English Conversations

Download audio file (kathsurrey.mp3)

at Patryck

Mark: Sorry what did you say your name was again?
Kath: My name is Kath. Short for Katherine.
Mark: Katherine. Katherine. Mark
Kath: Hello. (laughs)
Mark: What part of England are you from, Kath?
Kath: I am from a place called Surrey which is just south of London. I live in a horrible little town called Woking.
Mark: Woking?
Kath: Not very nice but I lived in Leeds for three years before I lived back there for six months.
Mark: Woking is that spellt W-o-k-i-n-g?
Kath: It is indeed. Yes.
Mark: I would say “Woking“.
Kath: Ah you would? It is a bit of a ghetto. The ghetto of Surrey we call it.
Mark: Right.
Kath: The ghetto of Surrey.
Mark: Why is that? Coz it is just..?
Kath: It is just horrible!
Nick: (laughs)
Kath: It is like full of either pikies… Do you understand pikies?
Mark: No.
Kath: Like horrible chavvie people. Do you understand chav?
Mark: No I don’t know that word either.
Kath: How would I describe a chav? Like a townie.
Mark: Pikie, townies. Yuk! Sounds awful.
Kath: Or just like “pretentious people”.
Mark: Pretentious?
Kath: I am probably more of a pretentious person than a Pikie, I would say.
Mark: It sounds there is a big subculture of gangs.
Kath: It is not that bad. To be honest I over-exaggerate it but like a lot of the south is very nice very like posh especially Surrey where I live but then you have got the horrible part but then you go up north and you go to some of the places up there; they are a lot worse. (laughs) So it is kind of all relative because I grew up there and then moved out of there I kind of didn’t like it so much.
Mark: And you moved up north?
Kath: Yeah. I moved up to Leeds because I was at university there.
Mark: And what did you study?
Kath: Psychology. So, yes, I am reading your mind. That is what many people
so they tell me and I just go “No, I am too busy thinking about myself.”
Don’t worry about it. I am only joking. (laughs). So yeah…