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BEC : Careers -Vocabulary

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson. Let’s start.

We have the word ‘obsolete’ and, also, ‘obsolescence’. Obviously, it’s the same root word. Obsolete, the adjective, means no longer useful, not useful anymore. Technology, for example, quickly becomes obsolete. So technology from 100 years ago is no longer useful today, in most cases. Like a car from 100 years ago, people collect them for fun, but it’s obsolete. Nobody really wants to drive that anymore. We have much better technology now, so that’s obsolete. Obsolescence is just the now to describe that situation.

‘To cease to exist’ means to not exist anymore; to go away, to disappear.

‘Major’, a ‘college major’ - A college major means it’s your major subject of study. It’s what subject you got your degree for. We can use it as a verb too. I majored in journalism in undergraduate school. So I studied journalism. That was my degree. I have a journalism degree. That was my major, my college major.

‘Has come about’, something has come about - It just means has happened. You can say some situation has come about. It just means that situation has happened.

‘Flexibility’ - Flexibility is the opposite of rigidity. Flexibility means soft, supple, there’s another nice word. What it really means is just easy to change, easy to bend. So you can imagine you have a rigid stick. That means if you try to bend it, it will just break. It won’t bend. But let’s say you have a stick from a willow tree or something and it bends very easily. It doesn’t break, it bends. That stick is flexible, easy to bend.

We also use it in kind of everyday life to mean easy to change. If you say he’s a very flexible person it means it’s easy for him to change his mind. It’s easy for him to adapt.

It’s easy for him to do something unexpected. Flexibility is the noun, flexible is the adjective.

‘Linear’ - Linear means in a straight line. In a straight line, no ups, no downs, no turns.

It means in a perfect straight line - linear.

Next is ‘voracious’, ‘voracious hunger’, usually used with the word hunger. Voracious hunger means extreme hunger. If you are voracious you’re not just a little bit hungry, it means you are super, super, super hungry. Of course, we use this with food - voracious hunger. I’m voracious! You really just want to eat a lot, a lot, a lot of food.

We can also use this in emotional situations to describe desire for anything. So you can say I have a voracious hunger for knowledge. It means you are super hungry for knowledge. Instead of food you have a strong desire for knowledge, for learning. Some people have a voracious hunger for money. They have a super, incredibly strong desire to get money. Some people have a voracious desire for love, etc. So we can use it for lots of emotions to express this idea of super strong desire for something.

Next, the phrase ‘enjoy the ride’ - This is a common general English idiom. It just means enjoy the moment. It means enjoy the process. So it has the idea of don’t just focus on the final result, don’t just focus on the final goal, enjoy all of the steps in between. Enjoy the ride.

‘Prevalent’ - Prevalent means common or existing in large numbers; frequent. It can have the idea of frequent too. So if you say the most prevalent idea is, it means the most common idea, the most frequently heard idea - prevalent.

‘Instant gratification’ - It’s a nice phrase, instant gratification. Of course, instant means immediate, right away. Gratification means pleasure or success. So, instant gratification means instant success, instant pleasure. This is a common phrase. You’ll see it a lot in general English and business English, usually used in a negative way. In other words, people will say don’t focus on instant gratification. You have to be patient to have success. You can’t expect it immediately and easily, so instant gratification.

Next, the phrase ‘shoveling papers around’ - This just means doing paperwork, doing paperwork. So my dad in the conversation said at his first job at IBM he was just shoveling papers around. That means he was just doing paperwork, filling out paperwork or filing it. It has this idea of doing paperwork and usually used in kind of a negative way. It has the idea that you’re doing kind of bureaucratic work that’s not so fun.

Finally, ‘look under the covers’ - If you look under the covers you discover that the job is actually difficult. To look under the covers means to research the details, to look at the details of something or of a situation. So you might say professional golfing on the surface seems very glamorous and wonderful, but if you look under the covers, if you look at the details, if you research the details of the job, it’s actually quite difficult and possibly stressful. Look under the covers means look below the surface. Look into the details. Research the details.

And that is our vocabulary lesson. Listen, listen, listen to all of the lessons, you already know this. Every single day listen to all of them in this set. Do that for seven days in a row or 10 days in a row or 14 days in a row or more if you want to.

See you in the future. I hope to meet you in person some day, bye-bye.

The End.