Learning to smile again.
This is News Review
from BBC learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Sian.
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Now, the story: People in Japan have been taking lessons on how to smile again.
The law's now changed, so you don't have to wear a mask any more,
but many people have complained
that they've forgotten how to smile.
Smile coaches have been helping people get used to smiling again.
You've been looking at the headlines, Sian. What's the vocabulary? OK, we have 'grin',
'ditches' and 'life after'.
This is News Review from BBC learning English.
Let's look at our first headline. This is from The Guardian:
OK. So, this headline is about the end of mask
wearing rules in Japan. The word that we're looking at is 'grin'.
Now, Sian, 'grin' that's a type of smile,
isn't it? It is, but it's not just any smile, it's a really big one like this.
OK, as you can see, Sian
is grinning from ear to ear, which is a common expression.
But we can also use it for the kind
of smile when you've done something wrong.
So, we can say that a child has a cheeky grin, for example.
Yes, and in this headline they use the
expression 'grin and bear it' which means 'remain positive when
something bad is happening'. But there's
something a bit different here. Yes, so, there's a kind of joke here.
So, normally the spelling in this
expression is 'bear' b-e-a-r. So, that means to 'deal with something',
but here they've spelled it 'bare' b-a-r-e,
which means 'not covered'. So, they're making a joke about
going barefaced - so, not having a mask
on your face. That's right. Let's look at that again.
Let's look at our next headline. This is from The Mainichi.
So, this headline, like
the first one, is about the ending of rules
in Japan about wearing masks after Covid. The word
we're looking at though is 'ditches', which
is a verb here. But, it's useful to think of the noun
'a ditch', which is that thing on the side
of the road. Yeah, so, it's where all the water and waste
from the road end up, but here we use
'ditch' as a verb, and 'to ditch something' is to throw it away'.
So, if you don't need something
any more, you ditch it. It's not just used for things though. No,
you can use it for ideas. You can ditch
an idea if you think it's a bad one or you can ditch
plans if they're not going to work.
I ditched my travel plans during the Covid pandemic. Or, you
can even ditch people. So, if we talk about
ending a relationship, you can say you ditch your boyfriend
or girlfriend. Doesn't sound very nice, but we use it. OK, let's look at that again.
Let's have our next headline. This is from The Japan Times:
Yes, and we're going to look at this useful
little phrase we use to talk about how things might be different in the future: 'life after'.
Yeah, so, here it's 'life after masks' and it refers to
how life will change for people in Japan when they stop
wearing masks. Yes, and we use this a lot
when we're talking about the future, so, for example: students
have to prepare for life after university,
or a celebrity, a famous person, has to think about life
after fame when they're not famous any more.
Yeah, and it can also be used with people. So, thinking
about the future without an important leader
or a famous person, for example, are Argentina ready for
life after Messi? So, he's going to retire one day. Let's look at that one more time.
We've had 'grin' - 'smile'.
'Ditches' - 'get rid of'. And 'life after' - 'a future without'.
If you want to learn more vocabulary around this topic,
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