Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna, and you're listening to Week 47, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series aimed at intermediate to advanced-level English learners looking to expand their vocabulary and improve their overall listening skills. So, whatever you're doing for the next 15 minutes, I hope I can keep you company. So let's get started with an adjective. And this is meticulous, meticulous. I like this word. We spell it, M E T I C U L O U S, meticulous, meticulous. If you are meticulous, then you are very careful and you show great attention to detail. If you have an accountant, you would expect them to be meticulous. If you are flying on a plane somewhere, you would hope that the people doing all their checks, the safety checks of the engines and the brakes and the landing gear, you'd hope that they were quite meticulous. And the pilots, you want them to be meticulous too. So it's about being careful and very aware of all the little bits and pieces. It's not sloppy. Here's another example sentence,"The argument is certainly convincing and is grounded in meticulous logic." Next on the list is the phrase to perfection, to perfection. Two words, to, T O. Perfection, P E R F E C T I O N. To perfection. This usually comes after a completed action. If something is done to perfection, then it has been done extremely well. So you might use this when talking about something that's been cooked. So the action is over. It has been cooked to perfection. That's something you might say as you present the steak to the diner,"Here you go, sir. Your steak has been cooked to perfection.""Oh, thank you very much. I look forward to eating it." It is very commonly used when talking about something that's been cooked. You might say,"Wow, that ice sculpture is fantastic. It has been done to perfection. Wow, I don't think my ice sculpture can live up to that ice sculpture. So good." I'm just laughing to myself because I'm thinking, I mentioned an ice sculpture, but I don't think I've ever seen an ice sculpture in real life. Maybe I have, maybe in a restaurant once or twice, but I don't remember seeing an ice sculpture. Anyway, let me give you another example sentence,"She rehearsed her speech to perfection, leaving no room for errors." Next on the list is the noun alignment, alignment. Alignment, we spell A L I G N M E N T, alignment, alignment. Now I know we had this before and previously we talked about alignment being lining items into a line. So lining items up, arranging them into a line or into the right position. You align them. Now this version of alignment is about arranging or positioning items elements in relation to one another, often to achieve harmony or agreement. Okay, so imagine you are organising a huge national event, in the UK. Often, we have the RAF do a little flyover when we have big national celebrations. The RAF, the Royal Air Force will do a flyover, and they'll normally release streaks of colour behind them, and they fly in a certain formation, often in an arrow formation. So one plane will lead in the middle and all the planes are perfectly positioned in an arrow shape. And then they'll release different colours so that they stream these colours through the sky. You must have seen something like this either in real life or on the television. And so they are in alignment. They are working together to achieve harmony. You may, if you run a business, decide not to work with a certain company or brand because they don't align with your brand ethics. So let's take English Like a Native, for example, I have been approached to promote different brands and different products. In fact, it's usually a daily occurrence. I get emails and messages asking me to promote different brands. Most of the time I say no, because those brands are not in alignment with what English Like a Native is all about. One that stands out in particular is a gambling brand. So I'm here to teach people English and confident communication. I'm certainly not in the habit of encouraging people to gamble, which I know can be life-changing. It can be devastating for people. And so it's not something that really aligns with English Like a Native as a brand. So I say,"I'm sorry. Your brand is not in alignment with English Like a Native, so no thank you, bye-bye." Okay, here's another example of how we would use this particular version of alignment,"The team's strategic plan demonstrated that their goals showed perfect alignment with the company's vision." Very good. Okay, next on the list is the adjective harsh, harsh, H A R S H. Harsh. If something is described as harsh, then it's unpleasant, it's unkind, it's cruel, or more severe than is necessary. So for example, if my son takes a cherry tomato out of the bowl of cherry tomatoes that I'm preparing for lunch, and I say,"Excuse me, young man. Put that back, right now. I'm preparing lunch." And if he doesn't put it back, but instead pops it in his mouth, I'm obviously going to respond to that. I don't really know how I would respond to that in real life, but if I responded in a very harsh way, then I might tell him to go to his bedroom, I might put him into bed and say, you're not having any food now because you disobeyed me. So you're having no lunch, no lunch for you. Now that is really harsh, especially considering my son is three years old. You know, he's regularly disobedient. That's what three-year-olds do. They test their limits. They test my limits, that's for sure. Anyway, I wouldn't punish in that way because for me, that's far too harsh. A child needs food to grow and develop. So that is harsh. It's more severe than is necessary. Have you ever been too harsh with someone? Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone being harsh? Or perhaps you've experienced harsh conditions. If you live in a country that gets extremely cold in the winter, maybe you've had some very harsh conditions where you live. Here's another example,"His harsh tone of voice made everyone in the room uncomfortable." Next on the list is the idiom to take a toll. Or you're more likely to say it takes its toll. So, takes its toll, T A K E S. Its toll, T O L L. Takes its toll. This means that something causes harm or suffering to someone or something else. So for example, I'm a squash player and I could say that playing squash for many years really takes its toll on the knees. Or I could say that doing YouTube for many years has taken its toll on my mental health. Oh, that's partially true. Anyway, enough about me. Let's have a look at another example sentence,"A career in ballet takes its toll on the body." So we say that something takes its toll, so causes harm, to something else, a person or a thing. Okay. So, that's our five. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the adjective meticulous. Which means very careful and with great attention to detail. Then we had the phrase to perfection, which means something that's been done extremely well. We had the noun alignment, which describes the arrangement or positioning of elements in a specific way to create harmony or agreement. We had the adjective harsh, which means unpleasant, unkind, cruel, or more severe than is needed. And we had the idiom take a toll, or it takes its toll. So, let's now do this for pronunciation purposes, so please repeat after me. Meticulous. Meticulous. To perfection. To perfection. Alignment. Alignment. Harsh. Harsh. It takes its toll. It takes its toll. Okay, if I'm being very careful with great attention to detail, what adjective could you use to describe me? Meticulous. Yes. And if I've baked a cake extremely well, you could say it has been baked what? To perfection. Very good. And if I'm looking to hire someone to join my company and I meet you and you have these wonderful ideas about teaching English and you have the same goals as me and our ideas really harmonise and we're in agreement about how to teach English as a second language. I could say that we are in... alignment. Very good. And if you ask me a question one day and I respond in a way that's quite cruel and, unnecessary. What adjective could you use to describe my response to you? Harsh. Yes, very good. And finally, if I'm telling you all about the dangers of playing squash for a long time, and I'm saying that over a long period of time squash can cause harm to your knees. What idiom could I use to replace causes harm in that sentence? Takes its toll. Yes, squash takes its toll on the knees. Okay, let's listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. Gordon was a dedicated pastry chef. He had spent years perfecting his craft, working in top restaurants, and training alongside famous chefs. He ensured that each cake he made was baked to perfection. His meticulous approach to baking had won him awards for his creations. And his famous bakery attracted customers from miles around. But his perfectionist personality made him hard to work with. He had already made several apprentices and staff quit in tears due to his harsh criticism. He had little patience for people who weren't as meticulous as him. He mostly found himself working alone with his desserts. But Gordon was getting older. Who would he leave the bakery to when he retired? He wanted someone he could trust, whose vision and goals showed alignment with his. After yet another apprentice ran out of the door crying, Gordon realised that it was up to him to change. He was critical of others, of course, but he was also critical of himself. And all that criticism takes its toll. So he started to be a bit kinder to himself. If he tried a new recipe and it didn't work out, he tried to be less mean to himself. At first, it was hard when your natural reaction is to criticise, it's hard to be kind, especially to yourself. And Gordon worried that if he was too gentle with himself, he wouldn't work as hard or produce as delicious cakes and pastries! But in fact, being kind meant working with less stress while still making delicious desserts. People around him noticed the change. He was more relaxed and easier to talk to. He eventually found a new apprentice, Donald. Despite some small disagreements, they worked together well. It looked like Gordon had found his successor! He could soon retire in peace. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it useful. If you did, then remember to mention The English Like a Native Podcast to your English-learning friends. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.