Learning Vocabulary: Walk this way

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Learning goals

Skills: Listening

Vocabulary: Ways of walking

Task: Situations

Learning Vocabulary: Walk this way

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Rich and Jack take a light-hearted look at the exercise you can do outside of your house during the Coronavirus crisis. Rich goes out for some exercise and is immediately challenged by a police officer (Jack). The language focus is on words we use to describe ways of walking and running. In this week's task, we give you three different situations and you have to say how you would walk or run in each. Don't forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess.

Match the words and phrases you will hear in the roleplay with their definitions.

If the listening was a bit difficult, you can listen again and read the transcript at the same time.

Read and listen at the same time.

Learning Vocabulary: Walk this way

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re talking about verbs connected to movement and more specifically verbs we use to describe different ways of walking.

Jack: We recommend that you listen to this podcast on the Premier Skills English website because that is where we have the transcript, language examples, activities, quizzes and a discussion page to help you understand everything we talk about.

Rich: However, if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, you can leave answers to our questions in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: So our main focus this week is on vocabulary and words and phrases we use to describe the ways we walk. In this week’s roleplay, Rich goes out for a walk and bumps into a police officer - that’s me. This roleplay is based on a joke I read yesterday on the discussion forum site Quora. I’m afraid I can’t find the post to credit the author, but if you’re listening - thanks a lot.

Rich: The police officer is a strange individual and gets quite upset about the way I walk. He seems to think there is only one way to walk.

Jack: This is all connected to the situation in the UK at the moment. Most people are only allowed to leave the house to do exercise or go shopping for essentials.

Rich: It’s all very light-hearted though and we hope you find it funny. Your task this week is to tell us how you walk in some different situations.

Jack: Before all that though, we need to look at last week’s football phrase.

Last week’s Football Phrase

Jack: If you didn’t hear our football phrase last week we’re going to give you one more chance to guess now.

Rich: The word was ******. It means to change direction suddenly. When a player hits a powerful shot the ball often ******* in the air which makes it very difficult for the goalkeeper because the ball is moving around all over the place. One free-kick I remember is by Roberto Carlos for Brazil - the ball ******* so much it seemed to defy the laws of physics.

Jack: We’ll give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase.

Rich: The first listener to get it right last week was Liubomyr from Ukraine. Congratulations again Liubomyr! It was quite difficult and many of you guessed similar words such as curl and curve.

Jack: A big well done to Mario and Marco Zapien from Mexico, Matthew from Israel, Lakerwang from China and Rafael Robson from Brazil

Rich: Remember we’ll have a new football phrase for you to guess at the end of the show.

Introduction to Roleplay

Jack: In this section, you’re going to hear a roleplay. Rich is going out to do some exercise and bumps into a policeman - that’s me.

Rich: While you listen, we want you to answer two questions. Question number one is: What kind of walk does the police officer want to see?

Jack: Question two: Does Rich do what the police officer wants?

Roleplay

Rich: Right, one hour they say. Off we go then …

Jack: Good morning!

Rich: OH Good morning.

Jack: Keep your distance, please. Two metres, two metres, please.

Rich: Oh yeah of course sorry.

Jack: Out for a ... stroll are we?

Rich: Well... er ...

Jack: I see ... Where are you wandering off to?

Rich: I’m not actually walking to anywhere.

Jack: So what are you doing out? You need to have a good excuse to be out of your house at the moment. We’re under lockdown, remember.

Rich: Yes, of course. I’m actually out for my daily exercise. That’s allowed, isn’t it?

Jack: Daily exercise? You’re not going to get much exercise going for an afternoon stroll.

Rich: I’m speed walking, officer.

Jack: Speed walking? Looks more like speed waddling to me. You look like a duck. No, that’s not good enough at all.

Rich: So, I should be moving a bit faster.

Jack: I’d like to see at least a brisk walk - I don’t want to have to send you home or fine you. A bit more upright. Like this knees up - left, right, left, right,...

Rich: Yeah, you can't really do that when you speed walk. It’s much more of a waddle.

Jack: They’ll be no waddling here or for that matter strolling, sauntering, swanning or swaggering about. Haven’t you read the government guidelines?

Rich: Er .. I didn’t know there were guidelines on how to walk.

Jack: We’re going to have to have a walk inspection. Over there come on next to the wall - we need to see a brisk walk - this is exercise remember.

Rich: Here we go look. I’m walking - this is how I walk.

Jack: No, no that’s not exercise. Have you got very heavy shoes on? That’s plodding. Slow heavy steps like that are no good at all.

Rich: Well, I don’t know what to do.

Jack: Calm down, you can do this.

Rich: OK. Can I try again?

Jack: Yes - with a straighter back, this time. Good posture is essential. Try again back to the wall. This time I want to see more energy and confidence. Head up, shoulders back and off you go.

Rich: Right, how’s this?

Jack: Better, but still not quite right. What you were doing was more of a strut. It’s not Saturday night at the disco. You looked like a peacock trying to impress a mate.

Rich: A strut? I’m not trying to impress anyone.

Jack: Well you managed that much.

Rich: It was quite tiring though. I think it was good exercise.

Jack: Look let me demonstrate what’s acceptable and not acceptable. Firstly, skipping like this is not acceptable. You’re on the streets for exercise not to take in the joys of spring.

Rich: Anything else?

Jack: Yes. See what I’m doing here, all bent over and quiet. This is sneaking and it’s definitely not allowed. We don’t want to see people bent over and scuttling along the streets. We might mistake you for a robber or a thief.

Rich: Sorry? Sneaking and scuttling?

Jack: Yes, like this ….

Rich: No sneaking and no scuttling. Ah, I think I get this. You want me to march. Is that right?

Jack: Let’s see. Yes, yes. That’s right. Like a soldier on the parade ground. Very good. Come on one more time. Knees up.

Rich: But I’m not even going to break into a sweat doing this. I think I might go for a jog instead.

Jack: Jogging? There are some regulations on that too. Running and sprinting are permitted but … jogging... not really in the spirit.

Rich: Bye ...

Language Focus

Jack: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions. Did you manage to answer them?

Rich: The first question was what walk did the police officer want me to do.

Jack: I wanted Rich to march - like a soldier. The second question was does Rich do what the police officer wants?

Rich: Not, really. The police officer wasn’t impressed with my marching and in the end, I ran off!

Jack: OK, let’s look at some of the language we used in the roleplay.

Rich: The words we want to focus on in this podcast are all connected to how we walk or run.

Jack: Let’s start off with the word that the police officer thought was most important - to march.

Rich: This is what soldiers do when they walk together. They march. You walk in quick, regular steps.

Jack: We used a couple of words which mean to walk in a relaxed, slow manner. The first and probably most common is stroll.

Rich: We often use this as a noun. We go for a stroll in the park or we go for an afternoon stroll with the family. It’s slow and relaxed.

Jack: In the roleplay, I asked Rich where he was wandering off to.

Rich: To wander is another way of walking. Like stroll it’s a slow walk but the important thing with wander is that we are not going to a specific place. We’re not going to anywhere.

Jack: It can be aimless with no purpose or direction. Where are you going? Nowhere - I’m just wandering about.

Rich: Another verb we used to describe a slow walk was plod. When we plod we are very tired and we make big heavy, slow steps.

Jack: Animals often plod along - the horses plodded through the rain on the muddy track. We can also use it in a more general way to describe how you’re doing. Hey Rich, How are you doing?

Rich: Oh, you know, plodding on.

Jack: It’s quite negative. It means carrying on with life - slowly.

Rich: Those are some slow walks but I did some different walks in the roleplay. I waddled for example.

Jack: Yes, the best way to describe waddling is to think of a duck. You waddle when you do speed walking. Think of the 50k walk in the Olympics and how the participants walk.

Rich: It’s a weird race. Why don’t they just run?

Jack: It’s against the rules. It’s a brisk walk - not a run.

Rich: We used this phrase in the podcast, too - a brisk walk. Something that is brisk is quick so in the roleplay, Jack wanted me to walk at a brisk pace. He wanted me to walk quickly.

Jack: I think it’s almost always connected to walking. I can’t think of anything else that you do briskly, can you?

Rich: No, a brisk walk and that’s about it.

Jack: In the roleplay, Rich waddled like a duck and he also strutted like a peacock. A peacock is that amazing bird with the tails that stick in the air like a fan.

Rich: The phrase to strut like a peacock means to walk very proudly. You put your head up and stick your chest out. We often think that people who strut think a bit too much of themselves. They think they are very important.

Jack: We also mentioned running at the end of the roleplay. Jog - run - sprint in that order. Jogging is running slowly and sprinting is running very quickly over a short distance.

Rich: There were a few other words and phrases connected to walking and running in the podcast and we’ll look at these in more detail on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: Yes, to find the lesson for this podcast you need to click on skills > listen > podcasts > Learning vocabulary: walk this way. There you will find the transcript, further examples, activities, a task for you to complete and a discussion to take part in.

TASK

Rich: Your task this week is to tell us how you walk or run in three situations.

Jack: We want you to try to use some of the words we introduced in the roleplay.

Rich: Or discover some new words connected to walking. A good way to do this is to type walk into an online thesaurus such as thesaurus.com - they are very useful.

Jack: Here’s situation one: You have two very heavy bags of shopping, it’s raining and you are late for dinner. How do you walk?

Rich: Situation two: You are playing football as a striker. The ball is ten metres in front of you, the goalkeeper is seven metres away from the ball.

Jack: Situation three: You are in the park on a Sunday afternoon with your grandparents.

Rich: Try to experiment with some different words to describe the way people walk. We will tell you if you are using them correctly or not.

Jack: Write all your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us.

Football Phrase

Rich: It’s your turn with this week’s football phrase, Jack

Jack: This week’s football phrase is just a word. The word is *********. The word is connected to this week’s podcast because the word means running but with a ball at your feet. Wingers are usually the best players at *********. To give you a bit of extra help - this is something that babies do a lot.

Rich: Let’s see who can get it right. Before we leave you we also need to tell you last week’s football phrase. The answer was swerve.

Jack: 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 any questions or comments or suggestions for the podcast or anything football or English related, you can leave them on the website in the comments section, on social media, on apple podcasts or you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football!

How much did you understand?

Here is the vocabulary you saw at the top of this page and how Rich and Jack used it in the roleplay. Do you know the words in bold?

Keep your distance, please. Two metres, two metres, please.

You need to have a good excuse to be out of your house. We’re under lockdown, remember.

Haven’t you read the government guidelines?

Yes - with a straighter back, this time. Good posture is essential.

You looked like a peacock trying to impress a mate.

But I’m not even going to break into a sweat doing this. I think I might go for a jog instead.

Listen to the roleplay again to hear how Rich and Jack used these words and phrases.

The referee has to make sure defenders keep their distance when a free kick is taken.

Walking Slowly

In the podcast, Jack and Rich looked at lots of different words connected to walking. They used a few words that described ways of walking slowly but in different ways. Have a look at these examples from the roleplay, can you imagine how you would walk in this way?

You’re not going to get much exercise going for an afternoon stroll.

Where are you wandering off to?

Speed walking? Looks more like speed waddling to me. You look like a duck. No, that’s not good enough at all.

They’ll be no waddling here or for that matter strolling, sauntering, swanning or swaggering about. Haven’t you read the government guidelines?

No, no that’s not exercise. Have you got very heavy shoes on? That’s plodding. Slow heavy steps like that are no good at all.

Activity 2: Look at the definitions and try to remember the words that are connected to walking slowly. Turn over the card and check your answers.

Rich told the police officer that he was speed walking. The officer thought it was more like waddling!

Moving a bit quicker

In the roleplay, Rich was asked to move a bit more quickly. Have a look at the words in bold. Do you understand all of them?

Over there come on next to the wall - we need to see a brisk walk - this is exercise remember.

What you were doing was more of a strut. It’s not Saturday night at the disco. You looked like a peacock trying to impress a mate.

Firstly, skipping like this is not acceptable. You’re on the streets for exercise not to take in the joys of spring.

Ah, I think I get this. You want me to march. Is that right?

Jogging? There are some regulations on that too. Running and sprinting are permitted but …

Activity 3: Look at the definitions and try to remember the words that are connected to walking slowly. Turn over the card and check your answers.

The police officer wanted Rich to march like these guys. Very odd!

Different situations

Rich sprinted off at the end of the roleplay - not sure his sprint would have been much like Usain Bolt!

Quiz

At the end of the roleplay, Rich sprinted off because Jack didn't like his waddling and wanted him to march everywhere. They introduced many more words and phrases connected to walking and running and in this week’s task, we have given you three different situations where you may choose to walk (or run) differently. Look at the three situations and decide how you would walk or run in each situation using some of the words Jack and Rich used in the podcast. Here are the three situations:

You have two very heavy bags of shopping, it’s raining and you are late for dinner. How do you walk?
You are playing football as a striker. The ball is ten metres in front of you, the goalkeeper is seven metres away from the ball.
You are in the park on a Sunday afternoon with your grandparents.

Try to experiment with the new language and we will tell you if you are using it correctly (or not). Write all your answers in the comments section below and don't forget to make a guess at this week's football phrase!