This episode’s vocabulary
Anthem
noun — a song that has special importance for a particular group of people, an organization, or a country, often sung on a special occasion.
Someone wouldn’t be caught dead
idiom — someone dislikes something very much.
De facto
adj. — existing in fact, although perhaps not intended, legal, or accepted.
To appeal
verb — to interest or attract someone.
To glorify
verb — to praise and honour God or a person.
To pinpoint
verb — to find out or say the exact position in space or time of something.
Vaguely
adverb — not clearly expressed, known, described, or decided.
Be/get carried away
phrase — to become so excited about something that you do not control what you say or do.
To evoke
verb — to make someone remember something or feel an emotion.
To stoke
verb — encourage or incite (a strong emotion or tendency).
Impoverished
adj. — very poor.
Questions and answers
Well, I quite like some of the phrasing in Scotland the Brave. It's not an official national anthem or anything, since we're in the UK. This is actually God Save The King. Although I doubt many Scottish people wouldn't be caught dead singing that. Instead, it serves as a sort of de facto national song, along with a few others that people use in sports marches or, sorry, sports matches, and political rallies. There's a particular line in it which is "land of my heart forever, Scotland the brave", which I find quite inspiring, especially when it's set to music. I like national anthems like that which appeal to the country as a whole, working at its finest and best, as opposed to songs which sort of glorify specific individuals. A country isn't a person, in my opinion, it's the people that live there. So that line fits with this idea perfectly. I can't pinpoint a specific time when I came to know of the song. People have been singing it for decades, if not longer, and even if you don't learn it in school, you can pick it up from football crowds, for example. However, I vaguely remember learning it at school in music lessons a really long time ago now. The music that it gets set to has a regular beat that's easy to follow, and it's not a million miles long, like God Save The King, which makes it easier to remember as well. It's a funny experience when you sing the song, at least for me, since even though I'm not a musical person, I really get into singing that song, when it does get sung at different events. It's easy to get carried away by it, which I suppose is the idea to evoke or stoke national pride in people. If I'd never heard it. I think my experience of national anthems would be pretty impoverished. Though, of course, as a Scottish nationalist, I would say that, wouldn't I?
And what about your friends? Do they like the song?
Um, I haven't heard them complaining about it.