Elementary podcasts -> Podcast 07 Home -> Like to meet
This page has the online practice materials for:
LearnEnglish Elementary Podcast Magazine No. 07
Section 2 -I'd like to meet...
You can listen online or download the podcast at Podcast 07 Home
You can also get print versions of the practice materials below in our Podcast 07 Support Pack (pdf file - 372 KB)
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This section begins when the counter on your audio player is on (approximately) 02mins.32secs
Section 2 is based on someone talking about somebody or something they like. It helps you to practise speaking for a little bit longer – for example, when you're explaining something, or telling people something about yourself.
Suggestion: The best way to practise is with a friend who speaks English or is also learning English. However, if you can't find someone, you can send us a paragraph in English.
You listened to Muhammed talking about Dr. Muhammed Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner.
Can you think of a Nobel Prize winner that you’d like to meet? Or you could tell us about a famous person from your home town or city.
If you can think of someone, make some notes to answer these questions:
What's his/her name?
Where is he/she from?
Why is he/she famous?
If he/she won the Nobel Prize, when was it? What was it for?
If he/she isn't alive now, when did he/she live?
What do you know about his/her life?
Why do you like him/her?
Is he/she famous for other things too?
Do you admire him/her? Why?
What would you like to talk to him/her about?
What questions would you like to ask him/her?
Now put your notes together to write a paragraph about the person and why you’d like to meet him or her. Go to the bottom of the page to do this.
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Transcript
Tess: OK. In this part of the podcast we ask people a simple question – which famous person, dead or alive would you like to meet? And we ask them to explain why. So let’s say hello to this week’s guest, Muhammed from Manchester. Hi Muhammed. Welcome to ‘I’d like to meet’.
Muhammed: Hi Tess and Ravi
Ravi: Hi Muhammed. […]
Tess: OK. Now, who are you going to talk about today Muhammed – who’s the person that you’d like to meet – if you had the chance?
Muhammed: I want to talk about Muhammed Yunus.
Tess: OK. Off you go.
Muhammed: Well, he’s from Bangladesh – from Chittagong actually – that’s where my dad’s family came from – we’ve still got relations living there. And I think everyone knows his name now – since he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 – well he won it with his bank.
Ravi: A bank won the Nobel peace prize?
Muhammed: Yes. The Grameen Bank? Microcredit?
Ravi: Well, yeah, it sounds familiar.
Muhammed: It’s a bank for poor people.
Tess: Perhaps you’d better explain how it works Muhammed.
Muhammed: Well, it all started when he - Dr Yunus – he’s a professor of economics - he visited a village outside Chittagong, and he talked to a very poor woman – and he realised that she only needed a small amount of money – just a couple of dollars – and then she could buy materials to make things and sell them and earn money. She couldn’t borrow money from the bank because they didn’t believe that she would pay it back. He found more people in the same situation - think it was forty-two people in the village – and all of them together only needed twenty-seven dollars -- that’s all they needed to be able to start making money for themselves. So he lent them the money - and they all paid it back to him later. Then he went to other villages and did the same thing. So he started his own bank – the Grameen Bank – to lend small amounts of money to poor people, mostly women actually. That’s what microcredit means.
Tess: What kinds of things do they use the money for?
Muhammed: Well, a woman can buy a cow, and then she can sell the milk and pay to send her children to school. Or she could buy a mobile phone – the villages don’t have telephones – and then people can pay to use her phone. They aren’t expensive things – it just means that poor people can start to earn money. And now the Grameen Bank lends millions and millions of dollars to people.
Ravi: And they all pay it back?
Muhammed: Most of them yes – something like 99 per cent. And now countries like the United States and Britain are using the idea too, it’s all over the world - so – well, I think he’s brilliant – a real hero. That’s what I’d like to say to him.
Tess: Well thank you Muhammed. That was really interesting.
Muhammed: Thanks.
Ravi: There’s an old joke isn’t there – something about ‘a bank will only lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it’.
Tess: Well yes – it’s true isn’t it! I’d never really thought about it before.
Ravi: No, nor me.
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Continue to: Practice materials: Section 3: Quiz
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