Getting Naked:Terrifying or Liberating? English Listening Practice - British English Podcast

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Hello everyone.

You are listening to the English Like a Native Podcast.

The podcast that's designed for lovers and learners of English.

I'm your host, Anna, and today we're going to talk about something

a little bit taboo: nudity.

Now nudity is not something we talk about very often, but it is something

that we all experience every single day.

We all derobe at the end of the day, don't we?

We all get undressed, change into our night clothes, night

clothes, that sounds so strange.

You might call your night clothes your pyjamas, or your PJs, or

your jammies or your nighty.

If you are a lady, you'd wear a nighty, which is short for nightgown.

Or you might just put on your comfy pants, sit around in

your comfy pants and your robe.

Anyway, we all you know, show our naked selves at some point during the day.

And we all have different feelings about our naked selves, don't we?

Some of us may prance around in front of the mirror striking poses.

"Oh", and admiring the view.

"Oh, yes."

While others might shriek as they catch sight of themselves in the mirror.

"Oh.

Oh, no."

Now, why on Earth am I talking about nudity?

Where has this come from?

Well, I'm constantly exploring the topic of confidence because it has a knock

on effect on every part of our lives.

And how we feel about our naked selves has a lot to do with how

confident we are within ourselves, how comfortable we are in our own skin.

What is within shines out.

Now, recently we had a heat wave here in the UK and that prompted me to

buy a paddling pool for the garden.

And I was watching the children running around the garden gleefully,

screaming and splashing in the water, just having a whale of a time.

And then they both decided, unprompted by me, they both decided that they wanted

to strip their clothes off and run around butt naked, and this delighted them so

much more than their toys or the water.

Just the fact that they were free and they were running around stark

naked, and this filled me with joy to watch them having so much fun.

It's so exciting for children.

Most children, not all children, to be naked, to just be themselves,

to not feel shame or judgement, they don't feel judged by others.

They don't judge themselves or each other.

They just, they just be, they're just as nature intended them to be.

They're in their birthday suits, running around in the garden, and

the same is not true for adults.

As adults, most of us become quite uneasy or ashamed or shy when it

comes to revealing our naked form.

And of course, I'm not stupid.

I do understand that there is a change when the naked form

is no longer just a body.

It becomes sexualised after puberty, which is why we start to cover ourselves up,

to protect ourselves from prying eyes.

"Oh, don't look at me.

Don't look at me.

Oh!"

But it's interesting to note how our confidence is

impacted by our changing form.

You may have heard the phrase body confidence.

You hear this phrase being thrown around in talk shows or written

in articles or spoken by self-help gurus who are trying to teach you

how to increase your body confidence.

So if you have body confidence, then you are very confident

and comfortable with your body.

You don't feel ashamed or nervous about showing yourself.

Now, when I say showing yourself, I'm not talking about being a flasher.

Woo!

What do they call it, streaking.

Have you ever watched a football match where there's been a streaker?

Someone who just takes off all their clothes in the middle of the

match and just runs naked in front of all the spectators, the players,

the referee, and the cameras, and they have no shame whatsoever.

They just streak across the pitch.

Have you ever seen that?

There have been plenty of occasions.

I'm sure you'll find some videos on YouTube showing examples of

streak, streakers, streakers, S-T-R streak, streakers.

A bit of a mouthful for me actually.

Anyway, so where was I?

Yes, I'm not talking about streaking or flashing when I say that you're

not ashamed to show yourself.

And just for the record, a flasher, I mentioned being a flasher.

A flasher is someone who goes out in public and flashes their naked self.

So it might just be that they lift up their top and show

their breasts, if it's a woman.

Or a man might open his coat and be wearing nothing underneath and

show his genitals to the world or to some people, and it's, you

know, you get in trouble for it.

It's not allowed.

It's naughty.

Don't do it.

Don't flash yourself.

I'm not talking about doing that, when I'm talking about showing yourself.

I'm talking about revealing your body in any way.

So someone with low body confidence may hate revealing their body,

their body shape in any way.

They may detest wearing a swimsuit, for example.

They may really dislike their own feet and never wear sandals or flip flops.

They might refuse to take off their baggy jumper because they really feel

embarrassed about their upper arms or their stomach or their muffin tops.

In contrast to that, you have people who seem to have no hangups whatsoever.

People who don't hesitate to whip off their clothes in the changing rooms while

simultaneously having a conversation and holding eye contact with somebody else.

Would you say that you have body confidence?

Are you the kind of person in a changing room who can be holding a conversation

while getting completely naked?

I personally get really embarrassed.

Now, as you may know, I am myself a gym goer.

I do like to look after myself.

The body is a temple and it must be looked after, so I go to the gym regularly.

I try to keep fit and it always amazes me the difference in

people's confidence levels.

So for example, in the swimming pool, the younger, fitter swimmers will strut

around the pool happy to be gazed upon.

"Look at me!

Look at me!"

Occasionally you'll spot a guy peacocking in his speedos.

"Uh-hoo.

Hey-hey, check me out.

Hello ladies."

And as is the fashion these days, there is often a lady or two mooning in return.

Well, I'm being slightly silly there 'cause they're not actually mooning.

So to moon is to quickly flash your buttocks at someone in

order to insult or amuse them.

A cheeky young boy escaping a police officer may turn and moon the police

officer before he disappears, and he does that as a sign of insult,

like sticking your tongue out or flashing the V at them going,

"Haha, you didn't catch me, I got away with it."

Or if you have a group of friends on a stag do, they may decide to moon

everyone in the pub just for a laugh.

To amuse themselves or onlookers, though it could serve to get them

barred if they aren't careful.

So I was talking about the ladies in the swimming pool sometimes mooning.

What I meant was, the fashion these days is to have the buttock, the seat area

of a swimsuit for a lady to be more like a thong, meaning that it doesn't cover

your buttocks, the material, it's just a thin piece of material that just goes

between your bum cheeks so that your entire bum, your bottom is on show.

So it's like a thong bikini or a thong swimsuit.

I don't know how people have the guts to wear them.

I mean, you know, even if you've got the most amazing body, I

wouldn't have the guts to wear it.

Anyway, so, but that's the fashion these days.

That's, I'm probably just getting old and just like,

"Oh, I couldn't wear that in my day.

Everybody covered up in my day.

We all went swimming in coats."

Anyway, so yes, these ladies, some ladies, will strut around with their

bottoms on show, with the men peacocking.

But then in the changing rooms, it's quite a different story.

The tables turn slightly.

I normally find that these younger women who are very confident by the

poolside, these ladies who are in their early twenties, perhaps, tend

to be much more self-conscious.

You know, they either go into a little cubicle if there is one, and

lock the door so no one can see them.

But if they do decide to change in the communal area, then they wrap a towel

around themselves and they start doing this little wriggly manoeuvre trying to

get their clothes on and off behind the towel so that no one can see any of their

bits, even though no one really cares.

Nor are they even looking because everyone's just focused on themselves.

But then the older people, as they get older, their anxieties

around nakedness seem to fade away.

So in my experience, the much older people whose bodies are very much,

should we say, past their best.

Because none of us are getting any younger.

Our skin isn't getting any firmer.

Nothing's going up, everything's going down.

Well, they just don't seem to care.

They just get on with it.

The towel is off.

They're walking around loud and proud, having conversations, rubbing

themselves dry, doing a little dance.

Well, not doing a little dance, but you know, just relaxed and open and

not in the least bit self-conscious.

I think it's really interesting how we grow in confidence even though

our body starts to fade and sag, and maybe that's got something to do with

wisdom or a realisation that it doesn't matter what other people think so much.

So, and this is my experience of the female changing rooms, by

the way, I think it might be very different in the male changing rooms.

I don't know.

I've never been in there.

I've never experienced the male changing rooms.

This is just my experience as a woman.

Now I try to be relatively confident.

And despite my general confidence, I definitely think twice before

whipping off my undergarments.

I generally try to find a corner to turn myself away when I'm trying to

get changed so that no one can see me.

I try to look like I'm confident, oh, I don't need to go in a cubicle.

I'm confident, but then I will turn myself away and hide myself as I change.

Now I had this dilemma the other day after swimming, I'd finished my session and I

had already changed back into my clothes.

It was a hot day, so I was wearing shorts.

Now, when stepping out of the main changing rooms at my gym,

there's this additional space.

It's still ladies only, but it's a space where you can dry

your hair and do your makeup.

As I entered this space, I realised that I had my shorts on back to front.

What a plonker!

My first instinct was to take them off and turn them around

right there, but then I hesitated.

What will people think?

Even though these were the same people who were parading their naked

selves around just next door, it suddenly felt really inappropriate

to flash my knickers in this area.

I debated hauling all of my stuff back into the changing rooms just to adjust my

shorts, but I'm glad to say I managed to come to my senses and just get on with it.

I took the risk and guess what?

No one batted an eyelid.

No one cared about my knickers.

So I would say that although I'm a relatively confident person, seemingly, I

definitely harbour some insecurities that I'm trying to deal with, and I care far

too deeply about what people think of me.

You'd never catch me skinny dipping.

That's for sure.

Though I do recognise how liberating skinny dipping can be.

Gosh, that reminds me.

I haven't even touched on nudist beaches and naturalists.

Naturalists are people that practice a lifestyle of non-sexual social

nudity in private and in public.

They just live life with everything on show.

And a nudist beach is a beach where you are allowed and, in

many cases, expected, to be naked.

These beaches are very popular in many countries, not just the UK.

Do you have one in your country?

We have one in Brighton, I remember.

Yeah.

It's very funny when you are taking a stroll along a long stretch of beach and

suddenly you come across a nudist beach.

"Ah, where do I look?

Avert your eyes, quick stare at the sea."

Maybe they won't notice that I'm polluting their nude sanctuary

with my fully clothed body.

Yes, I stumbled upon the nudist beach in Brighton quite by accident and was very

embarrassed when I realised my mistake.

So just remember that your body is a temple.

It may not be perfect, but it's yours and whether you decide to show

it off or to hide it, you should always try and love it and respect it

because it's the only one you've got.

And thinking back to how joyful nudity can be for little children who don't

yet have that corrupt view of nudity, everything is just so innocent.

And they feel so liberated.

You know, maybe we can apply this to our language learning.

Those who delight in being vulnerable, in being naked in

our language learning exploits.

Those of you who are happy to be vulnerable will have a much better

experience if you just let go.

And you will, in time, progress to fluency if you continue

to be metaphorically naked.

Oh, as always, I greatly appreciate you listening to me.

If you are enjoying my podcast, then please do leave a rating or review so

that other learners can benefit too.

Until next time, take care and goodbye.

Are you still here?

Okay, let me tell you a little joke.

Did you hear about the flasher?

Who was thinking of retiring?

He decided to stick it out for one more year.

Let me give you another one.

Derek is pretty frugal.

When he wanted to save money, redecorating his house, he walked around naked

for a few days and his neighbours all chipped in for new curtains.

That's all for now.

Bye.