BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Communication' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocab! - 双语字幕
Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English, I'm Neil.
And I'm Beth.
There are many ways of saying sorry in English and they all have a slightly different meaning.
If you tell me you're ill and I say, oh I'm sorry, that means I sympathise and I hope you get better soon.
If you step on my toes by mistake and say,
I'm so sorry, you mean, oops, that was my fault and I didn't mean to do it.
And if you don't really feel sorry, you might be sarcastic.
Oh I'm so sorry.
meaning exactly the opposite, that you're not sorry at all.
Saying sorry for something you've done in English can be quite confusing, and to make things worse, the are world champions at apologising.
In this programme, we'll discuss ways of saying sorry, and as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to stop you there, Beth, because first I have a question to ask.
We know that the British love to say sorry.
In fact, a recent survey found that some Brits apologise up to 20 times a day.
So, according to the same survey, how many times per day does the average Brit say sorry?
Is it A, four times a day, B, six times a or eight times a day?
I'm going to guess it's six times a day.
Okay, Beth.
I'll reveal the answer later in the program.
Since the British are famous for apologising,
it's no surprise that Louise Malaney started researching the language of apologising in Britain at the University of Nottingham.
Now a professor of socio-linguistics, Louise spoke with the BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth.
And I was really interested in looking at how people apologise,
particularly public figures, so I did a lot of research in the workplace and looking at the media and looking at politics.
And one of the things that really interested me at the time was a lot of writers were talking
about this entering an age of an apology.
And a real sense that public figures in particular are called upon to apologise for multiple different things.
And if they don't apologise, then that's a big faux pas.
Saying sorry is especially important in politics.
and Professor Malaney studied the apologies of public figures, famous people, including politicians who are often discussed in newspapers and seen on radio and television.
When politicians make mistakes,
they are expected to apologise,
and failing to say sorry is a faux pas, a remark made in a social situation that causes embarrassment or offence.
Most politicians hate apologising and with good reason, saying sorry means taking responsibility and the apology needs it.
A good example of this is the apology Boris Johnson made to the House of Commons during
the party gate scandal in the UK when he broke COVID lockdown rules and had to pay a fine.
That's a sum of money paid as a punishment for breaking the rules.
Here, Professor Louise Malaney analyzes the apology for BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth.
It's very unusual in a political apology because he comes out and says, I am responsible.
But there is the caveat that he wasn't certain that he was breaking the rules.
He didn't realise which he continues to say in his apology that came out after the fine.
So he repeats the apology and he caveats it around other political events.
And he uses his...
was in the house the day after.
He his fine and was very quick to say, I've paid the fine.
I've given the reparation.
I've paid the money.
Let's draw a line under the whole business now.
Boris Johnson claimed he didn't know he was breaking the rules.
His or not completely true.
Eventually Johnson did apologise, but many people didn't trust him, and he couldn't draw a line under the party gate scandal.
If you draw a line under something, you try to move on from a bad situation and make a fresh start.
Apologizing his hard work, the apology must be sincere and often the person does something to show they mean it.
Which reminds me that it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Beth.
Yes, you asked me how many times a day the average Brit says sorry and I guess it was six, was I right?
Well, I'm very sorry, but that was the wrong answer.
The average Brit says sorry around eight times a day, making it probably the most overused word in the English language.
Sorry about that.
Right, let's recap the vocabulary learnt from this programme about saying sorry, starting with sarcastic, doing or saying the opposite of what you really mean.
I'm really sorry when you aren't.
A public figure is a famous person whose life and behaviour is often discussed in the media and in public.
A faux pas is a socially embarrassing remark or action.
A is a sum of money paid as a punishment for doing something illegal or breaking a rule.
If you say something with a caveat,
it contains a warning that what you have said may not be completely true or is limited in some way.
And finally, if you draw a line under something, you consider it finished in order to move on and make a fresh start.
I'm sorry to say that once again, our six minutes are up, and it's time to draw a line under this programme.
Goodbye for now.
Bye.
Sorry everyone, we haven't finished yet.
Oh yeah, sorry, we want to tell you about some of our other podcasts.
Actually, we shouldn't have to apologise because the other podcasts are brilliant.
True.
You can learn vocabulary from news headlines in news review.
Impress your friends with idiomatic expressions in the English we speak.
or go to bbclearningenglish.com and download them for free.
those little graphics we call emojis and emoticons.
You know, I think emojis are a vital tool for communication and actually they're not that new either.
Oh really?
Well, that's the perfect opportunity to ask this week's question.
When was the first emoticon used?
Was it A, 1606, B, 1862 or C, 1982?
It must be 1982.
I'll go with C.
We'll find out if you're right or wrong later in the program.
You know, I think we should clear one thing up before we go any further.
What's the difference between an emoticon and an emoji?
Good point.
Emotecons came first.
They're the images made using normal keys on a keyboard.
Usually letters and numbers.
For example, a colon, two dots, followed by the curved line of a closed bracket, is a smiley face.
Hey, something you use in way too many of your emails.
Well, thanks.
Whereas an emoji is something completely different.
It's an actual image.
It could be a simple yellow smiley face.
or something like the dancing lady, or a bowl of noodles.
Ah yes, all those little images we have in our phones.
But you'll have to convince me, why do people use them so much?
Well, let's listen to Professor Viv Evans.
He wrote a book called The Emoji Code.
They enable us to express emotion and empathy in digital communication.
Increasingly what we're finding is that digital communication is taking over from certain aspects of face-to-face interaction in the UK today,
for example, adults spend 22 hours online on average each week.
One of the reasons emoji is so interesting is they really do enable us to express our emotional selves much more effectively.
Okay, so he used a very useful word, empathy.
He the ability to show you understand someone else's feelings.
Okay, tell me more, Dan.
Yes, adding in a motor con can show you understand and express emotion and show empathy more clearly.
In digital communication, we lack the visual signals we have in face-to-face interaction.
As he says.
Interaction, meaning when people or things communicate with each other.
We also interact with things like machines, computers and social media.
Professor Evans says 60% of information when we're talking to each other comes from non-verbal cues.
Wow, that's a lot.
a queue is a signal that you need to do something.
For an actor goes on stage after their queue and non-verbal means without using spoken language.
So here in the studio there are lots of other non-verbal signals about how we're feeling, non-verbal cues.
For example, my facial expression, my body language, the look in my eyes, Dan, is a glint of rhythm.
Okay, so let's apply this to digital communication.
Imagine I sent you a text saying I hit my finger with a hammer.
How would you respond?
Well, it depends.
Did you hurt yourself badly?
If I followed it with a sad face emoji, then...
Then I guess I'd know you hurt yourself or poor you.
But if I followed it with a laughing emoji...
The one with the tears coming out, because I'm laughing so much.
Then I'd probably reply saying how stupid and clumsy you are.
Exactly.
Without adding the emoji, it's hard to know my emotional state.
The is the non-verbal cue, like my facial expression.
By the way, is there an emoji meaning clumsy?
Clumsy means physically awkward.
someone who's clumsy falls over a lot and drops things.
Anyway, you were saying emoticons aren't as new as I think.
Yes, I asked when they were invented.
Is A, 1606, B, 1862, or C, 1982?
And I said 1982.
Well, in fact, a witty speech Abraham Lincoln reprinted in a newspaper as far back as 1800.
1962 included a semi-colon with clothes brackets like a winking face.
Exactly, though people think this was sadly just a typographical error or what we normally call a typo.
A typo.
A spelling mistake made when typing too fast or carelessly.
The official birth of emoticons is usually given as 1982.
when a US professor instructed his students to use smiley faces to indicate jokes in a digital communication.
Wow, so they're over 30 years old, maybe I should start using them.
Let's round up with another look at today's words.
Sure.
The first word we had was empathy.
Do you have a lot of empathy, Neil?
Yes, I think I'm quite good at understanding other people's feelings.
My friends tell me that anyway.
It's important to empathise with your colleagues, too.
That's not what I saw in your eyes.
Yes, empathy is an important part of all human interaction.
Nicely done.
If two people interact, it means they communicate with each other and react to each other.
It's a pretty broad term.
We could also talk.
interact with the internet, way too much.
Next up, we had non-verbal, meaning without spoken language.
When I first traveled to Poland,
I used a lot of non-verbal communication to get my message across, hand movements, counting with fingers, things like that.
Next word, Dan?
Next word.
Ah-ha, that is my cue to say the next word, which is in fact, cue.
A cue is a signal to do something.
A commander could give his officer a cue to attack, or I could give you a cue to sing a song?
No, thanks.
I'll stick with defining words, thank you.
Like clumsy, meaning physically awkward.
I'd have to say, Dan, you're a sporty guy, a talented footballer, you're not clumsy at all.
Well, that's what I thought until I broke my leg, after a clumsy opponent ran into me.
Ouch.
Finally, we had type.
No, hang on, that's not right.
It say typo.
A typo is a mistake in a written document or a digital file or message.
Always check your scripts for typos before reading them, Neil.
And that's the end of today's Six Minute English.
Please join us again soon.
And we are on social media to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
See you there.
Bye-bye.
Six Minute English From BBC Learning English Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.
I'm If you're deaf or hard of hearing, watching television would be impossible without subtitles.
The words of dialogue added at the bottom of the screen explaining what the characters are saying.
Subtitled captions aren't only for me.
In the most dramatic action-packed scenes of a movie, there might be no one speaking, but there are plenty of sounds.
A scream, a thrilling car chase.
and all these sounds need to be described as well.
In this programme we'll be meeting Carly Vitovska, a subtitler who works on The Stranger Things Show to find out more.
And of course we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
But first I have a question for you.
Movie subtitles are written ahead of time, but subtitling for live TV has to be done in the moment as the person is speaking.
This lead to mistakes, sometimes very funny ones, including a subtitle which appeared in an interview for the BBC 6 o'clock news in 2019.
But what did the subtitle say?
Was A,
we can't allow a Spider-Man to become Prime Minister,
B, we can't allow Superman to become Prime Minister, or C, we can't allow Batman to become Prime Minister.
Hmm, I guess the subtitling mistake involved Spider-Man?
I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.
Of course, it's not just deaf audiences that subtitles help.
The translated subtitles of foreign films are great for learning languages, letting you read a word and hear how it's pronounced at the same time.
And subtitles describe everything from monster squelches to bombs exploding, it's a great way to learn new adjectives.
explaining to BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouse how her choice of adjective creates emotion for the viewer.
the music.
It's creating an idea of what a sound is like and using a very, very descriptive word in order to do so.
Carly bases her descriptions on the film's genre, a style of film, music or book with its own particular setup.
features.
The effects needed for a thriller like Stranger Things,
creaking stairs and sudden screams, are very different from the sounds used in historical period dramas, which are more upbeat, light-hearted and cheerful.
This influences the adjective Carly chooses to describe a sound.
For example, upbeat music might be described as jaunty, full of energy and confidence.
Subtitles started out as an accessibility feature for deaf audiences,
and to translate foreign language films in But since the growth of online streaming services like Netflix, subtitling has become something of an art.
Carly to a team of subtitlers who try to make their descriptions as close as possible to the sounds they hear.
Here, she tells BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth about a time her team found exactly the right word.
In this were about to gasp, taking a short, quick breath of air.
There was no speech or sound in the scene,
but Carly's team found the perfect adjective to describe the silence, gobsmacked, which is slang for being so surprised you can't speak.
This was definitely one description that deserved a high-five,
lifting up your hand to clap hands with someone else as a greeting or to save In fact,
the phrase gobsmacked silence was so good it went viral and started being used in all kinds of situations.
I guess the incorrect subtitle was We can't allow Spider-Man to become Prime Minister.
Which was the wrong answer, I'm afraid.
In fact, the interviewee said We can't allow that man to become Prime Minister.
Speaking about Boris Johnson, but the misheard subtitle appeared as Batman.
Okay, let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt from this programme on subtitles, starting with genre.
A style of film, music or book with its own particular...
something which is upbeat is cheerful hopeful and light-hearted the
adjective jaunty means full of energy and confidence if you gasp you take in a
short quick breath of air in surprise or in pain you can use the slang expression gobsmacked when someone is so surprised they can't speak.
And if you give someone a high five,
you hold up your hand above your head, clapping hands with somebody else as a greeting or to say well done.
Once again, our six minutes are up.
Goodbye now.
Bye.
Hello, this is six-minute English from BBC Learning English.
I'm Sam and I'm Rob.
The British are not famous for their food, or rather, they are famous, but for bad food.
While French and Italian cooking is admired around the world,
the UK has a reputation for over-boiled vegetables, mushy peas and black pudding, a dish made from pig's blood.
That doesn't sound very tasty, does it?
But I don't think our reputation for bad cooking is still true today, Sam.
The last 20 years have seen big changes,
as Brits have fallen in love with international foods like Asian rice dishes and with non-traditional cooking like vegetarian and vegan food.
Some of the most popular food in Britain comes from other countries and includes the recipes, flavors and tastes of those faraway places.
But how do recipes and cooking ideas from all over the world make their way onto the British dining table?
In this programme we'll be finding out.
We'll be meeting the recipe translators.
These chefs translate recipes,
the instructions explaining how to combine the different items,
the ingredient, from their own language into English, and of course we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
Sounds good Rob, but first I have a question for you.
It may be true that British cooking is better than it used to be, but there's still some pretty bad food out there.
So according to a 2019 UGov survey, which UK food was voted the worst?
First, was A, steak and kidney pies, B, Scotch eggs, or C, haggis?
Oh, I've got to say Scotch eggs.
I've never liked them that much.
OK.
All right, Rob, I will reveal the answer later in the programme.
Now, as anyone who speaks more than one language knows, translating involves more than getting the dictionary out.
Recipe translators need to know the vocabulary for different ingredients and cooking techniques, while also preserving the heart of the recipe.
Listen, as BBC World Service programme,
the food chain talks with recipe translators, Long story short, I began to work as an interpreter for Le Cardin Bleu, the French cuisine school.
And realized that there was no, I mean, not such an specialization in Spain at least, like gastronomy or cooking translation.
Recipe translation is closely connected to gastronomy.
The art and knowledge involved in preparing and eating good food.
This is contained in a country's traditional recipes, written in its own language, not English, hence Rosa's decision to specialise in recipe translation.
If you specialise in a subject, you focus on studying and learning all about it.
When Rosa is asked how she became a record, she begins by saying, to cut a long story short.
This can be used when you're explaining what happened in a few words without giving all the details.
Like most recipe translators, Rosa's goal is to produce a cookbook in English containing the best recipes from her own country, Spain.
But doing this is not so easy, as she explained to BBC World's service programme, the food chain.
If my readers can't replicate those recipes, they won't buy the book.
So what I mean is, I don't only have to find, for instance, the translation of the name of an ingredient.
I mean,
if it's an ingredient that we don't use or we don't have in Spain,
I always try to offer an alternative so they can mimic the flavor or the flavor.
Rose's cookbook allows readers to replicate her dishes, to make them, again, in exactly the same way.
But this isn't easy when the recipe includes ingredients which are difficult to find,
something like lemongrass, which is used in some Spanish cooking, but can be hard to find in the show.
For this reason, Rosa gives an alternative, a substitute ingredient which mimics or copies the flavour of a certain food.
To mimic the flavour of lemon grass, for example, she recommends using lemon juice.
It's not easy work,
but thanks to recipe translators like Rosa, People here in the UK can cook something a little tastier than meat and boiled vegetables.
Speaking of which, it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Rob.
Yes, you asked which food was voted the worst by a recent UK YouGov survey,
and I said it was Scotch eggs, that's boiled eggs wrapped in sausage meat and bread crumbs.
Oh, yuck.
Well, in fact, the correct answer was C.
doesn't sound much nicer because the Scottish dish, haggis, is made using a sheep's stomach.
Oh, yuck.
Okay, let's quickly move on to recap the vocabulary we've learnt from this programme starting with ingredient, an item of food that is combined with other food to
prepare a particular dish.
Gastronomy is the art and knowledge involved in preparing and eating good food.
If you specialise in something, you have spent time studying and learning all about it, becoming an expert in that subject.
The phrase, to cut a long story short, is used in British English when you want to explain what happened in a few words.
words, without giving all the details.
To replicate something means to make or do it again in exactly the same way.
And finally, to mimic something means to copy the way in which it is done, sometimes in a funny way.
Well, once again, our six minutes are up.
Bye for now.
Bye-bye.
6 Minute English from BBC Learning English Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.
I'm Sam.
And I'm Rob.
When Sarah Ott was growing up in Florida in the 1990s, she loved playing in nature.
She picked up litter in the street and took it home to recycle.
But later, in college, Sarah became surrounded by people in her community who didn't share her love of the environment.
People who didn't believe that climate change was real.
And Sarah started to doubt it as well.
Climate deniers,
people who don't believe that climate change is happening,
isn't caused by humans, make up around 9% of the American population, according to some estimates.
Now, Sarah works as a climate campaigner at the US National Centre for Science Education, teaching children the science behind climate change.
But her journey there was a difficult one, and she lost many friends on the way.
In this programme we'll be discussing climate deniers and finding out how to talk with people who doubt the science of global warming.
And as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
But before that, I have a question for you.
Europe.
Whatever deniers think, there is strong agreement on the issue among scientists on the intergovernmental panel on climate change, the IPCC.
So what percentage of the world's scientific community agree that climate change is real?
Is A, 79%?
B, 89%?
99%.
Oh, I'll have a guess and I'll say it's 99%.
Okay, I will reveal the answer later in the programme Rob.
Marco Silva is a climate disinformation reporter for the BBC.
He told BBC World Service Programme the climate question, what he's learned about reporting on the issue from around the world.
It is quite important to make here a very clear distinction between being wrong,
ill-informed about climate change and being a full-blown climate denier.
A lot of people may not be very well-versed with the science,
the facts of climate change, to be honest, they can at times be quite complex, quite dense.
Some may have genuine questions about the subject.
So information, with facts, those people can be convinced.
Climate deniers, though, people reject the basic facts of climate change are likely to be more difficult to persuade.
Marco distinguishes a full-blown climate denier,
someone who is completely committed to the idea,
from someone who is simply ill-informed, meaning someone who knows less than they should about a particular topic.
Marco thinks it's possible to persuade an ill-informed person that climate change is a fact.
For example, by sharing personal stories of how the weather has changed in recent years, or by asking them why they doubt the scientific evidence.
Full-blown climate deniers, on the other hand, are much harder to persuade.
Here's Marco Silva again, sharing how best to talk to people about the climate.
With BBC World Service programme, the climate question.
A number of researchers in academics have looked into exactly this topic before.
Professor Sander van der Linen, professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge is one of them.
He's been looking into this long and hard and when I spoke to him, he gave me a couple of tips.
For instance, don't challenge a climate denier directly.
Don't confront them,
telling them that they're this or that throwing insults at them, that their beliefs are wrong, attitude or strategy is only likely to backfire.
If you do that, the chances are people are just going to hold on to their views even more firmly.
Marco mentions Professor Vanda Linden, a psychologist who has taken a long hard look at the issue of climate denial.
If you take a long hard look at something, you examine it very carefully in order to improve it for the future.
Professor Linden advises us not to challenge climate deniers directly and never to throw insults, to say offensive, hurtful things die.
This approach is unlikely to work and will probably backfire or have the opposite effect from that intended,
such as making that person's opinion even stronger.
Instead, what's needed is understanding and understanding.
Realising that climate deniers cannot control the life events that led them to mistrust science.
And the patience to try to show them the difference between fact and fiction.
Okay, it's time to reveal the answer to your question now, Sam.
What percentage of the global scientific community agree that human cause climate change is real?
And I guessed it was 99%.
The scientific evidence for a climate emergency is overwhelming, leaving just the question of what we do about it.
Okay, let's recap the vocabulary learned from this programme on climate deniers, people who do not accept that climate change is real.
Someone who is ill-informed, no- less than they should about a particular topic.
The adjective full-blown means completely committed or developed.
The idiom to take a long hard look at something means to examine something very carefully in order to improve it for the future.
If you throw insults you say offensive for things directly to someone.
And finally, if your actions backfire, they have the opposite effect from the one you intended.
Once again, our six minutes are up.
Bye for now.
Bye-bye.
Oh, six minutes and which?
From BBC Learning English.
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