1Well, we have this school excursion planned, but when exactly is it?
2Is it this Tuesday or Wednesday?
3Well it can't be Tuesday, with the English tests taking place.
4Ah, right. Not Tuesday, but Wednesday.
5That's right - all day Wednesday - taking a bus outside the city.
6And where are we going?
7Ah, last month we went to Arthur Island,
8so this time we're going to the... Animal Park
9Arthur Island was okay, but it was too cold.
10Let's hope the weather for this week's excursion is better.
11I don't suppose animals care about bad weather, but I certainly do.
12Have you heard the forecast?
13Yes, and it's not too bad.
14Basically, they're saying Monday will be sunny.
15Good...
16But then the weather will change.
17Not so good.
18Yes, Tuesday we'll have some showers,
19but by Wednesday, the day of our excursion, it will be...
20well, their words are "cold and cloudy".
21Cold and cloudy. Well, as long as it isn't 'wet and rainy', I'm happy enough.
22We won't need umbrellas, just warm clothing.
23And what time will we get there?
24Let's see. The bus picks us up at 8:30 am,
25and then it's an hour and a half on the road, so we arrive at 10 a.m...
26sorry, with the 15-minute break, that will actually be 10:15 a.m.
27That's early enough.
28Then all our students can see the animals, have their fun, and do whatever they want to do.
29Well, one fun event planned that day is 'Birds of Prey'.
30What's that?
31That's when they bring out several birds of prey:
32eagles, falcons, kites, those sorts of birds,
33and throw pieces of meat into the air,
34and the birds swoop down and eat them.
35It's quite impressive.
36Sounds great. 'Birds of Prey'.
37Are there any other activities?
38There's a catered lunch, at the park restaurant.
39We've already paid for that, and in the afternoon there's...
40well, I had a choice between the 'Reptile Display' and the 'Koala Handling'.
41In the reptile display, the students can handle live pythons and various other snakes.
42Surely they'd rather hold koalas?
43I'm sure, but the koalas can't be handled unless the weather's sunny, and given the forecast,
44I thought it better to choose the reptile display.
45Ummm, that's a shame.
46These Asian students would love the 'Koala Handling'.
47Yes, I know, but we can't control the weather.
48And, then we get back. What time will that be?
49We leave the park at 4:30, but then we face traffic,
50so we won't get back until well after 6 pm.
51It will most likely be 6:30.
52But that's better than the last trip: we didn't get home until 8:30 that time.
53Yes, that was a bit too late, wasn't it?
54Andrew, I understand you've been doing some research regarding the breakdown, by nationality of our student body.
55That must've produced some interesting results.
56You're right. I got some statistics from head office.
57I would imagine that most of our students are either Japanese or Chinese.
58You imagine right.
59But it's the Chinese who constitute the majority, but only just.
60I had thought Koreans might be second,
61but it's actually the Japanese, quite close behind.
62It's somewhat surprising, but obviously all those Study Tours that our university markets in Japan are bringing in students.
63What's the breakdown exactly?
64Japanese are a quarter of the whole, which is considerable.
65Last year they were only 16%, so that market has grown nicely.
66Ah, the only other proportions of some weight are the Indonesians and Koreans - about the same.
67Indonesians at 15%, and...
68the Koreans are a little higher -
69not like last year when they were less than 10%.
70I thought we'd have more Indonesians than Koreans?
71Well, as I said, they're about the same
72just like the Saudi and Thai student numbers, almost the same also -
73both just under 10.
74Which one is bigger?
75Thai students number just a fraction more.
76As for the other nationalities, collectively they're only 3%,
77so it wasn't worth giving each of them a separate category.
78I just grouped them under 'other'
79that's Vietnamese, South American, a couple of Russians, and so on.