Saudi Arabia Three - Text
Subject is a male college student, 21 years old, born 1986 and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and had never travelled outside Saudi when he submitted this sample himself March 19, 2007. In the unscripted portion of the recording, the subject talks about how he learned English, and about his favourite pastime -- reading.
Edited March 20, 2007 by Paul Meier
Running time 00:05:04
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
Uh, hi there. Uh, I was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I’m twenty years old. I’m studying English at the university, at the English department. I’m at the--, uh, I’m in Level Five. I actually find the English language not that difficult, but still at the same time need some effort [pronounced “ef-FERT”], some effort [pronounced “EF-fert”] to be familiar, you know, with the language and stuff. I have some difficulties with some subjects in my college. For example, the syntax, some phonetics, but, uh, I’ll do my best. If you want the truth, I’ve never, uh, been outside Saudia Arabia, so I learned the English language here at the university. I-I’ll talk a little bit about another topic; I mean enough for school. Let’s talk about reading. Actually, reading would be the number one thing that I love and enjoy at the same time. Whether the language is Arabic or English, they are all interesting to me. I read novels, um, magazines, books, et cetera. However, I don’t actually read newspapers. I just don’t like them; I don’t know why. The latest novel I finished was “Memoirs of a Geisha,” by Arthur Golden. It’s-it’s an amazing novel. I recommend it for you all. And the last audio material I’ve listened to, uh, was “How to Talk to Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime you Want.” It was, I think, by Larry King and actually, if you want the truth, I loved it so much. I’m even planning to listen to it again to write down some notes to practice them in my daily life. I think that’s it, so. . ., bye-bye.