📘 Part 3: Prizes and awards at school

This episode's vocabulary

Curriculum (noun) - the subjects studied in a school, college, etc. and what each subject includes.

Trigger (verb) - to cause something to start.

Dopamine (noun) - a hormone (= chemical substance) that is made naturally in the body and may also be given as a drug.

Excel (verb) - to be extremely good at something.

Engagement (noun) - the process of encouraging people to be interested in the work of an organization, etc..

Contest (noun) - a competition to do better than other people, usually in which prizes are given.

Insofar as (conjunction) -  to the degree that.

Embody (verb) - to represent a quality or an idea exactly.

Revile (verb) - to criticize someone strongly, or say unpleasant things to or about someone.

Precede (verb) - to be or go before something or someone in time or space.

Megalomaniac (noun) - someone who has an unnaturally strong wish for power and control, or thinks that they are much more important and powerful than they really are.

Esteem (verb) - to respect someone or have a good opinion of them.

Tangible (adj.) - real and not imaginary; able to be shown, touched, or experienced.

Betterment (noun) - improvement.

Precedence (noun) - the order of importance given to people in particular societies, groups, or organizations.

Righteous (adj) - morally correct.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, are you ready?

R: Yes.

M: Good. Let's talk about prizes and awards at school. What do children often receive prizes for at school.

R: Oh, I think the most common ones would be for their schoolwork and maybe the skills they develop at school as part of the curriculum or outside of it. So for example, you could be given something for getting good grades, or for producing an excellent piece of work according to some kind of fixed criteria. You can also join clubs and teams at school and win prizes that way, for example, like, if you're on the swim team, then you can win a prize for that if you do well.

M: Why do children like to receive prizes?

R: For the same reason everybody does. Triggers that nice release of dopamine in your head, and it makes you feel good for getting attention. And you feel the sense of being recognized for an achievement and a sense of pride in what you've done. Who wouldn't want that feeling in their life at least once or twice?

M: Is it better for children to receive a prize for schoolwork or for sport?

R: I'm not sure either is better than the other. We all excel in different areas, why not give an equal amount of time to both or as much as they demand?

M: Let's talk about competitions for adults. Why do many companies run competitions with prizes for customers?

R: Well, that's all about customer engagement and encouraging return trips to their stores and making more money as a result. So if you have a chance to win something by well buying a certain number of a select product, why wouldn't you do that? Of course, often, the odds are stacked against you or the prizes are useless. So it's important to keep that in mind too.

M: Why do some people like to enter many competitions?

R: Oh, a certain percentage of people are just more competitive, aren't they? And they have this need to win that pushes them in a particular direction. A pull factor could be a value in the award itself, in psychological or physical terms. Like cash prize at the end, or a sense of achievement and respect from others can be great motivating factors.

M: It's only worth entering a competition if there is a valuable prize. Would you agree?

R: Oh, I'm not sure about that. Sometimes life is less about the destination and more about the journey you go on, like getting ready for a contest like tough mudder is an example of how it can be its own reward just participating, since your fitness improves, and you can help people by doing it for charity, and you get to have fun along the way.

M: Scotland.

R: Freedom.

M: Quality. Let's talk about national and international awards. How important is it for a country to recognize it's most successful citizens?

R: Well, insofar as they embody the spirit of the nation and the culture that it holds dear, that's quite important.

M: Okay. What could be the impact of winning a major prize, such as a national award, Nobel Prize on a person's life.

R: I imagine a great deal of media interest and public attention in a in addition to any prize money that comes with it, they would have kind of mixed results depending on your personality. Like for lots of people that would help them resolve problems or draw attention to causes they champion, but it could be quite corrosive and turn you into something of a megalomaniac as well.

M: Is making a positive contribution to society more important than being rewarded for the contribution.

R: Oh, that will depend entirely on what you value in esteem. If you only care about being seen as a good person, and many who virtue signal are guilty of this, then the reward of recognition or something more tangible will be more valuable than the action itself. Alternatively, if you care more for people because like you're already satisfied within your soul, that you're doing the right thing, then the betterment of society will take precedence. You can see this in some of the people that have been given... Oh, what is it like? Righteous amongst the nations. So lots of these people saved 1000s of people from the Nazis and then went right back to working their normal lives. And they were just content in the knowledge that they had done the right thing and they didn't seek any glory. You could learn a lot from an example like that.

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Discussion

M: Rory, thank you very much for your answers. Really insightful.

R: Were they rewarding?

M: They are rewarding

R: Yay.

M: Yay. Every one of them.

R: Piece among world.

M: So when we talk about pricing in school, surely we should mention the word curriculum. Rory,

can you spell curriculum?

R: Yes, I can, but I'm not going to because I'm not writing it down.

M: Yes, curriculum is a nice one. So, as part of the curriculum, while kids are supposed to play

sports, and be rewarded for their contributions, and excellent work they are doing. They can also

like join clubs teams. Rory, when you went to school, did you go to school? Rory.

R: Sometimes.

M: Okay, far interesting. So, did you win any prizes at school? For like your swimming excellence

and for your outstanding abilities in basketball?

R: No, I was a horrible student actually.

M: Did you play any sports?

R: No, the only sport I played was running away from PE.

M: Okay, so PE - physical education. N

R: No-no, like you don't get the joke there. Like running away from it was like not doing it. I have

a funny story where that actually. I forged... Now, any young people listening do not follow this

example. It's not a good thing to do. But I forged my mother's signature in a letter saying that I needed to get out of PE because I had asthma.

M: Forged - he signed for his mom.

R: Yeah. And my mom found out and she wrote a new letter. And she was like, to my PE teacher,

Mr. Black. She was like Dear Mr. Black, Rory appears to have made a remarkable recovery. So

you should probably give him double PE every week now until the end of the school year.

M: Asthma just disappeared. Wow. Amazing. Nice. Yeah.

R: My mom is funny, although I did not think that was terribly funny at the time.

M: So children do enjoy receiving prices, and it triggers the release of dopamine.

R: Yes, I think it does. Isn't that the chemical that hits your reward centers? You did psychology.

You know more about this science.

M: Yeah, yeah, dopamine, it is.

R: It's what happens when people like your stuff on Instagram.

M: Yeah, with every like, we get a huge dose of dopamine. And every time you write a review

on Apple podcasts, we get a huge release of dopamine. We go like yesss!

R: A nice review.

M: A nice review. Yeah, yes. So thank you very much.

R: If I read one more bad review, I'm not going to be terribly happy.

M: Anyway, dear listener, if you have written us a review, thank you so much for that. We really

appreciate it. Okay, so back back to receiving prizes. It feels nice to be recognized for an achievement, right? So to be recognized for something, and we're talking about achievement,

and you can talk about a sense of achievement.

R: Yeah.

M: I like the way you agree with me.

R: Well, I was just thinking about other things you can be recognized for. Recognized for your

effort, recognized for your work.

M: Contribution is another one.

R: Oh, that's a good one.

M: And you've mentioned this word, contribution. So pretty much all the work that you're doing,

or you've done already. And we excel in different areas.

R: Yes. So if you excel in something, then you do excellent work.

M: Yep. And you see, sometimes you just ask questions. Sometimes you say like, OK, why not

give an equal amount of airtime to both? So why not? And then it's a question. So it's fine to

answer some questions with a question.

R: Yeah. Because it's a silly question. You didn't write the question. But like, it is. Like, it's like pick

one or the other, even though you don't need to pick one or the other. So why don't just say like,

give them both equal airtime. That means give them both equal amounts of time, or however

much they demand.

M: Hmm. And when the question was about, like... Why do many companies run competitions

with prices for customers? And you go, like, why wouldn't they?

R: Yeah.

M: Right? Or why wouldn't you do that? So it's a question.

R: But you follow up with more detail. Yeah. It's not just like, okay, so the examiner asks you a

question and the you go like what about you? Like, why wouldn't they do that?

R: Why would they do something like this? And you just say, why not?

M: And then you look at the examiner like, what? You answer this question, go ahead. Yeah, so

it's okay. It does add variety to your intonation patterns. So, do that.

R: Do it.

M: Do it.

R: Another thing you should do.

M: Is what?

R: Finish my sentence.

M: Well, you've used in carriage return trips. That's a nice one, return trips.

R: Return trips. Spending more money at the shop or return trip to the shop. Encourage a return trip

to the country. If you get a price for going to a country. There used to be countries that paid you

for going to them.

M: No...

R: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

M: Scotland?

R: But then you like go and like, you know, write a review.

M: We pay you to visit Scotland.

R: Well, maybe not the country would pay you, but like travel journalists got paid for that kind of

thing.

M: Wait, can you say that Scotland is a country?

R: It is a country.

M: Okay, fine.

R: No, like, serious. Well, no, hold on. No. Scotland is not a country. Scotland is a nation, which

has a distinct culture and covers a distinct geographical area. It's within the country of the United

Kingdom. So a nation is it's people and culture. A country is the territory and the government. So

one of these things is more physical and the other is intangible.

M: Fair enough.

R: Sorry, that was a...

M: Now we know.

R: Delving into sort of sociology there.

M: When people compete with each other, they are competitive.

R: They have a competitive spirit.

M: Yeah, yeah. Are you competitive, Rory?

R: No, I'm lazy.

M: Okay, so no competition for you.

R: No.

M: This podcast has no competition whatsoever.

R: We have none. That's why we have no competitors. So we just like...

R: We're just the best. That's why we're 172 in Japan.

M: Easy. Yeah. Give us all podcast Oscars.

R: Not difficult.

M: Yeah. But it pushes us. So the need to win, to be the best pushes us to do what.

R: To get to the top. And then now we're here. We don't need to anything.

M: Yeah, we just are. And what's your pull factor, Rory?

R: So push factor is something that...

M: Pull factor.

R: No, I need to define them in terms of... Like they're defined in relation to each other. So push factors are things that push you in the direction of something. Whereas pool factors are something good about the thing itself and make you want to do it. So for example, push factors for making a podcast could be there's like no jobs, the economic climate is bad. So this pushes you in this direction. Pull factor is you get to create your own content. You get to manage your life. You get to work with Vanya. Vanya's got a happy face.

M: Okay, so a pull factor could be the value of the award itself.

R: Yes, usually pool factors are positive and push factors are negative. Usually, it's not always that

way.

M: We can also talk about a cash prize.

R: Yes. A monetary reward.

M: Monetary reward. Monetary. Because we say money. That's confusing, right. So money and

monetary.

R: There is nothing confusing about it.

M: There's nothing confusing about English. Okay.

R: It's a very simple language.

M: Yeah. Just to have a go and say, whatever you like. Pre-pubescent

R: It's very easy.

M: Another easy word is corrosive. You come across this word like everyday and use it on a

daily basis, like, it could be quite corrosive.

R: You do if you're friends with me. Um, so corrosive just means that it has a detrimental or a bad

effect on something. So, well, if we talk about acid, acid has a sort of corrosive effect on

whatever it lands on it dissolves it. But getting constantly told how amazing you are or how cool

you are or how good with you has a corrosive effect on your personality because it turns you into

well I said a megalomaniac, which is someone who cares only about power.

M: Nice. No, I mean not nice, but it's a nice word.

R: It is a nice word. It's not a nice person to be around.

M: No.

R: If you've ever met Kanye West you'd know that.

M: So, corrosive is like corrosion. Corrosion.

R: Yeah.

M: Corrosion of the soil.

R: Yeah.

M: Okay.

R: Well, no, erosion.

M: Erosion.

R: Yeah, but it's the same thing. It's a corrosion or erosion is about disrupting the shape of

something and making it into something less useful.

M: The last question was about being rewarded for the contribution right. So contribution pretty

much all the work you're doing or you've done and Rory goes with the betterment of society will

take precedence.

R: Yes.

M: What?

R: That just means making of the world...

M: I know society. OK, dear listener, you might hear on the society and will, okay. Take, I

understand take and I understand off and then betterment...

R: But it's not difficult. The betterment of society is just making the world a better place. And to take

precedence just means it's, well, what becomes the most important thing. So the betterment of society taking precedence is just saying making the world a better place is the most important thing.

M: Oh so if you care more for people because you are already satisfied in your soul that you are doing the right thing then the betterment of society will take precedence.

R: Yes. I just realized how unbelievably long that sentences is.

M: Wow, and really sophisticated.

R: Yeah.

M: Wow. So we have if, we have like you're doing and then the betterment. My brain is

exploding. What's the title of righteous?

R: Oh righteous of the nation. Well, I think it's righteous amongst the nations. That's just, well, it's

not just anything. It's a really important award. In WW2 people who saved people from

concentration camps or the Holocaust, were officially recognized by the State of Israel as doing

the right thing. And they were given the title righteous amongst the nations. I don't know if that's the

exact title but it's something like that. It's just like an award given to heroes who saved people.

M: Yeah, righteous?

R: Righteous amongst the nations.

M: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And when you talk about other prices, you can mention the Nobel Prize, and the Noble Prize. Yeah. And also like an Oscar you can talk about Oscars or a national award.

R: I think that's enough of award winning vocabulary, don't you?

M: Yeah.

R: Bye!

M: Thank you very much for listening, and we'll see in the next episode. Bye!