00:06
Neil: Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute English,
00:08
I'm Neil. This is the programme
00:10
where in just six minutes we
00:11
discuss an interesting topic and
00:13
teach some related English vocabulary.
00:16
And joining me to do this is Rob.
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Rob: Hello, Neil.
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Neil: Now Rob, you seem like
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a happy chappy.
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Rob: What's the point of being miserable?
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Neil: Well, that are many things that could
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make you feel down in the dumps -
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a phrase that means 'unhappy' -
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but what are the things that keep you feeling
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happy, cheerful and chirpy, Rob?
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Rob: Oh many things like being healthy,
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having good friends, presenting
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programmes like this with you, Neil!
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Neil: Of course - but we all have different
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ideas about what makes us happy - and
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that can vary from country to country
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and culture to culture. It's what we're
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talking about today -
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concepts of happiness.
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Rob: Now Neil, you could make us even
00:53
happier if you gave us a really
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good question to answer.
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Neil: Here it is. Happiness is an emotion
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that actually gets measured.
01:00
The World Happiness Report measures
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"subjective well-being" - how happy the
01:05
people are, and why. But do you know,
01:07
according to a United Nations agency
01:10
report in 2017, which is the happiest
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country on Earth? Is it...
01:14
a) Norway, b) Japan, or c) New Zealand?
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Rob: WeIl, I think they're all very happy
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places but the outdoor life of many
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New Zealanders must make
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New Zealand the happiest place.
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Neil: OK, we'll see. I'll reveal the answer
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later on. But now back to our discussion
01:32
about happiness around the world.
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Rob: Happiness can be hard to define.
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Research has suggested that while
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personal feelings of pleasure are the
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accepted definition of happiness in
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Western cultures, East Asian
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cultures tend to see happiness as
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social harmony and in some parts
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of Africa and India it's more about
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shared experiences and family.
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Neil: It's something author and journalist
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Helen Russell has been looking at - she's
01:55
even created an 'Atlas of Happiness'.
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Her research focused on the positive
02:00
characteristics of a country's population
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- and guess which country she found
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to be one of the happiest?
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Rob: New Zealand?
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Neil: Actually no. It was Japan. Here she
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is speaking on BBC Radio 4's
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Woman's Hour programme. What
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concept - or belief - is it that
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promotes happiness?
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Helen Russell: Millennials and perhaps
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older people are better at
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remembering wabi-sabi - this
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traditional Japanese concept around
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celebrating imperfection, which I think is
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something so helpful these days,
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especially for women... it's this idea that
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there is a beauty in ageing, it's to be
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celebrated rather than trying
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to disguise it, or trying to cover up the
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scars instead you gild them with
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kintsugi... if you break a pot instead
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of chucking it away, you mend it with gold
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lacquer so the scars, rather than
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being hidden, are highlighted in
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pure gold... We all have laughter lines
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and rather than being ashamed
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of them, they're something
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to be celebrated.
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Neil: So in Japan, there is a belief that
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people should celebrate imperfection.
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Imperfection is a fault or weakness.
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So rather than hiding something that's
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not perfect, we should celebrate it.
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Rob: Getting old, for example, is not
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something to be ashamed of -
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don't hide your wrinkles or
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laughter lines - these are the creases
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you get as you skin ages or
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even you get from
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smiling too much!
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Neil: Rather than spending time being
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ashamed of our faults, we should
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accept what and who we are.
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This concept is something that Helen
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feels is particularly being celebrated by
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Millennials and older people.
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Rob: Yes, and Helen compared this with
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the process of kintsugi - where the cracks
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or scars on broken pottery are highlighted
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with gold lacquer. This is called gilding.
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So we should highlight our imperfections.
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Neil: This concept is something that
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maybe English people should
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embrace more because
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according to Helen Russell's research,
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they are not a very happy population.
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Here she is speaking on the
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BBC's Woman's Hour programme
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again - what word does she use to
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describe people like me and you?
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Helen Russell: In England what we have is
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'jolly', which many of us now associate
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with this kind of 'jolly hockey sticks'
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or maybe an upper-class thing
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but actually it's something
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that really plays through a lot of British
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culture in a way that we may not think of
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so much. So there's this sense that in a
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lot of our comedy, in a lot of our approach
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to life you just sort of - you get out there,
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you go for a dog walk, you have a boiled
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egg and 'soldiers', and we do sort of
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get on with things - it's
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a coping mechanism, it's not perfect but
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it's worked for many Brits for a while.
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Rob: In the past we would use the phrase
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'jolly hockey sticks' - a humorous
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phrase used to describe upper-class
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school girls' annoying enthusiasm.
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Neil: But Helen now thinks 'jolly' describes
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an attitude that is used as
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a coping mechanism - that's something
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someone does to deal with a difficult
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situation. We smile, do everyday
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things - like walking the dog -
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and just get on with life.
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Rob: I guess she means carry on
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without complaining.
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Neil: Well, here's something to make
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you happy, Rob - the answer to
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the question I asked you earlier,
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which was: according to a United
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Nations agency report in 2017, which is
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the happiest country on Earth? Is it...
05:00
a) Norway, b) Japan, or c) New Zealand?
05:03
Rob: And I said c) New Zealand.
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Neil: The answer is a) Norway. The report
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has been published for the past five years,
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during which the Nordic countries have
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consistently dominated the top spots.
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OK, now it's time to remind ourselves of
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some of the vocabulary
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we've mentioned today.
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Rob: We mentioned the phrase
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down in the dumps - which is an informal
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way of describing the feeling of
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unhappiness, sometimes with no hope.
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Neil: The next word was imperfection,
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which is a fault or weakness.
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You won't find any
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imperfections in this programme, Rob!
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Rob: Glad to hear it. Maybe we should gild
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this script - to gild something is to cover
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it in a thin layer of gold. We also heard
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about the word jolly which means
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'cheerful and happy'.
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Neil: And being jolly can be used as
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a coping mechanism - that's something
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someone does to deal with a difficult
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situation. If something doesn't go well,
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you just smile and carry on.
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Rob: Well, there's no need to do that in
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this programme. Now there's just time
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to remind you that we have
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a website with lots more learning
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English content. The address is
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bbclearningenglish.com.
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Neil: Thanks for joining us and goodbye.
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Rob: Goodbye!