📕 Part 1: Headphones

This episode's vocabulary

Kingpin (noun) – the most important person in a particular organization. → He is the kingpin of a criminal gang.

Stick to (phrasal verb) – to continue using or doing something. → I usually stick to earbuds these days.

Chunky / Clunky (adjectives) – heavy, solid, and not elegant. → Old headphones can be quite clunky and get in the way.

Portable (adjective) – light and small enough to be easily carried or moved. → I prefer something more portable, so I can easily carry it with me.

Carry around (phrasal verb) – to carry something with you wherever you go. → Bluetooth earbuds are easy to carry around.

Compatible with (adjective) – able to be used with a particular device or system. → These earbuds are compatible with my phone and my laptop.

Incompatible with (adjective) – not able to be used with a particular device or system. → This printer isn't compatible with my computer.

Noise-canceling (adjective) – designed to reduce unwanted ambient sounds. → The latest generation headphones are noise-canceling headphones.

Block out (phrasal verb) – to stop sound from reaching a place. → The noise-canceling option helps to block out sound.

Handy (adjective) – useful or convenient. → The option to block out sound is handy when I want to work.

Get the hang of it (idiom) – to learn how to do something. → I've never got the hang of listening to music while working.

Put headphones on (collocation) – to place headphones over your ears. → It's rude when someone puts their headphones on during a conversation.

Put earbuds in (collocation) – to place earbuds inside your ears. → He put his earbuds in to listen to the podcast.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you use headphones?

Rory: I actually can't remember the last time I used headphones. I usually stick to earbuds these days.

Maria: When would you use headphones?

Rory: Maybe if I was in a recording studio or something like that, but I wouldn't buy my own set. They're a bit, well, chunky and clunky, and they get in the way. And not only that, but they're also not very portable as well.

Maria: What type of headphones do you usually use?

Rory: Just Bluetooth earbuds, really. Like I said, they're easy to carry around, and they are compatible with my phone and my laptop. So I can use them for when I'm working or when I listen to music at the gym. Oh, they also have a noise-canceling option to block out sound, which is handy when I want to work or ignore people.

Maria: In what situations would you not use headphones?

Rory: Probably not when I'm with people. It's a bit rude when you're trying to spend time together and someone puts their headphones on or their earbuds in, isn't it? Apart from that, maybe if I'm meant to be working. I find it difficult to listen to music when I'm working. I don't know how other people can be good at that, but I've never got the hang of it.

Discussion

Maria: Headphones, dear listener. And when you think about headphones, what is it? Headphones, earbuds? What's the difference?

Rory: Well, earbuds are smaller and they go in your ear. And headphones are larger and they cover your ears and usually they have something that goes over the top of your head. It's not a strap, but it's something like that.

Maria: Yeah. So you can say, oh, I usually use earbuds. Earbuds. Or I usually use headphones, or I use headphones and earbuds. Wireless earbuds, obviously. So there are no wires, they just these little thingies in a house. How is this is box, yeah? Or just buds.

Rory: Earbuds. Or your AirPods, if you're an Apple user, I suppose.

Maria: And dear listener, noise-canceling headphones are popular these days.

Rory: Because we don't want to listen to people.

Maria: Yeah, the latest generation headphones are noise-canceling headphones, so they cancel all the noise. But do they cancel really all the noise?

Rory: Well, I mean, if a car was coming towards you, then you would probably hear it, but for the most part, you wouldn't hear lots of distractions.

Maria: Especially if you have them on all the time because you like them. And if you do something all the time because you like it, then you stick to them. So for me, I stick to earbuds because I like them. I stick to headphones. I stick to noise-canceling headphones. I stick to earbuds. I stick to wireless earbuds. My own set. Set. A set of headphones.

Rory: Or a pair of earbuds.

Maria: Headphones are a bit clunky.

Rory: Or chunky.

Maria: Clunky, they are big, you know, earbuds are small so you can put them anywhere, but if something is clunky, it's negative, heavy, maybe ugly, old-fashioned. So, yeah, a clunky ring, a huge, heavy ring, for example. So some headphones are quite clunky. But earbuds are more portable. Well, some headphones might be portable. Might be. I don't know, maybe for you. So you can say that, I prefer something more portable, something smaller. So I can easily carry it with me. A portable computer, a small computer. And this is C1, dear listener.

Rory: Really?

Maria: Yeah, portable. I know, band eight.

Rory: How is portable a C1 word? That's crazy.

Maria: I don't know, because it's a rare word to use.

Rory: It's not a rare word. Everything is portable these days.

Maria: Yeah, but students normally don't use this word portable. They say small. It's small.

Rory: Really?

Maria: Yes, yeah, very few people say portable. Portable. Yeah. A portable computer, portable phone, and I don't know, an e-reader could be portable.

Rory: What if you don't have a phone that's not portable?

Maria: Yeah. Yeah, maybe 25 years ago. So earbuds are easy to carry around. This is the phrasal verb, carry around. And I hate carrying around headphones because they are clunky, they're huge, and I keep losing them. Earphones, earbuds should be compatible with your phone. Dear listener, this is a specific word which means something is connected to something else. Usually we use it about technology. So it works well with something else. Compatible. Compatible with. Able to be used with a particular device, a machine, computer. So this software may not be compatible with other systems.

Rory: They might be incompatible.

Maria: Incompatible, yeah? Yeah, this printer isn't compatible with my computer. So I can't connect this printer to my computer. They don't work well together, you see. So I usually listen to music wearing headphones. I like the noise-canceling option. So noise-canceling option blocks out sound. Phrasal verb, block out sound, which is very useful. So this is useful or handy. It's handy, it's useful. And you use which. Blah, blah, blah, which is handy. And I use noise-canceling headphones to ignore people. People put their headphones on. People put their earbuds on.

Rory: No, they don't. They put their earbuds in.

Maria: In? Oh, so, wait, wait, wait. So they put headphones on, but they put earbuds in.

Rory: In their ears, because they're inside.

Maria: So I hate it when people put their headphones on and can't hear anything. Or I hate it when people put in their earbuds and can't hear anything. Then dear listener, you can mention some brands, like Apple headphones, Sony headphones. Like AirPods Pro.

Rory: I'm using Nothing buds, I think. They're from a company called Nothing Phone.

Maria: I'm using, I'm using Samsung. How do you, how do you say? Samsung? Samsung?

Rory: Samsung, yeah.

Maria: If we talk about situations where we don't use our earphones, we might want to explain why. So I said, I find it hard to listen. That just means it's difficult for me. If you find something hard to do, then it's difficult for you to do. You can also say that, earbuds sit comfortably inside my ears.

Rory: And that's all.

Maria: That's all. Yeah. You can say I prefer headphones because they sit comfortably on my ears. But there is a trend that today people avoid using wireless headphones and they prefer old-fashioned headphones. With wires. What you call them?

Rory: Oh my God. What do you call them? I just call them earphones.

Maria: Oh, yeah. Okay, wired earbuds. Or earphones with the wires, they have wires, right? So we just don't have, not today, usually we have just two things, earbuds, without any connection to the computer, physical connection. But sometimes they are unreliable because you lose the connection, Bluetooth doesn't work, and then your battery is low, okay? So they just die on you. And some people, if they have negotiations, some important meetings, they prefer to use wired earbuds. Earbuds with wires. And if you go to Amazon and you Google earbuds, they will have this name, wired earbuds.

Rory: Nice.

Maria: With wires.

Rory: A little bit of nostalgia trip.

Maria: Right. Thank you very much for listening.

Rory: We'll be back soon in our next episode, which you can listen to while you have your earbuds in or your headphones on.

Maria: Bye.