Katrina: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Babbel News – English Only. I’m Katrina from Babbel, filling in for Ted. Ready for a couple more news stories in English, sourced from Reuters? As usual, I’ll give you a quick intro to the stories here, and then go into a bit more detail about important vocabulary directly before each clip. Let’s hear our topics for today.

To start off, you’ll hear how a very dry winter has caused low water levels in France’s longest river, the Loire. Then, our second story will take us to Bangladesh, where new inclusive school textbooks featuring transgender people have just been published.

On your first listen, just try to get the main idea of each story. You can go back and listen as many times as you need to fill in the rest of the details, so no stress! Remember to check out the transcript for this episode, too. Reading and listening at the same time can make understanding so much easier!

Well? Sitting comfortably? Ready to focus? Then let’s make our way to France for our first story!

Let’s go through some vocabulary before we hear the first clip. To start off, you’ll hear the phrase “teeming with”, or to be full of something. Just after that comes the word “shortage”. When there’s a “shortage” of something, there isn’t enough of it. In this case, locals are worried that they will “lack”, or not have enough, water. The reason behind this is that France is experiencing a “drought”, or a long period of time without much rainfall. Finally, you’ll hear a scientist describe this situation as a “rare occurrence”, or something that doesn’t happen very often. Let’s hope he’s right. If you hear any other words that are new for you, take note of them and look them up in a dictionary after listening. And now, let’s hear the story!

Reuters: From above, the Loire River – the longest in France – seems to have more sandbanks than actual water.

Normally, the Loire River would be teeming with water towards the end of February as winter snow melts. But on Wednesday, drone footage showed patches of sand, inciting worries of water shortages among locals.

"I'm scared, I feel like we'll lack water, it's unacceptable. I've never seen this. Often at this time of year, as the snow melts, there's a lot of water. But right now, it's shocking to see the waters in the Loire so low."
 
France is facing one of its worst winter droughts in history, counting 32 consecutive days with total precipitation below one millimeter – a record since 1959, according to weather service Météo France.
 
The situation is being described as a rare occurrence by hydrologist Vazken Andreassian – who says locals should be prepared to cut back.
 
"The population will most certainly face water use restrictions. So, if you have to go to a wedding, you'll have to go to the wedding with a dirty car, because you won't be allowed to wash your car. Then, if you have a swimming pool, you will probably be banned from filling it."
 
Andreassian says normal rainfall soon could offer some relief, but he worries about the months ahead.

Katrina: Ready to take a closer look at some of the words and phrases you’ll hear in the next story? The first one is “to beg”, or to ask for food or money, usually on the street or in other public places. This relates to our second phrase, “to live in abject poverty”, or to be extremely poor. People who “live in abject poverty” might need to “beg” to survive. After that we have the verb “to roll out”, or to introduce a new product or service. Keep your ears open and see if you can hear what was “rolled out” in Bangladesh this year. The next word is “underprivileged”, an adjective that describes people who don’t have as many opportunities or rights as the rest of society. And your last piece of vocabulary for today is “to recall”, or when a product is returned to the manufacturer, usually because of a problem with that product. And now, we’re off to Bangladesh for our second news story!

Reuters: In bright saris and heavy make-up, much of Bangladesh's marginalized transgender community, or hijras, spend their days begging.

Their lives can be tough. Though the government recognized hijras as a third gender in 2013, many live in abject poverty, engage in sex work to survive, or have little access to a proper education.
 
But on January 1st, new textbooks were rolled out for millions of schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 13 featuring a segment on transgender people. The books contain images of the community in respectable jobs, including a beautician, a development worker, and an elected mayor.

Muhammad Moshiuzzaman is a member of the national curriculum and textbook board who created the book. "We wanted to make it inclusive. To bring them in our mainstream society, we have tried to include these contents in our new curriculum."

Children like 12-year-old Fatiah Alam and her peers have embraced the texts.
 
"In our textbook, there is a chapter on transgender people and it says that the transgender community is very underprivileged. I think they are human beings, just like us. We should help them with their progress."
 
But the books have not been welcomed by everyone. A large crowd of conservative Muslims angered by the inclusion of hijras recently held a protest at Dhaka’s main mosque, calling for the texts to be recalled. Nevertheless, the transgender community and their supporters hope the move will spread awareness.
 
Transgender community leader Jonak: "If our story catches people's attention and they keep our suffering in mind, that will be good for us. Those who learn more about us will hopefully understand and then work towards our development in the future."

Katrina: That’s all for today! How did it go? Remember that you can always go back and listen to the news again if you didn’t get everything the first time. And did you know that in most podcast players, including the one in the Babbel app, you can slow down the speed of the audio? If you feel like things are just a bit too fast for you, try it out. It could make a big difference! Thanks again for joining in, and I hope to see you again next week for another episode of Babbel News – English Only! Bye!