This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2057.
Did you do the full Barbenheimer?
The newest portmanteaus that you must know.
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B-L-A-C-K-F-R-I-D-A-Y.
Hello, Aubrey.
How's everything going?
Great.
Big movie weekend.
Did you see Barbie or Oppenheimer?
I did the Barbahimer.
I did the Barbahimer.
Double feature?
One right after another or just both in the same weekend?
One Friday night, one Saturday morning.
And I was actually at a wedding weekend in Utah.
Actually, my friends were getting married outside Salt Lake City.
And instead of going to the events, we went to the movies.
Skipped it.
You skipped all the wedding events.
We went to the actual wedding but we kind of got in in a weird time on Friday where we missed the Friday event.
There was nothing Friday night.
There was nothing Saturday morning.
So it was a Barbaheimer weekend.
Oh, I love that.
I saw Barbie.
I loved it.
I want to see Oppenheimer.
But this is fascinating.
We're going to talk about this, guys, today.
Lindsay used the word Barbenheimer, which is being used to refer to these two movies, which is fascinating because they're so different.
They're so opposite, thematically at least, but both with huge opening weekends breaking records fourth largest box office weekend in history.
And the biggest, Greta Gerwig made history.
Barbie opened and made her the female director with the biggest opening in history.
So much history going on.
And it's not even just at the box office, right?
What I'm noticing.
I even went to my regular Sunday evening meditation and people from my group were saying oh, I saw Oppenheimer or I saw Barbie.
I'm like, weird.
We don't talk about movies that much at meditation.
It's so interesting.
It's like penetrating the culture in a really interesting way.
It's so true because both of them are so, it's not just a movie you see and don't think about.
Both of them, you would leave very much wanting to talk about it, right?
Social commentary on very different ends of the spectrum.
So yes, these are movies.
You want to find out if people watched it and you want to know what they thought about it.
You want to talk about them.
Also think that we're coming off a season not just a season, but a number of years where there really hasn't been any great movies.
There haven't been any huge hits that i can think of.
We haven't been through the pandemic, we weren't really going to the movies, and then we've been back and i think a lot of movies waited to be released.
I can't think of any huge, huge hits.
So i think the fact that they both came out on the same weekend it's a summer, even summer weekend all contributed to everyone going to the right.
Well, and here's what's fascinating Lindsay, as I dove into this a little bit, we're going to talk about portmanteaus today, like Barbenheimer, where we combine two words.
But there's a bigger um dialogue to be had that we're going to just briefly get into.
Usually, if there is a massive film that you know is going to have a big opening, movies will make sure to be on different weekends.
Like avatar 2 was huge.
There were no other big movies opening the same weekend.
They like let avatar have its weekend, not wanting to compete.
So this is big because, for the first time ever, Two new movies grossed over 80 million at the same time.
Normally, these two movies who knew they would both be successful would not be on the same weekend.
They were for a reason, or at least there's a theory that there's a reason.
Do you know what it is, Lindsay?
I didn't know about this until I started looking into it.
I don't know.
You'll have to tell me.
What is it, Aubrey?
So it's because of bad blood between Christopher Nolan and Warner Brothers.
And I was really looking into the story.
Warner Brothers released the Barbie movie.
Christopher Nolan has done a lot of Warner Brothers films.
But what happened was with COVID.
Warner Brothers decided to send movies straight to streaming instead of put them in theaters, so that people weren't exposing each other to COVID.
And they put Nolan's movie Tenet straight to streaming and sort of robbed him of the money of a theatrical release.
And he was very unhappy publicly, very unhappy, cut ties with Warner Brothers.
And And.
So now, because of this bad blood I think, they decided we're going to do our movies on the same weekend to try and sort of steal some of your profits.
And that's what's been fascinating is it's not stealing profits.
Everyone's just seeing bull.
Right.
For the most part.
I think it's the first time we've ever seen this phenomenon of the portmanteau in two movies, right?
I haven't seen it before.
I haven't seen that before either.
So it looks like society just adapted to this drama.
It didn't end up being a bad thing for either of them.
It ended up being a good thing.
Yeah, because I wouldn't have seen Barbie.
I think I would have skipped Barbie and I would have seen it just on streaming or something.
I was I can I can live without it.
I would have seen Oppenheimer.
I was super excited for that movie.
But I think some people are the opposite and they just do the Barbaheimer.
So.
Yeah, it makes sense.
And where you could see them both in a weekend because they are so different.
It's not going to feel repetitive.
It's so I can't think of two more opposing movies, right?
Just so different in every way.
So yeah, I haven't had a chance to see is it Oppenheimer Oppenheimer yet?
I can't wait.
I'm going to love it.
I know.
But I saw Barbie like opening weekend.
I was so excited.
Oh, it's good.
They're both great.
But I love Greta Gerwig.
It wasn't about being a Barbie fan as a child.
I knew it was going to be an interesting social commentary, and I was living for it, and I loved it.
I have a lot of friends who didn't like it, so it's been an interesting conversation about some of the things people didn't like about it.
It actually ended up being very controversial.
Huh.
But I was a fan and I can't disagree with a lot of things people didn't like about it, as far as you know, sort of showing misogyny in a very stereotypical, negative light, where almost more extreme that it actually exists in reality, in order to create this opposition between Barbie land and the world.
But I see why she did that.
Well, sometimes you have to exaggerate.
How do we learn pronunciation?
We exaggerate the pronunciation of words.
So then we learn them the correct way eventually.
This is what we have to do to make an example.
And You know, I came out of that thinking, this is not a movie for kids.
It's not even a movie for teenagers.
It's for adults our age that lived in the 90s and the 80s.
It's a political movie.
It's about politics.
But what I loved about it was it very much opens the discourse, right?
I did see it with my kids.
And I... it did start some interesting dialogues that I want to have started, right?
I'm glad that it pushed us to have those conversations that we need to have in order to create social change.
Yeah.
So for teenagers good right, because they're just.
They should start to get involved in conversations around gender, right?
Gender inequality and children.
Honestly, I took my eight-year-old twins right and it was good.
It was a good because, even at eight years old, I was kind of surprised.
I took them thinking this is probably going to be over their heads.
Yeah, the questions they were asking, based on the things that Barbie brought up, I was like you are old enough to have this conversation.
I want you to To understand why certain things should not be said to a man or to a woman, or certain things should not be assumed about a person because of their gender or you know, and to talk about these things, even starting at a fairly young age.
Sometimes you know when you have something like Barbie that you know it's the colors, it's the outfits.
It's exciting for kids, little kids, and you get them in the door and now you're having interesting conversations with the young kid.
Yeah.
So I love that.
That is good to hear.
That is good to hear.
But we're actually so we could go off on this.
I know we did kind of, but let's bring it back to the portmanteaus, right?
Yeah, this was fascinating to have movies combined together the barbenheimer, like we do sometimes, with celebrity names like brangelina, brad pitt and angelina jolie.
We talked about these not that long ago in an all yours english episode.
Right lindsay, We did.
So that was episode 1546.
The title is Staycation Mocktail, How to Combine Two English Words.
We filmed that a few years ago or recorded it.
So go check that one out.
Aubrey, what did we teach in that episode?
Because we're going to teach our listeners all new portmanteaus today.
Exactly right.
A bunch of interesting words podcast sitcom hangry staycation mocktail, netiquette and edutainment.
So if you're curious about any of those, what they mean, what words are combined to make them go back and listen to that episode?
But we're going into newer ones that have become part of the social dialogue, part of our vernacular more recently today.
Oh, I love it.
And so what is our first one that we're going to?
I love that we're teaching this one, because this is everywhere in the culture at this moment.
What is the first one Aubrey for our listeners?
Yes, this first one is athleisure, which is is combining athletic and leisure.
And this is comfortable sports attire that is meant for your leisure, right?
You're hanging out at home.
You might go do a bike ride in it, but more likely you're sitting watching TV.
Yeah.
And if you want to see what this is, just go to my in-laws house in LA, right?
Go to Los Angeles and look at anyone on the street.
They're wearing athleisure, no question.
Or Arizona.
We live in athleisure.
Absolutely.
I wear it all day, every day.
I'm either in a swimsuit with a cover up or athleisure.
I mean, it's amazing, right?
Things and this has really been a societal shift, right?
I think, through the pandemic, that we feel confident in that.
You know we exactly.
We bring the athletic clothing into our leisure lives, even going out for drinks, you know people will be in.
You know athleisure, it totally works nowadays.
Yeah, I remember.
I don't know if you remember this Lindsay, but back in the day I don't know if we were in high school college.
I remember it being an issue when someone, when a woman, wore like athleisure exercise leggings on a plane and she was kicked off the plane and told those are not pants.
You can't wear them on this plane.
When is this?
This was it had to be a decade or more ago.
I think maybe when we were in college, when when they very first leggings were very first.
I remember the phrase leggings are not pants.
There was a Some kind of social media I followed that was leggings are not pants.
And it would be photos of women wearing leggings.
And people were like up in arms, like those are not pants.
You can't wear those.
You look like you're wearing pajamas, whatever.
And someone was kicked off a plane.
Yeah, they were like tights, right?
And granted, athletic leggings have, they're a little thicker now, a little more like pants.
But still, I look at a plane now and almost every woman is wearing athleisure, is wearing like athletic leggings.
Whereas once upon a time, you could have been kicked off a plane for that.
Interesting.
It's fascinating how it's changed.
I never knew that.
Wow.
You'll have to Google it and find that old article.
I remember very clearly and being like, oh, wow.
Good to know.
So, guys?
So here again, just to reemphasize, we're combining athletic and leisure to get the word athleisure.
It's everywhere, guys.
So added to your English vocabulary, two sample sentences.
Aubrey, do we have them?
Yeah.
So mine, which is appropriate for me, I basically live in athleisure.
That just means I wear, I live in athletic clothes that I'm really wearing for my leisure time.
Yeah, and the next one is the best thing to wear in a flight is athleisure.
Love it.
I agree with that fully.
All right, Aubrey, we're on to the next one.
I'm excited because these are very relevant ones.
And actually, I find myself using these examples all the time.
So let's go to the next one.
What is it?
Yeah, so brainiac.
This is an adjective to describe someone.
It's combining brain and maniac, and it just means a very smart person.
Right.
So for example, my brother is a total brainiac, right?
Yes.
Or you might say, like if someone asks you a difficult question and you don't know the answer, you might say what do you think?
I am a brainiac?
It's just a fun way of saying like, I don't know the answer to that.
That's very hard.
I love that.
Or you could say, I'm no brainiac, but I do know that the earth is round, for example.
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
That would be an interesting way in a conversation to be like.
I recognize that I don't know everything.
I'm no brainiac, but I do know.
Right.
So it's kind of stating an obvious thing.
Right.
That's how we would use that, Aubrey.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Instead of saying, I realize I don't know everything to say I'm no brainiac.
Oh, so native and natural.
I say that I hear that all the time.
Oh, the next one is so fun.
Frenemy.
I love this one.
We always say that my dog Kiefer, he has his frenemy Pip that comes over and we babysit for Pip sometimes, or dog sit, but they're frenemies because they love each other.
They get excited when they go to each other's houses, but they actually end up fighting.
It's this little.
It was a little like mix of a bulldog and a chow little guy, but he thinks he's bigger than he is.
So he picks fights with Kiefer.
Yes, we say they have a love-hate relationship, right?
If they're frenemies, they have a love-hate relationship.
So this is combining friend and enemy.
You've surely seen it, heard it, podcast TV shows, right?
It's just friends who don't always get along or enemies who aren't always fighting.
You're kind of a combination or maybe just a friend who actually is not that nice.
There's all kinds of people who are actually a frenemy rather than a friend.
Yeah, I feel like this term frenemy could mean a lot of different relationships, different dynamics, right.
Absolutely.
Right.
An example, my daughter's friends all seem like frenemies.
She'll tell stories about how they treat her.
And I'm like, really?
Maybe let's find new friends.
Yeah, find new friends.
It shouldn't feel like that, right?
Something's wrong if we feel like all of our friends Our frenemies, right?
There are better people out there that we can find.
So unfortunately typical, at least in the US for, like preteen and teenage girls, though unfortunately,
I remember middle school, the cool kids, right?
Yeah, tough, tough, tough, tough.
Okay, next one.
I found out he was saying cruel things behind my back and is more of a frenemy than a friend.
So that changed my mind.
Yeah.
So you're like, oh, I found out they're saying these mean things.
They're actually a frenemy and not a friend, right?
That would be a good way to use that.
Yeah.
I love it.
All right.
So what's our next one, Aubrey?
We have one more.
Do we have one more for our listeners?
Yes, one more.
This is so fun.
Chillax, which is a mix between chill and relax.
And this means to be chilling and relaxing.
This is often like if someone asks you to go out, they're like, let's go dancing tonight.
You might say, I just want to chillax tonight.
It means I'm just going to stay home, relax, chill, have a drink, watch TV.
I love that.
Or my friend was getting angry.
So I told him to chillax.
Now, obviously, I probably wouldn't say this to like my boss or someone.
Very informal.
It would be rude to someone like that.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
But yeah, this is it's kind of a second meaning, right?
An admonition to tell someone to calm down.
If you're like someone's getting really upset, you might be like, okay, chillax.
But you're right.
This is not for very formal situations.
This is very much for a friend where there's a close relationship there.
Yeah, I love these four that you've chosen Aubrey Athleisure Brainiac, Frenemy and Chillax because it feels like I've used all these in the last two weeks, right.
Absolutely.
Yeah, super relevant.
Yes, exactly.
Yes, but the nice thing is, Portmanteaus are so useful.
Not only do they help you sound extremely native and natural and now you'll understand what people mean when they say these but they can also really improve your writing.
I mean texts, emails and also more academic writing.
Even though they're quite informal, they add so much color to writing so much color.
And you know i did an interview with uh harvard professor todd rogers from the harvard kennedy school of public policy.
Yes uh, it's coming out.
It came out just a few days ago guys, it's episode 2055 on three ways to write well for a busy world, and i'm sure that he would recommend throwing in language with color, right with enthusiasm, and if it's placed correctly In an email, for example, it could work well to get your message across.
Right, Aubrey?
Yes, definitely.
Absolutely.
So if you missed that episode, be sure to hit follow.
We have four new episodes every week.
You don't want to miss any of them.
So scroll back, catch that one and be sure to hit follow so you don't miss our upcoming episodes.
I love it.
Aubrey, are you ready for a role play?
Shall we go for it?
Yes.
In this role play, you and I are chatting about a get together that we're attending tonight.
Okay, here we go.
I'll start us out.
What are you wearing to Jane's house?
I think just athleisure.
I want to be comfortable.
Smart.
I hope Mike won't be there.
He's kind of become a frenemy.
Oh no, what happened?
Well, he never returns my texts and I've been told he said some unkind things about me.
I'm no brainiac, but I think those aren't the best signs.
Well, if he's there, we can just go catch a movie and chillax.
Perfect.
I love that plan.
If your frenemy's there, we'll just go to Oppenheimer.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We'll go to Barbenheimer and we'll do a double feature.
That's it.
I mean, that's my solution in life, Aubrey.
When I get stressed out or I just want to avoid, I just go to the movies.
That's why you skipped the wedding stuff because Mike was going to be there.
Like, let's just go to the movies.
Yeah.
Kind of.
Yeah.
Actually, kind of.
This is going to be stressful.
Let's go chillax and catch a movie.
It's just so great to just, yeah, you're just there.
All you have to do is just be entertained and relax, you know?
Yeah.
So good stuff.
So should we go through these real quick?
What we used in the role play for our listeners?
Yes.
We've crammed them all in here.
You first said you were going to wear athleisure to the party so that you could be comfortable.
This is my MO.
If it's a pretty chill party, this is not clearly not a formal event if you're wearing athleisure.
But If it's like a game night, yeah, I'm going to wear a red t-shirt.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
If it's just kind of a more average event, obviously...
Speaking of like wedding events, you know, I probably wouldn't wear that.
No, that would be strange.
Yeah, that would be weird.
But for a lot of things you can't even like going out shopping, sometimes going out for lunch.
Totally works, guys.
Yeah.
And people dress it up, right?
They'll have their exercise leggings, but with like an oversized sweater that's kind of nice.
And then, oh, now I'm ready for dinner.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And then you said, oh, I hope Mike's not there.
He's become kind of a frenemy.
Right.
And so this is this is very much me inviting you to ask more.
So I'm going to say, oh, he's a friend of me.
I probably want you to ask what happened, why, right?
That would be a strange thing for me to be like, oh, I don't want to get into it.
Yeah, for sure.
I'm inviting you to ask about this.
So you do, you say, what happened?
I said, he's never returned my texts.
He said some unkind things.
And then I say, I'm no brainiac, but I don't think those are the best signs.
This is a great way to use this to say like, okay, you know, I may not be a genius.
And you're just being sarcastic here, where it's just a fun way of saying these are clearly not good signs.
It's like downplaying yourself saying well, not a genius right exactly exactly, um.
And then you said let's just go catch a movie and chill, lax.
I said that, love that.
Yeah right chill, relax.
Go to a movie in the theater, yeah.
So what's the takeaway for our listeners, aubrey?
What should our listeners come away with today?
Yeah, new portmanteaus are always being created, just like slang, right?
We're combining new words all the time people's names, maybe celebrity names, words like this to create the new slang chillax.
And today's vocabulary will help you understand and use these, but also keep an eye out for them.
All over in English
New ones are going to pop up all over the place.
Be aware of this.
Yes. occurrence of portmanteaus.
So when you see a strange word, look at it and think oh, is this?
Two other words that are being combined.
I love it.
Guys, stay up to date on your English.
These are the words that native speakers are using right now all the time.
So make sure you use them too.
I love it.
And hit follow on All Ears English.
Aubrey, thanks for being on the show with me today.
Yes.
Awesome.
See you next time, Lindsay.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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