This episode’s vocabulary
Fitting
adj. — suitable or right for a particular situation or occasion.
To mock
verb — to laugh at someone, often by copying them in a funny but unkind way.
Row
noun — a noisy argument or fight.
Mock row
noun — an argument for fun.
Ridiculous
adj. — stupid or unreasonable and deserving to be laughed at.
Nonsense
noun — an idea, something said or written, or behaviour that is silly or stupid.
Get-together
noun — an informal meeting or social occasion, often arranged for a particular purpose.
Banter
noun — a conversation that is funny and not serious.
Strife
noun — violent or angry disagreement.
To weigh in
phrasal verb — to give an opinion or enter a discussion or argument.
To resolve
verb — to solve or end a problem or difficulty.
(like) water off a duck's back
idiom — criticisms of or warnings to a particular person that have no effect on that person.
Spectacularly
adverb — in an extreme or unusual way that attracts attention.
Questions and answers
Could you start speaking now, please?
Well, this is quite fitting, actually, because I had a sort of mock row with my little brother at the weekend. And we're kind of friends. So we're friends as well. So it definitely fits. This was one of the most ridiculous arguments ever, actually. But we're prone to that whenever we get together. It wasn't about anything serious, just silly nonsense. In more detail about when it happened, it was just on Saturday there, just Saturday past, we were having a get-together for my dad's birthday. And whenever we are together, we always engage in a bit of banter that usually involves ridiculous arguments over stupid topics. To say more about why we argued this time in particular, it was over the meaning of the phrase, The Ides of March. My little brother was under the impression that it meant something about there being more men than women, and that causing wars and strife throughout the world. And knowing what I do about the English language, I just couldn't stop myself from correcting him, and pointing out how wrong he was. It was funny, though, because he just wouldn't let it go. And kept insisting that that was what it meant. And even my mother weighed at one point to say how stupid he was being. Well, there's not much to say about how we resolved the whole thing. We just sort of laughed it off and went back to talking about similarly silly things like memes that we were finding on the internet at the same time. Oh, when it comes to how I felt about it, there's not much to say it was funny at the time. And even now I'm looking back on it, it's still actually quite funny. It's great when you can have fun with people like that. And then at the end of the day, it's just water off a duck's back. I imagine I'll be the one to get something spectacularly wrong next time. And we'll have a similar setup and go through a similar process next time as well.
And do you often argue with people?
What, in the sense of being silly about it? Yeah, it can remove a lot of tension from there.
Thank you, Rory, for your answer!
Hopefully, there will be no argument as to how helpful it was! -