Chicken Pox

Hello everyone! And welcome back to EnglishPod! My name isMarco.

And my name is Catherine and we’ve got a great lesson for you today. What level is this, Marco?

Uh, this is an elementary lesson and we’re gonna be touching one of these, uh, medical topics. Today we’re gonna talk about chicken pox.

Oh, gosh, I hated the chicken pox.

Hehe.

They’re horrible and they itch and you can’t do anything about it and your parents say: don’t scratch!

Right, so chicken pox is an illness that you get usually as a child and what happens is you start getting these little red dots all over your body like little mosquito bites.

Exactly, and they come all over your body: arms, legs, face. And you can only get this disease once…

Uhu.

Unless maybe you didn’t really get it too seriously. So most people get this when they are children.

Exactly, and what makes you very uncomfortable when you get chicken pox, as you said, it’s these little red dots. They itch just like mosquito bites, but you can’t scratch, because if you do, then you get… your skin gets, uh, like marked, right? You have like stains.

Forever.

Forever, like scars.

Uhu.

So it’s best not to scratch and, uh, that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Somebody has the chicken pox, so let’s listen to our dialogue for the first time and then we’ll be right back.

Alright, we’re back, so I think, uh, this kid does have the chicken pox.

Definitely, and, uh, well, he’s got a funny solution for it, but before we get there, we’ve got a lot of great medical words and just basic body words for you in today’s “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

Alright, so let’s start with our fist word. Um, he mentioned that he felt itchy: I feel itchy.

Itchy, so, okay. This is often confused even among children who are native speakers o f English. There are two words: to itch and toscratch. But this person is itchy, so it means that your skin… you want to scratch it. It… it’s maybe uncomfortable, like…

Okay.

A mosquito bite is itchy.

Okay, so itchy would be the adjective, right?

Uhu.

To the noun - an itch. So if you have an itch, you feel itchy.

Uhu.

Right?

Exactly.

So, and that’s when you scratch. Hehe. Alright, so he f…

Hopefully not.

He feels itchy. And he also felt a little bit lightheaded.

Okay, so you know the word head, you know the word light, so here we have a… a person who feels lightheaded, it means that you kind of feel a little bit strange and your head is a little bit… well, what’s a good word to describe it?

Like dizzy.

Yeah, almost dizzy or faint.

Right, so you usually feel a little bit weak, you don’t really feel very well, your… your head is lightheaded - the complete opposite of having a headache, right?

Exactly.

Okay. And, uh, well, then the girl got scared and she said: get away you are contagious.

Oh, gosh, now this is a dangerous one. Someone who is contagious…

Uhu.

Can pass their illness to someone else.

Uhu.

So, for example, the flu is very contagious. And if I have the flu, Marco doesn’t want me to, you know, come over and touch all this stuff.

Sneeze and cough on me. Hehe.

And sneeze and cough into his food.

Right, exactly, so that’s contagious. It’s an adjective and that means that you easily pass your illness to another person.

Uhu, exactly.

Alright, so why don’t we take a look at a couple of different examples using this word contagious? Voice: Example one.

Don’t get near me! Chicken pox are very contagious. Voice: Example two.

The sickness that is going around the office is very contagious. Voice: Example three.

H1N1 flu is very contagious.

Alright, so you wanna avoid contagious people, but you might also wanna avoid people who have this next word, it’s called a rash.

A rash, exactly, so why do you wanna avoid people who have a rash?

Well, they might have a contagious rash.

Hehe.

Who knows, but, uh, you can get a rash for a number of different reasons. A rash is just basically a part of your skin that becomes, um, irritated or uncomfortable and sometimes it turns red or pink.

Uhu, exactly, so… as you said, it happens for different reasons. Sometimes you maybe have bad seafood…

Mm.

And your skin… and you have… you start to have rashes all over your body.

Other times you can touch some plants that are dangerous like, uh,poison ivy or poison oak.

Uhu, and then you get a big rash.

Uh.

And our last word for today is a little bit dramatic. He call… she called him a biohazard.

Biohazard, well, let’s take a… take a look at these words individually. The first word bio comes from the word biology…

Uhu.

So that’s something that is live.

Uhu.

An animal, a plant or a person.

Uhu.

And hazard is something that is dangerous. So biohazard is a… well, something that’s alive that’s dangerous.

Hehe. Right, or that’s dangerous towards a living person, right, or organism. For example, you don’t want to be near an area that has a lot of radiation. It’s a biohazard.

Exactly, or some of these diseases like, uh, Ebola virus, these are very dangerous towards living things and so, biohazard is the name for it.

Exactly, and usually it’s… there’s a symbol, very clear symbol. It kind of looks like a triangle and it’s red and, uh, even in movies it’s appeared, right? I think in that movie…

Yellow?

It’s red or yellow and…

Yeah, sometimes both.

Uhu. Alright, so biohazard. I think we’ve taken a look at a lot of words, uh, so why don’t we listen to this dialogue again? Let’s slow it down a little bit, see if we can understand a little bit more. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Alright, we’re back, so now why don’t we take a look at “fluency builder” and start taking a look at all these phrases? Voice: Fluency builder.

Well, the first one is something that we often say when we’re starting to feel ill. This phrase is coming down with. So I could say: I think I’m coming down with a cold, for example.

Uhu. So basically you say: I’m coming down with something, so a cold or I think I’m coming down with the flu.

Uhu.

So you’re saying that I think I’m getting ill?

Exactly, it means I’m just starting to feel sick.

Uhu.

And so, uh, you could say… you… I’ve had a cold for a week, you wouldn’t use the phrase “I’m coming down with” in this situation.

Right.

You’d only use it when you’re starting to feel sick.

Very good.

So, you could ask your boss: Ah, I think I’m coming down with the flu; can I go home early?

Hehe. Right, and I think this is a very useful phrase, it’s very natural to say, so why don’t we listen to a couple of other examples? Voice: Example one.

Honey, will you take my temperature? I think I’m coming down with something. Voice: Example two.

You must be coming down with a cold. Voice: Example three.

Tommy came down with the flu.

Alright, so coming down with: coming down with the flu, coming down with a cough…

Uhu.

Et cetera. Alright, what’s our next phrase?

Well, this one is great, it’s a… it’s a filler phrase, so, uh, in the meantime.

In the meantime.

So, it could… I could say: alright, I’m gonna go cook dinner, um, in the meantime, Marco, can you please clear the table?

Okay, so, while you are cooking dinner, I am doing something else – I’m cleaning the table.

Exactly. So two things happening at the same time.

In the meantime. Very good, so it’s a filler, you say.

Cause usually it follows another phrase, so, um, I’m gonna be doing this report for a while, in the meantime can you just, uh… can you just wait here on the sofa please?

Okay, very good, so…

So in the meantime.

So you’re connecting two different actions, two different ideas.

Exactly.

Very good, in the meantime. And what about our last phrase?

Alright, there’re some people who really like to do this. Oh, and, uh, I might be one of them. This is called to blow things out of proportion.

Uhu.

Alright, and you’re gonna hear this phrase a lot with native English speakers and so, to blow things out of proportion, well, it pretty much means that you’re, um, exaggerating or you’re making a lo… a really big deal out of something that’s not very serious.

So, for example, if you come over to my house and you break a glass and I start freaking out and yelling at you, because you broke my glass…

I’ll say: Marco, you are blowing things out of proportion, I’ll just buy you a new one, it’s not that serious.

Right, so don’t exaggerate, right?

Right, so, uh, oftentimes you feel like this with… with, uh… withsiblings, spouses or bosses, who…

Hehe.

Who react very seriously, so, uh, you can say: hey, stop… stop yelling like you’re browin… you’re blowing things out of proportion, this is not a really big deal.

Exactly. Alright, so, um, blowing things out of proportion. Let’s not do that, but let’s listen to our dialogue for the last time and then we’ll be back.

Alright, so, Catherine, have you ever had the chicken pox?

I did, I have very, very clear memories of when I was a child and I had the chicken pox, because I believe it was Thanksgiving.

Ouh.

And I was about four, four-five years old and, uh, I couldn’t… I didn’t have an appetite, so I was not hungry.

Mm.

And all I could do is itch and drink and so I still have little scars like you mentioned…

Oh.

From where I couldn’t stop myself from scratching, my, uh, little marks.

Right, and, well, why does the little boy said that he’s going to go to take an oatmeal bath?

An oatmeal bath. Okay, well, um, this is one of the homeremedies, one of the home cures for the itchiness, alright.

Uhu.

So it doesn’t make your chicken pox go away, but it does make your skin feel better, because it’s very calming and smooth.

So…

So you can have some creams or some lotions, but other… other people like to take an oatmeal bath.

Right, so then you… you’re not itching anymore.

Right, but it’s gross, because you’re sitting in oatmeal. Eww.

Hehe. It is kind of gross.

Have you had the chicken pox?

Uh, I did… I didn’t know, but… because I couldn’t remember, so, uh… actually, my brother had it recently, so I was afraid that I didn’t get it, but called my mom, she said I got it, so I’m good.

You’re safe.

Yeah, so that’s the thing, right? You can only get it once. So once you get it, you… you don’t have a problem.

Well, we’re curious to know have you had the chicken pox an if you did, was it… was it really itchy or were you a lucky one and it wasn’t so bad?

Hehe.

So let us know on our website englishpod.com.

Right, and if you have ever had any other common childhood, uh, illnesses like the mumps or the measles, right, you can also tell us about that. So we’ll see you guys there and until next time…

Bye everyone!

Bye! ***