welcome to a new episode of english vocabulary booster my name is lara and i'm a salsa certified english teacher learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time but we'll do it in a way that's easy quick and efficient in every episode we'll learn how to use five new english words or expressions so that you too can start speaking like a native so let's get learning How's it going?
So I am recording this episode incredibly late.
It's something that I usually don't like doing, because I usually record a few episodes ahead of time, but then you know, I just moved into the new apartment and everything, and that has taken up so much of my time just time, but also my mental space.
And so I kept, you know, putting off the recording.
And then here we are a day before this episode needs to come out and I'm recording it.
Just keeping it real, you guys.
Anyway, let's get started because I don't have a lot of time to edit this.
And today we're going to talk about words and phrases.
Yo, dude.
Long time no see.
What up, man?
Hey.
Sup, bro?
Life's good.
Life's good.
How about you?
Uh, you know, always the same.
So, are you ready to get this tattoo?
Absolutely.
I can't wait.
What are you gonna get?
Um, I don't know yet.
I just know I want it here, on my chest.
Don't you...
Don't you want to wait until you know for sure what you're going to get?
No.
I've waited long enough.
I want a tattoo.
I just turned 18 and I want to get it.
Like, today.
Okay.
Well, let's see.
I think that you should go for something epic but funny at the same time.
Like what?
Like, um, ooh, like Barney Stinson's catchphrase.
Who?
The guy from the show How I Met Your Mother.
What's his catchphrase?
Legendary.
Um, I don't know.
I don't know if I want to have the word legendary tattooed on my chest forever, you know?
I want something more personal.
Maybe I could get my motto tattooed?
You have a motto?
What's your motto?
Never back down.
Oh, come on.
Don't you want to pick something a little more original?
Pretty much every guy I know has that tattoo.
Yeah, you're right.
Oh, I got it.
Just do it.
Just do what?
No, the tattoo should say just do it.
Isn't that Nike's slogan?
Yeah, so what?
It sounds cool.
I don't want to be a walking commercial.
Fair enough.
What about a mantra?
What's a mantra?
Well, I went to this yoga class once and they said that mantras are like these super powerful sentences that can literally change your life.
Give me an example.
Like, I am enough or I am loved.
I mean, I don't know.
Ben, you ready?
Ready?
Yeah, um, I'm coming.
I'll think of something.
Alright, all done.
Come on, let me see.
Oh, wow.
You like it?
So in the end, you went for live, laugh, love.
You like it?
It's a quote.
I like quotes.
And so I thought, why not?
I think Obama said it in one of his speeches or something.
Obama said live, laugh, love.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
I think it looks cool.
Um, yeah, sure.
You are definitely not going to regret this.
Hey, what do you guys think?
Is he gonna regret that?
I got a feeling that he will at some point in his life.
Okay, let's talk about word number one, catchphrase.
What's his catchphrase?
Is a catchphrase, a sentence or a word that was made popular by someone famous or by a regular person.
Although a catchphrase can be associated with just like.
I don't know, maybe a friend of yours has a catchphrase or something.
It's usually something that, like a sentence or a word that was made popular by someone famous.
I'm thinking especially like TV shows, because you have, you know, catchphrases that belong to certain actors that are repeated throughout the show multiple times.
And is a catchphrase usually a long sentence or a short sentence?
It's usually pretty short.
It's very quick.
So I would say just one word sometimes or just a very, very short sentence, a few words at most.
Does a catchphrase always have a deep meaning?
No, not at all.
You know, just like, you know, the catchphrase that I mentioned in the story.
Barney Stinson's catchphrase is legendary.
That doesn't have, you know, a deep meaning, but it's just something funny that is repeated, you know, multiple times in the show.
What's an example of an actor's catchphrase that you can think of?
So even though I wasn't a huge fan of this show, I don't know why, but when I was writing the questions, the first catchphrase that came to my mind was the catchphrase that the character of Steve Urkel from the show Family Matters always repeats.
And again, I didn't love Family Matters, but I used to watch it from time to time in Italian because everything was dubbed at the time back then.
But yeah, and then I watched it again a few times in English.
After that, and Steve Urkel's catchphrase is, did I do that?
Or something along these lines.
I don't know how good my impression is, but yeah, he said it.
I would say at least once every episode, if not more.
Word number two, motto.
Maybe I could get my motto tattooed.
Is a motto usually a long sentence or a short sentence?
Once again, a motto is usually pretty short.
We want to encapsulate a big thought into just a few words.
And what is the purpose of a motto?
To tell you how to behave or to make people remember you.
The purpose of a motto is to kind of tell you how to behave.
It's more about like what type of philosophy you should follow and embrace in your life.
So it gives you like a little bit of wisdom within a sentence.
What's a famous motto that you like and try to live by?
And what about one that you don't believe in?
I don't know if I have any mottos that I really live by.
Okay, so the first motto that comes to mind for some reason is Hakuna Matata from The Lion King.
I don't know if it's from The Lion King, but that's where I heard it from.
Pretty sure it's like you know, from africa or something.
I don't know.
I'm really ignorant.
I apologize if i'm saying something stupid, but i did learn it from the lion king, as i think, most people um, but i'm pretty sure that means no worries so, and that's like the opposite of my philosophy.
My philosophy is more like Well, you know, you should worry.
And if you're not worried, you should be worried, because really there's probably something to be worried about.
So I think Hakuna Matata doesn't really represent me, but it's cool.
I wish I could live by that motto.
I know, though, that there's a motto that I absolutely despise.
I don't like it at all.
And that is live every day as if it were your last day.
Because I know what it's supposed to mean, right?
Because what this motto is supposed to say is kind of like, make the most of your time.
Don't waste your time.
But when you like take it literally, then I mean, live every day as if it were your last.
To be honest with you, if they told me that I was going to die tomorrow, I would probably just like sit on a couch, eat as much as I could probably as much ice cream as I could.
I would have my whole family around, that would be for sure.
But I would still binge watch a bunch of shows on Netflix while eating with my family around me.
That's what I would do on my last day.
So I don't know if I want to do that every day.
I don't think I would be that productive.
So I don't know, just not a big fan of this motto, but if you know, if it inspires you, then good for you, you know.
Word number three, slogan.
Isn't that Nike's slogan?
Who uses slogans?
Politicians, advertisers, companies, or all of them?
Slogans can be used by all of these entities.
So politicians, advertisers, companies, whatever.
I guess the most famous slogans are associated with brands.
But yeah, even politicians, if there's an election, they will come up with their own slogan so that people will associate them with a specific idea.
Are slogans easy to remember?
Yes, they need to be easy to remember because that is the purpose of a slogan.
You want people to associate your person or your brand to a certain slogan.
So they need to be very short.
They need to be easy to remember.
Sometimes they're very catchy.
So yeah, absolutely.
That is the purpose of a slogan.
Can you think of any famous slogans?
Well, we did mention one in the story.
It was Nike's Just Do It, which I think is super popular.
Nike also came up with the slogan, impossible is nothing, if I'm not mistaken.
And I mean, Nike is pretty good at coming up with slogans.
I'll give them that.
But then we also, let's see.
Oh, and then we have McDonald's.
I'm loving it.
Again, super quick, easy to remember.
And it's got a nice ring to it.
And then we have Ambu.
I mean, Ambu has got its. slogan.
Um, it's boost your English.
Again, short, sweet, and gets to the point.
Um, so yeah, I guess, I guess we're comparing Mbu to McDonald's and Nike now.
Well, it's my podcast, so I guess I can do it.
Word number four, mantra.
Fair enough.
What about a mantra?
Okay, so before we get to the questions, just a little disclaimer.
Um, A mantra is actually, I believe, like a word or a sound that's used while praying in certain religions and in certain cultures.
Okay,
But over the years, and I think especially lately, the word mantra has also been connected with something that's a little bit different, something that's not quite as deep.
So I'm not talking about that mantra.
I'm talking about the way Westerners use the word mantra right now, which is, I guess, in a bit more of a shallow way.
All right,
But if you're watching like YouTube or yeah, you're following any like inspirational speakers or anything like that, they will use mantra in the way that we're about to see.
Okay,
So just know that there's a deeper meaning to this word.
Something that's a little bit more spiritual.
We're going to talk about how a lot of people are using it nowadays.
So what do mantras represent?
A particular strong belief or the rule that tells you what to do in a specific situation.
A mantra represents a particular strong belief.
So once again, it's something a bit more philosophical.
It tells you about life.
So what is the difference between a motto and a mantra?
I think that a motto, just like we said before, I think it's just a bit of wisdom.
Even a proverb can become a motto, if you will.
It has to do more about how you're supposed to live your life, right?
Whereas a mantra is maybe a bit more spiritual and it is more about how you feel and how you want to feel in the future.
So a mantra would be something like, I am loved or I am worthy of great things or I am powerful.
So it's a lot.
I think it's strongly connected to your self-image, how you see yourself and how you want to portray yourself to the world.
How often are mantras repeated?
Very often or just once in a while.
So I guess people say that if you repeat these kinds of mantras, there's people that do that.
They have like this routine every day.
They go to the bathroom.
They look at themselves in the mirror and they repeat a mantra or a series of mantras.
And they do that because they think that by repeating them, you're going to um kind of I guess trick your brain into thinking that they're true so say that you don't feel um like you're um I don't know loved then or that you're beautiful you look in the mirror and you don't like what you see by kind of repeating to yourself every day I am beautiful um you're supposed I guess people say that your brain's supposed to believe it at some point um Does that work?
I don't know.
I would need to really do it to see if it works.
Have you ever tried to use mantras for self-growth?
I have because, again, I'm all about self-growth.
I am, I think, constantly trying to become a better person.
And so I read a lot of like self-help books.
And then I watch a lot of like self-help videos on YouTube.
And so this, you know, mantra thing came up and I was intrigued by it.
But I am terrible with consistency, as you might already know by now.
And so I did do it um, for I think, two days where it was just like I had this list of mantras that I wanted to repeat every day in front of a mirror and, to be honest with you, I think, by the second day, like it did it one day, and then the second day I was just like, first of all, I don't want to do it and secondly, I just, I don't know, I feel silly for doing this.
I don't believe what I'm saying and I don't.
I guess I was expecting to already see some kind of results, which is, you know, obviously not possible.
But But yeah, I did give it a shot.
It's just, it wasn't, it isn't for me, I guess.
Word number five, quote.
Live, laugh, love.
You like it?
It's a quote.
Is a quote something you said or something someone else has said?
A quote is usually something that someone else has said.
And usually someone that's pretty famous or So where do quotes come from?
Well, they can come from movies a lot of times, from shows, from books.
There's a great amount of quotes, inspirational quotes that come from speeches as well.
Those are my favorite ones, I think.
So yeah, I think these are mostly where quotes come from.
Are quotes short sentences or long sentences?
You've got a little bit of everything, honestly.
You've got short quotes and then sometimes you have longer quotes, like a whole passage could be a quote.
I find those have a little bit less of an impact on me just because they're longer.
I prefer like shorter quotes that are a bit more powerful.
Do you have any favorite quotes?
I.
So I had to do a bit of research, because I couldn't think of a quote that like, really resonated with me.
And as I was going through this whole list of quotes, I came across this one by Oscar Wilde that says yourself everyone else is already taken.
And I thought that was really interesting, because I'm usually someone that, especially when I'm in a group or even with someone that I don't know that well, I always feel like I'm always trying to change how I act to kind of make them feel better, um so, but at the same time i'm not being my full self.
I think like um, unless i know you super duper well, i'm never like 100 myself and that's something like that.
I don't even notice, i do it automatically.
I just adjust to kind of please the person that I'm with, which is terrible when you think about it.
But I guess I do it because I want to be accepted and I want to be liked by the other person.
So when I read this quote I was like that is really cool, because it makes you realize that everybody's unique in their own way.
And we should celebrate that and we should accept that and embrace that.
And that is something that I think I don't do nearly enough and that I want to do more.
So yeah, I think it's a pretty cool quote.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enboocom.
That is E-N-B-O-O-O dot com.
Have a great day.
