Learn Real English: Getting sick and buying medicine

E, you're going to need some medicine. Take your medicine.

Dunh-dunh-dunh.

Hi. James from engVid.

Today's lesson is going to be on getting medicine, going to the pharmacy,

and who you should see to get these things.

Okay, look, you're learning English, and if you're really

lucky, you're going to get to travel to different places, English-speaking places, and when

you go there, it's not always going to be perfect. I'm hoping most of the time you have

a great time, meet interesting people, but you might get sick or feel bad, and when you

do, you're going to need someone to help you. And what I'd like to do is help you with today's

lesson, and where we're going to talk about how we ack-... Not acknowledge, but we tell

someone what's wrong with us, and how they help us get better. Are you ready?

Let's go to the board.

So, first: "symptoms". It's a nice, long word. What are your symptoms?

"Symptoms" are the things that you feel when you don't feel well.

If you say: "My back hurts", or "My head hurts",

or "My stomach doesn't feel good",

what we are saying is these are your symptoms.

When you have a cold, you have a runny nose, your nose is runny-right?-sometimes-[coughs]-you cough,

sometimes you have this - well, that would be a fever.

If that's the symptoms,

I'd say you have a flu; not a cold. All right? Okay.

So when you see a doctor, and that's who you go to, you go to a doctor, they'll ask you:

"What are your symptoms?" And you say: "Doctor, my arm hurts and my back hurts." He'll go:

"Okay. You know what? I think you have blah, blah, blah, and you need some medicine."

So once you tell them the symptoms, if the doctor feels this is something you won't get better

in, you know, two or three days, like: "You're tired, get some sleep, or eat some food",

the doctor will tell you to get some medicine.

Now, in North America, which is Canada, United States, and Mexico - they have great... Well,

we won't say Mexico, because English speaking, Canada, United States, Great Britain, Australia,

you cannot get medicine just because you want it. You actually have to go to a special place,

and you have to get what's called a prescription. A prescription actually... The word is "prescription",

but we say "perscription". The prescription is the doctor saying what medicine you need.

Remember we said medicine? And he signs or she will sign it, and say:

"Please give this person that medicine."

In this case, I said "he" because Mr. E, if you didn't know it,

he's a doctor. He is a doctor, bona fide.

Anyway, Mr. E will sign a piece of paper and give it to you.

You will then go to a place called "the pharmacy". The pharmacy is where we actually get medicine.

Sometimes they actually make some of the medicines, or put them together there for you. Another

word for "pharmacy" is "drug store". A lot of times, Canadians and Americans will go:

"I'm going to the drug store to get something",

because they don't just sell medicine and drugs-and "drugs" is another word for "medicine"

-they sell other things you might need, you know,

tooth paste, floss for your teeth, and we have a video on that if you really want to

go check-okay?-on how to take care of yourself. But you go to the drug store or the pharmacy

to get your medicine.

When you go there and you hand it, you're going to hand the piece of paper to the person

called "the pharmacist". The pharmacist is the doctor that deals with giving out medicines.

They will ask you for your prescription. When you hand them the prescription, they will-here

we have number 5-fill your prescription. "Fill it", think of a bath tub, or yeah, a glass

of water - it's empty, but as you put the water in, it fills up. Filling the prescription

means putting the medicine inside of the bottle for you to take.

The pharmacist will fill your prescription.

Sometimes, though, the pharmacist will say: "Hey, don't worry about this, it's an 'over-the-counter' drug."

"Over-the-counter" drug means the doctor doesn't need to give you a prescription; the

pharmacist can just make it for you or give it to you.

There is some medications that they don't want to leave on the shelves for people to just take,

but it's not necessary for a doctor to give it to you,

so they'll let you know if it's an over-the-counter drug or not.

Something to know about medicines: Some medicines will make you sleepy, and some will not.

In this case, what we say is "drowsy" or "non-drowsy". Okay?

Medicines that make you sleepy-[yawns]-or drowsy make you...

Yeah. Make you fall asleep. And the non-drowsy ones wake you up and make

you speak really, really, really quickly. Okay? You're thinking:

"Okay, what does it matter?" Well, it does matter if you're driving a car

or if you're going to work. They will usually recommend that if you have a medicine that will make you...

That will make you drowsy,

they will say: "You know what? Don't drive a car, and maybe don't go to work.

It will be dangerous for you."

And sometimes the drowsy ones are good, because they will make you

sleep so you can relax, get a good night sleep, and be better the next day. Okay? So you can

ask your pharmacist: "Is this medicine drowsy or non-drowsy,

or will this medicine make me drowsy?"

and they will be happy to answer your questions.

So we've filled your prescription. Maybe it was an over-the-counter drug, maybe it wasn't.

You found out whether it was drowsy or non-drowsy.

In North America, I can say Canada specifically,

in the United States I believe as well, and in Britain, Britain's a little different,

they have an insurance plan that the country uses, but in Canada, we ask if you have an

insurance plan. And if you say:

"What do you mean, insurance plan?" Well, what this means

is there's a company that you've paid money to that if you have to buy medicine or see

a doctor, it makes it very cheap or you don't pay any money at all.

In Canada, we have a medical system that's paid for; we don't pay for our doctors,

but we still need an insurance plan if we want to get cheap medicine.

An example might be this: If I need something

for my head, and the medicine or the drugs cost $100, if I have an insurance plan, I

don't pay. I show my card, I don't pay. If I forget my card, I must pay. So this is something

you should think about when you leave your country. Make sure you have medical insurance.

Okay? Because things get really expensive if you don't have it, and it's something to

look into before you go.

Now, here's something we want to talk about the medicines themselves, because after you've

told the pharmacist if you have an insurance plan, you pay or it's for "free". Okay? You

don't have to pay, and you're free to go. And you can take the medicine to help you

with your symptoms.

But let's talk about the medicine itself. Okay? You're going to get a bottle like this,

and there will be things in it. You call this medicine. Another word for here, we say are

"drugs", "medicine", but the things themselves are "pills". We'll say:

"Did you take your pill? How many pills do you have to take?"

You don't say to anybody: "How many drugs do you have to take?"

That's a little crazy. But "pills" are the individual things that

you take, so: "I have to take two pills."

Now, this will be put on the "label", and that's that little piece of paper thing, here.

Right? That's the label. So on the label will be the instructions:

"Take two pills with water. Take two pills in the morning. Take one pill here."

And will also list the side effects: "Will make you tired, will make you need to go to the washroom."

So you should read for side effects, read for how many pills you should take, and you'll find all of that

information on the label.

But if you really want to know where you have to go, go to the pharmacy, because you'll

never get the medicine without going there. So if you ever feel ill and you're in a foreign

country that speaks English, locate a doctor, tell them your symptoms. Okay? The doctor,

if you need medicine, will tell you what medicine you need. Another word for medicine is "drug".

Right? "Drug" is the name of the medicine. He'll write a prescription for you. You can

take that to the pharmacy. There, they will f-... They will fill your drug. Some of these

drugs are over-the-counter, which means, as I said, the pharmacist doesn't need a prescription;

he can just say: "Oh, just take this. It's good for you."

Others, you need the prescription.

They'll let you know if it's drowsy or non-drowsy, which is important if you need to work, or

if you are driving your car, you should know what will happen to you. Right? Because you

may be very tired because of the drug. Before you pay, they... They'll usually ask if you

have an insurance plan, that's because that saves you money. Okay? And I also recommend

you get an insurance plan when you go to any country. All right? You never know what will

happen. Finally, look at the drug itself. It will tell you how many pills. Another word

for "pills" are "dosage": What dosage?

How many you should take, when you should take it, and possible side effects. Cool?

Well, listen, taking your medicine makes you better, and that's why I feel like engVid

is like medicine. You come here, we give you the medicine, your symptoms are you don't

speak English, when you're done-[snaps]-you do. Okay?

So after this lesson, I know...

And actually we're not going to go there yet. We're going to give you a short quiz to make

sure you understand everything I just said.

So you ready? Let's go.

[Snaps]

Okay. Let's look at some things you should know, just some general things that are good

to understand before you go to a pharmacy. Okay? Then I have a short quiz to give to

you to see if you really understood what I said.

You ready? Let's go.

Okay, things you should know. Number one:

In Canada and United States, a pharmacy is

also known as a drug store. Two words, so they'll say "drug store" or "pharmacy". Usually

because at the drug store, it's not just medicine. They sell other things; baby products, cleaning

products, a bunch of stuff.

Number two: When you need help, you will say:

"Can you help me with...?" or "Can you help me find...?"

If you say: "Can you help me with getting this medicine?" people will understand.

Or if you say: "Can you help me find the pharmacist for this medicine?"

Or: "Can you help me with looking for something?"

They might say to you when you walk into the pharmacy:

"Can I help you with something?" So notice how these are the same?

Both of you are looking for something; you're looking for help, they're

looking for a way to help you.

So if they say: "Can I help you with something?"

you don't say: "No, I'm not lifting any boxes, I'm okay."

They're saying: "Can I help you with your medicine or anything you need?"

A lot of times on your medicine, it will say: "Take with". Read this very carefully.

If you remember the label I talked about, it might say: "Take with food. Take with water."

or "Don't take with taking alcohol." Carefully read that. So read this: "Take with" or "Don't take with".

Okay? And finally: "pain" equals "ache". Okay? You can say: "I have back pain."

or "I have a backache." When you say "back pain", it will be two words; when you say

"backache", it will be one. When you say: "I have head pain." it will be two words;

when you have a "headache", it will be one word. Okay? Cool.

Now let's do our short quiz

to see if you're ready for the real thing.

"I went to see Doctor E and said, 'I was feeling bad.'

He asked me what my __________ were."

Now, what would be the first thing a doctor would ask you before they give you medicine?

That's right.

"What are your symptoms? Tell me what's wrong with you.

I can't give you medicine if I don't know what's wrong."

"I told him I had a serious head__________."

Well, yeah, you're not a funny person, that's why you're serious, you have a serious head. Right?

Yeah, we could say "head pain", you're right. "Head pain" is a good answer,

but "head pain" is two words, and this looks like one.

"Headache", head pain, serious head pain is a headache. Okay?

Next:

"He wrote me a __________".

That's right,

"prescription".

"He wrote me a prescription." Remember I said we say "perscription" here?

We do, right? "I need a perscription for",

but he wrote me a prescription; the spelling is p-r-e. Keep that in mind, okay?

And finally:

"He wrote me a prescription and sent me to the __________ __________."

Hmm. Where would he send you if you have a prescription,

you have symptoms, and you don't feel well? Where would you go with your prescription?

No, not to jail.

To the "drug store". He sent you to the drug store. Cool.

You did pretty well, but I'm thinking you need a better test, and when you go to engVid,

which is www

w,

only three, eng as in English, vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com),

you can go do the rest of this test and just see just how good you are.

Now, I'd like to say thank you once again for watching our videos,

and I want you to subscribe. All right? So what you got to do is look around,

and there's a button there and it'll say "Subscribe",

because that will get you my latest video, so you won't have to look for me. Not like

the doctor, get a prescription.

All you'll have to do is subscribe, and the next time a video comes out

-[snaps]-

it'll be sent right to you. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, you have a good day, and we'll talk soon.