People and Places - Mahamat Adamou | Текст песни

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• People and Places
• Mahamat Adamou

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Yvonne: You’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com and this is “People and Places”.
Hello, I’m Yvonne Archer – and today’s guest…
Mahamat Ahmed Adamou
Hello, my name is Mahamat Ahmed Adamou I come from Chad. It’s a country in central
Africa. My mother tongue is Arabic.
Yvonne: The people of Chad speak many different local languages but their country has
two official languages – French and Arabic. So French and Arabic are spoken
and understood by most people. But did you notice the useful phrase Mahamat
used to tell us which language he grew up speaking? Someone’s ‘mother
tongue’ tells us which language someone’s parents and family speak and even
which language the person thinks in!
Mahamat Ahmed Adamou
My mother tongue is Arabic.
Yvonne: Chad is very large country, about six times the size of Great Britain, and most
of us probably think it’s mainly made up of sand. But is that the case? What
does Chad looks like – what kind of ‘landscape’ does it have?
Mahamat Ahmed Adamou
People have a lot of misconceptions about Chad. They think of Chad as vast deserts but it’s
not true. I mean, actually, Chad is very varied in terms of landscape. So roughly you have, in
the north, the biggest part in the north is desert, and in the south, it’s savannah and in between, you have what we call ‘the Sahel’ which is the beginning of the savannah and the end of the
desert.
Yvonne: As Mahamat put it, many of us a lot of ‘misconceptions’ – we have the wrong
idea about Chad’s landscape. It’s not only made up of ‘vast deserts’ –
extremely large sandy areas. But did you manage to follow what it does look
like? In the north, there’s mainly desert, in the south, Mahamat described the
landscape as ‘savannah’ – so it’s rich with many rivers and vegetation. Then
‘in between’ – separating the desert and the savannah - there’s ‘the Sahel’ –
which is where Mahamat is from.
Mahamat Ahmed Adamou
The biggest part in the north is desert, and in the south, it’s savannah and in between, you
have what we call ‘the sahail’ which is the beginning of the savannah and the end of the
desert. You come across the oases, and in the extreme north, then you have the Tibestian
Region which is really fantastic, it’s a lunar landscape.
Yvonne: Mahamat describes the extreme north of Chad as having ‘a lunar landscape’ –
so wow - it looks like you could be on the moon! You’re listening to “People
and Places” from bbclearningenglish.com
At the age of 20, Mahamat went away to journalism school in Cameroon. But
when he got home three years later, things didn’t go as he'd ‘envisaged’ – as
he'd expected, hoped or imagined. As Mahamat continues with his story, listen
out for the key words and phrases ‘political situation’, ‘press freedom’
‘activist’. Can you guess what did happen when he got back to Chad?
Mahamat Ahmed Adamou
I wanted to start working as a journalist – that’s where trouble came. And I saw that I couldn’t
do my job as I envisaged in Chad considering the political situation. So I’ve been a bit (of an)
activist about defending press freedom, and of course, that doesn’t go well with the leaders.
Yvonne: Mahamat became a journalist in Chad, as planned, but he also became an
‘activist’. He tried to help make it possible for the press - or media – to do its
job properly, freely and without fear of being stopped or unfairly influenced by
the government and other powerful people. But life became rather dangerous
for Mahamat so he left of the United States. And one opportunity led to another,
and another, and another – and Mahamat, a journalist in Washington,
eventually became a BBC journalist here in London!
...

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