Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 41, Day 4 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that is absolutely dedicated to improving your overall English, especially the listening, and increasing your active vocabulary. So let's not waste any time. Let's jump straight in with a phrasal verb to brush up on something, to brush up on something. So, brush, B R U S H brush. Up, U P. On, O N. To brush up on something, this means to quickly improve a skill, especially when you've not used it for a long time. So if you are an excellent gymnast, but then you take a very long break, a couple of years, and you don't do any somersaults, flips, backflips or twists or anything like that, not even a handstand. And you want to get back into gymnastics, then you'll have to brush up on those skills. You'll have to go and remind yourself how to prepare, how to properly move seamlessly from the preparation into the trick and how to land safely. You just have to brush up on it. If you are a polyglot and you have seven languages, but one of those languages you haven't used for a couple of years, but you're going to visit that country. Let's say it's Polish. So you are fluent in Polish. But you haven't been to Poland for many years, and now you're going. You'll think,"Oh my goodness, I am fluent in Polish, but I haven't used it for years. I'm probably a little bit rusty, so I better brush up on it." Here's another example,"My teacher says my essays are good, but that I need to brush up on my spelling." I can completely relate to that. My spelling is actually a lot better these days than it ever was in the past, but there are a few little problem words that always just sneak into my writing. Thank goodness for autocorrect. Although autocorrect can also cause problems. Have you ever had that? Sending someone a text and then it autocorrects a perfectly innocent word and makes the whole thing gobbledygook or worse still, makes it seem aggressive or just completely changes the meaning. I've experienced that many a time. Now, let's move on from brush up on something to an idiom not last long. To not last long. Not, N O T. Last, L A S T. Long, L O N G. If something will not last long, then it will fail, or be unsuccessful in a very short amount of time. So, for example,"I don't have any survival skills, so I wouldn't last long out in the woods." I always wonder if I was dropped in the wilderness with very little, maybe just a pen knife, what would I do? How long would I last? Would I be able to find food and water? Would I be able to create some sort of shelter and make the right decisions to extend my life for as long as possible? Or would I be able to create a fire in order to create smoke signals so that someone could find me? Probably not. I probably wouldn't last very long. I'm not Bear Grylls. Okay, so another example with not last long that is very relatable is if I have a lovely box of chocolates. If it's my birthday, perhaps, and someone's bought me a delicious box of chocolates or a lovely cake, then I can say,"That won't last long in my house. That won't last long in my house." It will literally be gone. It will be over. It'll be done very quickly because of all the little hungry birds in my house, my two sons and my partner. We could also use this to describe someone who starts in your office or at your company and you don't think that they're suitable for the job. You don't think they've got what it takes. So, let's say you're working in a school, and it's quite a tough school. The students are difficult, shall we say, when it comes to behaviour. And it takes a special kind of teacher to manage and inspire the students, to get them on side and to get them cooperating. Now if you have a new teacher coming in who is quite naive, maybe very gentle, very mild-mannered, who has no experience of working in any school, never mind a tough school. Then you might think to yourself,"Hmm, that teacher's not gonna last long. They will not last long. I give them a week. I bet they'll be handing in their resignation by the end of the week." Moving on, we have a verb, and this is suffice, suffice. We spell this S U F F I C E, suffice. Suffice means to be enough. It's enough. It will do what I need it to do. So, for example,"A simple"thank you" will suffice to show your appreciation for their help." Could you hear the sarcasm in my voice there? I was imagining a scenario where the neighbours have come around to help with some DIY project. And my partner has been very rude and come in, took one look at their work and said,"Oh you've missed a bit there. And that's a bit messy. Hmm. It's not very good." And I am flabbergasted. I'm so shocked at my partner's rudeness. This is all hypothetical, by the way. My partner is not this rude at all. So I would say to him,"A simple thank you will suffice to show your appreciation for their help." So a thank you would be enough. You don't need to start criticising what they've done to help you. They are not being paid for this. So if I am at my friend's house and I say,"I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry, but I'm so hungry. I can't concentrate. Is it possible for me to have a snack or something? I'm sorry to ask." And my friend says,"Oh, I'm sorry. My fridge is empty. All I have is a bit of leftover dinner from last night. It's a bolognese. Would that be okay?""Oh, that will suffice. Thank you. That will be enough." Next on the list is the idiom suffice it to say. Suffice it to say. Suffice, S U F F I C E. It, I T. To, T O. Say, S A Y. Suffice it to say. Now, you may hear simply suffice to say, that's becoming more common. But the full phrase is suffice it to say. Now, this is used before you say something before you make a statement, and it means it's enough to say this. So, it means that there is more information that I can give you. But I'm basically just giving you the most important part. This is enough information. You don't need any more information than this. For example, if someone has been caught with their hand in the till, do you remember that phrase? That was from earlier this week. If someone was caught with their hand in the till, and they are being called into the manager's office and there's a big meeting, and I was in that meeting, and I come out of the meeting and you've been trying to eavesdrop. You've been staring and putting your ear to the door trying to find out what's going on. You're very nosy. And I come out and you say,"Anna, Anna, what's happening? What's going to happen to him? Is he in trouble?" And I say, Suffice it to say, he won't be working here any longer." So, with that statement, I'm just saying,"Look, I'm not going to go into all the details, but he's fired. He's out of here. That's all you need to know. That's enough for you to know." Here's another example,"Suffice it to say, the company won't be hiring him after that disastrous interview." Last on today's list is the noun immersion, immersion. We spell this I M M E R S I O N. Immersion. Immersion, this is the process of learning a language or skill by using nothing else but the language or skill. So, really surrounding yourself and completely getting involved in that thing. So in terms of learning a language, typically, immersion would require you to put yourself in an English-speaking environment, if English is the language you're learning. So, you might move to an English-speaking country, start working in an English-speaking company, or attend an English-speaking school, college, or university where you are forced to function where you're forced to learn very, very quickly rather than dipping in or just doing simple tutorials. So immersion is surrounding yourself with that thing. When I was acting professionally, I used to do immersive theatre. So, this was acting in a very immersive environment. So, the audience would experience immersion into the world that we were creating. It wasn't the same as going to sit in a theatre, where you're separated from the action. In a theatre you sit in the seats and you watch the action happening up on stage, you are detached but in immersive theatre, you are a part of the world, as the audience, you are in, among the actors. The actors may interact with you. You are expected to play a role. And so for many years, I did this style of acting, this immersive theatre, where I would not have a script. I didn't have a script. I would improvise every day. I knew what my character was. I knew the world that I lived in, but every day we would just play and improvise everything. Everything was improv, and play with the audience and the audience would bring new things, new ideas. So something different would happen every single show. It was nerve-wracking and exciting and beautiful. Absolutely wonderful experience. So immersion can be fantastic. Here's another example,"High school education almost never uses immersion techniques." So that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the phrasal verb, brush up on something. This means to quickly improve a skill, especially when you haven't used it for a long time. Then we had the idiom to not last long. This means that you will fail or be unsuccessful in a very short amount of time. We had the verb suffice, which means that something will be enough. Then we had the idiom, suffice it to say, which is a phrase we use before making a statement, suggesting that the statement is enough, that it doesn't need any additional information. Then we had the noun, immersion, which is the process of learning a language or skill by using nothing else but that language or skill. Alright, let's now do this for pronunciation, so please repeat after me. Brush up on. Brush up on. Not last long. Not last long. Suffice. Suffice. Suffice it to say. Suffice it to say. Immersion. Immersion. Very good. Okay, I'm going to test your memory now. If I'm really thirsty and you don't have anything for me to drink because the water's been turned off in your house, but you find an old can of lemonade in your fridge and you say,"Will this be okay?" And I'm going to tell you that that is enough. What verb could I use? This will what? Suffice. This will suffice. Yes. And if I tell you that I have just started a new job, but I'm feeling incredibly overwhelmed and just totally out of my depth and I don't think that I'm going to succeed. I think I'm actually going to be unsuccessful in this role in a very short amount of time. What idiom could I use? I will not... last long. Yes, I will not last long in this job, unless I very quickly learn the ropes. Now, if in my new job, also need to use French to talk to some of our clients, but I haven't spoken French in a decade, I need to very quickly improve my French. What phrasal verb could I use here? Yes, I need to brush up on my French. Absolutely. And then a week passes and I come back and I say, It's enough to say that I am not going to be in this role for much longer." What idiom could I use here instead of saying,'it's enough to tell you', or'it's enough to say', what idiom could I use? Suffice it to say, I'm not going to be in this role for much longer. That's how well my French interview went. And finally, if I decide that my interaction with the French client was so bad that I really need to work harder on bringing my French up to a good level. And I decide to use a technique that requires me to learn the language by just completely surrounding myself with the language. What is that called? Yes. Immersion. Very good. Okay, so let's listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. Jane was excited about moving to Spain to start a new life as a teacher of English as a foreign language. Before she went, though, she needed to brush up on her Spanish, which she hadn't studied since secondary school. She took an online test and discovered she had an A2 level. Jane's goal was to reach B2 by the time she moved to Spain. That gave her six months to improve. Many English speakers moved to Spain with little or no Spanish. But for Jane, basic Spanish wouldn't suffice. She was moving to a rural area, with few English speakers so she wouldn't last long with simple school Spanish. She wanted to make Spanish friends, deal with administrative issues and integrate into her new life more easily. Good language skills were key. And as a future language teacher, she also wanted to inspire her students with her own fluency in a new language. Jane had heard that immersion was an effective language-learning strategy. So she began reading and listening to Spanish every day. At first, she chose material that was too hard and got frustrated because she couldn't understand. Her method started working when she found podcasts, videos and books at her level. Jane listened to or read Spanish every spare second of the day on breaks at work, in public transport, while brushing her teeth. She also found a teacher to talk to about the material she was listening to or reading. Her teacher explained new words and grammar from the podcasts and books to help her progress. Jane's immersion method involved other techniques too. She put her phone and computer in Spanish. She started googling in Spanish when she wanted some information. She even dreamt in Spanish. Her life was almost all in Spanish, even though she hadn't moved yet! Suffice it to say, Jane became fluent fast thanks to her total dedication to mastering the Spanish language. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it helpful. If you did, please take a moment to leave a like, a rating, or a review. And until next time, take very good care and goodbye.