Teacher Joseph podcast
By Joseph Mc
Teacher Joseph podcastApr 19, 2024
#747 To be Rigged (with transcript)
So, if we say, for example,
We had an election today to vote for our Union leader but I honestly believe the election is rigged.
The job vacancy has been advertised in the newspaper but I believe it's been rigged. We all know who's going to win.
The football match was definitely rigged. I don't think the football players were playing in their usual way today.
The competition to win a holiday in the local newspaper has been won by an employee of that newspaper. That was definitely rigged.
So it says here, TV jobs at the BBC have been rigged. Now this isn't new, there's always been accusations against the BBC that women are paid less than men. I think that the BBC is such an old establishment that it's sometimes unaware of some of its practices. Despite evolving and changing there’s still accusations that the way it operates is sometimes rigged in favour of particular people based upon gender or cost cutting and of course once there's one accusation usually that prompts many others.
So the headline says, “TV jobs at the BBC. Rigged”. So let's read through this, it says:
“ Female BBC journalists have begun legal action against the broadcaster claiming a job application process was rigged”.
Full transcript: drive.google.com/file/d/1EAOtcKX3LOgmTEWRU5SaEV4pLLDDtzx9/view?usp=drivesdk
#746 What is Beltane?
#745 To Give the Heads Up
#744 At the Supermarket (with transcript)
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Full Transcript is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D0DDTVLAhyFZeXGa0qhpCjZ5Kz3N3n7M/view?usp=drivesdk
Extract:
Well I'm in the supermarket today. I'm not really sure that I have everything I want so I'm kind of wandering around here. Trying to make sure that I have everything. I decided to make an aubergine bake. So for that, I need some pasta, tomato sauce…. I already have the aubergine, mozzarella and herbs but um, yeah. I just feel something is missing. And, I just came from the coffee shop next door. While hanging over my decaffeinated coffee I was also contemplating my next project. Before you get too excited, it's nothing really exciting but I'm just considering making a few changes to my, my teaching practice and what I do or perhaps just incorporating more things. I haven't quite decided.
Oh, look at this… my goodness me olive oil. The price is £6.79 for olive oil. And, that's a little bit too expensive for me. I think that's virgin olive oil. But it still doesn't convince me to buy it.And I see there’s two two Arab men kind of hanging over the bottles, mourning the price and I'm not surprised. I'm also mourning the price when I see it.
Oh delicious what's (this)…. lovely raw jumbo king prawns. I love king, prawns…. in Spanish they're called Gambas, at least one variety is.I I love those. Um, I also love octopus but there's no chance of finding that here. What's this…. peppercorn smoked mackerel fillets oh no thanks ….covered in sugar. Um, Oh, mozzarella. Yeah, I'll definitely have some of this. Um, and also Greek yogurt. Yeah, I think that's really necessary. Uh,
Oh yeah, this is very interesting…. they have vegan cheese here but they no longer call it cheese, they just call it vegan. And because of that, Uh, you're supposed to recognise it so they put it in exactly the same pack as ordinary cheese. They sit it next to the cheese and they call it “vegan”, but recently, that's been a big debate about whether they can call it real cheese because it technically isn't, I don't know what it's made of, but if it's vegan, it's not dairy….
Oh delicious a roast whole chicken for £4.99. Yeah, but it's tiny. The weight is 0.8 kilograms,,,goodness knows what that is. I’d need to know that in pounds, but it looks tiny. What's this… vegan spreads? Oh yeah. This is supposed to be hummus but they can't call it hummus anymore because of our advertising rules. Anything vegan needs to have its own name. It can’t say vegan cheese or vegan hummus because that's not what it is.
Halloumi, I love that. Um, anyway yeah, I'm just wandering around here, so Uh, just to carry on with what I was saying. Uh yeah, I'm just contemplating my future when I was hanging over a cup of coffee this morning just thinking about …you know, we're all looking for new projects to be involved with So I'm just seeing what that looks like.
New hobby, maybe. Um, Or new project at work. I don't know, but I'll keep you posted on that. Oh delicious tuna steaks. Oh, I love those.
Um, Okay. Let me just describe what I'm seeing. I'm in a kind of like Warehouse supermarket. Um, everything is Uh, kind of packed to the ceiling in this place and it has like those low hanging fluorescent lights. And as I'm walking around I can see that It's quite busy, particularly the alcohol section. And it's only 11 A.M right now. Local time. Uh, So, it's a bit early to be thinking of those kind of things.
Yeah, very nice. So Oh, Nutella, oh delicious. I love that. That's that chocolate spread. I think it's Italian. It's lovely. Um, but I can't have any of it, but it is very nice. Oh delicious runny honey. £2.25. I don't know why that would be so expensive. I mean runny honey, is it not just, um, just from the bees.
But yeah all kinds of natural food’s expensive, isn't it? Oh, I'm just watching these two Arab boys, who were staring at the olive oil. They've now bought loads of biscuits. Um, Yeah, and Indian sweets as well.
#743 The Great Fire of London
#742 What is an OAP?
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Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17gxy9GKIHUbIDKpFoEvPVFFSm9VHD1QQ/view?usp=drivesdk
Extract:
Hello, everyone, and welcome again to another Teacher Joseph podcast.
(OAP is usually written as OAP - not O.A.P.)
Today, we are asking what is an OAP. An OAP is an old age, pensioner. Now, we never say the word “Oap” We always spell out the acronym, an OAP. And this is how we refer to older people.
It may be a pensioner in receipt of government benefits, but it might just be an older person who looks a little bit frail. Frail, just means maybe not as fit as once they were…. an old age pensioner, that's how we talk about older people,particularly those who are receiving the government state pension and are aged around 50, well, actually no 60, 65.
Yes, I think 65 is the earliest date these days you can receive the government benefit. Now, there's a headline in our newspaper today that talks about the rise of OAP shoplifters. Now, as I mentioned the other day, on this podcast, shoplifting is kind of a big thing in the UK now.
#741 To Pin the Blame (with transcript)
Transcript: drive.google.com/file/d/1W9EnBKIYszG2l9J0yani4uFjaKPRNWUL/view?usp=drivesdk
#740 Out for a Walk
#739 To Bow to Pressure
#738 What is Morris Dancing (with transcript)
Morris Dancing and other news from the UK. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dPY23DVZ6YZErRpDVfruh_vmVRWUEozdikQlqdLxRX0/edit?usp=sharing
As I mentioned, St. George’s Day can be a little bit controversial because the day is often
heavily politicized. English and British people generally are reclaiming their right to proclaim
themselves as Scottish or English rather than simply saying they are British.
Today in our media there's some pictures of some of the celebrations which took place
yesterday. There's Morris dancers... now Morris dancers are very specifically English traditional
dancers who sometimes appear when there's English... very specifically English celebrations.
It's like an English folk dance. Now, many people don't know this, but in the same way as you
have Scotland with bagpipes and you have Irish people doing river dancing and talking in Irish.
In England they have Morris dancers.
Now, this is often overlooked because it's not so well known. In a country, which is full of
diversity... English traditional things often get overlooked. Of course there's the traditional
English pubs. That's one thing which English people recognise as being something which
belongs to them but they do also have some dancing.
Morris dancers are usually men who wear white suits with some red sashes across their body.
They're often wielding white flags and have bells tied to their legs to make noises as they move.
We use the word “wield” when someone is handling a flag or a weapon or generally holding something. You might recognise that word from the headlines in the newspaper.
#737 Shakespeare's Birthday (with transcript)
#736 Stephen Lawrence Day (with transcript)
#735 What does Saga Mean?
#734 Sick Note Culture (with transcript)
#733 The Learning Process
#732 To be at Risk (with transcript)
More Brexit woes :-) https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Ra-c46fwU7GJ5qQEP62rKSWn5S1GZoj/view?usp=drivesdk
Today's phrase is “to be at risk”. To be at risk. And to be at risk, means to be in a situation where there's a possibility of something negative. A negative outcome, which could be dangerous orcould be illness or maybe it's just something, which will expose you to a particular event that youdon't want.Now, just to clarify, to be at risk indicates exposure to circumstances which you may finddifficult. Let's do some examples so I can explain a little bit more. It's always better when wemake examples.If you don't study English. Then the English that you have may be at risk.An investor putting all their money into one place is at risk of losing their whole Investment.A student, who's struggling with his studies is at risk of falling behind in school.A homeless person who's sleeping on the streets is at risk of catching an illness or violence orexposure to bad weather conditions.To be at risk. Now, let's just pick up for a moment on this issue of your English being at risk. Forthose of you who know me, I'm very into creativity. I'm very much into this idea of bringingEnglish alive but if you simply study grammar all the time, just to make your English good,you're missing out on the practical examples and because of that Your English may be at risk.It becomes dry and uninteresting because you've spent your time just studying the rules aboutit, It's like walking around the swimming pool reading a book about swimming. And then saying,“okay, I know how to swim”. But yet, when you're in the water actually doing the swimming, it's alittle bit better.So of course with your English if you're simply walking around the edge saying,” ah, yes now Iknow how to make the present perfect”. It's not really going to help you. Just picking up again onthis idea of swimming... walking around the swimming pool saying, “Now I know how to do thisparticular type of swimming, the back stroke or the front stroke”. It would be better if someonejust pushed you into the water and then you would learn quickly and more easily. So that's oneway in which your studies could be at risk. Also, your job might be at risk. If your boss tells youthat the company is having problems.Now, let's look at a few examples of “at risk” from the media.... one headline in one of ournewspapers today is all about Brexit. They’re saying that because of Brexit, UK drug shortagesare putting lives at risk. Now, when it says drug shortages, it means medicine. In AmericanEnglish and here as well we often call very specific types of medicine,drugs. And it says here“drug shortages are a new normal in Britain caused by Brexit”. And, one of the advisors to theGovernment is saying that we need to be very careful because a recent surge in the number ofdrugs unavailable is creating serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, The Health Service andof course, the people who take them. There's a number of warnings from drug companies, that'smedicine supply companies. About impending supply problems..... impending means somethingthat's just about to happen.Last year 648, drugs were unavailable and that's risen now to 1634. Now I don't think I've readthat properly so I'm going to read exactly what it says here because it's not last year.It's from2020. It says “the number of warnings, drug companies have issued about impending supplyproblems has more than doubled from 648 in 2020 to 1634 last year”. So, It's 648 from 2020,not 2023. And it's saying this is becoming quite normal now particularly for Diabetes, Epilepsy.And Attention Deficit Syndrome.So, I don't know what's going to happen. You know, many of us here in the UK have diabetes.So that's a bit of a big issue. To be honest, I haven't heard of any problems in supply, where Iam. But it's saying that these are impending... waiting to come in.
#731 Thorn in my Side
#730 National Joseph Name Day. (With transcript)
drive.google.com/file/d/16ZrQW0JlEjns4ZT6DJ_gn02PFejhugIP/view?usp=drivesdk
#729 To Trigger (with transcript)
#728 To be Crowned
#727 To be Held Up (with transcript)
drive.google.com/file/d/1x8YnkubhBa7BFKKC--RjIP8004_s2E1b/view?usp=drivesdk
#726 Describing a Street
#725 To be Strapped for Cash (with transcript)
#724 To Let Rip
#723 Me-Time (with transcript)
Transcript: drive.google.com/file/d/1hAeGXpTLP8-KxI25TQWc2799T47OdIRf/view?usp=drivesdk
#722 To Set the Wheels in Motion (with transcript)
Transcript: drive.google.com/file/d/1M6MOiD2O2J5waS3i3sRkB7yrLGS4dIiQ/view?usp=drivesdk
#721 Motivation
#720 All about Libby - The Library app
#719 Who Calls the Shots? (With transcript)
#718 Concrete Jungles
#717 Packed Out (with transcript)
#716 To Wade In
#715 To Stir Up (with transcript)
#714 Shadowing: Joining the Words (with transcript)
#713 Shadowing and Intonation
#712 Shadowing - Getting Started (with transcript)
#711 To Strike a Chord (with transcript)
#710 Walk or Walkabout? (With transcript)
Transcript: drive.google.com/file/d/1HAlrIKqbP6Hu0KZtO7vs7BlkppJ5q20f/view?usp=drivesdk