📕 Part 1: Rain

This episode's vocabulary

Downpour (noun) - a lot of rain in a short time.

Cloudburst (noun) - a sudden heavy fall of rain.

To daydream (verb) - to spend time thinking pleasant thoughts about something you would prefer to be doing or something you would like to achieve in the future.

Infamous (adj.) - famous for something considered bad.

Spectrum (noun) - a range of different positions, opinions, etc. between two extreme points.

Torrential (adj.) - used to refer to very heavy rain.

Water cycle (noun) - the way that water is taken up from the sea, rivers, soil, etc. and then comes back down as rain or snow.

Drizzle (noun) - rain in very small, light drops.

Precipitation (noun) - water that falls from the clouds towards the ground, especially as rain or snow.

To spit (verb) - to rain very slightly.

To flood (verb) - to cause to fill or become covered with water, especially in a way that causes problems.

Depression (noun) - part of a surface that is slightly lower than the rest.

Drainage (noun) - the system of water or waste liquids flowing away from somewhere into the ground or downpipes.

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Questions and Answers

M: Do you like rainy days?

R: Well, when I'm not caught up in them - yes. It's very calming, isn't it? To sit and watch the downpour from the comfort of your own warm apartment. On the other hand, if I'm outside, then I'm less than thrilled about it, especially if it's like a cloudburst or a storm.

M: Roro. So for the purposes of this episode, I'm gonna call Rory Roro.

R: And for the purposes of the episode, I'm going to ignore it.

M: What do you do on rainy days?

R: What most people do, I suppose. Stay in and give thanks that I'm not out in it, or curse the fact that I have to go out in it if that's what's required. I'm pretty sure there are many people like me or many people are like me, and they stare out the window and just daydream.

M: Does it rain much in your country?

R: Well, I think Scotland and Britain, in general, are pretty much infamous at this point for wet weather. Although, when I think about it, I'm pretty sure that Scotland and Russia are quite comparable in terms of weather, though it hits the more extreme ends of the spectrum in Russia, doesn't it? In Scotland, many places are quite high up or near the sea, and that means they're generally wetter. Especially during the autumn or the winter periods. Though it's not unknown to have torrential rain after a few days of sunshine and summer. But that's just the water cycle, isn't it?

M: Is there any part of your country when it doesn't rain much?

R: Honestly, I don't think there's a square inch of open ground untouched by at least a small drizzle at this point. Well, like I say, at least nowhere outside. Maybe in the highest peaks, there's less precipitation, but that's because everything is frozen.

M: Roro, does rain ever affect transportation in your hometown?

R: Well, it's just spitting which is usually the case. But during torrential rain, it can flood the sort of... There's like a small depression in the roadway where it meets the bridge in our local area. And that floods. That's very specific though. Most of the time there aren't serious issues, because we have quite good drainage systems.

M: Thank you very much!

R: Hopefully you can save up the vocabulary for a rainy day. We are competing to have the most cringe coincidence.

M: There wasn't any water in the questions and in the answers, only quality meat.

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Discussion

M: So do as Rory has just used band 9, band 15 sentence in one of his answers. So you can relisten the answers now and, like think what this sentence is. So I asked him, Rory, oh, sorry, Roro. Roro, does rain ever affect transportation in your hometown? And what does he say? He says like, not if it's just spitting, but during torrential rain, it can flood the depression in the roadway, where it meets the bridge in our local area. Oh my god, depression, torrential rain, spitting.

R: There's a lot to unpack here.

M: Yes, please do. Unpack it.

R: So spitting is just like small bits of rain coming down. You know when it's not like constantly raining like there's no pattern. It's just like random bits of rain. This usually happens before the rain starts properly. Torrential rain is when the rain, it's like when someone turns on a tap.

M: Like that.

R: Yeah.

M: It can flood the depression in the roadway. Dear listener, it can flood the depression the depression, okay?

R: I couldn't think of another word for it. It's like a small...

M: Depression in the roadway.

R: I couldn't think of it. It's like the opposite of a bump. Like a bump goes up but a depression goes down. I couldn't think of anything else because it's not a hole. A hole is like a serious... Like there is nothing in the hole. It's just like something that your car can fall into.

M: So when the road gets depressed for some reasons, the flood can flood the depression. Water can flood the depression.

R: A depression is the opposite of a bump in the road.

M: Yeah, yeah. So a depression. Very nice. So flood, flood is like when we have lots of water, so it can flood the depression in the roadway. Marvelous. Rory, bravo. So, you also did use topical vocabulary about rain.

R: Precipitation. I think that includes snow as well, to be honest with you. It's just whenever water comes from the sky.

M: Yeah, whatever water that comes from the sky, there's less precipitation, it's uncountable, and we should use it in the singular.

R: Precipitation is the whole thing. Torrential rain is like when someone turns on a tap. Spitting is when there's just small bits of rain. But there's also drizzle.

M: Yeah.

R: Now, drizzle is stronger than spitting. But it's less than rain. Like as we imagine it commonly. I love you trying to like make people visualize the rain with the sounds you're making.

M: I'm making gestures, but also I'm making noises for you to imagine this drizzle.

R: This is why we need Tik- Tok. So Maria can mime the different kinds of rain.

M: Yeah, also downpour, the downpour.

R: Yeah. So downpour is again, it's like heavy rain. I didn't actually say heavy rain, funnily enough.

M: You can say it rains heavily or there is a heavy rain. You said watch the downpour. So when it pours down.

R: And it will pour down a lot if there's a cloud burst, which is a very specific term for when like imagine all of the water in a cloud comes down at one time.

M: Oh, wow. It's like a bucket of water on your head.

R: That's like imagine a bucket of water just coming down from the sky. But there's no bucket. It's just water.

M: If it's a cloud burst or a storm. Nice. So I like rain when I'm not caught up in it.

R: Yeah. You get caught up in everything. But in the case of rain, you get caught up in rain when it's like all around you. And you can't escape it.

M: Yep. You stay in and you stare out the window.

R: And daydream. We've talked about daydreaming before.

M: Yeah, yeah. I stare out the window, daydreaming about my new shows, a new dress, and my new diamond ring.

R: Moving swiftly on.

M: If you want to buy me a diamond ring, please donate. Scotland is infamous for wet weather.

R: It is, which just means like you could be famous for something. Famous is positive fame. Infamous is negative fame.

M: Yeah, it's like notorious. Scotland is notorious for different types of rains. So if you go to Scotland, you will be exposed to torrential rains and drizzles, downpours, all sorts of precipitation.

R: All kinds of wet weather.

M: Yay, wet weather. Yeah.

R: Wet weather is just like another way of saying rain.

M: Yeah, wet weather. Oh, I like wet weather. It's wetter, or it's much wetter in Scotland than in Russia. I'm not sure about that, though.

R: Just let all of this rain vocabulary rain down on you.

M: Nice. Nice. Nice. Yeah. So these are topical vocabulary, specific. Rain specific. Also drainage system. When you talk about transportation, you can mention that there is a good drainage system in your hometown. Or there isn't.

R: Or, there isn't. Like where I live in Russia, for example.

M: We don't have any drainage system. Nah, nah, we do.

R: No, there's actually nothing. No, no, you don't. In Strogino where I live, like, everything flooded. When, at the time of recording this podcast I live in Strogino.

M: Yes, in Strogino.

R: But perhaps when you're listening to this, I will not be there anymore.

M: Because he's gonna be in a wet, rainy Scotland with clouds bursting on Rory's head.

R: Are you happy now, Maria?

M: We're gonna be in like dry, sunny weather and Rory is going to be back to Scotland into the rain.

R: Yes. Cause Russia is so dry and sunny in October and November.

M: Yeah. And very rainy in summer. So, yeah, rain.

R: Let's bring this particular rainstorm of vocabulary to an end.

M: Rain can make us happy.

R: It can make us sad.

M: It can be really therapeutic. Or not.

R: Or it can be very distressing.

M: Yeah. But anyway, our podcast is what? Is like the rain, which makes you happy.

R: It's a shower of great vocabulary...

M: On your head, in your head, inside your head. Thank you very much for listening, Hugs and kisses.

R: But no rain.

M, R: Bye!

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