Bromsgrove Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Bromsgrove Male Conversation

Conversation

Well, I’m just gonna talk a little bit about my life. I was born in Birmingham. Well I was born just outside Birmingham actually. I was born in a place called Bromsgrove, which is just on the outskirts of Birmingham. It’s got a Birmingham postcode, but it’s a little more green, a little more in the country. I wasn’t very built up as a child. I didn’t really see much. I saw a lot of cows and a lot of sheep and stuff. Was a bit of a shock when I moved into town at the end of it.

Anyway, I was born on a farm or just on a farmhouse really. And I had a sort of great, peaceful, little childhood. You know, it was just me and my sister, and me mum and dad. It was all very nice, very pleasant. Then I went to school. I went to North Bromsgrove High School, and I qualified quite well actually. I did quite well at school. I was a little bit of a loner. You know, a little bit used to run around on my own a lot and study a lot and had quite a good imagination so I used to make up my own games and things. It was all quite fun for me really. And I qualified quite well. Well that was it. I sort of … I moved away. I moved into town, into Birmingham. I sort of met up with a band, because I’ve been always playing the guitar when I was younger. I sort of spent a lot of time in my bedroom. I’d just play on my guitar, just listening to records, learning all my music. I joined a band, and we got on quite well and we moved out to London. And I’ve become a professional musician for like ten, fifteen years really. Played a lot in London. Played a lot of Europe. Toured all over Europe really. We had quite a big hit at one time. We did quite well. My London life was, you know, a bit … A lot of alcohol involved. A lot of partying. A lot of daytime sleeping. And, well, you know, it all became a bit much.

So about thirty-years-old, I moved back to Birmingham. And I met my wife, and well that’s sort of … that’s it really. I met my wife, and we moved back to Bromsgrove and raised a family. My time in Birmingham in a sense was a lot different from my time in Bromsgrove, which is just on the edge. As I said, Bromsgrove’s a lovely little market town. Lovely, lovely place to be brought up. Lovely place to live. But not great if you’re, you know, if you’re in your teens and your twenties and you want to do a lot.

So I moved into town then, into Birmingham. And it was pretty cool actually. You know, it was a bit of an eye opener for me, because as I said, I was brought up in a little town, little village in. Then I moved into town and all these people with black faces, Asian faces, Chinese faces, Arab faces. It was like, oh, what’s going on here? You know, I didn’t know anything. Didn’t know any of this. All these different accents and different cultures and different creeds and it was all a bit weird to me. You know, I didn’t know anything. Really, really weird for me. It took me a while to get used to it, you know. And all these lovely people, we all got on well together. We all mixed together. There was no animosities, no violence, it was just fantastic. There were very set areas about where people lived. We had a West Indian area over in Handsworth. And then the Asian area over in Sparkhill. It was very, very set areas about where people go, but everybody got on fabulously. It’s famous place to town.

I don’t really know what to say to you, as to sort of what you want to hear, you know. Should I just sit here and rabbit about me? As if I was in the pub with my mates? We’d be sat there, we’d be having a beer, we’d be talking about the Villa, we’d be talking about the Baggies, you know. About the football. How bad the Blownoses are doing, how the Wolves are doing, you know, over on the edge of town there. It’d be a bit clear. It’d be a bit of a night out for us all if we were just sat there. We’d be talking about football. We’d be talking about girls. We’d be talking about all sorts of rubbish. You wouldn’t get much sense out of us. Especially after an evening. You wouldn’t really know what to do.

Anyway, I’m freestyle speaking. I was about, you know … When I came back and met my wife, we moved back to Bromsgrove and sort of raised a family a little bit. Well raised a family a lot actually, not just a little bit. You know, I’ve got a beautiful son. Very, very handsome young man. Very, very proud of him. He’s nineteen years old now. Now, unfortunately, me and my wife aren’t together any longer, but those sort of things happen in modern society, don’t they? So you just need to get on and deal with it.

Now I haven’t got a publishing company anymore. I’ve retired from that, because I did very, very well in it. I had to drop my accent a little bit and become a little bit more English, frightfully more English. And I spoke very, very well when I was dealing with the publishers. And I sort of, you know, I tuned my voice to my suit and my dress sense, and we did very, very well as a publisher. But now I’m out of it. I’m back into my normal speech now, normal relaxation. It’s jeans and t-shirts. And I just keep me hand in. I do little bits and pieces for people. I live with my dogs now, and I live on my own. I’ve got a beautiful girlfriend, and we go out walking. We go out socializing. Lovely meals now and then. We go on holiday a lot.

I spend a lot of time, you know, with my dogs in the daytime, now I’m retired. And I just walk. It’s lovely. I just walk in the woods and the fields and out on the hills. And we take a drive out to the Malvern hills and it’s just a lovely area. And the countryside, it’s just fantastic. We just do lots and lots and lots of things. You know, so, I have a very, very, very good life. And I think I’m just rabbiting a little bit too much now. If you don’t mind, I’m just gonna move into the rest of the stuff you gave me and I’m just gonna sort of shut up here. So I hope this dialect’s been useful to you, and I hope that it can do some good things for how you wanted to use it with your students. And to show off the Birmingham dialect really. So thanks for having me, and I’ll speak to you soon.

Bromsgrove Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Bromsgrove Female Conversation

Conversation

Thirty-one years old. I’m originally from Bromsgrove which is a small town in Worcestershire, which is kind of southwest of Birmingham. Probably about thirty miles from Birmingham town center. Like I said, it’s a small town I grew up in. Lovely town. Grew up like everybody knew everyone. My dad was born in Bromsgrove, and he never left. He’s still there. He’s lived in Bromsgrove all of his life. My mum was born in King’s Norton. Her family are Welsh, so she speaks with a bit more of a Brummie accent, being born in King’s Norton, which is in Birmingham.

I work as a freelance writer. I make my money by advertising writing services across the internet. I write for a couple of magazines; a beauty magazine, a women’s business magazine, and just general articles, website copy, press releases, etcetera. I also work in a bar for a little bit extra money, which is good.

About Bromsgrove. In Bromsgrove the accents used are a bit more … how can I describe it? It would be kind of like a farmer kind of accent mixed with a Birmingham accent. I don’t really think I picked up my dad’s accent or my mum’s accent. It’s probably a mix of both. Some of the words used are well known for being used in Birmingham. One of them is bab. So it’s kind of an affectionate term, usually with someone younger than you. So you’d say, “You alright, bab?” or “You okay, bab? How am you, bab?” Yes, so that one’s probably quite well known. Sometimes the Brummies can be ridiculed for having a bit of a slow, stupid sounding accent in the media, but it is what it is and we are who we are.

I lived in Bromsgrove most of my life. I moved in, further into Birmingham to a place called Rubery, which is more heading nearer to the city. So it’s a bit busier. And after that, I moved to a place called Redditch, which is another town next to Bromsgrove, about fifteen miles away, which is similar to Bromsgrove. It was fairly quiet, everyone knew everyone. I lived there for a couple of years, and then I moved down to London, which I couldn’t stand. It was busy and it was big and just people everywhere. I’m not by any means a city girl, so I didn’t really enjoy that.

I met my partner in London. He’s Irish. So after a few years in London, we decided to move to Ireland. He wanted to move back home. We used to visit Ireland every year, and I just fell in love with the place. So we moved over to Ireland. We’ve been here now for a year and a half, and I absolutely love it. We live out in the country. It’s quiet. It’s just like being home again, kind of. And that’s why I work in a local pub. The very, very, very small town is a five-minute drive or a forty-minute walk. Sometimes I walk it. And I work in the local pub there.

It didn’t take me long to get used to the Irish humor, but it did take me awhile to get used to the Irish accent. I couldn’t always understand what they were saying. They talk quite quickly and just some words and phrases that are completely new to me. But I soon picked that up, and I have a great laugh in there now and everyone knows me. So that’s brilliant.

A few things about I suppose pronunciation of words in the West Midlands. The ones I kind of notice is if there’s anything that has an ‘i’ followed by ‘l,’ such as … trying to think of a word like Sellotape usually would be pronounced more with an ‘a’ than an ‘e.’ So Sellotape more than Sellotape, which sounds really strange to say. I’m just trying to think of another example. Anyway, most of the time if there’s an ‘a,’ sorry an ‘e’ followed by ‘l,’ usually the ‘e’ has more of an ‘a’ in it. So Sellotape if that makes sense.

What else can I say? A lot of my family still live in Bromsgrove and Redditch. I have four sisters and three brothers who all still live around there. My younger sister still lives just down the road from my parents. She loves Bromsgrove. She’s got a few kids and it’s just nice for the family to be nearby. So my brothers, they live in Redditch, which I mentioned before, which is not too far away. Ten minute drive. So everyone’s pretty much in the same area, so if I go over to England, then it’s easy to visit everybody. It’s nice. And, of course, my family love coming over to visit me in Ireland, just because it’s beautiful here. What else can I tell you about? I have a big, big family in Bromsgrove and Redditch. So that again, it’s nice to get back and it’s easy to see everyone. I went to school in Bromsgrove. My middle school was Parkside. My high school was North Bromsgrove High School. I went to North East Worcestershire College. Did the usual things growing up. Except there’s not too much in Bromsgrove. It’s a small town. It’s quite built up. It’s a quite built up area. My family would have a house on the outskirts, so it was brilliant when we were kids. We’d just go off into the fields and that. But the town itself is very small. But it’s a nice town center. It’s a nice place to live, and I do miss it sometimes.

What else could I tell you about? It’s nice when the town I live in in Ireland, it’s a small town, but it’s a very touristy town. There’s an old distillery which has been turned into a museum, so you get a lot of tourists passing through. It’s in the Midlands of Ireland, so it’s slap bang in the middle from Dublin to Galway. So a lot of people stop in the town, so when I’m working in the pub, there’s a lot of tourists coming in. Sometimes, I get the odd Brummie, which is brilliant, because as soon as I hear the accent, it’s comforting. It’s comforting, if that makes sense. It’s just nice to hear. It’s lovely to have a chat, it just feels like home. So that’s nice. And as well as that, there’s people from all over the world. There’s a lot of Americans and people from Germany and France. And it’s just nice to mix with different people from all over the world, but still living in the country so you’re not overwhelmed by people. You can still get away, shut the front door. I have my animals. Couple of dogs, a few cats. It’s just nice to walk them and just have the peace and quiet.

Yeah, I think that’s about it for me, really. I’m going to be staying in Ireland, I think, for the foreseeable future. So that for me, as well as trips back to Birmingham.

Wolverhampton Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Wolverhampton Male Conversation

Conversation

I was born in Wolverhampton, England, which is in the West Midlands of England. I have four younger brothers, one half-brother, and one half-sister. I lived in a small village called Hednesford, which had about five thousand people living in it. I support Aston Villa Football Club, which is soccer. I live on West Dallas in Houston. I’ve been here for four and a half years. My current job is working at Pottery Barn where I’m a Coordinating Manager. At our store we have seven managers right now. I work in the grand lobby department of the store. I drive a black Ford Focus, which takes about twenty dollars right now to fill up a tank of gas. My favorite TV show is CSI, and I love the Fox Soccer Channel, constantly, on a regular basis.

My wife is named Alicia. We’ve been married for four years and two months. No, and one month, sorry. Me and my wife met, she was an exchange student over in England. She was there for five months. I met her on the second month. She was there at a shopping mall with my friends. And we got along extremely well. I loved the accent that she had, so I kind of went along with that. She brought me back over here and we got married like about a month after being back here and went through a terrible process of immigration into the country.

My favorite color is blue. I love blue. I try and have that as close to me as possible. It keeps me very calm. I love all kinds of different music. My favorite song right now is by the Stereophonics, which I just bought a CD. I just currently came back from England and that was a lot ... I love that song. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s really good. I love eighties music. Growing up in that kind of era, I was like twelve when I came out of the eighties. It was a lot of fun listening to my mum and dad and the music that they listened to, because they were extremely young when I was growing up. I love to eat a lot. I’m not overweight, but I like to eat a lot. And I love…

Female: What’s your favorite food?

My favorite food? Oh, my goodness. Pizza. Why not? My favorite treat is ice cream. And I have cherry cheesecake ice cream either by Blue Bell or that other make when they don’t have Blue Bell. I love bacon sandwiches. If you ever, ever get the chance to try a bacon sandwich with brown sauce, I would highly recommend that. My favorite place to go out to eat with my wife is Cheesecake Factory. My favorite place to go eat by myself is either Whataburger or McDonald’s, I guess.

Stafford Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Stafford Male Conversation Part 1

Conversation

I’m twenty years old, and I’m from Cannock, which is a small town just on the outskirts of Birmingham. Well, Staffordshire haven. Which I now suppose is Birmingham. Yes, I’m from a small town called Cannock. And I have one twin brother. Which, well, people say I’m the better looking one, which I personally think is true as well. And I have one little sister as well. Yeah, I’m the first one to leave home, and I’m currently in Manchester. I’m doing a, on my second year doing a marketing and business course at Manchester Metropolitan University. So yeah.

A little bit about myself. I used to play rugby when I was a child. That’s one of my hobbies. And I also do British Sign Language, because my brother’s deaf. So I’m a professional interpreter at the same time. I finished my Level Three course when I was sixteen, which qualified me to be the youngest professional interpreter that I was allowed to go into that line of work at the time in the U.K. But that’s gonna get passed down to my sister now, ‘cause she’s thirteen now and she’s … No, she’s fourteen now, sorry. She’s currently … she’s about to start at Level Three, so I think she’s going to get the title for youngest U.K. interpreter.

So yeah, I mean, living up here at university it’s different. It’s different compared to what I used to at home, because obviously I moved out when I was just, you know, just nineteen. I took a gap year as well, so I was a year later than everyone else. But fortunately for me my flatmates were the same age as me. They all seemed to take a gap year as well. I finished college. I did a BTEC extended diploma in business. And I had the decision whether to go to university or stay home for a year and I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a gap year. So I ended up going to Kenya with a charity called Camps International, which was a good learning experience. I built some schools and laid down some foundations. And it allowed me to see how privileged I am living in a country like the U.K. compared to someone who’s living in Africa. So yeah, that was a real eye opener to me, and it’s always been something I’ve been interested in. I don’t know if this is due to my background with my brother having a disability, but I’ve always wanted to help and give to others, if that makes sense. So it’s been something I’ve always felt like I need to do. And it’s like not because … Oh, I feel like I got a responsibility to look out for people who are less privileged than me. So yeah. So going to Kenya was probably one of the best things I ever did. So I did that for a month. And I was over there for thirty-five days. Fortunately, I was with a really nice team and we were able to travel Kenya as well. It was pretty good.

So after that I came back and I did a fundraising for the homeless. I was homeless for twenty-four hours in Birmingham. I was able to raise eight hundred pounds, which was something. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed being homeless. It was very emotionally stressful. People really … People they just look down on you and even though they didn’t know my background or anything. And I even said I was doing it for charity, but people were just saying I was doing it for money, ‘cause sometimes in the U.K. you get a lot of fake beggars who like, say that come from abroad and they seem to … You know, I guess you get a lot of change if you beg right. But yeah. Personally myself I was doing it for charity, and people on the street they weren’t as friendly as I expected. But yeah. So I thought the homeless people that I was with, that I met on the street, they were probably the most friendliest people ever. Even though they have nothing, they were giving food away to me, and they were giving me like ... offering me shelter. Even though that I always explained to them I’m only doing it for charity, they took me under their wing. They took me under their wing and gave me the little that they had, which I thought was pretty amazing.

So yeah, when I was younger I used to play rugby as well, as I mentioned previously. And that’s always been a hobby of mine. I’ve always been a big rugby fan. And I was playing, I’ve been playing for twelve years now. I was playing since I was seven to nineteen, but unfortunately I had a knee injury so I couldn’t really carry on with that. So now my passion for rugby now is sitting at the pub with a pint watching the game instead of being part of it. Which, you know, it’s life, you can’t really do anything about it.

So Birmingham itself, the city … Sorry, I’ve been rambling on about myself. Birmingham itself, the city, is a beautiful city. And then compared to Manchester it’s quite diverse. I mean, well, actually Manchester is quite diverse. They both have a very large Asian population. And I seem to like it more in Manchester than I do in Birmingham. I don’t know if that’s because it’s my hometown and everything up here’s so new. But I personally think clubbing up here is better. And I think lifestyle and nightlife and the security in general. ‘Cause Birmingham’s, although it has a reputation of being rough. It’s not as bad as it seems, but it is rough in some places. Some places you can’t walk by yourself. But yeah, Manchester, beautiful city. I’d probably call it the best city outside of London in the U.K. And it was awarded, I think in two thousand thirteen, the fastest growing city outside of London. So yeah, I think this way I’m gonna stay after I graduate.

Stafford Male Conversation Part 2

Conversation

Just a little bit more about myself. I currently live in a house in a part of Manchester where a lot of students end up going in the next two years. Well, for their second and third year because the prices are cheaper in comparison to halls. And a lot of students stay in that area after they finish uni and they get a job in the city center or they get a placement job somewhere around the city. But not a permanent stay but more of like a temporary stay, two or three years. But yeah, I’ll tell you a little bit more about that area later.

So yeah, I currently live in a house with four people and three of them I went to school with and college. And we’ve known each other for twelve years. And, you know, when we were applying for UCAS to see which unis we were going to, it was only logical that we both went to … well, we all went to the same uni, because, you know, we’ve been to school together, we’ve done college together. So we might as well do uni together. There’s about nine of us in our friendship group, but only four of us came up, which was me, Steph, Jack. I live with Steph and Jack and John, but John we don’t speak to anymore. Or he doesn’t speak to us, because he got a girlfriend. He got a girlfriend last year, and he forgot about us in a sense. He kind of, you know, communication kind of slowly, you know, eroded, and he was no longer to be seen. I mean, we still see him now and again for about … well, we see him about twice a month maybe, but even when we do see him it’s about only for like two or three hours. Which is a shame really ‘cause he’s been with us for twelve years, but yeah his girlfriend … I don’t know what he does now. I think he’s got a house somewhere in an area with other students, but I don’t think he’s never there because he’s always at his girlfriend’s house. Well, halls because his girlfriend still lives in halls. I think he’s over at his girlfriend’s halls, because she does all his uni work for him and everything. And I think he just stays in her accomodation. Even when she goes to uni, I think he just stays there and he never goes back to Fallowfield, the area where I live where all the students end up going. But yeah, I mean, his girlfriend does all his uni work for him and cooks for him and cleans for him, so I guess if I was him I would do exactly the same thing.

But anyway. Moving on. Yeah, so the people I live with are now Steph, Jack, and Matt. Matt we met through Jack when Jack lived with him last year in his halls. Me and Steph lived in the same halls, we lived private, which was alright I guess. I mean, it wasn’t nothing special. Kind of wish I lived in uni halls as that was more fun and it was more outgoing, but nevertheless I still got to go to a lot of the parties. Which was good. I had the social side on one side and I had the quiet side on the other when I need to do uni work. But yeah, Jack currently has brought up his dog from home, ‘cause his parents are moving to Dubai. It’s gonna stay with us for a few days or maybe a week and then I think it’s getting shipped to Dubai via Manchester airport or something along the lines. Anyway, the dog’s called Toffee. She’s a cute little dog. I think she’s a husky mix German shepard. I think, I’m not too sure. Yeah, she’s got one eye, which is pretty funny. Yeah, currently we just have a dog running around. Bit of a hassle really. I mean, she’s chewed up one of my shoes. Obviously, and when you’ve got one chewed up shoe you can’t really use the other one, ‘cause you can’t walk around with one shoe. So yeah, I think Jack hopefully he’s gonna replace it. I don’t see why he won’t, I mean, it was my favorite pair of shoes. It was a pair of Timberlands. Which, they cost me about a hundred and sixty pounds which is a big investment if you’re a student as well. But yeah, it cost me a hundred and sixty pounds. And yeah, I’ve got one chewed up now. But yeah, I mean, I know it’s a lot of money but I’m sure Jack will understand.

And then you’ve got Steph who me and Steph have been friends since the beginning of school, like the first day. We had to do a play. They made all the year sevens do a play. And me and Steph, we were the trees. So we were at the back not saying much. And then at the end of the play we looked at each other and asked if we were both Greek. ‘Cause he’s Greek as well and we come from a very white … not white populated but English populated area, so we were the only two foreign students. And ever since that day we’ve become really good friends. I don’t know if we bonded over the fact that we’re both Greek or the fact that we were both trees together in the play. But yes, Steph’s into his music scene and his gym. I’m not really into my gym but I am into my music scene. And in the area where we do live, Fallowfields, is where all the students go. I tend to go out to this one club called Koh Tao and although Fallowfields doesn’t have much going for it like the city center, because city center seems to have everything there. Like all the nightclubs I think. In Fallowfields there’s this one area called Koh Tao. And yeah, it plays house music which I’m really fond of, so we end up going there.

And Matt is the other housemate. He’s also an interesting character. We call him the housewife, as he’s always doing the cleaning, the shopping, and he’s tidying up after us three. But yeah, we met him last year and he kind of clicked really. Kind of clicked for us, and he met the other group of boys from back home, because there’s about nine of us all together. And yeah, they just got along quite fine. I mean, yeah, similar to us, he likes same things. We’re all big on our fashion. We’re all very big on our fashion. Which is why I think Jack is very understanding about the shoe situation. But yeah, Jack, we had a talk about it, and Jack said, “We’ll just wait for the student lock-in to happen.”

‘Cause with the student lock-in, you can get … it’s this event in Manchester and we have a shopping area and what they do, they close off the shopping area to anyone who’s not a student. And they hold all these little mini-games and offer student discounts. And well, student discount up to thirty percent. Like, we can get a student discount up to ten percent now. And they offer all these like little games, give out alcohol, give you a chance to win free coats, free jackets, free shoes. For example, you know beer pong? The Vans store was holding an event where you can walk in store, you get a ball and if you land it in a plastic cup instead of alcohol you win a voucher or a free coat or something. Pretty cool. I went to it last year but unfortunately I didn’t win anything. But I went to Levi’s, the Levi’s Store and they were giving away free Jack Daniels and lemonade. And when you walked on store they gave you a black card, and this black card allowed you to get two alcoholic drinks. So I went and got my two alcoholic drinks and the two friends I was with, they didn’t want their alcohol so they gave me the black card instead and I ended up getting six drinks for free, which was pretty good. I mean, I had a good time. Didn’t buy anything, just went in for the drinks really.

But, yeah, so there are three … I think there are three main areas in Manchester. There’s a city center where everything happens, where if you’re a first year you usually go there. You don’t really explore outside that area. And then there’s Curry Mile which kind of lives up to its name. It’s basically a mile long road with curry shops, restaurants, shisha on each side. And you know, that’s the area where you go at night time. Like say if you want a coffee at four o’clock in the morning. It’s very Middle Eastern I guess, ‘cause you know that’s very normal in the Middle East, I guess. But, well, in Cyprus it’s normal anyway. Whenever I’m in Cyprus I can go and get a coffee at four o’clock in the morning so I do like Curry Mile as it feels like I’m back in Cyprus. So yeah, so, a largely Middle Eastern populated area. And then you’ve got Fallowfields which is the area where all the students go after, like myself.

But yeah, I don’t know if I’m gonna stay there after I graduate. I might head off back to Birmingham or London. I might’ve mentioned earlier that I might stay in Manchester, but I don’t know. I’m kind of having doubts. Although it’s a growing city I think being here for four years, you know, I’m gonna get bored of it. And I’m a guy who wants to travel around a lot. Yeah hopefully after I finish uni I can take a gap year and I can travel. And I really want to travel to South Africa and Asia. They’re my countries on my to-do list. Hopefully see the culture, explore. And hopefully expand my view on the world and whatnot.

Cannock Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cannock Female & Stafford Male Conversation

Conversation

Female: Hi. I’m thirteen years old. I have brown, long, straight hair, blue eyes, and I’m in high school. I like leopard print, and I like Converse, Vans, Nike, and Adidas. I like listening to music. I have three best friends. My favorite color is purple.

Male: Alright, Vanessa, can you tell us about the bands you like please.

Female: I like One Direction and JLS.

Male: Who’s your favorite member of One Direction?

Female: Favorite member is Zayn Malik.

Male: And why is that?

Female: Because he’s just really good looking and he’s a really good singer, and I don’t like the others in the band.

Male: Why don’t you like the others?

Female: Because they’re ugly. And they’re annoying and they don’t sing well.

Male: They don’t sing well. How’s high school, Vanessa?

Female: It’s good. I’m going into year nine now. And …

Male: Alright, Vanessa. Tell me what subjects have you’ve chosen and why you’ve chosen them subjects?

Female: I’ve chosen English because I like it and I’m very good at describing things and good at writing stories. I’ve chose drama because when I grow up hopefully I can become an actress, because that would be a dream for me. And I’ve also chosen science because I love finding out about interesting things in the world and other countries and everything.

Male: And you also study Sign language? Is this true?

Female: Yes. I study Sign language because my brother is deaf. I am going on to Level Three in Sign language. And I also do Greek language because my family is half Greek.

Male: We’re full Greek, but okay. So what’s it like learning Sign language at such a young age.

Female: Well because I’m younger I think I pick it up very quickly compared to others in the family. Because I’m the youngest member of the family.

Male: And what’s your family like? How would you describe them?

Female: Well, I’ve got two twin brothers who are going to be twenty-one soon in December. And I would describe them as very annoying. And one of them’s just never home and like he just does his own thing and doesn’t really speak to us anymore. Like he goes off with his girlfriend and we still haven’t even met his girlfriend. However my other brother, he’s very nice and caring and I spend a lot of time with him.

Male: And what do your brothers do?

Female: My brother that doesn’t really talk to us, I think he’s studying media. And my other brother is still currently in college so I’m not sure what he does yet.

Male: Alright. And tell us about your friends at school.

Female: Well I have three best friends at school. One of them is called Abbie, one is called Elise, and one is called Izzie.

Male: And can you describe them to us please?

Female: Abbie is my bestest best friend. She has brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles. Elise has long gold hair, she has tanned skin, and blue eyes. Izzie has long brown hair and brown eyes and very tan skin. We are always together. We go out everywhere, and we’re just very, very close. We go to Cannock around the shopping center. We go to each other’s houses. We are always together at school, however, only Abbie is in my classes, whereas Izzie and Elise are on the other side of the year.

Male: Oh, so you don’t get to see them that much.

Female: No, but I see them at break and lunch time.

Male: How did you meet them?

Female: Well, Elise went to my primary school and I met Izzie through Elise because they got on. And Abbie I just met because she was in my lessons and we just clicked and we were sitting next to each other in most lessons. So we just started talking and we’re just very similar and we became best friends.

Sutton Coldfield Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Sutton Coldfield Male Conversation

Conversation

When I was a young lad in primary school, I used to have very many friends and I used to be very popular. And we always got up to really naughty things. We were a drain on our teachers. I used to go to a school called Saint Thomas of Assisi. Obviously named after the Saint Thomas who incidentally was the first one to cure deafness and blindness. And then I graduated to high school which was Bishop Vesey. I was from Sutton Coldfield. And I had five good years there, and I came out with four O-levels, three A-levels in computer science and mathematics and English. And then I went to Sutton Coldfield College, and I did my BTEC in computer studies. And then I went to university.

I have four children. They’re all over twenty years old now. The one is a footballer. Plays for Manchester United. The one plays at Wimbledon tennis.

Male: Can you tell us how you found university then?

I found university quite exhilarating actually, yes. I did like it a lot. There was many times that I used to … I made many good friends there. You know, it was like one of those times where the best times of your life really are there. You get to meet long-term friends. I did find the studies a bit hard, but I did pass them. And it was quite a nice university. It was Wolverhampton University. It was quite a nice university. Of course, the girls were brilliant there, you know. The girls, they had no inhibitions at all whatsoever.

My job at the moment is I work in computer sciences. I’m a lecturer at the University of Bath, and I teach computer science to nineteen-, twenty-year olds, trying to get them past the computer science. The past few years, we’ve seen great leaps and bounds in computer technology, and we’re now onto artificial intelligence. But yeah, alright.

Male: That’s amazing. Tell us how you think artificial intelligence is changing the world around us.

Well, as more and more people demand greater, greater advances in technology, I think that artificial intelligence will be one of those gray areas where people will either be too scared to embrace the technology because they’re scared of what might happen in the future, i.e. artificial intelligence might take over the world and create slave species of humans. Or, and then there’s this, people that rush into it, and they can’t wait for it to be developed because they see all the positives of artificial intelligence like surgery, chronic diseases that can be cured with artificial intelligence. But I think whatever you, whatever happens, we can’t get away from the fact that in twenty, thirty years time we’re gonna have the first computer more powerful than the computer, than the human brain. So we’ll have to wait and see. It will happen in my lifetime, but I think the refinement will come in a hundred years’ time. As soon as artificial intelligence, as soon as the first supercomputer passes the brain power of, the computing power of the brain, then it will be almost like a snowfall domino effect. Everywhere around the world will, in less than a year probably, everything will be taken over by artificial intelligence.

Male: When they surpass the human brain, do you think that gives them a right to be human then? The artificial intelligence? How do you think laws will abide by that?

Well, it doesn’t give them a right to be human, because there’s only one species of human. It gives them a right to be their own intelligence in their own right and their own species in their own right even though they were created by us. But we have to temper the knowledge … we have to temper their intelligence with knowledge and wisdom and hopefully, hopefully they don’t get too powerful that they overtake the earth.

Telford Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Telford Male Conversation

Conversation

Hello. I was born and brought up in a town called Telford. Telford is a town in the county of Shropshire, which is in the Midlands of England. Telford was formed as a new town in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies. So many of the population there moved from the Midlands, from the West Midlands, Birmingham, Wolverhampton. And so the accent around the Telford area has been influenced by the influx from people from those areas. It’s not the same as the rest of Shropshire. The rest of Shropshire is quite a rural community. Quite well-spoken. People in Telford are not as well-spoken as the rest of the county.

Since leaving Telford I’ve moved to London and then later moved up to Wrexham which is in North Wales. I don’t really adapt the accent of the area where I’m living at the time, although I do tend to adapt some of the phrases and words. So, but my accent has softened a little over the years. Even so, my accent was never as strong as people who are actually from Birmingham and Wolverhampton. They have much stronger accents than I do. But mine definitely has a Birmingham flavor to it. So when I travel further down south, people from the South call me a Brummie. They think I’m a Brummie, because to them they can’t see the difference. They don’t recognize that my accent is actually softer than a genuine Brummie.

In the area I’m living now, I live in North Wales, so Welsh is spoken around here. So I don’t speak any Welsh, but I’ve had to learn how to pronounce some of the place names. For instance, the village where I live is called Rhosllanerchrugog. I’ll say that again in case you didn’t catch it, Rhosllanerchrugog. So it took me about a year to learn how to say that when I first moved here. It’s about the only little bit of Welsh I can actually say. So everybody still speaks English around here. Welsh – The Welsh language is retained for traditional purposes, for the heritage. But in common use, most people still use English every day. Everybody speaks English.

What else can I tell you about so that you have more examples of my accent? I’m going to read out a list of words for you in a moment. And there are a few things that you might notice about the way I pronounce certain words. For instance, words that end in ‘ing.’ This is more pronounced with people who are actually from Birmingham, but I do the same thing, just not to quite such an extent. We really stress the ‘g’ on the end. So most people would say, for example, buying. Whereas people from Birmingham will say buying. And the ‘g’ gets quite strongly stressed on the end. You’ll also find, I don’t do this so much, but people from the Midlands tend to do this. Words like clown and cloud will be pronounced clowen and clouwed as if it’s got two syllables instead of just one. So instead of clown, it’s clowen.

Also words that end in ‘en.’ Instead of a soft ‘n,’ they’ll often be pronounced ‘in.’ So garden, I’m going to the gardin instead of garden. Perhaps the way we pronounce words like garage as well. So in other parts of England will be pronounced garage, but we say garage. We don’t say bath, we say bath. We don’t say glass, we say glass. And you’ll also find some words are spelled differently even. So for instance, in most parts of the country, people would call the familiar or colloquial way that they call their mother would be mum, but if you’re from Birmingham most people would say mom. So M-O-M instead of M-U-M.

So yeah, there’s little things like that, variations in our pronunciation and even in particular words that we use. If you go to another part of the West Midlands, Dudley, they almost speak a different language. If you hear a real strong Dudley accent, it’s almost impossible to follow for people who aren’t familiar with it. It’s very difficult to understand. I’ve grown up around people from that area, so I can understand them, I understand their turn of phrase. The colloquialisms that they use. But yeah, it’s very difficult for some people to understand.

I remember once my brother met a colleague of mine. And this colleague said to my brother, “Y’am Philip’s brother, aren’t ya?” And my brother didn’t have a clue what he was saying. What he was actually saying was, “You’re Philip’s brother, aren’t you?” “Y’am Philip’s brother, aren’t ya?” But my brother didn’t understand. It took about four or five attempts. In the end I had to translate for him.

So anyway, I’ll read this list of words out now. You can see if the way I pronounce it is as you expected or different.

West Bromwich Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

West Bromwich Female Conversation

Conversation

The story of the Jewish feast of Passover. Saturday, the 31st of March, 2018, is the feast of Passover. It is one of the most important of God’s feasts. Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jewish nation from slavery in Egypt. At this time, Jewish people remember how the children of Israel left slavery behind them when they were led out of Egypt by Moses over three thousand years ago. The story can be found in the book of Exodus, chapter 12, in The Bible, The Torah.

The Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. God wanted Pharaoh to set His people free, but Pharaoh refused. The Jews cried out to God for help, so God sent Moses and Aaron to Egypt to speak to him. Moses warned Pharaoh that God would send terrible plagues on Egypt if Pharaoh did not let them go. Pharaoh refused and made their suffering worse. God sent ten plagues to Egypt: Blood in the waters, frogs, gnats, flies, death to the livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the first born. During each plague, Pharaoh agrees to let the people go, but then changes his mind and puts more suffering on the Israelites. The final plague was the death of the first born. God told Moses that the Israelites should mark their doorposts with lamb’s blood so that God could pass over their houses and spare them from this plague. This is why the festival is called Passover. The next day, Pharaoh demanded that the Israelites leave at once. They left in such a rush that the bread did not have time to rise. This is why during Passover, Jewish people eat unleavened bread called matzah. It looks a bit like crisp bread. Moses led the exodus of millions of Israelites to the Red Sea. God protected his people with pillars of cloud during the day and fire at night. At the Red Sea, God told Moses to reach out his hand, and the sea parted. All that night the Lord pushed the sea back with a strong east wind. He turned the water into dry land. The people of Israel went through the sea safely. There was a wall of water on their right side and on their left. –Exodus 14, 21-22

The Israelites continued on their journey to the promised land. Moses died during the journey to the promised land, so Joshua led the people through. God loves everyone, and everyone can have a relationship with Him. God promises to protect all people who believe in their hearts that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for us, and that He is Lord, repent of their sins, and turn to Him, and ask Him into their lives. Jesus is the only way to God. God bless.

South Staffordshire Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

South Staffordshire Male Conversation

Conversation

I was born in a very small village in South Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England. The Midlands of England is a distinct area that is split into the West and East Midlands. Where I was born it was mainly farmland and large farmers. The village I was brought up in was called a village, but actually only had around five houses. No pub, no shop. So technically it probably isn’t a village. But that wasn’t an issue. I’m not a country bumpkin by any standards. There were local towns and cities in the West Midlands. The biggest city in the Midlands is Birmingham, which is the second biggest city in the U.K. by population. And that was around twenty minutes away by car or by train. The nearest town to me was a town called Wolverhampton. And Wolverhampton is a city now, but for most of my life it was said to be the biggest town in Europe, because it had a cathedral and it has a vast population. I’m not sure what the technicalities are around that. I think it was given city status in the year two thousand.

The area that I lived in was full of fields with cows and sheep and agriculture. People outside of the Midlands have a view of the Midlands being very industrial. It is the place where the Industrial Revolution started. And then that’s expanded into Manchester and the north of England and then all the way around the world. So there is a history of the Midlands having lots of factories, but that declined in the fifties, onwards, sixties. And so some people outside of the Midlands, especially in London area, are quite surprised that I was brought up in an area that was full of agriculture. But if you look at most of the area around the Midlands, it is essentially an agricultural society. However, because it has large cities, that is what is portrayed outside of the Midlands.

I would say my accent is one that is quite a mellow Midlands accent. I think most people in London can tell that I have a Midlands accent, but they would normally believe that I … or they would say instantly that I have a Birmingham accent, which I definitely don’t. Which is quite strange to me that people outside of the Midlands don’t see the difference between or hear the difference between a Birmingham and a South Staffordshire accent. The nearest town to me was Wolverhampton, and that has a different accent again. I can probably do an estimation of a Wolverhampton accent, because that is probably nearest to me. Which would be something like, “Alright cock, how are you? How you doing? What’s going on?” Which I don’t think I sound like. What I just said, by the way was, “Hello friend. How are you? What’s happening? What’s going on?” And it has … Wolverhampton accent has a reputation for sounding quite thick or quite stupid. So even intelligent people can seem quite stupid when they have that accent. That’s how it’s felt in the U.K., which that might be different abroad.

I would say that my accent is typical for my area. So the South Staffordshire and Shropshire area of the Midlands, I’m quite typical. Obviously, I’ve lost a bit of my accent but not very much, because I’ve lived in London for sixteen years. But I would say I’m quite typical. There obviously would be people with broader accents who live there. I wouldn’t say that I have an accent that is Staffordshire. The Staffordshire area is dominated by Stoke, and the Stoke accent is more, going more towards a Manchester accent, which I don’t have. But South Staffordshire is different to Staffordshire, because South Staffordshire is very agricultural and Staffordshire isn’t, so. And it had more, Staffordshire had more of an industry history. So Staffordshire is well known for pottery and transfers for pottery and making pottery. And most of the famous names in pottery from the U.K., like Wedgewood, were established in the Stoke area.

I would say that people in Shropshire, which is to the, if you’re looking at a map, it’s to the west of South Staffordshire. It is very typical of my accent, but then that then goes over to Wales. It’s the next county along. So there is a bleed there of Welsh people making Shropshire sound a bit more country bumpkin than I sound maybe.

So that’s it. So I am forty-four years old. I’ve been in London for sixteen years. And I’m very happy with my accent. I have no, I’ve never intentionally tried to change it to how I am now. But in the U.K. and when I’ve traveled abroad to America or Australia, etcetera, there is some confusion over where I come from. Sometimes people say I sound Australian if I’m in America, or South African. Or if I go to Australia, I’ve sometimes been said that I sound maybe Welsh or I sound South African. Which obviously isn’t the case, but that’s their version of how they feel about my accent. So that is me, and I hope this helps you, Tom, in giving your accent advice. Thank you very much.

Warwickshire Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Warwickshire Male Conversation

Conversation

So I was born in Warwickshire, and I lived there for the first eighteen years of my life. And then moved up north to Sheffield to study for four years, and then I moved down south when I got a job as a computer programmer. Been there for the last five years or so.

My favorite topics to talk about are politics, travelling, and sports. So I’ll talk about travelling for this. I’ve travelled mainly in Europe. Been to most of the countries so far. My short-term aim is to go to every single country in Europe before travelling further afield. The last country I visited was Russia. I visited Moscow and Saint Petersburg, two very different cities in a very different country to the one that I grew up in. My favorite aspects were trying to decipher the cyrillic alphabet, and I really enjoyed the overnight train between the two cities. It was a really cool experience for me. My favorite country is Poland. I really enjoy the beer, the food, the people, and the cities are beautiful as well. My favorite city of them all is probably Krakow, which is in the south of Poland. And I really enjoy the hiking around there in the south Tatras. Next up, I’m going to see Prague in the Czech Republic. I’m seeing my friend there who is studying. Me and a load of school friends are going over to see and check the place out.

So some notable characteristics about my accent is, compared to city people I speak to down south, I say words like class, grass, and brass. Whereas they’re more likely to say class, grass, and brass. Slightly more characteristic of the Midland speaker is that they tend to drop the t’s in some words. So I say bottle, better, water. They’re probably more likely to say bottle, better, water. Unlike most of my friends in the Midlands, I also tend to say the word either whereas many of them pronounce it either. Another noticeable but quite relevant word is the word pronunciation. A lot of them seem to say pronunciation, which I’ve never believed it is correct, but that’s another word we get stuck on. Okay, so I hope this is useful for you, Tom. Let me know if you have any questions.

Coventry West Midlands Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Coventry West Midlands Female Conversation

Conversation

Well, I was actually born in Coventry in nineteen ninety-six, and I’ve pretty much lived there all my life really. Coventry’s really been my home where I’ve grown up and identified with when I was young. In Cov, I was actually raised in a small town called Rugby. Not a lot of people have heard of Rugby. Rugby’s very quiet. Quiet, but not in an odd way. Like, not odd indeed. But like, you could definitely tell there is a massive difference between Rugby where I lived, and somewhere massive, like London for example. But don’t let that put you off, obviously. Now Rugby has a lot of history related to it. In fact, maybe you didn’t know this, but the founder of rugby, as in the sport, is actually named after this town. Hence the name Rugby. There, you learn something new every day. But inside, I guess I do love Rugby. It’s a good place. It’s a decent place, I’d say. I mean, at least it has a cinema. I could not live without a cinema. I am such a massive fan of films, so I am glad that’s in my town anyway, my little town.

Anyway, when I turned eighteen last year, I had to move to uni. Massive step, massive. Completely massive. Because I never moved out of Rugby before. And even if I did move out of Rugby, it was only for maximum a week. Then that was it. But at uni, it’s like a whole year. But anyway, the move was fine anyway. I went to study at Wolverhampton, which is about an hour away from where I live. And I went to the university to study psychology. Psychology really interests me as a subject, and the reason I picked it was because I wanted to study human behavior and possibly work in child psychology in that area or even children’s homes. So that’s why I picked it as a subject to study at Wolverhampton.

If say, I had to compare places, Wolverhampton is definitely busier. I mean, it’s just crowded with people, more lively, full of theatres, clubs, food places, and there’s a lot more culture and diversity as well. I guess I’ve sort of been around and about in the U.K., but I guess we’ll see where the next thing takes me really after uni. To be honest, I would love to go to Glasgow or Cardiff. That is next on my list really. So I mean I might do a master’s course there. I’m like still thinking and a bit unsure, but I definitely want to travel out and see more of the world I guess. It just depends where fate takes me, so we’ll see. Also, come to think of it, I would possibly consider studying abroad as well, and basically, internationally maybe. Because quite a lot of my friends have actually moved abroad during second year. So it does sound fun and it is a great chance to move out and not get stuck in the U.K. I mean, thinking on the top of my head, my basic options are maybe France or even America. So I guess it does sound exciting, but then again we’ll just see where fate takes me really and see how it goes then. But it does sound like really good fun and a really eye opening experience. And a chance to move out even further. So fingers crossed I guess. We’ll see. We’ll see where my studies take me and what my options are and if I do still want to travel out when I finish uni. But I still got plenty of time to think about that so no rush, no rush.

Black Country Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Black Country Male Conversation

Conversation

I’m twenty-six. I’m from a place called originally from Pelsall in the United Kingdom. It’s part of the Black Country in Walsall. Currently I live in Staffordshire, so moving areas, however my accent still hasn’t changed. I’ve lived throughout the course of my life … where have I lived? I’ve lived in Pelsall, Walsall, Hednesford, Rugeley. So yeah, I’ve been about a bit. I’ve worked in many different jobs in many different industries. I’m currently working in the hazard waste sector. Which is a sales based role, so I’m working from behind a desk, cold calling clients to ascertain whatever they need any hazardous waste removals.

I’m engaged to be married. There’s no wedding date set. Me and my partner are expecting a baby on the twenty-fifth of December, no less. And right now I am stuck in a train station waiting for the train to arrive for my journey back home. And my colleague from work has just dropped me off. I work twenty miles away from home, unfortunately in a place called Wednesbury. It’s about, excuse me, ten miles from Birmingham.

What do I like to do? Sort of work. I enjoy spending time with my family. I’ve got a daughter myself who’s going to be seven in July. Then we’ve got my fiance’s daughter who is five. So we’re expecting on Christmas Day. We enjoy taking the girls out to animals parks, farms, zoos, out to the park to feed ducks, and just generally having a laugh and playing with them. Outside of that, I like to play football. I support Walsall Football Club. They’re a third division if you like. So you’ve got Premiership, Championship League One, Walsall League One. I enjoy going to watch and support them. Although, a lot of the time or a lot of the years I’ve supported them have been quite eventful. You’re either relegated, promoted. It’s never dull. I enjoy playing football too. I play football for the Walsall Supports Trust Football Club. We play football matches against fans from all over the U.K. We travelled two hundred and eighty miles once to play a game. Luckily, we won four-one. What else can I tell you? I enjoy getting tattoos. I’ve got a full sleeve on my right arm. I’ve got my daughter’s name on my left arm. I’ve never broken a bone knowingly in my body. I’m adopted. I’ve got six sisters and three brothers. Sorry, five sisters and three brothers that I’ve never seen, which is interesting. And if you go by the nature of my parents, I am half Irish from Republic of Ireland and I’m half Scottish, but I was born and raised in Walsall Hensley, Black Country accents. And the accent that we’ve got is quite regularly made fun of by pretty much everybody else. Although some of the other accents are a bit strange too, such as the Scouse accent from Liverpool, which I find a bit strange to say the least. But hey, there it is, that’s my accent, I can’t change it. A lot of people, when I’m on the phone to them, have to question what I say, but obviously that’s, I’m guessing that’s down to the deepness of my voice. And there’s not a lot I can redo but that God blessed me to be a boy and have a deep voice, so.

What else? Favorite foods. Pasta, rice, fish. I’m partial to the odd McDonald’s. When I say odd, I used to work at an insurance company that worked out around from McDonald’s and we had a challenge one month which was to eat as many McDonald’s day after day as we possibly could. And obviously we did that. I had twenty chicken nuggets pretty much every day, if not more when others didn’t finish theirs. At the minute, what have I got on? I’m studying for a degree through the Open University in the United Kingdom. The degree will be in business management. It’s a full honors degree, and I’m taking it part-time due to being full-time employment. So that means that instead of it taking the standard three years, if I was to carry on at part-time level it would take me six. So unfortunately, I will not be graduating until twenty twenty. So at that point I’ll be, what, two thousand and fifteen now, twenty-six. I’ll be about thirty, thirty-one. So I don’t know quite where I’ll be heading at that point, but hopefully I’ll be earning enough money to look after and support my family.

Right now, just had an announcement from the train station that the train’s delayed, which is a bit of a bummer. Should’ve been here at seventeen forty-eight, it’s not seventeen fifty-two, and it was expected to arrive at seventeen fifty-three but now it’s gone to seventeen fifty-five. Looking at the screen. It’s telling me there’s a signaling problem towards Walsall, which is miles away from where I am at the minute. I can see a cat running across the railway, looking up to electrocute himself. And I can see people’s back gardens. To be honest, it’s pretty lonely. There’s only me here in the train station. This is one of the stations where a lot of people get off. There’s a further five stops along the way. There’s Landywood, which is where I am. Hednesford, Cannock, Rugeley Town, and Rugeley Trent Valley, which is the last stop on the line and that’s the one I get off at. And it takes me about thirty-three minutes on the train from Rugeley Trent Valley to Walsall. After that, there’s literally a bus ride. So I have to get straight off the train onto the bus. The bus usually takes about half an hour from Walsall to Wednesbury, which is nowhere near as far as the train. But hey, that’s what traffic does for you using the public transport on the roads.

Well, apparently the train according to the screen I’m looking at has arrived, but I’m standing on the platform and I definitely haven’t seen any train yet. Can’t hear it, can’t see it, so someone’s having a bit of fun over there. Something I’m passionate about really is working hard to get your money. I believe that basically you get in life what you put into it. If you don’t put anything into it, you come out of it a little bit less than others. But hey, that’s their choice. I’ve always been a firm believer that basically whatever you earn is what you’re worth really. I mean, if you don’t ask the question, you don’t get anything. So I’ve always been one to be pretty confident and ask whether I can get pay rises, whether I can take time off, change my hours. I try and do the best that I can for myself first and foremost.

Dudley Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Dudley Female Conversation

Conversation

It might be a bit more interesting if I tell you about the house that I live in because it's in Dudley and it's a typical Black Country house. The house that I live in was, well the land was bought in 1840 and it was sold by a man called Edward Truelove Terry and this is Terry Street where this house is built and the man that bought the land, he were able to write, so he just put a cross for his name and he built this house and this house has had five owners and I'm the fifth. It was, it's quite a, for the area it's quite a posh house because it's got a double front so we've got two front rooms and then we've got a back kitchen, and in the garden there's what's called a brew house and in the brew house it's like a small shed and it has a bread oven, a water pump, a range and it's where they'd cook outside because they couldn't cook inside.

Me personally, I was born in Wolverhampton, which is about 12 miles away from here, but it's still classed as Black Country because the Black Country is defined by the coal underneath, and as far as the coal seam stretches, that's the Black Country. So it includes Dudley, Wolverhampton, not Birmingham, that's totally different to the Peaky Blinders, they're from Birmingham, they aren’t from the Black Country, Stourbridge, Bilston, West Bromwich, little parts of Kingsmanford but they're a bit posh down Kingsmanford, they don't speak like we do, Tipton also. It was called the Black Country as I mentioned earlier because of the coal seam, and prior to that it would have been, it was rural, rolling hills, farmers, countryside, but it was the birth of the industrial revolution, which I'm sure you've heard about the industrial revolution and the steam engines, and that's mainly because of the thick coal seam that as I said defines the Black Country.

So what you had once the industrial revolution started was lots of little, well they were quite famous for things like chains, so the chains that were for the Titanic were made down the road in Cradley Heath, the cutlery on the Titanic was made in Cradley Heath, lots of steel works, lots of, anything to do with metal works came from here, obviously coal production, steam engines, bridge building, nail making, chain making. We were the first area to have equal rights for women in pay and that was a woman called Mary MacArthur, she took the women chain makers out on strike and got fair pay for women. Nowadays though a lot of the steel industry has gone, Round Oak Steelworks has gone, the coal has gone. We're still quite a manufacturing area, but not on any scale as we used to, sadly, but it is coming back, it is coming back.

Male: Now did the iron for the steel, was that from that area as well so not only coal but iron?

Yeah they would dig out the iron ore, I don't know the technical details but yeah all the ingredients that you'd need for the steel came from here, and we were called the Black Country and I think because Queen Victoria visited and the saying goes that it was black by day, red by night because of, there were so many foundries and smelting works that the red at night was the fire, and the black by day was the smoke coming out of all the chimney stacks. The one thing that stayed the same is basically lots and lots of little villages, but we've all joined together. It's not rural very much in the center but we're only about 10 minutes away from the countryside, but what we've noticed is with transport links because we're right in the center of the country, so with transport links we've got lots of people coming from, we've got an airport, we've got the railways, we've got the motorway network, so the main changes are the industry changed, so we were still making things but they were all being taken out of the country.

Also we have a large number of immigrants from all over the world, we're renowned for it, and it's something that we're proud of because you've got people from all over that come here. We're very friendly, very friendly folk and we welcome people from all over so you know you'll have little areas where there's people from Bangladeshi or from China or from Poland or from Romania, but all mixed within the people from the black country.

Male: Are there any phrases that were super familiar to you that you feel are really Black Country phrases that people elsewhere don't necessarily use?

“How am you?” She's like “How are you?” “How am you bab?” Bab, dear, darling, you know it's used a lot. “Ya tay.” “Ya day,” you call, so it's like, “ya day” - it's not right or I haven't, “Ya day,” can't believe you've done that. Other things like “Keep out th’ossroad,” so the little, “keep out th’ossroad” is a way of saying be careful because back in the day there'd be horses in the middle of the road and they can't see you, so if you're in the middle of the road where the horses are, so “keep out th’ossroad” is a nice way to say “take care.” Ta instead of thank you, “ta-ra-ra bit,” “ta-ra-ra bit,” instead of goodbye, I'm trying to think of some more for you.

The Cut, just like Venice we've got more canals than Venice but here it's called the Cut because it cuts into the land, so it links up, Birmingham as far as Liverpool into Wales, Manchester, London, Bath, Bristol, the whole country is linked by the canals. Some of them have went into disrepair but some most of them now are back up, mainly for leisure. I've been walking down by the Cut today, it's beautiful because it's like, we have the canal trust, so they're cared for and they're clean and people fish there and people have their boats there, but you're sort of two minutes away from heavy industry but you're walking along the Cut and it's beautiful, there's birds and there's you know flora and fauna, so yeah we're very lucky.