Learn English Vocabulary Daily #16.3 — British English Podcast

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 16, Day 3 of Your English Five a

Day, the series that aims to increase your active vocabulary by five pieces every

day of the week from Monday to Friday.

So, let's start.

Today we begin with a noun and it is assumption, assumption.

We spell this A S S U M P T I O N.

Assumption.

It's never good to make assumptions.

An assumption is a person's readiness to accept something as

true without question or proof.

So, if you say to me,

"Anna, did you know the world is flat?"

And I go,

"Oh!

Okay, well, that must be why we have a water shortage, because if the world is

flat, then the water must be just pouring off the edge and we're losing water.

And that's why we have a water shortage."

Oh, okay.

So, there I've made an assumption.

Or if my partner says to me,

"Darling, I'm going to be working until 5.30 tonight and then I'm

just saying a quick hello to a friend in the pub, I won't be long."

And I think, oh, okay, then you don't want any dinner, because

obviously you're going to eat out.

Even though I haven't asked the question, are you eating out or do you want dinner?

And I haven't got any proof that he's going to eat out.

He's just said he's going to have a quick drink with a friend after work.

Hmm.

So, I made an assumption.

I assumed it was true that he didn't want dinner.

And those things normally turn into arguments.

To make assumptions is never good.

Here's another example,

"Our latest sales forecast is predicated on the assumption that the economy

will grow by four percent this year."

Okay, next on the list is a noun and it is mentor, mentor.

We spell this M E N T O R.

Mentor.

A mentor is a person that you look up to.

Someone who gives a younger or less experienced person help and

advice over a period of time, especially at work or at school.

Have you ever had or been a mentor?

I've had mentors in my life.

I had mentors at university.

I had mentors when I left university, and now as a business owner and

entrepreneur, I have mentors.

People who help me at certain points in my life with certain problems that I have

in my business, usually helping me to grow my business, to make the right decisions.

These people are people who are further down the road than me.

They are my mentors.

They want me to succeed, so they help me and guide me.

Here's an example sentence,

"At school, my Geography teacher was my mentor, I looked up to him and he

helped me through my toughest years."

Next on the list is the verb intervene, intervene.

We spell this I N T E R V E N E.

Intervene.

To intervene is to purposefully become involved in a difficult

situation in an attempt to improve it or prevent it from getting worse.

This reminds me of a story.

I was out having a few drinks with my friends, having a nice time, when I saw

two people, a man and a woman starting to get very heated in their discussion.

And this turned into a full argument and then they're screaming at each other.

And then the man gets hold of the woman and starts swinging her around

and grabbing her and pulling her around and it looked like it was

going to turn into a full-on fight.

And I thought, "This is awful."

And I didn't even really think, I just ran between them and I

tried to push them apart to stop them from hurting each other.

And really, the man was the one being more aggressive towards the woman.

He was the one who was grabbing onto her and pulling her around.

She seemed very upset.

And her reaction to my intervention was to turn around

and slap me full on in the face.

So, I learnt my lesson not to intervene if there are other bigger, stronger

people that could maybe get involved.

It's best to stay out of it.

I think that's probably one of the only times I've ever been

hit in the face by somebody.

And yeah, it was a time when I was trying to help someone and

prevent them from getting hurt.

Anyway, enough with my personal stories.

Here's another example sentence,

"Thank goodness our local councillor intervened personally to stop the

history museum from being closed.

I can't imagine the town without it."

When was the last time you had to intervene in a situation?

Next on the list is an adjective and it is oppressive, oppressive.

We spell this O P P R E S S I V E, oppressive.

If you describe someone as oppressive or something as oppressive, then it causes

people to feel worried and uncomfortable.

I will often describe the heat in summer, if it's a really extreme heatwave, then

I will describe it as oppressive heat.

It's heat that makes me feel really uncomfortable.

Here's another example,

"There was an oppressive silence in the meeting this morning, wasn't there?

Did you sense the tension between Jane and Amanda too?"

Next on the list is an idiom and it is the buck stops with

you or the buck stops with me.

Now we spell this, the, T H E.

Buck, B U C K.

Stops, S T O P S.

With, W I T H.

You or me.

The buck stops with you.

This means that whoever it is that the buck stops with, that they are responsible

overall for making the decisions, and who will be blamed if things go wrong.

So, I use this phrase often because in my business, even though I have

a team of people that help me, I am the face of the business.

It's my business, it's my face you see, it's my voice you hear.

So, if there is a mistake made somewhere along the way, it's ultimately

my responsibility to catch it.

So, if I have a video editor adding text onto my videos and the text is

wrong, then that's my responsibility.

The buck stops with me.

Okay.

Now this phrase actually, when I was younger, because I come from a Northern

town, and I used to have a Northern accent where we wouldn't say /bʌk/, we

would say /bʊk/ and /bʊk/ B U C K in my original accent is pronounced the same

way as B O O K /bʊk/ - /bʊk/ book, book.

And so, I always heard the 'book stops with you'.

And so I always thought it was the B double O K that stops with you.

And it's very hard to shake that image from my mind.

The image of a book.

A B double O K, being pushed onto the person responsible saying that this

is ultimately your responsibility.

So, just try and remember, it's not a book, it's a buck.

Just like a Bambi, like a deer, a buck.

This saying actually comes from poker, but we won't go into

the origins of these phrases.

Maybe that's another podcast episode.

So, the buck stops with you.

Here's an example,

"As much as I trust my team to look after things when I'm away, at the end

of the day, the buck stops with me.

So if something goes wrong, I'll get the blame anyway."

Okay, let's recap.

We started with the noun assumption, which is to accept that something's

true without question or proof.

You make an assumption.

Then we have the noun mentor, which is a person that you look up to,

someone who's more experienced, who gives you advice and guidance.

Then we had the verb intervene, which is to purposefully become involved in a

difficult situation to try and make it better or prevent it from getting worse.

Then we had the adjective oppressive, which is something that causes you

to feel worried or uncomfortable.

Then we had the idiom the buck stops with you or me, which is basically

saying that person is ultimately responsible or blamed if things go wrong.

So let's now do this for pronunciation.

Please repeat after me.

Assumption.

Assumption.

Mentor.

Mentor.

Intervene.

Intervene.

Oppressive.

Oppressive.

The buck stops with me.

The buck stops with me.

Very good.

Now, we've got some really awful looking clouds coming overhead

and the humidity is so high, it's making me feel really uncomfortable.

How could I describe this weather?

Oppressive.

Absolutely.

This is an uncomfortable weather day today.

Okay.

I notice that two people are having an argument on my street and I think I should

go and try and stop them from arguing.

What am I doing?

I'm intervening.

Absolutely.

And I probably shouldn't, but I'm intervening.

I then have a phone call with someone who is much more experienced

than me and they give me lots of help and guidance in my business.

I would describe this person as my...

mentor, my mentor.

Now, I haven't asked my mentor this question specifically, and I don't

have any proof that this is the case, but I'm going to accept that they want

paying lots of money for their time.

What am I doing?

I'm making an...

assumption.

I'm making an assumption.

Now, I know that ultimately, if things go wrong in my business,

then I am the person responsible.

What idiom could I use to describe this?

The buck stops with me.

Absolutely.

Okay, let's bring these all together in a little story.

As a new recruit in the science department, I was both excited

and nervous to speak with the head scientist about a new research project.

I walked into his office, filled with assumptions about

what the project might entail.

However, my mentor quickly intervened and reminded me to approach

the project with an open mind.

The head scientist then explained the project to me, and I was struck by

the groundbreaking potential it held.

But I also couldn't help but feel a sense of pressure, knowing that

the buck stops with me in terms of contributing to this project's success.

Despite the initial feeling of oppressive responsibility, I knew that this was an

incredible opportunity to learn and make a real impact in the scientific community.

Fantastic.

Well, that brings us to the end, I do hope you found it useful.

Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.