We preview the new season, explain the idea behind this season of the podcast, introduce 2 new members of the team and outline some of the topics we will cover.
Transcript
DownloadMark
Hello and welcome to the podcast "English for Life in the UK". This podcast is intended for those people who want to improve their English by listening to native English speakers talking about a range of subjects, and at the same time, learning more about life in country.
This episode is previewing our new season: Season 3, of the podcast. You can find the previous two seasons - all the episodes are available on your usual podcast stream. In Season 3 we are going to continue along a similar line to previous ones, but with a bit more of a focus on interviewing people with a particular experience or interest, which we hope will be of interest to you, as listeners. And, at the same time, that means there will be quite a lot of interaction by the interviewer with the interviewee - the two people being interviewed [involved in the interview] and that will help you get a feel for that kind of a conversation, in natural English.
We've also got two new people who are joining the team that help to put together this podcast and you will hear their voices at times during this season, and I've got one of those with me, at the moment - and that is Elsa. So - hello, Elsa. How are you?
Elsa Oh, hello - I'm fine, thank you.
Mark Good - Elsa, tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself.
Else OK - well, I was born and brought up on Merseyside and worked for many years in Liverpool but now live in rural Calderdale. After studying International Business, French and German, I started my career in the Food Industry, always working in an international capacity, including for a farm-based business in rural Lincolnshire. In recent years, I've been running international business development programmes, advice and support for a wide range of food businesses around the United Kingdom.
All aspects of food interest me and I've been fortunate to travel to many parts of the world to try new kinds of food. This has also made me very aware that not everyone involved in the farming, production and consumption of the food we eat is treated fairly - both around the world, and even sometimes, here in Britain.
Mark That's really interesting Elsa and we will definitely explore some of those things you've talked about, with you, in future episodes.
Elsa I always like to think of myself as a 'global citizen' even if that sounds a little corny.
Mark No - I think that is a really interesting word and of course, our work at St Augustine's brings that idea of the world coming together - is kind of the core of some of what we're about at St Augustine's.
So - Elsa - you say you were born in Merseyside, which is the area around Liverpool, and then moved across to the Eastern side of the North of England. Would you say you've got a Northern accent? How would you describe your voice to listeners who are only just starting to become familiar with English?
Elsa Well, I most definitely don't have a Liverpool accent - I sometimes regret - but I was born on the Wirral which is the peninsula, just opposite Liverpool - and - some people call it the "posh bit of Liverpool". I suspect that is reflected a little bit in my accent in that it is ... but also because I have lived in many places and I have travelled a lot, I think my accent is often quite hard to pin down, although most people would recognise it as Northern.
Mark Yes - I think that's right - that's what I would say - as somebody with a essentially Southern accent - I would recognise you as having a Northern voice, but not a particularly strong local accent. And - my son-in-law actually was born and bred, brought up in Liverpool - and he has a very strong Liverpool accent - what we call "a scouse accent", and certainly yours is a softer version of that.
Music (04:45 Minutes: Seconds)
Mark So that was one of the new members of our team - Elsa. And I'm now joined by another one of those - Peter. So hello, Peter - how are you?
Peter I'm very well, thank you Mark - lovely to be here.
Mark Nice to have you with us and as part of the team. Tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
Peter Sure. So - my name's Peter Cawdron. I'm retired - I retired about 3 years ago - live just outside Halifax and I've lived in the area for about 22 years. So I'm thoroughly enjoying my retirement. I'm involved with two or three local charities with various sort of voluntary roles. I've been involved with St Augustine's for about four or five months.
Mark
That's great, Peter. Tell us a little bit about what you did do, when you were working. What was your area of work?
Peter
So, I started off working in banking for a number of years - I then moved into insurance and for the final, nearly ten years, I was working in the Civil Service, so possibly not the most exciting career pattern that you could imagine. But it did give me the opportunity to - particularly when I was in banking - to .. we moved around a bit. So I had the pleasure of spending about 6 years in France, 3 years in the United States and also a few months in Bermuda. So the time before Halifax, was arguably, a little bit more exciting than the last 22 years.
Mark
So - whereabouts were you born, Peter?
Peter I was born - I have to say this very carefully because I was actually born on the other side of the Pennines - so I was born in Altrincham. I was brought up around Stockport until I was 16. In my defence, my wife is from Yorkshire. And as I say, I have lived here for 22 years as well as previously going to university in Bradford as well, so I like to think I can fit in locally, as well.
Mark Thanks, Peter. I'll just explain to listeners who aren't local - Peter is referring there to kind of an old rivalry that there is between Yorkshire, which is on the eastern side of the North of England, and Lancashire, which is on the western side. In past history, there was actually war between the two - more recently, it's rivalry over sport and other things of that sort. So, that was Peter referring to that.
I would say Peter that you have an accent which is Northern but not distinctly either Lancashire or Yorkshire - just listening to you, in that way.
Peter I think that's probably right. And that's actually how I view myself as well. I definitely view myself as someone from the North of England, but not particularly aligned to either East or West of the Pennines.
Mark Peter - just tell us a bit about your interests - have you got any particular areas of interest, any hobbies, any sports that you are involved in? Anything like that?
Peter In terms of involvement in sport - I go running and also do a fair amount of walking. In fact, my first involvement with St Augustine's was as part of the "Walk and Talk Group", that we run, every few weeks. So my wife and I do enjoy getting out walking locally, just to take advantage of the glorious countryside in and around Calderdale. I go running as well, a little bit. Very slowly - I only took that up about 8 or 9 years ago. I mean I enjoy watching sport - I will watch almost any kind of sport. Other interests, as I say: I'm involved with a couple of local charities in Halifax, as well.
Mark Thanks, Peter. Well, I'm sure we will be picking up on some of those in episodes in this Season. Particularly that "Walk and Talk Group" which we will explain to people, how that works in a future episode and talk a bit about that.
OK - well, thank you very much, Peter and we look forward to hearing your voice in future episodes.
Peter Thank you very much.
Music (9:30)
Mark So, those are two new members of the team. For those of you who have listened to this podcast in the past, you will recognise at least three other voices involved in this Season. First of all, my name is Mark and I've been the organiser and editor of this podcast since the beginning. I've been greatly helped in that by Christine and also by Sheena and you will hear their voices during this season as well.
So as I said, at the beginning - the intention for Season 3 is that we will do interviews with people with experiences and interests which we hope will be stimulating for you, as our listeners.
The idea is that you will get lots of experience of listening to different native speakers talking about a range of different subjects.
Amongst the things we are intending to cover in Season 3:
We are going to talk about the Health System in this country. Elsa is going to interview some people about food and farming. We're going to interview people with an interest in education and the school system; also local and national government. We are hoping we will get to interview our local MP and somebody from the local Council.
We want to introduce you to some other charities, in this area, as well as telling you more about our own work. We want to cover tourism; we want to interview some interesting people to talk about sport, leisure, and a number of different aspects of the arts.
So, that gives you a flavour of the areas we hope to cover, and we hope you will join us during this Season.
This podcast is produced by volunteers from the St Augustine's Centre in Halifax, in Yorkshire. We are a charity that provides support in particular to asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants. You can find out more about our work, how to support us and also you can find all the previous episodes of this podcast, and the transcripts, including the transcript for this episode, on our website:
www.staugustinescentrehalifax.org.uk
I'll spell out that address for you:
s-t-a-u-g-u-s-t-i-n-e-s-c-e-n-t-r-e-h-a-l-i-f-a-x
That's it for this preview, but we will be back with the first full episode of Season 3, in a short period of time.
Until then, take care of yourselves, and keep practising your English. Goodbye.
(Music) Ends (14:02)
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