Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute
English. I'm Neil.
Catherine: And I'm Catherine.
Neil: Catherine, are you tall enough?
Catherine: Tall enough for what?
Neil: Tall enough to be happy with your height.
Catherine: Er, well, yes, I'm alright with
my height, I can't do a thing about it
anyway so, how about you?
Neil: Well, the same, really. I wouldn't
mind being slightly taller, I suppose, which
is appropriate as today's
topic is about heightism.
Catherine: Heightism. Now, you may not
have heard of heightism before, but it's
like other 'isms' - like racism, sexism,
ageism and other 'isms' that highlight a
particular kind of
discrimination or unequal treatment that
people experience.
Neil: But before we find out more about
this topic, our quiz question for today.
The tallest person ever proven to live was
Robert Wadlow from the USA. How tall
was he? Was he: a) 2.71m; b) 2.72m or
c) 2.73m? What do you think, Catherine?
Catherine: Wow, that's really, really tall!
I'm going to guess 2.71m.
Neil: Well, listen out for the answer at the
end of the programme. Tanya S Osensky
is an attorney and author of the book
'Shortchanged' about her own
experiences of heightism.
Catherine: Clever title. To short-change
someone is to not give them what they
are entitled to, what they deserve.
And originally this phrase comes from
paying for something and
not getting the right money back. So if I
buy something for £6 and I pay with a £10
note and the shopkeeper only gives me
£3 back, I've been short-changed - it
means I've been cheated. And in the
context of facing discrimination because
you're not tall, 'Shortchanged'
is a really good pun.
Neil: Tanya spoke about her book on the
BBC radio programme Thinking Allowed.
She talks first about our general
feelings about height. What does she say
people never wish for?
Tanya S Osensky: Everybody that I've
spoken to who is tall relishes their height.
I have not met anybody who said they
would wish they were shorter and people
generally tend to even embellish what
their height is when you
ask them what it is.
Neil: So what is it she says
no one wishes for?
Catherine: Well, she says no one wishes
they were shorter!
Neil: And that's right. She said that tall
people relish their height. This means
they enjoy being tall, they get
great satisfaction from it.
Catherine: And another point she makes
is that many people embellish their
height, if asked. This means they say
they are taller than they actually are. Now,
to embellish a fact means to
exaggerate it to make it seem
bigger, faster, better and so on.
Neil: Here's Tanya S Osensky again.
Tanya S Osensky: Everybody that I've
spoken to who is tall relishes their height.
I have not met anybody who said
they would wish they were shorter and
people generally tend to even embellish
what their height is when you
ask them what it is.
Neil: She goes on to explain how some
research has shown that shorter people
are less likely to get jobs, less likely to get
promoted and less likely to earn as much
as taller people. What is the financial
difference she mentions? She talks about
the premium per inch. An inch is about
2.5cm and the premium is a word which
means the extra benefit,
the extra advantage.
Here's Tanya S Osensky again.
Tanya S Osensky: One set of data showed
that the premium for height is over $2000
per inch for men and $1000 per inch
for women and over time that disparity
grows significantly so it ends up being
a huge chunk of someone's
paycheck over their career.
Catherine: She says that taller men earn
$2000 an inch.
Neil: For women it's a bit less, but still
significant at $1000 an inch.
Catherine: And this disparity - or
difference - between the salaries of taller
and shorter people, is an example
of heightism. Shorter people, she says,
are getting fewer jobs and
fewer benefits because they are short.
Neil: Well, one person who certainly
wasn't short was the subject of today's
quiz question. The tallest person who
has lived, Robert Wadlow. We asked how
tall he was, was it: a) 2.71m;
b) 2.72m or c) 2.73m?
What did you say, Catherine?
Catherine: I said 2.71m.
Neil: Well, you were almost there. The
correct answer was b) 2.72m.
Congratulations if you got that right.
Now Catherine, much as I relish
being in the studio with you, we must
wrap up the programme now with
a review of today's vocabulary.
Catherine: Well, relish was one of those
words. If you relish something you really
enjoy it - so thanks you for that, Neil.
Neil: You're welcome! This programme
was about a kind of discrimination.
This means the unfair or unequal
treatment of people because of,
for example, their race, religion, colour,
age or indeed height.
Catherine: And discrimination because of
someone's height is called heightism.
Neil: Something which many of us do is
embellish our height - we say we are taller
than we actually are.
Catherine: A premium is an extra benefit
or advantage that can be gained, in this
case, by being taller. And finally
we had disparity, another word for
difference. There is a disparity
between salaries of tall people and
their shorter colleagues.
Neil: And that is 6 Minute English for
today. Do join us again and until then we
look forward to seeing you in all the
usual places: Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube as well as our
website, bbclearningenglish.com.
Goodbye.
Catherine: Bye!