Do you get frustrated with the need to learn three different words to describe the same thing in English? Do we really need all of these varieties? What actually is the point, the benefit, of having 10 ways to describe rain? Or 100 ways to describe how you feel? In this episode I'll read a short excerpt from George Orwell's 1984. This book is a dystopia novel, so darkness is kind of the point! He's trying to show us what the worst case scenario might look like, so we can avoid it. Through this reading you can see one possible idea of what English (or potentially any language) would or could look like if we remove it's variety, if we take out all the antonyms and synonyms, what's left? And would it really matter? In this episode I mention two other episodes you can check out. Episode 180 International Influences On The English Language - Talks about the influences of Viking, Indian and African languages on English. https://youtu.be/YatbgD9Yfsw Episode 179 Why Is English Spelling So Hard?😱 - Looks at the historical roots of some of English's weird spelling. https://youtu.be/4MWFHnoVnt8 I also mentioned a recent video by linguist creator Rob Words called 'Tracing English back as far as possible'. This video uses maps and work by current and historical linguists to identify the potential mother of English and what similarities we can find between English and other languages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeAx3QZ7eRs I hope you find this episode interesting and it helps you feel a little less frustrated with the diversity and variety in English. It's frustrating to learn, but that diversity is definitely also a strength. Think about how you might use English to express yourself differently to how you might express yourself in your own language. See you next time.

Vocabulary

Purloin - steal something

Linguistic - the study of languages

Sanskrit - an ancient (still used) language in India

Examine - to look at closely

Proto Indo European - The linguistic name of one of the proposed earliest languages

Incidentally - by the way, used to add more information

Dystopian - fictional story genre with end of the world types of stories

Authoritarian - a form of government that has absolute power over the people

Excerpt - a short piece of something, usually reading from a book

Audacity - bold or arrogant disregard for normal behaviour

Infuriating - to make you very angry

Relevant - connected to something or a context related to our conversation or topic

Definitive - complete and final

Cut down to the bone - idiom - something is reduced as far as it can be.

Obsolete - out of date, no longer in use

Wastage - the process of losing or destroying something

Synonym - words with the same meanings

Antonym - words with opposite meanings

Vague - unclear or undefined

Afterthought - something that we add later

Lack of enthusiasm - not having excitement for something

Thought Crime - this and words like 'New Speak' are vocabulary invented in the book. Thought Crime defines the idea that you can be guilty of a crime just for thinking differently to how the government wants you to think

Rigidly - without flexibility

Subsidiary - less important but related to something

Self-Discipline - to have self-control

Revolution - the act of rising up against an organisation or government and changing it

Literature - the poems, books and words that make up the stories we read, often used for 'great' or 'classical' works

Slogan - a group of words used to sell an idea

Abolished - to destroy completely, usually for organisations, ideas and laws

Orthodoxy - authorised theory, doctrine or practise

Far-right - often related to authoritarian ideas, often describes people who are against immigrants, choice and freedom

Mainstream - commonly in use by the general public

Woke - aware of important facts (especially around racism)

Eradicate - to get rid of completely

Radical - asking for complete change

Inflict - to cause pain or discomfort to someone else

Welcome back to the channel! In this episode I answer a learner question: how do I speak English well at a conference? In this episode we'll dive into why speaking English in stressful environments or situations is so challenging. Why is your English so impossible to use right when you need it? Is there anything to be done about it? If you can't practise your English in these situations, then what should you do? No worries, I have answers for all these questions. Sorry, I was a little excited to be back so I did go pretty fast and my British accent is in full force! Hope it's OK. Any additional questions, pop them in the comments! (We now have comments on Podcasts! Exciting!) See you next time. #emmaseslenglish #englishpodcast #englishspeaking #confidence #publicspeaking

Just a quick update for everyone, I know it's been a while. I haven't disappeared, but I have been busy. There will be new episodes uploaded here, but they will be rather random. If you'd like me to cover anything you're always welcome to let me know via email: emmaseslenglish@gmail.com I'm also opening up all the previous episodes on YouTube so you can access those whenever you want.

https://www.youtube.com/@emmaseslenglish The website has gone but all the vocabulary has been moved into the descriptions on the videos and I will continue doing that going forward. Hope to see you soon. Hope everything has been OK with you while I was gone.

In this week's celebration of Pride we have an episode about the history of LGBTQ history in the UK. Unfortunately we do seem to be going backwards in the UK and America at the moment, especially regarding Trans rights, but as we will find out, Trans people have been with us all through time. I mentioned yesterday several Influencers you can follow to increase your understanding on this and other LGBTQIA issues. In particular Alok's Book Reports, which you can find on their Instagram page, are a great way to find out more easily. In this episode I quote Alok from an interview he did on the Man Enough podcast. You can find that episode here: https://manenough.com/alok/

Vocabulary

Swathe - a large amount of something, usually land or history

Heteronormative - The European Institute for Gender Equality defines this as: 'what makes heterosexuality seem coherent, natural and privileged. It involves the assumption that everyone is 'naturally' heterosexual, and that heterosexuality is an ideal, superior to homosexuality or bisexuality.'

Police started cracking down - to crack down is a phrasal verb meaning to stop something, usually to prevent some kind of crime.

Seems short sighted - a common idiom meaning something seems like a stupid idea in the long run, or taking the future into account.

Stuck around - if something sticks around (phrasal verb) then it lasts for some time or doesn't go away. We can use this for laws, ideas and people.

Rhetoric - from the dictionary: language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect, but which is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.
Intersex - describing people who have the sexual organs of both male and female parts.

Mental/Physical construct - this means that something is just an idea, a concept created by a person or society, it is not factual or scientific.

Key takeaway - the most important thing

Decriminalised - something that was considered illegal, but the law has been changed and it is no longer considered illegal.

Reassignment Surgery - this is one of the surgeries that Trans people can undergo.

Trans Scene - 'scene' can be used to describe the places where the specific group of people hang out

Trans - Short for Transgender, a term used to describe someone who is born with a body with the wrong physical representation compared to what they feel is true for them.

Nonbinary - someone who identifies as either male or female - There are many terms for nonbinary people and many different pronouns they may choose to use, it's best to ask them what they prefer.

Declassified - similar to decriminalised this is when something was historically decided to fit into a particular category and with later science and social evolution is no longer considered to be in that category.

Repealed - When a law or action is taken back. In most cases this is similar to decriminalisation, except that decriminalisation means the act is no longer criminal, where as repealed means that the law that said it was a criminal act has been taken out of the code of law and is no longer active.

Binary - this refers to something that has two parts

Not standing for - We have two very similar idioms: 'to stand for' something means that you believe strongly in something and you will protect and represent it. 'to not stand for' something means that you won't put up with or allow something to continue.

Persecuted - when someone experiences hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of their ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation or their political beliefs.

Compassion - when we have empathy and care for people.

Hit me hard - means something had a big impact on you.

Put people in boxes - the idea of 'putting in a box' describes humanity's need to categories everyone and everything to make it understandable.

Today we're studying a confusing English word: 'overwhelm'. This is a very over-used word, so the most important thing to understand is that as long as you're using it to describe something that's 'too much', you're probably using it correctly.

First of all, the website I suggested was called YouGlish. It's really handy for seeing how words are used naturally. https://youglish.com/

As I mentioned I had two sets of definitions for 'Overwhelm' in this class the first from Cambridge English (which is a little more thorough) and covers the British and American uses. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/overwhelm And

Dictionary.comhttps://www.dictionary.com/browse/overwhelm

So the definitions I had were:

1. to bury or drown beneath a huge mass of something (often water)
2. to defeat someone or something by force
3. to have a strong emotional effect on
4. to cause someone to feel a sudden strong emotion
5. to be too much to deal with

As you can see, in general, the definition is 'too much' of something.

Example Sentences

The port was overwhelmed by the tidal wave.

Definition 1, literally drowning.

The rebellion was overwhelmed by the Empire.

Definition 2, too much force and power.

The battle was overwhelming for the troops.

Could be definition 3, could be 5. We need the rest of the context.

The grief was overwhelming.

Definition 3.

He felt overwhelmed by grief/with grief.

Definition 4.

He felt overwhelming grief.

Definition 5

He felt overwhelm.

Definition 5. American.

I hope that's helpful. I doubt it's cleared anything up much, but hopefully you can see how widely 'overwhelm' is used and can now identify some of the definitions in action.

In today's episode we're looking at the website TED.com. ...well, I'm talking about it, you can go look at it! 😉

I'll teach you: 1. How to navigate the website to get to the most useful part for your English 2. How to use what we learned in Ep 152 (Learning Plans) together with the TED.Ed class to make the most of their videos 3. How to make the most of each of the sections you'll find in TED.Ed videos so you're really practising all the different skills.

There isn't any difficult vocabulary in today's episode so instead I'll just give you the links to the website as discussed in the video.

1. Go to TED.com

2. On your phone you can use the search bar to find 'watch', if you're on a computer you can see 'watch' in the top right-hand banner.

3. Scroll down and click on TED-ED

4. On your phone just click 'Explore'. On a computer find 'Explore Ted-Ed' on the right-hand side.

5. Click 'Students Start Here' https://ed.ted.com/

6. Filter your choices or click the 'all subjects' button to see all the options.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-meaning-of-life-according-to-simone-de-beauvoir-iseult-gillespie

This was my option.

On your phone the different tabs I discussed (Think, Dig Deeper and Discuss) are underneath the video. On the computer they're on the right.
I hope you find this helpful! There's so many things to listen to and learn on TED, so you'll never run out of ideas. #emmaseslenglish #englishpodcast #english #learnenglish #ted #teded

A while ago I was talking to a Taiwanese student and he said 'I'll leave it for my future self to handle'. We talked for a while about this, I loved the idea but couldn't think about how to say this in English.

In the end I've had to accept that we just don't have anything like this in English. Instead, today I'll share with you lots of different common phrases we do use to talk about the future. I hope you find them useful.

And one bonus phrase is 'Don't your chickens'. The full phrase is 'don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched'. It means don't get excited about a future that hasn't arrived yet. I'm starting to realise that English people are quite pessimistic...perhaps it's all the rain!

Blog entry:

Saving money for the future:

Take care of the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. - take care of the small things, or don't forget to save small change.

Save for a rainy day - save for the bad times.

When we're resigned to the future, we accept that we have no control over it. We might say:

What will be will be

Tomorrow is another day

Only time will tell

All of these mean 'we just have to wait and see what happens, there's nothing else I can do.'

Americans say, 'I'll have to take a rain check.' We don't have this in the UK. It means 'I need to reschedule.'

One of the commenters on YouTube told me this idiom originally came from a real check, or slip of paper that you would receive if an event was postponed because of rain. It meant your ticket would still be valid in the future.

Sometimes we're predicting or expecting something from the future:

It's a sign of things to come. - an ominous announcement that what is happening now is an indication of what will happen later

I think you're getting ahead of yourself - you're getting too excited about something in the future and it might not happen, so you should calm down and manage your expectations.

I'm counting the days until Christmas - You're looking forward to something

Bonus: I think we're jumping the gun - idiom that means the same as 'getting ahead of yourself'.

Something you do now will have an impact on the future:

You reap what you sow

What goes around comes around

Karma's a bitch!

All of these means that if you do something bad now something bad will come back to you later.

Vocabulary

encompasses - to include or be related to

the first thing that struck me about this - idiom meaning 'that was interesting to me' or 'that I noticed' about this thing

explicitly - in detail and clearly

We're just resigned to the future - to be resigned to something means you don't think you can change it. It's going to happen no matter what.

this one hasn't caught on - phrasal verb meaning something hasn't become popular

ominous - something that suggests bad things are going to happen in the future

manage their expectations - to reduce someone's expectations and make them more realistic

in true Christian fashion - 'in true ___ fashion' is a phrase that can be applied to a person or thing that suggests that is the most normal thing for them or the most likely way we can expect them to behave.

neutrality - something is neither good or bad or you are on nobody's side

cynicism - a negativity or pessimism about everything

project us into the future - project means to push something forward, usually an image

'Quite' is such a common word in English. As you'll see from my closing statement, it's even possible to put it in almost every sentence! So what do all these 'quite's mean? Don't worry, I've got your back.

Today we're learning all the different ways you can use 'quite' correctly in a sentence. I'll give you some examples and show you some mistakes.

I've tried my hardest to keep it simple, but as always, English is just confusing!

From the blog:

Gradable or not? How to use Quite:

This is the first thing to decide. If something is gradable, then we can use 'quite' before it to mean 'fairly' or 'rather'.

• I'm quite busy.

• I quite like Chinese food.

• It can be quite contradictory.

• It's quite a common word.

• It can be used in quite different ways.

If something is not gradable then using quite emphasises the extremity and means 'completely' or 'totally'.

• She's quite amazing.

• It's quite impossible for you to come for dinner.

• I think that's quite enough!

We can use 'quite' with a noun, but remember the article. Again if it's gradable it means 'fairly' or 'rather'.

• I've had quite a nice day today.

• I read quite an interesting book last week.

We can use it before 'the' to get 'exactly' or 'completely'.

• You got everything quite the wrong way round.

• You're doing quite the opposite to what I told you to do.

• It's quite he perfect thing.

We don't often use quite with comparisons. But if we use it with 'similar' it means 'fairly similar:

• The twins have quite similar personalities.

And if we use it with 'different' it means very 'different'.

• My brother and I have quite different personalities.

'Not quite' or the negative is used to mean 'not completely' or 'not exactly'.

• I haven't got quite enough votes.

• She's not quite ready.

We can use 'quite' to soften something and make it more polite.

• He's quite angry isn't he.

• I haven't quite finished the project.

Be careful to use alternative measure or counting words when they make more sense or make your meaning clearer:

• It's almost the perfect thing.

• It's almost time.

• It's nearly the perfect thing.

• It's nearly time.

Additional Vocabulary

Today we're going back to our roots - idiom - means we're going back to where things started or back to where our ancestors came from

contradictory - different or opposed to what we think or expect or what someone says

gradable - can be a little, a lot or anything in between

inconsistent - changes often or all the time

opposed to - opposite to

reinforcing - to make something stronger

time is finite - there is a limit to it, it doesn't last forever