Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 48, Day 4 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that gives you a healthy, daily dose of English vocabulary and listening practice. Our aim is to expand your knowledge of English so that you feel more comfortable when you are communicating. Now, let's begin today's list. We start with the verb bond, bond. B O N D. To bond. To bond is to develop a close connection, a very strong relationship with someone. Now, when I adopted my kitten, he had been abandoned and was living in a rescue centre, and so he was a little bit nervous but also desperate to be loved by someone. So when he first came here, we all took some time to just sit around in the room with him, not being too loud or moving too fast, just sitting there on the floor playing with him in order to try to bond with him, letting him bond with us. And we were bonding with him, and we wanted to form a close connection with him so he would trust us and love us, which he absolutely does now. We have a very good bond. Here's another example,"We encourage skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby straight after a baby is born as this allows them to bond with one another from the beginning." Next on the list is the noun stag night, a stag night, two words, S T A G, stag. Night, N I G H T. A stag night is a party that a man has with his usually male friends just before he gets married. So if you're out and you see a group of very rowdy men, then there's a chance that they could be on a stag night. They could be out celebrating the man's last night of freedom before he gets married. Here's an example sentence,"We had a meal and a few drinks, then headed home at 11 pm. It was the most relaxed stag night that I have ever experienced." Next on the list is the idiom back and forth. Back and forth. Back, B A C K. And, A N D. Forth, F O R T H. Back and forth. You'll notice when I say it fast and becomes weak and we just have an/ən/ sound back and forth, back and forth. Back and forth means moving first in one direction, and then in the opposite direction. Back and forth, back and forth. Exactly the kind of motion that you would see when someone's on a swing. They swing back and forth. But this can be used to describe communication. So if you are in constant communication with someone via email to try and work out some details, then there'd be a lot of emailing back and forth, there'd be some back and forth going on. I email you, you email me back. I email you with another question. You email me back with a responding question. I email you again. Here's another example,"The negotiations went back and forth for weeks before we finally reached an agreement." Next, we have another idiom, and it is to rub shoulders. And this is normally to rub shoulders with someone or with a group of people. To rub shoulders. Rub, R U B. Shoulders, S H O U L D E R S. Rub shoulders. To rub shoulders with someone is to meet and spend time with them. And it's usually used to describe famous people or important people, people in positions of power. So, we'd often say something like, rubbing shoulders with the stars or rubbing shoulders with the politicians. Here's another example,"At the charity gala, he had the chance to rub shoulders with some of the city's most influential leaders." Now a long time ago I actually worked a charity gala, and this was a celebrity charity gala, and it was held in Greenwich in those beautiful buildings there are in Greenwich and it was this huge event. And it was a long walk from the entrance all the way to where the gala was being held. And so one of my initial jobs was to escort the celebrities from their cars into the venue and to their seats. And I had people like Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley, you know, just some of the average celebrities. And what I remember most from that night actually is I had to do all those steps, all that walking back and forth, back and forth in heels. My feet were not happy. In fact, when I got home and took my shoes off, I actually had bruising underneath and on top of my feet. How do you bruise your feet just from walking? It's crazy. Heels are just terrible. Anyway, I was rubbing shoulders with lots of celebrities that night. Last on the list is the phrase on top form, on top form. On, O N. Top, T O P. Form, F O R M. Three words, on top form. Sometimes you may hear in top form, but in the UK it's mostly on top form. And this means that you're feeling and doing things as well as you possibly can. So you are the best version of yourself if you are on top form. For example, if you normally go to the gym, feeling quite fatigued, and you're struggling to feel motivated, but today you woke up feeling energised and positive. And when you get to the gym, you do the best workout ever and you know, making everyone else feel motivated because you're just so full of energy and positivity, then you could describe yourself as being on top form. Your personal trainer might look at you and say,"Wow, you are on top form today. Fantastic!" Here's another example,"The athlete was on top form during the finals, outperforming all his competitors." So, that's our five, let's do a quick recap. We started with the verb to bond, bond, which is to develop a very close connection and strong relationship with someone. Then we had the noun stag night. A stag night is that party that a man has with his usually male, friends, just before he gets married. We had the idiom back and forth, which describes moving first in one direction and then in the opposite direction and can be used when talking about communication. We had the idiom to rub shoulders with people, which is basically to meet and interact with people, usually famous or important people. Then we had the phrase on top form, which means to be feeling and doing things at your very best, as well as you possibly can. So, let's do this now for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Bond. Bond. Stag night. Stag night. Back and forth. Back and forth. Rub shoulders. Rub shoulders. On top form. On top form. Fantastic. Okay, let me see how much you remember. If we are having a conversation via email and I'm sending you emails, you're sending me emails in reply, I'm replying to you, you're replying to me, what idiom could I use to describe this direction of communication going in one direction than the other? Back and forth. There's a lot of back and forth, isn't there at the moment? Yes, fantastic. And if I am meeting and spending time with lots of famous singers, what idiom could you use to describe this meeting and interacting? Rubbing shoulders with all the famous singers. Yes. Fantastic. And I am talking to my male friend and he's about to get married and he's going to have a party tonight with his other male friends. And they're going to celebrate his last night of freedom. What noun would I give to this party? A stag night, that's right. And then you would expect that once he gets married, he and his wife will want to spend time together so that they can develop an even closer connection and an even stronger relationship. What is the verb that I would use to describe this development of a close connection? Bond. That's right. They need to bond. And finally, on the wedding day, the bride and groom both wake up feeling their absolute best. They both feel very positive. They are healthy and fit and in the best frame of mind. What phrase could I use to describe them? They are on top form. Very good. Right, that's our five. Now the next step in this process is for me to ask you if you're watching on YouTube and you're not yet subscribed, please do hit the subscribe button and turn on notifications. It really helps this podcast to grow and continue doing what we're doing every day. And if you're not watching on YouTube, remember you can also practise your reading skills because I put the words on screen as I say them. So you can practise listening and reading all at the same time. So, if you're not yet a YouTube subscriber, then come over to YouTube, subscribe to the channel and enjoy the words in your ears and in your eyes. Okay, with that said, let's move on to today's storytime. Derek went back and forth about how best to organise a stag night for his brother, Steve. He had turned down invitations to stag nights abroad because he couldn't afford it. And going abroad meant time and effort. It felt like a lot of work for an event that's supposed to be fun. But that's the trend nowadays. You can't just go to the local pub, you have to go somewhere like Ibiza to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. Or more likely, low-level influencers and reality TV stars! Derek decided that he would resist the pressure to go to Spain, or Prague or whatever destination was cool. He would organise a simple evening for Steve and a few of his close friends. They would celebrate Steve's last night of freedom the old-fashioned way, at the local pub. Two weeks later, Derek, Steve and some friends met at The Red Lion, on a cold, wet and windy night. Derek started to wonder if Ibiza would have been a better destination. But, as he went into the pub, he soon forgot about the terrible weather. The atmosphere inside was warm, unlike the outside temperature! Derek saw his brother was on top form, laughing and joking with his friends like they were back at school. The group bonded in a way that they hadn't in years. They rubbed shoulders with people they knew from their town who congratulated Steve. Derek and the others didn't stop laughing and talking all night. When their night at the pub finished, they decided to go to a nightclub to continue the fun. Although that meant they wouldn't be on top form the next day, they didn't care. On the way to the club, Steve put his arm around his brother and whispered:"Thanks for organising all this, mate.""Are you sure you wouldn't have preferred Prague or Magaluf?" asked Derek."Nah, this is the best stag night ever." And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it useful and I look forward to tickling your eardrums tomorrow. Until then take very good care. And goodbye.