6 Minute English / Talking at the table

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Neil.

And I m Beth.

In this programme, we ll be discussing the dinner table but we re not interested in food. We re talking about talking!

A lot can happen around the dinner table gossip, arguments. You might meet the love of your life on a blind dinner date or find out you're a great storyteller. Neil, when you were younger, did you eat with your family around a dinner table?

We did! Eating at the table was an important ritual. It was something we did every day and, quite often, it was the only time we could get together and chat. I think there's something very comforting about eating good food and being with the people you're closest to and now I do the same with my own family. The kids are more likely to open up, talk more easily, about their day or something troubling them while we're eating.

Well, the dinner table is a space that families across the world get together at to not only eat, but chat, and is often the only point in the day or week that the whole family gathers together. In this programme, we ll be discussing how people behave at the table, and, of course, we ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you, Beth. In 2016, a couple from Germany won the world record for the fastest time to set a dinner table. But, how long did it take them? Was it:

a) 25 secondsb) 1 minute 5 secondsc) 2 minutes 5 seconds

Surely not 25 seconds! I'll guess 1 minute 5 seconds.