📘 Part 3: Clothes

This episode's vocabulary

Ill-advised (adj.) - not wise, and likely to cause problems in the future.

To impede (verb) - to make it more difficult for something to happen or more difficult for someone to do something.

Context (noun) - the situation within which something exists or happens, and that can help explain it.

Uniformity (noun) - the quality or fact of being the same, or of not changing or being different in any way.

To stand out (phrasal verb) - to be very noticeable.

Walkie-talkie (noun) - a small radio held in the hand, used for both sending and receiving messages.

Pager (noun) - a small device that you carry or wear that moves or makes a noise to tell you that someone wants you to contact them.

Avant-garde (adj.) - avant-garde ideas, styles, and methods are very original or modern in comparison to the period in which they happen.

Novelty (noun) - the quality of being new and unusual.

Set in your ways (idiom) - not liking change in your life.

Diverse (adj.) - including many different types of people or things.

Concrete (adj.) - clear and certain, or real and existing in a form that can be seen or felt.

Generalization (noun) - a written or spoken statement in which you say or write that something is true all of the time when it is only true some of the time.

Universally (adverb) - in a way that exists everywhere, or involves everyone.

Applicable (adj.) - affecting or relating to a person or thing.

Questions and Answers

M: Do you think people need to wear formal clothes in the workplace?

R: Well, surely that depends on where you work and what role you have. I mean, it's probably ill-advised to wear a suit in a mechanics or a bakery, for example. Since it will just get messy and it could actually impede your work and be dangerous. You need to dress to match the context. That's more important.

M: Why do some people like to wear traditional clothes?

R: It's possible they're just really into their traditions, or traditional ways of living and dressing. Since there's so much uniformity in terms of the clothes people wear these days, something traditional is also a way to stand out in many ways, actually, weird as it may sound.

M: Will traditional clothes disappear in the future?

R: I don't see why they should. I mean, we still have walkie-talkies and pagers, and they're not exactly avant-garde. People might wear them less often, perhaps, but as long as there's some novelty and interest in them, they will likely stick around.

M: Do old people change their style of dressing?

R: Well, you'd have to ask an old person. I don't see why they couldn't, if, if they wanted to, but older people tend to be more set in their ways. So if anyone is less likely to change how they dress, it's probably them.

M: Can we learn about someone's personality based on the clothes they wear?

R: No. You may have been able to do that, but I don't think you can now, because the reasons for wearing clothes are so diverse, it's best to talk to them. You could make some assumptions, but in order to know concrete things, you have to talk to them.

M: What's the difference between clothes that young people and old people like to wear?

R: I suppose, generally speaking, young people tend to follow certain trends and, well, certain modern trends more closely than older people. But that's a very broad generalization, just because younger people tend to care more about these things.

M: Why do people change the style of the clothes as they grow older.

R: Well, that's the thing, really, I'm not sure that they do. I think their style of clothing changes in contrast to what is current and modern, but I think they probably just keep it the same, to be honest. They might change it to make it more accessible, because your ability to move around more freely changes, but as far as I can think, that's the only universally applicable reason.

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your answers!

Discussion

M: Thank you, Rory, for your story. Hey! So dear listener, here you should describe the clothes you were wearing. Which is why you need to know specific vocabulary to describe your clothes. So first of all, the best clothes. You can talk about a special dress if you are a girl, or a special suit. You know? A jacket and trousers. And something you wore at a party, or it was a holiday and you wore some, you know, official, formal or beautiful clothes. So maybe you went to the theatre or to an art gallery. Maybe it was a wedding or a birthday party. Okay? So now write it down. So what clothes? A dress, or maybe a suit. And then you can also talk about different accessories. So like a bag, a hat.

R: A knife. We have a knife for our kilts in Scotland. That's cool.

M: Really? A knife?

R: Yeah, a knife, like a real life.

M: Wow.

R: You have to be careful. You cannot take them to things like football matches or on planes.

M: Whoa. Wow. That's interesting.

R: Yeah.

M: You see? Rory chose to talk about his traditional clothes, and in Scotland on like formal events, like weddings and celebrations, crazy Scottish people were kilts.

R: Well, we're not the only people who go to events armed. For example, if you're a Sikh person, then I actually think you're required by the religion to carry a knife with you as well, and you need a special dispensation to carry this.

M: Rory, we're not talking about weapons, we're talking about clothes.

R: It's part of the dress.

M: Traditional clothes.

R: It's part of the formal wear. Um, so that's kind of important. It would be an important accessory. Well, I mean, we, we're calling it an accessory. I imagine if you're a Sikh person, you would be like, that is a sacred part of the outfit that we have to wear for our religion.

M: What do you mean, Sikh person?

R: A Sikh person. Sikhism is a religion.

M: Ah, I'm thinking like ill, because sick is like sick.

R: No, no. Sikh is in the religion.

M: How do you spell it?

R: S, i... Oh, no, I always get this confused, s i, h, k, or s, i k, h, I can't remember. I'm sorry to Sikh people who are listening. I promise I know a little bit about your religion, just not how to spell it.

M: Dear listener, it's very complicated, forget what Rory has just told us.

R: What? No, don't forget what I've just told you. It's an important world religion. I think Sikh people would agree.

M: Wow.

R: And there are lots of Sikh people living in the UK, actually.

M: Please remember that clothes are. My clothes are expensive. Or I think all my clothes are the best. Okay?

R: Or my clothing is.

M: Or you can say I'm gonna tell you about an outfit I wore on this wedding day. Outfit? It's like my clothes, outfit. Or I'm gonna tell you about the clothes I was wearing on this day. So one memorable time was my mother's birthday, or was my wedding, or was my graduation party, or was a day when we went to the theatre. So one memorable time.

R: I don't know why you would dress formally to go to the theatre. Although, apparently people used to dress like formally for going on planes.

M: Ooh, interesting. So this birthday was a pretty formal affair, it was a pretty formal event, because my family was all there. And my grandmother threw a party. So she had a party or you can say my friend threw a party. Had a party, organised a party. With a band, with a music band, and a sit-down meal. So there was a sit-down meal. So everybody sat down and they ate dinner. A sit-down meal with several courses. Courses means dishes. Like starter, soup, the second course, a steak, for example.

R: I'm hungry now.

M: I'm so hungry. Dear listener, are you hungry?

R: Right, okay. Let's get through this and we can have lunch.

M: Yeah. And then you describe the clothes. And here, dear listener, you should choose what to talk about. Go for something easy, all right? Rory described his kilt. But maybe you can also say, oh, I wore a kilt. And then steal Rory's story. Go ahead.

R: But you could also use some of the vocabulary. For example, a formal suit jacket, a tie and a dress shirt are all parts of formal wear that are not just Scottish.

M: Yeah, I was wearing a jacket, I was wearing a shirt and a tie. Yeah. You can say I was wearing a silk shirt, or I was wearing... What? What materials do we know? Cotton.

R: Chain mail.

M: A dress made of silk or made of cotton.

R: Silk dresses are pretty cool.

M: The shoes were black, or the shoes were purple or yellow, with shiny thingies on top, for example. I was wearing woollen socks, if socks are part of your look. So, yeah, socks. We would add a link to this episode where you can read about clothes, materials, names, and choose what clothes you want to describe, dear listener. Okay? Because it depends on you, and it depends on clothes that you will talk about in this episode, in this, you know, part. So the link to whowhatwhere.com, the best classic outfits. Outfits? Like my clothes. So if you go to this website, you will find a lot of descriptions of shoes, of materials. For example, like blazes, shoes with heels, you know? Tailor-made suit, okay? But the link is for ladies. If you are a man... Rory, could you go and find us a link that our listener, our male listener, can read through with descriptions of different clothes?

R: I have a better idea. Why don't we just ask ChatGPT? So what are we looking for? Male versions of what, traditional clothes or fancy clothes?

M: No, no, something more classics, for like, more neutral. Like suits, jackets.

R: Formal wear. Here we go, yeah, ChatGPT is creating a list. A classic suit, a black tie tuxedo, a morning suit, a double-breasted suit. Oh, wow. What's that? Oh, overlapping front flaps.

M: Okay, dear listener, if you're a man, you can go to batchmens.com. Men's outfit guide. You see? So, and there you have the descriptions of like typical clothes with some nice words. So you just like, you know, like, choose what to talk about.

R: Or just ask ChatGPT to help you.

M: When it comes to my reasons for dressing this way, it was a combination of expectations. So people expected me to wear something nice and I wanted to contribute to the atmosphere, for example. So when you go to the theatre or you go to some party, you want to contribute to the atmosphere, to this beauty of, I don't know, a place. And if you are told to follow a dress code, so you kind of follow this dress code, and you contribute to the nice atmosphere. And also like people expected me to dress in this way. So a synonym is like, I dressed like this because I was expected to dress like this.

R: But I think that's really the only reasons that we can have for this kind of thing. People expected me to or I wanted to feel special.

M: Yeah, I wanted to feel special, I wanted to stick out, for example. To stick out? Like I want to be in the centre of attention, so everybody could notice me. I want to feel beautiful, I wanted to wear some beautiful clothes.

R: I'm just trying to think of any alternatives, and I'm like the government-mandated formal wear. Trying to think if that would ever happen.

M: Yeah, and like my outfit... So I wanted to have a nice outfit. Outfit? Like clothes. How did you feel about the whole thing? I was happy to have made the effort. So I made this effort, and I was happy. If I hadn't worn this dress, I wouldn't have been so happy, for example. Right? Or it made me feel special. I was ecstatic, like very happy. I was pleased, and my family also enjoyed my outfit. My family complimented me on my clothes. I was glad...

R: To hear the positive praise.

M: Yeah. And I was the most stylish person in the room.

R: Well, that's quite common for Maria.

M: Yeah. Lovely. So dear listener, please make sure you check up the links, choose the clothes. All right? And off you go. Thank you very much listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode about clothes!

R: Bye!

M: Bye-bye, bye-bye!

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