Teaching Ideas

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Continuing in our series of interviews with people who just don’t like football, we interview Peter from Scotland on some of the reasons why he has never been a fan of the ‘beautiful game‘. Listen to the first of our interviews on this topic here . To help you understand there is a vocabulary list containing the words in bold at the foot of this post.

Languagecaster (LC): So can you tell us where you are from Peter?

Peter: Glasgow, in Scotland

LC: Do you like any particular sport?

Peter: Never watch sports and never have, get bored after a few minutes, can’t focus on the screen, start to think about paint drying and stuff like that. But I do like sporting moments; I’ll watch the highlights of a sporting game and totally appreciate the skill and underlying poetry in what is happening. It’s just watching and waiting for those moments to come, and sometimes they never come, that feels like dead time to me.

But I do like to do sports; notice the emphasis is on the verb ‘do’ rather than ‘play’. I like to go running, swimming, snow boarding etc. In fact find it hard to get through the week unless I have done some kind of sport at least 3 or 4 times.

LC: Why don’t you like football?

Peter: Difficult question, the ‘why’ question. Why don’t we like anything? But I think it could be to do with growing up, and growing up in Glasgow.

The first reason is hinted at above, I think don’t like football because I couldn’t play it when I was younger. I think you tend to like the things you are good at. If I had been a better player as a kid I think I would have enjoyed watching it more. But I was crap, so I tended to take an interest in things I could do better. Same thing goes for all ball games and competitive games, even chess and things like that, no interest after 10 minutes but then again I was never very good at them.

The second reason is, I think I deliberately rejected it. I hate the British male assumption that all males support a team and if you don’t there is something wrong with you. This was especially acute in Glasgow where, growing up in a Catholic area it was assumed I had to be Celtic supporter. There is an ugly, gang mentality in football supporters which has the stink of reductionism, among other, more violent, attributes. And I thought I just didn’t want to live my life like that.

LC: Have you been to see a game?

Peter: I went regularly to the Celtic games at the old Parkhead until I was about 14. This was almost compulsory in those days because, unlike now unless you’re rich and/or have contacts you can’t get into a game, being an ‘armchair supporter’ was a type of parasite who got no social respect. I enjoyed it, the meat pies, the underage drinking, the threat of violence and intimidation. All heady stuff when you are 14, but, as I say, I could never really stay focused on the game for long periods of time. And then I started to realize there were more things to life than meat pies, violence and intimidation. Namely, girls and music, and you couldn’t get either of those at football games. Note the under age drinking stayed with me but I wouldn’t recommend that to any of the kids.

LC: Who’s your tip for World Cup 2010?

No idea who is still in so would just embarrass myself by choosing a side. It would be good if a Muslim team won it. Bit like in Glasgow when (Manager) Souness signed Maurice Johnson (left) for Rangers. Everybody hated him until he started scoring goals. So I guess football can help to heal cultural/religious rifts as well as exacerbate them. Maybe I shouldn’t’ be so hard on it.

Vocabulary

think about paint drying: If something is so boring we say that it is like watching paint dry

dead time: Nothing is happening at all

hinted at: Suggested, offering a clue to something

Crap: Something bad, little informal but fairly acceptable (vulgar form = shit)

assumption: Presuming that everyone does something

acute: Something particular, extremely common or prevalent

the stink of reductionism: Here the meaning is a negative one with peter suggesting that football fans reduce the idea of following a team to an overly simplistic form, i.e. there is no grey, it’s either ‘us or them’ (Stink means a really bad smell)

attributes: Characteristics

Parkhead: The name of Celtic’s football stadium

Armchair supporter: A football fan that only watches TV and never goes to a live game (disparaging comment)

Parasite: Someone that lives off something else

heady stuff: The idea of violence went to his head – exciting

rifts: Divisions, separations

exacerbate: To make something worse