📘 Part 3: Important events

This episode's vocabulary

Transition (noun) - a change from one form or type to another, or the process by which this happens.

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

Gathering (noun) - a party or a meeting when many people come together as a group.

Repercussion (noun) - the effect that an action, event, or decision has on something, especially a bad effect.

Secular (adj.) - not having any connection with religion.

Correlation (noun) - a connection or relationship between two or more facts, numbers, etc.

Likelihood (noun) - the chance that something will happen.

Inflation (noun) - a general, continuous increase in prices.

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Questions and Answers

M: What kinds of events do people usually celebrate?

R: I feel like it would be easier to list the things they don't want throw a party for these days. There's everything from religious and sporting events to life milestones like birthdays as the obvious examples. But also passing driving tests. I suppose the thing they have in common is that they mark points in some sort of journey or process. Not necessarily the end, but key transitions.

M: How do people celebrate important events in your country?

R: I think the nation is too diverse to say there's one set way of doing anything. Though the major themes involve being with people who are close to you, or at least relevant to the event and the investment of some sort of resources for some kind of event. Beyond that, it's hard to say exactly how anyone does anything.

M: But like in general, in your country, do people throw a party or they go to a concert or it's just like they celebrate at home? Like...

R: Depends on the kind of the event. I think most people do things at home these days, but weddings, they still have at churches, for example.

M: Do people often celebrate events with a large group of people or just a few friends?

R: I think they can do what they like, though at the present time it's more common to have small gatherings. Just based on the cost of living alone. Never mind the repercussions of the pandemic restrictions.

M: And do you think this trend will continue into the future, this small gathering thing?

R: I hope not. It would be nice to see lots of people together again.

M: Do people often celebrate festivals with families?

R: I think that will depend on what kind of festival it is. It's something of a religious significance. Then family members are almost always involved. To be honest, I can't think of any that don't. More secular events like harvest festivals or something involving the expressive arts like the Edinburgh Fringe are pretty much open to everyone.

M: Why do most young people prefer to celebrate festivals with their friends and not family?

R: Well, I suppose if we talk about teenagers then they're hyper-social, so they get that connection from their friends and so they feel closer to them, regardless of whether their family is close to them or not. And also, they can have more fun and there are fewer restrictions with their friends, whereas their family might have certain demands that they make of them. Although to be honest, I'm not sure that it's like such a huge choice. Maybe you could go to a festival with your friends and then go to a festival with your family and you'd have two separate things to celebrate.

M: Do people spend too much money on such occasions as birthdays or weddings?

R: Well, I certainly think so. Actually, apparently, there's a correlation between the amount of money you spend on a wedding and the likelihood of divorce. So the more you spend, the more likely you are to get divorced when it comes to weddings. Similarly, I think people focus too much on material things for birthdays when really it's all about being together as a family. What you spend should not be relevant to having a good time.

M: But do you think it's good to spend a lot of money on birthdays or weddings or anniversaries?

R: No. No, I don't. I don't think it's about material things.

M: Do you think people will spend less money in the future on festivals and different festive occasions?

R: Well, given the rate of inflation, they'll probably spend more, but I don't think that necessarily means it will be an improvement.

M: So they'll spend more money?

R: Yes, but that's because more money is in circulation.

M: All right. Thank you, Rory, for your informed answers!

R: Hopefully we give people something to celebrate!

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Discussion

M: So, important events. We talked about important events, I think, in speaking part one also. About events, celebrations. So you can listen to that. And speaking part three, celebrations events, we throw a party, of course. And this is a nice paraphrase. Like what kinds of events do people usually celebrate? So Rory said, okay, it would be much easier to list the things they didn't throw a party for. Right? So instead of repeating celebrate events, Rory goes like, ah, a list of things they didn't throw a party for. Because people throw a party for everything these days. Rory himself had how many goodbye parties? When you left Moscow for good?

R: Too many Goodbye parties.

M: Yeah. And then he left. But he came back and yeah, it was like false start. And we talk about life milestones. Again, this word, milestones, because again, a milestone is an important event. Life milestones like birthdays, like anniversaries. And also you can speak about passing driving tests. This could be something to celebrate. And you said like key transitions. Did you mean the same as life milestones?

R: Sort of. Milestones are like fixed periods, easily identifiable. Transitions are, well, it's a process of moving from one thing to the next. So the milestone marks the transition.

M: And we can say that in terms of which important events are celebrated in your country, you can say, oh, my nation is too diverse, my country is too diverse. Diverse meaning like different, this variety in the country.

R: Yeah, but probably that's true for just about every single country, really. Especially now, we live in like a really global integrated world. So...

M: Hmm.

R: There's not really many monocultures left unless you live in North Korea.

M: So Scottish people don't have their wrong way of celebrating important events. You don't have like this Scottish way?

R: There are like... There are families that will do something a particular way and it will be closer to traditional Scottish life. But that's not overly prevalent compared to how like people might choose to do it if they want to do it differently. It's the same in Russia. You don't celebrate your birthdays in all the same way.

M: Yeah, true. Yeah. But we kind of tend to celebrate New Year in the same way, kind of at home with families. Usually, usually. I think the vast majority of people do that.

R: But that's because it's close to Christmas. Hmm. Indeed, actually, that is Christmas.

M: Well, for you, yeah.

R: No, for you.

M: You have Christmas, we have New Year.

R: Your new year is Christmas as well.

M: No, we have Christmas on the 7th of January and New Year is on the 1st of January.

R: It's combined into the same holiday period, though. It's what I mean.

M: Yeah, yeah.

R: They're not seen as distinct things.

M: No, we do see them as distinct. New Year is new Year. Christmas is on the seventh.

R: Okay. For an outsider looking in it looks like it runs together in one. Basically, you start drinking and partying.

M: Yes, that's true.

R: Yes, exactly. So...

M: Okay. All right. Okay.

R: Whereas in Scotland, you have Christmas and Boxing Day and then you have like the small break period and then it's New Year and it's time to party again. So people aren't just like constantly drunk for that time, whereas in Russia they definitely are.

M: Yeah, because I think we have the longest new year break in the world. Usually ten days.

R: Yeah. It's wild. It's like Hunger Games out there.

M: Yeah. It's like, you know, the 1st of January in Moscow, the capital of Russia, it's like a ghost town. It's like Batman, you know, empty streets, zombies. No, it's a zombie. Yeah, not Batman, but zombies. Amazing time. The 1st of January. Okay, so you can use this strategy. Well, I think the nation is too diverse, and everybody can do whatever they want these days. So people tend to celebrate events with a large group of people or a few people. Few people, not less people. Few people, not many people. A few people. A nice synonym would be a small gathering. So people celebrate events with a few people. It's a small gathering. So a small group of people celebrating rather than like crowds of people storming into Rory's Goodbye party. And then Rory said about pandemic. The repercussions, repercussions of the pandemic restrictions. Right? So maybe because of the pandemic, people now prefer small gatherings. Right, so small parties to huge parties. Is it true in Scotland, like people don't go to open-air concerts or they don't go to clubs or to some, I don't know, festivals?

R: They do now. It used to be banned, but everything's fine. It's just... If we think about there are more celebrations that are smaller now.

M: So everything came back to normal, yeah? In Scotland, in terms of like events.

R: Yeah, but there are just fewer of them now.

M: Fewer. Ah, all right. Okay.

R: The law says everything's fine, but people take time to readjust. Unless you are Russian, and then you do what you like.

M: Oh, pretty much, yeah.

R: Yes.

M: This is the definition of Russian. We do whatever we want. Scotland freedom.

R: Which is ironic because it's supposed to be Scotland freedom.

M: Secular events, secular. Circular. Not circular, not like circle. Secular.

R: It just means non-religious events.

M: Secular, right? You said secular events? Non-religious, right. We have religious events. Religious festivals and secular events. Non-religious events. All right? Like harvest festivals. I don't know who celebrates harvest festivals. Oh, potatoes, harvest festival. Ooo...

R: Do you not have that anymore?

M: No, it seems so old.

R: Maybe that's like a countryside thing or a Scottish thing. We have harvest festivals.

M: Oh, really? You do? Oh, wow. Because you live in a village. Somewhere in the middle of Scotland, in the middle of nowhere. No, in Moscow. you know, in Moscow, we don't have such things. We have parties and non-stop. But for example, a birthday or a wedding could it be secular event? Non-religious kind of wedding. Non-religious wedding.

R: You don't have non-religious weddings in Russia?

M: Oh, yeah, we do. We do. Some people go to church, but other people don't. So they just sign things. They exchange rings and off they pop. Yeah, but other people have two weddings, one in a church, another one in this registration office.

R: But there has to be the registration office because it's the government that decides who gets married. Not the church.

M: Yeah. True. And then people spend money on. On weddings, birthdays. Or we can say they splash on weddings and birthdays.

R: No. They splash out on wedding.

M: Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They splash out on weddings. They spend a lot of money. They splash out on weddings and birthdays. And Rory thinks it's a bad thing to do because people focus too much on material things these days, and they should just be thinking about spending time together.

R: Exactly.

M: And an interesting comment from Rory. Apparently, there is a correlation. Correlation - connection. Between the amount you spend on the wedding and the likelihood of divorce. The likelihood. The probability. Right? So if you spend a lot of money on a wedding, maybe this person will get divorced. Right? So...

R: Not maybe. It's pretty much a dead certainty.

M: Ah, dead certainty. Oh, interesting. So if I don't spend much, then everything is fine. Hmm. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. What do you think, dear listener? That's kind of more money - more divorce. Less money - less divorce. All right. Right. Hopefully, we've given you some good vocabulary and grammar for talking about important events, milestones, key transitions in your life. Like mark points in your life. Mark points on your life journey. Rory, what's your final word to the world?

R: I hope we've given you lots of things to help you celebrate your exam.

M: Yes. Sweet. Thank you very much for listening! Hugs and kisses. Bye!

R: Bye!

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