📙 Part 2: Describe a family (not your own) that you like and are happy to know

This episode's vocabulary

Innumerable (adj.) - too many to be counted.

Late (adj.) - used to refer to someone who has died.

Consort (noun) - a wife or husband, especially of a ruler.

Vacate (verb) - to leave a place or position.

Persist (verb) - to continue to exist past the usual time, or to continue to do something in a determined way even when facing difficulties or opposition.

Stiff upper lip (noun) - someone who has a stiff upper lip does not show their feelings when they are upset.

Vessel (noun) - a large boat or a ship.

Ardent (adj.) - showing strong feelings.

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Questions and Answers

M: Now, Rory is going to describe a family, not his own, that he likes and is happy to know. He should say whose family it is, how many family members they have, what they're like, and he should explain why he likes this family. Rory, are you ready?

R: Yeah.

M: Yeah, so fire away, my boy.

R: Well, while I'm definitely not part of this particular family. I quite like the royal family of the United Kingdom, which I suppose is a good thing, since technically they are in charge of the entire country. I suspect they are... Oh God, they must be almost innumerable as they've got so many different branches of their family tree that cover different countries and principalities in the UK. I think a couple of crown dependencies as well. I'd have to check that. But core members are well known. So there's the Queen Elizabeth, and her late husband and consort Phillip, and Prince William and his wife, Kate. They're the duke and duchess of Cambridge. And they've got a son called George. And I think in that order, they're all in line to the throne, apart from Prince Philip. So when the queen vacates the throne, Prince William will take over, for example, and after that will be their son, George. They're talking about Prince William being one of the main people in line for the throne. But maybe Prince Charles will take over. Anyway, regardless, they're all very different people in terms of personality, at least it seems that way, although there are doubtless held by various protocols related to the monarchy. But they seem to be fundamentally good people, being involved in various charities and charitable causes, and they bring attention to different issues. For example, Prince Charles has the Prince's Trust, which is designed to help young people get into business and get into work more broadly like any family, they've been through a lot over the years and yet they persist and maintain their sort of stiff upper lip. And I suppose then that makes them ideal is kind of vessels of our nation's culture. And that is exactly why I like them. They're sort of reliable symbols of what our various nations represent. So alongside their various good works, they also have sort of positive metaphysical qualities and these make them great examples to follow.

M: What about your friends? Do they enjoy this family?

R: I don't think any of my friends, like the royal family, they're all like ardent republicans.

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Discussion

M: Thank you for your answer.

R: That's OK.

M: Oh, look at you, it's like as if you rub shoulders with the queen. Rory.

R: I've never met a member of the royal family. My mother has met Prince Charles, though, and she says he's a very nice man.

M: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, dear listener, so it's okay to talk about the royal family because the cue cards says, describe a family, not your own, that you like and are happy to know. Rory is happy to know the royal family. Why not? You know.

R: They're in our lives. At least in UK, but if you're from a country with a monarchy, then why not talk about your royal family?

M: Yeah.

R: Like if you're from Thailand, for example. What other countries have a royal family?

M: Not many countries.

R: Saudi Arabia's got a prince. It has a crowned prince. And, um, where else? Oman has got a sultan.

M: Oh yes.

R: Yes.

M: Oh, anyway, so you can talk about your relatives family. OK, for example, you have a brother or a sister so you can talk about their family or you can talk about your friend's family. Now, choose a family you'd like to be talking to. And you can talk about different branches in their family tree, right?

R: Yes. And you can talk about that as well. So you can talk about cousins and cousins once or twice removed. We've talked about family before.

M: Check out our *Relatives* episode.

R: You can also talk about relatives that are no longer with us, for example, someone's late husband or late wife, which means they have passed on. That's a phrasal verb, meaning someone has died. If you want to know more about phrasal verbs, you can check out our phrasal verb course, or Podcourse on phrasal verbs.

M: Right. So in terms of personality, you can say so in terms of personality. As for their personality, it seems that they're really nice people. So in terms of personality and Rory said they are fundamentally good people.

R: I think they are fundamentally good people. That just means like when it comes down to the basic parts of people, they are good, although I think that's true for almost everybody.

M: So they are involved in different charities. So people are involved in different events and different activities. And you said that they maintain stiff upper lip.

R: Yes. Now, you can only really talk about this in the context of being British, unfortunately, because like British people are famous for having a stiff upper lip, which means we don't get overly emotional and we sort of at stressful times we don't have outward displays of emotion. This kind of thing.

M: Yeah. So you can compare people to Brits. Oh, like British people they maintain a stiff upper lip. What do you mean by metaphysical qualities? What is that?

R: Well, it's like almost spiritual qualities, really. So in terms of... They actually do good things, but they also have this kind of contribution to the national spirit. That's not something that you can touch. That's like something that we are like our culture. You can't really touch someone's culture. You feel it in the atmosphere.

M: Hmm. OK, yeah.

R: So in our case, it's like being stoic and doing like good works because it's your duty. Doing your duty as well, that's something that you can't really touch, that's something that you just have inside of you.

M: Mm hmm. And do you follow all the news of the royal family?

R: I don't. I just know that they're there. They do good things. I don't need to know the ins and outs of their personal lives.

M: Yeah. So you can say, like, I get along well with this family. We hang out once in a while. Yeah. She comes just to visit me in Moscow.

R: There must be times when the queen watches Netflix and just, you know, just going to sit here for a little bit and I watch the telly.

M: Yeah. And on the cards the question is what... So you should say what they are like, what the family is like, meaning characteristics. Right. So they are fundamentally good, they are reliable, they are friendly. So you should talk about the character traits, not not about what they like or they like fishing. They like snowboarding. No, it's about their character traits.

R: But I think that's enough of our word family for families.

M: We'll see you in speaking part three when we're going to be talking more families in general.

R: Even more.

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