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CONVERSATIONAL VOCABULARY

TRADITIONAL THAI MASSAGE

Hi everyone. This is Aaron of Deep English. I’m now going to give a commentary on some of the language used that appears in the conversation Dan and I had about Thai massage.

1. led me to study

I’m going to start with something that I said towards the beginning of the conversation. I was talking about how my practice of meditation and yoga and Tai Chi helped me center on what’s happening inside my mind and my body and that’s what led me to study traditional Thai massage. I want to focus on ‘led me to study’. ‘Led me’ plus an infinitive verb.

I noticed that in many of my students, this is not a common phrase that they use, although it is quite common to use it amongst native speakers and very advanced speakers. This might be something that you can try to incorporate into your speech patterns. We use it when there is a causal relationship between a certain condition and then a subsequent action that is taken. Or maybe one action that leads to another action, one situation that leads to a certain action being taken. In this case, all those activities that I was practicing led me, it caused me to want to study traditional Thai massage and therefore I took that action and started taking courses in it.

Another example might be from my childhood. I grew up in the United States. Living in the US, I was surrounded by many Spanish speakers. There are many, many Spanish speakers in the United States and that’s kind of the second language of the United States so that led me to study Spanish.

I wanted to study Spanish so that I could understand those around me. I thought it would be very useful and, indeed, I did benefit from studying Spanish.

Another example from my own past might be when I spent about a year and a half in San Francisco working in a laboratory and I was surrounded by Chinese post docs in the research laboratory and I heard Chinese every day for a year and a half. That led me to buy a one way ticket to China so I could experience first-hand what being in China was like. That led me to make that decision.

In terms of Dan and I, we as teachers so saw many students struggling with achieving with English fluency and being confident in their ability to communicate so that situation led us to start Deep English – the website and the method and the materials. That’s how you can use this ‘led me’ or ‘led us’ or ‘led him’ or ‘led her’ plus an infinitive verb. Try to incorporate that into your own language patterns.

1. wow

Okay, we’re going to move on to the next one which is ‘wow’. Normally, this is an exclamation that people make when they’re surprised. It almost always comes at the very beginning of a sentence or a phrase. “Wow, really? I didn’t know that,” or “Wow, that’s a really large airplane! I didn’t know that they made airplanes so large. It’s amazing that it can fly in the sky.”

However, a little bit later in the conversation, I used this in the middle of a sentence. That’s something you can consider doing, too. Dan was asking me about my experience practicing Thai massage and I said, “Yeah, I practiced Thai massage, wow, pretty intensely for two or three years.” The reason I said ‘wow’ is because as I was thinking about my experience, it surprised me how intensely, I remembered how intensely I practiced it for two or three years. So I surprised myself in the middle of my sentence. You can throw that in any time you feel that something surprises you or amazes you or shocks you. Just place it in the middle of a sentence or a phrase.

For example, someone might ask me, “Hey Aaron, how long have you been in Japan now?” And I answer, “Wow, let’s see. I’ve lived in Japan, wow, 14 years now!” As soon as I think of it, I say ‘wow’.

Or maybe we’ve received lots and lots of rain in the past day and I look up on the internet and I’m saying, “Let’s see. How much rain did we get? It looks like we got, wow, 16 centimeters of rain in the last 24 hours. No wonder it’s flooding in the area.

So ‘wow’ can be used anytime you want. It doesn’t always have to be at the very beginning of a sentence.

1. The States

Okay, a little bit later. This is when I say ‘The States’ and I want to talk just a little about that. I said I did a little Thai massage in the States when I would go home to visit friends and family. Of course I’m referring to the United States of America, and the name of that country is said in many different ways. You’ll hear it as the United States of America, the United States, the US, the USA, the States.

You’ll also hear it as America, but I want to draw your attention to this use of America to refer to the United States of America. I think you should use it with a little bit of caution because some Latin Americans may not like your use of the word ‘America’. The reason for this is that America is actually a continent or a series of continents. We have North America, Central America and South America. In that sense, anyone who lives in the continents of North, Central and South America are Americans. So someone from Brazil or Argentina or Colombia or Panama, in some ways are also Americans. Of course, we can’t completely get rid of our use of the word ‘America’ or the label ‘America’ or ‘Americans’ because it’s such an integral part of our language patterns.

One thing I do try to do is, anytime I can, I try to use ‘US citizens’ to refer to Americans for that reason. I’m especially sensitive if I’m talking to a Spanish speaker from Latin America, as well, because in a way we’re all Americans. We’re all from that area. Okay, so that’s ‘The States’.

1. in the sense that

Let’s move on. The next one is ‘in the sense that’. Dan was asking me if when I return to Japan, I started doing Thai massage as a job. I said, “Yeah, slightly, in the sense that I did not have any work when I first came to Japan and that’s what I was doing to earn some money.” Basically, we use this phrase ‘in the sense that’ in order to further clarify the meaning of something or further justify a meaning, to give more detailed information about it, to create extra context so that the listener can fully understand the meaning of what is said. You could also say ‘in the way that’ or ‘in the manner that’ or ‘meaning that’. Those are other possible phrases that have very similar meanings.

Another example might be in 2008, there was an economic crisis in the United States and so many US citizens struggled during that period. Someone might hear me say that they struggled and they get a confused look on their face, and I say, “Well yes, they struggled in the sense that some people lost their homes and had to move in to apartments.” Or “Some people went bankrupt and lost their money,” but of course not in the way that people around the world suffer, such as from war or famine, not having food, disease, sickness, poverty. People didn’t struggle that way, but they struggled in the sense that they lost their homes and they lost a lot of money. So I’m giving extra meaning by using that phrase.

1. That’s nothing.

Dan asked me when I started doing Thai massage, he said, “What did you charge?” I said, “Well, when I first started I charged ¥999.” And Dan says, “¥999? That’s nothing!” Of course, I responded, “Well it’s something to some people. But yeah, it’s pretty cheap.”

Basically, he’s using exaggeration here and a lot of speakers will use exaggeration to color their speech or to add some life or vitality to what they’re saying. You’ll hear a lot of exaggeration amongst native speakers. In this case, of course it doesn’t mean ‘nothing’. What Dan’s saying is that’s a very small amount, so he’s exaggerating it. He could have also said, “That’s so little,” or “That’s not so much money.” But when he says ‘that’s nothing’, it gives, like I said, some extra spice to what he’s saying.

We could use this if we’re talking about the temperature. I can say, “Wow, man. Today is so hot, it’s 40 degrees centigrade. I am just sweating. I can’t do anything outdoors.” And someone might say to me, “Hey Aaron, that’s nothing. You should see the temperature in Dubai today. It’s over 50 degrees.” It doesn’t mean that it’s nothing. It just means that’s actually small compared to the temperature in Dubai.

1. work out

Okay, the next phrase is ‘work out’. ‘Work out’, a little phrasal verb. Dan mentions this when he says… Actually we’re talking about the massage and how little I charge people and the fact that I allowed them to just donate more if they wanted to, if they felt generous. And Dan says, “Well, how did that work out? Were people generous?” ‘Work out’ in this sense means ‘to result in a favorable or successful way, to end up in a favorable manner.

Dan Actually uses this same phrasal verb later in the conversation, much later. He’s talking about the studies done on babies that aren’t touch. Some of them die and then some of them have behavioral problems and emotional problems that never really get ‘worked out’. In this sense, it almost has the same meaning. It means that these problems never got solved in a favorable way.

They never got solved in a successful way.

Let me give you another example of this. We could talk about a man who started a business and he invested lots and lots of money, and lots and lots of time, but unfortunately nobody was interested in his product so it never ‘worked out’. And that means the business never succeeded.

Another example might be, this year my daughter got a brand new teacher for her class. She’s in elementary school. The only issue is the teacher was a brand new teacher, very young in his midtwenties, inexperienced. So all the parents were a little bit unsure of how it would go, especially because some of the students in his class are challenging students. After time, we saw that it ‘worked out’ really well. The teacher got along with the students, ended up being a very successful teacher who the students like very much. So it’s no problem, it ‘worked out’. It was successful. The result was favorable.

That’s ‘work out’. Of course, that phrasal verb has other meanings, but we’re only focusing on this meaning. See if you can use that in your own conversations.

1. sustainable venture

The next one is ‘sustainable venture’. A ‘sustainable venture’. Dan asked me when I was doing massage when I first came to Kyoto, Japan, he says, “Were you trying to support your family? Did you have children?” I said, “Well no, I didn’t have children. My wife was working full time but it didn’t take me long to realize that this was not a sustainable venture.”

Let’s take a quick look at both of those terms. A venture is usually some kind of major project or business that has, not only specific goals in mind to achieve, but it also involves some level of risk, in the sense that it’s complex and it requires a lot of effort and a little bit of luck and you really don’t know how it’s going to go. We usually don’t use those with very small projects or small activities. It’s usually something bigger, where the stakes are higher.

Of course, the adjective ‘sustainable’, we use to describe things that can sustain themselves, that can continue to thrive and exist and maybe to grow and it’s ongoing. Some things might be okay in the short term, but in the long term they’re going to fail. Some businesses are designed in such a way that they make money in the short term, but in the long term they fail because they’re not setup to be sustainable.

You often hear this term used when talking about the environment. Is this sustainable? Is this plan sustainable? Is it an environmentally sustainable type of project or type of action being taken?

Sustainability is something very important when talking about the environment. A sustainable venture. If you start a business, try to plan for it to be sustainable.

1. Responding to a joke with another joke.

A little bit later, Dan makes a joke. He says… I actually asked him a question, “Guess what I decided to do to supplement my income, meaning my massage income.” His answer is, “You decided to open up a burrito truck.” I immediately recognized that as a joke because of course, there’s no context, there’s nothing that would suggest that I would open a burrito truck, a burrito being a Mexican food from the Southwest region of the United States. No, of course not, why would I open a burrito truck?

Dan was trying to be funny. But my response to that was, “No, that was my second choice. Actually I started teaching English.” My answer to his joke was also a joke, meaning that I recognized the fact that you made an outrageous statement and I’m going to make an outrageous experience in response.

If Dan and I hadn’t laughed, some people may be would not have recognized this as a joke. They might have thought that we were serious and this happens a lot in conversation especially amongst native speakers. They will sometimes be very dry. We call it ‘dry humor’. They won’t laugh at all.

They’ll just make a statement as if it were serious, but in fact it’s a joke and the only way you can recognize it as a joke is to understand the full context of the conversation. This is responding to a joke with another joke. It’s understood between the speakers that both are jokes and there’s no need for further explanation.

1. busier and busier

Okay, so the next is ‘busier and busier’. I was talking about my experience with massage in Japan and I said, “I did massage for four or five months and then I continued doing it for several years. I taught a workshop, I taught a course at the university. But over time I got busier and busier as a language teacher.” In this case, I’m repeating this comparative adjective twice to add emphasis to the changing nature or the progressive nature of this state of affairs. That means when I say ‘busier and busier’ what I’m saying is, I started out busy and then as the months went by, I became more and more busy. So ‘busier and busier’. When you repeat these comparative adjectives, it emphasizes the progressive nature of it.

Let me give you a few other examples. My bestfriend, he has a son in elementary school. His son is a fast runner; he’s always been a fast sprinter. But with training, he got faster and faster, and now he’s the city champion in his age group. Over time, with coaching and training, he got ‘faster and faster’. I could have equally have said ‘progressively faster’. He got progressively faster. That’s a little bit more of a formal way to communicate the same idea.

Another example might be, several years ago the value of Yen here in Japan got lower and lower over a six-month period. It became more and more difficult for foreigners to live here as it became more and more expensive to travel abroad. In that example, I gave three examples of this repeating the comparative adjective. That’s something to pay attention to if you want to emphasize the progressive nature of a changing state of affairs.

1. the norm

Okay, just a couple more. One is ‘the norm’. Dan was talking about touching, the effects of touching people and how people will rate their experience of communicating with someone much higher if they’ve been touched. Dan says, “I’m sure in some cultures where that’s not ‘the norm’, a light touch of the arm could create the opposite effect.” ‘The norm’ just means the normal way of doing things, the common way, the average way. This is related to cultural norms. Sometimes you’ll hear the noun ‘norms’ in the plural sense, and that means normal way of doing things in a culture. Every culture has different norms.

I think Japan’s a really good example. One of the cultural norms of Japan is taking off your shoes before entering your house. And then when you go to the toilet, you actually put on special slippers that are only worn in the toilet. Those are norms. In other countries, this is not the case. In other countries, it’s completely normal to walk in to a house with your shoes on, the same shoes you wore outside in the dirt and in the street. Of course, Japanese people think that’s really dirty and not something that you should do. That’s a norm in Japan.

Another norm in Latin America, for example, might be when greeting someone, hugs and kisses and embraces are quite the norm. They’re very normal. People do that all the time. But come to Japan and try to kiss someone or give them a caress with your arms and you’ll get a reaction that’s somewhat negative because bowing is ‘the norm’ in Japan, not physical contact. That’s ‘the norm’.

We can refer to cultural ways of doing things when we use this term, or just anything. It’s ‘the norm’.

It’s the normal thing, the average common thing.

1. it begs the question

Okay, finally. The very last thing I want to point your attention to is the phrase ‘it begs the question’.

We’re talking about all these benefits of touch. Touch in sports and what it does to certain hormones in your body and how it makes you feel happy and centered, then I say, “It begs the question, “What can we do or what can you do as an individual in your livelihood or in your daily life to start consciously thinking about or being aware of the kind of touching that goes on in your life?”” When we say ‘it begs the question’, basically we mean something that comes from the verb ‘to beg’ which means to strongly wish or to plead or to ask or to year for something. A beggar is a person who stands on the street and asks and pleads and yearns for people to give him or her money or food because he or she doesn’t have any. That’s a beggar. When we say ‘beg the question’ we mean this conversation topic strongly yearns, it strongly pleads or wishes for us to ask a certain question. It cannot go ignored or unaddressed. In this case, we’re talking about all the benefits of touch and I say, “Hey, that begs the question, “How much touching are we actually doing in our lives? Can we measure that? Can we improve the quality of touch that goes on?”” Another way to say this is ‘it makes me want to ask the question’. It makes me think that the following question is important to consider. This begs the question, how can you use this phrase in your conversations?