Learn Real English: How to talk about your PERIOD

Hello everyone, my name's Ronnie.

This is a very special lesson for all the ladies out there.

If you're a man, you can watch this, too.

You might learn something, wow, no, don't do it.

So, this session is specially for all the ladies out there.

Do you know what this is?

Do you know what this is?

Yeah, I'm going to be talking about your periods.

So, this lesson is for the ladies talking about your period.

Now, don't get excited.

Period - we're not talking about the pronunciation mark, no - the punctuation mark either.

We're talking about menstruation.

So, when we have, or I can say, I got my period, we need to use something so that the blood

doesn't go everywhere.

How embarrassing, so we have two things, two products we have today.

One is called a pad.

So, a pad goes inside your underwear.

I'm not going to demonstrate that.

And this is a tampon.

Now, a tampon goes actually inside of you.

Again, not going to demonstrate, unless you're - anyways.

So, a pad goes outside of you a tampon goes inside of you.

We also have a new great invention called a cup.

Not a coffee cup, a cup is like a plastic - a small plastic thing that goes inside of

you as well, and the cool thing is that you can wear this inside for many hours and you

can go and play sports and horseback riding as usual, but this, you can keep for many,

many hours.

Good luck cleaning it in a public bathroom, but we're all ladies.

We know what this is like.

So, let's throw these away, we don't need these right now, and I'm going to teach you

more in detail about your period.

As I told you, menstruation.

Menstruation is the formal or, I like to say, the "doctor word".

It's the medical word.

We in, I guess, not really slang, but we say, "I have", or "I got my period.".

We can also say "I'm on my period."

It doesn't matter, they're the same thing.

We also have some kind of silly slang to signify this.

You can say - let must just grab a red marker - I'm on my rag, or I'm on the rag.

Now, "rag" refers to a pad, which is kind of disgusting.

I've also heard things like "Auntie Flo is in town", so "flow" means how quickly the

blood will come out of you, so "Auntie Flo", huh, you have an Auntie Flo?

No, I don't have an aunt, but I'm telling you in secret slang that I'm having my period,

or I'm on my period.

Uh oh, so let's say that you are normal person, which can be debatable.

But, every month, you kind of get really, really moody.

So, you change your mood.

We have a thing for this and it's called PMS is the short form.

In the long form, PMS stands for - dah dah dah dah - premenstrual syndrome.

Premenstrual syndrome are things that happen to us before we actually get our period.

People might say "Oh, I'm PMSing."

Now, this is a made up word, but I'm PMSing means you are going through PMS.

So, what is PMS?

PMS, the symptoms, don't worry, they're terrible, you don't want them.

First of all, your mood changes.

You can be really, really bitchy.

Huh?

Bitchy means very mean or you have a very, very short temper.

Things that did not disturb you are now really, really intensely disturbing.

Things that didn't make you angry are now making you really angry.

You're kind of like the devil.

You can also become very frustrated, so things that normally wouldn't bother you are now

super bothersome.

Maybe you get sad, you cry for no reason, and you will become overemotional.

So, if you watch a movie, instead of being a little bit sad, you just cry, cry, oh my

god, it's so terrible, it's so sad.

This is thanks to our hormones, which change our wonderful brain.

Other symptoms we have when we have our period are more physical.

So, PMS is a mental change, but we have these physical changes.

The first one is being bloated, and the pronunciation of this is "bloa-ted".

You'll hear people say "Ah, I'm bloated.

My jeans don't fit me properly", or "I can't wear this dress, I'm bloated".

Bloated means you're retaining water.

So, in your abdomen area, you retain water and it makes your stomach look bigger.

Yay, thank you for being a woman.

So, if you're bloated, you're retaining water, and things don't feel comfortable around your

waist anymore.

One thing I get really, really, really intensely are cramps.

Now, cramps are excruciating pain, for me.

Some people will get these symptoms, some people won't.

Maybe you're the lucky one.

Cramps, you will hear people say "Oh, I have cramps.

I have cramps."

So, cramps are pain, so much pain.

It feels like somebody's basically stabbing you in the abdomen with a knife.

Not a good feeling.

As I said, some people get really, really intense and strong cramps, other people a

little bit, and some people - lucky - don't get them at all.

So, cramps are a part of it.

And we have this thing where we really, really, really, really want chocolate.

Better give me chocolate or I'm gonna kill you!

Wanting chocolate.

These are called cravings.

Cravings are things that you really want, a strong desire for something.

So, if you really want chocolate, you're having a craving or a strong desire for chocolate,

and for some reason, this happens around our periods.

For me, it's usually wine.

Red wine.

I don't know why.

Why not white?

No, red please.

A nice rioja from Spain, maybe it gets me drunk and I can forget about all of these

crazy symptoms.

So, ladies, it's important that we talk about this, we share this.

Many textbooks, many learning methods completely avoid this subject.

It's really important, you need to communicate this with other people, you need to talk to

your friends.

So, if you have any questions, please ask, please subscribe to my channel, and we'll

be seeing more of you.

Bye, ladies - and men.