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Real Easy English

Easy level

Talking about playing sport

Episode 260227 / 27 Feb 2026

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Neil and Georgie have a real conversation in easy English about playing sport – the physical games we play with others, as a team or alone. Learn to talk about tournaments, teamwork and pressure

Vocabulary

teamwork
working together with other people

competitive
wanting to win and willing to try hard to do so

pressure
feeling of anxiety or intensity brought on by wanting to win

tournament
sports competition played with many teams or people to find out who is best

Transcript

Neil
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Neil.
 
Georgie
And I'm Georgie. You can find a video version of this podcast with subtitles to help you learn over on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Neil
Hi Georgie, how are you?
 
Georgie
I'm very well, thank you. How are you?
 
Neil
I'm good. Yes. We're talking today about sport and playing sport. Do you play sport?
 
Georgie
I used to play a lot of sport at school. I'm not in any team sports at the moment, but I do enjoy playing sports in a casual way. So, you know, at a picnic in the park, for example, if someone gets a bat and a ball, or a frisbee. I love doing things like that, just for fun. What about you?
 
Neil
Yeah, I love sport. I played lots of sport when I was younger – football, cricket, hockey, basketball. And now my son plays lots of sport, so sport is a big part of my life.
 
Georgie
Does... does your son mostly play team sports?
 
Neil
Yeah, he does.
 
Georgie
Yeah.
 
Neil
Yeah. And he really enjoys it.
 
Georgie
What do you think are some good things about playing team sports?
 
Neil
I think playing team sports is really good for you, especially for kids, because they learn about teamwork, about personal responsibility, trying to do your best. You keep fit and you learn valuable life skills, like how to lose...
 
Georgie
Yes.
 
Neil
...how to win.
 
Georgie
Yes.
 
Neil
And how to deal with those emotions.
 
Georgie
Mmm, yeah. How to control your emotions and work in a team. Teamwork is very important when playing team sports... obviously! What about individual sports? What's good about that?
 
Neil
So, I think in individual sports, you don't... maybe you don't feel the same pressure, because you're playing for yourself and if you let someone down, that person is yourself. But then I guess probably there's added pressure because of that sometimes. So, I think if you play tennis, it must be very lonely because you don't have a team and when things are down, only you can help yourself.
 
Georgie
Yeah, I think I prefer playing team sports because for me the enjoyment comes from being with people and the community and things like that. Individual sports, like you said, are a bit lonely.
 
Neil
Yeah. Have you ever entered a competition in sport?
 
Georgie
I have actually. When I was at school, I was actually the fastest runner.
 
Neil
Wow!
 
Georgie
Yes, so I entered an athletics competition to do some sprinting. So, sprinting is really fast running. I didn't do so well. It turns out that at school, I was really good, but when I was competing with lots of other people, I wasn't so good. What about you?
 
Neil
Yeah, I played team sports in league and cup competitions, so every time you play, you can go up or down in the league. So, there was that competition all the time.
 
Georgie
And what do you think is important when you start playing a sport?
 
Neil
It's important that you enjoy it, mainly. That's the most important thing, I think, because if you don't enjoy it there's no point. I think you need to understand that you will learn skills and if you practise and try hard you will probably get better.
 
Georgie
Yeah. Not... Don't put too much pressure on yourself, I think is good... good advice.
 
Neil
Yeah.
 
Neil
Let's recap the vocabulary we've heard in today's podcast, starting with teamwork. Teamwork is how we describe working together with other people.
 
Georgie
If you are competitive, it means you really want to win at something and will try really hard to do that.
 
Neil
We also heard pressure. Pressure is that feeling that you need to win, and it can be quite a stressful feeling.
 
Georgie
And you might feel a lot of pressure in a tournament when you need to reach the next level. And a tournament is a sports competition, where you play against a lot of other teams or people to find out who is best.
 
Neil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Don't forget to go to our website to find a free worksheet. That's at bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Georgie
And we'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English. Goodbye for now.
 
Neil
Goodbye!

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