Your English Five a Day #36.2

E316: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast with me, Anna! Join me for Week 36, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day, where we dive into vocabulary and listening skills in a fun and straightforward manner.

😵 Today, we kick off with the noun "moodiness". Next up, we explore the idiom "someone's name escapes you", then we explore the verb "defuse". Our journey continues with the verb "coincide" and lastly, we navigate through the adjective "disorientating".

🧘🏾‍♂️ Join me as we pronounce these words together and explore their usage in context as we do a quick quiz to test your memory. In today's story segment, we hear all about Rebecca's journey with moodiness and explore how she manages unpredictable emotions through lifestyle adjustments, self-awareness, and acceptance.

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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 36, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day. I am working my butt off here, trying to help you to expand your vocabulary and improve your listening skills. Hopefully, in a fun and simple way. So, let's start today's episode with, can you guess? Yes, another noun and it is moodiness. Moodiness. We spell this M O O D I N E S S, moodiness, moodiness. Moodiness is used to describe a person's tendency to experience frequent and unpredictable changes in mood. So, for example, teenagers tend to suffer with moodiness. They often jump from being very happy to being angry, to being sad, and then excitable. And this can be unpredictable and frequent. And that's because they are experiencing many hormone fluctuations. And, you know, life is tough when you're a teenager. When you're moving from the beauty and ease of childhood into the confusing and unknown wider world as a young adult, it's a very hard time for a young person. I remember my teenage years being quite dark and difficult and I was quite moody. I suffered with moodiness a lot. So, here's another example sentence."The teenager's moodiness made it difficult for her parents to communicate with her". Next on the list, is an idiom and it is someone or something's name escapes you or escapes me if I'm talking. So, if you say that someone's name escapes you, you're saying that you cannot recall or remember that person or thing's name at that moment in time. So you're clear on the words, someone or something's name, N A M E, escapes you. Escapes, E S C A P E S, and then whoever it is, you, me, them. So, you cannot remember the name. I do this all the time. I'll say,"Oh, I was at the supermarket this afternoon. I just popped into grab a box of eggs. I needed a dozen eggs to make pancakes for breakfast for everybody tomorrow. And I bumped into, oh, what's their name? Oh, I bumped into the lady, you know, the lady who is usually in the post office. Her name escapes me right now. Her name escapes me. But you know who I mean. The lady from the post office. Vera! Yes, that's the one! That's the one." So for me, this is a common thing. I'm often losing names. I'm terrible with names. I'm great with faces. I never forget a face, but I often forget a name. Here's another example."I'm sorry, what was your friend's name again? I usually remember everyone I meet, but her name completely escapes me right now." Next on the list we have a verb and it is defuse. Defuse. We spell this D E F U S E. Defuse. The S is pronounced as a Z here. Defuse. To defuse something is to reduce the intensity of it, or to reduce the danger of a potentially harmful situation, often by removing the cause of the tension or the cause of the harm. So for example, if there is an argument that has broken out in a pub between two men who have had a lot to drink and it's getting very heated and it looks like it might turn into a physical fight. At this point, somebody is going to step in and try to defuse the situation. They'll try to reduce the intensity of this argument. So that they can stop it from turning into a really aggressive and potentially harmful situation. Usually, this is done by telling them to calm down and separating them, trying to take one person away from the other to defuse it. You also use this verb when talking about disabling a bomb. You would defuse a bomb. You could also use disarm. Here's an example,"The negotiator's calm demeanour helped to defuse the tense situation between the two warring parties." Have you ever defused a situation? I tried, I think I've told this story before, but I tried to defuse an argument between a girl or a young lady and her boyfriend. I was out on a night out with my friends and I saw them arguing and it was getting very heated. And so I stood in between the two of them and I said,"Сome on guys, calm down." I was trying to defuse the situation. I obviously misread it because the girl turned around and slapped me in the face. That wasn't very nice. I was trying to help her because it looked like it was getting a bit physical, but yes, she gave me a slap for my efforts. So I learned my lesson, stay out of it. If it's a domestic argument, then maybe it's best to leave them to it, to work it out for themselves. Next on the list is the verb coincide, coincide. We spell this C O I N C I D E. Coincide, coincide. If something coincides, it normally coincides with something else, it means that it occurs at the same time or place, or it's to be consistent or compatible. So, you'd often say that something, an event, coincides with something else that is happening. So, for example,"My birthday party coincides with the final of the World Cup." That would be unfortunate, wouldn't it? Although, it might mean that many people are out celebrating on your birthday. But it would mean that many places are packed with football fans who would rather be watching the football than celebrating you. Here's another example of the word coincide in use."I can't believe the release date of the new Disney movie coincides with the start of our summer holiday; I'll have to wait until we get back to watch it!" Last on the list is the adjective disorientating. Disorientating. We spell this D I S O R I E N T A T I N G. Disorientating. Disorientating. Disorientating describes something that causes a sense of confusion or loss of direction. So, going around the roundabout several times is disorientating. You start to forget where you entered the roundabout and therefore where you're supposed to exit the roundabout. Here's another example,"The disorientating maze made it impossible to navigate. We all got hopelessly lost." Alright, that's our five, so let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun moodiness, which is used to describe a person's tendency to experience frequent, unpredictable changes in mood. We had the idiom someone or something's name escapes you, which means you can't remember the name of something or someone at that point in time. We have the verb defuse, defuse, which is to reduce the intensity or the danger of a potentially harmful situation by removing the cause of the tension. We had the verb coincide, meaning to occur at the same time or place. And we had the adjective disorientating, meaning it causes a sense of confusion or loss of direction. So, let's do this now for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Moodiness. Moodiness. His name escapes me. His name escapes me. Defuse. Defuse. Coincide. Coincide. Disorientating. Disorientating. Fantastic. What verb do we use when we say that something is happening at the same time as something else? It coincides. And what noun describes a person's tendency to have frequent changes in mood? What noun? Moodiness. Yes, moodiness. If I can't remember a person's name, what idiom could I use? Their name escapes me. And if I want to reduce the intensity of an argument that's going on in my office, what verb could I use? Defuse. Yes, I'm going to defuse this argument. And finally, what adjective is causing a sense of confusion or a loss of direction? Disorientating. Disorientating. Very good. Okay, listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. People with the star sign Cancer are known to be moody. And Rebecca was no exception. As much as she tried to fight her changing moods, they kept on coming. Her moodiness could be disorientating. When you're happy one minute and sad the next, it's hard to stay stable and calm. Other people can find it hard to be around you. Rebecca had tried all kinds of things to defuse her mood, like meditation, journalling, exercise, and deep breathing. She had read a ton of self-help books whose names escaped her. She had even done therapy. But nothing really seemed to change. After reading yet another self-help book, Rebecca decided to track her moods to see if they coincided with particular people, places or events. According to the book, her changing feelings could be coming from outside as well as inside. Even if she couldn't get rid of the moodiness, she could stop making it worse. It was a lot of work to keep notes and look for patterns. However, she noticed that poor sleep made her feel less stable. Weirdly, when she had her period, she didn't feel especially different. But too much sugar made her more moody. So she started making some changes. Even though she enjoyed looking at her phone in bed, she prioritised sleep and put it away early in the evening. She started doing yoga before bed to relax. She no longer drank coffee in the afternoons. And although she didn't stop eating sugar, she avoided some sweet foods. Even though moodiness would always be a part of Rebecca's personality, it didn't control her as much as it used to. She had learned how to manage it better by making changes in her life. And she had also decided to accept that just like the weather, her moods would change, and that's ok. Now I hope I leave you in a very good mood. And if I do, I would ask that you take a second to leave a like, a rating, or review for this podcast, as that really helps the algorithms to push this podcast to more ears, and I'd appreciate that. I do hope you have a wonderful day and please come back tomorrow for me to tickle your eardrums once again. Until then, take very good care, and goodbye.