Rob: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English – the
show that brings you an interesting topic,
authentic listening practice and vocabulary
to help you improve your language skills.
I'm Rob…
Catherine: And I'm Catherine. In this programme we'll
be discussing quitting drinking and staying dry.
Rob: Right, so when you say ‘quitting’, you
mean ‘giving up’
– and when you say ‘drinking’,
you're particularly referring
to ‘the activity of drinking alcohol’.
Catherine: Exactly Rob.
Rob: But, what about staying dry? It's nothing
to do with the weather?
Catherine: No that's true. The adjective ‘dry’ here
means ‘no alcohol’.
And I, Rob, am currently having a dry January.
Rob: Ah yes, your New Year's resolution is to give
up alcohol for one month. Any reason?
Catherine: Yes.
I'm doing it in order to improve my health
and save some money.
And a resolution, by the way,
is a promise to yourself to do something
or not to do something.
Rob: Well they seem like good reasons. And for
now, we must keep up our resolution
to always start the programme with a question, so are
you ready for it, Catherine?
Catherine: I am, crack on, Rob!
Rob: OK, According to data from the World Health Organisation
in 2015,
which country consumed the most alcohol per person?
Was it…
a) Australia b) Finland, or
c) The Czech Republic
Catherine: Well they all sound quite likely, but I did
visit Prague once and I had a lovely time,
so I'm going to say c) the Czech Republic.
Rob: OK, well as always, we'll find out the answer
later on.
But let's continue our discussion about drinking –
or informally known as boozing
– and trying to give it up.
We all know that too much drinking can be bad for
us and that's why you Catherine,
have decided to quit – but only for a month.
Catherine: Yes just a month but it's a start and I might continue
into February.
But I'm seeing the benefits already.
I've managed to shed some weight
– most of which I actually put on over Christmas!
Rob: I can see. So to shed here simply means 'lose'.
And I bet your sobriety is helping you sleep better.
Sobriety, by the way, means ‘the
state of not being drunk’.
Catherine: It is actually. And I'm not alone: A study
of 857 British adults
by Dr Richard de Visser from the University of Sussex
found that after going for a month without alcohol,
62% of the people in the study
said they had better sleep.
So Rob, does that tempt you to become teetotal
and stop drinking?
Rob: Not me Catherine. I need a drink to help me
relax and be more sociable – you know how shy I am!
Catherine: Yes of course Rob! Well, maybe you should
listen to Catherine Gray.
She's the author of a book called
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober,
which she wrote after she discovered the negative
effects of going to too many
work-related parties
where she was just drinking too much.
Here she is speaking on BBC Radio
4's Woman's Hour programme…
Catherine Gray: I had a lot of social anxiety
and when I quit I had to deal with that.
I think I used drinking as a crutch, a confidence crutch
- it eased the way to go to big glittering parties and
stuff like that and
when I quit I had to learn real confidence in a way.
Catherine: So Catherine worked in the magazine
business which involved going to lots of boozy parties.
Drinking, she says, helped her deal with a
nervous and worried feeling that she had when she met
new people - she called it social anxiety.
Rob: Yes, and she used drinking as a crutch. A
crutch here is something you depend on for support
– and sometimes you rely on it too much.
Catherine: Yes and eventually she decided to abstain
from drinking
– in other words stop doing something that is enjoyable
but bad for you
– and she feels much better for it.
So Rob, come on, haven't you got the willpower to just
quit drinking for just 30 days?
Rob: Well according to Catherine Gray, that wouldn't
be long enough…
Catherine Gray: Experts say that it takes 66 days for a
new habit to bed in, so I would always recommend trying
it for 90 days. 30 days is the hard
bit before you get to the rewards.
Because after 66 days it starts getting a lot easier
and you start feeling better in yourself.
Catherine: Right, so it takes 66 days for doing a regular
activity - a habit - to bed in. And ‘bed
in’ means to ‘become normal and start
working properly’.
Rob: Now, earlier I asked you, according to data
from the World Health Organisation in 2015,
which country consumed the most alcohol per
person? Was it…
a) Australia
b) Finland, or
c) The Czech Republic
Catherine: And I said the Czech Republic. Was I right?
Rob: You were Catherine. Spot on, well done. Apparently,
14.1 litres of pure alcohol is consumed per
person each year.
Catherine: Well like I said, they do make good beer in
the Czech Republic – but people, be careful,
only drink it in moderation. Now Rob, shall
we take a look at the vocabulary we've mentioned
today?
Rob: Indeed. The first word we had was resolution
– that's a promise to yourself to do or
not do something. 'Catherine's New Year's
resolution was to give up drinking alcohol
for a whole month.'
Catherine: Yes, and I'm still doing it Rob – the plan
is to shed a few kilos and get fit. So for
example, 'Rob shed lots of weight when he
went on a cake-free diet!'
Rob: Really? I'd never give up cake Catherine,
but I could be tempted to give up booze as
I know sobriety is good for my health – that's
the noun word to mean ‘the state of not
being drunk’.
Catherine: Now our next word was abstain. That means
‘not do something that is enjoyable but
bad for you’. 'Rob needs to abstain from
eating cakes if he wants to wear his skinny jeans.'
Rob: Are you dropping a hint there, Catherine?
Now, our final word is actually two words
– bed in. It means ‘to become normal and
start working properly’. 'It took a while
for the new computer system to bed in but
now it's working perfectly.'
Catherine: That's brilliant because now we can go online
and find more BBC Learning English programmes at
bbclearningenglish.com.
That's all for today's 6 Minute English. We hope you
enjoyed it. Bye for now.
Rob: Bye.