Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you are listening to Week 27, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. The series that focuses on increasing your English vocabulary by deep-diving into five pieces every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. And then just for fun, we have an extra episode on Saturday and a bonus episode on Sunday for Plus Members. If you're interested in the benefits of being a Plus Member, then take a look in the show notes. Let's kick off today's list. We start with the idiom, all in a day's work. All in a day's work. We spell this all, A L L. In a day's, D A Y apostrophe S. Work, W O R K. All in a day's work. If something is described as being all in a day's work, then it's considered to be normal, or an expected part of one's daily tasks or job. So, if I say to you,"Wow, you've cleaned my entire garden in under an hour, that's incredible. And you've trimmed the hedges and you've pulled out the weeds. I'm so astonished at the amount of work you've done." But if this is something that you always do. It's quite normal for you. You'd smile at me and say,"All in a day's work. Not a problem. You know, I do this all the time. All in a day's work." Here's another example,"Dealing with difficult customers is all in a day's work for a customer service representative." Oh, that gives me shudders. I worked as a customer service representative on a few occasions in different companies, different types of companies. And regardless of the type of company that you're working in, doing any kind of customer service work is basically just putting yourself out there to be abused by customers. I just spent all the time being shouted at down the phone or face-to-face by disgruntled customers. And my hands were tied most of the time. I had a set protocol that I had to follow, that if this person comes in with this problem, I have to follow these steps. And I wasn't able to make any decisions outside of what I was allowed to do. And yet the customers would just continue to shout at me. So for me, it was actually quite hard. It wasn't all in a day's work. It really took its toll on me. So, I quit. Anyway, moving on. Next on the list is the noun affinity. Affinity. We spell this A F F I N I T Y. Affinity. Now you have an affinity with someone or there can be an affinity between two people or you will often see affinity for, or maybe even affinity to, but the word affinity means that there's a natural, like, connection. There's an understanding and a liking between two people or, you know, two animals maybe, or a human and an animal. It's a mutual reciprocated affection or liking or understanding. So, it's common to say affinity for but if you're writing formally or speaking formally, it's better to say affinity with, especially if you're talking about a mutual understanding or a mutual liking between two people. Here's an example. I might say,"I have an affinity with animals." I actually do have an affinity with children. I like children and children are naturally warm to me. There is an instant liking and connection between me and children. Any children I come across. It's like I'm the Pied Piper. Children just start smiling at me, and when I go to toddler groups, all these other toddlers come wandering over to me and just sit on my lap. And I'm like,"Hang on a minute. I'm not your mum." But they just have an affinity with me. Here's another example,"Julia had an affinity for music from a very young age and went on to become a successful musician." So, like I said, affinity for, you will see that often used, but if you're going to be talking about having an affinity for something, if you're really going for absolute top-notch, fantastic grammatically correct language, then you'd be better off using a different word. So, you might say a love of music or had a passion for music because affinity is generally a reciprocal two-way thing. Okay. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, it's okay if you do use affinity for, it's in common use, so let's just move on. Next we have an adverb and it is collaboratively. Collaboratively. We spell collaboratively, C O L L A B O R A T I V E L Y. Collaboratively. Collaboratively. Collaboratively. If something is done collaboratively, then it's done with others to work towards a common goal or a project. So, it's all about working together. Hopefully, you have an affinity with the people that you're working collaboratively with. There's nothing worse than having to work with somebody and you just don't see eye to eye, you don't like each other but you still have to work together. That is just an awful situation to be in. Here's an example sentence for collaboratively,"We need to work collaboratively if we're going to get this project off the ground. Is everybody on board?" OK, next on the list is the verb juggle. Juggle. We spell this J U G G L E, juggle. Juggle. To juggle, other than throwing balls very skilfully up in the air and catching them, multiple balls all at the same time, to juggle is often used to describe managing a lot of activities and responsibilities all at the same time and doing it in a very skilful way like managing to do that. For example, my life is probably very similar to yours. I am juggling work commitments and my own fitness regime and childcare, the people and the animals that I'm responsible for. It's a lot for me to juggle, but I do manage to do it. And people often compliment me on how present I am online, how much work I manage to produce. And it's because I'm able to juggle everything quite well. I've always been good at juggling things. Although I do do it to the detriment of my spare time, to the detriment of my health and wellbeing sometimes. I let myself down sometimes because I'm too focused on other people's needs and creating content. But anyway, oh, I'm sidetracking a lot today. Let's move to the example,"I admire my friend Helen. She has to juggle her work, family, and personal commitments in order to stay on top of her busy schedule." Last on the list is a noun and it is regime. Regime. We spell this R E G I M E. Regime. Now in this context regime means doing things in a very ordered way. So, it's like a system that is followed. It's very similar to the word routine, but a regime suggests that it's more strict. So, for example, if I say,"I have my morning routine. I like to get up early and do a quick yoga workout, a bit of a yoga stretch, and then I have a freshly squeezed orange juice before hitting the showers, and then I'll have my oatmeal breakfast, and then I'll head to work. And that's my morning routine." If I was to talk about my morning regime, then it would suggest that it's very strict and very detailed. I wake up at six o'clock on the dot. I'm out of bed by 6.03. I'm downstairs by 6.05. I do a very specific yoga workout that takes exactly 12 minutes. As soon as I finished that, I hit the shower. While I'm in the shower, I will brush my teeth and then I'm out of the shower and back downstairs squeezing exactly one and a half oranges into a glass and I'll have 50 grams of oats, a handful of seeds, and some a splash of milk, whatever. And that would be a regime rather than a routine because it's got this sense of strictness to it. It's very set and ordered. Okay. Here's another example,"We have a very strict regime here which we expect you to follow, if you can't stick to the rules, then you might as well leave now." Okay, so, that's our five. Let's recap. We started with the idiom, all in a day's work, which means all the tasks and jobs that have been done are considered normal for you if you're saying"It's all in a day's work," it's an expected part of the job. Then we had the noun affinity, which means that there is a natural liking, understanding, or connection with something or someone. Then we had the adverb collaboratively, collaboratively, which means working together with others towards a common goal or project. Then we had the verb to juggle, which is to skilfully manage many different activities and responsibilities all at the same time. And then we had the noun regime, a very ordered way of doing things, a strict system that should be followed. Okay, so, let's do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. All in a day's work. All in a day's work. Affinity. Affinity. Collaboratively. Collaboratively. Juggle. Juggle. Regime. Regime. Fantastic. Alright, let me now test your memory. My partner and I have always had a natural connection with animals. We love animals and animals just seem to love us. What noun could I use to describe this connection, this natural understanding between my partner and I and animals? Affinity. My partner and I have always had an affinity with animals. We just love the animals and they love us. And we've always wanted to do something to help animals because there are many animals out there that are in need. And so, we decided to set up a rescue. Now it was very difficult and initially we had to work together with other rescues in order to help the local wildlife population. What adverb could I use to talk about working together with other rescues to achieve this goal? Collaboratively. Yes. We worked collaboratively with other rescues and were able to build this functional rescue. Now, initially we were inundated with cases. It was quite hard. We had to very carefully manage lots of different animals and all of their needs. We had to balance the finances as well. There was a lot to do, but we managed to deal with all these responsibilities all at the same time. What verb could I use to describe this managing of many different things? Juggle. We had to juggle everything initially. There were so many cases to deal with. There were so many activities to do with running the rescue, but we were able to do it, especially because we were working collaboratively with other rescues. And so, they were helping us and guiding us and sharing resources, which was fantastic. Now we started to introduce new members of staff as time went on, but we had to be very strict. We'd put in place a system and it was so important that our new team members followed that system, doing things exactly as we had set out. What noun could I use to describe this system? Regime. Yes. All the new team members had to follow our regime to ensure the rescue was successful, but also for the welfare of the animals that we were looking after. Our work was talked about quite a lot in the local community and the local newspaper caught wind of it. And so they sent a journalist down to witness the kind of work that we were doing. This journalist was with us for a few days and by the end of it he turned around and said,"Goodness me, you guys get so much done, this is excellent work that you're doing for the local wildlife." To which I replied,"All in a day's work." So, let me recap that story for you. My partner and I have always had an affinity with animals, and so we decided that we wanted to create a rescue in order to help the local wildlife population. But running a rescue is very difficult, so we worked collaboratively with other rescues in order to get going. Now, there was a lot to juggle initially. We were inundated with cases and we still had to learn how to run the business, but we put in place a very strict regime. So, when we took on new team members, we could guide them to follow our strict regime. But it all worked out well and we were doing fantastic work. A local newspaper caught wind of what we were doing because everyone was talking about it and they sent down a journalist who watched what we were doing and he said he couldn't believe how much we were doing in a day and I just laughed and said,"All in a day's work." Okay, well that was my off-the-cuff story, but let's now revisit all these items in a very well-prepared way in today's storytime. When you live in a city you don't need a morning alarm clock! You are awoken by the rush of traffic as many people make their way to work, children laughing and shouting en route to school, the rubbish collection trucks out on their daily rounds, sirens wailing in the background. Sounds like just another busy day in the London suburbs, especially for the Smith family. For the Smiths, Rob and Sheila, life is all about juggling work and family, and they have perfected the art of managing it all. Sheila, a corporate woman, is always on the go. She's the head of a successful company and her days are filled with meetings, presentations, and deadlines. Despite her busy schedule, she always makes time for her family. She has an affinity with her children and will do anything to make sure they are happy and well taken care of. Rob, on the other hand, is a salesman. He spends most of his days on the road, travelling from one client to another. It's a demanding job, but he loves it. He is good with people and enjoys the challenge of making a sale. Despite the long hours, he always makes it a point to be home for dinner with his family. Their two children, Emily and Jack, are both under the age of 9. They are typical kids, full of energy and always eager to learn new things. They love spending time with their parents, whether it's playing in the park or helping Mrs Smith with her work. Balancing their busy lives by working collaboratively is all in a day's work for them. Sheila helps Rob with his sales pitches, while he pitches in with the household chores. The children have also been taught to help out around the house, making it a team effort. As the day comes to an end, the Smiths sit down for dinner together, devices are placed in a box and set away from the table and everyone is focused on conversing with one another. It is their daily regime, a time to catch up on each other's day and bond as a family. Despite the chaos of their busy lives, they always make time for each other. It's their way of showing love and appreciation. As they go to bed that night, the worn out parents look back at their hectic but fulfilling lives with gratitude. They think about their friends who don't cope as well as they do and who resort to using phone apps to organise their day, order groceries, book appointments, schedule social evenings and so on and so on. I must admit, if there was a way of getting 24 hours' work done in 12 hours I would jump at it surely there's an app for that! Did you enjoy that story? I hope you did. Now remember you can get more out of your listening experience by becoming a Plus Member. Plus Members not only support this podcast to continue and to grow, but you also get access to transcripts, a bonus episode every week, and vocabulary lists for the weekend episodes. So, if you're interested in becoming a Plus Member, check out the link in the show notes. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.