Hello, English learners. Welcome back to the
Learn English podcast, the podcast that teaches
English in context so you can learn naturally.
On today's episode, I want to talk about the
holiday that we are going to have here in the
United States this Thursday. It is going to be
Thanksgiving. On today's episode, I want to talk
about the vocabulary that you will hear with
Thanksgiving. That way, if you talk to someone
from the United States. Or if you are in the
United States and going to go to a Thanksgiving
dinner, you will have the vocabulary you need
to have a conversation about this holiday. So
if you're interested in learning more about these
Thanksgiving specific words, well, of course,
practicing your listening comprehension, then
follow along because we're about to begin. Before
we get started, I want to remind you to look
at the description of this podcast episode. There
you will find a list of the words and phrases
that I used in the episode so you can take them,
study them, and build your English vocabulary.
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So if you are watching on YouTube, please like,
subscribe, and share this video. Now let's talk
about some Thanksgiving vocabulary. In the past
few years, I've done a couple of episodes on
Thanksgiving. I did a Thanksgiving food episode
and a Thanksgiving traditions episode. I will
leave links to those. I would recommend listening
to those episodes if you have not, but we're
going to continue with this series and continue
to build on these vocabulary terms. In the Thanksgiving
food episode, I talked about what foods are very
common for people to eat at Thanksgiving. I mentioned
that the Thanksgiving meal is really the key
part of the holiday. Thanksgiving is known as
a day to eat food. I know a lot of families do
Thanksgiving dinner, but some also do a Thanksgiving
lunch. My family, we tend to do a Thanksgiving
lunch because we're hungry. We want to eat the
food as early as possible. A lot of people do
Thanksgiving dinner, but just having that meal
with family is a really core part of the holiday.
It is the most important thing when it comes
to Thanksgiving. You are the host. So the host
is the person who is having the Thanksgiving
meal at their house. They are the ones usually
who are doing the most cooking and preparing
most of the meal. I know that my mom is the one
who always hosts Thanksgiving dinner for my family.
I am not the host. I am a guest. So if you are
not the person who's hosting, if you're not one
of the family members that lives in that house
that is hosting Thanksgiving dinner, if you're
going to someone else's house, you are a guest.
You are a guest for the Thanksgiving meal. Now
you might hear someone say that they're hosting
Thanksgiving dinner, but that's sometimes sounds
a little bit formal i wouldn't say that it's
extremely common to hear instead you might hear
people say that they are having thanksgiving
dinner and i know that sounds like the act of
eating but if you listen to the context where
someone says it i think you'll be able to understand
the meaning so for example let's say you're talking
to a co -worker and you're asking what their
plans are for thanksgiving they might say that
they are having thanksgiving dinner at their
mother's house like i am that means that the
person's mother is the one who's hosting so they're
using that have word to kind of differentiate
and tell you who the person is that is the host
so we're having thanksgiving dinner at my mother's
that means that my mother is the person who is
hosting and I am going to be the guest. Now,
if I say we're having Thanksgiving dinner at
my house this year, that means that I am hosting
and whoever I am inviting are going to be my
guests. So if I tell you that I'm having Thanksgiving
dinner at my house, that means that I am hosting
Thanksgiving. Now, you might hear this if someone
invites you to Thanksgiving dinner or asks you
if you don't have a place to go to come and join
them. So if you are my coworker and I tell you,
hey, we're having Thanksgiving dinner at my house
at six. Do you want to come by? You might not
understand that because it's not textbook perfect
English. It's not the very formal English. But
what that means is that I am inviting you. So
if you ask someone to come by. That means you
are inviting them to whatever location you are
talking about. So if I ask you to come by my
place, what that means is come over to my house.
Or I'm asking you if you would like to come over
to my house. So if I ask you, hey, if you don't
have any plans for Thanksgiving, do you want
to come by my place? That means if you don't
already have a dinner or a place that you're
going to for Thanksgiving, would you like to
come over to my house to have Thanksgiving dinner?
Now you can hear the difference there, right?
What I said is a lot more informal compared to
the textbook perfect English that you would hear,
especially if you learned English in school.
I know that I have a family friend who is from
the Philippines and she actually taught English.
She majored in English in the Philippines. She
taught English in the Philippines. So she has
very, very good English, very high level, perfectly
fluent in English. but she said that when she
came to the United States she was very confused
because Americans do not talk like how people
talk in textbooks. We do not use that very formal
English. I am never going to ask someone, would
you like to come over to my house to have Thanksgiving
dinner? That sounds very robotic. And if I know
someone well enough where I am inviting them
over to my house, I'm going to be more informal
because I have a good relationship with that
person. I'm obviously inviting them to my house,
so I'm friends with them. And if I'm friends
with someone, I'm not going to use very formal
terms. I'm going to use things like, do you want
to come by? Instead of, would you like to come
over? And I'm going to say my place instead of
my house. So just practicing and listening to
native English speakers will really help you
develop that ear for understanding what someone
is saying, which means developing your listening
comprehension to understand what a native speaker
is saying. If you get invited over to someone's
house, if you are going somewhere for dinner,
you usually have to travel to whatever that location
is. United States, we tend not to use a lot of
public transportation. A lot of people have cars
here. So when you are driving to someone's house,
you're usually going to talk about traffic. When
you get to someone's house, they might ask you,
how was traffic? Which means, was it busy? Were
there a lot of other people on the road? Did
you get stuck in traffic? That might have happened.
You might have gotten stuck in traffic. And you
can say that. We got stuck in traffic. on the
drive over here. also if you hear that if someone
says oh there was so much traffic you know that
they're saying that it took them a long time
to get there. i mentioned before that the host
for this thanksgiving meal usually is the person
who is doing most of the cooking. sometimes there
are people who host who really don't like to
cook or don't cook and they might buy food which
means that they are getting it catered. so catered
means that you are having food at your house
but you didn't make it usually a restaurant made
it instead and you pick it up you bring it to
your house and then you serve it for the meal
so if someone says that they're having a catered
thanksgiving dinner that means that they aren't
cooking it themselves but they're getting the
food from some other place I know I do have a
family member who does not really cook and she
tends to get things catered. Her husband usually
pays for catering instead. So that is one option.
People do cook Thanksgiving dinner. Sometimes
they also get it catered and sometimes they'll
also have a potluck. A potluck means that people
are bringing food with them when they go to the
meal, when they go to the gathering at someone's
house. In that case, usually you discuss ahead
of time what everyone is bringing and then people
bring that item with them. That way you don't
have just a ton of one food. You don't want 50
bottles of soda and no actual food. So usually
you talk about that ahead of time. When it is
time for the Thanksgiving meal, usually the host
will set the table. Set the table means that
they are putting out the food items and also
the plates and cutlery. Cutlery is the word for
things like knives, forks, spoons, the utensils
that you use to eat. So if someone says that
they need to set the table or if they ask you
to help them set the table, they're asking you
to put out the plates, put out the cutlery, put
out the things that people need so that they
can eat the meal. They might also have a centerpiece,
which sometimes is a floral arrangement. If you
go to a wedding, for example, there's always
flowers at the center of a table, and that was
a centerpiece. In the United States, if you are
not a vegetarian, then usually the turkey is
the centerpiece. The turkey is the main food
that is associated with Thanksgiving. It's a
big bird. It's a big item around 15 pounds, which
is about seven and a half kilos. And that's usually
why it is the centerpiece when you go to a Thanksgiving
dinner. Like I said, food is the thing that is
associated with Thanksgiving. Food is definitely
number one. I would say football is a close number
two. And I'm talking about American football.
NFL here in the United States. That is a close
second, but food is definitely the number one
thing. So when you're eating, usually people
have their meal, they have whatever food items,
and then they also have a dessert. I talked about
the food items and the dessert again in that
episode I did on Thanksgiving food. If you want
to hear specifics about the different types of
food, I would recommend watching or listening
to that episode. Usually, People do have a Thanksgiving
meal and have dessert and then kind of sit around
and talk. But a big part of Thanksgiving is going
back for seconds. Seconds means you take your
plate and you get another portion of food. You
get another serving, especially of whatever food
item you really like. Thanksgiving dinner tends
to be out for a number of hours when you have
Thanksgiving dinner. Usually the host will leave
the food on the table and people are free to
just go back and get more food. It's very common
to have seconds when you're having a Thanksgiving
meal. If you are someone who really likes Thanksgiving
and you really, really want to eat, and if you're
at your host house for a number of hours, you
might also get thirds, which is another serving,
a third serving of food. When people eat that
much, they might say that they are stuffed. Turkeys
for Thanksgiving usually are stuffed, which means
that you put some type of fruit or breadcrumb
mix inside the opening, inside the cavity of
the turkey when you bake it. So there is something
called stuffing. Again, I talked about it in
the food episode. But you will also hear people
say that they are stuffed. What that means is
that they are very full, that they've eaten a
lot of food. So if you've ever eaten so much
that it's a little bit uncomfortable. You're
not able to maybe move as freely as you want.
Maybe your stomach hurts a little bit because
you've eaten so much food. That is being stuffed.
So if you say that you feel like you have a lot
of food in your stomach, your stomach feels very
heavy, you can say that I'm stuffed, which means
I'm very, very full. I probably ate too much.
You might also hear people say that they overate,
which again is the same idea that they just ate
too much food. If someone says that they overate
Thanksgiving dinner, it means that they ate too
much food at Thanksgiving dinner. Some other
words that they might also use is that they indulged.
So to indulge is to do something that you don't
normally do and something that maybe is a little
bit bad. Maybe it's something that is very tempting
to do, but you don't normally do it. So for example,
eating a lot of food to the point where you are
uncomfortable, that is an indulgence. That is
doing something that you don't normally do, but
you do it for a special occasion and it's something
that you... Enjoy doing something that you might
like, but you might regret after. Someone also
might say that they were gluttonous. Gluttony
usually is associated with eating a lot of food,
with overindulging, overeating. So if someone
says that they felt gluttonous or they were gluttonous,
that again is just another way of saying that
they ate a lot of food. Now with turkey, there
is an urban legend. An urban legend is something
that people tell each other that maybe isn't
entirely true, but people say it like it is true
or it's something that's a commonly held belief,
even though it might not be true. With Turkey,
there is an urban legend that Turkey makes you
very sleepy. There's an amino acid inside turkey
that is called tryptophan. And tryptophan is
a chemical that is known to cause sleepiness.
Now, there have been actual studies that have
shown that there isn't very much tryptophan in
turkeys, not enough to make you fall asleep if
you ate just some turkey meat. But this is an
urban legend. This is something that people will
say. People will say that they had a lot of turkey
and that it made them very sleepy. It's probably
not the tryptophan. It's probably just eating
too much food that makes someone tired, that
makes someone sleepy. You tend to feel very tired,
very sedated after you eat a very large meal
because your body is trying to digest all that
food. That's probably what it is. But you might
hear people talk about... This idea of having
tryptophan with their turkey or the turkey being
the cause of them feeling very tired and not
relating it to actually overeating. When people
eat so much that they do feel sedated, when they
do feel very tired afterwards, they might use
the term food coma. A coma is when you are not
conscious. And sometimes this is because you
had an accident. Maybe you're in the hospital
and you might be in a coma, which means that
the doctors, the nurses cannot wake you up. They
can't get you to be conscious. But we use this
term in slang when we say food coma. So in this
case, it's not an accident. It's not some type
of medication that's making you sleep. It is
the food that's making you sleep because you
ate so much food. You are very tired. You can't
keep your eyes open. You're very sleepy. For
that reason, people call this a food coma. The
state of feeling very tired after you eat too
much food. You might also hear people look at
their stomach and call it a food baby. So a pregnant
woman has a baby growing in their abdomen and
they get a very big belly. Their stomach increases
in size. People will use this comedically. Again.
if they eat too much food if they feel like they
have a lot of food in their stomach they might
make a joke about how they have a food baby which
means that it's not actually a real life baby
it is the high amount of food that they ate that
is in their stomach so their stomach is expanded
and they feel like they have a baby they feel
like they're pregnant so if you hear someone
say this term food baby that's what they're saying
again that they have just so much food in their
belly When you are at Thanksgiving dinner, you
might also hear some words having to do with
this whole idea of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving
means literally to give thanks for what you have,
to be grateful for what you have in your life.
So people might actually go around the dinner
table and say what they are thankful for or what
they are grateful for. You might hear this. Maybe
if you go to someone's house, the host will have
everyone say what they are thankful for that
year. What is something good or something that
they are grateful for in their life? Sometimes
people do this. Not everyone who does this, but
it is tied to that idea of Thanksgiving, of being
grateful, of being thankful for what you have.
Another word that you might hear is blessings.
Blessings are things that you have in your life.
Usually people associate this with a religious
context. Blessings from God, which are things
that God has given you in your life. Good things
that God has given you. So I could say that my
dog, for example, is something that I am grateful
for. I really love my dog. She makes my life
so much more joyful. She brings so much joy into
my life. So I can say I am thankful for my dog.
I can also say that I'm blessed to have my dog.
And I could also say that my dog is a blessing
in my life. Those are all things that I could
say that have this whole idea of being thankful
for something, for something good in your life.
In this case, I'm talking about my dog. When
people are talking about their blessings, they
might talk about them in a heartfelt manner.
Heartfelt means to talk with sincere emotion.
So you are not just saying that you're thankful
for things or just saying, oh, I'm thankful to
be here. I'm thankful for the year. But really
being honest, really being sincere and sharing
something that is important to you. So if you
talk in a heartfelt manner, in a heartfelt way,
that means you're talking with very sincere emotions
and you're talking about things that are very
true. You're being very honest with whatever
it is you're talking about. So you might hear
this with Thanksgiving, but you can also hear
it in any other context. When you are talking
to anyone, you can say that they were being heartfelt
with you, which means they're being very honest,
having a very strong emotion, but a sincere emotion
and being very honest. And in the spirit of Thanksgiving,
I want to say a heartfelt thank you to those
of you who are listening. When I started this
podcast, I made it as a resource for my English
students, and I didn't know if anyone else was
ever going to hear it. So if you are a listener
of this podcast, thank you so much. Thank you
for listening, for helping us continue to grow
as a podcast, and I really hope that it has helped
you with your English. I want to remind you to
look at the description of this podcast episode
for the words and phrases that I used so you
can take them and continue to build your English
vocabulary. I really want this podcast to be
a great resource for you and that vocabulary
list can really help you when you are trying
to reach English fluency. It's very important
to build your vocabulary. So that's why I make
those lists just to help you and support you
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