Podcast 41 - Charity

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 all the latest action in the Premier League and we’re also going to look at some of the charity work Premier League players do when they are not on the football pitch. The language focus is on vocabulary connected to charity and good causes.

Jack: Last week we asked you how important fair play is on the pitch and how important politeness is off the pitch. All of you who commented said that both were very important. Alex from Ukraine said that fair play is a must. This is a nice expression. Must is usually used as a modal verb but you can also use it informally as a noun to tell people what they must do or see.

Rich: So you can say: watching the match on Sunday is a must for me. Or, when you visit Italy, visiting the Colosseum in Rome is a must!

Jack: Respect was another word that you used a lot. AssemJuve from the UAE, Aragorn1986 from Montenegro and SalvaGH from Spain all said that it was important to have respect for the other team. Respect is polite behaviour that we show to other people. And as Kwesimanifest from Ghana says; Being polite off the field is equally important.

Rich: We asked you how to decline a request politely and we noticed that there were a few words that you usually used. KopHG from South Korea used the phrase ‘I’d love to, but I’m afraid I can’t.’ This is a great phrase to use, I especially like the use of ‘afraid’ which usually means to be scared or frightened of something but in this expression is a polite way to say ‘I’m sorry’.

Jack: I also liked to see that you were using a lot of conditional sentences which is another way to show politeness. One thing to remember though, is that using long conditional sentences can be a bit too formal and might sound strange in a polite informal context with friends. Sometimes it’s better to just say I’d love to but I’m afraid I can’t.’ or a similar friendly refusal.

Rich: What’s been happening in the Premier League this week, Jack?

Jack: There have been two rounds of matches in the last week and it’s been a very good 7 days for Leicester City. Last Tuesday, Leicester drew 2-2 at home with West Bromwich Albion a result that was disappointing for a lot of their fans but the following day, Arsenal, Manchester City and Spurs all lost!  At the weekend, Leicester won away to Watford, while Arsenal and Spurs drew 2-2 in the North London Derby. With just 9 matches left in the season, Leicester City are 5 points clear at the top of the table.

Rich: And what about West Ham? They’re looking good, too.

Jack: Yes, the Irons are up to fifth place and are only one point behind City, who are in the fourth and final Champions League qualifying position. Remember, West Ham are moving to the Olympic Stadium next season. If they had the Champions League there it would be amazing!

Rich: There was another match happening this weekend, too. It finished 547-529 and lasted 57 hours and was played over 3 days and over 1000 players took part.

Jack: What are you talking about, Rich?

Rich: It was the charity match for the Sport Relief Trophy.

Jack: What’s that?

Rich: Sport Relief is a charity that brings together people from the world of sport and entertainment to raise money for vulnerable people in the UK and the world’s poorest countries.

Jack: Ahh yes, I know it. It’s fun, they get lots of different people involved like, actors, football players, pop stars, TV presenters, and other sports people. I remember one charity event a few years ago, when there was a tennis match between a famous tennis player and the British Prime minister. The Prime Minister won - I think it was a fix!

Rich: A fix - a dishonest result? Surely not, I heard that the Prime Minister could have won Wimbledon when he was younger!

Jack: Lots of footballers have been involved in this event over the years. One year David Beckham had an interview with a spoof manager. It was very funny.

Rich: I love spoofs. Spoofs are when a comedian makes a funny copy of an original film or television programme. I think it’s good for the footballers too. In interviews after the match they are often very serious so it’s good to see that they don’t mind people making fun of them.

Jack: It raises lots of money, too, doesn’t it?

Rich: Yes, it usually raises over £50 million for its different good causes and charities.

Jack:  To raise money means to collect money from different people for something specific and you often hear ‘to raise money for charity’ or ‘to raise money for good causes.’ The word charity can be a countable or uncountable noun. When it is countable it means a specific organisation that raises money for people in need and when it is uncountable it means the general aim of raising money for people in need.

Rich: So, Sport Relief is a charity that raises money for, err, charity!

Jack: That’s right!

Rich: And the Sport Relief Trophy is one of the charity events that is helping to raise money for Sport Relief. It was a 5-a-side football match organised by the BBC with the Premier League pledging to match every pound that was donated by the public.

Jack: Donate is a verb that means to give money or food or clothes and other things to charity and pledge is a verb which means to promise money for something. The Premier League has pledged to match or give the same amount of money to the charity that is donated or given by the public.

Rich: The captains of the two teams were the Premier League’s record top scorer, Alan Shearer and ex-Leicester City midfielder, Robbie Savage. Both ex-players now work as  pundits on TV and radio for the BBC.

Jack: Pundit? That’s a tricky word. Pundits aren’t the same as commentators. Commentators are the people that talk about what is happening in the match and usually they are professional journalists. Pundits are usually ex-players who talk about the match at half-time and before and after the match. Anyway, who won the match?

Rich: As I said earlier, it finished 547-529 and it was Shearer’s team that won the trophy. Shearer said he was in bits after the match which I think means he was very tired and couldn’t move much after playing for 57 hours.

Jack: Yes, I bet he was in bits. I saw that there were quite a few famous people taking part. At one stage the referee was Manchester Utd’s Adnan Januzaj and he gave hip-hop star Fatman Scoop a red card because he didn’t stop fouling!

Rich: But, the important part is that the charity football match has already raised £370,000 for the Sport Relief charity. In the last 2 years, Sport Relief has helped nearly 200,000 children go to school and get an education and given children over 700,000 life saving vaccines in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Jack: Yes, I think it’s really important to remember how sport can bring people together to help people who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Rich: As some of our listeners may know, Premier Skills English is just part of a greater Premier Skills project that operates in 25 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Jack: Through Premier Skills, young people, including the most vulnerable in society, are given opportunities to become better integrated into their local communities, to develop their skills for employability and raise their self-esteem.

Rich: If you want to find out more about the Premier Skills project, I’ve put a link on the side of this page. Now for this week’s questions.

Jack: Question 1: In this week’s podcast we spoke about an event that brought people together from sport and entertainment to raise money for charity. Are there any similar events in your country?

Rich: Question 2: Do you know any football clubs or football players that help people by raising money for charity? How can footballers and other famous people help charities?

Jack: And  Question 3: If you could start your own charity, who would you raise money for and why?

Jack: I see that you predicted the right result last weekend, Rich! You’ve got a couple right recently, you’re getting the hang of this!

Rich: Maybe I’m just getting luckier rather than getting the hang of it. I do like this idiom though, it means to understand something or learn how to use something. I always have problems when I get a new phone. I remember when I got my last one it took me ages to get the hang of it.

Jack: I know what you mean, that’s why I only change my phone every 5 years. You got the right result last week by saying the derby between Spurs and Arsenal would finish 1-1 but the honour of getting the result and correct score goes to Elghoul from Algeria and HakanUslu1881 from Turkey who both predicted a 2-2 draw. Well done to you both! What’s your prediction for this week, Rich?

Rich: This weekend sees a mixture of Premier League matches and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. There are some big matches in the FA Cup this week and, for me, the most interesting is Manchester Utd against West Ham. The Hammers are in great form and have had some great results at some of the bigger clubs this season. Slaven Bilic is doing a great job in his first season as a Premier League manager and you could argue that midfielder Dmitri Payet has been the best player in the Premier League this season. I’m going to go for a draw with West Ham to win the replay. In the Premier League, Man City and Spurs have comfortable looking games and Leicester will have to wait until Monday to play their game against Newcastle Utd. Leicester might start feeling the pressure soon but I can’t see Newcastle stopping them. Final scores: Manchester Utd 1-1 West Ham with West Ham to win the replay in teh FA Cup and Leicester City 2-0 Newcastle Utd in the Premier League.

Jack: Right, anyway that’s it for today - we’ve run out of time! Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to our questions, your predictions and anything you want to say 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!