Alexis Kekeh（在线收听）

BBC Learning English

People and Places

Alexis Kekeh

Alexis: My name is Alexis. I’m from Togo.

William: … and I’m William Kremer. Welcome to

People and Places!

One of my favourite things about living in London is the

incredible mix of people that you find here. Go for a short

walk in almost any part of this city, and you’re more than

likely to pass people from every continent in the world.

Some of them will be tourists enjoying a holiday in

Britain, some will be students and others will be people

who have come to this country to live and to work.

Today we’re going to hear from someone who has decided to

settle in London. His name is Alexis… but where’s he from

and what does he do?

Alexis: My name is Alexis. I’m from Togo. Er, at the

moment I’m living in

London…er… I’ve got a small clinic. I’m a

physiotherapist.

William: Alexis is from Togo – that’s a country in

West Africa, next to Ghana. He is a physiotherapist. A

physiotherapist is someone who helps people who have

suffered muscle injury. After you’ve been in hospital,

your doctor might send you to a physiotherapist to help you

build up your strength.

Alexis was nineteen years old when he left Togo. At the

time, he had two great loves in his life. What were they?

 
Alexis: I was nineteen. I was… I had just finished my

degree in French business law… I was a footballer and I

was er… involved in politics.

William: Alexis said that he’d been a footballer

and that he’d been involved in politics.

Alexis played football for his university and for a semi-

professional team. He was so promising a player that he was

offered a place in the national under-16 squad to go to the

World Cup. Amazingly, he turned this offer down and he

decided not to become a professional footballer. Why?

Alexis: Sometimes you have to make your choice and my dad

made my choice for me.

So basically, he said, you know, ‘You concentrate on your

studies first and football will come later. My son is going

to uni – and that’s the end of the matter.’ So. I didn’

t go.

William: If someone concentrates on something, he

puts all his energy towards it. Alexis didn’t continue his

football career because his father made him concentrate on

his studies. Alexis said, ‘Sometimes you have to make your

choice and my dad made my choice for me.’

So is Alexis now angry that his dad made him concentrate on

his studies and stopped him from playing football?

Alexis: Oh, I think he probably made the right choice for

me… because, erm, when I came to England I tried to play

professionally, damaged my knee in the process and so ended

up not going anywhere in football – so I have to fall back

on my education. And I think erm… he probably was wiser

than me.

William: Well, Alexis said that his dad probably

made the right choice for him. When he came to England

later on he damaged his knee and so had to fall back on his

education. In this context, ‘to fall back on something’

means to make use of
 
something when your original plans don’t work out. Alexis

’s father knew that if Alexis got a good education, he

would always have that to fall back on if he needed.

Sadly, Alexis’s other interest, politics, soon got him

into trouble. At the start of

1991, President Gnassingbe Eyadema had been in power for 24

years and there was no political opposition. The

universities were centres of pro-democracy campaigning, and

Alexis and his friends used to organise demonstrations and

distribute leaflets calling for a revolution. But instead

of change taking place, the President strengthened his

position, and Alexis and many of his friends left the

country. How did Alexis feel when he arrived in the UK?

Alexis: When I came to London from the bus stop I realised

that maybe this is the place for me cos I didn’t have any

English at all at the time… you know I only have a piece

of paper with the address where I was going and I had this

lady who actually took my hand, show me to the bus and say

‘Make sure that he gets off at this station’… and I

think after that it marked me, deeply. As an immi…

immigrant, you want to feel welcome. And I think she made

me welcome.

William: Alexis felt immediately that London might

be the place for him. He described how a lady took him by

the hand, showed him to his bus and told the driver to make

sure he got off at his station. ‘I think she made me

welcome’, he said.

Don’t forget that if you would like to download the script

from this programme, you can do so on the People and Places

website on BBC Learning English dot com. Goodbye!