BBC 6分钟英语 在餐桌上交谈

English from

the BBC. Hello. This is 6 min English from BBC, learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm back In this program, we'll be discussing the dinner table, but we're not interested in food.

We're talking about talking a

luck can happen around the dinner table, gossip, arguments.

You might meet the love of your life on a blind dinner date, or find out you're a great storyteller.

Neil when you were younger, did you eat with your family around a dinner table?

We did. Eating at the table was an important ritual.

It was something we did every day, and quite often, it was the only time we could get together and chat.

I think there's something very comforting about eating good food and being with the people your closest to.

And now I do the same with my own family.

The kids are more likely to open up, talk more easily about their day or something troubling them while they're eating.

Well, the dinner table is a space that families across the world get together at to not only eat but chat, and is often the only point in the day or week that the whole family gathers together.

In this program, we'll be discussing how people behave at the table, and of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But 1st, I have a question for you, beth.

In 2016, a couple from Germany won the world record for the fastest time to set a dinner table.

But how long did it take them?

Was it a 25 s? B 1 min and 5 s Or see, 2 min and 5 s Surely not 25 s.

Uh? I will guess. 1 min, 5 s.

Okay, beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the program.

Now, while eating with a group, you might feel that you need to act in a certain way because of the people around you.

Philip Perry, a psychotherapist and author, thinks we should try to be ourselves as much as possible.

As she told BBC World Service program, the food chain.

In any group, we find a role.

And if we're only in one group, if we're only ever with our family, we might think, oh, I'm the funny one, he's the wise one.

We might think that's who we are.

And then we go to another group, and then we find, oh, I'm the wise one.

And I think if you feel like you're assigned a role in your family, I just think take that with a little bit of a pinch of salt.

When you spend time with the same group of people, you might start to think of yourself as the funny one or the wise one.

When we say the one, we describe a person by using a particular and prominence characteristic they have.

If you're very tall, you might be the tall one.

However, philippa says, we should take these labels with a pinch of salt.

An idiom, meaning you shouldn't believe or do everything you are told or that's expected of you.

Now, over time, interactions at the dinner table have changed.

In the past, children were sometimes seated on a different table to adults or told they should be seen and not heard, an old fashioned phrase emphasizing that children should be quiet and always on their best behaviour.

Ambria Meadows Fernandez, a writer and founder of Free Black Motherhood, spoke about older generations reactions to children asking awkward questions at the dinner table, to BBC World Service program the food chain.

So it's a mixed bag. It's overwhelmingly positive.

But I also know that it is kind of a bit of a culture shock for them to hear my children ask the questions that they ask, because our children haven't really been raised with that line of demarcation between the adult table and the key table.

Ambria says that the older generations reactions to her childrens questions at the table can be a mixed bag.

A mixed bag is a situation that can have positive and negative aspects.

She also says that it's a culture shock for them, a sense of feeling uncertain because you're in a different environment to usual.

OK, beth, I think it's time I revealed the answer to my question.

I asked you what the world record is for the fastest time to set a dinner table, and I said it was 1 min and 5 s That was the right answer.

That's not very long, is it?

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this program, starting with open up, a frasal verb, meaning speak more easily than usual, particularly about worries or problems.

If someone is the funny one or the wise one, they're labeled by that particular

characteristic. To take something with a pinch of salt means you shouldn't believe everything you're told.

Children should be seen and not heard.

Is an old fashioned phrase. That means children should be quiet and behave Well.

A mixed bag means something

has both positive and negative aspects.

And finally, a culture shark is an uncertain feeling, because you're in a new environment.

Once again, our 6 min are up.

Join us again soon for more useful vocabulary here at 6 min English.

Good Bye for now. Goodbye. We know you love Six Minute English.

But have you tried our other podcast news review, where you can learn English from news headlines?

Or you might like Office English.

It's all about the English we need at work.

To listen, head to our website BBC learning english dot com, or search Learning English for work in your pocart player.

Six news English from the BBC.

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