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Part 2 (правки) «Cross-cultural behaviour - lis....doc
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Dialogue 4

Guy Hello, Guy Faulkner here.

Anne Hello, Guy. Anne Ridley here.

Guy Oh, hello Anne. How’s life?

Anne Not bad, thanks. How’s yours?

Guy Well… all right.

Anne Guy, would you like to go out with the usual crowd this Saturday evening?

Guy Saturday evening? Oh no. Yes, I’d like to, but I’m afraid I can’t. Oh, that is a bore. The trouble is, I’m baby-sitting for my sister and her husband because it’s their wedding anniversary and they want to go out for the evening.

Anne That’s a pity… A pity you can’t come, I mean.

Guy It always happens like that, doesn’t it? I’m sorry I can’t come, really. Thanks for calling anyway. I hope you all have a good time.

Anne The same to you. I hope the kids behave themselves.

Guy Huh! They’re probably the noisiest kids in the world. But I can always call the police if things get really difficult.

Anne Good luck, anyway! Bye!

Guy Bye, Anne, and thanks again.

Have you ever considered living abroad? Recording 4

Interviewer: Have you ever considered living abroad? Most of us these days get to travel to foreign countries either to work for a short time or, more commonly, for a holiday. The chances are you've thought how nice it would be to spend a longer period of time in that country. Well, Karin Newman has done just that. She left the UK a couple of years ago and is now back for a short time to see her friends and family. Karin, what made you decide to move abroad in the first place?

Karin Newman: Well, it was like you just said. I was on holiday in Italy with some friends and when the time came to go home, none of us wanted to leave. The weather was perfect, the scenery was wonderful and I simply didn't want to go home. And it suddenly occurred to me that there was no reason why I shouldn't stay. OK, I didn't speak the language but I had met lots of foreigners who were working there and I thought well, if they can do it, so can I.

Interviewer: You make it sound very easy.

Karin Newman: The decision itself was easy. But then it took quite a long time to make all the arrangements. Fortunately, I had some money, as I was living with my parents. I'd planned on buying a car with some of my savings so I used that money to rent a flat. But of course I still had to come back to the UK for a couple of weeks to deal with packing up my stuff and so on. The flat was a simple one-bedroom place but fully furnished and that meant I had a base to go back to. The flat my friends and I had been staying in was huge and it would've been great to stay there, but it was too expensive. So I handed in my notice at work and that was it.

Interviewer: Was there anything that you missed once you'd settled down?

Karin Newman: Well, my family certainly. Although if I'm honest it was all so different and exciting and I was so busy I didn't have time to think about things. Then after about six weeks or so I began to be aware of being on my own a lot of the time. People had been really kind and helpful when they realised I was new, but you can't expect that to last. And I hadn't found getting a job as easy as I'd expected. I wasn't particularly concerned because I had enough money but life was not as enjoyable as it had been.

Interviewer: So what did you do?

Karin Newman: Well, I was on the point of wondering whether I'd made a ghastly mistake when my landlord, Pietro, called one evening to collect the rent. He must have noticed I was looking rather down and asked me if I was all right. I said I still hadn't found a job, even though I'd written lots of letters to different language schools. He clapped his hands and said 'perfect' - his wife was looking for some help in the restaurant she ran, he'd see to all the paperwork and I could start the next day.

Interviewer: So, problem solved!

Karin Newman: Yes, in one sense. But my Italian was awful. I thought: I'll never understand what people are saying. I'll be hopeless and customers will get very impatient because they'll have to say everything so many times. I was terrified.

Interviewer: So did you turn it down?

Karin Newman: Pietro just laughed when I tried to explain how I felt. But his wife was very kind and to begin with I just worked in the kitchen, preparing vegetables, washing up, making salads and so on. She spoke very quietly and gently and I understood most of what she said, and in that way I suppose I became more confident, so when the day came to take a customer's order I was fine. I even smiled!

Interviewer: You've been there for two years now. Any plans to come home?

Karin Newman: Not for a while. My Italian's pretty fluent now and I've started doing some translation work for an Italian company. I've made plenty of really good friends and I'm enjoying life very much. It was certainly worth taking the risk but I think I was very lucky to find myself in a situation where everything worked out. Some people have quite a difficult time, but my experience was just the opposite.

Interviewer: Karin, thank you very much for talking to us.