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Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast.
My name is Anna and you're listening to week 33
Day 4 of Your English 5 a Day. the second season.
With this series, we are growing your English like a huge bloom that just keeps giving more and more.
We have to water it and prune it occasionally.
But I'm here as your fertiliser. I'm helping you to grow your vocabulary, improve your listening skills and become more confident when communicating in English.
All you have to do is tune in on a regular basis and the flowers will keep coming.
So let's dive into today's episode with our snapshot.
Alina stood at the fork in the road watching the morning mist turn the distant mountains into a grey blur.
While she began to daydream about the peaceful cottage life that awaited her, down the left path.
She was finally in tune with what her heart wanted after months of uncertainty about leaving her stressful job in the city.
I won't dwell on my fears any longer, she whispered to herself. taking the first step towards her new beginning.
Okay, let's now jump into the vocabulary starting with the verb daydream.
Daydream. All one word. We spell it D-A-Y-D-R-E-A-M.
Daydream. To daydream is to think about pleasant things instead of paying attention to what you're doing.
Now, I have to admit that sometimes I daydream at inappropriate times, like If I'm doing a conference, if I'm attending a conference and I'm in a lecture theatre and I'm listening to someone present.
And then my mind starts to wander and I start to think about something really nice.
And then five, 10 minutes later, I realized I was daydreaming.
I wasn't paying attention. And now I've missed some really valuable information.
Sometimes I daydream when I'm driving. That's the worst. when you're doing a long journey, something maybe you've done many times before, a regular. recurring journey that you know without even thinking about it.
And then you arrive at your destination and think, oh my goodness, I'm here.
I don't even remember the journey. My mind was somewhere else.
I was daydreaming. I think that's quite dangerous.
Anyway enough of my dangerous driving. Here is an example sentence.
She was daydreaming in class and didn't hear the teacher's question.
Alright, next we have the noun phrase fork in the road. fork in the road.
Fork we spell F-O-R-K. in the road, R O A D.
Now here, fork represents the separation.
So a fork in the road is a place where a road splits in two directions.
It's often used to talk about those big decision points in life.
For example, if you finish college and you're not sure what the next step is, You have a few weeks to decide whether or not you're going to apply to go to university, or maybe you need to decide whether to accept a place at university or whether you're going to go straight into the jobs market and start looking for a job.
Maybe you have a job offer or an apprenticeship lined up, but you also have a place at university.
Which way do I go? If I go to university, my life will be very different than if I take this apprenticeship.
Now when I was 16, I applied to join the Forces. my application eventually was to the army.
I wanted to be in the forces. I didn't know which so I was looking at the Navy and the RAF and the Army and after doing a day at their kind of open day event, I decided the army was the thing for me.
I was going to join the army at 16. Can you imagine if I had enlisted in the army?
I'm almost certain that I wouldn't be here talking to you now.
Life would have been very, very different.
It was a fork in the road in my life. You'll be glad to know that I didn't get into the army.
It was a... I was rejected on medical grounds.
Goodness me. They were missing out. They don't know what they're missing.
Anyway, a fork in the road. Here is an example sentence using the phrase.
At university, she came to a fork in the road.
Stay in the UK or move abroad. So I want you to think about a point in your life where there was a fork in the road.
Next, we have the verb dwell on something.
To dwell. on something dwell we spell d w e l l dwell dwell To dwell on something is to keep thinking or talking about something, especially something negative and unsettling.
For example, if you fail your driving test and you can't believe you failed your driving test.
And you can't stop thinking about it. You don't stop talking about it.
You just keep going through the whole test in your mind and wondering.
How you made those mistakes and how is it possible that you failed when you spent so long preparing?
Or if you have an argument with someone, this is where I usually fall down.
If I have a negative interaction with someone, I dwell on it.
I find it really hard to move past the interaction.
I actually find this podcast to be quite therapeutic because I can usually air the things that I experience, like negative interactions with strange women in car parks or anything that you know is negative that i would dwell on i just air in the form of podcast, and then I can move on and stop dwelling on it.
So here's an example. Try not to dwell on your mistakes.
Everyone makes them. So do you normally dwell on things or do you move on quite quickly?
Next we have the noun blur. Blur. B-L-U-R.
Blur. A blur is something that cannot be seen clearly.
For example... if you are editing a picture and there's something in the picture that you don't want to be visible, you can use a little effect that pixelates it, that makes it unclear, like smudging the picture.
You smudge it so that there's no clear edges. almost like your eyesight has gone when you look at it.
You're like, wow, I can't focus. There's nothing to focus on because the edges are no longer clearly defined.
So if something is a blur, it's hard to see because it's not clear.
For example, I tried to read the email, but without my glasses, it was all a blur.
And I am finding that now more and more that my eyes... are deteriorating quite quickly.
Now, I've always had fantastic vision, but I think it was last year Yes, it was a year ago.
I was prescribed reading glasses. I now need glasses for working on my screen.
And I think the problem is staring at a screen pretty much all day.
I work all day, so I'm looking at my computer screen, and then in between times I am looking at my phone.
And then when I'm relaxing, I'm looking at the television.
It's endless. Even when I'm doing things like playing the piano, I'm doing it by reading my sheet music on my phone.
And I think it's really bad for my eyesight.
Things are becoming more and more of a blur for me.
Because as you'll see, if you're watching on YouTube, I don't have my glasses on right now.
I keep forgetting to use them. So I struggle to read my notes. because they're a little bit of a blur.
Next, we have the idiom to be in tune with.
To be in tune with. In. I-N. tune, T-U-N-E, with something or someone.
If you are in tune with something or someone, it means that you understand or feel connected to them.
It's like you are in harmony. So this idiom comes from the music world.
If you are in tune with someone, then it's like...
You belong together in the same choir or you're both singing the same piece of music.
It belongs. It connects. Now I have an understanding of my children, the kind of understanding that only a mother has.
And I know instantly when I pick my children up from school or when my child wakes up, or even if they murmur in the night, I know if something is seriously wrong.
I know if Something bad has happened. I know if they're feeling excited.
I know if my children need the toilet even before they know.
I'm so in tune with my children that I'm able to read every little sign and signal that maybe is not clear to other people.
Because I'm in tune with them. I'm connected and I understand them deeply.
Now you can also say, she's really in tune with her emotions. or you could be in tune with your own body.
And that means you understand your body or you understand your emotions, you might be quite emotionally intelligent and have a clear understanding of why you react in certain ways.
Know what your triggers are. Know how to avoid exploding or avoid falling into a deep pit of despair.
I hope you are all in tune with your emotions.
It can be hard sometimes. Okay, so that's our five.
It's time to do a quick recap. We started with the verb daydream, which is to think about pleasant things instead of focusing on what you're supposed to be doing to daydream.
We had the noun phrase fork in the road, which is a place where a road splits in two directions.
It's often used to talk about decision points in life, a fork in the road.
We had the verb dwell on something to dwell on something. is to keep thinking and talking about something especially something negative or upsetting you dwell on it We had the noun blur, which is when something is hard to see because it's not clearly defined. blurred.
So it's a blur because it's blurred. Okay, then we had the idiom to be in tune with, which is to understand and feel connected to something or someone. or to be in harmony with them, to be in tune with them or with it.
There we go. Now it's your turn. I'd like you to raise your voice and repeat out loud after me.
Daydream Daydream Fork in the road fork in the road dwell on something dwell on something. blur blur.
To be in tune with. to be in tune with.
Fantastic. Okay. If I'm trying to read without my glasses, I might struggle because the text will be unclear.
What could I say the text is if it's unclear?
What is it? a blur. That's right. And because it's a blur, it's hard to read.
I find it quite difficult to pay attention to what I'm supposed to be doing.
I start thinking about something really nice, like going on holiday.
What am I doing? I am daydreaming. Yes, because my work is hard, because all the text is a blur, I find myself daydreaming.
Then something very bad happens. I have an argument with my colleague because I'm caught daydreaming.
And I can't stop thinking about this argument and telling everyone about this argument that I had.
I need to let it go, but I can't. What am I doing?
I'm dwelling on the arguments, yes. this argument that occurred because my work is a blur, so I find myself daydreaming, And then I have an argument and then I dwell on the argument.
I can't let it go. And I decide that I can't continue like this.
This is a point in my life where a decision has to be made.
I cannot continue looking at a blur. I need to get my eyes tested or I need to quit my job and do something without screens and text.
This is a decision point in my life. What's the noun phrase I would use instead?
It's a fork in the road. Yes, I need to decide what to do.
Stick with it and sort out my eyesight or get out of the office and do something completely different.
Well, I could also say that my friend is very empathetic and understanding.
She really understands understands me and I feel like we're connected, we're in harmony.
What idiom could I use to describe my connection with this friend? we are in tune with each other.
And she understands my feelings. So she helps me to make the decision that I need to make at this fork in the road, I go to Specsavers and get some...
Yeah, some glasses. Okay, fantastic. Let's now revisit our snapshot.
Alina stood at the fork in the road watching the morning mist turned the distant mountains into a grey blur while she began to daydream about the peaceful cottage life that awaited her down the left path.
She was finally in tune with what her heart wanted after months of uncertainty about leaving her stressful job. in the city.
I won't dwell on my fears any longer, she whispered to herself, taking the first step towards her new beginning.
Okay, now I want you to listen out for our target vocabulary once more as we head into...
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Linus stared at the two letters on his kitchen table.
One was thick and official, with the university's golden logo stamped on the envelope.
The other was handwritten, the familiar scrawl of his grandfather's writing across the front.
Both had arrived that morning and both would change his life forever.
He picked up the university letter first.
Inside was his acceptance to study medicine in London. the dream he'd worked towards for years.
His parents would be over the moon, They'd always imagined him as a doctor, saving lives and earning respect.
The course would start in September, just three months away.
But then there was his grandfather's letter.
Linus opened it slowly, already knowing what it would say.
His grandfather was offering him the family farm in Wales.
The old man was ready to retire and he wanted to pass the land down to someone who truly understood its value.
Linus found himself starting to daydream about both possibilities in one future.
He saw himself in a white coat, helping patients in a busy hospital in the other.
He pictured himself working the land, his hands dirty from honest work, completely in tune with the changing seasons.
This was a real fork in the road. Whatever he chose would determine the rest of his life.
He couldn't dwell on the decision forever.
The university needed an answer by Friday and his grandfather was waiting too.
The truth was, Linus had always felt different from his classmates.
While they talked about careers and money, he felt most peaceful when he visited the farm during holidays.
The city was a blur of noise and traffic to him, but on the farm...
Everything made sense. He understood the rhythm of the animals. the way the weather affected the crops, the satisfaction of growing something with his own hands.
His mobile rang, interrupting his thoughts.
It was his best friend, Charlie. Have you heard back from the university yet?
Charlie asked excitedly. Yes, I got in, Linus replied, but his voice lacked enthusiasm.
Oh, that's brilliant. We should celebrate.
You're going to be a doctor. Linus didn't correct him.
How could he explain that the acceptance letter felt more like a weight Then a gift.
After hanging up, he walked to the window and looked out at the small garden behind his house.
Even in this tiny space, he'd managed to grow vegetables and flowers.
His neighbours often complimented him on his green fingers.
He thought about his grandfather. now in his 70s, still working the land every day despite his age.
The farm had been in their family for generations.
If Linus didn't take it on, it would probably be sold to developers.
The choice wasn't really between two careers.
It was between two completely different ways of living.
One path led to prestige and financial security.
The other led to a simpler life, but one that felt authentic to who he really was.
Linus picked up his pen. He knew what he had to do.
Some decisions couldn't be made with logic alone.
Sometimes you had to trust your heart. He began writing his reply to the university, declining their offer.
He would call his grandfather and accept the farm.
It was time to come home. And that brings us to the end of today's episode.
I do hope. that you found it useful and energizing and entertaining in some way.
If you did, then I would greatly appreciate if you just take one second to boop the like button if you're watching on YouTube. or to leave a little rating or review if you're streaming from any other platform.
That tiny interaction makes a big difference.
So thank you. in advance and i do hope that you'll be back again tomorrow until then take very good care and And goodbye.
