Extensive listening -The truth about alcohol

A&E doctor Javid Abdelmoneim is on a mission to find out the truth about alcohol.

In January, the government released its new alcohol guidelines. For men, the recommended weekly limit was cut by a third to 14 units per week, equivalent to about seven pints of beer, bringing it in line with the amount recommended for women. So what is behind the change?

This is just one question of many that Javid aims to answer as he explores the science of drinking and the new evidence for the health risks of alcohol. Why do some people get drunk quicker than others? What is behind red wine's healthy reputation? Is a nightcap actually good for your sleep? Does lining your stomach work? And can alcohol actually make you eat more?

Madrid Teacher: What's your favourite cocktail

A group of Madrid Teachers discuss cocktails and how to make them, which gives us a chance of going over the strategies native speakers use in oral communication.



What's your favorite cocktail and you’ve got a favorite cocktail?
To be honest it really depends on the situation and for me it comes down to what kind of liquor am I trying to drink, white or brown and if it's white I have to go a gin martini dry unless it’s bad gin then I’ll go to dirty, but if it is Brown it’s gonna be a Manhattan.
A Manhattan and so what's a Manhattan?
They call it the king of cocktails. It’s… nowadays bourbon although I think it started as wry and a little bit a red vermouth and so angostura bitters, a dashing too.
I'm not a big fan of cocktails but I generally have a screwdriver, you know, vodka and orange
It’s a refreshing drink!
Yeah! I actually looked it up on the Internet the other day, I was actually finding out about the origins of the screwdrivers. Engineers in the States they used to have orange juice in their break, their work breaks, and then they used to put in a bit of Vodka, engineers in their breaks seemed to have vodka, orange juice in their breaks and then they used to put in a bit of vodka and then they would stir it with their screwdrivers.
Oh, there’s the name!
Screwdriver, yeah.
Thanks man I’m going to remember that.
Next time you ask for a screwdriver ask for a real screwdriver too so that you can stir your drink.
What about you, Duncan?
I don’t know… and they've all got such funny names these cocktails. My favourite is probably a Bloody Mary.
Ah, that’s great in the morning.
Yeah, it’s a great one in the morning.
Do you have yours with Tabasco or Worcestershire sauce?
A little bit of tabasco, a little bit of Worcestershire sauce, tomato juice I do something, a stick a celery to stir it around.
Of course.
That’s a classic.
There’s just so many wonderful drinks with a… with gin, I mean, the Tom Collins is it a wonderful refreshing drink…
And it's quite funny that there’s different versions of the Tom Collins.
Yeah, of course.
… like the Juan Collins is like the same thing but with tequila instead of gin, I think that’s funny too.
Tequila is fantastic too.
And then the American Collins. They put fruit in it.
Fruit, and they keep the gin…?
That’s with gin but they add the fruit.
Okay, the American Collins and then the…
Never heard of that.
… sort of quite funny. And the John Collins is with bourbon.
Ah, okay.
I’d like to give that a try.
What’s the difference between a bourbon and a whiskey?
I was just about to ask that. I’m sure our American friends here will be able to tell us the difference.
I I know that there's something having to do with the, the distillation process but really the difference that you notice in the glass is the bourbon is a lot smokier because they use the American oak barrels to age it.
Okay.
And American oak is a burned oak rather than the French oak which is a lot smoother and older, so it
imparts a really different…
Because it’s got a very different taste.
Yes, they do, they are certainly worth.
Interesting.
Interesting.
So you’ve got a favorite cocktail?
Well the only the only thing I drink is a little bit of Bailey's with my coffee.
I do like Bailey’s. Bailey’s is good. Have you ever had an Irish coffee?
No, I haven’t had hardly anything…
Oh, you’ve got to try real Irish coffee.
…it’s all over my head.
The best Irish coffee I’ve ever had was sitting outside, it was in December, it was in a plaza, in a square… really, really cold day in the morning having an Irish coffee that was the best Irish coffee I’ve ever had.
Where were you?
In Segovia
The best Irish coffee you’ve ever had was in Segovia?
A bit strange, yeah. It was more the setting being outside and it was really cold, it was just like sitting outside in the bar, wrapped up and then drinking this Irish coffee. So it set me up for the whole day. It gives you that nice warm inner glow plus the coffee gives you a boost.
…coffee house this Irish coffee has in it?
It’s got whiskey.
Whiskey.
And this special and then cream I think there’s a special way of pouring the cream that is when you pour…
I used to work in a in a café, so I have actually made Irish coffee
Oh, tell us how to make Irish coffee!
So, yeah you will start with the whiskey at the bottom of the glass, add the coffee…
Yeah.
…and then the trick: if you get the cream in an empty plastic bottle, for example, shake it first so it’s slightly thicker and then pour it over the back of the spoon and it floats on the top, and that’s how you get the black coffee with the white flan on the top. Just shake it and....
I’m telling you it’s a killer drink.
And does the whiskey stay at the bottom, does it?
No, no, the whiskey mixes in.
It mixes in.
More shitty
I just saw, I just saw a photo the other day of Irish coffee and looked like the whiskey was at the bottom, the coffee was in the middle and the cream on the top.
Really?
Well maybe you don’t stir it, I’m not sure.

Madrid Teacher: Prohibiting the advertising of alcohol debate

In our weekly Madrid Teacher video four teachers discuss the convenience of prohibiting the advertising of alcohol to lessen the social problems alcohol brings about. Their conversation gives us the opportunity to get familiar with some of the features of spoken English native speakers use.

First of all, watch the conversation through to get the gist, the main idea, of what they are saying.
Now watch the video more carefully paying attention to the following features of spoken English:

• Conversation fillers to gain thinking time: Well, you know;
• Ambiguous language: all sorts of things; food stuff; something like this;
  a social, cultural thing
• Using pretty to emphasize the adjective
• Use of so as a linking word 
• Showing agreement: Well said; Yeah, I think it’s an excellent point; that’s a good point
• Expressing personal opinions: personally; to be honest;  I think
• Use of I mean to paraphrase what you have just said and make yourself clear. 
• Use of certainly to emphasize your ideas 
• Use of just to emphasize the verb 
• Use of actually to introduce a piece of surprising information 
• Reacting to information we've just heard: that’s great, that’s good 

Well, you know, I, personally alcohol is a big problem, particularly in England, you know, people binge drinking, you know, leads to violence and all sorts of things, you know, any British, any town in England on a Friday, Saturday night you’ll find loads of people, you know, getting into fights and…

It’s a problem.

… throwing up on the floor it’s pretty bad, and I think…

So the advertising causes that?

Well, you know, the more advertising there is the more people are gonna drink. Smoking advertising went so why shouldn't alcohol, and alcohol causes, you know, a lot of diseases and probably puts a big burden on, you know, the social security system, national health service…

So does ice cream, doughnuts you gotta do away with those advertisements…

Fast food.

All the fast food stuff.

Well said. But to be honest I can't ever support banning something like this. I mean, to me that just reeks of censorship and I think that, that's where society begins to crumble. People need to be respected for their ability to choose, and I certainly wouldn't blame any kind of binge drinking on advertising. I think the problem’s a lot more deep.

I think with something like alcohol or tobacco it’s different because they’re drugs, aren’t they, well, certainly tobacco was, and alcohol is addictive, you know, if you become an alcoholic you can’t control it, your drinking, so I think anything that reduces that or leads to less drinking is good, and I think, you know, if advertising it is almost like saying it’s a good thing.

Yes. I think the way that alcohol is advertised is a problem because it’s glamourised and it’s aimed towards young people a lot of time, which is what becomes the problem and I guess the wrong, it hits the wrong audience, which becomes a problem.

Yeah, I think it’s an excellent point.

Part of the problem in England is people just don’t know how to drink, I don’t know what it is like in Scotland, but…

I think it’s a social, cultural thing and I’m not sure advertising is going to change that.

Maybe they…

However, Alice’s point about the way it’s targeted and how it’s glamorized , that’s a good point, and I think that maybe could be regulated.

They have to have more of a responsibility, I think.

And simply the fine print at the end, please drink responsibly isn’t going to raise the image in your mind you have of those… the man and the woman meeting miraculously  over a nice drink of cognac.

Yeah. The gorgeous people, and the glamorous setting and… Yeah.

I heard that some companies are actually, drinks companies, are actually producing adverts that encourage responsible drinking. There’s one in England about showing a girl and she had, from her point of view, she had a great evening, but then you saw it from other people’s point of view…

Oh, that’s great, that’s good.

… she was like a real mess…

I’ve seen that.

… making a fool of herself.

Extensive listening: Coca Cola The Real Story Behind the Real Thing

CNBC's Melissa Lee goes inside the world of Coca-Cola to reveal how Coke has made itself the most recognized brand on the planet.

With unprecedented access, CNBC pulls back the curtain on Coca-Cola, the most recognizable brand on the planet. In an original one-hour documentary, "Coca-Cola: The Real Story Behind the Real Thing," CNBC's Melissa Lee reveals never-before-seen labs, secret archives and high-tech product testing. Cameras follow Coke's urgent campaign to reinvent itself after years of losing ground to arch-rival Pepsi in the race to develop new, blockbuster beverages. Meet the men and women whose mission it is to put the buzz back in the bottles and see how Coke gets its drinks into the mouths of people in the farthest corners of the globe. From the production line to "Cola Wars," discover the secret that makes Coke pop.

You can read the transcript for the first twenty minutes of the programme here.

The history of Johnnie Walker

As a follow-up to 29 December documentary on whiskey, here's a 6 minute film about the history of Johnnie Walker whiskey. It is played by actor Robert Carlyle and directed by Jamie Rafn, shot on location near Loch Doyne in Scotland.

The video is subtitled in English, but I include the transcript in case any blog followers want to find out the meaning of any unknown vocabulary item. Remember you can do so by double-clicking on the word you want to look up.



Hey, piper! Shut it! Here’s a true story about a young lad named John. Just a local farm boy, but there was something special about the lad, a glint in his eye, a fire in his belly, a spring in his step. And one day he went for a walk. Now, this walk began when his father died. The year was 1819 and he was just 14 years old. Bereavement counseling? Well, these were the days when young boys sent into the fields, the mills, the mines, tough times. But young John was smart enough to be lucky. His father’s farm, where he was born and raised, was sold and the proceeds used to open a grocer’s. Big responsibility for the wee lad. His own shop in Kilmarnock, with his name on the door: John Walker. Or Johnnie, as the world now knows him. Back then, all grocers stocked a range of local single malts, but they could be a wee bit inconsistent.

For John, that wasn’t good enough. He began blending different malts together as a way of offering his customers a consistent, unique product. Now, this back-room art quickly developed into a commercial proposition and a very profitable one. And because there’s nothing like a commercial proposition to stir Scottish heart, it grew quickly into an industry filled with ambitious entrepreneur distillers. John thrived in this environment, and so too soon would his sons, Robert and Alexander, who joined him on his journey.
The Walkers became the biggest name in a rapidly growing industry. They were unstoppable. In one bolt bit of 19th-century corporate raiding, they bought the famed distillery at Cardhu, lock, stock and… ensuring their supply of this silky single malt, and guaranteeing, more importantly, that none of the other big blenders could get their hands on it.

But young Alexander wasn’t content with being Scotland’s biggest blender. Not ambitious enough for him. No, no. He convinced the ships’ captains of Glasgow to act as agents for him, and drove the whisky bearing his father’s name across the globe. By 1860, he had developed the square bottle, now with a label at an angle of precisely 24 degrees. No big deal, you might think, but you’d be wrong. The acquire bottle meant less breakages and more bottles per shipment. The diagonal label meant larger type and together that meant Johnnie Walker had unmistakable presence on any shelf in the world. The bottle became an icon, and the rich liquid it contained sought after and consumed across the globe.

Quite a character, Alexander Walker. Master of the blender’s art, ambitious, uncompromising, Mr. Walker. It was John’s grandsons, George and Alexander II’s turn to join him on his journey. They led the brand into the 20th century. By 1909, they had developed the iconic Red Label and Black Label, and persuaded Tom Browne, the best young illustrator of the day, to sketch a striding man on a napkin during a business lunch. In the stroke of a pen, the Victorian grocer was transformed into an Edwardian dandy.

By 1920, Johnnie’s walk had taken him through 120 countries, and he continued walking through the brand’s advertising over the next 50 years, into the fabric of global culture, deep into the dark hearts of several wars, to the pleasure palaces of the aristocracy, immortalized by screen legends, celebrated by filmmakers, singers, songwriters, novelists, shoulder-to-shoulder with the great sportsmen of the age, winning countless international awards for quality and even being awarded the Royal Warrant by King George V. No going back after that. No that going back would even have occurred to Johnnie or any of his family.

By the end of the 20th century, the familiar Red Label and Black Label were joined by the Green Label, the Gold Label and, the grandest of them all, Johnnie Walker Blue Label. By the beginning of the 21st century, Johnnie Walker wasn’t just the world’s biggest whisky brand, but an international symbol of progress, the brand’s ‘Keep Walking’ mantra adopted by pro-democracy protestors and parliamentary speech writers.
What would the farm-born Victorian grocer have thought of all of this? He’d have loved it. A Victorian farm-born grocer he might have been, but he, and the family that followed him, were possessed by a fiery ambition, with the skill and intelligence to match. Two hundred years later and Johnnie Walker’s still walking. And he’s not showing any signs of stopping.