The A to Z English Podcast A to Z Quick Chat 05 (Re-upload) | What are you afraid of?
In this re-upload, Kevin and Jack discuss the things that make them feel afraid. Let us know what you're scared of by sending us an email or leaving a comment on our website!
Vocabulary:
confront a situation or thing that you are afraid of
Outgrow To become too old or too big for something
To plague To continue to cause problems for someone or something
Paranoid Constant fear of something that does not exist
Irrational Illogical or unreasonable
Transcript:
00:00:02
Jack
You are listening to the A-Z English podcast.
00:00:11
Kevin
Welcome to an A-Z English quick chat. We're going to surprise each other with a topic for the day and see where the conversation goes. Check our site for a study guide with vocabulary notes and discussion questions, as well as links to our WhatsApp or other social media where you can join in the discussion.
00:00:27
Kevin
So, Jack, what? What do you want to talk about today? What's your topic?
00:00:30
Jack
Yeah. So today I want to talk about phobias, and I'm curious. Yeah, if you have any phobias and then I'll share, you know, my phobia.
00:00:42
Kevin
I I I mean, I'm sure there's things that I'm kind of afraid of, but I can't really think of too.
00:00:48
Kevin
Many big phobias.
00:00:50
Kevin
They definitely do not like bugs.
00:00:52
Kevin
Very much. It depends on the kind of bug, but yeah, those they that is definitely something I'm not not a fan of. At least it's not so much of A phobia exactly though.
00:01:06
Jack
Who kills the spiders in your family?
00:01:08
Jack
Then does. Does your wife kill them?
00:01:11
Kevin
I don't kill spiders. I save spiders.
00:01:13
Jack
Uh, you save spiders because they eat.
00:01:15
Kevin
Your friends. Spiders. Exactly. Spiders eat other bugs, so if I see a spider, I either just leave it alone, or if it's a big creepy one, I'll put it in a.
00:01:15
Jack
Device, yeah.
00:01:22
Kevin
Cup and take it outside.
00:01:24
Jack
Wow, OK.
00:01:25
Kevin
So like I said for for me this is a a tough topic because I'm not sure what I'm really like truly afraid of like phobia wise bugs is one of the big ones, but I've managed to kind of get over that a little bit actually.
00:01:42
Kevin
And the way I kind of did this was I'll tell a quick story here, but a bunch of years ago when I was a student in university, I was at a a party with some friends and some of my friends were older than I was, so some of them had kids at the party and we were just hanging out and and the kids were.
00:02:01
Kevin
Playing doing kids thing.
00:02:04
Kevin
And one of the kids, he was probably.
00:02:08
Kevin
7-8 nine years old. Something like this and I'm an adult. Of course. At the time I was like in my early 20s.
00:02:14
Kevin
And this kid's hobby was collecting bugs like he just loved bugs, which I still did not understand, but he just loved them. So we're hanging out outside, and this kid is running around in the backyard just picking up bugs and playing around and just doing doing what?
00:02:29
Kevin
That's due, and suddenly he ran up to me and he holds his hand out to me. And he's like, here. Take this. And I was like, oh, oh, God, what what are you going to give me? And I hold my hand out and he just drops this, like kind of beetle bug in my hand.
00:02:44
Kevin
And I'm just like like.
00:02:46
Kevin
Freaking out because now I'm holding this bug which I I do not want to be.
00:02:50
Jack
Right.
00:02:50
Kevin
Great. But ever since then, whenever I see some.
00:02:55
Kevin
Bug or insect in my house that I don't like that I don't want to deal with. I just remember this kid like, OK, so there was this eight-year.
00:03:04
Kevin
Old kid who's not afraid of bugs and there's me adult who is afraid of bugs. So like, OK, Kevin, be brave and then I do what needs to be done.
00:03:10
Jack
Right.
00:03:16
Kevin
For the bug, either capture the spider or smack it with a newspaper, depending on the bug.
00:03:21
Jack
If you he accidentally gave you what is called CBT, it's a type of it's cognitive behavioral therapy. And so if you have a, if you have a.
00:03:27
Kevin
CD3.
00:03:30
발표자
There you go.
00:03:33
Jack
If you have a phobia, one of the ways that they treat the phobia is by facing the fear directly head on. So if you're afraid of bugs, then they will make you sit near a bug or hold like ultimately holding a bug would be like the you've conquered your fear.
00:03:42
Kevin
MM.
00:03:53
Jack
Your phobia like your, that's the last step. The first step would be like, you know, a phobia is a pretty serious medical condition or mental condition. It's not. It's more than just a fear. It's like a medical disorder. So even people with phobias of bugs cannot even look at photo.
00:03:54
Kevin
That's the last step.
00:04:06
Kevin
Right, right.
00:04:12
Jack
Those of bugs.
00:04:13
Kevin
Yeah, phobia is definitely more serious. But I mean, we can just talk about general fears that we.
00:04:19
Kevin
Have for for today.
00:04:19
Jack
Yeah, mine. Exactly. I don't really have phobias that mine are not that serious, but I I would say my daughter has like a.
00:04:27
Jack
It kind of a a mild phobia because it's more than normal.
00:04:32
Jack
Fear of bugs.
00:04:33
Jack
So when you said that I was thinking of my daughter because.
00:04:34
Kevin
OK.
00:04:36
Jack
Especially when she was a little bit.
00:04:38
Jack
Younger she would just scream.
00:04:41
Jack
You know, yell for me. And I thought, you know, there was an emergency. And so I remember running and what's wrong. And then she's pointing to a bug and it's the smallest and most innocent little bug you've ever seen, like, not even like a big, you know, creepy crawly. Yeah. I mean, even smaller than that.
00:04:58
Kevin
Like a ladybug or something, right?
00:05:02
Jack
It's just a little tiny, you know, flea or something. I don't know. Like, just nothing. And or an Ant or something. And yeah, she really, really hated bugs and. And she. She doesn't like them.
00:05:13
Jack
Now, but yeah, she has kind of outgrown it a little bit. Did you ever have you ever had a fear of, like, flying? Did you ever have any sort of anxiety about getting in an airplane or anything like that?
00:05:30
Kevin
No, like I said, if you remember, we talked about this a while ago. The first time I I flew in an airplane, I was quite young. I was maybe.
00:05:39
Kevin
Eight or nine and I flew alone well with just my brother and and the flight attendants to help. But no, that wasn't the problem. Heights. I I like heights. I've gone skydiving. Bungee jumping. That's that's no problem.
00:05:50
Jack
Ohh wow. So heights is a big problem for me. I've got a I've got two phobias there, 22 fears that are kind of that have kind of plagued me or bothered me for the last like 20 years or 30 years.
00:06:04
Jack
One is heights, which is ironic because I'm very tall, but yeah.
00:06:09
Kevin
Right.
00:06:10
Kevin
You're already at a height.
00:06:11
Jack
If I if I'm standing, if I go hiking up a mountain and there's like a, you know, a Cliff and and and embankment.
00:06:20
Jack
I just I cannot get too close to the edge like I start to get my knees get wobbly. I start to feel dizzy and I feel like like if I get too close, I'm going to lose control and just fall over the edge like I just. And also I cannot.
00:06:37
Jack
Tolerate other people getting close to the edge, especially like if it were like my daughter or something. I'm super paranoid about those kinds of things and my daughter is not a young child. She's 13 years old. Fourteen. She'll be 14 years old soon. So yeah, it's it's not a. It's definitely just a.
00:06:57
Jack
In irrational fear because.
00:07:00
Jack
But anyone, anytime I get close to an edge or something, you know, in a high place, I do get a little bit lightheaded and my knees get wobbly and I start sweating a little bit and yeah, it's it's, it's uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable.
00:07:14
Kevin
Heights are a pretty common one. My wife is not very good at heights either.
00:07:17
Jack
Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like him at all. I'm not. Yeah, I don't need that. That kind of adventure in my life. I I used to think that I had a claustrophobia. And claustrophobia is like the is the kind of the opposite of.
00:07:25
Kevin
Fair enough.
00:07:33
Jack
Like, well, it's the opposite of open spaces, you know, cause a claustrophobia is being in a small space, like an elevator or a coffin or something like that. However, I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and had an MRI. And if you've ever had an MRI before, you're basically in a tiny tube.
00:07:55
Kevin
Right. I I haven't done it yet, but I've.
00:07:55
Jack
For about 30 minutes.
00:07:57
Kevin
I've seen it on TV.
00:07:58
Jack
Yeah. And I I fell asleep inside of it.
00:08:02
Jack
So there's no way I have claustrophobia because you. No. Nobody with with that disorder is going to sleep inside of a an MRI tube where a lot of people have anxiety attacks and panic attacks. Inside of those things, it's very common.
00:08:17
Kevin
Yeah, those are those are quite loud from what I understand. So if you fell asleep in there, that's you must have been quite tired.
00:08:21
Jack
They had. I had.
00:08:22
Jack
Ear plugs and a couple and like you know, kind of those like airplane worker, you know, yeah, your your ***** or whatever, I'm not sure.
00:08:27
Kevin
OK, OK.
00:08:31
Jack
Yeah, my other fear is this one is has actually bothered me for a long time and it's a fear of rats. I really, really cannot.
00:08:39
Kevin
That's OK.
00:08:43
Jack
I cannot look at a rat if I see a rat just run across the street.
00:08:48
Jack
I I have to go the other way. My biggest fear would be like a rat.
00:08:50
Kevin
Ohh wow.
00:08:54
Jack
Running over my.
00:08:55
Jack
Feet like I couldn't even I couldn't tolerate that. Like, yeah, having a rat just anywhere near me and I I kind of put mice in the same in the same basket. Like they're just disgusting creatures. They're so gross.
00:08:57
Kevin
Doesn't sound fun.
00:09:07
Kevin
I was going to.
00:09:08
Kevin
Ask what about other what about like gerbils or hamsters?
00:09:13
Kevin
Or or those.
00:09:13
Jack
My daughter had two hamsters and the first one died really quickly. I don't it was sick when we bought it. The second one lived forever and she lost interest in it after a week, so I became the sole caretaker of this hamster for like.
00:09:32
Jack
A year and I hate hamsters and rats and gerbils and Guinea pigs and all of those things are disgusting. They're just vermin, you know, they they eat trash and live on the ground and.
00:09:40
Kevin
Those burdens.
00:09:45
Kevin
Right.
00:09:48
Jack
Yeah, they're just.
00:09:49
Jack
Disgusting. And I I I just. Hey, I hate rats. And so yeah.
00:09:53
Kevin
I would say for for rats defense, you know that there's some rats that are trained to sniff out landmines.
00:10:00
Kevin
And so they're very helpful pets for that, for sniffing out landmines in countries that had had a lot of land mines drop. And so they're, there's actually some rats who have, like, medals of honor for finding many, many, many land mines.
00:10:13
Jack
That's pretty interesting that there's there are rats out there that have a Medal of Honor. Do they? Do you think they wear the metal all the time or do?
00:10:19
Jack
They take it off when they sleep.
00:10:21
Kevin
I I.
00:10:21
Kevin
I think they take it off when they go back to their rat home to their to their rat family.
00:10:25
Jack
To go back to their maize and and cheese, right?
00:10:27
Kevin
Right.
00:10:28
Jack
No, I I.
00:10:28
Jack
Know rats are really useful. They we we have Lab Rats. You know that they do a lot of lot of testing to to help cure diseases sniffing out landmines. That's amazing.
00:10:41
Jack
But I'm thinking more of the like sewer rat kind and so and and also I I they they spread disease, you know, like the black plague and and things like that. So I think it's it's probably just a long history of humans kind of.
00:10:44
Kevin
Well, yeah.
00:10:52
Kevin
This this is true.
00:10:59
Jack
Bad relationship with rats that that I inherited from my ancestors, I think.
00:11:04
Kevin
Right.
00:11:05
Jack
That's probably what happened.
00:11:07
Jack
But yeah, that's it, those are.
00:11:08
Jack
My 2, my 2 fears.
00:11:08
Kevin
Yeah, St. rides are definitely.
00:11:10
Kevin
The Dirty creatures that I that I I don't want to mess with, but pet rats. I I don't have any problems with.
00:11:17
Jack
So if you want, if you want to, you know, put me in a terrible place, put me in a hot air balloon high above the ground with a couple of rats inside of the basket. And I don't think I could think of a worse nightmare.
00:11:31
Jack
Situation than that so.
00:11:33
Kevin
Well, now I know your weakness is dark, so be be careful.
00:11:35
Jack
That's those are my feet.
00:11:38
Kevin
Come on for you.
00:11:39
Jack
Those are my weaknesses, yeah.
00:11:42
Kevin
Well, yeah, try and avoid try and avoid heights and and avoid those those sewers as well.
00:11:47
Jack
Right, right. So I have a couple more listeners comments if if I can. As you know, Kevin, we've got a a WhatsApp group chat and you go to our website, you can just hit the WhatsApp link, it'll take you to a form you can fill out the form and.
00:11:53
Kevin
Nice. So let's move to those.
00:12:05
Jack
Then join the group and.
00:12:07
Jack
And once you join the group, you can, you know, chat with me and.
00:12:10
Jack
Kevin and you can chat with other.
00:12:11
Jack
Students in the group.
00:12:13
Jack
That and you can also do the homework, the study guide, and you can post your answers up there if you would like, and we'll take a look at those and give you a little feedback or, you know, help you out a little bit and as well as the other students in the group. So it's a really cool community, and if you're an English language learner, don't be shy, just join.
00:12:34
Jack
Yeah. And everybody's really friendly in that group. So yeah, just come and chat. Just come and chat. So we did an episode a couple episodes ago. We talked about books. I believe the episode was called. What are you reading?
00:12:37
Kevin
This comment chat.
00:12:49
Jack
And Kevin and I talked about some of the books that we're reading right now and our our reading habits. And Layla wrote a comment about this episode. She said I have just finished listening to the newest episode. I enjoyed it because.
00:13:03
Jack
It was about books.
00:13:05
Jack
In my case, I prefer to read historical books.
00:13:09
Jack
And those kinds.
00:13:09
Jack
Of books which talk about cultures of different.
00:13:12
Jack
People, however, I read them in Arabic because I can't read the high level of English books, although there is there are tons of extensive information and there is tons of extensive information in English, so she said. Therefore in English I read only stories and novels which are suitable with my level and in addition I listen to audio books and read them.
00:13:34
Jack
At the same time, so Leila is using, you know, English books to help improve her English and her her vocabulary. Her. Yeah. Reading ability. So good job, Layla. Excellent to work and.
00:13:44
Kevin
That's great.
00:13:48
Jack
And we would love to get more comments from other listeners, so please send us your comments and we'll read them on the show.
00:13:59
Kevin
Nice. Yeah. Come and join the conversation as well. Yeah. So nice. Thanks for listening. Hopefully we'll we'll see you in our WhatsApp or other social media groups. Come join our conversation. See you next time.
00:14:10
Jack
Alright, bye bye.
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