jack: When we talk about past regrets we often use specific structures - earlier Rich said “He probably regrets not attacking in the first half”

Rich: When we talk about regrets we can use the word ‘regret’ plus the verb in the -ing form or the gerund. He regrets not attacking.

Jack: Rich also said “He wishes he had made some different substitutions”. Here Rich used the word ‘wish’ plus the past perfect to talk about a past regret. Do you have any regrets Rich?

Rich: I wish I had learned a foreign language at school. I had one year of German and that was it. I didn’t think it was important when I was at school.

Jack: It would have been really useful but I suppose you didn’t know that you were going to become an English teacher in another country..

Rich: No, I didn’t but I still regret not studying more French or especially Spanish, when I was at school. What about you Jack? Do you have any regrets?

Jack: Regrets? I’ve had a few... I think that my biggest regret is about a guitar. When I was a student, I had a beautiful Spanish guitar. I don’t remember the brand, I bought it second hand ata market and it wasn’t expensive, but it had a really beautiful sound and I loved playing it. Anyhow, I really wanted an electric and in the end, I sold my beautiful spanish guitar and bought a really bad electric guitar. I’ve been searching for a spanish guitar that sounds like that guitar ever since. I really wish I hadn’t sold it.

Rich: I suppose we all have some regrets and it would be great to hear from you in our comments section and don’t forget to try to use wish plus the past perfect or regret plus the verb in the -ing form.

Jack: Right, I think it’s time for this week’s competition: ‘What’s my Team?’

Rich: 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 on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: And for each of the 20 podcast competitions the lucky winner will receive a fantastic Samsung Galaxy Tablet. We wish you the best of luck!

Rich: Right, so this week, our Premier League fan is Lily. Listen to Lily's riddle and try to work out what’s her team?

Lily: We’ve been in the Premier League since 2011 and have become known for our passing style of play. We finished in our highest ever Premier League position last season and I think this season we’re going to do even better. We’re the only Premier League team not from England so every away game is a trip abroad for us!

Jack: A trip abroad? That’s a tricky one. I think a few of you might be looking on Google maps again! Now, it’s time for your prediction Rich. How did you do last week

Rich: You know I got it wrong again. I went for an Arsenal win but the North London derby finished in a 1-1 draw.

Jack: You weren’t the only one. Many of our listeners agreed with you but some great predictors did choose a draw. Well done to Grigor25 from Armenia, Yafmaverick and Rema from Serbia, and elghoul from Algeria, and a special congratulations to Sadulla from Uzbekistan who predicted the correct result and the correct score - a 1-1 draw.

Rich: There are no Premier League matches this weekend as we take another international break. Most international teams will be taking part in friendly matches but there are some important play-off matches in Europe and the four winners will progress to the European Championships in France next summer. The matches are Bosnia & Herzegovina v Republic of Ireland, Ukraine v Slovenia, Sweden v Denmark and Hungary v Norway. I predict that Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ukraine, Sweden and Norway will be the winners. Let me know if you agree or disagree?

Jack: That’s it for today - we’ve run out of time! Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to the competition, your regrets, your predictions and any questions you have about the website or football English in the comments below.

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.