Well, hello! It's a new year! A new week, and a new episode of The English Five a Day series. Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. If you don't know me, my name is Anna, and I'm very excited to be kicking off 2024. I'm very committed to providing you with lots of vocabulary this year, and I hope that you will be a committed listener. In The English Five a Day series, I'll be giving you five pieces of vocabulary every day of the week, Monday through to Friday. I will also endeavour to bring you another episode on Saturday, and for my Plus Members, a Bonus Episode on Sunday. Whew! That's a lot of listening material. If you're not a Plus Member and you love this podcast and you'd like to support the growth and production, then I would very much appreciate it. For just$5 per month, you can gain access to those Sunday Bonus Episodes, as well as all the previous episodes that have gone before. You also get an email every Monday with the transcripts from the previous week's episodes and wordlists with definitions and examples so that you can take your learning further. If you would like to become a Plus Member, then just click on the link in the show notes. Right, without further ado, let's kick off today's episode. Number one on our list is a noun and it is life lesson. We spell this L I F E, life. Lesson, L E S S O N. Life lesson, life lesson. A life lesson is a situation in which you learn something that's useful about how to live your life. So, it's a really important lesson that will benefit you for the rest of your life. Did I recently learn a life lesson? Probably the biggest life lesson I've learned recently is that you really do have to take care of number one. That means take care of yourself. If you neglect yourself, then everything else eventually starts to fall apart. You can't spend all of your energy and put all of your focus on others and serving another purpose, you have to give some of that to yourself because if you can't function, if you're not healthy, if you're not happy, then you're not going to serve other people well. So, that was an important life lesson that I learned in the last few years. Alright, moving on to number two, a verb, to succeed, to succeed. Let me spell it for you. S U C C E E D. Succeed. If you succeed, then you achieve something that you've been aiming for or if a plan or a piece of work succeeds, then it has the result that you wanted it to have. I, for example, succeeded in launching and establishing this podcast. I learned a really interesting stat recently. A statistic. This podcast is among the top 5% of podcasts globally. Isn't that amazing? We've only been going for a year and a few months and yet, it's in the top 5%. I was gobsmacked when I learned that. But there you go. So, to succeed. Here's an example sentence."Alexa has been trying to pass her driving test for six years, she finally succeeded on the 15th attempt." Next on our list is an adjective and it is conscientious, conscientious. Conscientious. How do we spell this one? C O N S C I E N T I O U S. Conscientious. Conscientious. This adjective means putting a lot of effort into your work. So, I would describe myself as a conscientious person. I don't like to do things by halves. I don't like to give half my energy or focus to something. I like to do everything properly. Here's an example sentence."I'm so proud of how conscientious you have been. I have no doubt that you will pass your exams with top marks." Next on our list is an idiom and it is to be happy in your own skin. To be happy in your own skin. And we are spelling this H A P P Y, happy. In, I N. Your, Y O U R, although that could be replaced with one's, my, his, her, whatever pronoun. Own, O W N. Skin, S K I N. Happy in your own skin. So, this means to be relaxed and confident in your manner of presenting yourself and how you interact with others. You convey the impression that you have a clear and satisfying understanding of your own ability and situation. So, you know who you are, you're happy with who you are, and you behave that way; you have that confidence. It doesn't mean that you're brilliant. It doesn't mean that you're perfect. It just means you know who you are and you're happy with who you are. It's a great way to be. Here's an example sentence."My kids are so happy in their own skin that I have no doubt that they'll find their ideal path in life." And last but not least on our list is the phrasal verb, give up, give up. We spell this G I V E, give. Up, U P, up. Give up. To give up or give something up, we can separate this phrasal verb. If you give something up, then you stop doing something before you finished it, usually because it's too difficult or because it's bad for you, and you know that you shouldn't be doing it. For example, I would encourage anyone who is a smoker to give up smoking because it's really bad for your health. Although I know that giving up smoking can be quite tricky because it is an addictive activity. I really struggled to give up alcohol, although I have to be honest I did fall off the wagon again recently because it's Christmas and I do occasionally like a glass of red wine. I also struggled to give up milk chocolate, but actually I'm doing okay now. I just have dark chocolate and it's fabulous. I've very much achieved that goal of giving up milk chocolate. Have you given anything up recently? Okay, so here's an example sentence."Never give up on your dreams, believe in yourself and you can achieve anything." So, that's our five for today. Let's recap. We have: The noun life lesson; The verb succeed; The adjective conscientious; The idiom happy in your own skin; And the phrasal verb give up. So now, I'd like you to repeat each one after me. I'll give you each one twice. Listen and repeat. Life lesson. Life lesson. Succeed. Succeed. Conscientious. Conscientious. Happy in your own skin. Happy in your own skin. Give up. Give up. Fantastic. Don't give up on me just yet. Because we are going to bring all five of our words today together in a little story. So listen out for them. Here we go. Jake is from Carterton, a small town in the south of England. It's a quiet and peaceful place, with a lot of green fields and friendly people. For 3 years, Jake worked as a butcher in the local shop, where he cut and prepared meat for the customers. It paid the bills and the work wasn't too hard. He likes working with his hands and enjoys the interaction with the customers, but the job just wasn't what Jake dreamt of doing forever. He had a different passion. Jake's dream was to become a head chef in a fancy restaurant. He loves cooking and has a real talent for it. Ever since he was a kid, Jake was fascinated by food and flavours. He would watch cooking shows on TV and try to recreate the dishes at home. He would experiment with different ingredients and spices, and invent his own recipes. Jake loved cooking for his family and friends, and was always so conscientious when preparing his favourite dishes. People would always compliment him on his skills. So, why didn't Jake pursue a career in cooking back then? Well, that's a long story. It all started when he was 16. He was in high school, and was not very happy. He didn't like school, didn't have many friends, and didn't have a clear direction in life. Jake felt lost and confused. He wanted to do something meaningful and exciting, something that would challenge him and make him proud. He wanted to succeed. Jake thought long and hard about what to do and finally he made the decision to join the army. He lied about his age and signed up. He thought it would be the best thing for him at the time. It would give him a sense of purpose and adventure. It would teach him discipline and courage. He thought it would make him a better person. But Jake was wrong. It was a mistake. A big mistake. Jake admits that he made a bad choice. He had given up on his dream. He'd given up on himself. After two years, Jake couldn't take it anymore, so he ran away from the army and returned home to Carterton. He was determined to start over, forget the past and move on. He returned to his job as a butcher, because it was the only thing he knew how to do. One day a customer walked in and placed a large order for various cuts of meat. Curious to know why they wanted all these different pieces, Jake asked what they were planning to do with it."I run a cooking school in the city and this meat is for the students for their end of year competition." Jake's head started spinning. Maybe, just maybe, this was a sign. Jake wanted to feel happy in his own skin again, to follow his passion and not let anything or anyone get in his way. He went to the cooking school the next day and enrolled to start immediately. Jake had learned a huge life lesson, that no matter what, if you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything. He is now head chef at his very own restaurant, and his food is absolutely delicious!" And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I hope you found this useful. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.