 Hi, I'm Avi Arditi from VOA Learning English with Kate Wood-Dum from VOA news and We've been we've been hosting one of VOA's international editions This week and so we've been working together and Kate has offered to join us here on a Skype call-in show and We have on the line with us on Skype Osjet from Istanbul Who is about to give us a video tour out her window in overlooking Istanbul and Osjet is a Mechanical engineering student at a university there So Osjet, why don't you go ahead and just point the camera out the window and and describe for our listeners What you're seeing It's middle of the evening, so it's really hard to see what's outside but Istanbul when you come here, you can see this very big bridge Which connects two different? land Asia and Europe and it's a very fantastic view you can see Is that the boss first straight or That we're my I got my geography wrong That the where the where the two continents meet. What's that called that spot? Okay Little bit outside of Istanbul. Okay It's not really the center of the sea it's a small town and You know, it's still crowded and You can you can see so many people here too. It's not a village or something So tell us about your your community what what kind of sites are there? Let's say someone was going to come to Istanbul for a trip. What would you recommend they they go see? Well, there are a lot of church and mosques and historical places Just like I a Sofia Dami and Susan Ahmed and And some other places Under under the city you can see interesting places actually really much This is University. This is college. Do you live at home with your family? Are you in a dormitory? Well, I live with my family and You can't just Stay with the you know rule maids or something They they have to choose you you have to be choosing for that So I have to go to school every day and come back to home. Well, it's actually my first year as college So how many years do you have ahead of you to get the degree? Are you going for a advanced degree or what are you? What degree are you going for? I'm going to be engineer after four years Education and actually five years, but I skip a year. It's one year for English Preparation, you know I took an exam profiling the exam and I kept it Four years Your parents may appreciate that right Well that should be used to it. They don't really appreciate it real much Extremely intelligent Yeah, it's a lot of pressure Yeah, I can imagine. Do you have brothers and sisters that are under the same pressure? Yeah, my my sister's an engineer too she's chemistry Engineer and my brother is told her Is he an active duty right now? Not in a war He's working. Yeah, he's an officer. Okay Well, thank you so much for calling us and good luck with your your college and please keep us keep us posted on You know how your studies are going and check back, okay? Well, I'm really happy to talk to you and thanks for accepting me and I Will be so grateful for that Keep going to VOA special English comm and and tell your friends who aren't as good at English as you are that they can improve by it by going to our website, so So so Kate tell me a little bit about Color audience a little bit about your background as a reporter you've you've which countries have you traveled to? Well, I became very interested in reporting at a young age when I was in high school I was pretty sure I wanted to be a journalist so I joined the school newspaper and then in college I Was able to study and work and both Nicaragua and in Cuba. Okay, so that was my first experience sort of Doing research and writing overseas and starting to take in different cultures and once I got a taste of that I thought I need to do this for a living so after I graduated from college I went to work at a small newspaper in Cambodia That was published in both English and Khmer And I covered unions labor unions In Cambodia garment factories the garment industry is one of the the biggest drivers of Income for the economy and so labor unions have a very They're very influential Politically because they represent the garment workers that generate all the money for the economy and in fact we We have a call or we did a moment ago. Let me see if we can get him back from Cambodia Maybe someone who remembered you when you were maybe a viewing and reporting for VOA from there. Let's see. Hello. Can you Can you hear us? Hello, hi, you're on with avian Kate So You're so I think that I think that you can speak command Kate was just telling us about her background. She was a reporter for for a while in Cambodia Covering the labor unions and I worked for the Cambodia Daily newspaper before VOA. Do you ever read that newspaper? So It seems that I kind of catch up to you clearly, huh, but I just know that you are working with VOA in Cambodia Yeah, it great Of course not I've been living in Lebanon working with the United Nations here Okay, wow, yeah, that's that I'm here more than yeah, I've been here more than 10 months already. Maybe another Residentry my baby back in Cambodia Which which UN force is that that I know that Well, uh, can't play that Well, the one the one in the one in Lebanon that you're a that you're a part of which Which operation is that in Lebanon for the UN? As always, sorry, I'm not clear So yes, the voice is not yeah, so they are fucking you say again, please in Lebanon what projects are you working on? For what for what UN? Mission, what's the name of the UN mission that you're working on? Unified United Nations United Nations, yeah, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. That's right. That's right. Yeah, it's cardinifia It is so interesting that you're doing that because Cambodia had its own UN transitional force after its Conflict so it is very special that you're doing that in another country Oh Sorry, I cannot hear you Then can I can you call me again, please? Sure. Yeah, let me let me try. I will try calling you right back So here, let's let us try again That was uncanny timing that we were I know that was amazing talking about Cambodia and we get a call Hey, is this any better? Can you hear us better? Yeah, I think it's still the same biggest one. Can I try to call you back? Okay? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Yeah. Well, there was you saw the picture of him in his UN I saw the blue hat and and he's here. We are he's standing on a snowy Street in Lebanon, which is quite a difference from Cambodia. How is it? How's this? Can you hear us now? Hello, hi, can you hear us? Yeah, I heard you. That's not still not clear, but I try to understand you. Okay Well, we were looking at your Skype photo where you're standing in snow and you're in uniform and you've got your blue hat On and there's a UN truck in the in the background. But what was had you? Did you have experience in snow before in places where it snows? Is is Lebanon the first country where you have seen snow? It is a big trouble. That's okay. Sorry that we're having difficulty. I think thank you for calling. We're going to go to Nahim who's been calling us here at the VOA Learning English on Skype. Let's see if Nahim the That's right. The Cambodian UN force was it was before the elections or before I remember It helped us to set up and prepare the country for the elections. Yeah, Nahim. Is that you? Hey, can you speak? How are you? Fine, thanks. How are you? Yeah, fine. Where are you? I'm from in India. I'm working for in Saudi Arabia. So, yeah, Saudi Arabia. What time is it in Saudi Arabia right now? 10 p.m. So, what have you been doing with uh, What's yeah, I'm working for in web developer Website developer Website developer What what coding language do you use or what give a particular Software you particularly like or in vsp, javascript CSS How long have you been in Saudi Arabia? Yeah, just uh, only how in one year I guess, yeah What do you think? Are you comfortable? Do you have friends? Is it lonely? There are a lot of other ex there are a lot of other foreign workers there though Nahim listen, thank you for calling. We're going to go to a call from uh, this caller from let's see Let's see if we can get this call here Siam Bazi I'm not sure I'm pronouncing your name right. Can you hear me? No, okay, then we're going to go to Nechi Nechi Lai This is sometimes we don't always have luck with Myanmar Wow Yeah, that's it's always nice to get a call from from Burma from Myanmar. We just had Ansan Suchi Yeah, the Burmese opposition leader now a member of parliament was just at the voice of america this week um Kate you followed her around to the building and and uh Told the twitosphere what what exactly she was doing what she was wearing. She was in a beautiful red jacket that's the the power color she had uh Pink roses in her hair that were quite fresh and um A long skirt and she was very gracious and patient with all the fans that were waiting to see her well that That was and then um the next day she got the congressional Right. Go amount. That's she yeah, so she was here on sort of official official and personal business meeting with us officials to talk about possibly ending us sanctions And um then also to accept the u.s. Congress's highest award which which she received well under house arrest Right, George. She that's right. She was awarded it and couldn't come to accept it until now. Yeah Okay, we are having a few problems. We've had a few calls. Let's try this fellow In yemen. Let's see if we Abdul Malik Let's see if he will Because when we're talking to one person It's hard when others are calling in and you can't take the other calls You can't put them on hold on the skype. So let's see if we've oh wait looks looks like we might have hello Abdul Malik Hi, thanks. How are you? You know, it's the first time I you know I I haven't expected that you're gonna call me. Oh Why not? Why where are you? And you know, I'm a tell me, you know, I'm not wearing my shirt. Yeah, I hope we can see Maybe you're gonna You know because this well just just your voice. So won't be the video. Well, Abdul Malik What country are you calling from? You know, uh, my name is Abdul Malik Uh, uh, where do you live? What country? I'm from Yemen Yemen. So I did I did in Yemen in ed Yemen, yeah How are things in Asia? Of course we very much in the news. Um, how are things were in the part of Yemen where you live? You know nowadays yemen Is about to you know Everything is gonna be all right when your president is making reforms to the military forces and you know uh public offices I think everything is gonna be okay, but you know After the politic crisis as some people say and others say revolution everything became upside down Understand this And you send me or absolutely you sound very good and and when you say everything became upside down For you personally How was your life affected? You know, my life at that time was perfect. You know, why? Why? Because I had a job Sure, you know, I had a job not an ordinary not, you know, ordinary job Ununder ordinary job with the french organization What did you do? What kind of work? you know, uh You can say that We made we made programs to poor people how to you know to help youth to to empower youth To make uh, you know small businesses to aware to aware and educated women about, you know health about About many things What do you do? You know, it's especially the rural areas Uh So then I had worked with I worked with them for a year and after that they didn't, you know We're in you the contract with me because of the crisis. They said so they left away and Left me here struggling with this life What what do you do you have a job now? And all these, you know, I'm studying accounting The world needs accountants from us, you know, I mean every every country has has a need to For for people who can balance numbers and do accounting You know, I'm trying my best though. I hate math I hate it too. You hate math. I hate it too. I like to write. I like to read but math is so hard for me Wait, wait a minute. So you're studying accounting and you hate math Nowadays, you know, just a core, you know, you can say Three months A three month course just, you know, in order to enable myself To have a better job So it's like a stepping stone Yes, that's what we say. It's a stepping stone to a better Yeah, yeah, you know, studying accounting that's for accounting itself But just, you know, a skill to learn a skill. Okay So where are you studying that? Uh, nowadays Sorry, I didn't catch it where like at a school or how are you studying accounting? And you know, I have finished my school two years ago You can look at me. I'm 26 26, uh-huh. I can see you. You're 26 I'm 20, you know, uh I'm studying in In any institute nowadays well Maybe you'll maybe discover you like accounting or that you uh Well, I think it's a very it sounds like a very smart plan like you've had an amazing experience with this French development group, which is fantastic fantastic professional experience and then at accounting it's just it's like you're strengthening your muscles You know, so it's it seems like you're in a good process right now building Exactly Abdul Malik, we've got a call coming in another call coming in, but thank you so much and all the best Please check back with us. We're going on now to uh sarfraz. Are we pronouncing that right? Hello Where are you calling from? I am calling from Pakistan Pakistan we're in Pakistan I am in sin sakhar So where is that help me locate that? in the country You listen the kirachi name of kirachi. Yes, I know that Yeah, I am also from this province. Okay, and I feel prouder to speak your video. Oh, we're so happy to talk to you Yes, yes, but your accent is very well Oh, thank you My accent is not good. Your accent sounds great Very very good. Yeah, it's fine. No problem at all. What um, we've been reporting all day on on events. Uh, this is Friday It was a tumultuous day in a lot in a number of countries including Pakistan Um, where you are was there were there protests? Um, where you were today? Yes, I I also I also Prepare for the protest and I also involved in the protest and I am the What do you say in English Nara? I also The Important person of in this protest because I speak against the vice Of this Christian person who make this type of film and I also heard from this type of film because every person should respect to other religion don't Don't Don't make any type of thing for against the religion because if a person who heard From the religion said second person also heard Mm-hmm Absolutely, and so how did were the protests peaceful today? Like how do you want to show? your your anger My Our debater Said to please peaceful protest and this is the preaching of Islam that you should be if you feel that there is bad to you But you should peaceful you should unite and peaceful and don't Destroy any type of other religion persons only destroy a person who is the involved in type of these type of things And don't destroy any type of other person and don't destroy any un muslim person Well, it's interesting here in the united states many americans feel um Very uncomfortable very sad about this this video that has depicted the prophet muhammad in an offensive way And we feel like it's not representative of our whole country And I wonder if others in other countries where there are violent protests. They feel like that's not representative of them And and the fact is I mean this there's been a Perception of that that perhaps we have laws that could ban a video like this But the the fact is this historically for for over 200 years the us has had free First amendment to the constitution It guarantees free speech and it makes it very very difficult. It creates a very high a high bar To to order anyone to I mean the government doesn't Yeah, I mean it's interesting one of the reasons that Many people think that the united states is is it has Positive values is because we have the opportunity to freely speak what we think we're not censored but that Comes with good and bad I have I have a suggestion for you are speaking please On your video Not this time after this time And when you on your video and live we watch you when we will watch you our Interest will be grow when we watch you on live and This is also growing my interest, but I feel very proud to talk with you. I Wait many time ago. I was waiting. I was waiting you many time ago for talk with you So did you hear us on the radio? Did you did you know to call because we said it on the radio? Yeah Did you hear us? Did you hear the news international edition which we co-hosted today? Or did you just See that we were online on skype right now. Actually, actually dear I was working in the outside of the succor. I am electrical lineman in succor region And my duty is also depend the emergency duty And my officer call me. I am going go to there to Emergency call and I attend the complaint and so many other type of problem. That's why I haven't a time for Voa and I listen many program of voa At the youtube Well, I've heard it said that that electricians are the smartest of the trades the tradespeople because Because you work with electricity And you you make one mistake you you could die. Obviously, so it requires A lot of intelligence to especially you as a lineman. You're working with with high power, right? High high voltage life-taking life-taking working if I if I Don't I if I Not concentrate on my work. I will be dying. Yeah may possible 100% and when I when I interest and When I interest on my work and don't make any mistake. I will be alive Life-taking work. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, we'll keep paying attention to to your work and to the away Thank you so much for calling. Nice talking to you. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Bye. Bye All right, we're going to see let's see who we've gotten a couple of uh, a couple of fresh contact requests that let us go to So avi right now is looking at the computer in the list of um, we've got calls on skype. Oh, this is this person has tried Uh, 12 times to calls and let's try that they're persistent persistent. Yes That's the thing with unlike. Persistence is a good quality. That's right. It is it Because eventually we will get to that's the thing with the uh We're looking at we can't really can't put people on hold. So we are looking at us Lee Let's see if I didn't pronounce your name right. Okay, here we go. Let's take this call. We've got sure. It's odd Hello Can you turn your um turn your speaker down a little bit we hear our voice coming back It sounds like an actor. I don't mind him. Do you hear me, sir? Yes, we do Okay, I'm sure that's my Afghanistan. Jalalabad city. Jalalabad city Yeah, how are you? Fine. How are you doing, sir? We're doing fine. I'll be with Kate and uh Could you turn turn your computer speaker down a little bit or your phone that you're on? Okay Will you be able to hear us if you turn it down? Oh wait, we actually got a little video of you from there, but the So it's just so we oh there you are. Hey Yes, uh But I cannot see you. Oh That's where it doesn't work when we're doing this in conjunction with you stream, but we can see you And um, tell us a little bit about what you do in what kind of work do you do in in Jalalabad city? I am just working in a private school named hill tomorrow school in college in Jalalabad city Are you a teacher? I know the manager of the principal of the school. Oh, congratulations What what kind of school is it? Tell us about it It's a private school register with the government And and so what kind of students attend the school? There are different students from the nursery class up to The we have students in different classes any And it it so help me understand how um afghanistan school system works. Is it a privilege group that goes to private school? Afghanistan has one system. It is a the From the ministry of education. It has it is up to 12th class. It is not a college system It's up to 12th class from the first class up to 12th class the students are studying and Class 12 They get graduate and then they have an exam named concord Are post in concord and uh post to the In which university a faculty they have tuition then they will study that faculty Fourier after that they will get a bachelor degree And how much english does your school how many how much english to does your students do your students learn? How many years of? Years of english has abby So in the government schools the english started from the class 7 But it is a our school is a private school. We Try to have uh to have it from class first Oh from from from when they're very young so like six years old or Yeah We accept the small Students too for nursery and for classes and they have study english too in that class But they have only they have to study only the alphabets and the sounds To be familiar with them with it For you Well, let me let me ask you a question because we're always looking for ideas about how to reach You know young listeners and get them interested in in learning english through with voa. What kinds of activities? Do the younger students like best for learning english? Yeah, especially Your programs are the best for the Poor people not only for the young people the people who are trying to Learn english because the viewer special english is Best package for them The people who are speaking in it. They have a more clear wise and they have They are pronouncing the words Very nicely and it's a really great package for everyone to learn from the viewer special english Oh my goodness. Thank you That's uh, we really appreciate that i've i've been working for years in special english and uh It's good to to hear that that that a principal of a school in afghanistan is is it's the best testimonial So, thank you Welcome sir. Thanks for accepting me to have a Nice setting calling with you. Okay, sir. We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you. Bye. Bye Wow, that was nice to go that's where to go well in and the website if if uh If you're interested in checking out special english voa special english.com It's daily news and information service. It's read at a slower speed Um news and information for people at the upper beginner and intermediate level plus we have other activities and and games and More traditional english teaching and on our website also and there's also a facebook page and there's a facebook page right the face voa The learning english page also on youtube and on facebook. We're on all the platforms. We try to Okay, we are on now with um stevet Okay, hi, my name is titan. Nice to meet you. Good to meet you. Nice to meet you. Where where are you calling from? So i'm calling from madagascar Wow How are things that we have a very clear connection? How are things in madagascar? So things are really great here I so Um It's 10 At night it's 10 30 here 10 at night And in what city are you in and what is it like there? I've honestly never spoken with someone from madagascar I'm excited. Here's the first. You're my first person to meet are you from ancanada revo? It's right here. It's a small. Yeah, it's small. Madagascar is small highland And Yeah, what do you want to know about madagascar? Well, I what I remember was a few years ago talking to some english teachers at a conference This was at a time of the political Unwret or that there were you know some some political problems I'm trying to remember the details, but I have things has the political situation settled has it calmed down and in uh, yeah Yeah, you're talking about the political unrest Yeah, um, yes, we are trying to solve the problem that we have now, but it's not yet solved So we are trying to um, you know to come to terms with what we We went through A couple of years ago and people are trying to reconstruct their life And so for the the audience that is not familiar with what happened in madagascar. Can you briefly explain what happened a couple years ago? couple years ago, you know the You know the the the the deepest president wanted to Take over the power and The deposed president wanted to come back and the new president said no way Yeah Yeah, that's that's the case. I was not really um, you know, I was not really um Into the political things But what we went through was really hard How did it affect you? How is it hard for you? Did it affect you or your family personally? personally It affected my My job because I was working Back then so it was you know, everything was disrupted. It was really hard for example to go to work and um That was almost what happened back then What kind of work were you doing? There was a kind of problem solvers I was providing some constant services to travel the individuals Oh, wow, that's amazing and yeah, but Yeah, it was in french but not in english That's so impressive. So were you working for an international group? No, it was for a french company. Okay. It's not Was not through for a international group Tell me I I'm thinking of a story we did not too long ago. I'm trying to remember if it was Madagascar or perhaps somewhere else Um, you have what are called sober houses there on the island or in Madagascar It for helping people with drug and alcohol dependency. It was a very um It's a program that's gotten a lot of attention where the um, the recovering addicts helped help themselves. Basically. Were you familiar with that at all? I remember we did a story on that No, not really. Okay, but you know for the supportive, you know to support those well alcoholic No, um, I was not really familiar with that Well, thank you. Yeah, I'm so pleased to talk to you. I know avias as well And um, I hope that the the political situation Studies and becomes more stable so that you can start building a Good good talking to we're going to go on now to um adnan. Let's see if we can bring adnan in on the on the call here Let's see because it looks like he was trying to call us Let's see if he is available. If not Hello, who are you? Thanks. How are you? I'm fine. You're on uh, live here on skype with kate woodson and aviar dating. Uh, where are you calling from? Or sorry, what you say Where are you calling from adnan? I am from pakistan. Oh, we just spoke with a gentleman from pakistan. Where are you living? Which city? Yeah, I have uh, talked to you before and I did call you before and I shared My problem with you about my accent. So I want I want to improve my accent So what should I do? From where I should start. I haven't got any idea about that. I Frankly, I think you are I can understand easily. I think kate can do everything you've said I don't know if your goal is to not have any accent and to speak like an american But I think one thing that's beautiful about the world is that we can all speak english together, but we can sound different You're very clear to me What have you been doing to try to to try to To get I want to ask There is any material to improve accent I mean the uh, there are You know various what they call like accent reduction programs. You probably go online and and find some but again, I think clarity of Understanding is is probably more important than Then you know the idea of an accent if people can understand what you're saying Then that's the most important thing. Can you refer me to the related person? That is online or I mean that's not something we really do but but adnan listen Good luck. Good luck to you and in your with english and we're gonna go on to Someone from jordan Who has been trying to reach us here? So we are Let's see if And while we're waiting adnan, you can just keep speaking english and as you get more comfortable with the language I think that your accent will Um Will become more comfortable with you. You'll just find your your voice and it's okay if it sounds different than mine Absolutely really it's Um, okay, so we're trying to call another caller Um, let's see here And while we're waiting on the subject of accents I come from a state in the northeast of the united states It's called main and my father has a really thick main accent So like give us an example. So, um, for example, if he were to say the sentence get in the car He would say get in the car He would He would drop the r And he's never gonna change. Uh, okay. Well, all right, antonio. We're on the line here with antonio. Can you hear us? Hello, oh, antonio. I think we hear antonio Are you there? Where where is here? Where are you? I don't know What country? Okay, we're here children And antonio has a He appears to be holding some sort of a skull. It looks like yeah, it looks like an animal skull Do you look like a Cow skull or cattle and you have some kind of meter with it. It's a very interesting skype photo Shrieking photo that you had Can you hear us? Maybe not Try again. Let's let's give him this is I want to I want to talk to this guy. Anyone who stands with us Going on in that photo. It's got a great photo. He has seemingly a bowl in one hand For something a geiger counter in another in it. I'm just kidding and a skull antonio Hello Hello antonio. Okay. All right. Well, I think good to see your photo Okay, we are going to wrap this up for today. We've we've talked now looking at our list. We've had calls from Iranian from from toronto. We had a young woman from turkey Someone from yam and two from pakistan afghanistan madagascar and and just this is Fantastic. This is fantastic and cambodia And you got to talk to someone from cambodia where you reported, but we'll do this I hope you'll come back soon and we'll do this again and and Thanks everyone for calling it was such a pleasure to meet you and I'm looking forward to meeting more of you And to to to learn english go to voa special english dot com And we're the voa learning english channel on youtube. We're on facebook twitter Podcasts special english podcasts on itunes. We will talk to you again soon. Take care. Take care