📘 Part 3: Sport and society

This Episode's Vocabulary

Vast majority (phrase) – almost everyone; the largest part of a group. → Example: The vast majority of citizens voted in favor of the new park.

Obesity crisis (collocation) – a serious public health problem where a large proportion of the population is dangerously overweight. → Example: Governments are trying to tackle the obesity crisis by promoting healthier school lunches.

Crucial (adj.) – extremely important or necessary. → Example: It is crucial to get enough sleep before an important exam.

General well-being (collocation) – the overall state of being healthy, happy, and comfortable. → Example: Regular exercise and a balanced diet are essential for your general well-being.

Dead set against (idiom) – to be strongly opposed to something. → Example: My parents were dead set against me getting a tattoo.

Promote bonding (collocation) – to encourage the formation of a close relationship or connection between people. → Example: Team-building activities are designed to promote bonding among colleagues.

In-group (n.) – a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. → Example: The new members of the club quickly became part of the in-group.

Monitor bodily functions (phrase) – to use technology to watch and check biological processes like heart rate or blood pressure. → Example: Many smartwatches can monitor bodily functions while you exercise.

On the surface (idiom) – when you first look at or think about something, without considering the details. → Example: On the surface, the plan seemed perfect, but it had several hidden flaws.

Lift their spirits (idiom) – to make someone feel happier. → Example: The good news really helped to lift their spirits after a difficult week.

Profit motive (n.) – the desire to make money as the primary reason for a business or action. → Example: The company's decisions were clearly driven by a strong profit motive.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Is it necessary to build public sports places?

Rory: Well, for the vast majority of people I'd certainly say so. There's a huge obesity crisis right now, and people need opportunities for exercise and personal development. So not only is it necessary, you could also say it's crucial or things will only get worse.

Maria: What are the benefits of sports for children?

Rory: What, aside from shielding them from the worst effects of the crisis I mentioned? It's good for them to have the opportunity to compete against each other and socialize, which sports, and sports events like the Olympics can offer people. Of course, there are other ways to do this. It's just one of the healthier options.

Maria: Do young people like to do sports?

Rory: You'd have to ask them. But I suspect most of them do, probably, unless they can't participate in it, or maybe they don't want to take part for some reason. I mean, it can be fun and promote general well-being in addition to releasing all the various neurotransmitters and endorphins that people are always on about.

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But obviously, if you are dead set against that, then the opposite would probably be achieved.

Maria: Do you think local sports teams can help increase community connections?

Rory: It depends on how the whole thing is structured, really. And it could also be a matter of perspective. Historically, in my country, there have been sports teams with memberships based on religious affiliation. So, while it might promote bonding among people in the in-group, it probably reinforces the borders with out-groups. So, it's certainly possible, but it should be done with consideration for aspects similar to those that I mentioned if that's the goal.

Maria: Is technology helpful for people to do sports?

Rory: Oh, definitely. I mean, not just in extreme cases like monitoring bodily functions and output, but also in terms of enabling people to do things. A wheelchair is a piece of technology that helps to do this. A hip replacement could be another.

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Of course, it could also be used to exclude people, but I think that's probably the exception rather than the rule.

Maria: What do you think of companies donating sports venues for poor children?

Rory: I mean, on the surface, it certainly seems like a nice thing to do and can give people an opportunity to lift their spirits or even lift themselves out of poverty if they become a professional sports player. However, I always find myself asking how the companies benefit from such an arrangement. Sadly, corporations are always driven by things like the bottom line and the profit motive. So this has to be a factor in such decisions somehow, which can poison how you think about these things.

Maria: Yay. Thank you, Rory, for your answers.

Rory: No worries. Hopefully, they were very sportsman-like.

Discussion

Maria: Public sports spaces or public sports venues, dear listener. These are different places where people do sports. And we say do sports. So stadiums, parks, certain sports playgrounds, gyms. And you can say that people need opportunities for exercise. So, for doing exercise because lots of people are obese now nowadays, they're very fat. So there is an obesity crisis. Obesity. Yes, this problem with overweight.

Rory: Surely obesity has got to be a band nine word.

Maria: Hmm, interesting. I don't know. And what about Scotland, Rory? Do you have an obesity crisis in Scotland?

Rory: I feel like most countries have this now, although especially Western countries. So, actually, I didn't look this up. Let's look it up now. Proportion of Scottish people.

Maria: So, actually, obese is C1, dear listener. It's a band eight.

Rory: Nice.

Maria: Extremely fat, overweight, obese. And this is dangerous for health. Or obesity is the noun.

Rory: So, something like 32% of adults in my country are obese.

Maria: Oh, okay.

Rory: Which is the highest level on record with two thirds of adults classed as being overweight or obese.

Maria: Right, dear listener. So obesity means that a person has some health problems. So their overweight affects their health negatively.

Rory: Jesus, that's a lot of people. So, what then we just ask ourselves, what is 32% of 5 million people? That's 1.6 million people. Amazing. Okay. So that's not good. And then 64%, so two thirds, that's 3.2 million people are overweight. Wow. That is crazy. I didn't realize it was that many. That's wild, isn't it?

Maria: Hmm. Right, dear listener. We can talk about the advantages of sports for children or the benefits, the upsides. And you can mention that children have the opportunity to compete against each other. Compete against each other, right? To socialize with each other while they do some sports. And sports provide children with healthier options for socializing. So health, healthier, not more healthy. But actually, some people do say more healthy.

Rory: Mhm.

Maria: Young people usually enjoy doing sports or they like to do sports. Well, because they can get active, it is fun. They get endorphins. Endorphins like these happy hormones in their bodies. They can compete against each other.

Rory: You can get that through competition and socializing. Always mention these two things together. There's always two aspects of these things.

Maria: And we can talk about promoting general well-being, like films and books. In every town, you usually have your local sports teams, right? And we have a community of people, in a village, in a town, some community places where just people go and they socialize, they get together. And the questions about local sports teams, do they help increase community connections? Pretty much like, if everyone goes to a football match, people socialize, so it helps to build up community. Yeah? Especially in small villages, in small towns. But in cities, what about in cities? Well, it's difficult to increase community connections, but there are different communities in large cities, like football fans, hockey fans, people who enjoy tea, people who enjoy yoga, you see? So many different communities. And you can say that if it is structured well, again, why not?

And you can talk about your country, like historically in my country, sports have always been, right? So local competitions and sports have always helped increase community connections. And they promote bonding among people. Bonding, like again, connections, people bond, connect together.

Rory: Especially over a shared goal.

Maria: Yeah. You said in-groups, is it a synonym for community?

Rory: It is, yeah, but it's members of a particular group. So if you're in the in-group, then you exclude members of an out-group by just association or lack of association.

Maria: Yeah. In-group, a social group whose members are very loyal to each other and share a lot of interests. A very good answer about technology, dear listener. So you can actually Google this question and it's going to be helpful for your essays as well for ideas. So Rory talked about monitoring bodily functions. So we have different devices like rings, watches, bracelets, which monitor bodily functions, like your heart rate, the amount of water in your body.

Rory: How many calories you burn.

Maria: Yeah, how many calories you burn.

Rory: Your body fat percentage.

Maria: Body fat percentage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we do have lots of devices, technology, which monitors our bodily functions. Also, you can talk about disabled people, like a wheelchair helps people who do sports. Also different things like a hip replacement. So if a person breaks some bones, they can replace bones with replacements, right? So kind of insert another bone into a person's body.

Rory: Well, a metal replacement, if it's a hip replacement.

Maria: Right. Or kind of the whole leg or an arm, right?

Maria: Some companies donate sports venues for poor children. Now it's a common practice, a company builds a stadium or builds a gym or some sports playground and just donate this venue, this place to the town, village, to people.

Rory: And I am cynical. So I say they're not just doing this because they are nice people.

Maria: Yeah, Rory thinks it's not just because, it's not for nothing, right? So Rory doesn't believe in the good. So, Rory thinks that companies have something in mind. They pursue their own interests, plus they do something good. And you can say that on the surface, it's a nice thing to do. It's generous. If you have some money, you kind of donate as charity, right? And you provide people with an opportunity to lift their spirits. Lift their spirits, so to become happy, to kind of enjoy life, like yay, to lift their spirits, make somebody happier. But these companies benefit from such an arrangement, from such things because they may have some other reasons in mind. They usually think of their profit. So they have the profit motive. So they are thinking about their business.

Rory: How can I get money from this?

Maria: Yeah. Again, dear listener, it's up to you what to think, but yeah, here, on the surface, it's a good thing, but there might be some other motives which are not so nice. Right, dear listener, thank you very much for listening. And we'll get back to you in our next episode. Okay? Bye.