Hello and welcome to the English Like A Native podcast.
My name is Anna and you're listening to week 35, day 3 of Your English Five A Day, the second season.
I'm here as your English guide, to help you to increase your vocabulary, improve your listening skills and overall, feel more like yourself when communicating in English.
So, let's get this show on the road with our snapshot of what's to come.
Elise had grown up sheltered in her family's country home, surrounded by the quiet farming community where everyone knew each other and life moved at a gentle pace.
When she moved to London for university, the massive metropolis overwhelmed her with its crowds, noise and fast-paced lifestyle that felt completely alien.
Initially, she held prejudices about city people, thinking they were all rude and unfriendly.
But gradually she discovered that many were just as kind as her neighbours back home.
OK, let's start with the noun farming community.
Farming community.
Two words, farming, F-A-R-M-I-N-G.
Community, C-O-M-M-U-N-I-T-Y.
Farming, community.
A farming community is a group of people who live in the same area and mostly work in farming.
So you might say...
She grew up in a small farming community where everyone knew each other.
Next, we have the noun metropolis.
Metropolis.
We spell this M-E-T-R-O-P-O-L-I-S.
Metropolis.
Metropolis.
A metropolis is a very large, busy city that's important and full of activity.
A metropolis.
For example, London is a metropolis with millions of people.
Have you ever lived in a metropolis?
Did you enjoy it or did you have to escape pretty quickly?
Next, we have the noun prejudices, prejudices.
We spell this P-R-E-J-U-D-I-C-E-S, prejudices.
Prejudices are unfair, negative opinions or judgments about people or things, often before knowing them well.
I think it's fair to say that many of us, whether we know it or not, hold some or have held some prejudices at some point in our lives.
Often we inherit our parents' prejudices.
We grow up believing certain things about certain groups of people.
For example, when I grew up, I believed that Volvo drivers were unkind unconsiderate, selfish people.
And the reason for that is because my stepfather was knocked off his motorbike by a Volvo driver.
It was a very bad judgment that led to an accident that put my stepfather into hospital for a very long time with a broken back and damage to the skull.
A severe broken leg.
So I heard time and time again how terrible Volvo drivers were.
And it gave me this opinion of all Volvo drivers and made sure that I never considered Volvo as a brand of car that I would ever buy, because I'm not that kind of person.
Of course, that was completely untrue.
You cannot tarnish a whole group of car owners based on the car that they own.
It's unfair.
It's unfounded.
And I soon overcame that prejudice by...
Becoming a Volvo driver.
Yes, I now am a Volvo driver myself.
So what prejudice do you hold or have you held in the past?
So here's an example sentence.
Her prejudices made it hard for her to make new friends.
Next, we have the adjective sheltered.
Sheltered.
We spell this S-H-E-L-T-E-R-E-D.
Sheltered.
If you are sheltered, then it means you're protected from difficult or unpleasant experiences.
You're not exposed to real-world problems.
Of course we hope and strive to keep our children sheltered from all the terrible things that are happening in the world.
We don't like them to know about dangerous criminals and war and all those horrible things.
We try not to even let them know about sickness, disease, famine. natural disasters.
We try to shelter them from the death and destruction that goes on on a daily basis in different parts of the world.
But as an adult, you don't want to be sheltered.
You want to have some understanding of the world around you.
So there comes a point where you have to open them up to what the world is really like.
So to be sheltered is good when you're young or vulnerable, but it's not so good if you are an adult.
So that adjective can be positive or negative depending on who you're talking about.
So here's an example sentence.
She had a sheltered childhood and never had to worry about money.
Last on our list today is the noun country home.
A country home.
Country, C-O-U-N-T-R-Y.
Home, H-O-M-E.
A country home is a house in the countryside often used for holidays or weekends away from the city.
Now, these days, especially in the UK...
Not many people have a country home because homes in the UK are ridiculously expensive.
It costs you an arm and a leg just to get a basic home to live in.
So having two homes, if you have two homes, then you are quite lucky or quite well off.
Here's an example sentence.
They spent the summer at their country home near the lake.
Alright, that's our five.
Nice and easy.
Time for a quick recap.
We had the noun farming community, which is a group of people who live in the same area and mostly work in farming.
A farming community.
We had the noun metropolis, which is a very large, busy city that is important and full of activity.
We had the noun prejudices, which are unfair, negative opinions or judgments about people or things, often before knowing them well.
Prejudices.
We had the adjective sheltered, which means protected from difficult or unpleasant experiences, not exposed to real world problems.
Sheltered.
And we had the noun country home, which is a house in the country often used for holidays or weekends away from the city.
A country home.
Fantastic.
Now I want you to raise your voice and repeat after me.
Farming community.
Farming community.
Metropolis.
Metropolis metropolis prejudices prejudices sheltered sheltered country home country home, Fantastic.
Okay, what would I call a very large, busy city?
That's quite an important city and that's full of activity.
Metropolis, yes.
What could you say I have about the big city?
Prejudices.
Yes, I have prejudices about the big city and about the people who live there.
What would I call the group of people who live in the country and mostly work on a farm, and all the people who are associated with that area?
A farming community.
And finally, if I want to escape the city and go to a house in the countryside, what could I call that particular house?
A country home.
And when I'm out in the countryside I meet a group of teenagers who live in this farming community and they seem quite light and naive to what's going on in the world.
They haven't been exposed to real world issues.
What adjective could I use to describe these teenagers?
Sheltered.
Yes, they've had a sheltered childhood.
Fantastic.
All right, let's now revisit our snapshot.
Elise had grown up sheltered in her family's country home, surrounded by the quiet farming community where everyone knew each other and life moved at a gentle pace.
When she moved to London for university, the massive metropolis overwhelmed her with its crowds, noise and fast-paced lifestyle that felt completely alien.
Initially, she held prejudices about city people, thinking they were all rude and unfriendly.
But gradually, she discovered that many were just as kind as her neighbours back home.
OK, it's time to listen out for our target vocabulary once more as we head into today's Storytime.
The train wheels clattered against the tracks with increasing urgency as Gareth pressed his face to the window watching familiar rolling hills give way to sprawling industrial estates.
Each mile took him further from everything he'd ever known, from the smell of fresh earth after rain, from morning mist that clung to the valleys like his mother's embrace, from a world where everyone knew your name and your grandfather's name too.
His stomach lurched as the first tower blocks came into view.
Grey monoliths stretching toward a sky that seemed smaller here, pressed down by concrete and steel.
The farming community of Cartref felt like a dream now.
Its population of 300 souls, scattered across fields where his family had worked the same land for four generations.
Here, more people than that probably lived in a single building.
The irony wasn't lost on him.
Growing up, he'd served those city folk who descended on Cartreth each weekend, escaping to their country homes with their pristine Land Rovers and voices that carried differently sharper, somehow more urgent.
They'd swept into the village shop where he worked part-time buying artisan bread and local honey while complaining about mobile signal, treating the place like a living postcard.
He'd watched them from behind the counter, these creatures from another world, never imagining he'd soon be walking amongst them.
Now, as the train pulled into the station's cavernous belly, Gareth felt the weight of his prejudices shifting uncomfortably.
Those weekend visitors had seemed like a different species.
Privileged, demanding, always in a hurry.
But weren't they simply people trying to find something his world had in abundance?
Peace, perhaps?
Space to breathe?
The platform heaved with humanity.
Gareth clutched his battered rucksack closer, overwhelmed by the cacophony of voices, the electronic announcements echoing off high ceilings, the relentless movement.
Everyone seemed to know exactly where they were going, walking with purpose, whilst he stood frozen like a scarecrow in the wrong field.
A businessman knocked into his shoulder without apology, mobile phone clamped to his ear.
A woman with impossible heels clipped past, her perfume cutting through the diesel fumes.
Children wailed while their mothers juggled pushchairs and shopping bags.
This wasn't the hostile invasion he'd imagined, but it wasn't welcoming either.
It was simply different.
For 18 years, his sheltered existence had been bounded by hedgerows and horizons.
You could actually see.
The biggest decision was which field to plough first.
Now he faced a metropolis that pulsed with eight million heartbeats, each person carrying dreams and fears as complex as his own.
Gareth shouldered his bag and stepped into the flow of people, letting the current carry him toward the exit.
His reflection caught in a shop window.
A young man with soil still under his fingernails, about to plant himself in concrete and see what might grow.
And that brings us to the end of today's episode.
I do hope you found it useful and enjoyable.
And I hope you'll allow me to tickle your eardrums again tomorrow.
Remember, habits require discipline.
The longer you keep a habit going, the easier it gets.
So be sure to join me tomorrow.
Until then, take very good care and goodbye.
