Fun English Lessons

ESL Conversation

Fear is a defense mechanism that evolved over the years to protect us from dangerous situations.  If you weren’t afraid of dangerous things, then you’d be more likely to engage in dangerous acts.  Imagine you were on the top of a mountain and you weren’t even the least bit afraid of falling.  You would walk around just as you normally would on the ground.  If you made one false move, you’d be toast.  The fear you feel is supposed to make you more careful and pay more attention to the situation.  Even though fear is designed to protect us, it can ironically have the opposite effect.  Fears can be misplaced and prevent people from doing things that would be beneficial to them.  For example, people may be hesitant to approach the girl or man of their dreams because they are afraid of rejection.  This fear is not very reasonable because if you don’t approach the person, you have no chance in getting what you want.  As long as you can emotionally handle the rejection, which you should be able to, then you really have nothing to fear.

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Key vocabulary and phrases that are discussed in the podcast:

Defense mechanism

- A way of thinking or behaving in order to protect yourself in some way.  

 

Evolved

- Slowly progressed over time.

 

Engage

- Take part in.  It’s a bit formal and used more often in written English.  It’s rarely used in casual conversation.  A policeman might ask, “have you engaged in any unlawful acts over the past 12 months?”  In everyday English we would say, “Have you done anything illegal during this past year?” 

 

False move

- A mistake in behavior.  It is often used in old movies when the male actor is trying to be cool and tough.  “You make one false move and I’ll blow your brains out”.  In other words, “If you do anything I don’t like I’ll shoot you”.

 

Toast

- In this context we mean dead.  It’s a very causal and non-serious way to talk about death.  If someone close to you died, you would never describe them as being “toast”.  That would be far too insensitive.  It’s usually used in a situation where no one actually died. 

 

Ironically

-Having the opposite effect of what was originally intented.

ex. The government raised taxes to put more money into education but ironically they raised less money then under the original tax policy.

ex. It’s quite ironic that his diet actually caused him to gain weight.

 

Hesitant

- Unable to act or decide quickly. 

He was hesitant to jump into the pool because the water was a little cold.

 

Rejection

- Being unaccepted.

She didn’t ask her boss for a raise because of her fear of rejection.

 

 

 

 

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