Giving up alcohol - 6 Minute English

Rob: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English – the

show that brings you an interesting topic,

authentic listening practice and vocabulary

to help you improve your language skills.

I'm Rob…

Catherine: And I'm Catherine. In this programme we'll

be discussing quitting drinking and staying dry.

Rob: Right, so when you say ‘quitting’, you

mean ‘giving up’

– and when you say ‘drinking’,

you're particularly referring

to ‘the activity of drinking alcohol’.

Catherine: Exactly Rob.

Rob: But, what about staying dry? It's nothing

to do with the weather?

Catherine: No that's true. The adjective ‘dry’ here

means ‘no alcohol’.

And I, Rob, am currently having a dry January.

Rob: Ah yes, your New Year's resolution is to give

up alcohol for one month. Any reason?

Catherine: Yes.

I'm doing it in order to improve my health

and save some money.

And a resolution, by the way,

is a promise to yourself to do something

or not to do something.

Rob: Well they seem like good reasons. And for

now, we must keep up our resolution

to always start the programme with a question, so are

you ready for it, Catherine?

Catherine: I am, crack on, Rob!

Rob: OK, According to data from the World Health Organisation

in 2015,

which country consumed the most alcohol per person?

Was it…

a) Australia b) Finland, or

c) The Czech Republic

Catherine: Well they all sound quite likely, but I did

visit Prague once and I had a lovely time,

so I'm going to say c) the Czech Republic.

Rob: OK, well as always, we'll find out the answer

later on.

But let's continue our discussion about drinking –

or informally known as boozing

– and trying to give it up.

We all know that too much drinking can be bad for

us and that's why you Catherine,

have decided to quit – but only for a month.

Catherine: Yes just a month but it's a start and I might continue

into February.

But I'm seeing the benefits already.

I've managed to shed some weight

– most of which I actually put on over Christmas!

Rob: I can see. So to shed here simply means 'lose'.

And I bet your sobriety is helping you sleep better.

Sobriety, by the way, means ‘the

state of not being drunk’.

Catherine: It is actually. And I'm not alone: A study

of 857 British adults

by Dr Richard de Visser from the University of Sussex

found that after going for a month without alcohol,

62% of the people in the study

said they had better sleep.

So Rob, does that tempt you to become teetotal

and stop drinking?

Rob: Not me Catherine. I need a drink to help me

relax and be more sociable – you know how shy I am!

Catherine: Yes of course Rob! Well, maybe you should

listen to Catherine Gray.

She's the author of a book called

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober,

which she wrote after she discovered the negative

effects of going to too many

work-related parties

where she was just drinking too much.

Here she is speaking on BBC Radio

4's Woman's Hour programme…

Catherine Gray: I had a lot of social anxiety

and when I quit I had to deal with that.

I think I used drinking as a crutch, a confidence crutch

- it eased the way to go to big glittering parties and

stuff like that and

when I quit I had to learn real confidence in a way.

Catherine: So Catherine worked in the magazine

business which involved going to lots of boozy parties.

Drinking, she says, helped her deal with a

nervous and worried feeling that she had when she met

new people - she called it social anxiety.

Rob: Yes, and she used drinking as a crutch. A

crutch here is something you depend on for support

– and sometimes you rely on it too much.

Catherine: Yes and eventually she decided to abstain

from drinking

– in other words stop doing something that is enjoyable

but bad for you

– and she feels much better for it.

So Rob, come on, haven't you got the willpower to just

quit drinking for just 30 days?

Rob: Well according to Catherine Gray, that wouldn't

be long enough…

Catherine Gray: Experts say that it takes 66 days for a

new habit to bed in, so I would always recommend trying

it for 90 days. 30 days is the hard

bit before you get to the rewards.

Because after 66 days it starts getting a lot easier

and you start feeling better in yourself.

Catherine: Right, so it takes 66 days for doing a regular

activity - a habit - to bed in. And ‘bed

in’ means to ‘become normal and start

working properly’.

Rob: Now, earlier I asked you, according to data

from the World Health Organisation in 2015,

which country consumed the most alcohol per

person? Was it…

a) Australia

b) Finland, or

c) The Czech Republic

Catherine: And I said the Czech Republic. Was I right?

Rob: You were Catherine. Spot on, well done. Apparently,

14.1 litres of pure alcohol is consumed per

person each year.

Catherine: Well like I said, they do make good beer in

the Czech Republic – but people, be careful,

only drink it in moderation. Now Rob, shall

we take a look at the vocabulary we've mentioned

today?

Rob: Indeed. The first word we had was resolution

– that's a promise to yourself to do or

not do something. 'Catherine's New Year's

resolution was to give up drinking alcohol

for a whole month.'

Catherine: Yes, and I'm still doing it Rob – the plan

is to shed a few kilos and get fit. So for

example, 'Rob shed lots of weight when he

went on a cake-free diet!'

Rob: Really? I'd never give up cake Catherine,

but I could be tempted to give up booze as

I know sobriety is good for my health – that's

the noun word to mean ‘the state of not

being drunk’.

Catherine: Now our next word was abstain. That means

‘not do something that is enjoyable but

bad for you’. 'Rob needs to abstain from

eating cakes if he wants to wear his skinny jeans.'

Rob: Are you dropping a hint there, Catherine?

Now, our final word is actually two words

– bed in. It means ‘to become normal and

start working properly’. 'It took a while

for the new computer system to bed in but

now it's working perfectly.'

Catherine: That's brilliant because now we can go online

and find more BBC Learning English programmes at

bbclearningenglish.com.

That's all for today's 6 Minute English. We hope you

enjoyed it. Bye for now.

Rob: Bye.