BBC Learning English
Voters in Colombia have narrowly rejected a peace deal with Farc rebels in a referendum. Join Neil and Sian to discover the language the world’s media is using to talk about this story.
For more, visit our website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/towards-advanced/unit-14/session-2
The story
The Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, has met opposition leaders to find a way to salvage the peace process after voters rejected a deal that was four years in the making.
He’s appointed senior officials to discuss ways of amending the landmark peace agreement with the Farc rebel group.
Leonardo Rocha – BBC News
Two cabinet ministers and the man who led the negotiations with the Farc, Humberto De La Calle, have been appointed by Mr Santos to talk to the opposition.
They will try to find some common ground to save the peace process. The leader of the ‘no’ campaign, the former president Álvaro Uribe has demanded changes to the terms of the agreement if he’s to support it. Like many Colombians Mr Uribe believes the government gave the rebels too many concessions. He wants those who committed serious crimes to serve time in jail and more compensation for the victims of five decades of conflict.
Key words and phrases:
common ground
something people agree about, especially when they disagree about other things
pick yourself up
recover from a difficult situation
scramble
try very hard to do something in a hurry, often when competing with other people
Farc
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
BBC is my best place to learn English… I always learn and learn
Even though my English is quite good I frequently find it hard to understand some words that are used in the news. And It makes me annoyed. So I hope this programme is gonna be a great solution of my problem and after watching it I'll learn some more specific vocab and will be able to use it when talking about politics or other similar topics.
That is a barefaced lie, the conflict still continues here in Colombia and is also worse, with more drug trafficking, social inequality, violence, kidnapping, killing, corruption and could continue to list the disasters.
Rachel's voice on English at work
Can someone here talk with me to improve my English,please??
Sine's smile picks myself up after a long and exhausted day.
great work
Thank you.
thank you guys i like bbc learning englis
Sian is the most beautiful teacher in the world with the most beautiful voice in this galaxy 🙂
Hi! Just wanted to ask you about that preposition which you put before "the website " so is it correct to say "in the website " or on the website ?
excelente
I love you Sian!!! You are the most beautiful English teacher I have ever seen. Thank you so much for the videos.
Where is subtitles?
Sian, you're very cute!
there''s no subtitle today. It''s really hard for me to understand clearly what you''re talking. but still love this channel so much.
Hello, welcome to News review the program we give you the language to help you
to talk about the news.
Hi, Im Sian, and joining me today is Neil, Hi Neil? Hi Sian!
What story do you have for us today?
Well, we've got a story about a long running desputes which looks like
it's been solved but there's actually more to it than that.
oh, let's find out more from this BBC News bulletine.
=======================================================
The Colombian president ( ) has made opposition leaders
to find a way to solve this peace process after voters rejected the deal
that was four years in the making, he's pointed senior official to discuss
way of mending the landmark of peace aggrements for the ( ) group
( today's news bulletine is giving me hard time on listening , kinda words that Im
not familior with contained in it a lot. :-p )
=======================================================
so, this is story about Columbia , the revel group ( ) and gorvernments who
have been fighting for about fifty years
came to an aggrement, that aggrement was put to a vote and it's very narrowry
very narrowry defeated , so people said that they didn't agree to the aggrement
alright. what words and phrases are being used to talk about the story online?
so, I've picked out three words and phrases ,
the first one is "common ground" , then "pick youself up" and finally "scramble"
to scramble.
ok, how are these words and phrases appearing in the Headlines and stories?
right. here from the CBC website, we've got the headline here
"Finding common ground"
ok, so, finding common ground is something people agree about
when they disagree about most of other things.
that's right, and it's very often used in combination with find or finding.
so we talk about people finding common ground.
alright, I've got a couple of friends actually who disagree about almost everything
politics , music, food but they agree on the same football team.
they support same football team.
they found common ground.
it gives them something to talk about
cause everything else they fight about
so, it's important to have some common ground.
yeah, what's the football team?
Swansea in Wales. (it looks like Sian is a big fan of football game according to
her smile while talking about football game. 😀 )
we have to find out some other common ground if I'd like(this phrase not sure) to
get involved.
um, ok, how about the next word that you found?
ah, next one is here in the CNN website,
========== reading headline on screen ================
ok, to pick youself up means to recover from a difficult situation.
that's right, yeah, so you can imagine its literal meaning of
perhaps you're involved in a race something like that.
you fall over, you need to pick yourself up in order to continue the race.
that actually did happen to me, recently, I fell over at the finish line
and I had to pick myself up and walk over.
but here it's being used to talk about a process , a long difficult process
which was, how it had a setback.( this part is not making sense in my head omg )
yeah it's a very shock, and they need to recover from the shock, don't they?
and what we should say about pick yourself up here it is always separatepable
and you can't say pick up itself or pick up yourself
you have to say pick yourself up
the pronoun has to go in the middle?!?! yup!!
and there are many uses of pick up ,aren't they? we've got.
I think ( ) twenty in the dictionary , different meanings of the phrasal verb
pick up , lots of study! ( this phrase was not sure for me whether or not it's
correct, so I googled it to get it right, lots of study
but somehow it sounds like "let's study" so confused haha. )
we'll come back to those at the end of the program.
and look at a few more so stick with us , you'll pick up more uses of pick up.
ok, what's the next word that you found for us?
in the Guardian website,
============ reading headline on screen ====================
so here scramble as a verb means to try very hard to do something in a hurried
manner, in a hurry.
in competition with others.
often, it's often used in competition with others, isn't it?
yeah, we can use this to describe somebody to try to get to the top of the mountain
it's got literal uses as well.
or you could say for example ,in the United kingdom , the housing market is quite
competitive at the moment , people trying to buy new house is quite often involved
in a scramble , so there is a noun , a scramble to buy a property.
so it could be a verb as well they scrambled to buy a house.
yeah, it's sort of hurried, slightly panicked.
alright, let's find out more about this story.
so listen to this report from BBC's leonardo
and listen out for how is used the phrase to find common ground.
============================================================
Two cabinet ministers and the man who ( ) in negotiation with ( )
have been appointed by Mr. Santos to talk to the opposition.
they'll try to find some common ground to save the peace process.
the reader of the ( ) campaign , the former president ( )
has ( ) to changes to the terms of disaggrement if he's ( ) supported.
like many columbians
Mr ( ) believed that the gorvernment gave the revels too many ( )
he wants those ( ) serious crime to serve time in jail
today I've got all messed up. :-l omg.
=============================================================
thanks a lot to BBCle, Sian, Neil.
everyone in the world
all I want is you guys all be happy.
bye~ see y'all later.
Thank you for your videos!
They are good looking XD
ありがとうございます！
美男美女ですねXD
Sian, you're very kind person! Would like to marry with me?
Did UK scramble or are they gonna picking themselves up and finding a common ground after brexit? 🙂
let me share this: After decades of kidnapping, drugs-dealing and killing, how can anyone be faulted for rejecting a deal which gives them guaranteed seats in parliament? If they are serious about peace, then let them submit themselves to democratic process to win seats like everyone else, otherwise they are not just being forgiven of, but are being rewarded for, their brutalities.
guys let me say something … YOU ARE AMAZING 🙂
Sian you're gorgeous
👍🏻🇬🇧
thanks for helping me sooo much
love this channel a lot 😍