October 20th, 2019

BBC LEARNING ENGLISH:

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?

1. How long?
6 minutes.
2. How many percent can I understand after one time listening?
85%.
3. Content:
- According to Rob, his happiness is simply being healthy, having good friends
and presenting a program.
- There are many concepts of happiness. In Western countries, personal
feeling of pleasure can be defined as happiness. In East Asian, being happy
is social harmony. In Africa or India, happiness is sharing experiences and
family.
- In Japan, wabi-sabi is a traditional concept around celebrating imperfection.
They find beauty in ageing rather than trying to cover up the scars or wrinkles
or laughter lines which mean you have smiled a lot.
- Kintsugi is a phrase means that where the cracks or scars on broken pottery
are highlighted with gold lacquer, which also exemplifies for imperfection.
- England has not a very happy population. They usually get out there, go for a
dog walk, and get on with life.
4. What I learned/ I like best:
- It turns out there are many concepts of happiness. I used to think that
Japanese presumably dealt with stress because they worked most of the
time. But actually they have an amazing activity to be proud of their
imperfections, especially for women that appearance always worries them.
5. New words/phrases
- Down in the dumps (Phr): an informal way to describe the feeling of
unhappiness, sometimes with no hope.
Ex: It’s totally down in the dumps when he denied my invitation to the movie.
- Gild (v): to make something look bright, as if covered with gold.
Ex: The golden light gilded the sea.
- Coping mechanisms (Phr): the strategies people often use in the face of
stress and/or trauma to help manage painful or difficult emotions.
Ex: After breaking up, he can do nothing but sleeping all day as coping mechanism.