This episode’s vocabulary
Pipe dream
noun — an idea or plan that is impossible or very unlikely to happen.
Crop up
phrasal verb — to happen or appear unexpectedly.
Overarching
adj. — most important, because of including or affecting all other areas.
Presence
noun — the fact that someone or something is in a place.
Stress
verb — to give emphasis or special importance to something.
Denigrate
verb — to say that someone or something is not good or important.
Questions and answers
Rory is going to describe an ambition he has had for a very long time. He's gonna say what this ambition is, why he has this ambition, and when he will achieve this ambition. Also he is going to explain why he's had this ambition for a long time. Rory, you're ready to rock and roll?
Yes.
Yeah, give it to us.
Well, it's kind of a running joke amongst myself and my friends for the last few years. It's been my pipe dream of doing DELTA module 3. I've been trying to work up the will to get it together since I finished my DELTA 1 exam. But something always seemed to crop up to prevent it from happening. It's not particularly critical from my work. But there's always been an overarching theme in my professional development that I do a course or take an exam every year as part of that. And this year, I haven't, or at least this academic year, I haven't done anything outside of social media projects, which I don't really think most institutions would count as PD. It looks nice on a CV, if you have this consistent pattern of doing well sort of professional, professional development courses for lack of a better term. And it's nice to tell your colleagues that you have more than CELTA, it's like it makes you one of the super teachers. With regards to when I will achieve it, I'm really hopeful I can do it this summer, maybe before I go home. And definitely before I start university. It probably shouldn't have taken me so long to get around to doing it. But I think the fact that I can do it any time, and just the presence of other priorities in my life makes it sort of an optional extra. Though I should stress, this is just for me, I wouldn't denigrate the efforts of people who take it more seriously by any means. There are some people who are really good at this kind of thing where they, they just set the goal, like they just do it. Whereas in my case, it's a it's a bit different. But then we're all leading different lives, aren't we?
What about your friends? Do they support you?
They support me, they support by me by making jokes about it. I suppose they're trying to poke me in the right direction.
Rory, thank you very much for your lovely answer! -