Contraceptives

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we're talking about something that's very common in high

schools all across the English speaking world.

That's right.

Today we are going to talk a little bit about sexual education or also called sex ed.

So you may be asking yourself what exactly this means.

So let's take a look at this word on Vocabulary Preview.

Okay, so more commonly than not we're going to hear the phrase sex ed, E-D.

That stands for education.

This is basically a class or a training about sexuality and safety when it comes to these

issues.

That's right.

So as you said, this is a very common class that is part of the school curriculum in English

speaking countries.

I think maybe students are about 16 to 15, 16 years old when they get sex ed.

We had it when I was about 13, 14.

13, 14.

So it all depends.

Now many countries don't really have this in their public schools.

Other countries only have it in private schools.

So it's a very controversial topic about if schools should actually be teaching this.

But we'll talk about that a little bit later on.

Why don't we take a look at today's dialogue.

Let's listen to what's happening today.

All right, settle down everyone.

As part of this school's curriculum, we'll be covering sex ed this week.

Oh boy, yeah.

Now I want everyone to take this class seriously.

Sexual education is very important and I want you to ask as many questions as you can think

of.

Remember, there are no stupid questions here.

Miss Carlton, what exactly is sexual education?

Are you going to teach us like Kama Sutra and stuff like that?

No, Jason, that's not actually what sex ed is.

Basically, we will talk about sexually transmitted diseases, contraceptives, and how the male

and female bodies work.

My older sister is in college and she takes what she and her friends call the pill.

I never really understood what that is, but I know it has to do with sex or something.

Good point, Jason.

This will be the topic of our first class, contraceptives.

As you mentioned, the pill is one of the many that exist.

The birth control pill is taken daily by a woman in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy,

but it does not protect her from contracting STDs from an infected person.

Another popular method is using condoms.

This is probably the best method if you have sex, since it not only prevents a woman from

getting pregnant, but also protects you from STDs.

Yes, Jason?

What are condoms made out of?

How is it exactly that a woman gets pregnant?

Condoms are usually made out of an elastic material called latex.

As for your other question, that's a whole new class.

Alright, we're back, so now I'm sure there are a couple of words that we didn't really

understand there, so let's take a look at a couple of them on Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway

Okay, so one of the most common phrases you're going to hear when it comes to sex and safety

when you're having sex is sexually transmitted disease or STD.

That's right, so the teacher actually mentioned the whole name sexually transmitted diseases

and also she used the acronym STDs or STD in STD.

And what exactly are these STDs?

Well, the key word here is disease.

These are illnesses that you can get from sex.

So sexually transmitted means transmitted or passed on from one person to another person

during sex and this could include any kind of diseases like AIDS or syphilis or chlamydia

or gonorrhea.

Those are the most famous ones.

That's right, so sexually transmitted diseases.

Now why don't we get into the title of our lesson today, contraceptives.

What are these contraceptives?

Okay, so teachers are always going to explain the big difference between protection and

contraception or contraceptives.

Usually contraceptives have to do with getting pregnant.

If you don't want your girlfriend to get pregnant and your guy or if your girl and you don't

want to get pregnant, you take contraceptives or you use contraceptives.

There are many different kinds and I think the most common kind for preventing pregnancy

or keep making sure you don't get pregnant is something called the pill.

That's right, one of the kids said that his sister takes the pill.

Now this is called the pill.

Now you know that pills are any type of a capsule or little medicine that you swallow

with water.

But what is the pill?

Well this is the birth control pill.

So that's a long name.

People often in conversation just say the pill.

But it's called the birth control pill and it's a pill that women take every day or some

of them different times to prevent pregnancy.

So that means that you're trying not to get pregnant.

That's right.

Okay, so this is called a contraceptive.

Now as you mentioned, this is a contraceptive so it will prevent you from getting pregnant.

But it will not protect you and as many of you may know, the most common form of protection

against pregnancy and STDs are a little device called a condom.

Okay, so a condom is like you said the most common kind of protection that people use

and it's important because it helps you not only not get pregnant but also not get a disease.

And so people often talk about this as being the most important kind of protection from

disease and pregnancy.

And it's basically just a cover for a man's penis and it prevents liquids being passed

on from one person to another person.

That's right and actually as you mentioned, this has to do with our next word.

It prevents you from contracting STDs like the teacher mentioned.

So to contract an STD or to contract an illness, what does that mean?

Well contract is a special verb that we use when we're talking about getting a disease.

You don't say I got a disease, you say I contracted it.

That means I got it from somewhere or someone.

And that's one of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.

You can contract very serious diseases just by having sex.

Now can I say I contracted the flu?

I mean it's not incorrect but we don't really say that with the flu.

It's not a very serious illness.

You say it with very serious illnesses.

So yeah I don't think you would go around saying I contracted a cold last week.

I got the cold.

And you wouldn't say this about cancer either because cancer is not something you get from

someone else.

But you say he contracted AIDS or he contracted gonorrhea for example.

Okay very good.

So as you see the spelling is actually the same as a contract like an agreement between

a company or two people.

But the accent is different.

A contract is an agreement to contract that what we're talking about.

Illnesses.

To get.

To get.

Alright very good.

And for our final word, we're going back to condoms.

The material that they are made out of is called latex.

Okay so latex is a very special kind of material that is like they say in the dialogue elastic.

It's stretchy.

And it's almost plasticky.

But it's very very tough.

It's very strong and that's why they make condoms out of it.

And I think we also see things made out of latex for example doctors when they're operating

they wear latex gloves.

That's right.

Obviously they don't want to use materials that are weak or that are thin because they

need to protect their patients from germs.

And so latex gloves and latex condoms are very very common because they are so durable.

That's right.

Okay.

So a lot of interesting stuff there.

Why don't we now jump on over and take a look at a couple of different phrases on Fluency

Builder.

Fluency Builder.

So this first phrase is something you should be very very familiar with if you've ever

been in a classroom in America or Canada.

Often times with younger children or with high school children people get really worked

up very excited.

You know kids are yelling and talking and they're giggling and they think that oh sex

is so funny.

And so the teacher always says settle down.

Settle down.

Okay.

So if somebody tells you to settle down.

Hey settle down.

Settle down.

That means calm down.

Be quiet.

You're too excited.

Calm down.

So you can use this with your kids maybe.

Settle down.

We need to go.

Come on.

Get in the car.

That's right.

So just kind of be quiet.

Be a little bit calmer.

It's very very very important phrase especially if you're talking to younger people.

Okay.

And well of course when you're talking about sex with teenagers or younger people everyone's

laughing and giggling because it's such a weird thing for them.

And the teacher said I really want you to take this class seriously.

Okay so take this class seriously.

This comes from a sentence structure that's very very important.

To take something seriously.

I take my studies very seriously.

Or you guys should take this class seriously.

It's important.

It means listen.

Pay attention.

This is important and you need to know this.

It's a way it's kind of a way to instruct someone to really pay attention.

That's right.

Or what if you say I want you to take me seriously.

That means I want you to really think about what I'm saying and not just talk to me like

a you know like I don't really understand what's going on.

Okay.

Very good.

So to take something seriously is the structure.

Now moving on to our final phrase.

When we were talking again about contraceptives we talked about avoiding pregnancy and we

have a phrase that we use called unwanted pregnancy.

Okay so pregnancy is what happens when someone gets pregnant.

They're going to have a baby.

But an unwanted pregnancy is a certain kind of pregnancy.

It means when someone did not plan to get pregnant or did not want to get pregnant.

So want unwanted is the opposite of wanted.

It means like it was an accident.

Right.

So you wouldn't really say an accidental pregnancy because it you know.

It's still a kid.

Exactly.

So you didn't want to get pregnant but you did.

That's why we say unwanted pregnancy.

Or you'll hear very often condoms help prevent unwanted pregnancy or the pill helps prevent

unwanted pregnancy.

That's right.

Okay so a lot of interesting stuff there.

I think it's worthwhile for us to listen to our dialogue for one last time.

All right settle down everyone.

As part of this school's curriculum we'll be covering sex ed this week.

Oh boy yeah.

Now I want everyone to take this class seriously.

Sexual education is very important and I want you to ask as many questions as you can think

of.

Remember there are no stupid questions here.

Miss Carlton what exactly is sexual education?

Are you going to teach us like Kama Sutra and stuff like that?

No Jason that's not actually what sex ed is.

Basically we will talk about sexually transmitted diseases, contraceptives and how the male

and female bodies work.

My older sister is in college and she takes what she and her friends call the pill.

I never really understood what that is but I know it has to do with sex or something.

Good point Jason.

This will be the topic of our first class contraceptives.

As you mentioned the pill is one of the many that exist.

The birth control pill is taken daily by a woman in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy

but it does not protect her from contracting STDs from an infected person.

Another popular method is using condoms.

This is probably the best method if you have sex since it not only prevents a woman from

getting pregnant but also protects you from STDs.

Yes Jason?

What are condoms made out of?

How is it exactly that a woman gets pregnant?

Condoms are usually made out of an elastic material called latex.

As for your other question, that's a whole new class.

Alright so coming back, we obviously didn't cover all forms of contraception and forms

of protecting yourself against STDs but I remember very clearly in school when we talked

about this, they said the best protection, the best way to not get pregnant or to get

STDs is celibacy.

That's right.

Celibacy is not having any sex.

When I was in school they said the safest sex is no sex because there's always a little

bit of danger.

And so this is something that I think they tell a lot of young people to scare them but

there is some truth to it.

Yeah of course.

Now what do you think about this topic?

Do you think it's worthwhile and we should teach children sexual education or many people

protest against it and say this is wrong, we shouldn't be giving kids condoms when they're

in high school?

Well personally I think that kids in most parts of the world will have sex whether or

not you tell them not to.

And so because of that, because everyone's going to, there are always going to be people

trying it, I think it's important to inform students and inform kids who are in high school

of options and of safety and of important health measures because otherwise you risk

unwanted pregnancies and you risk people getting these very serious diseases like AIDS.

That's right.

I think it is a very important topic.

Some countries or some places even within the United States are a little bit more conservative

than others and so many times they are against this type of education but I've actually encountered

people who never received sexual education and well until they were maybe like 18 they

thought they can get pregnant by a kiss.

So I think that's one of the dangers.

Obviously there are both sides to this issue and we're curious to know what you think.

Do you think that sex ed should be a course or should be something that people talk about

in schools, in high school or in college?

Do they do this in your home country?

Let us know.

Our website is EnglishPod.com.

All right.

We'll see you guys there.

Bye.

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