Name: Better Speaking Podcast ?️?️ How to widen your vocabulary
Uploaded: 2023-06-10T22:39:51.000Z
Duration: 11 min 46 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

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The issue that my parents had with me and my choice of profession was that they thought it  

形容詞比較級

was beneath me. They thought that I should have had a higher calling, that I should have gone  

into politics, and they were just purely simply disappointed in me.

talking there about the reaction of her parents to her chosen career. In today's Better Speaking  

we hear more from Iman, and as usual, teacher and trainer Richard Hallows will be with me  

to explain what makes her such an effective user of English as an international language.

Iman was born in the east African country of Somalia. While she was a student, her  

distinctive good looks were noticed by an American photographer, who asked her if he could take her  

picture. At first she said no, but eventually she agreed, and when she arrived in the United States  

in the 1970s she was an immediate success in the world of fashion modeling. In this interview, we  

hear her talk about her family's reaction to her becoming a model, particularly as Somalia  

is a Muslim country and many of its people are very traditional. Did her chosen career not lead  

to problems with her family, for example? Was she, as a Muslim woman, not supposed to be very modest  

and wear a scarf or veil to cover her face?

For one thing, let me make it very clear: Somalia is a,  

is a Muslim country, a hundred percent Muslim country, but we also have a, er, we have a very strong cultural  

identity. Somali women don't wear veils uh we have our own traditional clothes we cover our head but  

definitely it's not a veil, so we've never worn veils. I've never worn veil, l my mother has not worn  

veil, so that was not the issue. The issue that my parents had with me and my choice of profession  

was that they thought it was beneath me. They thought that I should have had a higher calling,

that I should have gone into politics and they were just purely simply disappointed in me.  

So it was just the choice of profession that I chose that they were not happy with.

even though Somalia is a Muslim country, it has its own distinctive culture and traditions.   

While Somali women wear a scarf to cover their heads, they don't wear anything which covers the face. 

They don't wear veils, so it wasn't the things she wore as a model that made her parents unhappy.   

It was the fact that they thought modeling was not a good enough job for their daughter: it was beneath  

her. They wanted her to have a professional job; in fact, they wanted her to become a politician. 

The issue that my parents had with me and my choice of profession was that they thought it  

was beneath me. They thought that I should have I had a higher calling, that I should  

have gone into politics and they were just purely simply disappointed in me.

disappointment in her choice of career, Iman went on to become a very successful and famous fashion  

model, first in the United States and then all around the world. So coming from a traditional  

African Muslim country, what does Iman herself think of the modeling business?

It's a very provoking business. It's all sexual business in terms of how the girls are photographed: they're  

supposed to be wonton and sexy and voluptuous and all that, and it was not something that went hand  

in hand with my upbringing as a Muslim girl, so there was that conflict and I think my, that  

conflict stays with me on a daily basis and this choice of profession that I have chosen.

Iman says that modeling, particularly when being photographed, is all about the model making herself  

and her body look sexually attractive. She still feels a conflict between her upbringing as a  

Muslim girl and this aspect of her career.

supposed to be wonton and sexy and voluptuous and  

all that, and it was not something that went hand in hand with my upbringing as a Muslim girl, so  

there was that conflict and I think my,   that conflict stays with me on a daily basis,

and this choice of profession that I have chosen.

studio is teacher and teacher trainer Richard Hallows.

Richard, Iman has been a very successful International model, but is she a successful user of international English?

I think she's extremely successful. I think what makes her particularly, uh, good, is she's got a very  

And why is having a wide range of vocabulary, you know, good?

it makes her very interesting to listen to.

Yeah, she's, uh, she's describing models, or what's necessary in a model, and she uses words: 'wanton', 'sexy', and 'voluptuous'. 

It's a very provoking business. It's all sexual business in terms of how

the girls are photographed: they're supposed to be wonton and sexy and voluptuous and all that.  

So having a wide vocabulary is, is good to

make yourself more descriptive and interesting as a speaker. Um, how can students develop this?

Students are always, always coming to me saying, you know, I need more words, I need more  

vocabulary, and it is a problem, but I think it's a case of organizing yourself and having a strategy  

which helps you learn more words more quickly.

And, uh, what are some examples of a way that students can learn?

Okay, well, if we go back to Iman and  we think about these words that hang together, this  

'wanton', 'sexy', and 'voluptuous', I think it's, it's, um, a very good way to learn vocabulary in subject areas.

There's a psychological theory that, in your brain, you have lots of little boxes; in each box, you have  

vocabulary connected to one, to one subject, and so it, it makes sense to learn your vocabulary,  

to organize your vocabulary in your notebook, and learn it in subject areas.

Well say, say you want to learn vocabulary, um, around, I don't know, say a school, maybe you want to build what we  

A mind map: it's also called a spidergram.

Basically, you've got the words and you link them together in a logical order, any order logical for you.

um, so maybe you have, um, 'subject', the word 'subject', and then connected to that you could have 'biology',  

'chemistry', 'maths', 'physics', whatever, and then next to that you could have words, maybe like, I don't know,

'love', 'hate', maybe, 'I hate physics', or, I don't know, you can organize it how you want, but to  

make those connections in your brain to help you remember.

to organize these words by subject rather than maybe just alphabetically in a notebook?

I mean, alphabetically, it's quite, it's a different system to then you've got a mini dictionary  

that you can refer to it, so it's another way, but I do like this idea of organizing things by subject. 

Okay, let's move on to a different area. What other things could you pick up on from Iman's English? 

Okay, well something else that she does which is I think very effective, is she repeats words, and she  

repeats structures sometimes, but particularly if we listen to her talking about Somali women  

wearing veils, she repeats the word 'veil' quite a lot.

Somali women don't wear veils. We have our  

own traditional clothes. We cover our head, but definitely it's not a veil, so we've never worn  

veils, I've never worn veil my mother has not worn veil, so that was not the issue.

Now if you were to talk like this in an everyday conversation, it might sound quite strange, but maybe if you,

if you're making some kind of presentation, something like that in business or, I don't know,  