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Learning goals
Skills: Listening
Vocabulary: Good causes and volunteering
Task: Talk about how you can help your local community
In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich focus on the language we use to talk about charity and helping people in our communities. They talk about how they help people where they live. Your task is to tell us how you help or would like to help, your community using the vocabulary you learn in the podcast Don't forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess, too. Enjoy!
How much did you understand?
In the podcast, Rich and Jack used some words and phrases that might be new for you. Do you know the words in bold?
I’m just putting some clothes in these bags to take to the charity shop in town.
I know that they’re currently raising money to build a soup kitchen and refuge for homeless people.
They also provide training and workshops to homeless people with the money they raise. You know, to help people get back on their feet.
Yeah, you’ve never had much fashion sense but you can still give all your clothes to the shop.
I am thinking of doing a fun run for charity this year, though.
All of these phrases were in the roleplay. Listen to the roleplay again and read the transcript. Listen for the phrases in bold and do the activity below. If you're still not sure what any of the words mean, ask us a question in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Activity 1: In this activity, try to match the words and phrases to their definitions. All of the words were in this week's podcast.
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Charity and Good Causes
In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about doing things to help other people. Jack spoke about homelessness (not having a place to live) and how he helps a charity (an organisation that helps people who need it) that offers help to homeless people. Let's look at some of the language that was used in the roleplay.
Charity
The noun 'charity' can be either countable or uncountable. This depends on its meaning:
- Countable: An organisation that helps people who need it.
It’s a charity that supports homeless people in the UK.
The money they raise goes to the charity.
In both of the above examples, we are talking about a specific organisation i.e. a charity such as Oxfam, Doctors without Borders or the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
- Uncountable: The aim of giving money to people who need it for food, housing etc.
Do you often give to charity?
I am thinking of doing a fun run for charity this year, though.
When people run a marathon they often raise money for charity.
In the above examples, we are talking about giving money to charity or good causes in general. We often 'do something for charity'. We can 'run a marathon for charity', 'do a fun run for charity', 'climb a mountain for charity' or more generally 'raise money for charity'. In all of these examples, you would be asking people for money for you to do these things and then you give the money to a specific charity or good cause.
Wayne Rooney playing some table tennis for charity.
Helping others
In this podcast, we looked at lots of words and phrases we use to talk about helping other people and good causes. Take a look at the words and phrases in bold. Do you understand all of them?
Support
You can support a football team which means to follow and cheer for a specific team. You are a football supporter or a football fan. More generally, however, we use support to mean give help to somebody or something. In the roleplay, Jack spoke about a charity that supports people who are homeless. Support can also be a noun. Jack gives this charity his support by giving clothes for the shop to sell. He is also thinking of lending his support by working in the shop. Charities need the support of people who will give them money and time. Charities rely on this support. You can rely on someone or something if you trust that they will help you. Do you understand this example sentence?
Charities rely on the support of generous people so you should give or lend them your support.
Donate
Jack and Rich spoke about giving things to charities in the roleplay but used a more specific verb. The verb was ‘donate’. Jack was donating his clothes to charity. Donate is a verb that means to give money, food or clothes and other things to charity. People donate to charities and charities ask for donations. Do you understand this example sentence?
Hospitals often ask the public to donate blood following an accident. All donations are appreciated.
Appeal
In the last example we said that charities ‘ask’ for donations but charities are often dealing with things that are much more urgent or emergencies. Instead of asking, charities often 'appeal'. This is much stronger than ask. It can also be used as a noun: there might be an emergency appeal for money following a natural disaster for example. Do you understand this example sentence?
Emergency hurricane appeal: We are currently appealing for donations to help those affected by the recent hurrican in the Carribean.
Raise Money
All the money raised from the Community Shield goes to community projects and charities around the UK.
A charity raises money for a good cause. To raise money is a useful verb-noun collocation connected to this topic. It means to collect money from other people or organisations in order to do a specific thing. In the roleplay, I spoke about a charity that was raising money to build a soup kitchen for homeless people. We often speak about people who are ‘raising money for charities or good causes’. Do you understand this example sentence?
Participants in the London Marathon raised over one billion pounds for good causes this year.
Sponsor
Participants in marathons and other similar events raise money through sponsorship. They ask people to give them money to complete the race or for every mile or kilometre, they complete. People sponsor the runners. In the roleplay, Jack said he would sponsor Rich to do a fun run:
I’m not sure you can do it. I tell you what, I’ll sponsor you a pound for every mile you do.
Doing a fun run for charity is a popular way to raise money for good causes.
Volunteering
We also spoke about volunteering. Jack said he’d like to volunteer in the charity shop. To volunteer means to work without pay for a good cause. Charities usually rely on the support of volunteers. Jack said volunteering would be a nice way to give back to the local community. Give back is a phrasal verb that means to return something to someone else. When we talk about supporting our local community we often talk about giving back. Volunteering is a common way to give back to your local community; some other ways include donating to a local charity or offering your skills to others. We ask you to think more about volunteering in this week's task.
Volunteering is a good way to give back to your local community.
If you're not sure about any of this week's vocabulary, have a go at the activity below and then complete this week's task and try to use some of the words and phrases you have learned in this podcast.
Activity 2: In this activity, check that you have learned some of the vocabulary from the podcast.
Supporting a good cause
Have you ever worked as a volunteer?
Quiz
In this podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about the good causes they support and the things they would like to do to support people in their communities. The task this week is for you to tell us how you support or would like to help people in your community.
- Have you ever helped a group of people in your local area? Who have you helped?
- Have you ever done any voluntary work? What was it?
- If you had the chance to work or volunteer in your local community, what would you do?
- Which good causes or charities would you choose to donate to?
Try to use as much of the vocabulary we introduced in the podcast as you can.
Write your answers in the comments section below and don't forget to make a guess at this week's football phrase!
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