In our Madrid Teacher series, three teacher discuss the advantages, and some disadvantages of cycling.
Watch the video through to get the general picture of what they are talking about.
Watch the video again. This time pay attention to the following features of spoken English:
- Active listening to show the person who is talking that you're paying attention: yeah; that's nice; oh, yeah
- Use of so as a linking word to connect ideas.
- Showing agreement: Yeah, exactly; absolutely
- Making yourself clear: I mean
- Checking that your interlocutors have understood: you know
- Showing surprise: Really?
- Giving yourself thinking time while you're talking: you know
-Vague language: And things like that
It's over to you now. Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of cycling for you, of any other means of transport for that matter. Try and use some of the features of spoken English which have come up in the video.
Erm, at Christmas I was in Chicago, and we went to a sandwich shop…
Yeah.
And as I was sitting there, in front of the window, I kept watching the food delivery cyclists coming and going, grabbing food and going to someone’s home and then another person. And I just thought, what a great job to have when you’re young and studying and...
So they were delivering the food by bike to people’s houses?
By bicycle, yeah.
So people phoned..., it’s like a takeaway.
Yeah, exactly. It was a sandwich shop, but they, the delivery people, would put it, the sandwiches, on their backs in a little hot pack, and... I thought it was great.
That’s nice.
For me that would be horrible, no? I’m not so athletic. I mean, the last time, as far as a bicycle, I had a job, hopefully I still do, when I was fifteen. The job I had, I had to get there by bicycle. So it was eighteen miles, bicycling, and there was…
Uphill, both ways.
…absolutely. There was a strip where there were these mean farm dogs, and they would wait for me every morning. So during that section of course, I went really, really fast whenever the dogs came by,
Oh yeah.
I’d pick up my legs, you know...
Yeah, it’s nice when your cycling and some got a dog and they hold the dog because they know that quite often dogs chase cyclists.
Exactly.
When I was a little girl my parents had tandems. So I would go in the back of a tandem. And if there was, it was my job if a dog came to squirt water at it. So I don’t know why...
Does that work? Does that frighten the dog?
Yeah, they run away, yeah. They don’t generally like to be...
What?
For me cycling is the best form of transport.
Really?
I don’t like cycling as a sport, but I... like, for me going from A to B and then back to A again by bike is best.
Yeah.
I used to live in erm, Bournemouth which is, it’s one of those cities in England that’s quite big. If you don’t have a bike and you don’t go get the bus you can walk, you know, it can take you a half an hour to walk into the centre and things like that. But on a bike it’s like five minutes.
Yeah.
That’s actually really good for parking.
My ideal is to live in a city that had bike lanes and…
Oh yeah, like Amsterdam.
Yeah.
Oh I love that city.
There are quite a few cities in England like Cambridge where they’re quite bike-friendly…
Yeah…
…they have bike cycle lanes and whenever they build new roads they always take that into consideration…
Yeah, separating it from the traffic,
Yeah.
Yeah, because there are some cities that it would be quite, like, scary actually to...
Yeah,
Absolutely.
Well when I lived in London I cycled a bit there, and they do have some bike lanes, and it’s becoming more bike friendly, but it’s…
It’s busy.
Yeah, it’s... dangerous sometimes.
But besides that, bicycling is really good for the environment,
Exactly.
That’s true, fewer cars.
Sweat, but, it’s good for you, more sweat but good for the environment.
It makes you healthy, and fit as well.
Absolutely.
Saving money on that gym.
