📘 Part 3: Smiling

This episode's vocabulary

Letdown (noun) – a disappointment. → I'm tempted to say younger people smile more because they've had fewer letdowns in life.

Bound to be (idiom) – to be very likely to do or be something. → With everything being new and shiny for children, there's bound to be more optimism and smiles.

Broad generalization (noun phrase) – a statement that applies to a group of people or things in general, without considering details. → Saying that all women show their emotions more freely is a pretty broad generalization.

First and foremost (idiom) – most importantly; more than anything else. → The first and foremost reason people smile is to show that they're happy.

As long as my arm (idiom) – very long. → The list of reasons why people smile is as long as my arm.

Convey (verb) – to express a thought, feeling, or idea so that it is understood by other people. → You cannot really convey how you're feeling in a picture without some kind of visual aid.

Disposition (noun) – the particular type of character that a person naturally has. → If the person with a genuine smile has a friendly disposition, it's a safe assumption they're a friendly person.

Sinister (adjective) – making you feel that something bad or evil might happen. → If it's a sinister smile, it might unnerve people quite a lot.

Unnerve (verb) – to make someone feel less confident and slightly frightened. → A fake smile that doesn't match the situation might unnerve people.

Perfunctory (adjective) – done quickly, without taking care or showing interest. → You might put on a perfunctory smile at an event you're not enjoying.

Prone to (adjective) – likely to suffer from an illness or show a particular negative characteristic. → Some people are just not prone to open expressions of emotion.

Ataxia (noun) – a medical condition causing the loss of full control of bodily movements. → Facial ataxia means you lose control of some facial muscles, so you can't smile.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do people smile more when they are younger or older?

Rory: I don't know, really. I'm tempted to say younger people smile more because they've had fewer letdowns in life and everything is newer and shinier so there's bound to be more optimism and smiles. But maybe if you're older and more experienced, you can make the events that make you smile happen more often. So it's anybody's guess.

Maria: Do women smile more than men?

Rory: Surely that's more about personality rather than a gender thing. If I'm pushed though, maybe women, mostly because there's this idea that women show their emotions more freely. I think that's a pretty broad generalization, don't you?

Maria: Why do people smile then, in general?

Rory: God, I think the list of reasons is as long as my arm. I'm trying to organize it in my head. So, I suppose the first and foremost reason is that it's to show that they're happy and you show the other person that you're happy, and so that is part of building a relationship and a shared understanding and experience of the situation. Some people do it to calm a situation by showing there's no need for any tension because they're happy, so they're openly displaying their emotions to calm things. Other people do this when they are nervous, in an attempt to do the calming, as well. So there's all kinds of reasons. It could also just be an automatic reaction that people have to good things happening in their lives.

Maria: Right. And is smiling important in your culture?

Rory: I think it's probably more important than it is in others, relatively speaking, because you see people smiling more openly here compared to other cultures. So this open signaling of emotion is part of how we interact with each other, which is less so in other places.

Maria: Why do most people smile in photographs?

Rory: That's also a good question, actually. I've never really thought about it. Maybe it's because people want to show their emotions, and you cannot really convey how you're feeling in a picture without some kind of visual aid. So the smile is a visual aid to show that everybody is having a good time. That is just a guess though. I don't really know.

Maria: Do you think people who like to smile are more friendly?

Rory: I think that depends on the type of smile that it is, really, doesn't it? Because if it's genuine, a genuine authentic smile, and the person with it has a friendly disposition or demeanor, then it seems like a fairly safe assumption that they're a friendly person, but if it's a sinister smile or it doesn't match the situation or the emotions being expressed, then it might unnerve people quite a lot.

Maria: Are there any occasions when people need to pretend to smile?

Rory: Probably yeah. If you're at an event that you're not really having a good time at and you're just sort of put on a perfunctory smile to try and get through it without bringing other people down along with you, then you would pretend to smile. I don't know how believable it would be, but that is one reason. Yep.

Maria: And some people rarely smile or never smile. Why?

Rory: Well, it could be a personality thing. Some people are just not prone to open expressions of emotion, or it could be a cultural thing for basically the same reasons that I just gave there. Maybe open smiles are not something which is encouraged because of, well, a variety of reasons. Maybe it's associated with stupidity, for example. So those are two of the foremost ones. Another reason could be they have some kind of facial paralysis, perhaps. What's that thing? It's... what's it called? It's yes, it's facial ataxia. Ataxia just means that you lose control of some muscles so you can't smile.

Discussion

Maria: Thank you very much, Rory. Look at us using complex medical terminology.

Maria: Wow, yeah, dear listeners, definitely band nine and the examiner will be all interested in you, maybe Googling this word. And it's okay if the examiner doesn't know the word. You just educate the examiner. Yeah, that's fine. So you can show off your profound knowledge of medical terms and diseases with muscles. So, right, dear listeners, smiling. Okay, and some silly questions. So, who smiles more? Younger or older people? Here Rory chose our favorite strategy. I don't know, really. But well, yeah, I don't know, who smiles more? younger or older people? But now you do know because according to Google and Google tells the truth and knows everything. Yeah, so we trust Google. Children smile more often than adults. So that's a fact.

Rory: Why?

Maria: Because many studies suggest.

Rory: No, no. I mean, why do they smile more?

Maria: They count it that children may smile up to 400 times a day. Dear listener, if you have a child, you can count how many times your child smiles a day. Compared to an average adult who smiles, how many times a day?

Rory: What do you think?

Maria: An average adult smiles how many times a day?

Rory: I don't know.

Maria: Twenty.

Rory: Oh, wow. Okay.

Maria: That few? I thought it'd be more.

Maria: Twenty times. Because children smile all the time, at strangers, at dogs. Stray dogs, dirty dogs, happy dogs, unhappy dogs. They smile, seriously. So, we say that children smile more.

Rory: Fair enough.

Maria: I'm tempted to say, like temptation.

Rory: This is another way of expressing our uncertainty. I'm tempted to say this just because and then if you're not sure about your answer, at least you said, it's not absolute, I don't know this 100%.

Maria: And children tend to be more optimistic. So they are, they smile more. There we go. And they may have more events that make them smile. And then an even more stupid question about women and men. And here Rory uses the same strategy but different words. I have absolutely no idea, which means I don't know. But check out the language. I have absolutely no idea or I've no idea. And that's fine. We can answer like this with something else. Now you know that according to Google, and studies, some studies we don't know, women smile more often than men, because research has indicated women smile up to 62 times per day and men only eight times a day. Wow. Poor men. Oh, yeah. Hard life you have Rory. Rory, your task for today, no, for tomorrow will be count how many times you smile and how many times your maybe brother or your friend, your flatmate smiles.

Rory: I'll do that, but it's interesting because actually, I think my task, I have daily tasks to try and be more mindful and the one today is make three people smile. So it's funny we're talking about this. And I seem to have managed with you and Vanya who is listening in. So that's good. I have one more person to make smile. Hopefully that is the person listening to this podcast.

Maria: Dear listener, if you are listening, just smile. Put on a nice silly smile on your face, because now I'm smiling. Yeah, and we have lifedentalgroup.com. And the reasons why do women smile more than men? The science of smiling. Ooh, la la. Because women have better control over their facial muscles. Huh. Women have less stress hormones in their bodies. And check it out, they have a grammar mistake. Fewer stress hormones. Ah, lifedentalgroup.com. Grammar. Fix your grammar.

Rory: Maybe they're talking about the combination of stress hormones together, in which case it would be less, but if they talk about individual hormones, then...

Maria: There we go, dear listener, now you know. And you can use the word gender. So I don't think it's a gender thing, but now according to science and you can quote lifedentalgroup.com with wrong grammar on their website. So you can say that yeah, according to this, to a website, I read research, I read studies. Yeah. And yeah, according to recent studies, women smile more often, because they control their facial muscles. The muscles in their face. The list is as long as my arm. So that means that the list of reasons why people smile is very long.

Rory: This is just buying more time though. Because I was like, what a weird question. And then I was like, okay, there are all these ideas, but I need to organize them.

Maria: Yeah, and people usually smile because it's a social signal that communicates positive emotions. Okay, according to BBCsciencefocus.com. So when people feel good, when people are pleased to see someone, we smile.

Rory: Or if you're not pleased to see them, you can force a smile.

Maria: People smile in photographs. So in photos. Okay. And if you have nothing to say, you can say, whoa, that's a good question actually. Actually, your intonation goes up. That's a good question, actually. I've never really thought about it. Rory, could you read out this sentence with your beautiful Scottish intonation? English? British?

Rory: That's an interesting question. I've never really thought about it, actually.

Maria: Maybe it's because that-ta-ta or it's because this. So, people usually convey their emotions, so we show our emotions. And we convey, so convey pretty much like show. We convey our emotions in the photo with a smile. Convey, express, we express our emotions. And there is a Joe Rainey who actually wrote an article why do we smile in the photographs. And this Joe says that it's the social expectation. So people, most people expect you to smile in photographs. And it's a nice idea, yeah. Yeah, and there's the history behind it. Ooh, when the first camera appeared for the general public, people were asked to smile.

Rory: And now we just expect people to do it.

Maria: Yeah, and just for natural or social reasons, people just started smiling in photographs. Also because of the adverts, advertisements, TV, social media, they also promoted smiling in photos. And again, when we see a smile, we feel happiness, we feel kind of safe. Right? So it's connected with happiness, pleasure in our minds. So dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. There we go, our super hormones. We're, because we are expected to smile. Yeah, and some people can force a smile, dear listener. So if you don't wanna smile and you just put on a smile, it's not real, or you force a smile, or you can say you fake a smile, so not real smile.

Rory: A perfunctory smile.

Maria: What's, perfunc...

Rory: perfunctory.

Maria: Perfunctory. Could you give us a sentence, an example?

Rory: I think perfunctory is just in order to do the thing, really. It's to do with the social expectation. You're not doing it because of a genuine interest. It's because you're just expected to do it.

Maria: Yeah, perfunctory, something that is done quickly without taking care or interest. Her smile was perfunctory. Not real, not genuine. But if a person smiles genuinely or if it's an authentic smile, a genuine smile, real smile, then other people feel happy with this person.

Rory: You would hope so.

Maria: And C2 moment dear listener, band nine vocabulary. Disposition. The particular type of character, yeah, a person has. For example, she's of a nervous disposition, she's of a cheerful, happy, disposition. Yeah. And if a person has a friendly disposition and smiles, then they tend to be more friendly. But if a person doesn't smile, or if a person doesn't have a genuine smile, a person has a sinister smile, this sinister.

Rory: Well, it's sinister if it looks like there's a bad intention behind it. Maybe you could have a different smile, like a fake smile and that's not sinister. It's just fake. It's not authentic.

Maria: Then this person can unnerve people. So if you unnerve people, you make them nervous. You make people less confident and frightened. So he unnerved many of his colleagues. Right, dear listener. Now you know that people smile mainly to express positive emotions, like joy, happiness, amusement, amusement when you are amused, when you are glad. And also, it's a social signal to convey, to express friendliness, to express that you are a friendly person with a friendly disposition, character, yeah. And to bond with people, to connect with people, you smile at them first. Genuinely, dear listener.

Rory: Yes. You don't just smile without being genuine, then it's fairly obvious.

Maria: Thank you very much for listening. Keep listening, yeah, keep working on your English and we'll get back to you in our next episodes, all right? Bye-bye bye-bye.

Rory: Bye.