Learning Vocabulary: Swimming

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: My name’s Rich

Rowan: and I’m Rowan 

Rich: And welcome to the Premier Skills English podcast ...

Jack: ... where we talk about football and English.

Rich: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts with examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: In this Premier Skills English course, we’re looking at the different ways people stay fit and healthy.

Rich: We’re talking about lots of different sports and activities and will focus on language related to fitness and some words and phrases connected to a specific sport.

Jack: This lesson is all about swimming. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at lots of different sports and activities.

Rich: We’re going to do a roleplay. The three of us are going for a swim. We will use lots of words and phrases connected to swimming and swimming pools.

Rowan: In the roleplay, we’ll also tell you about the Premier Skills English fitness challenge that we’re doing.

Jack: We’re going to give a fitness score and a fun score for each of the sports and activities we look at.

Rich: And in the task we have for you later in the podcast, we want you to give your own fitness and fun scores. We’ll have more about this later.

Last week’s Football Phrase

Rowan: Before we start this week’s roleplay we need to look back at last week’s football phrase.

Rich: OK, our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a language challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Rowan: When you know the answer, go to the Premier Skills English website and write the word or phrase in the comments section for this podcast. If you’re correct we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Rich: We had lots of correct answers last week but a special congratulations to Mo Beckham from Turkey who was the first with the right answer.

Jack: And a big well done to the following listeners who also got the right answer: Hayato from Japan, Marco Zapien from Mexico, Navid from Iran, Max Alex from Vietnam, HSN from Turkey, and Liubomyr from Ukraine.

Rowan: The new football phrase is at the end of this podcast but we’re going to give you one more chance to guess last week’s football phrase. Are you ready?

Jack: The phrase was injury crisis. This phrase is used when a club has lots of players out of action at the same time. It is a time of difficulty for a club because they might find it difficult to field a full team if the injury crisis is really, really bad. The phrase is a strong collocation and other types of crisis may include financial, humanitarian or political.

Rowan: We’ll give you the answer and a new football phrase at the end of this podcast.

Jack: If you remember, our last podcast was all about fitness classes. We invented a fitness programme called Goalacize and we asked you what type of fitness classes you’ve tried.

Rich: Vic from Mexico is a big fan of pilates.

Rowan: HSN from Turkey likes a weight training regime.

Jack: Navid from Iran is not into fitness classes but has a good friend who loves bodybuilding.

Rich: Quite a few of you mentioned that you weren’t into fitness classes because you preferred competitive or team sports

Rowan: If you haven’t heard this podcast it’s called Learning Vocabulary: Fitness Class and you can find it on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple Podcasts.

Introduction to roleplay: Fitness Challenge

Rowan: In our roleplay, we are going swimming. Swimming is the fourth activity in our Premier Skills English fitness challenge series - we’ve already done running, tennis and a fitness class.

Jack: Our fitness challenge is a little competition between the three of us. We are trying out a few different sports and activities and we decide which is the best.

Rich: We’re going to go running, cycling, swimming, to the gym, to do some sport and we might even play football.

Rowan: We give each activity a Premier Skills English fitness challenge score based on how much fun we have and how good the activity is for us.

Jack: It’s all a bit of fun but it should help all of us think more about keeping fit and healthy.

Rich: As always, the main focus is the language. In this roleplay, we’re going to focus on words and phrases connected to swimming and swimming pools.

Rowan: In this roleplay, Rich and Jack have made New Year’s resolutions.

Rich: A New Year’s resolution is a promise you make to yourself to do something to improve your life.

Rowan: New Year’s resolutions are often connected to health and fitness. Jack and Rich have decided to train for a triathlon which is a type of race where you have to run, cycle and swim.

Jack: Rowan is an expert as she’s been doing triathlons for years. We need her help.

Rowan: While you listen we want you to answer two questions:

Rich: Question one: Where do we go swimming?

Jack: Question two: Who finds the swim difficult?

Roleplay

Rowan: Happy New Year, Rich.

Rich: Happy New Year, Rowan.

Rowan: How’s the running going?

Rich: It’s going well. I’ve been going out for a run three or four times a week over the last month.

Rowan: That’s really great. And you and Jack really want to try training for a triathlon?

Rich: Yes, we think it’s a great New Year’s resolution - I want to give it a go. Training for a triathlon is going to be quite a challenge. The running’s been going well so we’re ready to start training for the swimming part.

Rowan: We’re not going to go to the lake today. We’ll be starting off with some training in the pool before we do any open water swimming.

Rich: Jack will be happy that we’re in a pool and not swimming in the lake. He’ll be able to touch the bottom. I’m also glad that you’re not throwing us in at the deep end.

Rowan: Can’t he swim?

Rich: I’m not sure but there’s something up. He’s worried about the swimming part of the triathlon. Here he comes now.

Jack: Happy New Year guys!

Rowan: Happy New Year, Jack. Have you got your swimming kit?

Jack: Yep, swimming cap, goggles and wetsuit.

Rowan: You won’t need the wetsuit today - just your trunks. We’re going to the pool.

Jack: No lake? Thank goodness.

Rowan: OK, there’s not many people here so we’ve got a lane each. Are you going to jump in? No bombing!

Rich: Aw!

Rich: Wow, it’s freezing!

Rowan: Are you getting in, Jack?

Rich: Do you want a float? I can go and get one of those noodles if you like.

Jack: Don’t be silly. I don’t like the cold that’s all. Let me just dip my toe in.

Rowan: Let me give you a hand...

Jack: Aaaagh!

Jack: Ah! What did you do that for? It’s freezing.

Rowan: You’ll be all right. You’re in the shallow end.

Rich: You’ll soon warm up. It feels quite nice now.

Rowan: OK, let’s start with a couple of lengths of the pool.

Rowan: You’re a bit out of breath. How can you be in that state after two lengths?

Rich: I’m exhausted.

Rowan: You need to pace yourself when you do the front crawl. We don’t want you drowning in the middle of the lake when you do the triathlon.

Rich: Maybe I should be more like Jack. Here he comes. Nice breaststroke Jack.

Jack: Slow and steady wins the race.

Rich: I’m not sure about that. Doing front crawl is much faster than breaststroke.

Jack: Are you still out of breath, Rich?

Rowan: Come on. OK, next exercise. Five minutes - arms above your head and tread water.

Rich: This is easy.

Jack: That’s cheating Rich! You’re not supposed to touch the bottom.

Rowan: OK, swimming was our fourth activity for our Premier Skills English fitness challenge. We need to give our opinions and scores. Jack?

Jack: Yeah, it was good. I like swimming. I’m not that fast but technique is more important if you ask me. I reckon I could do a kilometre in a lake if I’m doing breaststroke.

Rowan: And you Rich?

Rich: Yeah, it’s good but I need more practice if I want to swim across that lake doing front crawl. I was fast but exhausted after a couple of lengths.

Rowan: So we want a fun score and a fitness score for swimming.

Jack: I like it. It’s fun and refreshing even if the water was a bit cold at first. Eight for fun and eight for fitness.

Rowan: Rich?

Rich: I’m going to be boring and say the same as Jack. Eight and eight.

Rowan: When I do a triathlon, swimming is my favourite part so I’m going to give it ten out of ten for both fitness and fun.

Jack: OK, so our final Premier Skills English Fitness challenge score is 52. That means swimming moves ahead of running and is now our top Premier Skills English activity.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Rich: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions. The first question was: Where do we go swimming?

Rowan: The answer was the swimming pool. When we do a triathlon we usually swim in a lake or the sea - we call it open water swimming.

Jack: Why didn’t we do that?

Rowan: Well, I didn’t think you were ready - it’s easier to swim in a pool.

Jack: And warmer! We should leave the lake until the summer. Our second question was: Who found swimming difficult?

Rowan: Well, I thought it was going to be Jack because he seemed to be scared of the water but actually he just doesn’t like the cold. He was a bit slow but he did well and has a good technique.

Jack: The answer is Rich because he swam too fast and was very tired after only a short swim. He’d have problems if he was in a lake swimming like that.

Rich: Let’s focus on some language connected to swimming and swimming pools we used in the podcast. Let’s start with the equipment or kit you need. Listen to this from the roleplay:

Rowan: Have you got your swimming kit?

Jack: Yep, swimming cap, goggles and wetsuit.

Rowan: You won’t need the wetsuit today - just your trunks. We’re going to the pool.

Rich: So, Jack had a swimming cap which goes on your head, swimming goggles which go over your eyes, swimming trunks which go over ... the lower part of your body and a wetsuit which covers the whole body.

Jack: I didn’t need the wetsuit though. Wetsuits are usually worn when swimming outside. They are used to keep your whole body warm in cold temperatures.

Rowan: When we talk about equipment we might ask people if they have it and say things like ‘Have you got your goggles?’ or someone might instruct you to wear something and say things like ‘Put on your swimming cap’.

Rich: To put something on is a useful phrasal verb and one of its meanings is to start wearing an item of clothing. You put on your swimming trunks in the changing rooms, you put on your swimming goggles to swim underwater or you put on your coat when you leave the house.

Jack: I put swimming trunks on to go swimming or sometimes swimming shorts - especially at the beach. Swimming shorts are longer than swimming trunks.

Rowan: I put on a swimming costume or swimsuit or if I’m at the beach I might put a bikini on which is two separate pieces of clothing.

Rich: I think goggles is one of my favourite words: goggles, swimming goggles. The only problem is I keep typing Google instead of goggles when I try to write it. Goggles has one ‘o’ and two ’g’s’

Rich: In the roleplay, I honestly thought that Jack couldn’t swim and I made fun of him. Listen to this:

Rich: Do you want a float? I can go and get one of those noodles if you like.

Rowan: A float and a noodle are both examples of swimming aids. Things to help you swim or learn to swim. Rich was being a bit cruel. There’s nothing wrong with using a float when you are learning to swim.

Jack: A float is a small object that you hold to help you swim. The ones I’ve seen are small white rectangles. They are made out of a type of lightweight foam that .. well, it floats. You hold them in front of you when swimming.

Rich: Float is a very useful word when we talk about water. The verb to float means to move slowly on the top or surface of the water.

Rowan: Leaves and sticks and empty bottles float on water. Bricks and stones will sink. Sink is the opposite of float.

Jack: But when we talk about people sinking and dying because they can’t swim we use the verb to drown. Listen to this from the roleplay:

Rowan: We don’t want you drowning in the middle of the lake when you do the triathlon.

Rich: A noodle is another type of swimming aid and well it looks like a noodle or a long piece of pasta. You might wrap them around you when learning to swim.

Jack: Other swimming aids include armbands which children usually wear - one on each arm and rubber rings; a rubber ring is worn around the waist.

Rowan: People often wear life jackets when they go canoeing on a river but they’re not really used as swimming aids.

Rowan: There are many different ways to swim. Rich and Jack swam differently in the roleplay. Different swimming styles are called swimming strokes or just strokes. Listen to this from the roleplay:

Rich: I’m not sure about that. Doing front crawl is much faster than breaststroke.

Rowan: In the roleplay, Rich used a swimming stroke called front crawl while Jack swam breaststroke.

Jack: Front crawl is the fastest swimming stroke and is probably the one you see most often in the pool.

Rich: Crawling is what babies do before they can walk. They put one arm out and then the other to move across the floor.

Rowan: When you do front crawl your arms come all the way out of the water, one at a time. People who do this stroke well do not lift their heads to get a breath, but only turn towards the side.

Rich: Can you do front crawl, Jack?

Jack: Yes, but it’s tiring. I prefer doing breaststroke when I go to the pool. I can do it for longer.

Rowan: Breaststroke is another common swimming stroke. You pull with both arms at the same time, and you kick both legs a bit like a frog.

Rich: There are two more common or official swimming strokes: backstroke and butterfly.

Jack: Backstroke is on your back, you kick your legs and pull your arms out of the water.

Rowan: Butterfly is on your stomach, you pull both arms out of the water at the same time and kick your legs.

Rich: In the Olympic Games there are races such as the 100 metres breaststroke, the 50 metres butterfly or the 200 metres backstroke.

Jack: But there aren’t front crawl races. Swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle races. Swimmers can use any stroke they want in freestyle races but always use the front crawl because that is the fastest swimming stroke.

Rich: When we talk about swimming strokes we often use the verb do. Listen. Can you do butterfly, Jack?

Jack: I can’t do butterfly, it’s too difficult. I can do breaststroke and backstroke and front crawl. What about you Rowan?

Rowan: I can do them all.

Jack: We can talk about the dimensions and sizes of a swimming pool. Listen to this from the roleplay:

Rowan: You’ll be all right. You’re in the shallow end.

Rich: You’ll soon warm up. It feels quite nice now.

Rowan: OK, let’s start with a couple of lengths of the pool.

Jack: The length of a pool is how long it is. An Olympic-sized pool is fifty metres long but most pools are much smaller than this.

Rowan: I told Jack and Rich to do a couple of lengths. I asked them to swim to the end of the pool, turn and come back. Two lengths of the pool.

Rich: Rowan pushed Jack in the pool, but he was OK. It was only the shallow end. Swimming pools usually have a shallow end and a deep end.

Jack: Shallow describes the distance between the bottom of something and the top or surface and is often used when talking about things with water like lakes, rivers and swimming pools.

Rowan: The shallow end is the safer part of the pool if you are not a strong swimmer. You will be able to touch the bottom with your feet.

Rich: The bottom is the floor of the swimming pool. The opposite of the shallow end is the deep end. You can’t touch the bottom when you’re in the deep end.

Jack: The final bit of language we want to look at is a couple of idioms we used in the roleplay. Listen to this:

Rich: Jack will be happy that we’re in a pool and not swimming in the lake. He’ll be able to touch the bottom. I’m also glad that you’re not throwing us in at the deep end.

Rowan: The idiom Rich used here is to throw someone in at the deep end.

Jack: When someone is thrown in at the deep end it means that they are given something difficult to do that they are not ready or prepared for.

Rich: We weren't ready to swim in a lake, so we were really happy that Rowan didn’t throw us in the deep end.

Rowan: The other phrase I want to look at is tread water. Listen to this from the roleplay:

Rowan: Come on. OK, next exercise. Five minutes - arms above your head and tread water.

Jack: To tread water here means to keep yourself in the same place in deep water by moving your arms and legs. It’s like swimming on the spot. You don’t move anywhere.

Rich: That’s its literal meaning but to tread water can also be used as an idiom. Listen to this:

Rowan: I’ve been in this job for years. I just feel like I’m treading water. I want a new challenge.

Jack: The idiom to tread water means to be not making any progress often while you are waiting for something to happen or you want something new or different to happen.

Rich: We’ve looked at a lot of vocabulary in this section and you can take a much closer look at it all on the Premier Skills English website.

Rowan: We’ve got the transcript, activities, questions, and a discussion for you all on the website.

TASK

Rowan: Our task for you is to give us a Premier Skills English Fitness Challenge score for swimming.

Rich: We also want you to tell us if you go swimming and your experiences of swimming.

Jack: Can you swim? Where do you go swimming? Do you swim regularly?

Rich: Do you like swimming? What swimming strokes do you use?

Rowan: Tell us about your experiences of swimming and then give us a Premier Skills English Fitness Challenge score for this activity.

Jack: Give us a score out of ten for fitness and a score out of ten for fun - just like we did in the roleplay.

Rowan: Write all your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website and try to use some of the words and phrases we introduced in this podcast.

FOOTBALL PHRASE 

Rich: It’s time for this week’s football phrase. Have you got one Jack?

Jack: I have this week’s football phrase is just a word and the word is ****. I’ve chosen this word because it’s a way of jumping into a swimming pool. You stretch your arms out and they go in the pool followed by your head and the rest of your body. Football players also **** but I’d prefer it if they didn’t. ****** is falling to the floor as if you’ve been fouled, often in a dramatic way, when nobody has touched you, to try to get a free-kick or penalty.

Rich: Let’s see if anyone gets it right and who is first this week. If you are still wondering what the answer was to last week’s football phrase it was injury crisis.

Rowan: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s show.

Rich: If you have a question for us about football or English you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org

Jack: or you can leave your questions and comments on the website in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

Rowan: or you could give us a rating and a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football