ANGIELSKI Z KONRADEM

Episode 20 - Four reasons why mini-stories are great for

learning English

Find this episode here.

Vocabulary

fable (baśń)
ingenious (pomysłowy)
timeless (ponadczasowy)
underestimate (lekceważyć)
insignificant (nieistotny)
lifesaver (osoba wybawiająca nas z kłopotów)

Follow the text with me.

In our history we had some ingenious writers (to) stand the test of time - przejść próbę
whose stories stood the test of time. These czasu
timeless classics are told and carried over from available - dostępny
one generation to the next. More importantly, free of charge - bez opłaty, za darmo
their tales are widely available online for
everyone to read free of charge as they are a
part of public domain - so there’s no excuse
about the cost. We’re talking about short stories
today, so there’s also no excuse about the
length - a few minutes and you are done!

Aesop’s fables are among the most popular (a) plethora - obfitość, mnóstwo
stories of all time. This greek storyteller is readily - łatwo
credited with a plethora of short stories - all
readily available.

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 Fables are described as fiction that points to the characteristic - cecha
truth. Whatever does it mean? Something that (to) clip - skasować (bilet)
takes human appearance in the fable is the
fiction, while the relation of the story to our life is
the truth. It’s very natural to see some human
characteristics in both animals and objects.
For example, do you remember how ticket
machines in public transport used to look like?
It was a small, red, rectangular box with two
lights - one of them was always on, the other
went off the moment your ticket was clipped.
Below those two lights there was a slot for your
ticket.

Now, look at the picture and tell me it doesn’t (to) resemble - przypominać
resemble a human face. In technical terms it’s (to) emote - wyrażać uczucia
called pareidolia. Not only do we see faces in
objects, we can also describe the feeling an
object emotes. It’s especially apparent with
cars - without any brand knowledge you can tell
one car is happy, while the other looks
aggressive and so on.

You can find Aesop’s fables here.

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 Another natural step is to assign character assign - nadać
traits to a particular being based on our (a) trait - cecha (OSOBOWIŚCI)
observations of their „behaviour”. As such, we independent - niezależny
can say that an ant is very hard-working (so is a
bee), a dog is a loyal creature, cats are
independent and so on.

Fables are written in such a way that you can (-) parallels - podobieństwa
easily find parallels with events of everyday life. cunning - przebiegły
So, a cunning fox becomes a person which we
know to be cunning. That’s where fable’s fiction
becomes the truth.

Why you should consider learning English from

short stories, then? I’m going to give you four
good reasons:

They’re short.

Their length make them easy to digest and (to) digest - trawić (w tym przypadku chodzi o
come back to. My friend used to learn Japanese tekst)
from short stories intended for kids. At first, she (a) pattern - wzór
didn’t understand a word, but she kept coming (to) identify - rozpoznać
back to one story at a time on a regular basis.
Not every time did she learn something new - it
was a process - she started noticing particular
patterns, such as signs and words repeated,
for example ‚chan’ meaning ‚small’ or ‚little’ in
Japanese and being placed after the name.
Some time had passed - a few days maybe -
and she was able to identify every single word.

The same goes for English, only it’s ten times (to) encourage - skłaniać do czegoś
easier since you already know all the signs you
need (with an exception of ‚q’ of course, but -
then again - you’ve got this letter on most
keyboards). The fact that fables are so short
also encourages repeated readings.

They’re sweet.

When something is ‚short and sweet’ it means relevant - mający związek

it’s brief, relevant and pleasant - not lasting a (a) sense of accomplishment - poczucie
long time or requiring a lot of your attention. As I spełnienia
have said earlier, reading a single fable takes
you a few minutes at most. It builds a certain
sense of accomplishment.

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 They’re usually not too difficult.

As they are intended for children to read, short
stories cannot be too complicated or
convoluted. Then again, how complicated can
you get in a story consisting of just several
sentences?
(be) intended for - być stworzonym z myślą
o…
convoluted - poplątany, skomplikowany

There’s always something new to learn.

It might be a single word, a single expression, a proverb - przysłowie

an interesting idiom or a proverb - you will
always find something worth your while.

Aesop’s fables are only one example of mini- chock-full - wypełniony po brzegi
stories which you can use to learn English. The
net is chock-full of other such parables,
philosophical or religious in nature (for most
people parables automatically makes them think
of the bible). All you need to do is start looking.

Don’t let fables’ childish nature fool you - they regardless - bez względu na coś
are a great tool for learning a language,
regardless of age. There’s absolutely nothing
wrong about an adult reading fairy tales - that
goes double if you are a parent.

To wrap up, let’s read through one of the fables bold - pogrubiona czcionka
together. The one I chose is called „The Lion
and The Mouse”. You can find this particular
fable below in bold.

A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws.

To lie asleep means the same as to ‚sleep’, ‚paws’ on which he rested his head are his feet - so to
speak.

A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran
across the Lion's nose.

Timid’ can mean ‚shy’, ‚easily scared’ - this adjective perfectly fits a mouse which runs and hides at
the slightest sign of danger. ‚Unexpectedly’ here means ‚without warning’ or ‚without knowledge’ - the
lion didn’t know the mouse was coming.

Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

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 ‚Roused’ here means ‚woken up’ or ‚aroused’ - stimulated. A paw is the same as a hand - only
exclusive to animals. People have hands, animals have paws - dogs, cats, lions, so on, so forth. If
something is tiny it means that it’s very small.

„Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you.”

To ‚spare’ means to ‚save’ somebody from a terrible fate, show mercy. To ‚repay’ means to give
something back for their trouble.

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous
and finally let the Mouse go.

In this particular case, ‚generous’ means ‚willing to show mercy’.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a
hunter's net.

To ‚stalk’ means the same as follow, with the exception of intention. When you stalk somebody, you
are doing so without that person’s knowledge. If someone is ‚caught in the toils’, it means they are
trapped.

Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring.

When you are ‚unable’ to do something, it means that you don’t have the power to do it. You are
powerless.

The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net.

To ‚struggle’ means to make a great effort to do something, with little to no result.

Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the
Lion was free.

The Mouse ‚gnawed’ so it ‚chewed’ on ropes until they ‚parted’, so ‚ripped apart’.

"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a
Mouse can help a Lion.”

We’re left with the most important thing - the moral - morał
moral of the story. „A kindness is never wasted”. (a) deed - czyn, uczynek
Now, ‚kindness’ can be both countable (as in this
case - a kindness is a good deed) and UWAGA!
uncountable (then it’s a character trait). Let’s go Niektóre rzeczowniki mogą być zarówno
back to the moral. Don’t underestimate how your policzalne, jak i niepoliczalne. Zwykle
good deeds can turn around, and how people zmienia się znaczenie:
who appear insignificant can become our (-) room - powierzchnia
lifesavers. (a) room - pokój

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 Here’s the revision of vocabulary for this episode with some example sentences and their
translations.

(a) fable

Who hasn’t heard the fable of three piggies by Czy jest jeszcze ktoś, kto nie słyszał baśni o
now? trzech świnkach?

ingenious

Jake’s approach to solving Rubik’s cube by Podejście Jake’a do rozwiązania kostki Rubika
painting all the sides the same color was quite poprzez pomalowanie ścian na jednakowy kolor
ingenious. było całkiem pomysłowe.

timeless

„The Great Gatsby” is considered by many to „Wielki Gatsby” jest uznawany przez wielu za
be a timeless classic. ponadczasowy klasyk.

underestimate

Frank underestimated Lisa’s prowess in tennis Frank zlekceważył sprawność lisy w grze w
and lost the match. tenisa i przegrał partię.

insignificant

„The Hobbit” teaches us how we shouldn’t „Hobbit” uczy nas, by nie postrzegać nikogo
consider anyone to be insignificant. jako kogoś nieistotnego.

lifesaver

Just a single visit to the blood bank made Brad Już jedna wizyta w stacji krwiodawstwa
feel like a lifesaver. sprawiła, że Brad poczuł się jak wybawca.

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