Study Notes: Pull the Finger out Use these study notes to help develop your listening and vocabulary skills in English. The study notes include Jungle Listening tips: looking at changes in English sounds and words when spoken naturally. Also, the notes will focus on idiomatic and important vocabulary. Trying to get you to notice different features of the highlighted words. Print these notes, listen to the podcast - multiple times if you can - and underline the words or expressions you d like to use in the future. Then put those words into your vocabulary system. Don t have a system? Then head over to English Riot and download my book: English Words Unmasked. Jungle Listening Tip Amy uses a lot of specialised vocabulary from drama like improvisation, mime and impersonation. If you are planning to study English in a specialised field it is useful to do a Listening Flood. Over a month only listen in your topic area - this will lighten the new vocabulary load and you ll get better at hearing those words in all their different forms. Also, you ll encounter important words in your specialisation more often. This will increase the chance of remembering those new words. Part 1: What the Beep do you know about learning English? 0:50 It kind of blows my mind to consider how long I ve actually been in the profession Idiom: Something that really surprises you. Uses a lot when talking about how time passes quickly. 1:16 Impersonation Meaning: You pretend to be someone else to make other people laugh. Word Parts: im- (not) person (a human) -ation (noun: the act or process). The act of someone not being that person. 1:34 It definitely has that performative element Meaning: You include some acting into what you are doing like teaching Collocations: key element, important element, essential element. 1:45 I think particularly when your trying to get language learners to understand things you ofter have to mime Meaning: You tell a story without words using your hands and body instead 1:48 You kind of have to mime things and be over the top Idiom: You act or behave in a way that is bigger than usual, maybe too much. Think about the top of an object then you re over the top of that object. 1:49 A bit more animated and expressive Meaning: You use a lot of energy and emotion to explain ideas Word History: This word comes from the Latin word anima which means life, soul, spirit. So, animation is bringing cartoon characters to life. Reanimate is bringing something back to life. While inanimate is something without life. 1:56 Having trained in improvisation and drama Meaning: You do a performance but with no words - you make the story up as you are doing it Slang Form: Expert speakers like to shorten words. Improvisation becomes improv or university becomes uni. 1 What the Beep: Study Notes English Riot 2018
2:33 BrisVegas Slang: A slang word for the capital city of Brisbane, which is in Australia. 2:50 Upon moving to my beloved adopted city and second home Melbourne Meaning: To choose a new city to call your home Core Meaning: To take something and make it your own e.g. child, approach, accent, policy, attitude, country, city. 4:07 Even in exam preparation I try to make it light and humorous Meaning: You are less serious and try to have more fun and laugh Opposites: light lesson/heavy lesson; light topic/heavy topic; light meal/heavy meal. 4:19 So I think,you know, still being able to Inject a bit of humour or enthusiasm Meaning: To put some jokes or laughter into the situation eg. A class. Core Meaning: Put something into something like a needle putting medicine into your body. 5:06 So I think that can be really handy for teaching students Meaning: Used to describe something that is very useful. Word Family: handy (adjective), handier (comparative) and handiest (superlative). 5:55 Hypnotherapy Meaning: A kind of health treatment. You do meditation and someone tells your brain things to help you think more positively. 6:02 Psychotherapy Meaning: A kind of health treatment. You tell a therapist your problems and they help you to solve them. Slang: A psycho is someone is crazy in a violent or strange way. It s a shortened form of the word psychopath Word History: Comes from the Greek word psykho- meaning mind or mental. 6:41 I came across her work probably about two-years ago. Meaning: You find something for the first time eg. A well-known person s work or ideas etc. Think like you are walking down the road and you came across/found a bag of money! 7:00 Get them changing their mindset towards study and exam-test taking Meaning: You change the way you think about something. 7:08 Being able to alleviate their stress and anxiety Meaning: You make something less painful or difficult. Collocations: alleviate usually collocates with something negative like a problem, suffering, symptom, pain or poverty. 7:26 An abundance of everything is feeding this stress Meaning: You are making the problem worse and keep it going. Core Meaning: Like feeding yourself food you can also feed an emotion, like stress, to increase its strength. 9:00 Looking at correlations between Meaning: Relationship or connection between two things. Sentence Frame: Looking at correlations between (noun phrase) and (noun phrase). For example, Looking at correlations between drinking and improving your English study. 9:18 Visualisation is a big thing that comes into this as well Meaning: You use your mind or imagination to see pictures of things that you want or how you want your life to be. Word History: vis is Latin for see. For example television, supervision or invisible. 2 What the Beep: Study Notes English Riot 2018
9:48 Eleven years down the track Idiom: Life is a journey and we are travelling down a track (a path). Can be talking about the past to now or to an unclear point in the future. Part 2 Study Tip of the Iceberg 0:42 What I try to encourage with my students is to make it thematic or topical Meaning: talking about one particular idea or topic (eg. food, travel, technology etc.) Word Family: theme (noun); thematic (adjective); thematically (adverb). 1:16 There s so much students can be doing eve in their commuting time Meaning: The time you spend travelling on public transport (eg. Trains, trams, buses etc.) 1:17 Flashcard apps Meaning: Cards that help you to practice and understand vocabulary words. 1:33 None of my resource suggestions are paid endorsements for this podcast Meaning: Money that a company gives you to show that you like or support their product. Collocations: give/receive an endorsement. 1:38 Hey if they are wanting to throw money at me, why not? Idiom: Give me lots of money without thinking about it. 1:54 Visual person Meaning: A person who can learn or remember things by looking at pictures, images or words. 2:05 Tip two: Play to your strengths Idiom: You give your attention to things that you do very well in. Life is a game! 2:32 I m reasonably good at remembering song lyrics Meaning: The words that you hear in a song 3:45 Doing some basic boring chores Meaning: The jobs that you don t like doing in the house eg. Washing the dishes, tidying your bedroom etc. 3:49 Because your doing something pretty mundane Meaning: Very boring (pretty in this context doesn t mean nice looking but rather fairly or more than a little boring). 3:54 Your adrenalin and cortisol levels are kind of low Meaning: Chemicals in the body that you feel when you are stressed or afraid of something. When high these chemical make you nervous, your heart beats faster and sometimes you shake. 3:59 You re not freaking out about anything Meaning: Feeling really, really worried about something that you think could be bad. Example: I was freaking out when I found out my visa was cancelled! 6:33 You ve got me stumped Meaning: To feel confused or not have an answer to a question. 3 What the Beep: Study Notes English Riot 2018
6:41 Those two were pretty stellar Meaning: To describe something really amazing or excellent. Word History: Comes from Latin and means star-like. 7:01 Try to find ways to be exposed to the language everyday Meaning: You see something (eg. A language) all the time 8:52 The more you stress out Meaning: To feel really worried about something Word Family: Stress out (phrasal verb) 8:59 I think just keep battling through Idiom: You keep doing something that might be difficult. Life is war! Example: I had a cold today but I decided to battle through work. 9:02 If you fall off the wagon you just get back on Meaning: You stopped a bad habit but in a difficult moment, you started the habit again eg. Drinking too much, stop exercising, stop studying your English every day. Part 3 Language Unmasked 0:30 I honestly can t come up with a concrete answer Meaning: You can t explain your reason for doing or not doing something. Opposite: an abstract answer. 0:34 I really can t pinpoint a time Meaning: You can t remember the exact moment or time you started something. Think about the point on the end of a pin. 2:04 I m teaching a bunch of Spanish students at the moment. Meaning: A group of people (you also see it with fruit like a bunch of grapes). 4:51 She had this look of shock on her face Meaning: A facial expression that shows you think something is unbelievable. Sentence Frame: (noun phrase) had this look of (noun phrase: shock/horror/disgust). 5:12 I had to get to the bottom of it Idiom: To find out the cause of a problem 6:02 I had a good old chuckle to myself Meaning: I laughed a lot about something Part 4 It s raining idioms and swear words 1:26 There s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears.. Meaning: You did something with a lot of effort 1:29 in your quest to try and conquer another language Meaning: You try really hard to achieve a goal and succeed at something that was not easy eg. You work hard to be really good at speaking English 4 What the Beep: Study Notes English Riot 2018
Part 5 The Red room The bonus expression from Episode 1 of this podcast is a slang expression cockblock. This term is to referring to a someone (a man or woman) stopping another person from meeting or having sex with someone. For example, you are in a bar and you are chatting someone up from the opposite sex. You go to the bar and buy a drink but when you come back your friend is speaking to the girl you re interested in. He would be called a cockblocker. Like any good slang, lots of memes have appeared on the Internet about cockblocking. Type cockblock, look at the images and have a laugh. Remember cock is a word for a male chicken but can also mean penis! Finally, if you have any questions from the Episode 2: Pull the Finger Out, leave an audio comment and we ll try and answer it in our next Q&A podcast. 5 What the Beep: Study Notes English Riot 2018