The Naked Truth: British Bathing Habits - English Like A Native Podcast

Hello and welcome to The English Like A Native Podcast, the

British English podcast that's designed for learners of English.

In this episode, 'A Very British Life' episode, we are going to be looking

at our relationship with the bath.

Right, rubber ducks at the ready.

Let's talk about bathing.

In the UK, we love to take a bath.

However, that might be set to change, because I read a newspaper headline

recently that said the cost of taking a bath is set to soar by 90%.

Oh, we all know that energy costs are going through the roof at the moment.

Now, those are two nice phrases, aren't they?

Well, depends.

Depends on the context, but set to soar by, and then a percentage.

This means that something, a price or a percentage is due

to, or about to go really high.

So the cost, percentage of taking a bath is set to soar.

Prices of energy are going through the roof.

That means they're becoming eye wateringly expensive.

If something is eye watering, then it's so painful, it makes your eyes water.

And energy bills are quite eye watering at the moment.

So if the cost of taking a bath is set to soar by 90%, then many of us may be

avoiding a bath and heading straight for a very quick, lukewarm shower.

Oh, I do like the word lukewarm.

Lukewarm is kind of that place between cold and warm.

So it's not warm, like comfortably warm, and it's not cold.

Brr, it's lukewarm.

It's kind of in the middle.

I don't really like a lukewarm bath nor a lukewarm shower.

I like it really hot.

How about you?

I like my skin to turn red, but actually I have been taking cold showers

recently because it's very good for you to have a cold shower apparently.

But I wouldn't like a cold bath that might not be as pleasant.

Anyway, what I found particularly interesting about this article that was

in the Metro newspaper, it's not a paper I tend to read very often, but the Metro

is a paper that's offered for free.

If you are travelling, on the trains or on the tube, you can always

pick up a free Metro newspaper.

And so, in this newspaper article in the Metro, I saw a word that

I never realised could be used as a verb, and it's the word luxury.

It said that people were luxuriating or people might not be

luxuriating in the bath as often.

I've never seen the word luxuriate.

Luxuriate.

So to luxuriate is to enjoy the luxury of something.

So if you are lounging in the bath, maybe you've got some nice scents.

Maybe you put something nice in the bath that smells nice, so you've

got some nice scents going on and you've got some candles burning

and maybe some music playing.

You might have a nice glass of wine and maybe you're sharing a bath with

someone special and having a lovely time.

You might consider that luxury.

So you are luxuriating.

Luxuriating.

It's very interesting.

I actually thought that the newspaper had made the word up, but

I looked it up in the dictionary and sure enough, there it was.

So I've learned a new word, which is very exciting.

Now the article goes on to explain that filling a bath will cost an annual

average, that's a yearly average, of £1,023 in 2023, up from £542.88 last year.

Which is a big difference.

So maybe we are going to start taking less baths and showers, 'cause

currently it's quite common for us to take a bath or shower daily.

Sometimes, I would take two showers in a day if I've been out doing some

exercise in the evening or something.

Really just depends on how dirty I feel.

How often do you bath or shower in your country?

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Okay.

Back to the bath.

Let's look at some bath vocabulary.

I'm sure you all know the basics.

Obviously we have the bath.

In America they call this a tub more often, I believe, perhaps even a bath tub.

But in the UK it's pretty standard for us to simply say bath.

Bath with that tricky th where you stick your tongue between your teeth for bath.

But depending on where you are in the UK or who you are speaking to, you might

hear that pronunciation slightly change.

So in the north of England, they'd actually change the vowel sound.

They'd say bath, bath.

And in the south we'd have a longer vowel, bath, bath.

And in some regions they'll also change the th to an f.

So you'd have baf, baf.

Or if it's somewhere in the north baf, baf having a baf.

Now when it comes to preparing the bath, we are likely to use the verb run.

I'm going to run a bath.

I'm just running a bath.

Would you like me to run your bath for you?

This is a very, very common way to talk about preparing the bath.

There's an old-fashioned verb that I still sometimes see written, and in

fact, I saw it written in an article today, but I've never heard anyone in

day-to-day conversation using this verb, and the verb is draw, to draw a bath.

I think it's such an unusual verb, but it is from the past, so it is archaic.

So don't be surprised if you see it written, but don't use it.

Use run instead.

So you run a bath.

We actually run the taps, we turn them on, allowing the water to run into the bath.

We're running the bath.

We're filling the bath with water, and then once the bath is full, or to

a level that you are happy with, you turn the taps off and then you take

or have a bath, so I'm going to take a bath, or I'm going to have a bath.

Now, when we talk about getting into the bath, sometimes we say, I'm

just going to jump into the bath.

I often say to my partner, I'm just gonna jump into the bath for a few minutes.

I don't literally mean I'm going to be jumping into the bath.

I mean, that would be quite an energetic way to enter the bath.

But we say this when we mean we're going to do something quickly.

So I'm just going to jump into the shower.

I'm just gonna jump into the bath, meaning I'm going to get in there

quickly and spend a short period of time doing that thing, showering or bathing.

And we use the word bathing as the verb, meaning to spend time lying in the bath.

But we can also use bathing when we're talking about lying

in the sun, we're sunbathing.

I don't often hear people saying, I was bathing last night, but meaning

they were lying in the bath, because often when we are lying in the

bath, we would use the verb, soak.

I was soaking in the bath last night.

I was enjoying some time soaking in the bath.

Or I was having a soak.

I was having a soak in the bath.

And we really do treat bathing as a luxury, as something that we do to

unwind after a very stressful day.

We use lots of products, which I'll come to later, to try and

help us to create this luxurious feeling to help us to unwind.

Now, in our bath, we actually have a mixer tap, but originally we had two

separate taps, and this is not unusual.

In the UK, it's very common for there to be a bathtub in every household.

If there isn't a bath, then it is noticeable.

When we were searching for our home, we looked at lots of different

houses and there was one house that was quite a large house.

It was three bedrooms, but it didn't have a bath in the bathroom, and that

was the only reason that we decided against that particular house because

it didn't have a bath in it, which is unusual for a family home, and I think

particularly in larger houses that are, you know, meant for families.

Then not having a bath is strange because, you know, you bathe the kids, right?

That's kind of part of the bedtime routine is to have a bath or

you need to throw them in a bath when they've covered themselves

in paint or food or other stuff.

So, you know, not having a bath in a house is noticeable.

And so in a bath it would not be unusual for there to be two taps.

The same with our sinks.

There're often two taps, and people sometimes say, why in the UK do they

have two taps, one for hot, one for cold?

Why not just have one tap and just mix the water together, which is becoming

more popular here, to have a mixer tap.

A mixer tap, where you just have one handle and you adjust the

temperature with the one tap handle.

But originally, and I'm quoting here, a BBC article, originally it was tradition

that dates back to a time when hot and cold water were kept separate to prevent

contamination through cross connection.

Cold water came from a main's supply, and it was fit for drinking.

So cold water was good to drink.

Hot water, however, would be serviced by a local storage

system, often situated in the loft.

Now, the loft is a room that's in the roof of a home or a building.

So we have a storage tank, a hot water tank up in our loft.

Although I assume that the hot water is okay, that if I happened to drink

some of the hot water from the hot water tap, it wouldn't kill me.

But yes, that's the idea, is that they were concerned about contamination

and so they kept those two taps separate, hot and cold, separate.

We now have a lovely mixer tap in our bath, but just weeks after having

that fitted, we allowed Jacob, my eldest son, who at the time was only

about one and a half, two years old.

We allowed him to sit in the bath with his collection of stones.

He had a small obsession with collecting large pebbles, big round stones, and he

was very attached to these particular stones, these particular pebbles.

And so we let him take them into the bath with him to play with.

And guess what happened while we weren't looking?

I heard a little whinge.

Mummy.

Mummy, gone, gone.

What's wrong, Jacob?

What's gone?

Stone gone.

Stone gone.

Well, it can't be very far.

So I'm looking around in the bubbly water trying to find this stone.

And it wasn't in the bath, was it?

No, it was up the tap.

He'd shoved it into the tap and it was lodged.

It still is lodged.

We were never able to remove this stone from our tap.

So now trying to get a full flow of water out of this tap is just impossible.

So we have a dribble of water that comes out when we turn on our lovely tap.

It's very frustrating.

It's not the only frustrating thing actually.

We got the plumbing wrong.

And where it says cold water, on one side, is actually hot water and the

handle that says hot water is cold water.

So we mixed up the water, which is another frustration, but never mind.

So, yes, lovely Jacob sticking his pebble into our taps is something

we'll have to explain when we ever try and sell the house to somebody else.

This is the lovely bathroom.

You'll notice the lovely mixer tap that we've installed for you,

which comes fitted with its own pebble to give you a nice dribble

of water when you turn on the taps.

Oh dear.

Okay, so some facts about bathing.

So I found that in the early 1900s, it was popular for British people

to take a cold water bath just once a week, which was believed to be

beneficial for health and wellbeing.

So that's really interesting.

I'm curious to know when and why that stopped.

Although in lots of very posh gyms and spas, there's always like a

cold plunge pool, which is normally just a teeny tiny little tank of

water that's big enough to stand in.

That's freezing cold water, and there'll be like a bowl of ice next

to it as well to make it even colder.

And you plunge into this freezing cold water.

You know, it is been proven to be very good for your health.

Now, I did go into a plunge pool recently.

We went to Centre Parcs.

And at Centre Parcs, the one that we go to, they have a cold plunge pool outside

in their outdoor swimming pool area.

And you can see people daring each other to go and jump into this plunge pool.

Can you stand the cold?

And I did it.

Because I know how good it is for you.

So I jumped in and I think I spent about 10 seconds in there before

I was like, no, I need to get out.

And then I jumped back out.

My partner, the next day I dared him to do it and he only managed to jump in for

a second and he was straight back out again 'cause he couldn't stand the cold.

So I was the winner of that challenge.

These days I do try and take a cold shower if I'm feeling well,

I will often try to make my shower cold at the end of my washing.

So when I've finished washing my hair or washing my body or doing

whatever it is I need to do, then I will turn the shower down to cold.

But depending on where I'm showering, like at home for

example, I can make it quite cold.

But, I often shower at the gym after I've done some exercise.

And I can't always get it very cold there.

It's strange.

So sometimes I just end up with a lukewarm shower at the end, which as I've said

before, I'm not a fan of lukewarm.

It doesn't really do anything.

Alright, next fact, it was once common for members of the same

family to share bath water.

Of course, you know, this saves your water bills from getting too

high and your heating bills 'cause you have to pay to heat the water.

So this is understandable and in fact, I used to share bath water

with my family when I was younger and actually these days I still, you know,

I will run a bath for my children.

I'll jump in the bath first, and then the children come and jump in with me after

I've had about 60 seconds to myself.

Then they jump in and then I leave them to it, and so they're sharing

the bath water and previously they'd shared it with me, but as a

child, this is something I did too.

I was the eldest of seven children, so I was lucky that I was first in the bath,

and then after me, all the boys would jump in and my sister would jump in too.

You know, all different combinations of who's in with who.

But I dread to think how disgusting that water must have been by the last person.

But yeah, you just do what you can, don't you?

Have you ever shared a bath?

I mean, sometimes it's romantic, right?

They always show it in the films.

A loved up couple sharing a, a warm bubble bath.

Anyway, moving on.

Next fact.

In the 17th century, British people would add herbs, oils, and fragrances to

the bath water to make it smell nicer.

This just makes me think of when I was younger and I would spend a lot

of time, unattended in the bath.

So I must have been about, you know, 10 years old.

One of my favourite things to do was to make a concoction to make

a special perfume for my mum.

So I'd mix all the different lotions and potions that I could find around

the bathroom with the bath water and throw some bubbles in there

and shake it all up and say, mum, I've made you a special perfume.

It was probably horrible.

But yeah, we love to add things to our bath.

So the new thing at the moment is, I say new, it's been around for a

long time, but bath bombs, I often receive bath bombs in like gift boxes.

If there's like, a hamper or a box of beauty goodies, then it

will often include a bath bomb.

And this is like a ball of I don't know, like salt and soap stuff, and you put

it in the bath and it kind of explodes.

It fizzes.

It's effervescent, is that the right word?

It starts to fizz and react and break up in the water.

Some of them are very colourful and so, you can get all sorts

of different types of bath bombs that do some wonderful things.

Yeah.

And you introduce them to the water and they do all these wonderful

things and they make your bath smell like a perfume shop and create lots

of different colours in your bath.

I'm not a big fan of these things because I have very sensitive skin and

I find that they always bring me out in a rash or some sort of reaction.

But bath bombs are very popular and bath salts.

Now I do like a bit of bath salt.

My son has eczema, so we tend to just use like dead sea salt now,

which is just pure salt in the water.

Or I would sometimes use Radox.

It's quite a popular brand that's been going for a long time in the UK.

Bit of Radox to soak your muscles.

And you might also find things like bath scrubs as well in many bathrooms, which

you use to kind of scrub on your skin.

It like exfoliates your skin.

Just basically takes your skin off and rejuvenates you.

But again, I don't really use these things because my sensitive skin doesn't like

them very much, but it's all meant to make your bathing experience more luxurious.

So next fact is during the Victorian era, it was popular for British people to take

a sponge bath instead of a full bath.

Now, this is interesting because I would often take a sponge bath when

I was younger, and I still talk about having a sponge bath today.

So sometimes as a busy mum, I don't get an opportunity to have

a shower or a bath in a day.

I wake up and my kids, they're running late.

I need to get them ready.

I don't have time to look after myself.

So I will have a sponge bath or a flannel bath.

A flannel being a piece of cloth that you use for cleaning

yourself, your face or your body.

So I'll just fill the sink with hot water, bit of soap, use a flannel

and wash my body with the flannel.

I'll sometimes do the same with the boys, but we don't share flannels.

We all have our own flannel.

And this again, it saves time and it saves water and energy of course.

In the 19th century, some British people used to walk out of their house

and take a bath in a nearby river.

Now, these days I'm always a little bit nervous about going anywhere near the

river because there's been so much talk about the waste and the sewage that

different companies are pumping into the rivers, they're polluting the river.

So I wouldn't feel safe bathing in the river.

I probably would come out dirtier than I was before I went in.

But it's completely understandable having a bath in a river,

you know, it makes sense.

Then you're not using any of your own water that you're

paying for out of the pipes.

You're not having to worry about heating it or anything.

So it makes sense.

And I know in other countries, this is the done thing, the typical thing to do.

You do what you can.

But like I said, my nearest river is the River Thames and it's

filthy, so I wouldn't recommend bathing in the River Thames.

You might get sick.

In fact, there was lots of reports of polio being found in the rivers

or in the sewage system recently, so all the children locally, my

children too, had to be vaccinated again or have boosters for polio.

These days, my experience of bathing is, like I said, very short-lived.

I tend to get about 60 seconds of a hot bath before my children

run in saying, mummy, mummy.

And they start stripping their clothes off and they wanna jump in, but I

have to go, no, stop, it's too hot.

You'll scald yourself.

To scald yourself is to burn your skin.

Then I have to fill the bath with cold water and make it

lukewarm for the children.

But previously, before my children were born, I used to love a long

lounge, a long soak in the bath, and I actually have a bath pillow.

I really was so excited when I bought myself a bath pillow, which is like a

pillow, which is waterproof and it has suckers on it, and you can stick it to the

back of the bath and rest your head on it.

And I bought myself one of these bath tables, so it has extendable sides, so

you can lean it on the edges of the bath.

And then it has a piece that lifts up and you can rest a book on it, or a phone or

an iPad or something, if you want to watch something or read something while bathing.

And it has a little holder for a glass, and you can have a little,

you know, plate for, I don't know, chocolates or something.

So you can have a glass of wine and some chocolates and a book.

And then some candles.

Gone are those days when I could enjoy that kind of bath time, but

I used to really love spending a lot of time in the bath.

The problem is when you spend a long time in the bath, you

get quite wrinkly, don't you?

Your skin becomes very prune-like.

Prune is like a dried fruit that's very wrinkly, but very

good for your digestive system.

It helps to keep you regular, helps you go to the loo often.

Anyway.

If you spend a long time in the bath, your hands and your feet become very

prune-like, where you might say, I look like a prune, or my skin's like a prune.

Okay, I'm going to pull the plug on this particular podcast.

Do you see what I did there?

I made a pun, to pull the plug.

Obviously, if you finish your bath, you pull the plug out of the bath

to allow the water to drain away.

Well, now I'm going to pull the plug on the podcast.

If you pull the plug on something other than a bath, it means that you end it.

You stop it from happening.

So if you want to hear more about bathing, I'm going to be discussing a

little bit more in a premium episode.

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Until next time, thank you for listening.

Take care and goodbye.