Olympics: First transgender athlete: BBC News Review

Hello. Welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Tom and joining me this morning is Catherine. Good morning Catherine.

Hello Tom. Hello everybody.

Today's story is about athletics and it's from the Tokyo Olympics.

And don't forget – if you want to test yourself on the

vocabulary that we study today, there is a quiz

at the website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear more about this

story from a BBC radio news report:

So, an athlete from New Zealand is to enter the Tokyo Olympics.

Laurel Hubbard is a weightlifter. She is also transgender.

She was born male and identifies now as female.

Hubbard is in the news because this is the first time

a transgender athlete has competed in the Olympics.

Hubbard will be on the New Zealand women's team; in the past Hubbard

has competed on men's teams, but this year it will be the women's team.

Now, we've got three words and expressions from the world's

media that we can use to talk about this story, right?

Yes, we have: 'trans', 'brews' and 'polarising'.

'Trans', 'brews' and 'polarising'. OK. Let's get going.

Catherine, can we have a look at your first headline please?

Yes, we're starting here in the UK with the Guardian – the headline:

'Trans' – transgender. Very important word for today's story.

Catherine, what can you tell us?

OK. 'Trans' – T-R-A-N-S.

Yeah, it means transgender;

it's a short way of saying transgender. Let's look at 'trans':

its wider meaning is over, across or through. We use it as a prefix.

So, you can talk about something like a 'transatlantic flight'.

If you take a plane from Europe to America, or America to Europe,

that's a 'transatlantic flight'; it crosses the Atlantic Ocean.

If you travel across Russia by train,

you're probably on the 'Trans-Siberian Express',

the train that travels all the way across Russia.

And we use it in words like 'transfer' or 'transmit'

to talk about going from one place to another.

So, back to 'transgender': if you change your gender or you have

a gender, a sex, that you feel is not the one you were born with – so,

you're a man who then lives as a woman or you were born

a woman and you live as a man – you are transgender.

Now, that's a very simplified way of explaining transgender.

There are a lot of details and issues around transgenderism,

which we don't have time to go into today, but 'trans' is short

for transgender and that's a brief summary of what it is.

OK. So, transgender people – they kind of feel that their true nature

or gender identity doesn't match the sex

that they were given at birth. Yes.

Can you give us some examples of when we can use

'trans' or 'transgender' though, in a sentence, Catherine?

Sure. So, in the case of Laurel Hubbard, we can say,

'Laurel Hubbard is a transgender athlete,' or we can shorten it

and say, 'Laurel Hubbard is a trans athlete.'

Or we can say, 'Laurel Hubbard is transgender,'

or just: 'Laurel Hubbard is trans.'

So, 'trans' is an adjective. We could have a noun, like 'athlete' – so,

'Laurel Hubbard – transgender athlete.'

Or we could just say: 'Laurel Hubbard is transgender.'

OK. Let's move on to our summary slide:

OK. We're talking about the Tokyo Olympics.

They're everywhere at the moment.

We did another broadcast on the Tokyo Olympics recently, right, Catherine?

We did – talking about the effects of climate change on the

temperature in Tokyo and the result on athletes, potentially.

So, just click the link to watch.

Just click the link to watch. Great!

OK. Catherine, let's have a look at your second headline today please.

And we're in Canada now, with CBC – the headline:

'Polarising' – very divisive.

Catherine, tell us about 'polarising' please.

Yes. It's spelt: P-O-L-A-R-I-S-I-N-G, if you're in the UK.

If you speak American English, it's spelt with a 'z' as it is

in this headline, but the 'z' is an 's' in British English.

So, if something's 'polarising', it's very, very divisive.

Let's talk about the word 'polar' to start with. Now Tom, if you go

as far north as you possibly can on this planet, where will you be?

I suppose I would be at the North Pole.

You would. And if I go as far south as I possibly can,

I will be at the South Pole and can we go further apart?

We could not physically be any further apart.

OK. We'd be as far apart as it's possible to be,

and I guess this is where we get the figurative use, right?

Exactly that. So, if you are at 'polar opposites',

which is a common expression, you have completely different opinions:

there's nothing you can agree on about this particular topic.

So, if something is a 'polarising' topic,

it makes people really have very, very, very different opinions.

And this is an example of Laurel Hubbard and competing on a female

team when her sex at birth was male: people have very,

very strong opinions – very different opinions.

So, this is a very 'polarising' topic.

And we can use the verb as well, can't we?

'To polarise' – like a topic has the power to 'polarise' people...

Yes. ...put them at

different positions. Can you give us any

more examples of when we could use 'polarising' or 'polarise'?

Well, I mean there's many... we often see it in politics.

So, you could say that Donald Trump was a 'polarising character';

he polarised lots of people with his opinions.

We have lots of 'polarising policies.' We can talk about current

situations and arguments over, you know, Covid and the vaccine

and the lockdown: all those are very 'polarising' topics.

Recently, we had Brexit and there was very strong and very different

opinions about Brexit. So, in politics and in your personal life,

we can talk about things that 'polarise' people.

It means it makes them have really, really different opinions.

Brilliant. OK. Let's not 'polarise'; let's bring everything together

and let's have our summary slide for this piece of lexis please:

So, arguments in sports can be 'polarising': they can create strong

opinions. We have another News Review about an argument in sport, right?

We do. This one's all about Nike and advertising.

To find out what happened, just click the link.

Just click that link. Alright – excellent! Catherine,

let's have a look at your third piece of language for today please.

Yes, we are now going to India.

We're in The Indian Express and the headline is:

OK. 'Brews' – becomes stronger.

Catherine, what can you tell us about the word 'brews'?

It's a verb: B-R-E-W-S.

And if something 'brews', it becomes stronger.

Now Tom, you are fond of a cup of tea, aren't you?

I have a cup of tea right now, yes.  

And how do you like your tea... Don't tell the boss!

... weak or strong?

I mean, it depends. Sometimes, I leave the teabag in 'to brew'.

'To brew' – that's right. So, if you make a cup of tea and

you leave your teabag or your tea leaves in the water for a long time,

the tea 'brews' for longer and longer – gets stronger and stronger.

So 'brewing' is the process of creating tea,

or we also use it with beer: you can 'brew' beer, the alcoholic drink.

And the longer you leave it, the stronger it gets.

Now, bring that back to the idea of arguments, controversial topics:

if controversy is 'brewing', it's getting stronger.

And I guess we... when we make beer

or when we make tea, we add heat as well, don't we?

So, we could say it's getting more heated as well.

It can be, yes. I think you're... you definitely need heat when

you make tea, and a little bit of warmth for beer, but yes – it's

that idea of getting hotter and stronger and developing over time.

So, we use in everyday English for negative things: controversy,

arguments, disagreements. When you know that they're coming and

they're getting stronger and people are talking about it and they're...

you know, an argument's about to develop and explode,

you get that feeling that it's coming: it's 'brewing'.

OK. Fantastic! That's the verb 'to brew' and we also have a noun form,

don't we, which is a bit more basic and slightly different?

A cup of tea – let's have a 'brew'.

Let's have a 'brew'. Yeah, a 'brew' just means a hot drink in the UK,

so you could say, 'Make me a brew.' Or – it's not grammatically correct,

but we always say, 'Make us a brew,' which just means...

'Make us a brew'... ...go make me a cup of tea.

...particularly in the north of England. I think, in the south, less so.

Particularly in our homeland, eh Catherine?

Yeah. Up in the North.

'Up North' – go home for a nice 'brew'.

OK. Right, I'm going to go make a 'brew'.

While I do that, let's have that summary slide please:

OK. Catherine, can we have a recap of today's vocabulary please?

Yes, we started with 'trans', which means transgender.

Then we had 'polarising', meaning very divisive.

And we finished on 'brews', which means becomes stronger.

Fantastic! Thank you Catherine. OK.

That's all from us today. Thanks for being here.

See you next time. And goodbye.

Bye!