Very British Problems, a TV series on Channel 4, is fun to watch and great for practising English listening and speaking skills. It is especially useful to those preparing for IELTS, Cambridge FCE, CAE and CPE.
This clip is from the first episode of Very British Problems (Season 1 – Episode 1 – Other People).
Grace Dent, Tameka Empson, Jocelyn Jee Esien and James Corden muse on attempting to avoid human contact.
Transcription
I live on a street where — when I come round the corner, I often see some of my neighbours standing in their gardens and I sometimes just go and hide round the corner… and go on my phone for a bit because I don’t want to talk to them about the bins.
You know when you try to avoid somebody and you pretend you’re on the phone…?
“Sorry, I’ve got take this,” and it’s not ringing. It’s clearly…
“I have to take this.”
“Hello?”
“Sorry, my love. What did you say? Mm-hmm. Oh, wow.”
“Yeah, OK. Sorry, can you…”
(He mouths)
“Sorry, sorry… Hmm?”
(She titters)
I’ve done that a load of times and people will just believe you.
They will go, “Oh…” [HE MOUTHS]
That’s it. It’s a great one.
“Sorry, I’ve got to… Hello?”
Gone, see you later, bang.
That’s a real favourite of mine.
Yes, who but the British could see the mobile phone and realise that its main benefit would be as a means of AVOIDING conversation.