Could you give up booze for a month? 6 Minute English

Sam: Hello. This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam...

Rob: And I'm Rob.

Sam: So we're well into 2020 now -

how are your New Year's resolutions

going, Rob?

Rob: Ah resolutions - you mean

promises people make to themselves

to stop or start doing

something - I promised to start

running, and to stop eating biscuits

and to give up alcohol

for a month. But I failed on all of them!

Sam: Oh dear...

Rob: Yes, I lasted a few days and then

I started to crumble.

Sam: Yeah. Well, you're not alone.

Many people try to kick bad habits

and get healthy when

a new year begins. Their intentions - their

plans to do something - are good.

Rob: Yes, giving up drinking is particularly

good to do, if only for the health benefits.

Sam: Well, we'll be talking more

about that as soon as I've set up

today's question. According

to historians, which people were thought

to be the first group to make New Year's

resolutions?

Was it the... a) Romans,

b) Native Americans or c) Babylonians.

Rob: I haven't got a clue, so I'm going

to guess a) the Romans.

Sam: OK, Rob, I'll let you know if that

was a good guess at the end

of the programme.

Now let's talk more about giving things up

for New Year and, specifically,

giving up alcohol.

Rob: It's a time often called 'Dry January'

- dry refers to not drinking alcohol, it's

not about the weather!

And the beginning of the year seems

like a good time to start doing

something to improve your health.

Sam: But it's easy to give in

to temptation - isn't it, Rob?

Rob: Oh yes. And it's tough to give up

drinking in the first place,

as Millie Gooch, founder

of The Sober Girl Society knows.

She spoke to BBC Radio 4's You and

Yours programme and

explained why it was hard

to quit in the first place...

Millie Gooch: I think it's the peer pressure

and, you know, it's so expected of us, it's

so ingrained in us. Alcohol is everywhere

and it's not just alcohol itself, it's alcohol

merchandise, so, you know, you've got

Christmas jumpers that have been

say 'Prosecco-ho-ho-ho'

and you can't buy a birthday card without

saying 'let the fun be-gin'.

It's just absolutely

everywhere, it's so hard to avoid.

Sam: So that's Millie, who's right when she

says that, in the UK at least,

we sometimes drink because

we give in to peer pressure. That's the

influence a group of similar people

have on you to behave like them.

Rob: We want to be part of the group so

we copy what they do - and

we are expected to do so because,

as Millie said, drinking alcohol

is ingrained in us - well in

some cultures anyway.

Sam: And when an attitude is ingrained it

means it's been that way

for a long time - it's difficult

to change. And although it may be

harmful, we see jokes

about drinking through

things like merchandise - a word

for goods we buy and sell.

Rob: And Millie goes on to say we can

buy jumpers that joke about

the Italian sparkling wine called

Prosecco - which say 'Prosecco-ho-ho-ho!'

And birthday cards have the message 'let

the fun be-gin' -- a play on the word 'begin'.

Sam: With all this social pressure, it's hard

not to give in - and that's even

worse when you're trying

to fulfil your resolution not to drink.

Rob: For Millie, enough was enough

when drinking started to have

a negative effect and she had

to do something about it.

Let's hear from her again.

Millie Gooch: I started realising that

alcohol was really affecting

my mental health, so

I was getting that really bad hangover

anxiety - that like, hangover fear

and dread - and

I kind of noticed that was permeating

everyday life. I was a binge drinker

rather than like

an everyday drinker. So I just decided

that it wasn't suiting my life any more

and I wanted

to give it up.

Rob: So Millie there described the

negative effects of a hangover - that's

the sick and tired feeling

you get after drinking too much

alcohol. She also said she

felt anxiety. And this feeling was

permeating her everyday life. When

something permeates it spreads through

something and influences every part of it.

Sam: So, drinking was affecting her

everyday life, and it didn't help

that she was a binge drinker.

When you binge you do something

occasionally but to extreme.

Rob: Well, Millie managed to quit drinking

and hasn't touched a drop since.

There are many benefits

to remaining sober - that means

not being drunk. And one of them

is hearing

the answer to today's question!

Sam: Earlier I asked you:

According to historians,

which people were thought to be the first

group to make New Year's resolutions?

Was it the...

a) Romans, b) Native Americans or

c) Babylonians.

And Rob, what did you say?

Rob: I had a wild guess and said

it was the Romans.

Sam: Sorry, Rob, you are wrong.

Many historians think it was the

Babylonians who made the

first ever New Year's resolutions, about

4,000 years ago. According to the

history.com website,

at New Year - which they celebrated in

mid-March - Babylonians made

promises to the gods to

pay their debts and return any objects

they had borrowed.

Rob: I wonder if they managed to keep

their resolutions for longer

than I did... Anyway,

let's keep one of our regular promises -

to recap the vocabulary we've

discussed today.

Starting with resolution....

Sam: ...which in the context of

a New Year's resolution, is a promise

to yourself to stop

or start doing something.

Rob: Peer pressure is the influence

a group of similar people have

on you to behave like them.

Sam: Ingrained describes an attitude or

idea that has been done in

a certain way for a

long time and is difficult to change.

And merchandise is a word for goods

we buy and sell.

Rob: We also mentioned a hangover -

that's the sick, tired and

sometimes anxious feeling

you get after drinking too much alcohol.

And permeating describes spreading

through something

and influencing every part of it. Like the

vocabulary in this programme, Sam!

Sam: Thanks, Rob - and that's all for now.

Rob: Bye bye!