📘 Part 3: Competitions

This episode's vocabulary

To foster (verb) - to encourage the development or growth of ideas or feelings.

Crusade (noun) - a long and determined attempt to achieve something that you believe in strongly.

To alienate (verb) - to cause someone or a group of people to stop supporting and agreeing with you.

To formulate (verb) - to develop all the details of a plan for doing something.

To undermine (verb) - to gradually weaken or destroy someone or something.

Pursuit (noun) - the act of following someone or something to try to catch him, her, or it.

Vicariously (adverb) - in a vicarious way (= experienced through the activities of other people, rather than by doing something yourself).

Pretext (noun) - a pretended reason for doing something that is used to hide the real reason.

Vast (adj.) - extremely big.

Swathe (noun) - a large part of something that includes several different things.

To pigeonhole (verb) - to have an often unfair idea of what type someone or something is.

Compulsion (noun) - a very strong feeling of wanting to do something repeatedly that is difficult to control.

Indirect (adj.) - happening in addition to an intended result, often in a way that is complicated or not obvious.

Comparatively (adverb) - as compared to something else.

To slaughter (verb) - to defeat someone very easily.

Trait (noun) - a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behaviour.

Collaborative (adj.) - involving two or more people working together for a special purpose.

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Questions and Answers

M: Let's talk about competitions. Do you think competition is important in the workplace?

R: Well, that depends entirely on the nature of the workplace. I mean, for example, if it's a firm with connections to the stock market, then obviously you want people competing to make the highest amounts for their clients and the company in turn. However, in a school where people are supposed to get along, it's a bit different. Similarly, there's a problem with the kind of behaviour it fosters. People can cheat to win competitions. I mean, do you want people doing that in an educational context or even a business one, come to think of it?

M: Is it necessary to encourage people to compete with others in companies?

R: Not if the culture of the company and its, well, and its objectives involve people working together. Obviously, everyone should work to the best of their ability, but you don't want people going off on some mad crusade for personal glory and alienating their colleagues as a result and then collapsing their support network just to win something designed to make money. You'd have to think about how the targets are formulated. It's rarely enough to just say whoever makes the most money wins.

M: And could the competition in companies be a bad thing?

R: Definitely. Like I say, if it's not, if the goals are not well formulated and the company culture isn't in place, then people might actually wind up totally undermining the, well, the purpose of the company in the first place in pursuit of their own goals.

M: Do you think that there is more competition now in companies than there was in the past?

R: Well, yes. I mean, there are more companies now and more people work for companies. So that means there will be more competition. I mean, if you mean is the competition more intense? I have no idea. I don't even know how you would begin to measure that. My guess would be, yes, because there are fewer jobs.

M: And what about the future? Will the competition be even more intense in the future, in companies and with people competing for different positions?

R: Well, if that trend continues, then yes.

M: Why are competition shows so popular?

R: I don't think it's the competitive element that actually attracts people, it's usually a chance for them to test out their own knowledge from a safe distance and live vicariously through others and their moments of triumph. And sometimes the competitive context is actually just a pretext for humorous answers, like in TV shows like QI or 8 out of 10 cats.

M: And what competition shows are popular in your country?

R: Well, ones like I mentioned, they're just like joke or comedic competition shows. But there are also quiz shows as well, like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or The Chaser.

M: What kind of people usually watch competition shows?

R: Well, I mean, they're popular amongst a vast swathe of the population. So I don't know if we could just pigeonhole them. Maybe people that are interested in learning more about random subjects.

M: What kind of people would be competitive?

R: Well, people with some kind of compulsion to be seen as better than others, according to some socially determined criteria. I make it sound like that's something only bad people do, but it affects everyone to a certain extent, doesn't it? I mean, for example, I want to be seen as a successful English teacher in order to pay my bills and feed my desire to help people and feel good by doing so. That involves indirect competition with others, and they would be comparatively worse. It's not as bad as going out and slaughtering the competition, though. But the concept is similar, if not as morally questionable.

M: And why some people dislike being competitive?

R: Well, because they don't have these traits that I mentioned in my previous answer. They're probably more about collaborative working and working towards community goals, for example.

M: And do you think it's better for people to take part in competitions or stay away from them?

R: Well, you can probably have a healthy balance. I mean, you could do a few competitions, but I think if it develops to the point where you're obsessed with winning, everything, regardless of the cost, then you have a serious problem.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

R: No problem. I hope they make people more competitive!

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Discussion

M: Right. So we are speaking about being competitive on the market. And with the word competition. So Rory has used a lot of different collocations with the word competition. So the noun is competition. And we can have, again, sporting competitions, international competitions, national competitions. We win a competition, we lose, rights? We take part in competitions, we enter a competition or we withdraw from it. So if, for example, in the middle of the competition, you feel oh, no, no, no, it's not for me. So you withdraw, withdraw from the competition. So you take, a competition takes place somewhere. It takes place in my city, in my country. And Rory has used several adjectives. For example, he said intense competition. So the competition is really intense or fierce. Fierce competition. Or you can also say cutthroat. So in certain companies there is this cutthroat competition. People compete for different positions. Yeah? So who is going to be better at it, yeah? Who will get the promotion? Also, competition could be severe. Serious. Strong. Strong competition. Can the competition be healthy, like healthy competition?

R: I was going to say we describe very intense competition so far. But healthy competition is also good because it means that it's promoting development of some wider goal rather than people just trying to win at all costs.

M: Yeah. And if, for example, the examiner asks you could the competition be bad? You can say, well, if it's a healthy competition, it's fine, it's beneficial. You can say it's fair. Competition could be fair. Fair or not fair.

R: Or unfair.

M: Unfair. Yeah. And then our favourite strategy. Do you think competition is important? That depends entirely on the nature of the competition or of the nature of the workplace. So is it important in the workplace? It depends on the nature of the workplace. Yeah? So it depends on the workplace. And then Rory gives us an example. If it's a firm, so a company, then people compete to make the highest amounts for their clients. Right? So people compete. A verb. But if it's a school, then, well, teachers may not compete or people are supposed to get along, but sometimes teachers do compete, yeah? For a higher salary or for more clients.

R: Do you remember when we worked together and we had like to compete?

M: Did we? Oh, yes, you went to the conference for free and I wanted to go to that conference. And they gave this conference to you. Yeah, I remember that very well.

R: Well, that was one thing, but there were also... How best do you describe it. It's like when you have different targets to meet.

M: And then you achieve, and then who achieves more gets more money.

R: Yeah. What's that called?

M: KPI?

R: Yeah, key performance indicators.

M: Yeah. Key performance indicators there we go. Yeah-yeah, yeah.

R: But the thing about that was they kept changing them.

M: Oh yeah. Double standards.

R: So they like they move them throughout the year and I was just like, how is this fair?

No. And then, you know, at the end of the year, I did something. So I met this girl and they said I didn't because they just didn't know that I did this with those teachers. They just didn't know.

R: It's pathetic.

M: Oh, those were the days... Yeah. You see, so this kind of thing. So fierce, cutthroat competition. Who would go to this conference for free? Me or Rory? Rory got it. Well done, Rory. Oh, that was fun. People can cheat to win in competitions, so people win in competitions or they lose competitions. Is cheating okay to win something?

R: Does it serve the greater good?

1 M: Yeah. Does it serve the greater good? If yes, why not?

R: Well, no, but not necessarily. I mean, the people that you cheat and mess about might not agree.

M: And then we work to the best of our ability. So to compete with others in a company. So you work for a company, you compete against other people and you work to the best of your ability.

R: But that just means doing the best that you possibly can.

M: And usually you kind of you try to get along with your colleagues. You try not to hate them because they go for the conference for free.

R: I have a feeling that we will always come back to this.

M: No, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. It's fine. Alright, let's move on. And then you think about how the targets are formulated. So targets or goals, right? We can also say, target goals. Yeah. Target aims. Aims are formulated. So they, the company gives you some targets to achieve and you hopefully achieve them.

R: Hopefully.

M: Hopefully. Yeah. Or if you don't achieve them, you wind up losing a competition or you just wind up not getting promoted, for example, or not winning this prize.

R: Or burning out.

M: Burning out. Yeah. Yeah. Because people do compete really, you know, to the "bestest" best of their abilities. And then they wind up burning out, they wind up depressed. The competitive elements, you see. So competition competes and competitive. So people are competitive and also we can have this competitive element that attracts people. So if for example, we play a game and we just play just for the sake of playing it, but if we add this, you know, competitive element. If you know, to win you need to do this, so people are usually more attracted to this, yeah? And some people are really competitive. Are you a competitive person, Rory?

R: Not anymore. I used to be, but I just got bored of it and decided it would be better to just do my own thing. And I did and it worked.

M: Excellent. So a competitive person, a good example would be Monica from "Friends". So if you watched the series, "Friends". So Monica Geller is a very competitive person and she's like, whatever a game is, she'll go, yeah, yeah, we're going to win, we're going to win. Yeah. And then it's a nice collocation to use, to live vicariously. Vicariously.

R: But that just means to enjoy something through other people.

M: Mhm. And to live vicariously. Could you give us another example in this sentence? When can we use it?

R: Many people live vicariously through the footballers when they watch a football match because they like to imagine that they're there giving the advice and scoring the goals.

M: Yeah.

R: Or if you, you eat... Do you eat bread?

M: Yeah, sometimes.

R: Yeah. So like I don't eat bread. So I live vicariously through you and watch you enjoying yourself.

M: So if I kind of, if I'm on a diet and you go to McDonald's and I can't eat McDonald's, I'm sitting there looking at you munching on this, you know, burgers and French fries, yum, yum, yum. And then I live vicariously through you eating McDonald's.

R: It's like you're enjoying someone else's enjoyment.

M: Nice. Yeah. And you say kind of to live vicariously through others in their moments of triumph. So my moment of triumph. So this...

R: Was getting me out of the country.

M: Yeah. So the competitive context could be beneficial, right? And then Rory gave us some examples of shows. So competition shows. For example, quiz shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. What is this, 8 out of 10 cats? Is it a Scottish show?

R: That's just, it's a... No, it's British. It's a humorous TV show where they present people with statistics or percentages and they ask them, what is this the percentage of. So it'd be like eight out of ten cats like, blank. What is the answer? And then they'd give it like a silly answer.

M: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. So we can speak about competition shows like, I don't know, singing competition shows, dancing also, quiz shows. And then Rory used a nice one. What kind of people usually watch such shows? And Rory said, it's difficult to pigeonhole these people. So pigeon like a bird pigeon. Hole is a hole, in the wall. So it's difficult to pigeonhole them. What did you mean by that?

R: Pigeonholing is just excessively categorising people, so it's like putting people in boxes. So rather than valuing them as an individual, you just say what category they are and that's good enough.

M: Yeah. So usually we pigeonhole people like, he is a narcissist. This one is what egomaniac.

R: Yeah. Or this person's autistic, so they'll enjoy X, Y and Z, and it's like, that person isn't just their autism, for example. They probably have likes and dislikes that are unrelated to this at all. Entirely.

M: Yeah. Yeah. So when we categorise people in this ruthless manner. So, yeah, like it's pigeon hole. So avoid pigeonholing, please. And then what kind of people would be competitive? People with some compulsion. Compulsion like the urge, the need to be seen as better than others. And then you could give an example. For example, Monica Geller is a good example.

R: A very damaged example.

M: Yeah.

R: She's an example of a very damaged person.

M: Yeah. Or like who usually competes? Again like in a company, right? For example, workers usually compete for a higher salary, or to get a promotion. Like to be CEO or the chief editor of a newspaper, right? And then you said, like, it's not as bad as going out and slaughtering the competition. So to slaughter the competition. To kill the competition?

R: Well, no, it's like, it's a way of just saying, like very aggressively pursuing the competition, like or like just trying to win, no matter what the costs and putting in so much effort that the competition just gets wiped out.

M: Yeah, the competition gets wiped out. So there is no competition anymore. Yeah, it's a good one. Sweet. So, dear listener, now you have vocabulary and grammar to talk about competitions, right? Think about a competition which you would like to participate in. And just in general, stay tuned and we'll get back to you in our next episode! Bye!

R: Bye!

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