BBC Learning English People and places Lyrics

BBC Learning English
People and Places
Hina
People and Places © British Broadcasting Corporation 2007
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Yvonne: Hello, I'm Yvonne Archer, and today on "People and Places" from
bbclearningenglish.com we meet someone who was born in London, moved to
Kuwait and then to Bahrain at the age of seven. So who is she and where
would she say she's from?
Hina
Hello, my name is Hina and I consider myself as being from Bahrain.
Yvonne: Generally, we think of Bahrain as a very rich country that produces oil and has
lots of expensive shops. But of course, there's a lot more to Bahrain! Which
two countries is it near to and how many islands is it made up of?
Hina
Bahrain is situated in the Middle East - or, you could say, it's situated in the Arab World. It's
a very small country - it's near Iran and Saudi Arabia - and we're... actually, Bahrain is a
collection of thirty different islands.
Yvonne: Bahrain is near to Iran and Saudi Arabia and it's made up of thirty different
islands. And another way to say that, as we heard, is: it's 'a collection of' thirty
different islands.
Hina
Bahrain is a collection of thirty different islands.
Yvonne: Hina has also lived and studied in the United States and now she lives in
London. But as she's found out, people know very little about Bahrain, even
though we've got so much access to the internet. And even now, some of
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Hina's own family don't see a reason to visit Bahrain! How many examples of
questions - or rather, negative comments - does Hina give about Bahrain?
Hina
Sometimes they say, 'What's the point of going to Bahrain?' I have family who say that as
well... 'I think it's going to be boring', 'Maybe it'll just be desert' or 'Isn't it a rich, oil
country? All you can probably do there is, go shopping.'
Yvonne: Making a negative comment sound like a question can be a way of softening it,
so it doesn't sound as rude...
Hina
Sometimes they say, 'What's the point of going to Bahrain?' I have family who say that as
well... 'I think it's going to be boring', 'Maybe it'll just be desert' or 'Isn't it a rich, oil
country? All you can probably do there is, go shopping.'
Yvonne: And I caught three comments from Hina there: that it's boring, it's just desert,
and there's nothing to do in Bahrain except go shopping. So people ask:
'What's the point?' Is there really any good reason to visit Bahrain?
Hina
Sometimes they say, 'What's the point of going to Bahrain?'
Yvonne: If someone begins a comment with 'What's the point?' - for example, 'What's
the point in learning English with bbclearningenglish.com?' - you'll probably
have an opportunity to convince them that there are several good reasons!
Yvonne: So Hina, what's the point in visiting Bahrain?
People and Places © British Broadcasting Corporation 2007
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Hina
What people don't realise is, there's a lot of diversity of faces, different kinds of food and
Bahrain is a very hospitable place. The people are very nice. Bahraini's have very good hearts
and they're very warm and friendly.
Yvonne: The food and the people - Bahrainis - are two great reasons to visit Bahrain.
So, there is a point!
When we think of the Middle East and Arab countries, sadly, we think of war.
And during the first Gulf War, Hina was still at primary school in Bahrain. It
was opposite a military camp and hospital for injured soldiers from other Arab
countries, yet Hina remembers a few funny moments, even though they were
created by the horrors of war. In this story, little Hina had to decide whether it
was safe to go back to school after lunch one day...
Hina
I remember we often went to school with gas masks, my sister and I. And there's one story
when we heard the sirens going off. You could hear them on the TV, you could hear them on
the radio and you could hear them outside. The birds would just be so quiet because the air
raid sirens were going. My sister and I stayed in the house for about twenty minutes until we
didn't hear the sirens any more. Then, we knew it was safe to go back to school.
Yvonne: Hina thought it was safe to walk back to school, but it seems that she was the
only one.
Hina:
Our school was only about a ten minute walk away, so we walked back to school, you know,
very happy, didn't see anything bad happening. When we got inside, we didn't see anybody in
the playground and we didn't see anyone in the offices and then the head teacher ran outside
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and she said "What are you two girls doing?" Because, for them, they had still been hearing
the siren - they were listening to a different radio station and a different TV station.
I said to her - "But it's stopped; we can't hear it outside". She was so angry and she took me
and my little sister. We ran inside and our whole school, of about, more than a hundred people,
we were all in a tiny little room with tea and biscuits, just sitting and waiting to make sure
everything was definitely all clear.
I think it's important for people to realise, there's happy memories that can happen in countries
in the Arab World.