Fluency News #2 – Can you imagine yourself being retired at age 35

Hello everyone

‍Sebastian Vettel has announced his retirement from Formula One, NBA announces 2022-23 regular season schedule, World Cup 2022: dates and schedule.
This Fluency News episode is all about sports news. Here, you’ll practice your listening and get informed on all that’s happening in the world; all the major headlines of the week, all in English! During the episode, we make sure to explain the things that we believe need extra attention, so you don’t miss any details!

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We’ll have a new episode of Fluency News every week, don’t forget to listen! See you!

Episode Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to Fluency News! This podcast is made for everyone who loves to know what’s going on around the world with the most important news. I’m Benjamin Robson, your host, and it’s really great to have you here today. Now, think about this: is there a better way to learn English than having frequent contact with the language while you listen to a podcast? I don’t think so! When you listen to our Fluency News episodes, you get updated, you practice your listening skills, and learn tons of new vocabulary, all at the same time!

But, you can learn English in different ways, right? And one of them is by taking an English course! Did you know that Fluency Academy has a complete online course for you to unlock your English and take it to the next level? To sign up for our waitinglist, just click on the link in the description of this episode.

Now, let’s get down to business! It’s time to talk about sports. What’s happening in the sport’s world? What is the big news

We couldn’t start this episode differently. When this news came out, it caught us by surprise!

Sebastian Vettel, the four-time world champion, has announced his retirement from Formula One at the end of the season. After weeks of speculation about his future, it has now been confirmed he will be stepping away from the sport at the end of 2022. He announced via Instagram last month, after spending his whole F1 career without a social media presence. He made clear that he wants to spend more time with his family as well as focusing on environmental issues. His last sentence is “Farewell, thanks for letting me share the track with you. I loved every bit of it.

Isn’t it crazy that Sebastian Vettel is retiring? I mean, he is a German superstar and a four-time world champion but he’s only 35 years old! Now, do you know what the word retirement means? Retirement is the act of leaving your job and when you stop working, usually because you are old. For example, the retirement age in the UK is 66. Could you imagine yourself being retired at age 35?

Another interesting word from the news is “stepping away”. Stepping away means to stop being involved in something. Sebastian Vettel will be stepping away from the sport at the end of 2022 so he won’t be involved with Formula One anymore. A career is an occupation, a job for which you are trained and in which it is possible to advance during your working life, so that you get greater responsibility and earn more money. I have a career in teaching, how about you? What career do you have?

The next story is about… NBA

That’s right! The 2023 basketball season will take place from 11th-14th of April, 2023, followed by the start of the 2023 NBA Playoffs on 15th of April. All 30 teams will play the day before Election Day in the US, in a bid to encourage fans to make plans to vote. No games have therefore been scheduled for Election Day. The 2022-23 season will also feature the return of NBA Global Games, with two regular-season games being played outside of the US and Canada. Cool, right?

Besides this cool news about the NBA season schedule, you heard me talking about dates: 11th of April, 15th of April, the year 2023… So let’s talk about that! First let’s see how we’d say the years in English. Years are normally divided into two parts; the first two digits and the last two digits so we’ll split it up in two sections, for example the year 1986 we’d say 19 first and then 86. So it’s 19|86, 1986. Now we’re in 20|22 and the NBA season will start next year, in 20|23. Easy, right?

Now, keep in mind that some people would prefer to say the year by using the full number. So you’ll also hear people saying: two thousand and twenty-two instead of 20|22. And that’s totally correct too, ok?

Ok, now the main thing that confuses people is the difference between American dates and British dates. You heard me saying the NBA Playoffs will happen on the 15th of April, right? Well, that’s the British way to say it because I’m British. British people would say the day first, then the month, then the year. American people however, would say the month first, then the day, then the year. So I would say my date of birth at ____, Americans would say ____ (month/day/year). Ok, now you know my age haha

Ah, and don’t forget to use the ordinal numbers when you talk about dates, ok? So it’s the 3rd, the 5th, the 15th and so on.

Alright, guess which sport we’re talking about now?

If you thought about soccer, you’re right!

We already know that the World Cup 2022 in Qatar is about to start. But it’s actually closer than you think! It will take place from the 20th of November to the 18th of December. The first game is on Sunday, the 20th of November, at the Al Bayt Stadium, where holders Qatar will face Ecuador in Group A. England will face Iran on the second day of the tournament, in Group B. In total, 32 teams will compete divided into eight groups. You can check all the scheduled games in the link that we will leave in the description of this episode, so you don’t miss any games from your country!

That’s exciting! I personally love soccer so I’ll be watching all the matches from the 20th of November to the 18th of December. Now pay attention to what I said: from November to December… From… to… This is a combo you always need together. “From” and “to” work together to indicate when the action begins and when it ends. The World Cup will begin on the 20th of November and it will end on the 18th of December. So from the 20th of November to the 18th of December. You can use it with some other things too, like: “the first game will be from 1PM to 3PM” or “the players will visit many cities from Doha to Al-Shamal”.

And that’s it for today, guys! I hope that was useful for you and I hope you learned something! Don’t forget to join our waitinglist for our English course to learn even more! Go to en.fluencytv.com and join now! The link is also in the description of this episode.

I’ll see you soon for another episode! Have a good one!‍

Stories

‍‍Sebastian Vettel has announced his retirement from Formula One
https://es.pn/3dssmST‍

‍NBA announces 2022-23 regular season schedule
https://bit.ly/3K3nShO‍

‍World Cup 2022: dates and schedule
https://bit.ly/3pyKYDr