Your English Five a Day #27.1

E257: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast with me, Anna, your host and guide through Week 27 Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. Dive deep into vocabulary with me as we explore five pieces each weekday, enhancing your active vocabulary and language skills.

🌟 First up on the list is the noun "nostalgia", followed by the adjective "staple". Then, we explore the idiom "throw in the towel" and the noun phrase "the sweet smell of success". And finally, we finish off today's list with the noun "craftsmanship".

🧸 Tune in for some pronunciation practice and a quick recap of today's words, before we visit the toymaker Mr Jameson in the heartwarming narrative for today. With a passion for crafting traditional wooden toys, he faces initial setbacks when his creations fail to capture the modern market's attention.

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 27 Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that helps to increase your active vocabulary by focusing and deep-diving into five pieces every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. So, stick with me and you will slowly but surely increase and improve your English language. Now today we are getting a little nostalgic. We're going to be smelling the sweet smell of success before throwing in the towel. Hopefully not. Let's get started with today's list. It begins with the noun nostalgia. Nostalgia. We spell this N O S T A L G I A. Nostalgia. Nostalgia. Nostalgia is the feeling of longing or the sentimentality for the past. So, it's when you think back to the past and you miss it, you remember it with a fondness, and you feel both happy and sad at the same time. And it's because you have specific memories or experiences in the past that have stuck with you. Things can set off nostalgia. They could be a smell, like I had a very close relationship with my grandma and she always wore this really strong perfume. And now in my office, where I'm sitting right now, I have quite a lot of her furniture. She was a very classy lady. She has or she had this beautiful Chesterfield suite. I now have it in my office and I can smell her every time I walk into the office because her smell is still a part of the furniture. So, I walk in and I think of her every time and it's a bittersweet memory. It's nice, but it's also sad. And I feel so nostalgic every time I walk into my office and smell and see the furniture. When do you get a sense of nostalgia? Here is an example,"Looking through old photo albums always brings a sense of nostalgia for summers spent at my grandparents' house." Alright, moving on. We next have an adjective and it is staple. Staple. We spell this S T A P L E. Staple. If something is described as staple, then it's a basic or necessary item. So, we often talk about a staple is part of a staple diet or staple foods. So, the basics like fruit and veg, grains, bread, cereals, that kind of thing. These are staples in your diet. Here's another example,"During COVID people were panic buying, leading to a shortage in staple foods like bread and pasta." Alright, next on the list is the idiom throw in the towel. To throw in the towel. We spell this throw, T H R O W. In the towel, T O W E L. Throw in the towel. Now this means to give up or to surrender. I always think of being in the gym, when you have a little towel for exercising with. So when I go to my gym, there are little towels that you can pick up at the front desk. And these I use to wipe my brow if I've been working hard and sweating, or I might lay it onto the equipment before I then lay down so that I don't make the equipment all sweaty. And then if you decide that you can't do the exercise and it's too hard, you would throw your towel into the bin. So that's my kind of visualisation of this idiom is when you give up, you throw your towel into the bin. Say, I can't do this anymore. I'm throwing in the towel. But as an idiom, of course, you can use it just to mean giving up on anything. So here's an example,"After struggling for hours to solve the difficult puzzle, I finally decided to throw in the towel and ask for help." Now when was the last time you threw in the towel? I can't think of the last time I threw in the towel on something. I'm quite stubborn, actually. I'm quite stubborn and I tend to see most things through. If you remember the story about me wanting to bake a cake every week for a year, I've told that story a few times now. I threw in the towel after a week, I think I baked two cakes and then I was done because I just realised it was going to be too difficult. Actually, now I'm talking about it, I've thrown in the towel on quite a few YouTube projects, and I'm such an ideas person. I like creating content. I like creating courses, and there are many things that I've started and not finished, but it's not that I'm throwing in the towel. It's more that I'm putting the towel down and I'm going to pick it up at a point in the future. At some point, maybe, maybe never, but the intention is always to go back to these projects, so I'm not throwing in the towel fully, just partially. Okay, let's move on. Next, we have a noun phrase and it is the sweet smell of success. So sweet, S W E E T. Smell, S M E L L. Sweet smell of success. S U C C E S S."Ah, the sweet smell of success." If you say this, then it means that you're feeling like you're achieving your goals, like you're getting the sense that you're doing what you set out to do. You're getting a sense of fulfilment and a sense of achievement. It's like you can smell it. If success was a feeling or a sense, it would be a smell and you can smell it in the air."Ah, the sweet smell of success." Here's an example sentence,"It took years of hard work and research, but Martha finally experienced the sweet smell of success when her book became a bestseller." Alright, last on our list for today is the noun craftsmanship. Craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is spelt C R A F T S M A N S H I P. Craftsmanship. Craftsmanship. It's a bit of a mouthful. Craftsmanship describes the skill and dedication of creating something with a lot of precision. So in this day and age, when most of us are working on our computers, although there are some things you can do on your computer that requires a lot of craftsmanship, skill and dedication and time. But most craftsmanship would be found in people working with their hands, quite literally making things, like people who are skilled plasterers, skilled potters, skilled artists, sculptors, carpenters. You know, people who are very good at making unique things that take time and skill and attention to detail. That's craftsmanship, when something has been put together or made in a really, really good way and it's quite valuable because of that. Here's an example,"Pinocchio is a perfect example of Gepetto's incredible woodworking craftsmanship and attention to detail." Have you ever made anything with your hands? I helped to make a planter today. I can't say I actually did very much other than holding a few things in place, passing a few screws. I also painted a border on a wall today and I had to create a straight line, measure out a straight line so that the border looked perfectly straight. And I had to paint it in a way that looked really nice, not sloppy. So I guess there's an element of craftsmanship there. Anyway, that's our five for today. So let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun nostalgia. Nostalgia, which is that feeling of longing and sentimentality for the past. Then we had the adjective staple, when you describe something that is basic or necessary. Then we had the idiom, throw in the towel, which is to give up or surrender. Then we had the noun phrase, the sweet smell of success, which is that feeling like you're fulfilling your dreams like you are achieving your goals or that you are successful. And we ended with the noun craftsmanship, which is the skill and the dedication to create something with precision and care. So let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Nostalgia. Nostalgia. Staple. Staple. Throw in the towel. Throw in the towel. The sweet smell of success. The sweet smell of success. Craftsmanship. Craftsmanship. Alright, let's test your memory now. Now, my grandmother was amazing at baking cakes. She always told me that baking a cake was a skill that everyone should have because it's such an easy thing to do. She always said that you can make a cake with virtually anything as long as you have some of the basic foods that you would find in any kitchen. What adjective could we use to describe these kinds of basic foods? Instead of saying basic, we could say... Staple. As long as you have the staple foods that are found in most kitchens. Things like flour, eggs, sugar, maybe a bit of milk. And so my grandma always said,"As long as you've got the staple foods in the kitchen, you can bake a cake." But my grandma was particularly good at baking cakes. She had a skill and she gave so much time and dedication to creating these beautiful cakes that would be decorated like they were a work of art. She really had a very special skill for making the most beautiful cakes. What noun could I use here to describe this skill and dedication that she uses when crafting these beautiful cakes? I gave you a bit of a clue there, didn't I? Craftsmanship. Craftsmanship. She had a special craftsmanship when creating these cakes out of the most staple foods, she could create a work of art. Now after my grandma passed, I tried for a long time to recreate her recipes, but I struggled. It was only after having the most disastrous night of baking that I've ever had, where I actually nearly burnt my house down. And on that particular night, I was ready to completely give up. What idiom could I use here instead of saying give up? Throw in the towel. Yes. I nearly burnt the house down. I completely burnt everything. I was ready to throw in the towel. And then I had a long conversation with my mother and she reminded me of some of the little, little things that my grandma did to make her recipes extra special. And so following my mother's advice, I was able to finally recreate my grandmother's carrot cake recipe. And once that smell came out of the oven and I decorated them exactly as my grandma used to, I was suddenly filled with this feeling of longing for seeing my grandmother and hearing her voice, it was so lovely, but bittersweet. It brought a tear to my eye. What noun could I use to describe this feeling of longing for the past? Nostalgia. Yeah. When I got the recipe right and I finally opened the oven to the smell of those beautiful cakes and I was able to decorate them as my grandma used to, it really brought a sense of nostalgia as well as a tear to my eye. And I could quite literally sense this feeling of achieving my goal after so many weeks of trying to recreate these cakes. I finally felt like I was doing it. I was getting there. I was fulfilled. What noun phrase can I use here? The sweet smell of success. Yes. Finally, my kitchen was filled literally and metaphorically with the sweet smell of success and carrot cake. Okay, so let me quickly recap my off-the-cuff story. I talked about the fact that my grandmother made the most beautiful cakes. She said that you could bake a cake with the most basic of foods, with any staple foods that you would find in the average kitchen. Eggs, flour, sugar, milk. And I tried for a very long time after my grandma passed away to recreate her perfect cakes, but I struggled and one day I almost burnt the house down. And at that point I was ready to throw in the towel. But I spoke to my mum and my mum gave me some hints and tips and reminders that helped me to get back on track and finally, finally, I nailed the carrot cake. I opened the oven. I knew I had successfully recreated my grandmother's carrot cake. And as soon as I smelt it, I got this deep sense of nostalgia, which brought a tear to my eye and my kitchen was quite literally filled with the sweet smell of success. I felt so satisfied. My grandmother, she had a special craftsmanship and I'd finally managed to recreate some of what she was able to do. Okay, so let's now revisit those pieces in a pre-prepared story during today's storytime. Mr. Jameson was an accountant but was well-known for making traditional wooden toys in his spare time that brought a sense of nostalgia to anyone who laid their eyes on them. His workshop was always filled with the sweet smell of fresh wood and the sound of his tools, working their magic. In a world where kids. were glued to their phones and video games, Mr. Jameson had a dream of bringing back the joy of playing with physical toys made from natural materials. He believed that these were staple toys for a child's development and imagination. He decided to take a leap of faith and give up working as an accountant so he could pursue his dreams. However, in order to appeal to the modern generation, he knew he would have to add a unique twist to his traditional toys. He spent countless hours creating new designs and prototypes, using his old wooden toys as a base. He added remote-controlled features to his cars and planes and incorporated digital screens into his puppets. He wanted to show the world that traditional toys could also be modern and fun. After months of preparation, he finally launched his new range of toys at a national toy festival in London. But despite his efforts, his toys didn't sell as well as he had hoped. The children of today were used to flashy and high-tech toys, and Mr. Jameson's creations seemed outdated to them. He was ready to throw in the towel and go back to accounting. A few days after the festival, a young girl wandered into his workshop with her parents. She was fascinated by the wooden toys and begged her parents to buy her one. Mr Jameson couldn't believe his eyes as he watched the little girl's face light up with joy as she played with his wooden train set. Her parents were equally pleased with the quality and craftsmanship of the toy. They told their neighbours, who told their son, who mentioned it to his teacher, who sent an email to all the parents of the students. Before long, the workshop was inundated with visitors. From that day on, Mr. Jameson's traditional wooden toys became a hit among parents, who wanted to give their children a break from technology. The sweet smell of success lingered in the workshop as he continued to create more toys, each one a perfect blend of old and new. Mr. Jameson had not only found a way to appeal to the modern generation, but also managed to bring back the joy and nostalgia of traditional toys. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. Don't forget that we do these particular episodes every day of the working week from Monday to Friday, with a longer episode on Saturday and a bonus episode for Plus Members on Sunday. So remember to tune in tomorrow for your daily dose of English learning. Until then, take very good care and goodbye.