📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you saw children behave badly in public

This episode's vocabulary

Antisocial behaviour (noun phrase) – actions that harm or lack consideration for others, especially in public. → Antisocial behaviour by unruly adolescents is a serious issue.

Unruly (adjective) – badly behaved or difficult to control. → Unruly teenagers were causing chaos.

Egregious (adjective) – extremely bad in a noticeable way. → A particularly egregious example stands out in my mind.

Excursion (noun) – a short journey or trip, especially one for pleasure or education. → I was doing an excursion with a class.

Artefacts (noun) – objects made by humans, typically of cultural or historical interest. → The Ashmolean Museum has exhibitions of artefacts.

Exemplary (adjective) – serving as a desirable model; outstanding. → Their behaviour was exemplary.

Judgmental looks (noun phrase) – disapproving facial expressions directed at someone. → People responded with judgmental looks.

Unmolested (adjective) – not disturbed or harmed. → I wanted my students to get to the museum unmolested.

Second-hand embarrassment (noun phrase) – feeling embarrassed on someone else’s behalf. → I had a lot of second-hand embarrassment for those children.

Show themselves up (phrasal verb) – to behave in a way that embarrasses oneself. → I wouldn't be caught dead letting my kids show themselves up.

Disruptive (adjective) – causing disorder or problems, especially in a learning environment. → Disruptive behaviour can ruin a school trip.

Supervise (verb) – to oversee and manage people or activities. → Teachers must supervise students closely on excursions.

Conduct (noun/verb) – the way someone behaves; to behave. → They should reflect on their conduct in public.

Decorum (noun) – proper and polite behaviour in society. → Maintaining decorum is important on educational outings.

Peer pressure (noun) – influence from members of one’s peer group. → Some antisocial behaviour stems from peer pressure.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a time when you saw children behave badly in public. You should say where it was, what the children were doing, how others reacted to it and explain how you felt about it.

Rory: Well, unfortunately, antisocial behaviour by unruly adolescents is a serious issue in our country, so I see this kind of thing all the time. A particularly egregious example that stands out in my mind was when I was in Oxford last year doing an excursion with a class that I was teaching.

In a bit more detail about where we were, this was Oxford City Centre, and we were on our way to the famous Ashmolean Museum, which has exhibitions of artefacts from a variety of cultures around the world, and I was quite excited to be there, and I think the class was too. To get there, we had to walk from the bus stop through the centre and to the museum. And to say a little about what the young people in question were doing, it wasn't actually my students who were misbehaving, actually their behaviour was exemplary. Instead, it was some local teenagers who were causing absolute chaos, just shouting and screaming and falling all over the place. And just based on what I could see, it looked like they had been drinking and were not handling that experience very well, or they were thinking they were and making a right mess of it. Most people seemed to have responded to what was going on the same way I did, by keeping out of their road and just shooting them these judgemental looks. I can't really talk about it in much more detail since my attention was focused on making sure my students got to the Ashmolean unmoleted. I was just anxious to keep them clear of that kind of unruly behaviour, not only because they might have gotten involved in a fight, but also because it would harm the reputation of the school, and mine as a teacher, now that I think about it.

When it comes to my personal feelings on the matter, I had a lot of second-hand embarrassment for those local children and their families. If I were a parent, I wouldn't be caught dead allowing my kids to show themselves up like that. Hopefully, once they recovered from the experience, they reflected on it and learned a lesson about how to conduct themselves better in public.

Discussion

Maria: Yes, dear listener, so the topic is a bit strange. So describe a time when you saw children behave badly in public. So we say children misbehaved or they behaved badly in public. If you don't have a story, please make it up now. It could be, I don't know, in a shop, at a school, at a museum, in a restaurant, okay? We call this behaviour antisocial behaviour. And Rory, you talked about adolescents. Adolescents, well, they are kind of teenagers, but the card says children, but it's okay. You can talk about children, like young children or teenagers. So that's okay. Just don't talk about adults. Like once I saw adults behaving badly in public.

Rory: Oh, just once? I constantly see adults behaving badly. Not me though. I'm flawless. My behaviour is perfect.

Maria: Yeah, yeah, I agree, Band 9 behaviour. I see this thing all the time, or I see this kind of thing all the time. And then Rory, you've used this word, egregi…

Rory: Egregious.

Maria: Egregious, wow, such a word, dear listener, extremely bad in a way that it is very noticeable. It's a negative word and it could be used about an error, an egregious error in this document or about behaviour, egregious behaviour.

Rory: I think the, well, it's a collocation, a particularly egregious example or a particularly egregious case.

Maria: Yeah. One example that stands out in my mind was when I was in Oxford or like one example which stands out in my mind was when I was travelling or when I was watching a film or when I was in Mexico doing what, right? Doing an excursion with a class I was teaching. So the past continuous and the past simple. When I was doing something or relaxing on the beach. Then you say in a bit more detail about where we were, this was blah, blah, blah, like the city centre or the museum or the theatre. I was quite excited to be there or I was really happy to be there. And then I saw these young people or children or kids. So if you talk about young children, they are children or kids or like 10 year olds, five year olds. You can also talk about like little kids, like, I don't know, five year olds. And I saw children…

Rory: Hopefully not drunk five-year-olds…

Maria: So I saw a group of young people who were misbehaving. So they were behaving badly. So behave badly. The children I was with behaved. Their behaviour was exemplary, exemplary, exemplary…

Rory: Exemplary!

Maria: Exemplary. We have an example and exemplary behaviour, very good and suitable to be copied by others. So my children's behaviour was exemplary. But those young people, they were some local teenagers who were causing absolute chaos. Chaos is when things are all over the place. Yeah, no order.

Rory: A lack of order.

Maria: They were shouting and screaming. They were falling all over the place. So in a museum, really?

Rory: No, outside the museum.

Maria: So they were like falling down. So they were falling all over the place. Or you can say like they were all over the place. So they were like running around like. And we are using a lot of past continuous structures. So what were they doing? I saw them and they were shouting, they were screaming, they were falling over all over the place. It looked like they had been drinking. The past perfect continuous because it happened before. So they had drunk something and then Rory saw them. So drinking was before and then Rory saw them. So please use past perfect or past perfect continuous. So it looked like they had been drinking or they had been smoking or they had been using some illegal substances. Most people kept out of their way. So they were kind of avoiding these rowdy teenagers. And they responded to them the same way I did. So kind of, they ignored them. People were shooting them judgmental looks. So when this situation happens, people usually look at these teenagers and we judge these children, like what? It was an unruly behaviour. So it was a very good example of unruly behaviour. Not only because blah, blah, blah, but also because blah, blah, blah. And people might have got involved in a fight. So some other children, some other teenagers might have got involved in a fight. So it was possible for somebody to make a fight with those teenagers.

Rory: Or pick a fight with them.

Maria: And then we talk about our personal feelings. So you can turn to this subject. When it comes to my personal feelings on this matter, on this subject, I had a lot of secondhand embarrassment for those local children. So I felt embarrassed for these children. I was embarrassed. And then you can say like if I were a parent, if you don't have children, if I were a parent, like as a parent, if you have children, or you can imagine that you have no children and use the second conditional, okay? So if I were a parent, I wouldn't allow my kids to show themselves up like this. So show themselves up to behave in such a way. Conduct themselves in public means to behave themselves in public. Rory, what helped you organise this answer?

Rory: Well, having a terrible experience with wayward children, I suppose, is the best way to think about it. I did the same thing I usually do, but I added a little bit of variety here. I didn't say in more detail about, I said in a bit more detail about, and instead of to say or to tell you more about, I said to say a little about, and then the details as well. I didn't actually give an introduction to the part about how others reacted to it. I just said most people responded the same way I did. But that's a natural follow on because I said most people responded to what was going on the same way I did. And what was going on was what I just discussed. And then when we come to the end, I said when it comes to my personal feelings on the matter, so just when it comes to how I feel about it. Apart from that, though, no big changes. Just this addition of a bit more detail, a little bit more about this.

Maria: Yay! So, dear listener, you use a lot of past continuous, and it's a good idea to use past perfect. So it looked like they had been drinking, actually, past perfect continuous, or it looked like they had been smoking, right, so a very nice structure. And then to wrap it up, if I were a parent, I wouldn't ta-ta-ta. So just imagine that you don't have any kids, so if I were, I wouldn't allow. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our speaking part three about children and their behaviour. Bye!

Rory: Bye!

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