Alice: Hello! I’m Alice and this is 6 Minute English…. Welcome to Rob who
is joining me today! Hi Rob.
Rob: Hello Alice.
Alice: Today we’re talking about female-only carriages on trains.
Rob: These are train carriages which are only for women. We don’t have
them in the UK.
Alice: No we don’t – but there are quite a few countries which do have
female-only carriages for commuters. It’s to help women from being
bothered while they are travelling – to stop sexual harassment.
Can you guess which of these countries have female-only carriages
Rob? I’ll give you a choice of 4.
Canada, Japan, Egypt or Germany
Rob: I’ll have a think and tell you at the end of the programme. Why is
this in the news?
Alice: It’s in the news because women in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, will
now be able to travel in female-only train carriages. Here’s part of a
report by the BBC’s Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Extract 1:
The trains to the suburbs are always packed with commuters trying to get from their
offices in the city back to their homes. Female passengers have been complaining that
some male commuters are taking advantage. By introducing women’s only carriages,
the state-run rail operator wants to put a stop to sexual harassment.
Alice: The company that operates the trains in this part of Jakarta say they
have received lots of complaints about men taking advantage of
women. Taking advantage – that’s a polite way of saying some men
were touching women or banging into them on purpose on crowded
trains.
Rob: It is officially called sexual harassment.
Alice: The state-run rail operator – the train company owned by the
government – said that women were avoiding packed trains to avoid
sexual harassment. So they have created women only train carriages.
Rob: They have even designed the train carriages to appeal to women
apparently.
Alice: That’s right. The carriages are made in Japan and have brightly
covered pink seats. They’re easy to spot.
Rob: They’re easy to spot – they stand out, they’re easy to see from a
distance.
Alice: This woman, 22 year old Yanti a student in Jakarta said she hopes the
carriages will help stop sexual harassment on crowded trains.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Extract 2
(Voiceover in English): Hopefully this service will be able to reduce the number of
women who become targets of sexual harassment on the trains. Sometimes there are
men who bump and push into us on purpose, and they take advantage of the cramped
conditions. But there must be other ways to stop sexual harassment. We have to try and
raise awareness about the issue as well.
Alice: So Yanti said the carriages are part – but not all of the solution - to prevent
sexual harassment on the train.
Rob: Yes – she said that it’s important to raise awareness about the issue of
sexual harassment as well.
Alice: to raise awareness – that’s a useful phrase – you often hear
it when people want to talk about difficult issues – issues which are
difficult to discuss.
Rob: We also heard the phrase taking advantage again.
Alice: Yanti said that some men take advantage of the cramped conditions
on the train to bump or push into women on purpose.
Rob: on purpose – that means you do something deliberately. The
carriages are full of people – they’re very cramped.
Alice: He did it on purpose, she did it on purpose – it wasn’t a mistake, they
did it deliberately. Sexual harassment is a difficult issue to talk about.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Some countries have laws which make sexual harassment illegal –
especially in the workplace. What is the official definition of sexual
harassment Rob?
Rob: The United Nations Development Fund for Women defines sexual
harassment as "unwelcome or unwanted verbal, non-verbal, physical or visual
conduct based on sex or of a sexual nature; the acceptance or rejection of
which affects an individual's employment.
Alice: Verbal means spoken. So sexual harassment can be language too –
not just physical touching. Unwelcome verbal, non-verbal, physical or
visual conduct. Visual – means it could be a look from somebody that
is unwanted as well.
Rob: That definition of sexual harassment is also just about women at
work. But it can happen in other places too.
Alice: Yes – and remember it’s not just women who can be sexually
harassed. There are also many legal cases where men say they have
been sexually harassed at work or in other places too.
Rob: Men can be victims of sexual harassment too.
Alice: So Rob have you thought about the answer to my question. Which of
these countries already have female-only train carriages?
Canada, Japan, Egypt or Germany
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Rob: I’ll have a guess. Is it Canada and Japan?
Alice: The answers are Japan and Egypt. Female-only train carriages were
first introduced in Japan in the year 2000 during the busy end-of-year
festive season when lots of people had been celebrating. And you can
also find female-only train carriages in Cairo, Egypt, Brazil, Malaysia
and Taiwan. So before we go Rob shall we review some of today’s
language?
Rob: Yes of course.
female-only
carriages
commuters
sexual harassment
taking advantage
state-run rail operator
easy to spot
to raise awareness
cramped
on purpose
verbal
Alice: Well that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thanks for joining us and see
you next time. Bye!
