Alex, the English speaker of this course, answers three questions. First: what is special about the English language? It has become the language of the internet – even on Austrian playgrounds children drop English words into their sentences because it is cool. When he learned French and German at school, foreign languages were anything but cool.
Then his favourite place: his home county of Dorset on the south-west coast, right by the sea. Plenty of nature, small cottages, cosy pubs, big cliffs, meadows and ancient woodland – and fish and chips. It does not rain there all the time either.
And finally British humour: famous, but often misunderstood. Irony is at its heart, even self-irony. What occasionally sounds offensive is meant kindly – the jokes are usually at the speaker’s own expense.