درسنامه تعاملی اول

Money or Life – Interactive Essay Lesson A

Hi, this is AJ and welcome this month’s VIP interactive lesson. In part A, I will read a short essay and then explain the vocabulary. In part B I will ask questions, questions and answers, and you will answer the questions out loud. This is essay is called ‘The Pleasures of Frugality’, comes from the book Your Money or Your Life.

Here we go… The Pleasures of Frugality.

We looked up frugal in a dictionary and found this definition. Reflecting economy in the expenditure of resources. That sounds about right, a serviceable, practical and fairly colorless word. But, when we dig deeper the dictionary tells us that frugal shares a Latin root with Frug, meaning virtue, frux meaning fruit or value and frue’ meaning to enjoy or have the use of. Now we’re talking. Frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of. That’s very interesting. In fact, it’s more than interesting it’s transforming.

Frugality means we are to enjoy what we have. If you have 10 dresses but still feel you have nothing to wear, you’re probably a spendthrift. But, if you have 10 dresses and have enjoyed wearing all of them for years, you’re frugal. Waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them. Your success at being frugal is measured not by your penny pinching, but by your degree of enjoyment of the material world.

Enjoyment of the material world, isn’t that hedonism? Well, both have to do with enjoying what you have, frugality and hedonism are opposite responses to the material world. Hedonism revels in the pleasures of the senses and implies excessive consumption of the material world, and a continual search for more.

Frugal people, however, get value from everything, a Dandelion or a bouquet of roses, a single strawberry or a gourmet meal.

A hedonist might consume the juice of five oranges as a prelude to a pancake breakfast.

A frugal person, on the other hand, might relish eating a single orange, enjoying the color and texture of the whole fruit, the smell and the light spray that comes as you begin to peel it, the translucence of each section, the flood of flavor that pours out as a section bursts over the tongue, and the thrift of saving the peels for baking.

To be frugal means to have a high joy to stuff ratio. If you get one unit of joy for each material possession that’s frugal, but if you need 10 possessions to even begin registering on the joy meter, you’re missing the point of being alive. All too often it’s not material things we enjoy as much as what these things symbolize… conquest, status, success, achievement, a sense of worth and even favor in the eyes of the Creator. Once we’ve acquired the dream house, the status car or the perfect mate we rarely stop to enjoy them thoroughly. Instead, we’re off and running after the next coveted acquisition.

Okay that is the essay, lots of vocabulary in there. Let me explain each of the more difficult vocabulary words and phrases starting at the beginning.

Vocabulary

Frugality – Frugality and frugal mean, careful with your spending. It means to be careful with spending. Usually, spending money is what we’re talking about. If you’re frugal then you spend your money carefully. Frugal is the adjective. Frugality is the noun. So it means economical or thrifty, careful with your spending. That’s frugality the noun or frugal the adjective.

Reflecting economy – So they gave the definition of frugal and it means reflecting economy. Here it just means showing care with money, right. Reflecting just means showing, in this example and economy has the same idea of being careful with your money. So reflecting economy means showing care with money, showing carefulness with money.

Reflecting economy in the…

Expenditure of resources – Expenditure just means spending. Expenditure means spending. It means careful with spending your money or resources, resources are anything you can use but really, here, resources means money. It can also mean other very important things for life such as food or clothes, but in this essay really, resources means money.

Author says that’s a…

Serviceable definition – Serviceable means usable, functional, adequate, it means it’s okay. Serviceable means functional, usable. It’s not great it’s not bad, eh it’s okay, it’s a usable, functional definition; serviceable.

They say it’s also a fairly…

Colorless word– Colorless means obviously, without color, no color. But in this essay it has the idea of unemotional, not emotional, there’s no emotion, colorless. You can say he’s a very colorless person. It means an unemotional person. It has the idea of boredom, unemotional.

But, when we dig deeper the dictionary tells us that frugal shares a Latin root with Frug, Frux, Frue’.

Dig deeper – To dig deeper means to look more, to look more carefully, to dig deeper.

Those Latin words they’re just Latin words they’re not English, so frug, frux and frue’ are not English words they’re Latin, but English evolved from Latin in other languages, and so the root of frugal means… 1. Virtue – Frug, meaning virtue. Virtue means goodness. Virtue- goodness. So the meaning of virtue means goodness. If someone has virtue it means they have goodness.

And then the author says, now we’re talking, now we’re talking.

Now we’re talking – Now we’re talking is an idiom, a phrase. We use it to show enthusiastic agreement. When we agree very strongly with something we say now we’re talking. It just means, yes, now we have the right idea. Now we’re talking, it means you enthusiastically agree. Now we’re talking.

And then they give the deeper definition of frugality. Frugality is enjoying the virtue, enjoying the goodness of getting good value for every minute of your life energy, and for getting good value from everything you have the use of.

Have the use of – This just means everything you use, everything you use.

It’s a little strange definition right, why don’t they just say everything you own? Well, because in this book they talk about, that in life you can enjoy a lot of things without owning them, right? You can go to a park, for example, and you can enjoy the trees you don’t need to own the trees, but you can use the park for free. So this is part of this idea of frugality; that many times there are a lot of things in the world and in life that you can use and enjoy but you don’t need to own them, you don’t need to buy them.

Okay, so the author says that’s very interesting. In fact, it’s more than interesting it’s transforming. That definition is transforming the idea of thoroughly enjoying what you can use. It’s transforming.

Transforming – This means making a big change. A very huge, big change. Making a thorough change, transforming. It means it makes a huge change to your life, it’s transforming. It’s not a small change it’s a big change.

Spendthrift – If you have 10 dresses, but you still feel you have nothing to wear, you’re probably a spendthrift. A spendthrift is a person who spends a lot of money. So a person who is always buying stuff and wasting money, they spend money irresponsibly, that’s a spendthrift. We call that person a spendthrift, a spendthrift. A spendthrift is not frugal, they’re not careful with their money. A spendthrift spends lots and lots of money all the time, a spendthrift.

But, if you have 10 dresses and have enjoyed wearing all of them for years, you’re frugal.

Waste lies not in the number of possessions, but in the failure to enjoy them. So this phrase… Lies not in – This is an indirect way of saying is not. Waste is not the number of possessions it’s the failure to enjoy them. Lies not in is a way to say is not, is not.

Next word…

Penny pinching – Frugality is not measured by your penny pinching. Penny pinching means stinginess. Penny pinching means, unwillingness to spend money. If you’re penny pinching you can use it as a verb or a noun, and it means to avoid spending money, to be very, very, very, very, very cheap about everything. It’s like no, no I will not buy anything new. It’s the opposite of spendthrift right. Penny pinching, you have the idea of a penny, a coin, money and you’re pinching it, you’re trying to hold it tight, squeeze it so no one can take it. So penny pinching means stinginess, it means unwillingness to spend money. You don’t want to spend money at all, penny pinching.

So frugality is measured by your degree of enjoyment of the material world.

Degree of – means amount of. Degree of means amount of. So the amount of enjoyment you get from the material world. The degree of…

Isn’t that Hedonism?

Hedonism – This is a noun that means the pursuit of pleasure and luxury. It’s really the extreme pursuit of pleasure and luxury. Right, so if you practice hedonism you just want to feel good and have fun and party all the time. You want maximum pleasure constantly, maximum luxury constantly. The adjective is hedonistic and we can describe a person as a hedonist, it’s a person who always pursues pleasure. The basic noun is hedonism, hedonism, hedonism.

Well, both frugality and hedonism have to do with enjoying what you have.

Have to do with – means are associated with, are connected to, are about. So both are about enjoying what you have. Hedonism and frugality, they both have to do with, they are both about, they both have to do with. They both have to do with enjoying what you have, but frugality and hedonism are opposite responses to the world.

Hedonism revels in the pleasure of the senses and implies excessive consumption.

Revels in the pleasures – Revels in means completely enjoys, maybe even excessively enjoys, enjoys too much, completely enjoys; the phrase is revels in means completely enjoys the pleasures of the senses.

The senses – means your sight, your hearing, your touch, your taste, those are the senses, all the ways you get information from the world.

Hedonism (this is important for the definition of hedonism) implies excessive consumption, implies excessive consumption.

Implies – means suggests. It means it’s not direct it’s indirect.

Suggests…

Excessive – means too much, too much.

Consumption – means buying or using, but here in this essay it means buying really. So it suggests consuming too much, it suggests buying too much, it suggests using, consuming too much. So this idea of too much is very important for hedonism. It implies excessive consumption, so a hedonist will, for example, if they like wine they’ll drink too much and they’ll get very drunk. They don’t do things moderately.

Onward we go… frugal people, however, get value from everything. For example, a dandelion or a bouquet of roses.

Dandelion – just a small yellow flower in the United States. It grows in grass. It’s very common.

Bouquet – is a bunch, it means just a bunch. A bunch of roses. We use bouquet to describe flowers. So a bouquet of flowers means a bunch of flowers, more than one flower. So they’re all grouped together. You’ve seen these in stores right, that’s called a bouquet of flowers, a bouquet of roses.

A frugal person might enjoy just a strawberry or a gourmet meal…

Gourmet meal – a gourmet meal is a very expensive meal. A gourmet meal is a very high quality meal, a gourmet meal.

A hedonist might consume the juice of five oranges as a prelude to a pancake breakfast. So again…

Hedonist – Describes a person, it’s a person who is focused on maximum pleasure, a hedonist. Hedonism is the general idea. Hedonist describes a person, a person who is focused on maximum pleasure.

A prelude to a pancake breakfast – Means an introduction to. A prelude is an introduction, it comes before something else.

A frugal person on the other hand might relish eating a single orange, might completely enjoy, thoroughly enjoy eating a single orange, enjoying the color and texture.

Texture – Texture just means the feeling, the physical feelings like you would use with your fingers right? Something is smooth or something is rough, you can feel the texture. The texture of something means its physical feeling, rough or smooth for example, texture.

A frugal person would enjoy the smell and the light spray that comes as you begin to peel it.

The light spray – Means small drops, small drops in the air, small drops of water or small drops of liquid, it’s a spray. If you spray water then you’re sending water out. It’s like little tiny drops in the air. Sometimes when you eat an orange if you bite it, it sprays right, it sprays some juice into the air. So a light spray means it’s just very small. Here light means small, not a lot.

That light spray might also come as you peel the orange…

To peel – to peel as a verb, to peel means to take off the outside of something, usually a fruit or vegetable, you take off the skin. We call that peeling or to peel.

Something else you might enjoy when eating an orange is the translucence of each section. This is describing the sight, how it looks.

Translucence – Means allowing some light to come through, allowing some light to come through, translucence, translucence, translucence.

So, when we describe light we have three words. When we describe something that lets light come through, for example, a window. A clear window is transparent.

Transparent – Means all the light can come through, it’s completely clear, almost invisible, transparent.

Translucent – Means some of the light can come through, for example, a stained glass window, a colored window all right, only some light can come through it, blocks some but some can come through, that’s translucent is the adjective, the noun is translucence. And if it’s black nothing comes through, we call that opaque, but here the word is translucence. So if you look at an orange, some of the light can come through after you peel it and some does not come through.

When you eat it you get a flood of flavor…

A flood of flavor – Means a lot of flavor suddenly, a flood of flavor, a flood of flavor. It’s a little difficult to say, a flood of flavor.

As the orange bursts over your tongue…

Bursts over – Means explodes or breaks suddenly. Explodes over your tongue; you bite it and suddenly a burst of flavor, a sudden explosion of flavor.

And you might enjoy the thrift of saving the peels to use for baking.

Thrift – Means economy, thrift means frugality, so it’s very similar to frugality. It means saving money, careful spending of money, thrift.

Then there’s a metaphor next that says, to be frugal means to have a high joy to stuff ratio. It just means you get a lot of joy, a lot of happiness for all of the stuff, all of the things that you have.

Then he says, if you get one unit of joy for each material possession that’s frugal. Again, this is just a metaphor, it just means, one unit means one amount, it just means… what the author is saying is it means if you get a lot of joy from each possession you are frugal. If you get a little joy from each possession you’re not frugal.

The author says, but if you need 10 possessions to even begin registering on the joy meter you’re missing the point of being alive.

Begin registering on the joy meter – this is not normal English. It just means to begin feeling happy, to begin feeling happy. So if you need to buy 10 things just to begin feeling happy you’re not frugal and you’re also missing the point of being alive.

Missing the point – Means misunderstanding, not understanding, missing the point. Missing the point, a very common idiom, missing the point means misunderstanding, not understanding.

The author says that many times it’s not the material things we enjoy, what we enjoy is what they symbolize, it means what they show, what they mean to us or what they show. For example, people like the idea of… Conquest – Conquest means winning; conquest winning, conquest, conquest… we’re conquering or winning.

Status – Status means your social rank, high status or low status. If you have high status you have a high social rank, people think you’re important. If your low status people think you’re not important. So people buy possessions, right, they buy things to try to show high status.

A sense of worth – This is another thing, another reason people buy… a sense of worth, means a feeling of importance, a feeling of importance inside you, you feel important, you have a sense of worth.

And some people even buy lots of things to show favor in the eyes of the Creator. They believe that being rich, for example, or having a lot of things shows approval from God. It means God likes them.

Favor in the eyes of the Creator – here the Creator means God. Favor means approval here. Favor in the eyes of God, approval in the eyes of God. Favor in the eyes of the Creator.

Once we’ve acquired the dream house…

Acquired – Means gotten, it means to get something and hold it, to acquire. Usually it means buy, to buy or to get and keep, to acquire, to acquire, to acquire.

Once we’ve acquired the dream house, the status car or the perfect mate…

Perfect Mate – Mate means romantic partner, husband or wife usually. The perfect mate means the perfect wife or the perfect husband, the perfect mate.

Once we’ve acquired the dream house, the status car or the perfect mate, the perfect car we rarely stop to enjoy them thoroughly. Instead, we’re off and running after the next coveted acquisition.

Off and running – Means we go and chase, we go and try to find; we go and chase, we go and try to find. We are off and running… it means suddenly we go and try to find. Suddenly we go and run, off and running after the next coveted acquisition.

Acquisition – this is the noun for to acquire. Acquisition means a possession, something you possess, an acquisition, something you get and keep. Acquisition is the noun.

Coveted – Means strongly desired, coveted, strongly desired, coveted acquisition.

All right, that’s all for part A. In part B I will review all of these vocabulary and ask you questions.

See you there.