📘 Part 3: Handicrafts

This episode's vocabulary

To dilute (verb) - to reduce the strength of a feeling, action, etc.

Costly (adj.) - expensive, especially too expensive.

Dexterity (noun) - the ability to perform a difficult action quickly and skilfully with the hands.

Ignorance is bliss (idiom) - said to emphasize that sometimes it is better for you if you do not know all the facts about a situation.

Artwork (noun) - the pieces of art, such as drawings and photographs, that are used in books, newspapers, and magazines.

Thriving (adj.) - growing, developing, or being successful.

Weaving (noun) - the act of making cloth by repeatedly crossing a single thread through two sets of long threads on a loom (= special frame).

Extensive (adj.) - covering a large area; having a great range.

To compensate (verb) - to pay someone money in exchange for work they have done or a service they have provided.

Accordingly (adverb) - in a way that is suitable or right for the situation.

Massively (adverb) - extremely or very much.

En masse (adverb) - all together and at the same time, in large numbers.

Questions and Answers

M: Are traditional handicrafts important for tourism?

R: Well, I think that comes down to the type of economy we're talking about here. I mean, it might in less developed places with fewer service industries like guided tours and hotels and the like, since they'll have fewer things to sell for the local economy. In more developed economies, though, they would have to compete with other goods and services, so that might dilute their importance.

M: What are the benefits of people learning to make things by hand?

R: Well, they would rely less on technology, which could break down more easily over time and be quite costly to replace. I imagine it might improve their manual dexterity too, assuming any injuries they received while doing that were not too severe.

M: Why might some children like to make things by hand?

R: I'm not sure if they like doing it so much as it is just the only option. I mean, they lack the knowledge and skills to be aware of other methods, let alone use them safely. Plus, at that stage, it might be too boring to learn. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.

M: Are there any traditional handicrafts in your country?

R: Well, depending on how we define it, quite a few. And lots of people make artworks by hand, and we have a thriving kilt-weaving industry, of course. Aside from that there are other handmade clothes available, like sweaters or wood crafts, like small toys and furniture, since we have these extensive forests.

M: Is it reasonable to charge a high price for handmade things?

R: Given the amount of time and effort people have to put in? Yes. I mean, it can take hours for someone to produce something quite high quality for sale. So they should be compensated for that accordingly. I think that's fair.

M: How might modern technology change the handicraft industry?

R: Well, if the goods are made to the same quality by technology as they are by people, then it might massively impact the pricing of goods, since, well, there's no reason to charge high amounts for handmade things anymore, if they can be more easily produced and en masse. On the other hand, assuming that modern ones are safer, it might reduce the number of injuries people suffer if they choose those methods over less safe ones.

Discussion

M: Hey! Nice! You see, dear listener? So Rory has no knowledge about handicrafts, but he gave educated answers. Yeah, that's enough.

R: I hope so.

M: Yeah, well done, you. But if you don't feel confident about this topic, about like, handicrafts, traditional handicrafts in your country. Could you please google it? Maybe in your native language, in your mother tongue, in your first language, read about traditional handicrafts. What people make by hand in your country, and then, like, learn English words for it, maybe like special names and about this, like, you know, handicrafts industry. First of all, a handicraft. What is a handicraft?

R: Very loosely speaking, it's the skilled use of the hands to produce something that other people can buy or use.

M: Yeah, and just handicraft is an activity in which something is made in a traditional way with the hands. So not machines, not Chat GPT, not a factory, but hands. Handy. That's why it's handy handicraft. And we can use kind of traditional handicrafts. So traditional things made by hand in your country, and we can say that in less developed places, in villages, in small towns, handicrafts are important for tourism. So they have fewer things to sell.

R: I think so.

M: So they can sell only things they make by hand. Mind you. Fewer things. Not less things. No, no, no. Fewer things.

R: Well, if you want to say less things, you probably could. I mean, that's a native-level mistake that you'd expect at band nine. But if you can avoid it, then do.

M: Yeah, just to be on the safe side.

R: Just to make Rory happy. Specifically me happy.

M: In more developed economies, so some countries are more developed. So they have more things to sell. So handicrafts may not be that important. And Rory, you said something like, blah, blah, the importance.

R: Oh, dilute the importance. Yes, I've just remembered there. But if you dilute something, you just reduce its strength, or here you reduce its importance. So if you dilute the importance, then it just becomes less important.

M: Yeah. People benefit from making things by hand. So we use make things by hand. You do it yourself, but you make, create things by hand. And people rely less on technology. So we use our smartphones everywhere, our computers, but here we rely less on technology. This improves our manual dexterity, dear listener.

R: Maybe.

M: So it's the what?

R: But the manual dexterity is just how good you are with moving your hands in an accurate manner.

M: The ability to perform a difficult action quickly and skillfully with hands. Dexterity is all about making things by hand. And manual dexterity. Your ability to use the hands to perform something skillfully. Could you give us an example with manual dexterity?

R: Well, learning to write by hand often improves your manual dexterity. Anything that involves exercising your hands regularly in a principled way would do that.

M: Children usually enjoy making things by hand. They are doing different crafts. And we do crafts, right?

R: I think so. I'm trying to think of another verb that might collocate, but you basically do handicrafts. Am I right?

M: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

R You can tell I don't think about the subject very often.

M: And you said that children may not like it so much. But children like often make things by hand? Like they touch everything, they create stuff. Like during lessons, they do different crafts. No?

R: I know, but I don't know if that's to do with like liking it and making an active choice. I think the choices are more limited when you're a child. It's difficult to distinguish these things. I know that. I work with young people. So yes, I definitely, I'm aware of this part at least.

M: Yeah, and what can you say that children... What do children usually make by hand?

R: What do they make by hand? All kinds of things. They make models, they make... Well, they could make different dolls and hand puppets, I suppose. They could draw pictures. Popular activity when I was younger was, I don't know if it was when I was younger or just before that, was to make ashtrays for your parents out of your handprints in clay. I'm not so sure that that's something that... Well, it's definitely not encouraged nowadays. Nobody encourages people to smoke, and you definitely don't want your kids to be engaged in aiding and enabling that. But certainly, it's something that used to be quite popular.

M: Wow. Yeah, dear listener, and now people, in general, can make candles by hand, different like napkin flowers, clothes, pottery, some paper products, even jewellery. And like traditional handicrafts, like some leather goods, wood carvings, furniture. Even clothes, again, traditional clothes. And now we are coming to traditional handicrafts in your country. So this would depend on your country, because in Rory's country, Scotland, people make artworks by hand, and this is about kilt weaving. So in Scotland, people wear kilts. So they are traditional Scottish clothes, kilts, and they weave, weave kilts. They make kilts by hand. Some like expensive kilts and other handmade crafts include clothes, like sweaters, wood crafts. Wood crafts? Everything which is carved from wood. Toys, furniture.

R: Yeah, I can remember people would make toy trains, for example. So that's something that you could carve out of wood.

M: And traditional handicrafts could include pottery, woodwork, leather goods, paintings.

R: Oh, I never thought about that. Yes, they could. For example, I have a belt from Australia which is made of very high-grade leather. And I'm pretty sure those are manufactured by hand.

M: Nice.

R: I have several belts, actually. I will not mention the company's name, because they are not sponsoring us, but they should.

M: Traditional mosaics, for example. And also traditional materials. Like wool, cotton, silk, for example. Well, depends on the country. So think about like materials. Think about traditional costumes. Also jewellery, dear listener. Jewellery. A very common accessory. So traditional jewellery with traditional stones. Semi-precious stones or metal, for example. So costumes, also, different woodwork is very popular in different countries. Also, you can name the specific name of a tree, of wood, like walnut or apple tree, rosewood. So what kind of wood? Like different wooden objects made of, like walnut, for example.

R: Ooh, can you have things made of walnut?

M: Yeah.

R: Oh, cool. See? I'm learning a lot about handicrafts right now because I don't know much about them.

M: Yeah, also different embroidery, dear listener. Embroidery? Like on clothes, we have different designs, like ornaments, like decorative folk art. Folk? Like a traditional embroidery. Or, for example, handmade dolls. Dolls? Like, you know, like puppets. Dolls are quite popular in some countries.

R: What kinds of honey crafts industries do you have in Russia? Oh, people carve matrioshka dolls by hand. They must do. Yes?

M: Yeah, we have, like, traditional Russian dolls. And we have different porcelain. So it's kind of material, hand painted porcelain. Woodwork, jewellery, paintings. We have like different toys and ceramic, for example. Different pottery. People usually charge a high price for handmade things. So they charge a high price. They take a high price for their handmade things. And usually what is handmade is more expensive than prefabricated things, things made at a factory.

R: I mean, I imagine so.

M: Yeah, yeah. Because people spend huge amounts of time on this handmade object and effort, right? So people put in a lot of effort so it costs more, and usually we have a high quality. So they should be compensated for it accordingly. So they should be paid for it. We are talking about the handicraft industry. And what about modern technology?

R: Well, modern technology is a bit of a double-edged sword, really, isn't it?

M: Yeah, it means that on the one hand it could be good, but on the other hand, it's not really good. We can say that technology impacts the pricing of goods. So it does have an effect on the price. And things can be made by technology, and they're gonna be cheaper, but things made by hand are usually more expensive because time costs more. But you can say if modern methods are safer, so modern methods can be safer, they can save time, they can save the environment. And technology might reduce the number of injuries people suffer. So people suffer injuries while making certain things by hand, and technology might help to reduce the number of injuries.

R: Well, you would hope so. I'm not too sure it works quite as smoothly as I make it sound.

M: Right, dear listener, go to Google and research handicrafts in Thailand. Handicrafts in Turkey. So where are you from? Research the names. You need maybe, like, three, four, specific names. Okay? So what is common in your country and remember them. Right? Because this is kind of like very specific to your country. Sweet!

R: Bye!

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