Oliver Introduces Himself

Audio

While you listen

oCoder Education - English listening Audios are suitable for learners with different levels of English. Here are some ways to make them easier (if you have a lower level of English) or more difficult (if you have a higher level of English).
You can choose one or two of these suggestions – you don't have to follow all of them!

Making it easier

Read all the exercises before you listen to the audio.
Look up the words in the exercises that you don't know or don't understand in a dictionary.
Play the audio as many times as you need.
Play each part of the audio separately.
Answer all questions in the exercise.
Read the transcript after you have listened to the audio.

Making it harder

Listen to the audio before you read the exercises.
Only play the audio once before answering the questions.
Play the whole audio without a break.
Don't read the transcript.
Now, listen to the audio and do the exercises on the following tabs.
If you do not complete all the question, you can play the audio again. After that, read the dialog to make sure that you understand all word in the audio.
How long did the speaker spend in school in Indonesia?
His high school years
Two years
His primary school years
All his basic reducation
What change to the city of Jakarta does the speaker describe?
A lot of trees were planted.
Many old buildings were renovated.
Tanks started appearing on the street.
The city was made much cleaner.
What does the speaker mean when he said that things went 'pear shaped'?
The number of gardens expanded.
Many problems arose.
A lot of fruit trees were planted.
People became much poorer.
Hello. I’m interested in, helping people learn languages. 
Especially English, because I grew up in countries where English is not the major language.
In particular I spent twelve years in Indonesia. 
And I went to school there, from when I was six to when I finished school.
And I got to watch, some of the things which happened in Indonesia during that time.
Like the economic development of Indonesia was something.
When I first arrived there I remember there were no trees in the capital city Jakarta. 
And the traffic was horrific.
But after a while they managed to actually have the money to sort some of these problems out. 
When I finally left Jakarta, the area in which I lived called Menteng was really pretty.
With lots of tress and especially  bougainvillaea.
But that was also where President Suharto lived. 
He lived in the same area just two or three streets away from me.
I remember one new years we had tanks patrolling down our street, and when things got a bit tense
And then I left Indonesia when I turned eighteen and finished school. 
And went back to London, to study at the school of Oriental and African studies.
And within a few weeks of my leaving Indonesia, everything  went pear shaped
And the currency crashed and separatism in the provinces started happening.
And I’m just now planning my first return to Indonesia since there’s a friend of mine runs an East Timor action group in Glasgow.
And we’re going to go and monitor the elections on August the eighth.
So my first trip back to Indonesia, may well see Indonesia disintegrating.