What makes you happy? 6 Minute English

Neil: Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute English,

I'm Neil. This is the programme

where in just six minutes we

discuss an interesting topic and

teach some related English vocabulary.

And joining me to do this is Rob.

Rob: Hello, Neil.

Neil: Now Rob, you seem like

a happy chappy.

Rob: What's the point of being miserable?

Neil: Well, that are many things that could

make you feel down in the dumps -

a phrase that means 'unhappy' -

but what are the things that keep you feeling

happy, cheerful and chirpy, Rob?

Rob: Oh many things like being healthy,

having good friends, presenting

programmes like this with you, Neil!

Neil: Of course - but we all have different

ideas about what makes us happy - and

that can vary from country to country

and culture to culture. It's what we're

talking about today -

concepts of happiness.

Rob: Now Neil, you could make us even

happier if you gave us a really

good question to answer.

Neil: Here it is. Happiness is an emotion

that actually gets measured.

The World Happiness Report measures

"subjective well-being" - how happy the

people are, and why. But do you know,

according to a United Nations agency

report in 2017, which is the happiest

country on Earth? Is it...

a) Norway, b) Japan, or c) New Zealand?

Rob: WeIl, I think they're all very happy

places but the outdoor life of many

New Zealanders must make

New Zealand the happiest place.

Neil: OK, we'll see. I'll reveal the answer

later on. But now back to our discussion

about happiness around the world.

Rob: Happiness can be hard to define.

Research has suggested that while

personal feelings of pleasure are the

accepted definition of happiness in

Western cultures, East Asian

cultures tend to see happiness as

social harmony and in some parts

of Africa and India it's more about

shared experiences and family.

Neil: It's something author and journalist

Helen Russell has been looking at - she's

even created an 'Atlas of Happiness'.

Her research focused on the positive

characteristics of a country's population

- and guess which country she found

to be one of the happiest?

Rob: New Zealand?

Neil: Actually no. It was Japan. Here she

is speaking on BBC Radio 4's

Woman's Hour programme. What

concept - or belief - is it that

promotes happiness?

Helen Russell: Millennials and perhaps

older people are better at

remembering wabi-sabi - this

traditional Japanese concept around

celebrating imperfection, which I think is

something so helpful these days,

especially for women... it's this idea that

there is a beauty in ageing, it's to be

celebrated rather than trying

to disguise it, or trying to cover up the

scars instead you gild them with

kintsugi... if you break a pot instead

of chucking it away, you mend it with gold

lacquer so the scars, rather than

being hidden, are highlighted in

pure gold... We all have laughter lines

and rather than being ashamed

of them, they're something

to be celebrated.

Neil: So in Japan, there is a belief that

people should celebrate imperfection.

Imperfection is a fault or weakness.

So rather than hiding something that's

not perfect, we should celebrate it.

Rob: Getting old, for example, is not

something to be ashamed of -

don't hide your wrinkles or

laughter lines - these are the creases

you get as you skin ages or

even you get from

smiling too much!

Neil: Rather than spending time being

ashamed of our faults, we should

accept what and who we are.

This concept is something that Helen

feels is particularly being celebrated by

Millennials and older people.

Rob: Yes, and Helen compared this with

the process of kintsugi - where the cracks

or scars on broken pottery are highlighted

with gold lacquer. This is called gilding.

So we should highlight our imperfections.

Neil: This concept is something that

maybe English people should

embrace more because

according to Helen Russell's research,

they are not a very happy population.

Here she is speaking on the

BBC's Woman's Hour programme

again - what word does she use to

describe people like me and you?

Helen Russell: In England what we have is

'jolly', which many of us now associate

with this kind of 'jolly hockey sticks'

or maybe an upper-class thing

but actually it's something

that really plays through a lot of British

culture in a way that we may not think of

so much. So there's this sense that in a

lot of our comedy, in a lot of our approach

to life you just sort of - you get out there,

you go for a dog walk, you have a boiled

egg and 'soldiers', and we do sort of

get on with things - it's

a coping mechanism, it's not perfect but

it's worked for many Brits for a while.

Rob: In the past we would use the phrase

'jolly hockey sticks' - a humorous

phrase used to describe upper-class

school girls' annoying enthusiasm.

Neil: But Helen now thinks 'jolly' describes

an attitude that is used as

a coping mechanism - that's something

someone does to deal with a difficult

situation. We smile, do everyday

things - like walking the dog -

and just get on with life.

Rob: I guess she means carry on

without complaining.

Neil: Well, here's something to make

you happy, Rob - the answer to

the question I asked you earlier,

which was: according to a United

Nations agency report in 2017, which is

the happiest country on Earth? Is it...

a) Norway, b) Japan, or c) New Zealand?

Rob: And I said c) New Zealand.

Neil: The answer is a) Norway. The report

has been published for the past five years,

during which the Nordic countries have

consistently dominated the top spots.

OK, now it's time to remind ourselves of

some of the vocabulary

we've mentioned today.

Rob: We mentioned the phrase

down in the dumps - which is an informal

way of describing the feeling of

unhappiness, sometimes with no hope.

Neil: The next word was imperfection,

which is a fault or weakness.

You won't find any

imperfections in this programme, Rob!

Rob: Glad to hear it. Maybe we should gild

this script - to gild something is to cover

it in a thin layer of gold. We also heard

about the word jolly which means

'cheerful and happy'.

Neil: And being jolly can be used as

a coping mechanism - that's something

someone does to deal with a difficult

situation. If something doesn't go well,

you just smile and carry on.

Rob: Well, there's no need to do that in

this programme. Now there's just time

to remind you that we have

a website with lots more learning

English content. The address is

bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil: Thanks for joining us and goodbye.

Rob: Goodbye!