Today on the podcast Eucharia takes a quiz with Todd. She answers what she prefers for different situations. She talks about reading, drinking and other things.

Go to elllo.org and see Views #512 for the lesson.

Here is the transcript of the conversation:

Todd: OK. Eucharia, we’re going to play a game "Choices". I will say 3 things, you tell me which would you choose. OK, the first one - coffee, tea or water in the morning?

Eucharia: Water.

Todd: Water.

Eucharia: Yeah, when I wake up I usually have 2 glasses of water and then at the moment I’m trying not to drink coffee and not to drink caffeine so at the moment it’s water but if I were given a choice normally it would be coffee.

Todd: OK, how about at night time. You’re at a party, which would you rather have - beer, wine or a cocktail?

Eucharia: It depends on the party. If I’m going dancing, cocktail. If I’m going out eating, wine and if it’s just friends getting together, beer.

Todd: You’re on an airplane and you’re flying across the ocean. What would you prefer to read - newspaper, a magazine or a book?

Eucharia: A book, definitely.

Todd: Yeah, why a book? That was a very strong answer.

Eucharia: I love reading. I have to read every night before I go to sleep for maybe 30 minutes so I really enjoy reading and I find that I emotionally engage with the book and what’s happening in the book and I forget the fact that I’m on a 12 hour intercontinent flight.

Todd: OK, good answer. You have to choose between 3 seasons - summer, fall or winter.

Eucharia: Summer.

Todd: Summer?

Eucharia: I love sunshine. I love heat. I can’t stand rain which is why I don’t live in my home country and I don’t like snow.

Todd: OK, I’m with you on that. OK, next one. To pass the time at night you can watch TV, you can check the internet or you can watch a movie, a dvd. What would you prefer?

Eucharia: Probably watching a dvd because, yeah if I’m on the internet I’m on the internet at work and so I don’t want to go on the internet late at night because I start thinking too much and I can’t sleep.

Todd: OK, last one. You’re at the beach. Would you prefer to - play a sport on the beach, on the sand, go in the water and swim or surf or lie on the beach and get a tan?

Eucharia: Lie on the beach and get a tan! Yep, I’m from a country we don’t see a lot of sunshine so I still get very excited when I see sunshine. I’ll go to the beach and maybe I’ll go to the water and swim a bit but my favourite thing is to lie on the beach with my book and get a tan.

Todd: OK. Thanks, Eucharia.

Eucharia: You’re welcome.

In today's podcast, Daniel talks with Hana about her trip to Greece.

Go to elllo.org for the complete lesson for this audio.

Transcript of Conversation | elllo.org | #1259 Greek Vacation

Daniel: So we're talking about holidays. Is there any really, really good holidays that you remember?

Hana: Well, one of my favourite holidays was when I went to Greece a couple of years ago with my family.

Daniel: Wow, Greece, I've never been there. How is it? Sounds really, really nice.

Hana: Greece is a very beautiful country. The houses are ... everything is so white and the beaches are so beautiful.

Daniel: So what did you do in Greece?

Hana: Mainly I just relaxed at the swimming pool and at the beaches. And at night time I went shopping with my mum. And we had some really nice food too.

Daniel: Oh, that sounds really interesting, like the perfect holidays. So you said you went with your family, right?

Hana: Yes, I went with my mum and dad and brother.

Daniel: And for how long did you go there?

Hana: We went for four days. And when we went there was a big football tournament. And so everybody was so happy and excited. And at night times everybody will start dancing. And so me and my brother, we would join and dance with them.

Daniel: Cool! So did you get to see any of those matches of the tournament?

Hana: Yes, I went to see one match with my dad and I had so much fun.

Daniel: Oh, it sounds really cool, like really nice holidays.

Hana: Yes, it was one of my best holidays.

elllo.org 

In the podcast today we listen to Adelina from Spain talk with Chris from Belgium about her thoughts on Education in her country.

This podcast is lesson #1255 on elllo.org

Here is the transcript to the coversation:

Chris: So Adelina, I guess it's not polite to ask a girl for her age, but you must be more or less like me, 31, you're in your early 30s or maybe a bit less?

Ade: Well I just turned 34.

Chris: Wow!  Well you wouldn't say that.  Well, what's your profession, what do you do?

Ade: I'm a translator.

Chris: Oh wow, translator.  And how long do you have to study for that, let's say if you want to become a translator, how many years of study is that?

Ade: In that time it was five years, but now I think they cut it one year, so now it's only four.

Chris: Okay, right.  And generally not only university or high school, but generally the education system in Spain, you think it's good, you think it's a good system?

Ade: I don't know, I'm not into that anymore.   But I don't think it's good, I don't like it, no.  No, because I think there are so many things that needs to be changed because we need to improve our education system with the time.  We are in a technology era, okay, so I don't think they need to learn ... I don't know, the Second World War, you know, because it's not useful anymore.  So I think there is a lack of languages in Spain.  People don't speak languages at all, so they should focus a little bit more in teaching the kids how to speak another ... more foreign languages, you know.  Plus, I think also there is a lack of ... make the kids unique.  So you cannot teach everyone the same thing because each person has potential and special skills.  So I think the teacher shall be know a lot their students and focus on their abilities and their skills and try to grow them, to make the kid be ... I don't know, more talented, more creative and this world will be much better, I think.

Chris: Yeah, it's true.  Parents only want the best for their children and they choose for their children.  And when you talk about teachers, I mean teachers as well, they don' t... I don't think they care the most, I mean maybe in their first year, but when they are 10 years in teaching, I don't think they will really focus on one kid and saying, "Let's go talk to their parents because this kid really has to do this or that."

Ade: Yeah, I don't know, lately I see a lot of news that the children are aggressive and is the poor situation of the teachers, they become like victims.  But I think also that if the teenagers are aggressive it's because they feel lost, they don't know what to do with their lives. And that becomes frustration, and with the frustration comes the aggressive attitude, you know.

Chris: Yeah.  Well it's only now if you look in Spain, as you say, on the other hand people study ... parents put a lot of money in their kids to study and have their diploma and then finally they graduate, but there's no job or maybe shall we leave that for another time, this discussion?

Ade: Yeah.  But the thing is that it's too much theory and not practice.  So they need to practice what they're going to do in the future you know.  But I cannot save the world, so this is a topic, it really, really get out of my nerves.  So yeah, as you said, maybe just stop in this point.

Chris: Okay.  Well, thank you very much.

Shirley talks about a prank she played with her brothers as child. 

Go to elllo.org/podcast/ for links to bonus material 

(Start of Audio Script)

Hello, everybody and welcome to the podcast.

This is episode #2 - The Prank.

And in today's podcast we hear from Shirley and Yuri again. We heard them in episode #1 talking about the shack. Shirley is from Scotland and Yuri is from Italy. And today, we hear about a prank Shirley did as child. 

Now, a prank is like a joke you play on other people, and it makes you laugh, but maybe the people who you play the prank on, they don't know what's happening. So here, we're going to hear Shirley talk about a pretty good prank she did with her brothers when she was little. 

So let's go ahead and listen, and we'll come back at the end of the podcast.

(Start of Conversation)

Yuri: So, Shirley, we were talking about childhood memories. And you're from Scotland. Is there anything from your childhood that you can tell us?

Shirley: I've got a really funny story actually. Maybe I was about ten years old or something, and we used to have this little kind of shack in the countryside that we were dragged to every weekend, and away from civilization, you know, and no running water, no electricity. So we kids had to make our own fun. I've got my brothers, myself, and a couple of cousins, we would always go there at weekends or school holidays or something, and one of the highlights was to go to the Sunday School, the Sunday morning church service, and the reason ... one of the reasons this was attractive to the kids was because they bribed us to go there by giving us sweets when got there, so it was great. So we always went anyway. It was a church service for about an hour, singing hymns and stuff like that. Anyway, this one Sunday we arrived early, about half an hour early. There was nobody there. The church wasn't open yet, so it was, as most people know, it rains a lot in Scotland, so on that rainy day, we all were wearing our cagoules which is a kind a rain jacket with a big pocket in the front, and while we were waiting for everybody else to arrive, we started just kind of playing around in the trees. There was a little river nearby, and it was at the time of year when the tadpoles were turning into baby frogs, so we got this crazy idea to collect all these ... I'm talking hundreds of frogs were around, so we all got a big handful of baby frogs, put them in the big pocket of our cagoule, went off into church. So there we are, we're kind of in the middle of the crowd. You know, we weren't at the front of the back, kind of in the middle, and everybody's standing up singing the hymns, and really getting into, you know, the church singing and stuff like that, and then we decided that we would get the frogs out, so each of us, one at a time, one of us kids, one at a time kind of crouched down like we were tying our shoe lace, and let all of these frogs out of our pockets, so these tiny little frogs started jumping all over the church, and there's all these ladies in their Sunday best and started squealing and screaming and the minister didn't know what was going on, and he's trying to keep everybody calm, and we're just singing along with the hymn, you know, we're really innocent and they had no idea, cause they didn't see us do it, so they had no idea what had happened, and yeah, we got away with it. We didn't get told off, cause we didn't get caught, and yeah, when after the church service, you know, we had such a laugh after the church service, and yeah, that's one of my greatest childhood memories. Getting up to mischief with my brothers.

(End of Conversation)

So, what do you think? Was it a good prank?

I think so. That's pretty brave. Wow! Doing that in church? Man! I don't think I was that brave as a child to do something like that in church. I'm very impressed because that's a pretty good prank. 

What about you? Were you ever naughty as a child? Did you ever play a prank on anybody else?

As for me, I was a pretty good kid, but I idid get in trouble  a few times. Maybe in another podcast I might share my prank story. But for now, I think I'll wait. 

And as for today's podcast remember, you can go to elllo.org/podcast/ for links to this episode and many, many more. Also, remember at elllo.org there are thousands of listening activities especially made for English language students, like you to help you improve your English. 

We have many, many real conversations from speakers all over the world. just like Shirley and Yuri. And we have quizzes, vocabulary as MP3, videos and much much more.

So, stop by and learn anytime. And that's it for today. 

Thanks everybody. I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and we will talk to you soon.

In today's show we will here Shirley from Scotland talk about a special place she visited as a child. She talks with Yuri from Italy.

Visit elllo.org #998 by going here for multimedia and lesson activities. 

(Transcript of audio)

elllo, everybody, welcome to the elllo podcast.

today we are going to talk about summer, or summer memories.

We are going to hear Sharon from Scottland and Yuri and from Italy.

Sharon will share her memories of a special place she visited as a child.

Enjoy!

(Start of transcript)

Yuri: So Shirley, you were talking about the shack. Can you tell me some more about it?

Shirley: OK, well, the shack - not as horrible as it might sound. I was actually born in the city, and yeah, grew up on the edge of the city of Glasgow, and my parents ... maybe I was about seven or eight years old ... my parents decided they would buy this little wooden house in the country side, only about forty-five minutes drive from where we lived, but right in the countryside, and it was really basic. It was huge. It looked like a barn, and my parents wanted to try and make it into something livable like a holiday house that we could go to on the weekends and summer holidays and stuff, so anyway we went there ... for the first time we went, it still looked like a barn, and had some beds in it and stuff like that, but no running water, no electricity, no toilet, no bath, no shower. It was like a barn in the middle of nowhere, so as you know, me and my brothers, we are kind of raised in the city, and although, you know we were kids way before video games and iPods and things like that, there was no TV. That was the biggest tragedy. There was no TV, and we though what on earth can we do up here? It's like we're in the middle of nowhere, how boring this summer holiday's gonna be, so we just had to you know, try and figure out how we we're gonna enjoy this holiday and what could we do with no television.

Yuri: Yes, exactly, what did you do? How did you spend you days?

Shirley: We were out in the country side. I mean, you just need to go out and look, and there's so many possibilities to have fun: making tree houses, making dens out of the woodland ferns and things like that, going on searches for frogs. We seemed to do that a lot. Poor frogs. We made like a tennis court out in the front of the ... we called it the hut. Right, I keep calling it a barn or a shack, but actually what we called it was a hut, although it was a really huge kind of wooden house, and so yeah, we made up a kind of a tennis court and when it wasn't raining we could play tennis.

We had to go collect water from a well near like, I don't know, maybe four hundred meters away, and we'd always have to go in twos because of course there's always an argument with kids. I did it last time. He has to do it this time. So we always had to go in pairs to get the water. For lights we'd just use a gas lamps. For cooking it was a kind of two stove ... two ring stove, connected to a gas bottle. We did have television, which was powered by a car battery, so we would save that until Saturday night, because always on a Saturday night there was a movie, so we would save the car battery power for the Saturday night movie, and it would usually last until the end of the movie.

Yuri: So it was a bit like camping.

Shirley: Yeah, yeah, I suppose but like camping, only thankfully we didn't get wet when it rained.

(end of transcript)

And that's it for today.

Thanks for listening. This conversation is #998 on elllo.org

Remember you can visit elllo.org for 1000s of English conversation, all with a quiz and vocab support. 

Videos too! So stop by if you want to improve your English.

Thanks it for today. Thanks everyone! 

Talk to you later.