Calcio - Lettura - Trascrizione
Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning some interesting survival English on the origins of football and its nicknames.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be listening to some English expressions on football clubs, and their nicknames.
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to information about the origins of football nicknames.
So let’s start!
Woman: Most English cities have 2 football teams, and each team has a nickname, now you’ll hear some examples for the city of Sheffield.
Woman: A nickname.
Man: This is an informal name used instead of a real name. It is used between family and friends and also for football clubs.
Listen to this short conversation:
Man: What’s your name?
Woman: Well my real name is Joanne, but my friends call me kiwi.
Man: Why’s that?
Woman: Because my mother’s from New Zealand.
Woman: Blades
Man: This is the nickname of Sheffield United. Sheffield is a city famous for its steel industry, and a blade is flat sharp part of a knife. Now listen:
Woman: Which football team do you support?
Man: The Blades.
Woman: Excuse me?
Man: Sheffield United, but we call them the blades.
Woman: Owls.
Man: Sheffield, like most English cities has 2 football teams, the other one is Sheffield Wednesday, its nickname is the owls. An owl is a bird of the night with large eyes that “twiteroos”. Sheffield is located next to a large park called Hillsborough, where there are lots of these birds, hence the name.
Woman: Aah. You’re from Sheffield, you must support the blades.
Man: No way! I’m an owls fan.
Woman: Now let’s listen to some information about the origins of English football clubs nicknames, adapted from footballculture.net.
Man: The origin of football teams’ nicknames in Britain dates back to the 19th century, when most British clubs were founded. During that time Britain had become industrialised, and people from rural areas moved to cities in the North to work in factories. Workers from different trades founded local football teams to build a sense of self-identity. This explains why many of the stadiums in Britain are built in the centre of working class areas of cities and also accounts for the origin of teams nicknames. For instance, Sheffield United players are called Blades because Sheffield is famous for its steel industry.
Arsenal players are called Gunners because the team was founded by people working at Woolwich Arsenal in London. The Everton players’ nickname is Toffees, because of a popular mint toffee produced in the Liverpool district. Before every game free toffees are thrown into the crowd by the famous Toffee Lady, dressed in a traditional skirt, shawl and hat.
Woman: If you wish you can hear this lesson again. In the meantime we hope we have helped you to be more confident with your English. Watch out for the next topic. Thank you for using the EnglishBlog.
il vs.sito è molto interessante, ma presuppone già un buon livello di conoscenza della lingua; avete pensato o state pensando anche ai principianti? Non sarebbe male avere anche la traduzione di qualche testo in italiano…dato che il sito è registrato in Italia. Grazie