Dog meat banned by South Korea: BBC News Review

Dog meat banned in News South Korean law.

This is News Review from BBC

Learning English where we help you understand news headlines in English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Georgie.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary

you need to talk about this story.

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so you can learn more English from news headlines. Now the story.

South Korea has passed a law banning the killing and sale of dogs for their meat.

Dog meat isn't as popular as it used to be in the country -

research shows that only one in five people are in favour of eating it.

The new law comes into effect

in 2027, which gives farmers and restaurant owners

three years to adjust to the change.

You've been looking at the headlines, Georgie.

What's the vocabulary

people need to understand this story?

We have history in the making,

off the menu and overjoyed.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This one's from LBC.

'It's history in the making': South Korea passes law banning

centuries old dog meat industry.

So this headline is about a new law in South Korea which bans an industry

which has been around for centuries.

But we are looking at the expression 'history in the making'. Georgie,

it contains the word

'history' - makes me think of things that happened a long time ago in the past,

but this story is about now.

So, what's happening?

Yes, so we use 'history in the making'

to describe big, important events that are likely to become history

or something significant that we're all going to remember in the future.

So here, because the dog meat industry has been around for so long -

for centuries - this new law is a big moment for the history books.

It's history in the making.

Are there any other ways we can describe this kind of big, important event, Neil?

Yeah, so in news headlines we often see

words like 'historic' or 'history-making'.

How do we use them? Yes,

well, those words are both adjectives which have very similar meanings.

So you can say the new law is history in the making

or the history-making law or even

it's a historic law.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This one's from Al Jazeera. South Korea

takes dog meat off the menu. In this headline,

We are looking at the expression 'off the menu' and in this case

it's literal. This new law has come in and it means

that restaurants will have to take dog meat off their menu, to remove it,

otherwise they'll get in trouble with the law, could even go to jail.

But I think probably Georgie,

there's another meaning as well.

Yes, you're right. Here

it's used literally. Dog meat

won't be on the menu in restaurants. But we can also use 'off the menu'

in a metaphorical way to say that something is not an option.

So, Neil, this year

my New Year's resolution is to save money,

so buying a sports car is off the menu for me this year.

Ah, yes.

Unless you win the lottery, then buying a sports car will be on the menu again.

Let's have some more examples.

What are you doing this weekend?

Well, I wanted to go for a hike,

but I can see that it's going to rain this weekend

so that's off the menu and there aren't really any good films out at the moment

so that's off the menu as well. Maybe I'll meet up with a friend.

Ah, yes. Meeting a friend should always be on the menu.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one's from the Investor's Observer.

South Korea bans the dog meat industry

with historic vote at national assembly as animal campaigners 'overjoyed'

This headline talks about the reactions

of animal rights campaigners who have described the dog meat industry

as 'cruel'. The word

we're looking at is overjoyed. Now, Georgie,

if we look inside this word,

we can find two parts that help us understand the sense.

Yes, we have 'over' and 'joyed'. The first part 'over'

can mean 'more than' and 'joy' is another word for happiness,

so overjoyed means more than happy or very or extremely happy.

The animal campaigners in this story are very happy about the new law.

Yeah, and we have lots of examples

in English of words that start with over, like overjoyed.

Can you give us some more examples?

Yes, you've got overconfident, which means very confident,

almost too confident. This one sounds a bit negative.

We've also got overpriced,

which means that something is more expensive

than it should be. Going back to overjoyed,

Neil, are there any other words that mean very happy?

Yes, we have 'thrilled'.

We also have 'ecstatic'.

And there's a really nice expression 'to be on cloud nine'.

Let's look at that again.

We've had history in the making - an event that will be remembered as really

significant, off the menu -

not an option, and overjoyed - very happy.

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Thank you for joining us,

and goodbye. Bye.