Long working hours 'kills 745,000 people a year': BBC News Review

Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

Joining me today is Tom. Hi, Tom.

Hi, Neil. Good morning and hello to our audience.

Did you know that 745,000 people are killed each year

by working for too long. That's according to a new study

released by the World Health Organization.

That's a really terrible statistic.

If you want to test yourself on any of the vocabulary that you hear in

this programme, there's a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's find out some more about the story from this BBC News report:

So, the World Health Organization has released a report about

working hours. The study says that working for too long can kill you.

Around 745,000 deaths each year can come from working too long.

Working 55 hours or more can increase your chance of having a

heart attack or having a stroke. This is particularly true for

men and the study says that the worst affected region for this

problem is the Asia-Pacific region, which includes Japan and Australia.

OK. Well, you've been looking at this story, at the various news websites,

and picking out really useful vocabulary for our viewers to learn.

What have you got?

Today's vocabulary, Neil. We have: 'killer', 'burden' and 'detrimental'.

'Killer', 'burden' and 'detrimental'.

So, let's hear your first headline, please.

Of course. My first headline is from Reuters – it says:

'A killer' – something or someone who kills.

Now, that's pretty straightforward, isn't it? Why are we learning this?

Everyone knows what a 'killer' is.

Probably a lot of our audience do know what a 'killer' is, Neil,

but we're going to look at some sort of wider uses of this expression.

It has more than one meaning. To begin with,

let's look at the headline. 'A killer' – this is a noun.

It's a singular noun and it's something or someone that kills.

Note that long working hours is plural, but 'a killer' with

the article remains a sort of fixed piece of language.

This is the same with cigarettes, for example. 'Cigarettes – plural –

are a killer' means cigarettes are a cause of death. They can kill you.

Now, all of these examples you've given – this is

all really negative stuff. But our audience may be

surprised to learn that we can use 'killer' in a positive way.

Yeah, and that's why we've chosen it – because that's why we're here:

to look at different ways we can use this language.

So, for example, how would you feel if I said

I watched 'a killer movie' last night

and I ate 'a killer sandwich' while I did that?

Well, I would hope that the sandwich was not bad – it

didn't affect your health. To me, it would mean that it was

a really great sandwich or the film was really, really good.

Yeah, or I had a very strong emotional reaction, you could say.

So, if I watched 'a killer movie',

that could mean that I watched a really great movie.

And I ate 'a killer sandwich' – that means I had a

strong emotional reaction, because it was so delicious.

Yes. Now, I think what we can tell from this

is that context is really key.

Context is everything. So, let's take that movie example.

If I watched a really funny film and I said,

'Oh, it was a killer!'

that might mean it's hilarious. It's really funny.

But if I watch a sad film, like Titanic, and I say,

'Oh, it was a killer,'

that could mean it was very sad.

As you say, context is everything with this expression.

Yeah. And we could also say that someone 'kills someone' and it

doesn't mean that they kill them; it means that it makes that...

they make that person laugh a lot.

Yeah, I could say, 'So, Neil kills me with his jokes on News Review!'

  It means they make me laugh a lot.

I have a strong emotional reaction and that is hilarity.

It's really funny.

I try my best, Tom. OK. Let's get a summary:

If you would like to watch another story about work,

we have the perfect one for you, don't we Tom?

Yeah, we do. Are you work... do you want to work for free?

This is our story: it's about young people being expected to work for free.

It's 6 Minute English and you can find it

by clicking the link in the video description.

OK. Let's take a look at your second headline.

Cool. Yeah, my second headline is from stuff.co.nz,

which is a website from New Zealand.

It's not actually a headline; it's from the body of the article.

It says:

And that word is 'detrimental'.

  'Detrimental' – likely to cause harm.

Yeah, so 'detrimental' is an adjective and it's got an

interesting pronunciation as well. Four syllables: 'de-tri-men-tal'.

And it's that third... that third syllable:

'de-tri-MEN-tal' is the pronunciation of the adjective.

And it means it is likely to cause harm or be damaging.

Yeah. So, when we talk about harmful things,

we can say that they are 'detrimental to' something.

Definitely, yeah. You could say: 'Cigarettes are detrimental.'

Or you could say: 'Cigarettes are detrimental to your health.'

'Detrimental to' is a kind of common construct

– and it's followed by a noun.

Cigarettes are 'detrimental to your health'.

Working long hours – also 'detrimental to your health',

as the headlines are telling us.

Yeah. So, 'detrimental' is an adjective,

but there's also a noun version: 'detriment'.

We have to use that in a special kind of way, though.

Yeah, 'detriment' – and again, it's quite high register.

It comes in the expression 'to the detriment of'.

It means kind of, like, at the expense of.

So, I could say, 'Neil worked too long.

Neil works too many hours, to the detriment of his friendships.'

Yes... it's not true at all, but good example.

It means that you spend all your time doing News Review,

so you don't have time for your mates.

Yeah. Now, as you said there's quite a high register.

That means it's quite formal, both 'detrimental' and 'detriment'.

In our ordinary spoken English, what sort of thing do we say instead?

I'd probably just say, like,

'it's bad for you,' or something. Or, 'it's harmful.'

Yeah, we wouldn't normally use 'detriment'... Normally,

'detrimental' is quite formal and you'd see it in the context of,

like, this – like reports on health or something like that.

OK. Let's get a summary:

Now, a lot of people these days are saying that red meat is

'detrimental' to our health. Others disagree,

but we have a programme on that topic, don't we Tom?

Yeah. Is red meat harmful? That's what we're talking about.

You can find it by clicking the link in the video description down here.

Let's have a look then at our next headline, please.

Perfect. Again, we're not looking at the headline;

we're looking at the body of the article.

This is from the World Health Organization website –

from the release. It says:

And that word is 'burden'.

'Burden' – something that causes difficulty or hard work.

Now, Tom, I know what a 'burden' is. If you have to carry a

huge weight on your back, that is a 'burden', literally.

That is... yeah, that is a 'burden', Neil. So, 'burden' can be literal

or 'burden' can be, kind of, figurative or metaphorical.

So, let's look at this piece of text from the WHO.

The 'burden' that they're talking about – the thing that's causing

difficulty or hard work – is work-related disease and death coming

from work-related disease and it said that this is causing particular...

excuse me, particular difficulty for men, who are most affected.

Yeah. And it's also – we talk about 'carrying a burden',

'having a burden'. It's also a verb, though.

Yeah, it is. It is also a... excuse me, it is also a verb.

Before I look at the verb, let me just...

let's look at that, kind of, literal/figurative meaning. So,

we were talking about a figurative 'burden', like a problem...

work-related disease causing a problem.

And 'burden' could also be the stuff that we actually carry, like the ship

that got stuck in the Suez canal recently: its 'burden' was too heavy.

The stuff it was carrying was too much.

Yeah. So, we're talking about figurative, heavy loads.

Yeah, exactly. And 'burden' can be a verb. So, you're talking

about the stuff you put on: this heavy load – a 'burden' on a ship.

You could say that 'we burden the ship' with this weight.

Yeah. If I asked you to do loads of work, loads of extra work,

we could say that 'I was burdening you' with a load of work.

Yeah! So, we'd use the figurative meaning because you wouldn't

literally be placing microphones and computers on top of me... hopefully!

But you would be giving me more responsibilities:

I'd have to carry more responsibilities, we could say.

OK. Let's get a summary of that:

Time now for a recap of our vocabulary please, Tom.

Today's vocabulary: we had 'killer' – something or someone that kills.

'Detrimental' – likely to cause harm.

And 'burden' – something that causes hard work or difficulty.

If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary,

there's a quiz on our website bbclearningenglish.com

and we are also all over social media.

Thanks for joining us and we will see you next time. Goodbye.

See you next time and see you on the website. It's a 'killer'.