Transcript of Bitesize Ep 18 Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to this week's episode, which is supposedly a bitesize one, but it went on a little longer than it should have as always, but never mind, never mind. The one thing I did want to stress before we begin is that this one was primarily made to be enjoyed as a video. So you can watch it over on the episode's webpage linked in the show notes, or you can go to my YouTube Channel, Real English With Real Teachers and enjoy it there. All right, let's get into it.

Charlie:
Do you want to sound a little bit more like this guy?

Stephen Fry:
The Grand Canyon has opened up in our world. The fissure, the crack grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to.

Charlie:
And less like a stuttering, mumbling, buffoon who's unable to string a sentence together, like,

Jeff from the TV Show Coupling:
Oh, you can read. Oh. I mean, you are reading. Sorry. It's nice to see people reading. Not a lot of people read these days. People prefer to hear.

Charlie:
Well, stay tuned, because this video is focussing on super advanced vocabulary to make you sound like an intellectual human. Not suggesting that you're not. If you watch this video, you'll sound more like one.

Charlie:
A quick heads up. There are three parts to this video. Each one focuses on a super advanced word. Yes. The first is an adjective. The second is a verb. And the third is a noun. I will, however, be sprinkling all sections with additional colloquial expressions. So be sure to watch all three sections. And I have created a worksheet for you to access for free that covers some of the vocabulary and definitions in this video. If you would like to access it or you need to do is click the link in the description box. You enter your name and your email address, and then you will immediately get access to a bunch of free resources. I have taken a long time to make for you. So click that link in the description box that says free worksheets and you can enjoy that whilst consuming this episode. And if you stay till the end, I have a pretty methodical approach to explaining advanced vocabulary. There's a five step process involved that I have found very effective over my years of teaching English. And if you stay till the end, I will teach you that process.

Charlie:
All right, to kick things off, we have a rather pleasant adjective. Salubrious. This one is used either when talking about a place and it suggests it's pleasant to live in. But from what I have been exposed to, it's usually used in a negative sense. For example, we had to move to a house in a less salubrious area. So it means rundown or not pleasant in the negative. Right. So I have also heard people use a sarcastic tone with it. Is their new place nice? It's not exactly in a salubrious part of town. So it's a little bit of sarcasm. And the other meaning is healthy. And this can be detached from referring to a place like a part in town. It's not it's not attached to that part of the meaning. So it means healthy. Kind of

Speaker4:
This scene, unlike Niagara Falls, shows what Americans could do with nature. And they are harnessing nature and they're using it to create a modern, salubrious, healthy, beautiful, civilised city. The city of Philadelphia.

Charlie:
But I'm going to focus on the former meaning as really when I hear it being used, is talking about a place not being very clean, pleasant or healthy to live in. He was brought up in a less salubrious part of London, for example. So you can think of some simple words like pleasant, grand or up-market. And remember, you can use it in the positive or negative. But I've heard it being used in a negative way more often, or with a determiner like less a less salubrious aspect of something. So a less pleasant part of something and a super advanced tip. The antonym or opposite of this is insalubrious. And it suggests a place is dirty, unpleasant and possibly connected with immoral or illegal activities. Oh dear, oh, dear me!

Charlie:
But back to salubrious to help you lock this one in. The root of this word comes from Latin "salus". I don't know how to pronounce in Latin. This means health. And in Spanish, I think they say "salud", which, you know, is like saying cheers or when making a toast. Not cooking bread. I mean, raising a glass of alcohol to show respect for someone or celebrating being in the company of somebody. And from what I understand, it means to health like his to being healthy. We drink to health. Salud. So you can think of it like linking it to that like a healthy, a nice, clean part of town. Here's to living in a lovely area. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully that helps lock it in and to boost your vocabulary in an effective way.

Charlie:
Some similar words based on the topic and and meaning could be for using it in the negative, derelict, shabby or a sh*t hole. And then the positive, I think, of a sought-after part of town, meaning it is in high demand. Lots of people want to live here. It's a sought-after part of town. I also think of charming may be a charming part of town, although charming can be suggesting a calmer, more beautiful and picturesque part of town or area. I'd say some coastal villages in the UK are charming, but they're not as sought-after as a house in central London, or to stereotype even more aggressively, Chelsea, for example. Chelsea is a very sought-After part of town and you could definitely say Chelsea is a salubrious part of London.

Charlie:
And the last positive adjective towards a nice part of town that I'd like to teach you or remind you of is gentrified, gentrified, meaning a place has now become very nice. It has been improved and is now a nice location and often is used when a part of town wasn't so nice, like the place that I live in right now in Sydney. Apparently, 20 years ago, it was a bit of a sh*t hole, but now it's been gentrified and it's lovely. There's loads of cafes, lots of restaurants and high end fashion shops. So, yeah, it's now been gentrified. So there we go. The first word, salubrious. That is the end of the first section. The word salubrious was the target language. I hope you liked it.

Charlie:
Next up, we have a slightly more common one. It's a verb and it's to forego, to forgo. It means to not have or do something enjoyable. For example, I will have to forgo the pleasure of seeing you this week. Another one. He had to forgo sleep in order to win the race. He had to forgo sleep in order to win the race and another one. So they were willing to forgo everything apart from one section of the the bill, for example, like the legal contract for the country. Another random sentence I found online that was almost suitable but I had to change it a bit. We should apparently forgo a compliment about a young person's appearance and instead focus on praising their personality, forgo complimenting somebody on their appearance, and instead focussed on praising their personality. Don't do something that is apparently nice. Instead, we should do something else to forgo to not have or do something enjoyable. The present participle is forgoing. I am forgoing cake for the next two weeks. Now, I used that example deliberately to highlight how formal this word is to forgo. And maybe you sensed that this was an unnatural pairing of context and vocabulary. Cake is common. More natural one with forgo a more formal word. Could be. I am forgoing highly calorific foods for a fortnight or in the past. He forwent overly indulgent foods for a short period of time. And then finally the past participle is forgone.

Charlie:
The opportunity to scoff one's face is being forgone, which is a real tragedy. Again, scoff your face is informal, so it doesn't pair very well. Hopefully by showing you these unnatural pairings, you get a better sense of where to put it in your language and your communication with people. And if you didn't know to scoff one's face means to eat like a pig. Eat aggressively, a lot of food. Scoff it in there. So somebody who uses the verb to forgo might not, might not scoff their face in public.

Charlie:
And then to touch on the collocations associated with forgo. I hear people using have to forgo something, decide to forgo something and be prepared to forgo something. I also hear the adverb willingly being used so to happily not do something enjoyable, I often willingly forgo a coffee in the morning, as I prefer to not be late for class. This is a lie, an absolute lie. I would begrudgingly forgo a coffee just to be on time for something. Begrudgingly, yes, begrudgingly forgo. Unwillingly forgo. Resent it. Again that is an informal sentence. I'd sound ridiculously pretentious saying forgo in that context, whereas a formal situation like in a business meeting is a perfect place to use this word. I actually challenged my partner to think of an example on the spot randomly, like in the moment on the spot. Yeah, we're pretty pretty saucy as a couple aren't we. Our conversations are raunchy. And she said an example. Considering the international travel restrictions, I'd still rather have a getaway somewhere nearby than forgo the chance to have a holiday this year. So she wants to go somewhere local instead of not go anywhere at all. And I'll come clean and say that that required a little bit of coaxing out of her. And actually before that, I very rudely asked her if you had more advanced vocabulary or if you used more advanced vocabulary, would you use this verb forgo? And she was like, what's a verb? I said, to forgo, you know, to forgo. Would you use that in a in a sentence? And she nearly slapped me and she said, I'll have you know, I used it in my last Zoom meeting. So f*ck you.

Charlie:
So at the price of me being in the doghouse with her. You know, it's a word that is worthy to enter your long term memory, to forgo something.

Charlie:
We rudely interrupt your viewing experience, because you absolutely have to get out brand new free ebook and audio book that will help anyone dramatically improve their IELTS speaking score. Click the link in the top right corner of the screen now, or find it in the description box below. Back to your viewing experience in three, two, one.

Charlie:
And now before we move on to the five step process to use that will help you learn vocabulary and ensure that it finds its way into your long term memory. We have phrase number three, which is the noun edification, edification, which means the improvement of the mind and understanding, especially by learning, for example, I tend to watch the television for pleasure rather than edification.

Charlie:
So I think improve your knowledge, awareness, building your character. Before studying it properly. I I'd heard it before and kind of thought it's it's a fancy word for education, right? No, wrong. I was wrong. There's a significant difference that makes it pretty useful, in my opinion. So while education is the process of imparting knowledge, skill and judgement, edification is building up, especially in a moral, emotional or spiritual sense through encouragement and instruction. I like to think of a mnemonic of a holy book like the Bible getting on with a school textbook, getting it on, you know, making a baby, having some fun together. So they, you know, the Bible might might pass judgement on that. Them getting together would create the process or the noun edification, you know, education. And we've got spiritual awakening, both of them together, enhancing us, informing us. Yeah, that is edification, I'd say. So the process of improving yourself, especially in terms of morals and religious knowledge, for example, the purpose of the religious schools was to edify the youth according to the religious traditions of the area. Another one, we should try to encourage the likes of Facebook to edify us, as well as simply entertain us. So I've used the verb there to edify. And I want to add that the verb to edify. It's also in use, and it has a similar definition in the dictionary to instruct and improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge.

Charlie:
But then it has closely associated words like uplift and elevate. And I've watched a few clips of people using it in this uplifting sense. I think they are a little incorrect in that interpretation of it. But as language evolves through constant adaptations and often through misunderstandings, you might want to to know that these videos that have an American corporate feel to them used it in ways that essentially mean to promote or big up or boost something or somebodies importance or significance.

Charlie:
But as I said, those are some examples I found on YouTube. But really, the dictionary doesn't have those examples. So I'd say to promote, elevate or uplift in this sense is a little bit wrong or it might be in the business English world that I'm not aware of. So really, I want you to think of spiritually educating yourself or spiritual education. Yeah then the adjective something is edifying means it is likely to improve your mind or your character, and it can be used in the negative. Yes, in the negative. Seeing English football fans being racist when reacting to the loss of the euros was not exactly an edifying sight. It was saddening in a moral way, so it was not exactly edifying. So we were using it in the negative I suppose with sarcasm. A little bit of sarcasm, it's not exactly edifying, is it, to learn that the country that I think is progressive has still got some fundamental problems with racism! Anyway, the word edification to edify or something is edifying.

Charlie:
All right. Now let's get onto the five step process. I used to teach or even learn advanced vocabulary. Thank you for sticking to the end of this video. So the five step process I was keeping in mind when going through this vocabulary and that I try to use whenever possible with advanced vocabulary to increase the likelihood of retention starts with the obvious. A good old fashioned definition. It's good to start with a definition that really does make sense to you. So I often use multiple dictionaries to really find one that relates to me or is just worded in a way that simplifies it to the point where I'm not confused.

Charlie:
Step two is to put the word into context, and that can simply mean putting it into an example sentence. But it's also crucial to create a natural setting for it, or at least figure out where it does and most certainly does not belong. It's good to use errors or examples where it sounds unnatural to to figure out where it should fit. And then step number three, and this is where it starts to depend on the vocabulary at hand. But step number three is to make connections to the word. This can be as simple as using a good thesaurus to using your imagination to create crazy mnemonics around the word, a new mnemonic is anything that helps you remember something like even a picture an emotion or even an abbreviation. It can be anything you like that just helps you remember something a mnemonic, it could be a story, could be a creative connection to something in your environment, could be anything.

Charlie:
And then step number four. And again, this is also dependent on the word use the etymology of it to break down the origin and thus get a more accurate foundation around this word to then build it back up to its current form and meaning. And if you can find a narrative to it, then that can serve as another mnemonic in in my opinion.

Charlie:
For example many words that have Greek- a Greek root. They have a lot of mythical stories and characters relating to them, which which can help you think about the meaning of the word. So, yeah, use the etymology to find the root of the word and get a better understanding of that fundamental part of it. And finally, step five, use a collocations dictionary. I very often use the Oxford one as it helps build the sentence in a native way by letting you know what words are most often used to support this word in a sentence. It gives you maybe the adverbs available around this word, or the verbs or the nouns or whatever the adjectives to to support it, either side of it. It's really useful. So, yes, collocations dictionaries are your

Charlie:
So, I'm hoping you liked this episode specifically focussing on vocabulary. As I said at the beginning, I did create it with YouTube in mind. So you'll probably get a bit more from it if you actually watch this one.

Charlie:
Honestly, though, I prefer to create episodes around content like stories or conversations rather than episodes focussed exclusively on target language. But it's always good to mix it up when it comes to learning languages. So I hope you enjoyed listening to that episode. Do think about watching it over on real English with real teachers or over on the episodes webpage linked in the show notes of the podcast app of your choice,

But yeah. I hope you enjoyed it. And remember to check out the premium podcast for the sponsor free version, along with the transcripts, glossaries and the full version of all the episodes. And then check out the Academy for a fully interactive online lesson behind every season based episode. And then we have the weekly speaking classes to get active with the language you learn in the academy. Lessons for all of that. Head over to the British English podcast dot com. But until next time, I've been your teacher and podcast host, Charlie Baxter, and you've been an excellent listener. Thanks again. And bye for now.