Video script Unit 1 Another country Part 1 Living abroad

Roald Dahl is known to generations of children as the man that brought them magical stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Danny the Champion of the World and James and the Giant Peach.

Many people remember his stories from their childhood.

Olive: I’ve got a few favourites. There’s Matilda, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach.
They are so fantastic and different it’s like going into another world.

Beth: I used to read a lot of Roald Dahl when I was little, and I had a lot of Roald Dahl read to me by my parents.
He’s very funny. He’s a very witty author who makes good stories for children and for adults.

Kate: The BFG, The Big Friendly Giant, is about a big monster and he goes around catching dreams.
I can’t even remember.

Edel: I can’t remember.
I think my dog ate that book.

Tom: I’ve taught Roald Dahl to children.
I read four or five of his books and the ones that I taught were Danny Champion of the World, which I think is probably my favourite of all his books.
But they are great children’s books.
Children love them and it’s great to be able to teach them to children who want to learn, who want to know.
And he’s a great man. I love his books. I think they’re great.

He invented his own words and he wrote about fantastic places and people.

By the end of the 20th century people had bought over 35 million copies of his books.

At the Roald Dahl museum and Story centre you can learn more about him and his world.

Gemma Holland works at the centre.

She explains why Dahl’s stories are still popular today:

Roald Dahl’s parents were Norwegian, but they had left Norway to live in Wales before Roald was born on 13 September 1916.

Dahl wrote about his childhood in his autobiography, ‘Boy’.

He told many stories about being naughty at school.

When he was only nine years old Roald’s mother sent him to boarding school a long way from home.

He was terribly homesick and he wrote her letters nearly every day.

Although he was lonely and unhappy, his letters were always cheerful and full of stories.

And school wasn’t all bad.

A chocolate company sometimes sent new sweets for students to test.

This gave Roald a life-long love of chocolate, and became the inspiration for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Roald wasn’t the best student at school, but he was always good at sport and he enjoyed adventure.

He didn’t go to university after he finished school.

Instead, he started working for an oil company.

They sent him to Africa.

Gemma: Then World War II broke out and Roald Dahl saw this as another part of an adventure, so he actually joined the Royal Air Force and he became, and and learnt to fly a plane, um and he actually flew a variety of different planes, Tiger moths, Hurricanes, Gladiators and um unfortunately er Roald Dahl was actually involved in quite a serious accident when he crashed his plane in the desert, and he was very badly injured.

And all of that adventure actually led to his first ever published piece of writing and it was called ‘Shot Down Over Libya’.

By this time, Dahl already knew how to tell a great story.

He wrote a dramatic report about his accident while he was recovering in the United States.

He described how the Germans had shot him down, but really he had crashed because he had run out of fuel!

Dahl had moved to the United States in 1942.

He was working as a TV presenter when he met his wife, Patricia Neal.

She was a film star.

They married in 1953 and moved back to England.

The couple lived in the small town of Great Missenden and they had five children.

By the 1960s he had become a very successful short story writer.

At this time most of his stories were for adults.

Then the first story that he wrote for children was called ‘The Gremlins’ and it was all about little creatures that got inside the engines of planes and caused them to crash and break down.

And it was after that story and after the success of that story that he started writing stories for children including those famous ones such as James and the Giant Peach and then obviously Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Part 3 The magic

Millions of children have heard or read the stories of Roald Dahl, but at the Roald Dahl story centre they encourage young people to write their own stories.

Gemma explains…

I think story telling is important because it helps to make life more interesting.

Around the museum there are lots of things to inspire young writers.

So how did writers like Dahl turn their ideas into a story?

Roald Dahl er always wrote his ideas down in his ideas books that he kept with him at all times.

He actually had some ideas in his notebook for 20 years before he used them.

And Dahl always wrote in the same way.

Dahl always wrote with a pencil.

Roald Dahl died in 1990 at the age of 74. One of the last lines he wrote was, ‘Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it’.

Many of the inventions of the past 100 years have changed the way we live our lives.

Mobile phones are owned by almost six billion people worldwide and when over six trillion texts are sent every year, many of us believe that we can’t live without them.

People are always trying to think of the next big invention that’s going to change the world.

But for some inventors this doesn’t mean designing a new phone app, or building a smaller, quicker, lighter computer.

For some inventors it’s about looking at what everyone really can’t live without.

Emily Cummins is a young inventor who is looking for new ways to help people.

She started inventing at a very young age.

While she was still at school Emily designed a new type of fridge.

But her fridge doesn’t look like the ones that most of us have in our kitchens.

It’s designed to be used in areas where there isn’t any electricity.

The design was very simple. A small cylinder inside a larger one.

You put your food or medicine in the small cylinder.

Between the two cylinders you put some material that stays wet like sand or soil.

In the sun, the fridge then ‘sweats’, just like a person.

The water evaporates and pulls the heat out of the small cylinder and the contents stay cool.

The fridge was designed so anyone anywhere could make it with simple tools and materials.

And Emily wanted to help people do this.

It is estimated that about 60 per cent of the world’s population need eye-glasses to see clearly.

Everyone should have their eyes checked regularly by an eye-care professional.

But, in parts of Africa, there’s only one eye-care professional for eight million of the population.

If you can’t see, you might not be able to read, or drive, or even work.

Josh Silver is a Professor of Physics.

He invented a new kind of eye-glasses to solve this problem.

John: These, these eye-glasses are rather interesting, rather special in a way, I call them adaptive eyeglasses and I will demonstrate them for you.

The eye-glasses work by adding liquid to the lenses.

It’s taken Josh over twenty years of research to develop these eye-glasses.

He travelled to Africa to see how his eye-glasses could help people.

Henry Ajay Mensa was the first person to get a pair of Josh’s eye-glasses.

Henry was a tailor in a small village in Ghana.

He needed good eye-sight to do his job making clothes, but his eye-sight was getting worse…

Ah! That did it immediately! So it works!

He was trying to thread a needle and he couldn’t and he put them on and he adjusted them and he just threaded a needle immediately and what he did was he then, he then started operating his sewing machine much faster.

This experience proved that Josh’s eye-glasses can work.

Today he is still improving his invention and looking for ways of producing adaptive eyewear for everyone who needs it.

My motivation for the work is to see those billions of people that need eyewear get it.

Part 3 Michael Pritchard

No-one can live without water, but today over a billion people live in water poverty.

They haven’t got easy access to clean water.

Drinking dirty water makes millions of people sick, and kills thousands of people every day.

After seeing the terrible result of the Asian Tsunami in 2004, inventor, Michael Pritchard, decided he wanted to do something about this problem.

It is expensive and difficult to send bottles of clean water to disaster areas.

Michael thought it was a simple problem.

Michael: … water is everywhere and Mother Nature has her own way of getting water to people, they’re called the clouds, they pick the water up from the sea for free, they take the salt out of it for free, they transport it hundreds of miles for free and then they dump it on the mountains and the rivers and the streams and where do people live? Near water.

So, Michael Pritchard invented the Lifesaver water bottle.

Using a special filter, the bottle can clean any water making it safe to drink.

What the lifesaver bottle allows people to do is take that water, put it in the bottle, give it a few pumps and the bottle just through filtration, very small holes, removes all of the bacteria and all of the viruses and makes the water sterile and safe to drink.

This new technology saves people’s lives and Michael has developed more products using his technology, like the Lifesaver jerry can.

[The Lifesaver jerry can came like a gift for us, because without the jerry can we would not have life.

Everyone would die.

So, the jerry can means life for us.]

Michael has travelled around the world seeing his products in action saving lives.

We do many projects around the world to help people who do not have access to clean drinking water, whether that be in Malaysia or in Haiti, or in Pakistan or in India, we do lots of projects around the world to make sure that people have access to clean water, not just for a day or for a week but for life.

Unit 11 The Homeless World Cup

Part 1 The power of football

Football, or soccer, is one of the most popular sports in the world.

It’s played by millions of young people around the world every day.

At the professional level it’s an international game.

Talented young players often leave their home countries to train at the youth academies of famous football clubs around the world.

Becoming a successful player can change their life.

One of the world’s best footballers, Leo Messi, is Argentinian, but he has been playing for FC Barcelona in Spain for many years.

Messi moved to Spain when he was just 13, and he was only 16 when he started playing for the first team.

For a few lucky players, like Messi, playing football has not only been a life-long passion, but it has also made them rich and famous.

And sometimes this fame gives them a chance to help others.

Messi now works as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF helping children around the world.

But even if it doesn’t make you a star, football can make a dramatic difference to people’s lives.

Once a year, over 60 teams from around the world meet to play in a very unusual football tournament, the Homeless World Cup.

The Homeless World cup brings together teams of homeless people to play football for their country and helps them change their lives forever.

Mel Young is the co-founder and President of the Homeless World Cup.

Mel started his career in journalism.

But since 1993 he has been working on projects helping the homeless.

Today, he works at the global organization’s offices at a football stadium in Scotland.

He explains how the tournament started:

Mel and Harold thought of things that brought people together across the world.

Teams in the Homeless World Cup don’t play matches in a football stadium.

They play a kind of football called Street Soccer.

Street soccer is, is just a simple form of football which is usually played in, in the street.

I mean football’s just this wonderful game, you can play it anywhere, you, you can play it on an 11 a side standard football pitch but you can also play 2 a side or 20 a side or you can play indoors or outdoors or – and you can mix teams of really good people and not very good people so street soccer’s like that, it’s just a space in the street.

The teams play on a small court.

There are eight players in each team, but only four play at the same time.

The games only last for 14 minutes.

In the World Cup Tournament the teams play about three games a day.

Organizing an international football tournament with teams of homeless people isn’t simple.

It takes a lot of work and it’s a challenge for Mel’s team in Scotland and their partners working around the world.

As well as organizing the tournament, they have to raise money and get passports and tickets for all the players.

But the hard work is worth it.

The tournament has grown every year and now there are around 50,000 homeless people from 70 countries training for a place in their national team.

The organization has many famous supporters and you even can watch the matches on television.

For Mel, and his team, the most important thing about the Homeless World Cup is that over 70 per cent of the homeless players change their lives for the better because of the tournament.

The coach of the Kenyan team agrees:

I can tell you that over 95 per cent of all the players who took part – it has changed their life for the better.

Because of Homeless World Cup that they are where they are now.

They say now: This is not my life. I was not meant to be on the street.

I must get out of it, go back home, and start a new life.

Mel believes that the project is so successful because it helps the homeless become part of a team.

This helps them to improve their own lives while the project supports and encourages them.

Mel: I mean… I think my view is that homelessness … you are on your own.

And football is this great way in which you can be included so we get people from that position and say, do you want to play football… and then the training sessions build so you create a kind of, if you like a family, which is the team.

And the results for people like David Duke can be amazing.

David had become homeless as a teenager in Glasgow in Scotland, but the Homeless World Cup helped him change his life.

David completed his college course and got a full-time job.

And he continued to work with the Homeless World Cup.

My participation in the Homeless World Cup has led to me being a player, an assistant coach, a coach, manager, project manager, and I’m now a global ambassador for Homeless World Cup.

Today, David runs Street Soccer, an organization helping other homeless people in Scotland get involved with football.

David is a wonderful example of the success of a project that believes a ball can change the world.

The Homeless World Cup helped me change my life by providing me an opportunity to change my own life, it inspired me, it gave me motivation, and it encouraged me to be all I can be.

Unit 12 Where next?

Part 1 Cities

It’s always nice to think about your next holiday.

It’s good to have something to look forward to and most people know where they will go for their next holiday.

Dorothy: Spain.

Yoni: On my next holiday, I’m going to stay in New York.

Mary: To Paris.

Tiffany: Probably Dubai.

Joanna: I’m going to stay in a few different places, but one of the places I am most excited about is we’re going to stay in an eco-lodge in the jungle in Cambodia.

Reed: Los Angeles, California.

Selina: The next place on our list is Scotland.

Justin: The Bahamas.

There are so many amazing places to visit around the world.

It would be great to see them all.

But most of us haven’t got the time or the money to visit other countries and explore new places.

But what if your life were different?

If you were rich, would you travel the world?

If you didn’t have to go to work every day, where would you go next?

Is there a city you’ve always wanted to visit?

There’s so much to see and do in San Francisco in the USA.

There’s the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, the famous hills, and the historic island prison of Alcatraz.

And if you go down to Pier 39 you’ll see the bridge and the prison, and you might see some of San Francisco’s famous sea lions.

Or you might prefer to visit Shanghai in China.

It’s a huge city with a fascinating history.

It’s changing all the time so you’ll always see something new and exciting.

The Pudong skyline looks even better by night.

Or what about New Dehli, the capital city of India?

If you visit Dehli you’ll see amazing buildings like the Lotus Temple and the Akshardham Temple.

If you like cricket, it’s a great place to see some of the players of the future.

If you drive in Dehli, you’ll need to be very careful on the roads – but you’ll experience one of the most exciting and interesting cities in the world.

Part 2 Festivals

If you could travel around the world, which cultural festivals would you like to see?

You can experience Chinese New Year celebrations, or St Patrick’s Day parades, in many different countries.

If you visit the United States in early July you’ll enjoy the Independence Day celebrations.

The Stars and Stripes flags will be flying and people will be wearing red, white, and blue.

In cities like Boston you’ll see parades of people dressed in historic costumes, and celebrating the birth of the United States.

If you go to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in February you’ll see the amazing Carnival.

And, with over 500,000 people celebrating, you might get the chance to join in!

And there’s the Notting Hill Carnival in London every August.

It’s a celebration of Caribbean culture in the United Kingdom, with music, dancing, and food.

And if you are very lucky, it won’t rain!

And if you visit the historic city of Venice in Italy, you might experience the Carnival of Venice.

Venice is one of the most amazing cities in the world with beautiful bridges, homes, and piazzas, and kilometres of canals you can explore on a gondola.

There has been a spring time festival in Venice since the 11th century.

At this time the carnival lasted about two months.

Today, the modern carnival lasts for two weeks and takes place in February or March every year.

It’s a colourful celebration.

There are parties and processions with everybody wearing beautiful costumes.

You’ll see many people wearing masks.

Masks are an important part of the traditional celebrations.

At huge masked balls people dance to classical music.

The parties continue in the streets through the night.

If you come to the Carnival it will be an experience you’ll never forget.

Part 3 Adventure

If you were more courageous would you try a more adventurous kind of holiday?

How about trying surfing or kite-surfing?

For some people sight-seeing or going to cultural festivals isn’t exciting enough.

They don’t want to relax in their time off; they want an action-packed holiday.

And there’s one place that is the perfect destination for people looking for adventure – Queenstown in New Zealand.

Queenstown is a small town on New Zealand’s South Island, next to Lake Wakatipu.

Tourists come here looking for fun and adventure.

In the past, people came to see the beautiful scenery.

They went hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.

This beautiful boat, the TSS Earnslaw has travelled across Lake Wakatipu for over a hundred years.

And it still carries passengers every day.

But today, there are a lot more cool things to try in Queenstown.

If you like speed, you’ll enjoy the Shotover Jet.

This was one of the first adventure sport attractions in Queenstown.

Over two million people have enjoyed the high-speed trip down the Shotover River since 1970.

If you’re feeling really brave and you want a great view of Lake Wakatipu, you should try sky-diving.

If it’s your first time, you won’t jump alone.

But even if you jump with an instructor – it will be one of the most amazing experiences of your life.

But if you come to Queenstown, and you’re into action, there’s one activity you have to try … a bungee jump!

This is the Kawarau Bridge, near Queenstown.

The bridge over the Kawarau River is 43 meters high.

People come here from all over the world, because this was the world’s first bungee jump.

Bungee jumping looks dangerous, but really it’s very safe.

Over 300,000 people have jumped here since 1988.

Of course, many more people haven’t jumped because they are too scared.

But they’ve watched their friends and family jump!

If you had the chance would you jump?