Thank you.
Hey everyone and welcome to the Poniatny Angliski podcast, the understandable English podcast.
Today's topic and what I would like to talk about with you today is the coronavirus.
It's a theme that all of us have heard so much about over the last few months.
And it really is the defining factor, which means the most important factor of this year of 2020.
It is the defining factor of 2020.
And I've been trying to record this all morning, but it has been so difficult to find a quiet place in my house where I will not be disturbed for about 15 or 20 minutes, just to record.
I guess that is another feature of the coronavirus being at home with family, kind of being around people and not having as much space.
So today I'd like to just talk a little bit about this whole situation in english and maybe teach you some new vocabulary around the topic, and talk about what i think life might be like in the future after the coronavirus.
How could this whole event have influenced and changed the world forever?
Because one thing i'm sure of is that things will never be the same again.
To me it's quite strange because when we think about history, we can look at defining moments, important moments in history, such as world war two, world war one and the cold war and various different events which changed the world, but when we are actually living through these events, we never really realize or a lot of the time, we don't really think that it is super important or crazy.
But if we even look at our lifetime so far.
So however old you are, I am sure that you will have lived through some very important things.
For example, even the rise of technology.
The huge surge of technology in the early 2000s and even right up until this day.
The world is completely different.
It has completely changed.
It continues to change so fast at a pace that we've never really seen before.
Yet, we never think that much about it.
We often get used to these changes.
We don't reflect, don't think about the past.
But honestly, in the future students will look back at this time and at the early 2000s and the rise of technology, the increase of technology, and see it as a really fascinating, crazy time where the world changed.
Whether or not it has changed the world for the better, that is another question.
I would love to hear your opinion on that.
Whether you think our increased use of technology or change in lifestyle is for the better of humanity.
The better of the human race for us.
And I think I will definitely choose that for another topic.
The topic of technology and how it affects us as humans.
When I think of the coronavirus, I think of one word, and that is control.
And for me, that really explains how I think about it.
During this period, there has been more control in the world from governments, the people in charge, than ever before.
In every country.
It doesn't matter where you are.
It doesn't matter if you live in communist China, or the West, or...
America.
Everyone has experienced a level of control over their lives that they have never felt before.
They have been limited, restricted, had a lot of freedom taken away from them during this time.
And of course, I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
It was something that many people think is necessary to stop the spread of the virus, to stop more people from getting the virus.
But what I would ask is how will this change the future?
If governments get an idea of more control, of how they can control their people, keep them at home, make them do things, how will that change the actions of the future?
Especially in countries where governments already have a lot of control and a lot of say over how things are.
For example, in many countries they introduced tracking cameras.
Cameras which could track people's temperatures and they had facial recognition.
Cameras which know people's faces, who they are.
And many people say that is needed.
We needed that to know where sick people were, to make sure that people did not leave home during the quarantine.
But I would ask what happens after?
Do you really think that those cameras will disappear?
That the increased control will just go back to normal?
I kind of doubt it.
I have doubts about that.
Another area that has been so affected by this virus has been jobs.
Where people work and what they do.
I think this will permanently change in many areas.
So a lot of people began to work at home, even my father, for example.
During this time, companies realized that it was much cheaper to allow people to work from home.
It saves them a lot of money and a lot realized that they didn't really need people to be in an office or a building together.
After this is all over, i really think there will be a lot more remote work, distanced work, So people working from their houses.
And perhaps this is quite bad because of the social element of an office and of work.
I don't really know how all of this will affect people's mental health, their social abilities and how society as a whole will change.
It even feels strange now seeing large crowds of people and people shaking hands or giving hugs.
It makes people even now feel uncomfortable, even at a time when the virus is relatively low.
Where I live, for example.
The other main category I would like to talk about is travel.
Will travel ever be the same?
I think it will probably get back to where it was, but it's going to take a lot of time.
This is something that is very frustrating to me.
As many of you know, I have a girlfriend in Russia, one that I have been separated from during this time, and it is literally physically impossible for me to travel there right now.
There are no flights to Russia, the Russian borders are closed, and I can't get a visa.
And honestly, it really sucks.
It's very annoying.
And of course I hate that fact, but it's a result of this whole thing and I kind of just have to live with it.
I am really curious to hear how you have all been affected by the coronavirus.
How your plans, your travel plans, your job, just life in general.
I love and I really care about hearing about your experiences from all of you.
Feel free to message me them on Instagram and I will try to respond and read them.
So, some important coronavirus terms or phrases which I think could be cool to learn.
The first, of course, is social distancing, which I'm sure a lot of you know about or recognize.
And this is where people stand further apart.
They are not close together to stop the spread of the virus.
The second term is self-isolation, which translates directly into Russian too.
So I'm very sure that you will understand that word.
One phrase that has been used a lot has been to take measures, to take measures.
And what this means is to do things to stop things. the situation from being worse.
So to prevent the spread.
And finally, the last sort of word I would like to discuss is one that has really gotten on my nerves.
It has annoyed me because I've heard it so much.
It's always on the news.
People always use it.
They use it way too much during this situation.
And that is the word unprecedented.
Unprecedented.
They are always saying these are unprecedented times.
And what this means is that these are times that we have never seen before.
If something is unprecedented, it is more extreme or something that we have never seen before in the past at this level.
So, for example, we could say the temperature of the Earth is unprecedented during this year, which means it is the highest that it has ever been.
I really hope that this week's podcast has been interesting for you and not too difficult.
I am trying to pick complicated themes, more interesting themes, but I am talking about them in a simple way.
In a way where you can understand vocabulary around these themes.
To possibly talk about them and understand them more.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review.
A five star review, I hope.
Especially if you're on iTunes podcasts.
Every review really really helps.
I hope everyone stays safe, healthy and happy during this time.
And as always, I'll see you all in the next episode.
Goodbye.
