📕 Part 1: Mirrors

This episode's vocabulary

Inadvertently (adj.) - in a way that is not intentional.

Handy (adj.) - useful or convenient.

Wardrobe (noun) - a tall cupboard in which you hang your clothes.

To inspect (verb) - to look at something or someone carefully in order to discover information, especially about their quality or condition.

Vestibule (noun) - a small room just inside the outer door of a public building where you can leave your coat, etc.

Foyer (noun) - a large open area just inside the entrance of a public building such as a theatre or a hotel, where people can wait and meet each other.

Convention (noun) - a way of doing something or appearing that is considered usual and correct.

Footwear (noun) - shoes, boots, or any other outer covering for the human foot.

Reflection (noun) - the image of something in a mirror or on any reflective surface.

Generic (adj.) - shared by, typical of, or relating to a whole group of similar things, rather than to any particular thing.

Ornate (adj.) - having a lot of complicated decoration.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, how often do you look at yourself in the mirror?

R: Well, I have to every day when I fix my hair and put on moisturizer to make sure everything is evened out and in the right place. And then, I suppose inadvertently whenever I've been to the bathroom, since there are mirrors on the walls, and you can't really avoid them when you have to wash your hands.

M: Do you have mirrors in your home?

R: I have a wall mirror in the bathroom and a full-body one in my home in Scotland. It's set into the wardrobe so it's quite handy when you're getting dressed actually.

M: Do you think mirrors are a necessary decoration?

R: Well, I've never really thought about it until now, but I suppose you're right. Many people have them in their entrance halls at home, in the bathroom, and the bedroom. Some people have them on their desks. I suppose. It's a bit like curtains really when you think about it. You don't really focus on them much. But you would notice if they weren't there.

M: Do you often buy mirrors? Stop drinking your coffee and answer the question.

R: I have never bought one in my life actually. They always seem to come with the places that I've stayed in. I don't know where you would even buy one. Like a specific mirror shop, probably. Furniture store or something like that.

M: Where do you put mirrors?

R: Well, it's probably easier to say where you don't put them really. They should be at eye level and in rooms or places where inspecting your face is part of the routine there. So the bathroom and the bedroom are the most obvious so you can check when you go out, and the vestibules or the foyers so you can check yourself out before entering a place with other people. There are places that break with this convention like shoe shops for example, where they have mirrors at foot level so you can look at your, well, you can see how your new footwear looks.

M: Rory, do you have a mirror in your bag?

R: No, I don't. I have on my phone. I can look at the reflection of my phone if I need to.

M: Do you think you should have a mirror in your bag or in your pocket?

R: Well, for me personally no. But I suppose for other people if they feel like they need to check their face or their make-up regularly then they can.

M: Would you give a mirror as a gift, Rory?

R: Not as a sort of generic present. No. I guess if someone was really into mirrors then if there was a particularly ornate one, then that might be a good gift for them. But it seems, it's a strange gift to give, isn't it?

M: Hmm. Shall we give a mirror to Vanya?

R: No, he doesn't need that kind of torture.

M: Looking at himself every day. Thank you very much, Rory, for your answers! They are a mirror to our vocabulary. No?

R: Maybe things reflect positively on our podcast. There we go.

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Discussion

M: So, mirrors. First of all, you should pronounce this word as a mirror. Give me a mirror. Yeah, and there are some good phrases that Rory surprisingly used. Wow. For example, I fixed my hair.

R: Yeah, well, but it's not, it's something that once you describe it everyone understands they do it. Like fixing your hair is just making sure your hair isn't untidy.

M: Yeah, or messy. So I look in the mirror every day to fix my hair or when I fix my hair. And we look at ourselves in the mirror, right? In the mirror?

R: Yes.

M: So look at myself in the mirror. Yep. You can also glance in the mirror just like take a quick look.

R: That's the sound that you make when you glance in the mirror.

M: So you can examine yourself in the mirror. Rory, you've said you check yourself out in the mirror?

R: Yes.

M: I loved it.

R: Well, that's like when you look at how good you are in the mirror.

M: Yeah. Something else you've said about it. Check yourself out before you go somewhere. Oh, yes. You said inspect your face.

R: Yeah. Um, so inspect your face is like, glancing is a quick look but an inspection is longer and more detailed. It's the same for examining. If you examine yourself in the mirror, usually you're looking for something wrong. And if you're inspecting yourself, it's making sure that everything is correct.

M: Yeah, like when you go to the bathroom, you look at yourself in the mirror, and then you start inspecting your face for these little spots that you should squeeze in, squeeze out.

R: Well, you shouldn't do that.

M: No, but everybody does it.

R: I know. But they shouldn't do it, it's really bad for you.

M: Yeah, like black dots on the nose. So you're inspecting them.

R: You call black dots in Russia. Why do you call them that? We call them blackheads

M: Blackheads?

R: Yeah.

M: Oh, we call them black dots.

R: Well, it's like the head is the sort of raised part of the spot. There's everything underneath as well.

M: So, what you should say is like, I have blackheads on my nose. I have heads on my nose.

R: I hope you don't have blackheads on your nose. That's disgusting.

M: No, I have them. Come on. Most people have them.

R: No, they don't. Most people clean their faces. You have a lovely face.

M: Vanya, do you have blackheads?

R: We don't talk about Vanya. We just discussed we don't talk about how Vanya looks.

M: We don't talk about Vanya?

R: No.

M: Okay. We don't talk about Vanya's nose?

R: It is forbidden.

M: Okay, can we talk about Vanya's wife and her nose. Right. Okay, fine. Fine. Mirrors, back to mirrors. After you've inspected your nose for blackheads, apparently, they're called. You then inadvertently, inadvertently?

R: Yeah, inadvertently just means that you're not planning on doing it. Like I knocked over the glass inadvertently.

M: Oh, band nine.

R: It's like you couldn't avoid doing it.

M: And then inadvertently, whenever I've been to the bathroom. Blah, blah. I look at myself in the mirror. Just like that? Inadvertently?

R: Well, yeah, like, well, you always inadvertently look at yourself in the mirror in the bathroom. You don't have a choice. They're surrounded by mirrors in there.

M: Yeah, you just can't help it, right? Then we have different kinds of mirrors. Rory mentioned a wall mirror in the bathroom or a full-body mirror.

R: So a wall mirror is a mirror on the wall and a full body mirror is one that you can see your whole body in.

M: Yeah. We can also have a hand mirror. Yeah. With the handle, right? It is an old-fashioned one. No, we call it "compact mirror". "Handheld"? No. "Compact mirror".

R: Compact mirror.

M: Yeah. Compact mirror. Dear ladies, it's like a mirror, a small mirror that we have in our purses or in our pockets. Well, if you do, like have a compact mirror, usually, we use our phones nowadays, right? So we just look at ourselves in the phones.

R: Oh, I don't know. I thought like, women used compact mirrors more than men.

M: Yeah, true. But we also have mirrors. Like, we use cosmetics like makeup. So we have mirrors there. If you have eyeshadows. So you have a mirror there.

R: Yes.

M: So, makeup mirror. You can have a mirror, a wardrobe mirror. So you stand in front of your wardrobe mirror. And this is like a high-level vocabulary dear listener? Because you talk about mirrors all the time with your friends in English, right?

R: Hopefully.

M: Yeah, now you can say like, what mirror do you prefer? Okay, so, mirrors could be found in entrance halls at home.

R: Yes.

M: Entrance halls.

R: And they're usually at eye level, which just means that they're at the same height as your eyes.

M: Yes. In shoe stores, they're at foot level.

R: Which means they're at the same height as your feet, which is a really strange sentence. It's just like saying they're on the same level of the planet as your feet so you can see them.

M: Yeah. They have mirrors at foot level in stores. You can have a look at how your new footwear looks. So you see footwear - shoes.

R: So if your footwear looks good and a mirror looks very good. And it's very well decorated. You can say it's ornate.

M: Yes, ornate mirrors. You go to buy a mirror from a specific mirror shop.

R: Well, I was gonna say I don't think, hold on a second, internet help me out.

M: There is a furniture store. I think you just go to a furniture store to buy a mirror.

R: I think you buy them there too. But maybe there are mirror shops? Let me look. Mirror shop.

M: Yeah, there should be, for some like wardrobe mirrors. Like full-body mirrors, bathroom mirrors.

R: Perhaps saying this in Russia was not such a great idea. But there are several online stores, which we cannot mention because they're not paying us to advertise for them. But there are the top three search results for mirror shop online reveal that there is a swathe of online retailers for mirrors.

M: So mirrors reflect something and we see our own reflection. So look, it's your own reflection. What does it reflect? Do you have this mirror at home, Rory, with a magnifying glass? You know, sometimes in hotels, they have this magnifying so you see all and each of the blackheads.

R: Well, I don't have any blackheads so I don't have to worry about this, but I don't have one in my home but my grandmother used to have one.

M: Maybe you should have this magnifying mirror. So you will see blackheads on your nose. Because I'm sure there are some.

R: No there aren't. I go to a dermatologist for this exact reason.

M: Really?

R: Yeah.

M: To have your nose cleaned?

R: Well, skin in general.

M: Nice.

R: You could say that like, you could say that the examiner like if the question is like, what do you see in the mirror? Then you could say, well, I know that I don't see blackheads because I go to a dermatologist and that's a band nine-level word for somebody who cleans your skin.

M: So dermatologist, dermatologist, and blackheads. I think blackheads on somebody's nose is the keyword, the key phrase, collocation from this episode, Rory?

R: Is it? Oh, I don't really like talking about blackheads. It's disgusting. Just wash your face. It's not difficult.

M: No, no, but even if you wash your face, they just stay. You have to do this cleansing procedure. So we are talking about it, dear listener, because this is, like far more interesting than mirrors.

R: I know. But we really should have added that to our episode on cosmetics, because we're talking about mirrors and this might poorly reflect on us if we continue to talk about it.

M: Yeah, once I went to the, to the...

R: You're just like, I was like, let's stop talking and Maria's like no, let's just keep talking about this "чепуха".

M: No, because this is a procedure, and this is pretty painful you know. And so the doctor, whatever you call her, squeezes out the shoot out of your nose. But then, and you have like some red spots. Really? Yeah, they do that.

R: I know, it happens to me once a month.

M: Oh, once a month you do it?

R: Yeah. Well, no, once every two months, let's say.

M: Do you have some red spots on the nose after that?

R: Yeah, but then they go away.

M: So that was a juicy detail about Rory's cleansing procedures.

R: It's not that difficult, seriously.

M: What do you do to cleanse your body, Rory? Okay, we stop here, right. Okay, I got it. Can you stare at your face in the mirror?

R: Only if you're a complete narcissist.

M: Narcissist.

R: Yeah, that's somebody who's obsessed with how they look.

M: Yeah, but you think it's narcissistic to stare at oneself in the mirror?

R: If you think there's something wrong with your face, but like most of the time, your face is fine.

M: Yeah.

R: Because you wash your face.

M: Do you wash yourself?

R: Do you wash yourself?

M: Oh, so I'm saying black holes instead of blackheads. Do you wash yourself? Do you wash your face? Yeah, dear listener, we hope that you do wash yourself and your face. And you don't see black holes in your faces. Even with a magnifying mirror.

R: That brings us to the end of this episode about mirrors. Hopefully, it's given you a lot to reflect on. Bye!

M: Thank you very much for listening! Bye-bye!

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