Sam: Hello. This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam...
Rob: And I'm Rob.
Sam: So we're well into 2020 now -
how are your New Year's resolutions
going, Rob?
Rob: Ah resolutions - you mean
promises people make to themselves
to stop or start doing
something - I promised to start
running, and to stop eating biscuits
and to give up alcohol
for a month. But I failed on all of them!
Sam: Oh dear...
Rob: Yes, I lasted a few days and then
I started to crumble.
Sam: Yeah. Well, you're not alone.
Many people try to kick bad habits
and get healthy when
a new year begins. Their intentions - their
plans to do something - are good.
Rob: Yes, giving up drinking is particularly
good to do, if only for the health benefits.
Sam: Well, we'll be talking more
about that as soon as I've set up
today's question. According
to historians, which people were thought
to be the first group to make New Year's
resolutions?
Was it the... a) Romans,
b) Native Americans or c) Babylonians.
Rob: I haven't got a clue, so I'm going
to guess a) the Romans.
Sam: OK, Rob, I'll let you know if that
was a good guess at the end
of the programme.
Now let's talk more about giving things up
for New Year and, specifically,
giving up alcohol.
Rob: It's a time often called 'Dry January'
- dry refers to not drinking alcohol, it's
not about the weather!
And the beginning of the year seems
like a good time to start doing
something to improve your health.
Sam: But it's easy to give in
to temptation - isn't it, Rob?
Rob: Oh yes. And it's tough to give up
drinking in the first place,
as Millie Gooch, founder
of The Sober Girl Society knows.
She spoke to BBC Radio 4's You and
Yours programme and
explained why it was hard
to quit in the first place...
Millie Gooch: I think it's the peer pressure
and, you know, it's so expected of us, it's
so ingrained in us. Alcohol is everywhere
and it's not just alcohol itself, it's alcohol
merchandise, so, you know, you've got
Christmas jumpers that have been
say 'Prosecco-ho-ho-ho'
and you can't buy a birthday card without
saying 'let the fun be-gin'.
It's just absolutely
everywhere, it's so hard to avoid.
Sam: So that's Millie, who's right when she
says that, in the UK at least,
we sometimes drink because
we give in to peer pressure. That's the
influence a group of similar people
have on you to behave like them.
Rob: We want to be part of the group so
we copy what they do - and
we are expected to do so because,
as Millie said, drinking alcohol
is ingrained in us - well in
some cultures anyway.
Sam: And when an attitude is ingrained it
means it's been that way
for a long time - it's difficult
to change. And although it may be
harmful, we see jokes
about drinking through
things like merchandise - a word
for goods we buy and sell.
Rob: And Millie goes on to say we can
buy jumpers that joke about
the Italian sparkling wine called
Prosecco - which say 'Prosecco-ho-ho-ho!'
And birthday cards have the message 'let
the fun be-gin' -- a play on the word 'begin'.
Sam: With all this social pressure, it's hard
not to give in - and that's even
worse when you're trying
to fulfil your resolution not to drink.
Rob: For Millie, enough was enough
when drinking started to have
a negative effect and she had
to do something about it.
Let's hear from her again.
Millie Gooch: I started realising that
alcohol was really affecting
my mental health, so
I was getting that really bad hangover
anxiety - that like, hangover fear
and dread - and
I kind of noticed that was permeating
everyday life. I was a binge drinker
rather than like
an everyday drinker. So I just decided
that it wasn't suiting my life any more
and I wanted
to give it up.
Rob: So Millie there described the
negative effects of a hangover - that's
the sick and tired feeling
you get after drinking too much
alcohol. She also said she
felt anxiety. And this feeling was
permeating her everyday life. When
something permeates it spreads through
something and influences every part of it.
Sam: So, drinking was affecting her
everyday life, and it didn't help
that she was a binge drinker.
When you binge you do something
occasionally but to extreme.
Rob: Well, Millie managed to quit drinking
and hasn't touched a drop since.
There are many benefits
to remaining sober - that means
not being drunk. And one of them
is hearing
the answer to today's question!
Sam: Earlier I asked you:
According to historians,
which people were thought to be the first
group to make New Year's resolutions?
Was it the...
a) Romans, b) Native Americans or
c) Babylonians.
And Rob, what did you say?
Rob: I had a wild guess and said
it was the Romans.
Sam: Sorry, Rob, you are wrong.
Many historians think it was the
Babylonians who made the
first ever New Year's resolutions, about
4,000 years ago. According to the
history.com website,
at New Year - which they celebrated in
mid-March - Babylonians made
promises to the gods to
pay their debts and return any objects
they had borrowed.
Rob: I wonder if they managed to keep
their resolutions for longer
than I did... Anyway,
let's keep one of our regular promises -
to recap the vocabulary we've
discussed today.
Starting with resolution....
Sam: ...which in the context of
a New Year's resolution, is a promise
to yourself to stop
or start doing something.
Rob: Peer pressure is the influence
a group of similar people have
on you to behave like them.
Sam: Ingrained describes an attitude or
idea that has been done in
a certain way for a
long time and is difficult to change.
And merchandise is a word for goods
we buy and sell.
Rob: We also mentioned a hangover -
that's the sick, tired and
sometimes anxious feeling
you get after drinking too much alcohol.
And permeating describes spreading
through something
and influencing every part of it. Like the
vocabulary in this programme, Sam!
Sam: Thanks, Rob - and that's all for now.
Rob: Bye bye!