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