Podcast 189 The Harmonica Players (Part 2) B1, B2 story

Practising English

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In Part 2 of my story, The Harmonica Players, I’ll be talking about racial prejudice. That means the irrational distrust and dislike of people from other countries. My motive for bringing up this topic and creating Jeffrey, a man who is very prejudiced against foreigners, has been from the unfortunate policy by the current Conservative party in the UK, who have proposed and are about to carry out flying immigrants, who have arrived illegally into the UK, to the African country of Rwanda.
This is a B1 to B2 level English story.
B2 vocabulary discussed in the podcast:
foreigner
native English
"I don’t know what this country is coming to. More foreigners than native English."

In contrast to
primarily
"In contrast to the London area, Oxted was primarily a small town of white people."

respectable
"All respectable, traditional people. Proper English people, Jeffrey would say. "

upbringing
"His upbringing had always been in country areas, away from cosmopolitan* cities. "

distrusted
"He distrusted foreigners in his country, in general. "

superior / inferior
What does he say about these words? (see answer 1 below)

raise their voices
Who don't raise their voices? (see answer 2 below)

take it for granted
decency and fair play
"In England, you could take it for granted that you would find decency and fair play*.

deceit and dishonesty
"Unfortunately, the deceit and dishonesty, which so many immigrants brought with them from elsewhere was giving this country a bad name. "

discourage
"The current government’s policy of sending them all to Rwanda was obviously a practical solution which would discourage others, tempted by England’s superior standard of living, from attempting the crossing of the English Channel. "

"immigrants giving the country a bad name"
Answer 1) His main argument was that why would anyone from another country wish to live in England unless his or her own origins were somehow inferior*. Here, in England, everybody enjoyed a superior* culture, a better welfare state: medical care, friendly doctors (such as his own Doctor Feelgood, for instance).
Answer 2) The English didn’t raise their voices* or shout at each other like they did on the Continent. (By the term ‘the Continent’, Jeffrey referred to all of Europe excluding* Britain.)

At https://www.practisingenglish.com/ I offer learners of intermediate-level English, grammar help and exercises and other English learning pages.
https://www.practisingenglish.com/
My latest novel for learners of B2 English is called The Tudor Conspiracy. You can see it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/33Axu2N
https://amzn.to/33Axu2N
Be back soon with another podcast!
Mike Bilbrough (Secondary school English teacher and Doctor in English philology)

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1. Story starts here... (00:13:31)