Your English Five a Day #35.3

E311: 🎙️ Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast! I'm Anna, and you're listening to Week 35, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. Here, we are working on expanding your vocabulary while improving your English listening skills, by focusing on five items of vocabulary every day of the working week, from Monday through to Friday.

💉 We start today's episode with the idiom, "to get the needle". Next on the list is the noun "pleasantries" and the adverb "defensively". After that, we explore the noun "empathy" and lastly, we have the verb "darken".

👠 After some quick pronunciation practice and a recap to test your memory, we visit Sophia in today's story, who is feeling low after a breakup and work stress. She gets home and confronts her flatmate for borrowing her shoes without asking. After a defensive response, empathy leads to a resolution and strengthened friendship.

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 35, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day."What are we doing here?" I hear you ask if this is your first time listening. Well, we are working on expanding your vocabulary while improving your English listening skills. We do that by focusing on five items of vocabulary every day of the working week, from Monday through to Friday. But not just that. We discuss the vocabulary and then bring it together at the end with a story. So, all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let me tickle your eardrums. We start today's episode with the idiom, to get the needle. To get the needle. To get the needle. We spell N E E D L E. To get the needle. If you get the needle, it means that you become annoyed or irritated. Have you got the needle lately? I'm sure I probably got the needle because my children maybe didn't do what I'd asked them to do seven times. Or maybe I got the needle because my partner promised to wash up and then I came down to sink full of dishes. Those are the kinds of things that annoy and irritate me. How about you? Here is another example,"James got the needle after he overheard me telling my friend that I don't fancy him in the slightest." Next on the list is the noun pleasantries. Pleasantries. We spell this P L E A S A N T R I E S. Pleasantries. Pleasantries. Notice how the S in the middle is voiced, like a Z/ˈplezənt/, pleasantries, pleasantries. The noun pleasantries describes polite and often formal expressions that are used in social interactions and they establish a rapport or they create a cordial atmosphere. So, for example, pleasantries are things like saying,"How do you do?""I'm well, thank you. How's your family?""Oh, they're very good. Thank you for asking. How are your family?""Oh, they're wonderful. Would you like to sit down? Would you like a drink? Can I get you something to eat?" So, all of these very kind of basic, polite, social interactions. They are pleasantries. Here's an example of how to use pleasantries in a sentence."Sarah and John exchanged pleasantries before getting down to business at the meeting." Next on the list is the adverb defensively. Defensively. We spell this D E F E N S I V E L Y. Defensively. Defensively. If you do something defensively, then you do it in a manner or in a way that protects or defends. So, you might speak defensively if you feel like you have to protect yourself or defend yourself against someone's attacking accusations. Here's an example,"Adrian responded defensively to the accusation, denying any wrongdoing." You might sit defensively or behave defensively. When we are behaving defensively, we usually are crossing our arms to protect our bodies, to give a closed view to other people, so other people see us in a closed way, and we may be speaking in a more hard way so that all pleasantries go out the window. Let's move on. Next on the list is the noun empathy. Empathy. We spell this E M P A T H Y. Empathy. Empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. So, I'm a deeply empathetic person. I have a lot of empathy for other people. That's why I would be terrible at working in a place that deals with grief on a regular basis. I really struggle to attend funerals because even if I don't know the person very well, I get swept up in the emotion. Seeing other people so devastated, heartbroken, and bereft, I start to feel how they feel, and I feel bad for them, and I start to feel their sense of loss, and then I start getting upset, and I find it very hard to shake that feeling. Here's an example sentence."Her empathy for the grieving family was evident in her gentle words and comforting presence." Moving on to our final item for today is the verb darken. Darken. We spell this D A R K E N. Darken. Notice how we do not sound the letter R. We don't sound that R. We just have an open vowel,/ɑː/ darken. To darken is to become unhappy or angry, or to make someone feel unhappy or angry. Here's an example sentence,"On hearing the terrible news, his mood darkened." So that's our five, let's do a quick recap. We started with the idiom to get the needle, which is to become annoyed or irritated. Then we had the noun pleasantries, which describes the polite and formal expressions that we use in social interactions. Then we had the adverb defensively, which is in a manner that protects or defends. We had the noun empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. And we had the verb darken, which is to become unhappy or angry or to make someone unhappy or angry. Let's now do this for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. To get the needle. To get the needle. Pleasantries. Pleasantries. Defensively. Defensively. Empathy. Empathy. Darken. Darken. Very good. Alright, let me test your memory now. What noun is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others? Empathy. Very good. And what noun is the polite and often formal expressions that we use in social interactions? Pleasantries. What idiom do we use to describe becoming annoyed or irritated? To get the needle, yes. And what adverb is in a manner that protects or defends? Defensively. And finally, what verb do we use to describe becoming unhappy or angry? Darken. Very good. Okay, listen out for these items in today's storytime. Sophia was having a hard time. Even though it was the weekend, she was feeling low. She had split up with her boyfriend. She was thinking about quitting her job. And the people in her life didn't seem to care. It felt like everything was going wrong. But it was Saturday, and she had some chores to do in town. She picked up laundry from the dry cleaners, went to the post office to send a parcel and did some grocery shopping. It was good for her to get out of her apartment and see people. But she was fed up with just exchanging pleasantries like"good morning" and"thank you" with strangers. After her busy morning, she was glad to get back home. But her mood darkened when she discovered that her flatmate, Jenny, had borrowed her favourite shoes without asking. They were filthy after a night of partying."It really gets my needle when you borrow my stuff without asking," she shouted at Jenny."How can I ask? It's like you're not here. You spend all your time in your room." replied Jenny defensively. Sophia started to cry. It was too much. Jenny came over and gave her a hug."I'm sorry about the shoes, Sophia, I should have asked," she said."It's not that," replied Sophia."What is it then?" invited Jenny."Everything," said Sophia through her tears. Jenny made them both a cup of tea. And then Sophia explained what was going on. Jenny listened carefully and showed empathy for her flatmate. She had no idea that Sophia was having such a hard time."Why don't we go out and have some fun tonight? My treat," said Jenny."I'll clean your shoes so you can wear them.""Deal," said Sophia. The two flatmates had never been very close. But now things were changing. They were becoming good friends. Sophia was grateful to have a real connection with Jenny, someone she could talk to about the good things and bad. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. Don't forget that you can revisit this vocabulary along with all the vocabulary from this entire series by getting your hands on the Master Sheet. This is a whole database of every episode of this series and it's absolutely free. All you need to do is click on the link in the show notes, sign up to my free newsletter and I'll send you the database link. Okay, until tomorrow, take very good care of yourself and goodbye.