N.B: the captions on this video are auto-generated. I have not proofread them, and they may contain errors.
I prepared this speech for interpreter training purposes, and it may not reflect my actual views.
My notes
These are not a model to follow! Just an example of how an interpreter might take notes from this speech.
I should probably also say that these are a genuine first attempt at taking notes. I haven’t revised them or fine-tuned them, and there are often sections that I’m not wholly satisfied with – usually because I’ve written more than necessary! I’m also noting from English>English; it’s likely my notes would look different if I were going from a C into my A language.
Transcript
No promises that this is complete or accurate!
Ladies and gentlemen, I have always been struck by the difference between gardens in the UK, which is where I live, and gardens in France, a country that I often visit on holiday.
In the UK, gardens are often, let’s call them, ornamental — or leisure gardens. Gardens where the children might have swings or a slide to play on, or you might have a bench and a table to sit and enjoy the view when it’s not raining. But mostly, gardens are ornamental. People grow flowers; sometimes they have very elaborate flower beds, or they have shrubs, or maybe even a shrubbery or a rockery. They might go so far as to do a bit of topiary in the pastiche gardens.
Whereas in France, I think the approach is more utilitarian. If anything, French people attach a lot of importance to food, and therefore to having a vegetable patch. But otherwise, they don’t seem to have the same attachment to creating something really beautiful and colourful with flower beds, for example.
Now, one big advantage of the French approach is that it’s better for wildlife. And we all know that many species are in decline, or on the brink of extinction, through habitat loss. So French gardens are better in that respect. And today I’m going to talk about one of these species which is at risk of extinction — in the UK at least — and that is hedgehogs.
Their populations are in decline because of habitat loss, because of intensive agriculture, and also because of deaths on the roads. And in fact, interestingly, rural areas are worst for hedgehogs — not necessarily what you might expect.
I want to tell you about a study carried out by scientists in Chester on gardens — 415 gardens. The scientists placed camera traps in these gardens to see what factors influence the presence of hedgehogs. They found hedgehogs in 57% of these gardens, which I find an astonishing figure, much higher than I expected.
And the main result of their study was that leaving food out is the biggest factor in whether hedgehogs visit that garden or not. So you might think that’s obvious, or you might be thinking: what, people are leaving food out for hedgehogs? What food would you even leave out?
Back in the day — or when I was a child — people used to talk about leaving milk out for hedgehogs, which is actually not good for them at all. So I learned that cat food is more appropriate, and apparently it’s cat biscuits that you should leave out if you’re deliberately targeting hedgehogs.
But of course, if you leave food out like that, it could attract rats. You’re never very far from a rat, whether you live in an urban or rural environment. And actually, some of the food that was very attractive to hedgehogs was bird seed, if it was left on the ground.
Hedgehogs were found in 78% of gardens where people had left food out, and food was left out in 28% of gardens — much to my surprise. But you have to be a bit cautious about deliberately leaving food out, because we don’t yet understand how this might change the habits of hedgehogs. It might bring them together with other hedgehogs, or other species, in a way that isn’t natural. It might spread disease; it might change their hibernation patterns.
So what people are being urged to do — and this was the second factor that attracted hedgehogs to gardens — is to make sure that there are wildlife-friendly features in your garden. For example, a wildflower patch, or some native plants; leaf litter where the hedgehogs can hibernate in winter; or log piles; or holes in the fences, if you have fences, so that hedgehogs can get between gardens and roam around, because they need enough territory to find enough food.
To conclude, I would say that these urban habitats and urban gardens are increasingly important for hedgehogs, for the reasons I’ve explained. And the main advice to people, really, is: leave some areas wild in your garden; don’t be too tidy.
So on this front, the French are definitely doing better than the Brits — and I’m winning as well, because in no way could my garden be described as well groomed with a manicured lawn. Instead, it is chaotic and overgrown, which must make it ideal for wildlife.