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Hello everyone and welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco

and my name is Catherine and we’ve got a great lesson for you today. What level is this Marco.

This is an elementary lesson and we’re gonna be touching one of these medical topics. Today we’re going to talk about chicken pox.

Oh gosh, I hated the chicken pox. They’re horrible and they itch and you can’t do anything about it and your parents say don’t scratch.

Right. So, chickenpox is an 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 it come all over your body at arms, legs and 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 like marked, right? You have like stains

forever

forever like scars. So, it’s best not to scratch. And 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.

A: What’s wrong with you? Why are you scratching so much?

B: I feel itchy! I can’t stand it anymore! I think I may be coming down with something. I feel lightheaded and weak.

A: Let me have a look. Whoa! Get away from me!

B: What’s wrong?

A: I think you have chicken pox! You are contagious!

Get away! Don’t breathe on me!

B: Maybe it’s just a rash or an allergy! We can’t be sure until I see a doctor.

A: Well in the meantime you are a biohazard! I didn’t get it when I was a kid and I’ve heard that you can even die if you get it as an adult!

B: Are you serious? You always blow things out of proportion. In any case, I think I’ll go take an oatmeal bath.

A: Ewww!

All right, we’re back so I think of this kid does have the chicken pox.

Definitely, and well he’s gotta find a solution for it but before we get there, we’ve got a lot of great medical words. They’re just basic body words for you in today’s language take away.

Language take away

All right, so let’s start with our first word. 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’s may be uncomfortable like a mosquito bite is itchy.

Okay, so itchy would be the adjective, right? To the noun an itch. So, if you have an itch, you feel itchy, right?

Exactly.

So, and that’s when you scratch.

Hopefully not.

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 person who feels lightheaded. It means that you kind of feel a little bit strange and your head is a little bit—What’s the good word to describe it?

Like dizzy

Yeah, almost dizzy or faint.

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

Exactly.

Okay, and 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 the 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 1.

Don’t get near me. Chicken pox are very contagious.

Example 2

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

Example 3

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?

They might have a contagious rash. Who knows, but you can get a rash for a number of different reasons. A rash is just basically a part of your skin that becomes irritated or uncomfortable. And sometimes it turns red or pink.

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

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

and then you get a big rash. And our last word for today is a little bit dramatic. She called him a biohazard.

Biohazard. Well, let’s take out 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, plant or person. And hazard is something that is dangerous. So, 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 Ebola virus. These are very dangerous towards living things and so biohazard is the name for it.

Exactly. And usually there’s a symbol very clear symbol. It kinda looks like a triangle and its red and even in movies it’s appeared, right?

Yellow?

It’s red or yellow. All right, so biohazard. I think we’ve taken a look at a lot of words. 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.

A: What’s wrong with you? Why are you scratching so much?

B: I feel itchy! I can’t stand it anymore! I think I may be coming down with something. I feel lightheaded and weak.

A: Let me have a look. Whoa! Get away from me!

B: What’s wrong?

A: I think you have chicken pox! You are contagious!

Get away! Don’t breathe on me!

B: Maybe it’s just a rash or an allergy! We can’t be sure until I see a doctor.

A: Well in the meantime you are a biohazard! I didn’t get it when I was a kid and I’ve heard that you can even die if you get it as an adult!

B: Are you serious? You always blow things out of proportion. In any case, I think I’ll go take an oatmeal bath.

A: Ewww!

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.

Fluency Builder

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, you can 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 can ask your boss, I think I’m coming down with the flu. Can I go home early?

Right. And I think this is a very useful phrase. It is very natural to say. So why don’t we listen to a couple of other examples.

Example 1

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

Example 2

You must be coming down with a cold.

Example 3

Tommy came down with the flu.

All right so coming down with, coming down with the flu, coming down with the cough, etc. all right, what’s our next phrase?

Well, this one’s great. It’s the filler phrase so, in the meantime.

In the meantime

So, I could say, all right, I’m gonna go cook dinner. 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.

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, I’m gonna be doing this report for a while. In the meantime, can you just, can you just wait here on the sofa, please?

Okay. very good.

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. And I might be one of them. It’s called to blow things out of proportion. You’re gonna hear this phrase a lot with native English speakers. And so, to blow things out of proportion, pretty much means that you’re exaggerating or you’re making 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 blow things out of proportion. I’ll just buy a new one. It’s not that serious.

Right. So, don’t exaggerate, right?

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

Exactly. All right, so 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.

A: What’s wrong with you? Why are you scratching so much?

B: I feel itchy! I can’t stand it anymore! I think I may be coming down with something. I feel lightheaded and weak.

A: Let me have a look. Whoa! Get away from me!

B: What’s wrong?

A: I think you have chicken pox! You are contagious!

Get away! Don’t breathe on me!

B: Maybe it’s just a rash or an allergy! We can’t be sure until I see a doctor.

A: Well in the meantime you are a biohazard! I didn’t get it when I was a kid and I’ve heard that you can even die if you get it as an adult!

B: Are you serious? You always blow things out of proportion. In any case, I think I’ll go take an oatmeal bath.

A: Ewww!

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 4-5 years old. And 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 scratching my little marks.

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

An oatmeal bath, okay. Well, 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 people like to take an oatmeal bath.

Right. So then, 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 chicken pox?

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.

You’re safe.

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

We’re curious to know, have you had the chickenpox and if you did, was it really itchy or were you a lucky one and it wasn’t so fast. 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. Bye.