Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, Episode 1001, Practicing Yoga.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, Episode 1001.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Victor and Rosaria about something I don't know very much about and have never done but am happy to talk about, and that is practicing yoga.
Let's get started.
What's the matter?
I just got back from my first yoga class and I was sorely disappointed.
I've heard that yoga is very good low-impact exercise and helps with stress relief.
It's supposed to calm the mind and strengthen the body.
Yeah, right.
It sounds like you had a bad experience.
Did you have a bad teacher?
The teacher was fine.
I learned about mantras and chakras, I learned breathing techniques and I tried a.
That all sounds right from my own experience, such as it is, but there are a lot of different types of yoga.
Maybe you need to try a different kind.
The problem wasn't the kind of yoga being practiced.
It was the class.
Were the mats uncomfortable?
Was it too cramped?
Then what was the problem?
There was too much testosterone in the room.
You mean you were in a class with just men?
Yeah.
And that was a problem?
This dialogue is about yoga Y-O-G-A, which has been very popular in the United States over the last 25 years or so.
It is especially popular here in Los Angeles, or at least it used to be.
Yoga is something different to different people.
When most people in the US talk about yoga, they're really talking about the program of exercise that you do, usually following some sort of leader in a class.
There are lots of places here in Los Angeles where you can go to a yoga class and you do certain exercises for your physical health and some say also for your mental health and relaxation.
Our dialogue begins with Victor sounding disappointed.
He says, Rosaria says, what's the matter?
He says I just got back from.
I just returned from my first yoga class and I was sorely disappointed.
The word sorely, S-O-R-E-L-Y, means very much or greatly.
Victor was really disappointed.
Rosaria says, I've heard that yoga is very good low-impact exercise.
Low-impact I-M-P-A-C-T exercise is exercise that doesn't require a lot of hard, sudden movements with your body.
You're getting exercise, but it isn't going to hurt your knees or your legs or some other part of your body.
Rosaria says that she heard... that yoga helps with stress relief.
Stress, S-T-R-E-S-S, is anxiety, tension.
A stressful situation is a situation in which you have or experience this tension and or anxiety which can affect your body as well as your mind.
Rosaria uses the term stress relief, R-E-L-I-E-F.
If you get relief from something, you no longer suffer from that thing.
We usually use the word relief when we're talking about someone who is ill or sick and needs to feel better or wants to get better.
You may give that person some drugs to give them relief from the pain, for example.
In fact, we call those kinds of drugs pain relievers, similar to relief.
Rosaria says that she heard that yoga is supposed to calm the mind and strengthen the body.
To calm C-A-L-M the mind means to make you stop worrying about things, to stop you from having these stressful thoughts, so that you are more relaxed.
To strengthen, S-T-R-E-N-G-H-T-H-E-N, the body, means to make the body stronger, to perhaps exercise your muscles in such a way that you are physically stronger.
Victor, however, doesn't seem to agree.
He says, yeah, right.
When we use that expression yeah right.
With that sort of intonation, that sort of tone, we are indicating that we don't agree.
It's very confusing because normally if someone says right, they mean correct or I agree.
But if you say it in this way, yeah, right, that means that you don't agree.
You think that is wrong.
Rosaria says, it sounds like you had a bad experience.
Did you have a bad teacher?
Victor says, the teacher was fine.
The teacher was okay.
Remember I mentioned that in most yoga classes there's someone who's leading the class, just like any class.
And we call that person the teacher.
Victor says, I learned about mantras and chakras.
I learned breathing techniques and I tried a few basic poses.
A mantra.
M-A-N-T-R-A is a sound, a word or a phrase that is used often for people who are meditating or perhaps praying.
It's a word that's often associated with yoga, although there are some other traditions, other practices of meditation and prayer that use that same term.
Outside of the world of yoga, we could say
A mantra is typically a word or a sound that is used to help you relax or to meditate.
A chakra C-H-A-K-R-A is apparently one of several centers of what is called spiritual thought or energy in the body.
Not exactly sure what all that means, but that's the definition anyway.
And it is something that is important in the practice of yoga.
Victor says, I learned breathing techniques.
A technique, T-E-C-H-N-I-Q-U-E, is a way of doing something, a method for doing something.
Breathing techniques then, would be techniques that help you breathe, probably in such a way that would allow you to relax or to do some sort of exercise without We would use the term getting winded.
Singers and musicians often use breathing techniques to help them perform, to help them do what they want to do.
In yoga, breathing techniques might be used as a form of relaxation techniques to help you relax.
Victor also says he tried a few basic poses.
A pose, P-O-S-E, is a position.
And yoga has different positions that you put your body into as part of the practice of yoga.
Rosaria says, that all sounds right from my own experience, such as it is.
That phrase, such as it is, is used to indicate that you don't have very much experience in this area, for example.
It could also be used to indicate that you realize what you just said may not be very useful or valuable to the person you're talking to.
It's similar to another expression for what it's worth.
If you're giving someone advice about something that you don't know very much about for me, for example, yoga You would probably use a phrase such as this for what it's worth or such as it is, to indicate that you really don't know what you're talking about, which is typical for me.
Rosaria says that all sounds right from my own experience, such as it is.
But there are a lot of different types of yoga.
Maybe you need to try a different kind, a different kind of yoga.
Victor says, the problem wasn't the kind of yoga being practiced.
It was the class.
The word practice here means participate or engage in something.
So Victor wasn't concerned about the kind of yoga.
He says the problem was the class.
Rosaria says, were the mats uncomfortable?
A mat M-A-T here means a soft mat piece of material, usually rectangular in shape, that you put on the floor so you can do your exercises without touching the floor directly and without hurting yourself on the floor if the floor is hard.
In yoga, it's very common, I'm told, to use mats in the class.
So when you see people going to yoga classes here in Los Angeles, they'll often be carrying a little mat.
Victor says the mats were not uncomfortable.
Rosaria says, was it, meaning the class, too cramped?
Cramped, C-R-A-M-P-E-D, here means crowded, when you have too many people in too small of a space.
Victor says, no.
Rosaria says, then what was the problem?
Victor says, there was too much testosterone in the room.
Testosterone is a hormone, a substance in your body that controls certain functions in your body that is typically associated with males, with men.
When people use the word testosterone, they're usually referring to men, but men acting how should I say it?
Very manly, being very tough.
I'm a man, that sort of thing.
John Wayne, if you remember who John Wayne was, the famous movie actor, or maybe Bruce Willis from Die Hard right.
He's being very masculine, very male.
We could talk about there being a lot of testosterone in that movie.
Well, that's the problem Victor had with the yoga class, which is sort of funny because normally, at least here in Los Angeles, yoga is more associated with women.
You'll see women going to yoga classes a lot more often than men.
But this was a class, according to Victor, that was just men.
Rosaria says that was a problem.
She's confused.
Victor then asks her a question that indicates the real problem he had with the class.
Do you think I would be taking a yoga class if I weren't trying to meet women?
You see, the reason Victor took the yoga class was to meet women, because in a typical yoga class it's mostly women who are there.
And that was why Victor was taking the class.
So when the class was all men, he was, of course, disappointed.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's the matter?
I just got back from my first yoga class, and I was sorely disappointed.
I've heard that yoga is very good low-impact exercise and helps with stress relief.
It's supposed to calm the mind and strengthen the body.
Yeah, right.
It sounds like you had a bad experience.
Did you have a bad teacher?
The teacher was fine.
I learned about mantras and chakras.
I learned breathing techniques, and I tried a few basic poses.
That all sounds right from my own experience, such as it is, but there are a lot of different types of yoga.
Maybe you need to try a different kind.
The problem wasn't the kind of yoga being practiced.
It was the class.
Were the mats uncomfortable?
No.
Was it too cramped?
No.
Then what was the problem?
There was too much testosterone in the room.
You mean you were in a class with just men?
Yeah.
And that was a problem?
Do you think I would be taking a yoga class if I weren't trying to meet women?
We would sorely miss our script writer if she didn't continue to write our scripts.
I speak of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
