Episode 0145

Hello everyone and welcome back to English Pod. My name is Marco.

What level is this, Marco?

Uh this is an elementary lesson and we're going to be touching one of these uh medical topics today. We're going to talk about chickenpox.

Right. So chickenpox is a illness that you get usually as a child and what happens is you start getting these little red dots all over your body.

Like little mosquito bites.

Exactly, and they come all over your body, like your arms, legs, face.

And you can only get this disease once, unless maybe you didn't really get it too seriously. So most people get this when they're children.

Exactly, and what makes you very uncomfortable when you get chickenpox, as you said, it's these little red dots, they itch, just like mosquito bites, but you can't scratch because if you do, then you get your skin gets uh like marked, right? You have like stains.

Forever.

Forever, like scars.

So it's best not to scratch.

And uh that's what we're going to talk about today, somebody has the chickenpox.

So, let's listen to our dialogue for the first time and then we'll be right back.

What's wrong with you? Why are you scratching so much?

Let me have a look.

What's wrong?

Maybe it's just a rash or an allergy. We can't be sure until I see a doctor.

Eww!

All right, we're back, so I think uh this kid does have the chickenpox.

Definitely, and uh well, he's got a funny solution for it, but before we get there, we've got a lot of great medical words and just basic body words for you in today's language takeaway.

All right, so let's start with our first word. Um he mentioned that he felt itchy, I feel itchy.

Itchy. So, okay, this is often confused, even among children who are native speakers of English.

There are two words to itch and to scratch. But this person is itchy, so it means that your skin, you want to scratch it. It it maybe uncomfortable. Like a mosquito bite is itchy.

Okay. So itchy would be the adjective, right?

To the noun in itch. So if you have an itch, you feel itchy.

Exactly.

So, and that's when you scratch.

Hopefully not.

All right, so he feels itchy.

And he also felt a little bit lightheaded.

Okay, so you know the word head, you know the word light. So here we have a a person who feels lightheaded, it means that you kind of feel a little bit strange and your head is a little bit, well, what's a good word to describe it?

Dizzy.

Yeah, almost dizzy or faint.

Right. So you usually feel a little bit weak. You don't really feel very well. Your your head is lightheaded. The complete opposite of having a headache, right?

Exactly.

Okay. And uh well, then the girl got scared and she said get away. You are contagious.

Oh gosh. Now this is a dangerous one. Someone who is contagious can pass their illness to someone else.

So, for example, the flu is very contagious, and if I have the flu, Marco doesn't want me to, you know, come over and touch all of his stuff and sneeze and cough into his food.

Right. Exactly. So that's contagious. It's an adjective and that means that you easily pass your illness to another person.

Exactly.

All right, so why don't we take a look at a couple of different examples using this word contagious.

Example one.

Don't get near me. Chickenpox are very contagious.

Example two.

The sickness that is going around the office is very contagious.

Example three.

H1N1 flu is very contagious.

All right, so you want to avoid contagious people, but you might also want to avoid people who have this next word. It's called a rash.

A rash. Exactly. So why do you want to avoid people who have a rash?

Who knows?

But uh you can get a rash for a number of different reasons. A rash is just basically a part of your skin that becomes um irritated or uncomfortable and sometimes it turns red or pink.

Exactly.

So as you said, it happens for different reasons. Sometimes you maybe have bad seafood and your skin and you have you start to have rashes all over your body.

Other times you can touch some plants that are dangerous, like uh poison ivy or poison oak.

Mhm. And then you get a big rash.

And our last word for today is a little bit dramatic. He she called him a biohazard.

Biohazard. Well, let's take a, take a look at these words individually. The first word bio comes from the word biology. So that's something that is alive.

An animal, a plant, or person. And hazard is something that is dangerous. So a biohazard is a, well, something that's alive, that's dangerous.

Right. Or that's dangerous towards a living person, right? Or organism.

For example, you don't want to be near an area that has a lot of radiation. It's a biohazard.

Exactly, or some of these diseases like uh Ebola virus, these are very dangerous towards living things, and so biohazard is the name for it.

Exactly. And usually it's there's a symbol, a very clear symbol. It kind of looks like a triangle and it's red and uh even in movies it's appeared, right? I think in that movie

Yellow?

It's red or yellow.

Yeah, sometimes both.

Mhm. All right, so biohazard. I think we've taken a look at a lot of words uh so why don't we listen to this dialogue again? Let's slow it down a little bit. See if we can understand a little bit more.

What's wrong with you? Why are you scratching so much?

Let me have a look.

What's wrong?

Maybe it's just a rash or an allergy. We can't be sure until I see a doctor.

Eww!

All right, we're back, so now why don't we take a look at Fluency Builder and start taking a look at all these phrases.

Well the first one is something that we often say when we're starting to feel ill.

This phrase is coming down with. So I could say, I think I'm coming down with a cold, for example.

So basically you say I'm coming down with something. So a cold, or I think I'm coming down with the flu.

So you're saying that I think I'm getting ill.

Exactly, it means I'm just starting to feel sick. And so uh you could say, I've had a cold for a week, you wouldn't use the phrase I'm coming down with in this situation. You'd only use it when you're starting to feel sick.

Very good.

So, you could ask your boss, I think I'm coming down with the flu. Can I go home early?

Example one.

Honey, will you take my temperature? I think I'm coming down with something.

Example two.

You must be coming down with a cold.

Example three.

Tommy came down with the flu.

All right, so coming down with, coming down with the flu, coming down with a cough, etcetera.

All right, what's our next phrase?

Well, this one's great. It's uh it's a filler phrase. So, uh in the meantime.

In the meantime.

So it could I could say, all right, I'm going to go cook dinner. Um in the meantime, Marco, can you please clear the table?

Okay, so while you are cooking dinner, I am doing something else. I'm cleaning the table.

Exactly. So two things happening at the same time.

In the meantime. Very good. So it's a filler, you say.

Because usually it follows another phrase. So, um, I'm going to be doing this report for a while. In the meantime, can you just uh can you just wait here on the sofa, please?

Okay. Very good. So

in the meantime.

So you're connecting two different actions, two different ideas.

Exactly. Very good. In the meantime. And what about our last phrase?

All right, there are some people who really like to do this, uh and uh I might be one of them.

Is called to blow things out of proportion. All right, and you're going to hear this phrase a lot with native English speakers. And so to blow things out of proportion, well, it pretty much means that you're um exaggerating, or you're making a a really big deal out of something that's not very serious.

So for example, if you come over to my house and you break a glass and I start freaking out and yelling at you because you broke my glass.

I say Marco, you're blowing things out of proportion. I'll just buy you a new one. It's not that serious.

All right, so don't exaggerate, right?

Right. So, uh often times you feel like this with with uh with siblings, spouses or bosses who who react very seriously, so uh you can say, hey, stop, stop yelling. Like you're blowing, you're blowing things out of proportion. This is not a really big deal.

Exactly. All right. So um blowing things out of proportion. Let's not do that. But let's listen to our dialogue for the last time and then we'll be back.

What's wrong with you? Why are you scratching so much?

Let me have a look.

What's wrong?

Maybe it's just a rash or an allergy. We can't be sure until I see a doctor.

Eww!

All right, so Catherine, have you ever had the chickenpox?

I did. I have very very clear memories of when I was a child and I had the chickenpox because I believe it was Thanksgiving and I was about four, four or five years old.

And uh I couldn't I didn't have an appetite, so I was not hungry. And all I could do was itch and drink. And so I still have little scars like you mentioned from where I couldn't stop myself from scratching my my little marks.

Right. And well, why does the little boy say that he's going to go take a oatmeal bath?

An oatmeal bath. Okay, well, um this is one of the home remedies, one of the home cures for the itchiness, all right? So it doesn't make your chickenpox go away, but it does make your skin feel better because it's very calming and smooth.

So you can have some creams or some lotions, but other other people like to take an oatmeal bath.

Right. So then you you're not itching anymore.

Right, but it's gross because you're sitting in oatmeal.

It is kind of gross.

Have you had the chickenpox?

Uh I did. I didn't know, but because I couldn't remember, so actually my brother had it recently, so I was afraid that I didn't get it, but called my mom, she said I got it, so I'm good.

Yeah, so that's the thing, right? You can only get it once. So once you get it, you don't have a problem.

Well, we're curious to know, have you had the chickenpox? And if you did, was it was it really itchy or were you a lucky one and it wasn't so bad? So let us know on our website englishpod.com.

Right. And if you ever had any other common childhood illnesses like the mumps or the measles, right? You can also tell us about that.

So we'll see you guys there and until next time.

The English pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

To rub your skin to stop an itch.

Scratch.

Influenza, a contagious virus.

Flu.

An unpleasant feeling on your skin, makes you want to scratch.

Itchy.

A contagious common sickness.

Cold.

To become ill.

Come down with something.

A high body temperature caused by illness.

Fever.

To feel dizzy.

Lightheaded.

Feelings of upset stomach and dizziness caused by illness.

Nauseous.

A childhood disease that leaves red spots on the skin.

Chickenpox.

Having allergies to something.

Allergic.

Having a sickness that can be passed to someone else.

Contagious.

A skin irritation.

Rash.

Medical condition that causes someone to become sick after eating, touching, or breathing something.

Allergy.

For the present time.

In the meantime.

A harmful substance.

Biohazard.

To make something seem more serious.

Blow something out of proportion.

For the present time.

In the meantime.

Let's try that faster.

Influenza, a contagious virus.

Flu.

A contagious common sickness.

Cold.

Having a sickness that can be passed to someone else.

Contagious.

A high body temperature caused by illness.

Fever.

An unpleasant feeling on your skin, makes you want to scratch.

Itchy.

A harmful substance.

Biohazard.

To feel dizzy.

Lightheaded.

To become ill.

Come down with something.

A skin irritation.

Rash.

For the present time.

In the meantime.

To make something seem more serious.

Blow something out of proportion.

To rub your skin to stop an itch.

Scratch.

Medical condition that causes someone to become sick after eating, touching, or breathing something.

Allergy.

A childhood disease that leaves red spots on the skin.

Chickenpox.

Feelings of upset stomach and dizziness caused by illness.

Nauseous.

For the present time.

In the meantime.

Having allergies to something.

Allergic.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Scratch.

Don't scratch that bug bite.

Scratch.

That cat just scratched me.

Scratch.

The mirror is scratched badly.

Come down with something.

Honey, will you take my temperature? I think I'm coming down with something.

Come down with something.

You must be coming down with a cold.

Come down with something.

Tommy came down with the flu.

Contagious.

Don't get near me, chickenpox are very contagious.

Contagious.

The sickness that is going around the office is very contagious.

Contagious.

H1N1 flu is very contagious.

Allergy.

Johnny has so many food allergies.

Allergy.

I think I am allergic to your cat.

Allergy.

Take this medicine for your allergies.

In the meantime.

I'll take the trash out. In the meantime, you dry the clothes.

In the meantime.

He's still waiting for the test results. In the meantime, he is trying to find a job.

In the meantime.

There's nothing you can do about it now. In the meantime, try to be productive.

(Music fades in)