Hello, hello! Welcome back to the English Like a Native podcast. I'm going to be honest with you, this is literally the 19th attempt at recording this podcast. I have a little problem. I am a perfectionist and it has to stop because I've literally wasted a good half hour sitting here trying to record this podcast. Every time I make a slight error or I say something in a way that I don't like, I stop and I start again and I throw away everything that I've done, no matter if it's partly good, mostly good, I just chuck it in the bin and hit restart. It's not very productive. And I think we could all learn a lesson from my perfectionism. We could learn that you can be more productive if you just get out there and do it and stop worrying about what everyone else will think. So I need to take my own advice and just record, just put it out there. So you are holding me accountable right now. I will let this go no matter how I feel about it. So hello, thank you for tuning in. My name is Anna, and today we are learning English through story, of course. And our story today is based around the idea of George and the Dragon. That legend, that legendary story, George and the Dragon. Why? Because in April we celebrate St. George's Day in England. We don't do very much. There will be some community get-togethers. Lots of people will fly the St. George's flag or the English flag, which is the white background with the red cross, St. George's Cross. And that's because St. George is our patron saint. Which is odd because St. George never visited England. But we chose him to be our patron saint because he represents qualities like courage. And uh and we quite like that. So that's why we chose him to be our patron saint. And so on the 23rd of April, we celebrate Saint George. Now, today I'm going to be reading you a very long story based around the legend of George and the Dragon. Loosely, loosely based around it. But all I want you to do is sit back, relax, and listen to the story. Immerse yourself in the story. If you'd like to take your learning further and drip feed this story in a way where you can really get to grips with the language in a five-a-day format like we've done over the past few seasons on this podcast, then you can do by becoming a plus member. Everything will be set out for you with a podcast every day from Monday to Friday, breaking the story down, giving you very specific vocabulary and questions around that vocabulary so you can really get to grips with it. So if you want to do that, you can by becoming a plus member, but otherwise, just enjoy the story. Here goes. Then one day he began connecting them. And just like that he had scales. George didn't have scales himself, he had scales in the sense that they were there in front of him, under his control on paper, or sometimes on a wall or on a tabletop or anywhere he happened to find a blank surface. Once he covered his entire school desk in scales. He was lucky to have an understanding teacher who came up to him and asked where the head and tail were. George didn't understand at first, but the teacher explained that as the table had four legs, and the surface now looked like a dragon's body, he thought there should also be a head and a tail. And wings too, for that matter. George didn't know what to say. It wasn't long before George's own dragons started emerging, and once they did, they simply kept coming. He wasn't a naughty boy, far from it. He observed the other children a lot, but he didn't find it easy to join in with things. He was happier at home with his parents. He loved being in the kitchen watching them prepare meals. He enjoyed being in the garden too, and he was happy to do some of the jobs there like weeding and planting. He liked choosing places for things, and over time he learnt which seemed the best positions for the plants, depending on how much sun or shelter they needed. He also loved being in the car with his parents. He didn't speak much, but sometimes he would pipe up and ask them to drive around without going anywhere in particular. He watched the movements of their hands and feet as they drove, navigating the changing scene that he could see through the windscreen. One day, on the way to school, George closed his eyes and followed the familiar route in his head. As his mother drove, he felt that he knew exactly where he was at any given moment. He opened his eyes occasionally to check, and sure enough, each time he was right. As George went through primary school, he relished being a materials monitor. He always kept things neat, tidy, and accessible. Whenever he noticed that some paint brushes were missing, he would go straight to the sink to find them. And he checked the bins first whenever he had to look for scissors and glue. If other children were still using something, he didn't rush them or ask them to finish quickly. He simply stood nearby and collected the materials when they were ready. He still drew a lot, and his dragons were becoming more sophisticated. Drawing them didn't get in the way of his learning. He kept up with his schoolwork well, and he finished his homework quickly so that he could do something else at home. One of his other great joys was watching TV series with his parents. They showed him the programs they had watched when they were younger, such as The Prisoner, Doctor Who, and Star Trek. As a result, he experimented with other creatures when drawing. When he was in his last year of primary school, he and his parents went on a week's holiday to the seaside. There was a go-kart track there. George saw that children were allowed to drive, and his parents noticed the wonder on his face. They took him to see about letting him drive. An instructor showed George how the steering worked. The cart did not have gears, and it seemed much simpler than a real car. George soon sat behind the wheel with confidence, driving around the circuit and preparing for each bend so that he could position himself well for the straight sections of the track. His parents were delighted, and they took George to the track the next day. He went through the same process as the day before, but after a while he did something surprising. Just like the day in his parents' car when he closed his eyes and predicted where he was. He closed his eyes again. But this time he was driving. He completed a lap, then stopped and got out of the go-kart. He didn't say much, only that he had finished. His parents were used to George by now, and they took it in their stride. They did other things and had a nice holiday, but George didn't ask to go back to the track. George was not very good at making lots of friends, and he did not make any effort to get involved in large groups. People didn't speak like they did on TV. They were always changing the subject before he had finished thinking about what was being said. He was happier watching and listening than joining in, and other children sometimes thought he did not like them. But George just felt more comfortable keeping his distance and working things out in his own way. He finished primary school without any drama, but when he reached secondary school, things weren't the same. The main difference was that at primary school the teachers were nice to him about his drawings. At secondary school, they tended not to be so understanding. It seemed to be something which was very important to other people, although George didn't really see what it had to do with them. It felt to him that everyone was looking at him, and he reflected this in his drawings. He drew huge, staring, questioning eyes for his creatures, and sometimes just drew the eyes on their own in the margins of his textbooks. He started to get absorbed in the different kinds of eyes that people, animals, and androids have. Sometimes he would draw wide, round, alert eyes, like those of an owl. On other occasions he drew eyes that were steady and calm, like Spock in Star Trek. But he also drew sharp, prying eyes, and even eyes on stalks like those of the Daleks in Doctor Who. At the end of the first term, the head of George's year reviewed his school report. The subject teachers brought up George's drawings as an issue in almost every case. A couple of teachers described the drawings as being disturbing. Another claimed to feel reluctant to open George's books to mark his work because of all the eyes staring at him. So the head of year sent one of the school's few classroom assistants to observe George in some of his classes. George wasn't in the classroom when she arrived, though. He'd been sent to the supply cupboard to fetch some material by the teacher who felt most uncomfortable about George's eyes. The classroom assistant took the opportunity to explain briefly what she had been tasked with. The teacher quickly left the students with some work to get on with on their own and took her into the hall to give her some background. George, the teacher said, has not had the easiest start to the school year. It began with the wall display that we created as a getting to know each other exercise in the first couple of weeks. The students pinned up their collages, paintings, poems, and other ways of introducing themselves. It was meant to be informal with a focus on expression rather than precision, so it was a bit messy, you know, uninhibited. He hesitated. George came back at lunchtime and rearranged the entire thing. In what way? The assistant asked. He just rearranged things in his own way. I couldn't get him to tell me his logic. True, it looked like there was more harmony, more balance to the display. I suppose it was his way of introducing himself as he just spent the preparation time drawing dragons and robots. But as the kids were allowed to put their work where they wanted, some of them were upset that he had moved it. The classroom assistant kept listening. He didn't seem to understand why it mattered to the others, the teacher continued. When it comes to group work, he just sort of watches and listens, barely says a word. The other kids don't really want to have him in their group because he doesn't contribute. To be honest, I think he needs to be seen by a professional. Is he uh disruptive? asked the classroom assistant. No. As I said, he's quiet, patient, but the other kids think he's judging them. One boy told him not to touch his stuff or else. And how did George respond? The classroom assistant wondered. He went back to his seat and started drawing all those eyes again, the teacher said. I just left him to it until the end of the lesson. I've never seen anything like it. When the classroom assistant found George, he was drawing. As far as she could understand, he was just testing the colouring pens to see if they all worked. George's next lesson was PE, so the classroom assistant took George along to the sports equipment cupboards. She asked George to go in and choose something for the P class to do. George found this odd but not challenging, so he looked around. The rugby balls caught his attention for a moment, as their shape reminded him of a cat's eyes. The various gloves and mittens didn't appeal to him, as you couldn't draw wearing those. There were also some nets that did not interest George either. He rooted around in some boxes of game pieces, things for rainy days, and came up with a set of table tennis balls. He lingered over them, and the classroom assistant asked him to pass them to her. She took one and bounced it on the floor. She had to stoop a little to gather the ball as it didn't bounce very high. She bounced it again. George watched her. She seemed to be happy enough, so George didn't mind. He found it quite fun and began to smile faintly. The classroom assistant bounced one towards George. He wasn't ready, and it hit him on the leg and rolled off under the shelves. Oh don't worry about that one, she said. But it did bother George. There had been a set of six in the box, and now there would be one missing, so he went to hunt for the ball. He found it under the shelves and pulled the ball out. Shall we put it back in the box? asked the classroom assistant. George thought that if they did that then he would have to go back to the classroom. So he bounced it on the floor himself, trying and failing to catch it. He chased it as it rolled away from him, and he tried to stop it with his foot. He managed to step on it by accident. Here's another one, said the classroom assistant. Let's bounce it to each other. George accepted the offer. He was a little worried that the teacher who didn't like him would be angry with him for not bringing the materials, but George hoped that he wouldn't mind his absence too much. They bounced the ball to each other for a while until the classroom assistant deliberately stepped on the ball and squashed it. George was shocked. He worried that he might get the blame for damaging school property. She removed her foot, saying, It looks like the other one now. Yes. Like two eyes, George agreed. Nice to hear your voice, George, said the classroom assistant. George looked at her, then looked away and down in a flash. You've given me an idea, she said. When it was time for PE, the assistant came to George's class. Would you mind if I took George away for a while? she asked the PE teacher. George looked at the teacher hopefully. The teacher gave their silent approval, and so George went off with the assistant. They went to the table tennis table, which was set up in the games area near the school canteen. Many of the school children went in there after lunch, but George never did. He was much happier to go to the library and read or draw or do his homework. The assistant gave him a paddle. Here, she said, Imagine you are drawing lines in the air with the ball when you hit it. Doesn't matter where the ball goes, the lines are invisible to everyone else. George hit a few balls in the direction of the table. Some landed near it, some didn't. A couple even landed on it. The classroom assistant said to George, You can see the lines, can't you? He could. Some were long and straight and flat, others were up and down. One or two he didn't see because he somehow managed to hit the ball behind him. Let's use the lines, said the classroom assistant. Hit the balls to me. She stood at the other side of the table to George, with the net in between them. George hit the balls over the net towards her. She didn't move her feet. She only tried to stop the balls if they came within the arc of her swinging arm. When George had run out of balls, she took one and hit it gently back to him. It bounced four times on the table. George stopped the ball, took it in his hand, and hit it back. This carried on for a while. George kept concentrating until the bell rang for the end of the lesson. Do you want to do this instead of PE? The classroom assistant asked George. Okay, he replied. Great, she said. I'll see you on Friday afternoon. The next morning, before leaving for work and taking George to school, his parents stepped into the garden. The sun was on the rise, but the air was still cool. Light was easing across the chrysanthemums. George was getting his things ready. His mother stopped near the flowers. Oh, they're doing well here on these stands, catching the first of the light. George's idea, his father replied. Not just putting them in the sun, raising them into it as well. He thinks differently that one. George's mother wondered aloud. Where does he get it from? If I knew that, I'd be a genius, joked his father. So not from you, then? His wife laughed. Absolutely not. He smiled. Well, at least the school's trying, joined. George's dad continued. Yes. Trying something different with one of the assistants, his wife said. Taking him out of PE. George's dad joked again. Taking him out to help him join in. Something like that, responded his mother. George's father moved across to the leeks and looked at the neat row of blue green leaves standing patiently firm. He joins in. Just not in the usual way. No, his wife agreed. Can't be easy, though. New school, new people. George's father pressed the soil gently around one of the leeks. He just needs a bit of looking after, that's all, he said. George's mother glanced towards the house and asked. I don't know, his father answered. She seems to have got him interested in ping pong, so I suppose you can't play that on your own. George appeared in the doorway with his school bag over one shoulder. He looked at his mother and father. Just look at the chrysanths, George, exclaimed his mother. They're happier there, aren't they? His father called lightly. George nodded once. Can we go? he asked, turning back into the house. His parents followed together a few seconds later. After lunch the next day, George changed a habit. He lingered at the doorway of the games room watching the other kids play their competitive games. Winner Stays On was the popular one, where the first player to win two points stayed at the table and played another game, while the loser gave up the paddle and waited in line for their next turn. George observed for a while, counting the points and trying to understand who was winning and why. He thought about the classroom assistant just standing there and not trying to hit the ball back. Why did she not try to beat him? It didn't really matter, George supposed. There were only two of them, and they both stayed on regardless of the points scored. He was sure that the classroom assistant was very good at table tennis, though, and that she could play better than all of George's classmates. George continued drawing. Pages and pages of table tennis balls this time, with lines between them to show their direction. He could only draw them in two dimensions, as the sideways movement was impossible for him to represent, so only the height and the distance changed. Drawing the balls wasn't as engaging as hitting and stopping them, but it helped George to stay connected to the experience. On Friday, true to her word, the classroom assistant came to George's P class. This time George had had to change into shorts and a t-shirt. The classroom assistant took George to the table, took her jacket off, rolled up her sleeves, and seeing George's shorts, rolled up her trouser legs too. It wasn't that easy, but she managed by doing slow turn-ups one after another, until her trousers were just above her knees. You start, George, she said at last, and George started trying to hit balls towards the classroom assistant. He understood that he had to hit the ball over the net, but not too high, so that it would drop onto the table on the other side. I think you've been practicing, the classroom assistant said, to encourage George. In a way, he had been. He'd been watching the other kids in the games room, and he had drawn hundreds of balls in motion. As before, the classroom assistant picked the balls up one by one and hit them back to George, who tried to stop them. Don't stop them, she said. Hit them. She hit the balls close to George's paddle, but George was not used to this. He swung either too soon, too late, or not at all. His frustration was growing, so the classroom assistant hit one ball high into the air. They watched it rise and fall, land on the table, bounce over the net, and rise again and again, each bounce lower than the last. George suddenly seemed to remember what he was supposed to do. He struck the ball in the middle of the paddle and sent it straight across the table, into the wall behind her. Wow, said the classroom assistant. Let's do that again. She hit another ball high into the air. It came down as before, bouncing once, twice, three times before George swung his paddle and sent it straight into the bottom of the net. Oh, so you can do different things, smiled the classroom assistant. Tell you what, try to think of the paddle as if it were just an extension of your body, like a wing. A wing? Like a dragon's wing. George took a few swings of the paddle without the ball, and he felt his arm moving more freely than ever. The classroom assistant told George that she had to go somewhere else for a few minutes, but asked George to help her move the table tennis table first. They picked it up and carried it, setting it against a plain wall. The classroom assistant removed the net and hit a ball against a wall so that it bounced back onto the table. You can stay and hit on your own for a while, can't you? she said. Yes, said George, nodding and swinging his arm again. George started hitting balls. The way to keep going, he soon realized, was to try to hit the ball in such a way as to make it as easy as possible to hit the next one. When the classroom assistant returned, she stood and watched George hitting the ball until the bell rang. George's drawings were changing again. His scales were somehow more dynamic, his wings were sharper, his bodies had more dimension to them, and his eyes were more focused. The flames from the mouths of the dragons were drawn with greater intensity, and the legs of the dragons were more substantial and better defined. They looked as if they would actually support the bodies if the dragons were real. George was looking forward to the next PE session with the classroom assistant. He had taken it for granted that they would continue. So he was disappointed when she did not come to the next session or the one after that. The next time that George saw the assistant was during the combined music, art, and drama class. George didn't have a particular interest in music, and apart from drawing dragons and other creatures, he wasn't exceptional at art. When it came to the drama sections of the classes, he made sure that he hid himself as well as possible in order to avoid being called up in front of everyone. He listened, though, to whatever the teacher explained or demonstrated. Sometimes the class watched a short section of a professional TV performance on their screen in the class, and the students had to reenact it. Typically, they would be challenged to think of a different setting to perform the same part of a story, and they were allowed to change the script according to the new setting. This was supposed to get the children thinking about interpretation and help them connect better with the subject. During this particular lesson, the classroom assistant came over to George's group while they were preparing a scene. Hello, George, she greeted him with a smile. What are you working on? George was not a great contributor to the dialogue discussions, and he hoped that she had come to take him to play table tennis again. He looked at the classroom assistant hopefully, without replying. Come with me, she said. You too, Megan. She took the two children across to the staging area. There were various items of furniture, scenery, clothing, and other objects that the kids could use however they saw fit. We need to set something up, she said. Imagine a short scene taking place in a small room. Two people waiting for someone who has not yet appeared, but who will arrive later. There was a table near a wall and a couple of chairs beside it, and a window close by. George moved the table and chairs further away from the window. Then he rotated the table ninety degrees. He went and stood in front of the window and looked at the new arrangement of the table and chairs. Megan hadn't moved yet. She asked him, Why did you do that? The window is the background, he answered. But we don't know what the dialogue is, said Megan. George didn't respond. He just went over to the table and moved one of the chairs slightly further away from the table. Aren't you going to ask me what I think? Meghan said crossly. George looked at the classroom assistant. She turned to Megan. What do you think, Megan? she asked. I think we need to know what the characters are going to say, Megan replied. What do you think about that, George? asked the classroom assistant. George looked at her and thought back to the last session of table tennis where he ended up hitting the ball to himself. He was trying to make things easier for the next shot so that he could continue playing. I'm making things easier, he said, and sat down in one of the chairs. What do you mean? continued the classroom assistant. The window is a stage, said George again. Megan got up and stood in front of the window. So why don't we put the table in front of the window? she asked him. Um because we need two stages window and table standing and sitting, movement and uh George couldn't think of the word. He didn't have time to think. The drama teacher came over to them. Is this all you've done? she exclaimed. Megan, can you get the props bag, please? The others are ready with the script. Later that day, the classroom assistant and the head of year met with George's parents. Since George had, for what felt like the first time, put some of his own thoughts into words during the drama class, the idea was raised that he might benefit from attending theatre classes after school. It wouldn't be easy to get him accepted, though, as he did not seem at all interested in performing. His parents had arranged a meeting with the organizers in order to try to overcome this hurdle. They explained the ideas that George had shared during the drama class, but the organizers wanted to talk to his drama teacher. She, however, had not been sympathetic to George. She wasn't happy when she heard what George's parents had to say, and she refused to meet the organizers. She felt that George's parents were challenging her authority and saying that she wasn't a good teacher. Of course, they weren't saying anything about her at all. They just wanted George to be given a chance in a different environment. The classroom assistant was happy to help, though. She went with George's parents to another meeting with the organizers, and she told them about the work that she had done with George at the suggestion of his head of year. They were reassured that someone from the school could support what George's parents were saying, but they didn't really want to get involved in causing problems at the school. However, one of them commented that one of the things that took a lot of time at their work was getting the stage ready and doing the set transitions between the scenes. Perhaps George could help with that. And so, twice a week, one of George's parents drove him to the theatre club. The route became another familiar path for George to observe. He spent much of his early time with the theatre group watching and helping with simple tasks, fetching and moving props and scenery when asked to. He understood that he had been given an opportunity because he had expressed himself. He realized that people were constantly asking each other questions, and he himself contributed by asking questions whenever it felt right to him. He kept the idea of making things easier in his mind, and instead of drawing, he now started making notes. His notes were question based. Every time he watched a rehearsal or an experiment, he asked himself questions such as what did they do? Why did they do it? Was it good? Was it right? Who did what? How did they do it? Who was watching? George felt that it was just like hitting the table tennis ball against the wall. He could ask the questions and there would always be another one that he could ask to keep things moving. George's parents must have realized the value in this. At the end of his first month, there was a surprise waiting for him at home. His parents had bought him a real table tennis table. At school he realized that he could be useful if he asked questions during group work. Although some of his classmates found it annoying that he seemed to have no answers, only questions, at least not everyone tried to avoid him now. Megan was one of a couple of kids that sat with him at lunchtime and they studied together in the library. His dragons more or less disappeared, as did the eyes. And this gave George a sort of second chance with the teachers, who were relieved to not have to be confronted by them. As well as this, George was not interested in mobile phones, so he never caused any problems on that score. He seemed to have found his place, and he worked conscientiously, if not spectacularly. George went through the second year at secondary school without drawing any more unwanted attention to himself. George had become more involved in the kitchen at home. His parents could usually expect dinner from him twice or three times a week, especially on an evening when he wasn't at the theatre group. He made use of the garden produce, preparing vicy soirs from the leeks and experimenting with salads using the lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes that he had cultivated himself. He used the table tennis table with his parents. They played winner stays on too, but this was only really so his parents could take regular breaks. George was now consistently able to hit the ball onto the other side of the table and win the points. He had had to choose what subjects to study for his GCSEs in the third and fourth years of secondary school. Would he carry on into further education with a view to going to university? What would he need to study if he did so? And what would he do if he didn't choose this path? George was lucky that his school offered food preparation and nutrition as a course, so he could take advantage of the growing and cooking skills that he was already demonstrating at home. Of course, he wanted to study drama too. In order to do this, though, he would have to work under the teacher who had refused to help him get into the theatre group. At the start of the first class of his third year, the teacher stood in front of the group and spoke. What is drama? she asked rhetorically. Drama is not only about moving on a stage or saying lines from a script. When people watch a performance, they are not simply watching what you do. They are trying to understand what you are saying and why you are saying it. Sometimes that understanding comes from the way you stand or the way you move or the distance you keep from another person. Here she paused and looked at George. He was watching her attentively. His face didn't change as she maintained her gaze before shifting to another student and continuing. Sometimes it comes from the silence between one action and the next. Drama is communication. He felt comfortable enough in the drama classes at school. His parents had explained to him that sometimes the person who gives you the most challenges can actually be your best teacher. His father joked, asking, What would Doctor Who do if there weren't any Daleks or Cybermen? His mother commented that she didn't think that this was the best way for George to regard one of his teachers, but George found it quite funny. He remembered what the drama teacher had said at the start of the year. Drama is communication. The catchphrase of the Daleks was Exterminate, exterminate. George responded to his father by saying in the cold, harsh, robotic voice of the Daleks Communicate, communicate. They all laughed and his father exclaimed I think he's ready to perform. During the year George contributed a lot to the theatre group, and both his fellow participants and the group leaders were interested in his unusual but productive way of observing. He was at an age at which children were allowed to apply to an institute of the performing arts. One or two of the students in George's group were interested, and George wondered about it too. The interview process for the Institute of the Performing Arts was an unusual one. All the candidates were invited, not to the institute itself, but to go to a nearby festival of performances for a week, during which the teachers from the school would get to know them through their ideas about the performances they saw. To add to the level of difficulty, the candidates would be taken to the Eisted Fod in Wales, a grand celebration of Welsh culture, where many of the performances were in Welsh, a language unknown to them all. George wasn't at all comfortable about going to such an unfamiliar place for seven days. It wasn't that he didn't want to be there, it was that he didn't want to go through a transition if there were no performances. At the end of it. He much preferred noticing patterns, becoming familiar with them, assimilating them and gradually adapting as he went. Feeling an urgent need to experience something familiar, George went to his room. He took out his old notebooks and started filling the empty pages with dragons. George sat silently in the back of the car as his father drove him and George's mother across the Severn Bridge into Wales. It was a hot summer day. His mother had had the passenger seat window open, but now as the wind blew along the River Seven, she wound it up. George looked down at the water below, glinting in the sunlight. He hadn't paid much attention to the route up until then, as there were no point trying to orient himself. But the sight of something he'd never seen before was similar to watching the TV. We're in new country now, George, his father said. Let's see what's different. George didn't think anything seemed different at first, but then he noticed something. Car stickers, shop signs, flags, all bearing the same image. The lower half green, the upper half white, and a large red dragon standing proudly in the middle. As the wind caught the flags, whipping them theatrically from side to side, the dragons looked to George like guardians, dancing in protection of their land, aiming to scare off intruders or invaders. It seemed intimidating at first, but the reality was that the dragons were trapped. They were fixed to the flagpoles. It was more like a theatre prop. He looked more closely and saw that the dragons were not like the ones he drew. The first thing was that they were completely red, but they also had one leg raised, and the tails and tongues were long and pointed. The biggest difference, though, was that they hardly seemed to have any scales. George had brought his notebook with him, and he looked through them to see if he had drawn anything similar to the ones on the flags. As they left the urban landscapes behind, they passed through mid-Wales, where the scenery became more open, full of rolling hills and long stretches of roads with fewer settlements. By the time they went through the Snowdonia National Park, the valleys, rock formations, and coastal views became more rugged and dramatic. This, George supposed, must be the new country that his father was talking about. Although he might not have been consciously thinking it, at some level George could feel that there was more to his father's comment than simple geography. On the first evening of the week, the teachers met up with the students and divided them into groups. They had itineraries to follow for the next few days, where they had to be, what they had to see, and what tasks they had to do. They also had free time and the opportunity to go to some performances just to enjoy them. When the meeting was over, they went to their accommodation. Each room was shared between two students. Before dinner, they were all supposed to go and unpack their things and meet their roommates. As George was an only child, sharing space was another new thing for him. But his roommate was Alec, one of the other students from his after school theatre group. Alec was used to George, and at least they knew each other, so they were relaxed about being put together. George hung up his clothes and put his books and notebooks tidily in the spaces provided. Alec was more interested in the TV. He flicked through dozens of channels while George was putting his things away. Never anything good to watch, Alec moaned, and he threw the remote control down. George picked it up. He couldn't believe it. He had always enjoyed watching the TV with his parents. Still, he kept zapping, not really fixing on anything until he reached some of the specialist channels animals, documentaries, history. He almost stopped at a cookery show, but he carried on flicking through the channels out of curiosity. Then he found a sci-fi channel showing an episode of Star Trek. George sat down in a chair and started watching. Alec looked up from his suitcase. What are you watching, George? he asked. Star Trek? George answered. They boldly go where no man has gone before. Alec was so surprised to hear George say so much that he didn't really pay attention to the words. What's it about? he asked. Space. Just watch. George said. This wasn't the time for him to practice talking. Now was the time to escape. Some of the crew were using the teleporter to get from the spaceship to the surface of the planet. Cool, Alex said enthusiastically, and started watching too. Why are they all wearing different coloured tops? Aren't they on the same team? he asked. George didn't answer. The next day, George and his group were sent to watch a choral recital, some traditional Welsh dancing and a dramatic play. One of their tasks was to talk about the differences and similarities between the performances. Then they were supposed to get together and work on a piece of their own, incorporating a certain number of the features they had observed in these performances, as well as those from the following days. As they couldn't understand a word of the Welsh language, they would have to write their own dialogue to match the chosen elements. This didn't phase George, who remembered his experience with Megan at school. In the late afternoon, his group got together to talk about what they had seen. George had his question and answer notes with him. Not everyone was so well prepared, though, and many found it difficult to recall details about the day's performances. The teacher assigned to them had to work hard to elicit their ideas. Eventually George got up from his seat and went to show the teacher his notes. What's your name? she asked. George, he replied. She looked at his notes. Do you want to read them? George's obvious lack of enthusiasm showed that he didn't. But the teacher said George, I'll read the questions, you read the answers. Let's start with the recital. What did they do? Um they sang in different voices. Some deep and some high, not all at the same time. They didn't move. Why did they do it? Uh contrast. Not everyone has the same voice. It can create interaction. Was it good? After a while it was quite boring because I couldn't understand it and they didn't move. Was it right? Um the audience clapped a lot. Who did what? Everyone sang. The men wore matching clothes. How did they do it? They stood still, but sometimes they looked at each other and did some facial expressions. Who was watching? People who like listening to singing in Welsh. The teacher asked for opinions, and the group could contribute much more and discuss what they collectively remembered. For the dance performance the teacher said George, can you read your first question? George read. What did they do? One boy called out They danced. Next question and this got a lot of laughs. Why did they do it? continued George. Wait, said the teacher. The choral group sang in different voices at different times. Did the dancers do something similar? Yes, replied a girl at the front. They didn't all dance together all the time, another boy said. And sometimes they came and danced in a line and in sort of couples. A different girl added. Sometimes they were like jumping and spinning. Okay, said the teacher. I'm going to split you into smaller groups. In your group you need to use George's questions to talk about the dance performance and the play. George, come with me a moment, please. George went up to the teacher. George, I'm going to say two things to you, okay? First, thank you. This has really saved the group work today. George smiled a little and wondered what the second thing would be. The second thing is don't do it again. George's expression changed. The teacher went on Don't write it down, George. Keep it in your head. You won't get all of it, but you don't need all of it. Now that the group have learnt the technique, tomorrow will be different. Your task tomorrow is still to answer the questions, though. The ones that you can answer the most easily are the ones that impact you the most. Do you follow what I'm saying? George answered Yes, don't write it. Remember it. Nearly, she said. Don't write what you see. Just see. George was good at seeing. He'd seen his parents cook, and he'd learn from them. He'd seen them drive too, and he'd proved that he could drive a go-kart. He'd seen the way the weather and the seasons change, and he'd used that to plant and cultivate flowers and vegetables in the best places. He'd seen how the position of objects changed the way people moved or interacted, and he'd seen what an influence he or someone else could have by making changes to their positions. He realized that he'd seen a lot. After the children had been at the Iceford Stod for almost the whole week and had worked on their own performances, the time came for them to show what they had created. The public were invited to attend too. The performances were part of the program, but they were to be held earlier than the main events. The groups had use of anything that was already at the theatre that they would perform in. There were costumes and props that were used by the local theatre groups. They could also ask the teachers for stationary or paint, too. Each group had around fifteen children, so they had the chance to do something of great complexity, depending on what they agreed upon. George's group's turn came. The curtain rose. The stage floor was covered in pieces of paper. From the audience you couldn't see much more than that they were colourful. All of George's group ran onto the stage and created as much wind as they could, shouting wordlessly and blowing and kicking and scooping the pieces of paper into the air. Sometimes they caught one of them and showed it to the crowd before sending it flying across the stage. The crowd could see drawings of dozens of dragons. They were all unbeknownst to them from George's notebooks. After a while the students left the stage. Then back came five of them dressed in white. They went onto the stage on all fours, stopping as one and striking a pose. They continued and struck more poses, sometimes rising onto two legs until they had shown five in total. They stopped on the left of the stage. Then came five children dressed in green. They did as the children in white had done, moving and posing until they too had completed five different poses. They stopped on the other side of the stage. Each group formed a circle, and the two circles moved towards each other. They met up in the middle of the stage. They formed a larger circle and performed their own poses at first, but then started to perform each other's in synchronization. When they had completed all ten, the students made their way off the stage and into the audience to sit down. When the students in white and green were seated, the remaining five came onto the stage dressed in red. A teacher started playing a tune on the piano, and the students in red began to sing in Welsh. The lyrics went Let the wind blow from the east. Let the storm roar from the sea. Let the lightning split the heavens and the thunder shout encore. They reached the end of the fourth line and began again from the start. At this the students in the audience got up and went back onto the stage. As they did, they each picked up dragon pictures from the stage floor. The students in green crouched down and spread their arms. The ones in white stood tall behind them and spread their arms too. The five students in red stood in front of this background. When they reached the end of the fourth line, the music continued. The children in green alone sang the first line. The ones in white alone sang the second. The red ones alone sang the third line, and then altogether they sang the fourth. Then they stopped and threw all the painted dragon drawings that they had been holding into the air. George was dressed in red, front and center stage. He watched the crowd applauding. He looked left and right at his smiling groupmates, and he saw his dragons lying on the stage all around him. He closed his eyes. Now, I love this story because although George is not learning a second language, English is his first language, he still has difficulty in communication. And we can learn a lesson from the techniques that George found. Particularly that idea of when you're having a conversation with someone, make it easy for them to return. Have questions ready and on hand to put the ball back in your partner's court. Let them do the talking. Give yourself more time. Make it seem like you are interested because by holding back and watching and not getting involved, we saw that many students felt that George was judging them, that George didn't like them. And so that made them less inclined to want to talk to him, interact with him, work with him, which didn't feel good. But once he learned the technique of asking questions, even though at some point it was maybe a little too much, it got him in. And then he started to have friends, companions, people to work with, people to spend time with. And he found his way. So I think that's something really great that we can hold on to and use as a technique for communication. Now, if you are a podcast plus member, then I will break down the vocabulary more deeply in a drip-fed, easy to digest, short way. But for you guys watching here, if you're not a plus member, I'm going to dive into some of the vocabulary now. If you are interested in becoming a plus member, then you can do by clicking on the link in the show notes. Plus membership is a low-cost subscription that really supports the production of this podcast. So if you are a plus member, thank you so much. Your contributions really make a difference. Now, let's have a look at some of the vocabulary briefly from this text. Here we have the line: he wasn't a naughty boy. Far from it. He observed the other children a lot, but he didn't find it easy to join in with things. The line, far from it, is a phrase that we use to say that someone or something is the opposite of what you've just stated. So we just mentioned naughty boy. He is the opposite of a naughty boy. He's a good boy. He just can't join in. So he's misunderstood. So he wasn't a naughty boy. Far from it. For example, you might see Anna struggling to get into shape. So I'm struggling to get into shape. It's true at the moment, I'm putting on weight. Every week I get on the scales, I'm putting on weight. I think it's my age. I think I'm at that point in my life when my body's changing and I'm just putting on weight. Now, if you were explaining that to somebody who doesn't know me very well, they might say, Oh, she just needs to exercise more. She's obviously quite lazy. Or maybe she eats badly. And you say, far from it. In fact, with Anna, it's the opposite. Anna exercises regularly. Anna eats a healthy, nutritious diet. She doesn't overeat. She's very conscientious about what she puts into her body. So far from it, Anna is not lazy. Anna does not eat badly. Far from it, it's the opposite of that. Do you think you can put a sentence together using far from it, a true sentence? If you can think of something and you're able to share in the comments, that would be amazing. I'd love to read it. The next item I want to bring up is pipe up, the phrase of verb to pipe up. This is to speak and contribute something in a discussion. Suddenly you contribute something, you pipe up. You might ask someone to pipe up and tell you their thoughts. Come on, pipe up. So it's it's to be loud, to give your opinion, or to contribute something to a discussion when you're typically being quiet. So that's quite a good one. All right, a really great phrase now to take something in your stride. Here we were talking about George's parents. The script says, his parents were used to George by now, and they took it in their stride. To take something in your stride, this means that you're used to something, you're familiar with it, or you don't allow it to bother you. Maybe you're just a very laid-back person and you don't allow stressful situations to bother you. In that case, you would say you take it in your stride. For example, if I was going on holiday and I had to go to the airport and fly somewhere, I would be stressed for days beforehand. I would not sleep well, I would be checking all the details on the day, I would feel sick to my stomach with worry. I'm a panicker. If I don't know a route or I'm not familiar with how everything's gonna work, like where do you take your car? How do you figure things out when you get to your destination? All the unknown details stress me out. So I panic. I'm a warrior. My partner is the opposite. He takes everything in his stride. He doesn't worry, he leaves everything to the last minute. It's nice to travel with him because he has like a calming effect on me when I'm panicking. He's like, just chill out, it's gonna be fine. And that helps me to relax a little bit. He's he's traveled more than me. But he takes everything in his stride. How about you? Do you take things in your stride? Next, I want to give you the phrase of verb bring up. To bring something up. We said that the subject teachers brought up George's drawings as an issue in almost every case. If you bring something up, it means that you highlight or mention something that you want to discuss in a meeting or in a conversation. So it's not something that's like on the list of things to talk about. For example, we might have a meeting about a party that we're organizing in the street. All the neighbors get together and we're having a meeting about this party, but somebody brings up their grievance with one of the neighbors' habit of playing music late at night. So we're having a meeting about the party, but one neighbor brings up an issue, brings up a grievance. You play your music too late. Talking about music, you play your music really loud late at night. I don't like it. So to bring something up, it's to introduce something that's not expected, something that you want to highlight and discuss. So when I'm with my best friend, I try not to bring up the subject of politics because she's quite sensitive and gets passionate when we talk about politics. So I try not to bring up politics ever. Even if something pops in my mind as she's talking to me, I then subdue the thought and think, no, don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. Don't bring that into conversation because it will only end badly. Okay, good. Now, next we have the word reluctant. Reluctant. If you are reluctant to do something, then it means you don't really want to do it. Maybe you feel obliged to, like you have to do it, but you don't want to do it. This word was used in the text when we talked about the teacher who was reluctant to open George's books to mark his work because of all the eyes staring at him. So he didn't like the eyes, so he didn't like opening the books and seeing all the eyes. All right, another phrase is to get on with something. To get on with something. If I tell you to get on with a task, then I'm telling you to go and work on it. Often we simply say, get on with it. This can be quite abrupt, actually. This would be because someone's delaying and not doing the thing they're supposed to be doing. And so you'd say, just get on with it. For example, if I'm trying to tell you about a new class that I've introduced within the community, but instead of telling you the details about the class, I'm rabbiting on about something I ate last night and I'm just talking nonsense, you might turn and say, Anna, oh, I don't have time for this. Just get on with it. Tell me what are the details about this new class? Get on with it. Come on, let's do it. Yes, sir. Okay, next we have rooted around. George rooted around in the PE equipment cupboard, didn't he? And he was finding table tennis balls and and bits of games and things. To root around, root spelled R-O-O-T. To root around means to kind of dig through stuff. You're looking for something and you're digging through lots of things. If I am trying to locate a specific item, like a toy, my children are always coming to me saying, Mummy, mummy, I can't find my stickers, or I can't find my little action figure, or I can't find the lollipop stick that I turned into a little man. Can you help me find it? Because mommy is very good at finding things, so they always ask me. And I will often then find myself rooting around boxes of bits and bobs, rooting around drawers, rooting around boxes. They have so many things, they bring home so much stuff, and I throw half of it into a box and just put it out of sight. But then I'll find myself rooting around, trying to find the thing that they want me to find for them. So to root around. This is to like wait and hover and to stay close to something, not wanting to leave. To linger often suggests that you're staying longer than is necessary, or it can be something hanging around that's not wanted. For example, we talk about a bad smell lingering. Do you ever find that? If someone very rudely passes wind, farts near you, and they say, Oh, so sorry about, I'm so sorry. I've got a gassy tummy. I'm so sorry about that. And you say, Oh, it's fine, it's fine. And you're wafting away this the bad smell, but it keeps lingering for ages. When I cook eggs in the morning, the smell often lingers for quite a while. And I feel embarrassed about it because when people come to visit, I can imagine they come in and smell the smell of eggs. I think, oh, stink some eggs in here. I'm sorry, it's the smell lingering from breakfast. All right, next phrase is to take advantage of something. To take advantage of something is to grasp an opportunity. So if an opportunity presents itself, rather than avoid the opportunity or turn it down, so reject the opportunity, you take advantage of the opportunity. For example, somebody put a free bookshelf onto Facebook Marketplace. This actually happened a few days ago. And I'm looking for a bookcase, and I see a free bookcase in my area, and I message them and said, Yes, I will take that free bookcase. When would you like me to collect it? We have a few messages back and forth trying to arrange the logistics, and her last message to me was, you can either pick it up this morning or I can drop it off this evening. And I thought, do you know what? I don't want to go and collect it right now. So she's offered to drop it off. I'm going to take advantage of that offer. So there's an opportunity for me to get a really good deal here, a free bookcase delivered for free to my house. Brilliant. I don't have to do anything. And so I said, yes, I will take advantage of that offer. Thank you. I would love you to drop it off for me this evening. So I took advantage of the opportunity, which I don't do very often. I'm normally the person who says, no, no, no, it's fine. I'll come and do the work. Don't you worry. Another phrase of verb now, to flick through. To flick through. To flick through a book or to flick through channels on the television means to move very quickly through the content without paying any attention to the content. So if you're flicking through a book or a magazine, you're not really reading anything. Your eyes might catch some of the titles. You might take note of a few photos. You might linger just for a moment on a photograph before turning the page. If you're flicking through channels, then you're just spending a second on each channel before moving to the next to find something that you would like to watch. I get quite frustrated with my partner who spends far too much time flicking through channels on the TV when I just want to spend 10 minutes watching something. It's so frustrating. Anyway, that brings us to the end of this session. Like I said, this is a huge story. There is so much vocabulary in there. If you want to get more out of this experience, then consider becoming a podcast plus member, where we will spread the learning out into bite-sized chunks with interactive questions and lots of vocabulary broken down so that you can deeply understand every word. Just for the record, this is the longest podcast I think I've ever recorded in one go. I do intend to record more long episodes because I've spent years doing short episodes. Now it's time to try something new. If you prefer the digestible short episodes, then I recommend you either go back to my back catalog. There's about three years worth of podcasts that you can revisit. Or, of course, becoming a podcast plus member will give you bite sized digestible chunks. But either way, I do hope you'll come back for some more podcast time with me in another episode. Until then, take very good care of yourself. Keep learning, and goodbye.