28. Interview with a Native Speaker – The Weather

I talk to Chris from Ladbroke Grove about the British weather, and why he thinks foreigners should stop complaining about it!

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Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to another episode of Luke’s English Podcast. This episode is longer than I expected. At the beginning of the episode I say that it is just a quick episode – but it’s actually 45 minutes long… Never mind! Again – you’re getting a bit extra for your money (which is quite a lot considering this is a free service).

So, I interviewed Chris, who is one of the lads I play football with on Wednesday afternoon (a ‘lad’ is an informal word for a young man). Chris is a fairly typical lad from Ladbroke Grove in North West London. Here are his views on the British weather, and the weather in other countries.

Listen to the interview – do you understand everything Chris says? What do you think of his opinions? I explain most of the English he uses. You can also read a transcript of the interview below. Enjoy!

Chris uses a swear word (a rude & offensive word) in the interview. The word ‘shit’ is a rude word, so be careful if you choose to use it… (I’m sure you know all about the swear words by now, don’t you?)

Luke: Hi Chris
Chris: Hi
Luke: So, err, what do you think of the weather today?
Chris: It’s so shit considering it’s summer.
Luke: Ah, right, so, erm, is it normally like this then, do you think?
Chris: Well, in Eng… in this country it’s very unpredictable, because sometimes, actually most of the time recently we’ve been getting summer in our… summer when we’re meant to have winter, and winter when we’re meant to have summer. So, you can’t tell about the weather in England.
Luke: Right, ok. So, what do you normally do when the weather’s like this then? Actually, before you answer that question, how would you describe the weather today?
Chris: Very very dull, to put it, to put it… in brief.
Luke: Ok, alright. And what do you do when the weather’s dull like this?
b: Err, well I still play a bit of football because there’s no rain, but most of the time… but I do all different things, so…
Luke: Just give me an example of one of those different things.
Chris: Err, relax. Sometimes I play football.
Luke: yeah
Chris: Sometimes I go to the cinema
Luke: Okay
Chris: All different things.
Luke: Alright, well, thanks very much Chris. Do you have anything else to say to my class of students? from… they’re from all over the world. Any comments?
Chris: If you want to learn decent English, come to me.
Luke: Ok, alright so you heard it here first. Where can they find you Chris?
Chris: Err, Ladbroke Grove.
Luke: Ladbroke Grove, ok. So what, they just go to Ladbroke Grove and ask for Chris do they?
Chris: Ladbroke Grove… Ladbroke Grove Sainsbury’s and I’ll meet them there.
Luke: OK, well thanks very much, cheers.
Luke: Chris has realised that he does have something interesting to say. Erm, so you’ve got something extra to tell everyone?
Chris: Yeah, just about the weather. I think that people complain too much about the weather over here. Especially… foreigners. The problem is… yeah? …that in all the other countries, like Spain and… Australia… They’re full of sand because they don’t get any rain. That’s why in England… They get… England looks so nice, it’s got loads of green, and it’s… it doesn’t look like a desert basically, because we get a certain amount of heat, and a certain amount of rain, to… for the, for the plants to grow, and for the heat to dry [die] down a bit.
Luke: Ok, so are you saying that all foreign countries are like deserts?
Chris: Most of them yeah. Some, some… Not most of them, but, the hot countries like Spain, and Arab countries and China and India. They’re all basically full of sand because they don’t know what rain means, and that’s not good for the plants, and that’s not good for them either, because… because, you know, they can’t ever play football because it’s too hot.
Luke: Ha ha ha! Ok, are you serious or are you joking Chris?
Chris: I’m serious but in a jokey way.

[It started raining, so we talked a little bit more]
Luke: OK Chris
Chris: See? A perfect example of, you don’t know what the weather’s going to be like in England. That’s why it’s so special, this country. One minute it’s sunny, the next minute it’s raining, like now.
Luke: But some people would say that that’s a bad thing. That it’s rain… that it rains a lot and that’s not good. You know, because when it rains you get wet and, you know, it’s not very healthy, not very good for you, if you get wet. So why is it good that it rains a lot? What’s so good about that?
Chris: It doesn’t rain a lot, it just rains at the normal time. People just don’t understand that it gets boring, erm… hot… if you have hot weather throughout the year. And, you know, what’s there to look forward to? You go out, you wake up every day. You go out. You know, you wake up to it’s “oh, it’s too hot today, it’s too hot today” every single day you know what the weather’s going to be like. Instead, in in, over here, we, we wake up, we don’t know what it’s going to be like and we look forward to it, we prepare for it.
Luke: Ok, so it makes your life interesting.
Chris: Yeah, it makes it, makes it interesting.
Luke: But do you really look forward to rain?
Chris: Rain, you need rain to cool you down.
Luke: Ok Chris: And you need the windy weather to cool you down. But, it it it, when you’re hot, when it’s hot weather, you know, you can’t. You can’t cool down.
Luke: OK
Chris: You can’t. You’re always, you’re always agitated. You always get, you always get, erm, I dunno [don’t know].
Luke: Sort of… you get stressed because the heat is so… You know, when it’s so humid and hot you get stressed out and then when the rain comes everything cools down, you can relax and…
Chris: Yes, it’s less stressful, yeah.
Luke: Right.
Chris: And, you know, you look forward… Especially… And when it’s raining, you get to relax indoors. You get to relax indoors, watch a bit of TV, or do your own thing, whatever it is you do.
Luke: Yeah
Chris: But, I think people need to be more grateful of that over here. They complain too much.
Luke: Ah, ok. Alright, well thanks very much for all of your interesting comments Chris. I’m sure that all my students will be interested, err, to learn what English people really think…
Chris: And I hope they take it into account, what I just said about the weather.
Luke: Ok, thanks very much!
Chris: Ok, thank you, see you later…

That’s it! Listen to the podcast to hear me explain and talk about some of the things Chris said. What do you think? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.