چهار کلمه ی پرکاربرد برای مکالمه در کالج های آمریکا

This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 6: Teaching Tuesday.

Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real native English conversation. Now here are your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel’, coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

In today’s episode, you’re going to learn the top four phrases and vocabulary words to discuss in English with a native speaker, “Is university really worth it?” In our ‘Meeting Monday’ we had a conversation about “Is it worth it to go to college in the US?” And so we’d like to share some vocabulary and uh, phrases from the conversation, uh, that you can use in your own conversations. So let’s get started. Um, the first word that we wanted to talk about is ‘prohibitive’. Um, we talked about the cost of college being prohibitive. Now if you speak Spanish or Portuguese or a romance language, you might recognize um ‘prohibit’, you know something that is not allowed. Um, it’s kind of a cognate, so something that sounds similar to a word in your language, but if, if something is prohibitive, like the cost of college, it means it doesn’t allow you to take part in that activity. Like, um, I don’t know, what else might be prohibitive?

Yeah, I was thinking about the cost of living in some cities in the world like Tokyo.

Yeah.

Or I don’t know, what’s another expensive city?

Um…?

Oslo

New York.

New York. Yeah. So some neighborhoods in New York are prohibitive to live in like SoHo. I mean at least for me.

Oh definitely. Yeah. Um, yeah. I think that’s, that’s a good example, just the cost of something like a luxury car, you know, that’s a prohibitive cost for most people.

Mm-hm. Totally. That’s a good example and the next one was ‘to be worth it.’ So we asked the question: “Is College. is the price of college actually worth it?” So what does that actually mean, Gabby?

Oh gosh. So is it worth it? Does it – the, the pain, effort, and the time that you put into studying- is the reward- does that uh, justify how much effort you put into it?

Right. So does the reward justify the cost…?

Yeah.

…that’s a good way to put it

Yeah.

The cost in terms of effort, energy as you said. Yeah.

We use this phrase sometimes with, you know, the food we eat, like ‘is it worth it to eat a chocolate cake?’

Yeah.

Is the taste and the enjoyment worth it? You know, it’s not really healthy.

Right.

Right.

And you might want to put in some more time at the gym. So is it worth it?

Right. In terms of the way you’re gonna (going to) feel afterwards. Okay.

Right. Right.

Okay. Good. And what was the next one that you had?

The word ‘advantageous.’ So there’s a root ‘advantage.’ So an advantage is something that puts you ahead. Um, it, it is a good thing, right? If something is advantageous, it means that it gives you that extra little help.

Yeah.

Um, I think going to school is always helpful, so I would say it’s advantageous. Um, what else might be advantageous?

Yeah. I was just saying networking within your industry. If you’re a professional in any industry networking and going out in the evening to meet people could be advantageous.

Learning a language is advantageous. Absolutely.

I think so.

And the last one, we have an idiom ‘pound the pavement.’ Tell us about this.

Yeah. I really like this one because I, I imagine somebody running, literally running out on the street trying to get the thing done that they’re reaching towards, right? So what is it that you’re trying to do? In this case, we talked about getting scholarships. So you need to work hard. You need to go out and talk to people and network and see who can help you and maybe what you can do for them, how you can help them in exchange for their help. So just really (to) do everything you can to reach your goal is to ‘pound the pavement.’

Yeah. Absolutely.

Is that how you would describe it?

I agree. ‘Pound the pavement’ is to work hard, not expect things to happen to you because you’re a nice or a good person, but you have to go out and you have to talk. You have to network. You have to put in the work.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s the only way things get done.

Right. So just before we end the episode, uh, I’ll give you all a chance to repeat after us. So the first word was ‘prohibitive,’ ‘Is it worth it?’ ‘Advantageous,’ and ‘pound the pavement.’ Okay. Awesome job.

Good job guys.

All right. See you next time.

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