📘 Part 3: Competitions

This episode's vocabulary

Drive (noun) – strong motivation to achieve something. → She has a strong drive to succeed in her career.

Optimise (verb) – to make something as effective or efficient as possible. → Athletes optimise their training to improve performance.

Routine (noun) – a regular way of doing things. → His morning routine includes jogging and meditation.

Detailed (adjective) – showing a lot of small facts or features. → She gave a detailed explanation of how the machine works.

Ins and outs (noun) – all the details of a situation or process. → He knows the ins and outs of the legal system.

League table (noun) – a ranking of teams or individuals based on performance. → Our school ranked first in the national league table.

Unofficial (adjective) – not formally recognised or approved. → They held an unofficial meeting after school.

Prioritise (verb) – to treat something as more important than other things. → You need to prioritise sleep if you want to stay healthy.

Psychologically (adverb) – in a way related to the mind and behaviour. → Psychologically, stress can affect your memory.

Biologically (adverb) – in a way related to physical or genetic traits. → Biologically, some people are more inclined to take risks.

Impulse (noun) – a sudden urge or desire to act. → She resisted the impulse to shout back.

Hierarchy (noun) – a system where people or things are ranked. → The company has a strict corporate hierarchy.

Leaderboard (noun) – a display showing the names and scores of leading participants. → His name appeared at the top of the leaderboard.

Exclude (verb) – to leave something out or not include it. → The rules exclude children under 12 from joining.

Encounter (verb) – to meet or experience something, often unexpectedly. → New students may encounter difficulties adapting to the school.

Cater to (phrasal verb) – to provide what is needed or wanted. → This new app caters to beginner photographers.

Pecking order (noun) – the order of importance or rank among people. → Everyone knows their place in the office pecking order.

Participate (verb) – to take part in an activity or event. → Many students participate in the school science fair.

Runner-up (noun) – the person or team who finishes second. → She was the runner-up in last year’s talent contest.

Benefit (noun) – an advantage or positive result. → One benefit of competition is improved confidence.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What qualities do competitive people share?

Rory: Presumably, they all have or share a certain drive to win, though how they go about that might differ dramatically, since there are so many kinds of competition. For example, if it's an athletic competition, then training hard and learning how to optimise your routines and performance will be key to success. But a cookery competition will require, I don't know, extremely detailed knowledge of the ins and outs of whatever the event demands the cooks make.

Maria: What kinds of contests do students like to take part in?

Rory: These days? That could be anything. There are quizzes, sports competitions, chess league tables, I think. All kinds of things, depending on their interests and strengths. And of course, there's the unofficial competition of school league tables. Some students like knowing that they're the best of the best in that respect, too. Although I suspect probably their parents prefer it more.

Maria: Why don't some people want to be competitive?

Rory: Well, there's more to life than winning, isn't there? You don't need to win at things to be a good friend or partner or even a good person. So they have basically prioritised other things over that. It's also possible, both psychologically and biologically speaking, that some people just lack a competitive drive and therefore lack any impulse in that direction. So they almost naturally don't see the value in it.

Maria: How can a person become more competitive?

Rory: Well, recognising the value of competing would be a good start. And then having a goal or sub-goals to work towards is also handy to have, so you can measure progression in a particular direction and then compare it to where other people are in the competition leaderboard or hierarchy.

Maria: Do you think parents should encourage their children to take part in competitions?

Rory: Assuming it's not to the exclusion of all other things, it should be OK. At the very least, children are going to encounter competitive situations and people in their lives. So it's important that they learn how to deal with these things. And of course, they might be or want to be competitive themselves. So it's a great opportunity to cater to that aspect of their personality.

Maria: What are the advantages of competitions?

Rory: In general, it can be an easy way to test your skills and abilities in relation to others in a similar area or who are of a similar age, so you can understand your place in the pecking order and maybe how to improve over time. And if it's done right, it can also be a fun way to pass the time as well. And of course, for the wider society, it allows us to find people of great ability in a particular area. Even people who are runners-up can be offered lots of benefits just for participating in a contest and doing quite well.

Maria: Yay! Thank you, Rory, for your informative, well-developed answers.

Rory: Maybe. I don't like competitions.