درسنامه واژه ها

Adulthood – Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin Dodds, one of the teachers and directors of Learn Real English. Welcome to this month’s vocabulary lesson for the conversation Adulthood. I have the text of the conversation and I’ve made some notes about some words or groups of words that you may have had difficulty understanding. So I’ll be explaining those as they relate to this conversation. The words or the groups of words could have another meaning, but I’ll explain them as they relate to this particular conversation, Adulthood. Okay, so let’s begin.

Always in the beginning I talk about three words that you hear quite often in our conversations. The first one is y’know, y’know. Now, y’know is actually two words put together or combined together, you and know. So sometimes when we’re speaking fast, you know actually sounds like y’know.

The next word you hear quite a lot is like. Now, as you probably know, like means to have positive feelings for someone or something. But you also hear like a lot in conversations where it really has no meaning. So it’s just a filler word.

And then the third word that you hear a lot is yeah and yeah is a slang word for yes.

Alright, so let’s begin with let me explain the title, adulthood. So adulthood is the state of being fully grown and fully developed. That’s adulthood.

Alright, in the very beginning, AJ says, “Walking around San Francisco, especially in this neighborhood, the Mission.” So San Francisco, this is a city in the state of California and California is on the western coast of the United States. So San Francisco is where Joe and I live and AJ and his wife Tomoe live here also part of the time. And the Mission, AJ says especially in this neighborhood, the Mission. So in San Francisco there are different names for different neighborhoods in the city. And the Mission is actually the name of the neighborhood where Joe and I live, or actually we’re right on the edge or the border of the Mission.

Then AJ says, “Yuppies, young urban professionals.” So a yuppie is a young urban professional and urban means city, so young city professionals.

And then AJ says, “What strikes me is that on one hand, technically they’re adults.” So when he says what strikes me is that, another way of saying that is what seems to me is that. And then when he says on one hand, that means from one point of view. And technically they’re adults, so technically means basically, basically they’re adults.

And then AJ says, “They still act and behave so much like teenagers.” So teenagers: this is, these are the years between 13 and 19 years old. So those are the teenage years. A teenager would be somewhere between 13 and 19 years old.

And then AJ says, “It’s a cultural trend, I think, too.” So cultural trend means, here it means popular or well-known, well-liked.

And then I say, “Having done some training with Malidoma.” So Malidoma is the name of a man from the country called Burkina Faso which is in West Africa, it’s on the African continent, on the western part of Africa.

And then I say, “In his culture and I think indigenous cultures also.” So indigenous cultures: this means original cultures, indigenous, original. If you hear the word indigenous people, it means original people, original people to that particular place.

And then I say, “There is an initiation that boys and girls go through.” So initiation: this is the action of beginning something such as becoming an adult. So rituals and ceremonies can be the action that is taken.

And then I say, “That coming of age, that passing from adolescence into adulthood.” So adolescence is basically the same as teenagers. It’s basically about the ages of 13 to 19 years old.

And then AJ says, “You get this phenomenon of people who never quite grow up.” So phenomenon means situation.

And then AJ says, “When I finally launched my own business.” So launched means started.

And then I say, “I do remember there being a point where I was conflicted.” So conflicted here, it means having inconsistent feelings. The feelings, they were not the same, I was having different feelings, opposite feelings.

And then I say, “At some point it just kind of clicked with me. So when I say it just kind of clicked with me, I meant that I felt a connection to the idea of being a woman.

And then I say, “He doesn’t like to hear me refer to myself as a woman.” So when I say refer to myself I’m saying call myself a woman.

And then AJ says, “Not to get too conspiracy theory with it.” So when he says conspiracy theory, what he’s saying is he doesn’t want to talk too much about the idea that maybe there’s an organization or a group of people controlling the majority of people.

And then AJ says, “Young people, kids, they’re more easily manipulated.” So manipulated means controlled.

And then AJ says, “They’re less confident.” So less confident means not certain of themselves.

And then AJ says, “This kind of youth obsession.” So youth obsession means an extreme desire to stay young.

And then AJ says, “And so it’s sad that we associate adulthood with that.” So associate means, here it means connect.

And then AJ says, “Still trying to do their obsessive best to appear young, which is just insane.” So insane means crazy or that’s kind of slang word so basically it means it doesn’t make sense.

And then AJ says, “I am now autonomous.” So autonomous means separate.

And then AJ says, “That’s part of the youth culture before youth are narcissistic.” Narcissistic means to think only of yourself. So by saying youth are narcissistic, it means youth only think of themselves, younger people only think of themselves.

And then I say, “Keep people isolated.” So isolated here means lonely.

Okay, that’s the end of our vocabulary lesson for the conversation Adulthood and I’ll be right back with the commentary.