Learning in the womb

What do babies learn before they are born? New tests have taken place to understand how unborn babies - called foetuses - learn language. It has been discovered that when babies are born they can already recognise familiar sounds and language patterns.

Rob and Finn discuss this research in 6 Minute English. They also talk about how babies develop an accent at a very young age.

This week's question:

According to a survey by the National Literacy Trust, which one of these words was discovered to be the most common first word for a baby to say - not including Mummy or Daddy?

a) dog

b) eat

c) bus

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Listen

here

Vocabulary

foetuses - developing, unborn babies

womb - place inside a woman's body where a baby grows before it is born

communicate - speak or talk to other people

bi-lingual - speaking two languages

fluent - speak very well

repetition - doing something again and again

accent - way of saying words that shows what country, region, or social class

intonation - the way our voice goes up and down as we speak

(SOUND OF BABY SUCKING A DUMMY LINKED TO A COMPUTER)

Rob: Hello, I'm Rob and this is 6 Minute English and that was a very unusual sound. Do you know what that sound was? Finn is with me today and I think he can help. Hello Finn.

Finn: Hello Rob. That was the sound of a baby sucking a dummy – that's the rubber thing you put in a baby's mouth to stop it crying.

Rob: Very useful! But it sounded strange.

Finn: It did. That's because the dummy was connected to a computer.

Rob: Connecting a dummy to a computer is a strange thing to do?!

Finn: Yes. It is part of a test to understand how unborn babies – called foetuses – learn language. That is what we are talking about today: What babies learn before they are born.

Rob: I know we start learning from when we are very young – but I didn't know it was from that early on! Shall we find out how much you have learnt in your life Finn by asking you a question? This is about the English language. According to a survey by the National Literacy Trust, which one of these words was discovered to be the most common first word for a baby to say – not including Mummy or Daddy?

a) dog

b) eat

c) bus

Finn: I think the answer is a) dog.

Rob: I'll tell you the answer later on. Now Finn, this study we are talking says babies learn language in the womb – so, inside the Mother before they are born?

Finn: Yes. When babies are born they can identify – or recognise – familiar sounds and language patterns. Ten weeks before they are born, they are listening to their mothers communicate.

Rob: Communicate – so they are listening to their mother talking to other people. And it is remembering and learning these sounds.

Finn: Yes. And if a baby's mother is bi-lingual – speaking two languages – the baby can remember sounds from both of these languages. But Rob, you have children, don't you? Do you think they learnt to recognise your voice before they were born?

Rob: That's difficult to know. After they were born they responded to different sounds but I don't know if they linked the sounds to a particular person. And now, they don't listen to me at all!

Finn: I don't believe that! How have they learnt to speak since they were born?

Rob: Through listening and copying people. And now my three-year-old son learns French at nursery and I hope that means by the time he starts school he will be very good at it – or we could say, fluent.

Finn: Très bien!

Rob: Excuse me?

Finn: That's French for very good! Of course, when the baby is in the womb, it is not learning words, it is learning the rhythm of the language. These are the patterns of the sound. It can hear when sounds go up and go down and when they are loud and soft. That is something I try to do when I learn a new language. I listen to the sound patterns of the words – the ups and downs. How do you learn Rob?

Rob: Through repetition – by hearing something again and again and then saying it. But here is another question: even though we both speak English we sound different.

Finn: Well of course, that is our accent – that is how we say words depending on which country, region, or social class we come from. I have a soft Scottish accent because I am from Scotland! One difference is the intonation – that means the way your voices rises and falls when you speak.

Rob: But it is also about the way we pronounce our vowel sounds – like a and o.

Finn: That's true. Some people think we learn our accents before we are born. Here is a little test. Can you tell if this baby is French or German?

SOUND OF BABY CRYING

Rob: That just sounds like a regular baby crying. Can I hear another one please?

Finn: OK…

SOUND OF BABY CRYING

Rob: Hmm. That sounds different but I couldn't tell you where he was from.

Finn: The first baby was born to German-speaking parents and the second one was born to French-speaking parents. They picked up the intonation in the voice before they were born.

Rob: OK, so the French baby's cry goes up – it rises - and the German baby's cry goes down – or drops - just like the intonation of both languages. Fascinating. Anyway, it'stime to find out how much you have learnt Finn. Earlier I asked, according to a survey, which one of these words was discovered to be the most common first word for a baby to say – not including Mummy or Daddy?

a) dog

b) eat

c) bus

Finn: And I thought it would be a) dog

Rob: You are right. Dog is one of ten words that babies in the UK say first. Well, that's all we have time for today. Please join us again for another 6 Minute English soon.

Both: Bye.

The death of the landline

A phone with a fixed line, called a landline, might seem like a thing of the past.

The popularity of mobile phones these days appears to be killing off the home phone, with four in five phone numbers being mobile phone numbers.

But how has this changed the way we live and the atmosphere in our offices?

Rob and Feifei discuss if this really is the death of the landline, and we learn some language related to telephone calls.

This week's question:

How many landlines do you think there are, for every thousand people?

a) 2.9

b) 29

c) 290

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Listen

here

Vocabulary:

landline telephone - a fixed line, or wired phone

white collar work - office or other work where people dress smartly

voicemail - voice messages left on a phone

text - SMS

following up on - following a message with another message or call

efficiency - fast, effective working

control - the power to decide

screening calls - checking who is calling before deciding whether to answer

buzz - busy, exciting atmosphere

Rob: Hello, I'm Rob, welcome to 6 Minute English. With me in the studio today is

Feifei.

Feifei: Hi Rob.

Rob: The star of today's programme is not Feifei. But an item of office equipment, which normally doesn't get much attention – it's the landline telephone.

Feifei: I guess we don't really give much of a thought to landline phones. Before mobile phones, we didn't even call them 'landlines'. They were just phones.

Rob: They were just phones – phones with a curly wire coming out of them, plugged into the wall. Millions of people had them. Millions more couldn't afford one, or didn't live near a phone network - or were on a waiting list to have one installed.

In India even today, in the age of the mobile phone, there are still 50,000 people on the waiting list for a landline. But now, all over the world, the number of people with a landline is falling, because people prefer to use mobile phones.

Worldwide, four in every five phone numbers are mobile phone numbers. In

India, that means there are 614 mobile phones for every thousand people. But how many landlines do you think there are, for every thousand people?

a) 2.9 b) 29 c) 290

Feifei: I'll go for b) 29.

Rob: We'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme. Now, the landline might disappear one day, but it hasn't gone yet. A big landline phone sits on many office desks round the world. For decades, a landline phone came with a white collar job.

Feifei: A white collar job, meaning an office job.

Rob: Exactly. English journalist Lucy Kellaway has a landline phone on her desk. It's big, grey and it doesn't ring very often. And even when it does ring, she doesn't answer it.

Feifei: A lot of people don't answer their landlines these days. You can leave a messageas a voicemail, but you don't know whether it will be listened to.

Rob: Well I think maybe it won't. Lucy Kellaway hasn't answered her landline phone for a year, or checked her voicemail. And she told the BBC what happened when she found her password, and checked her voicemail after all that time:

Lucy Kellaway:

Until about a decade ago, the office phone was the symbol of white collar work. It was the most important thing on any desk. But now these clumping phones sit largely silent. My own large grey telephone sits quietly on my desk and when it occasionally decides to ring I don't usually answer. Just now I decided to see what I'd been missing. It took a while as I couldn't remember my password, and then I found more than 100 messages were waiting patiently to be heard.

Rob: Lucy Kellaway checking her voicemail messages after 12 months.

Feifei: She had 100 messages. That's bad, all those people must wonder why she didn't reply to them.

Rob: Well, actually she found none of the messages were important – they were all duplicates or copies of messages she'd also received by email or text.

Feifei: Text as in text message – or SMS.

Rob: That's right. Let's hear what she found. Here's Lucy again:

Lucy Kellaway:

The first voicemail went like this: 'Hi Lucy this is Marcia – just following up on an email I sent.'

I pressed delete. The second: 'Hello Lucy, just a quick call, I'm from such-and-such, we just wanted to update our contact details'. And on it went. All either useless or duplicates of information I got by email or text. By not answering the phone for a year I'd lost nothing and gained much in terms of efficiency and control. It has allowed me to talk only to the people I want to talk to, at a time that suits me.

Feifei: Hmm, so people were just emailing her and then following up on the emails with a call to her landline. Sometimes if people don't answer an email, I follow it up with a phone call as well.

Rob: So maybe Lucy doesn't answer her emails either! She says not answering her landline means she's gained in efficiency and control.

Feifei: She's more efficient because she says it doesn't interrupt her work.

Rob: And in control because she only talks to people she wants to talk to, at a time when she wants to talk.

Feifei: I agree with her, I like to screen calls.

Rob: Screening calls – you like to check who's calling and decide whether to answer? I hope you don't do that to me!

Feifei: You'll never know! But really, email and texting is more private. I don't like talking on the phone in a busy office.

Rob: Well lots of people agree with you, Feifei. But although she doesn't answer hers,

Lucy Kellaway misses the atmosphere of a busy office. She explains why.

Lucy Kellaway:

The death of the landline may be better for us individually but it's worse for the bonds between us. The saddest thing is what the decline has done to the atmosphere in offices. There are no noisy phones creating buzz and urgency. Once upon a time I found these calls annoying but now the door into the private lives of my workmates is closed. I wish I could open it again.

Feifei: She's a journalist, so I imagine her newspaper office used to be very noisy, with lots of phones ringing and urgent phone conversations. That must have been an exciting atmosphere.

Rob: Yes, you heard she used the word 'buzz' for that exciting atmosphere. But she also says some of the calls were annoying.

Feifei: And it sounds like they weren't all about important newspaper business, because she mentioned hearing about her colleagues' private lives.

Rob: Okay so now to our question. Earlier I asked you about landline phones in India.

How many landlines are there for each thousand people?

Feifei: And I said 29.

Rob: And you were right. The answer is 29 landlines for every thousand people. Well, we're out of time. Please join us again soon for 6 Minute English from

bbclearningenglish.

Both: Bye.

Computer glasses

 

Would you wear a computer on your face?

'Wearable tech', or technology you can wear, is one of the newest areas in the world of computing.

Google has released a controversial product which works like a smartphone, but is worn on your face like a pair of glasses.

Finn and Neil discuss Google Glass and other wearable tech in the programme.

 This week's question:

In which action movie (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) did a character have special eyes that were like computers which gave information about the world around him?

a) Robocop

b) The Terminator

c) Total Recall

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Listen

here

Finn: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Finn and with me is Neil.

Neil: Hello.

Finn: And, we have a technology theme today – Neil, you carry a smartphone, don't you?

Neil: Yes – my phone can take photos and search the internet; I can watch videos, send

messages and even… hang on (phone rings)

Finn: Even make phone calls?

Neil: Sorry about that.

Finn: Very good. And – I can see that you are wearing a very fine pair of glasses.

Neil: Why thank you. They do make me quite… handsome, don't you think?

Finn: Of course. But how would you like to combine the two things – put them together?

Neil: Combine my smartphone and glasses?

Finn: That's what Google hope people will do. Their new product Google Glass is a kind of small computer you wear on your face.

Neil: Yes, several companies are now developing wearable tech – that's technology you

can wear – just like my glasses. With Google Glass, when you wear them you can see the real world, as normal, but also a small kind of computer screen, hanging in space…

Finn: Interesting, isn't it? And it makes me think of an action movie. Neil, which action

movie character had special eyes that were like computers – giving information about the world around him?

Neil: That's a difficult question. I'm not sure, science-fiction is not my favourite type of

movie. I will say, though, Terminator.

Finn: Ok, you're not a science fiction fan. We'll find out at the end of the programme if that was right. First, let's take a closer look at these specs – or glasses - themselves.

Neil: We don't have a pair, but our BBC colleague Rory Cellan-Jones went to Google to try a pair out. Listen carefully - which three different things does he do with them?

BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones:

Ok Glass. Take a picture! There, I've got a picture of the cameraman. I'm going to go back. OK

Glass. Let's record a video. I'm now recording everybody that's in this room. And I'm going to stop that. How do I say 'thank you for the flowers' in Japanese? Hana arigatou gozaimashita. Excellent, so I can now speak Japanese via these glasses.

Finn: So, which different things did Rory Cellan-Jones do?

Neil: Did you hear them? Number one - he took a picture:

BBC technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones:

...

Neil: He learned how to say a phrase in Japanese.

Finn: Very good, yes. Neil, I know you speak Japanese, what was the phrase?

Neil: Oh right. It was: hana arigatou gozaimashita.

Finn: Wonderful pronunciation.

Google Glass:

Hana arigatou gozaimashita.

Finn: Which means 'thank you for the flowers'. But anyway let's get back to English!

Neil: With all the things these glasses can do, some people find them creepy – a bit

strange and scary.

Finn: Yes, because you can use them while walking along the street, for example, nobody will know what you're doing, and some people are worried that they might be used to find out information about their private, or personal lives.

Neil: Some are concerned about drivers using the glasses – saying it could be dangerous

when driving.

Finn: And casinos – places where people play games – like card games – to win money,

are concerned they could be used to cheat. Anyway, what do you think about them

Neil?

Neil: I have to say I don't like the idea.

Finn: OK, why?

Neil: Because I like to be separate from technology sometimes. I'm worried that my brain will stop working if I have a computer on my head.

Finn: If there's a computer in your head, you might become a cyborg, which is part man, part machine. Which takes me back to the question I asked you earlier, what was the

name of the action movie where there was a character with a robot eye?

Neil: I said Terminator.

Finn: That was absolutely correct, very good. The Terminator with 'Terminator vision'. So, what do you think of Google Glass and wearable tech in general? Let us know on the

BBC Learning English Facebook page. Now, Neil, could you remind us of some of

today's language?

Neil: smartphone - a phone that can be used as a small computer 

to combine - to join two or more things together to become one new thing

wearable tech - technology you can wear

specs - (slang) glasses; short for 'spectacles'

creepy - strange and scary

private - personal; only for one person or group

casino - a place where people go to gamble

cyborg - a being with both human and robot parts ('cybernetic organism')

Finn: OK that's it for this programme. Do join us again soon for more 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

Both: Bye.

Quarter-life crisis

Is he angry or maybe suffering from a quarter-life crisis?

Callum and Kate learn about the expression "quarter-life crisis" and how it compares to the more well-known "mid-life crisis".

Are they the same thing or do the young have different crises to the middle-aged?

This week's question

According to a recent survey held in Britain when does middle-age begin?

a: 35 years old

b: 40 years old

c: 45 years old

Listen out for the answer in the programme

Listen

here

Vocabulary:

a mid-life crisis - anxiety and depression that affects some people in their 40s or 50s as they become worried about getting old and losing their youth

to be status conscious - to want to have a high material standard of living by, for example, owning the latest gadgets and wearing fashionable clothes

student debt - the money that young people owe from the loans they took out to pay for their higher education

competitive market job - a situation where there are more qualified people looking for jobs than there are jobs available

Callum: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Callum Robertson and with me today is Kate. Hello Kate.

Kate: Hello Callum.

Callum: Now today a subject which I am far too old to know anything about and that's a quarter-life crisis. Are you familiar with this term Kate?

Kate: Yes, I think I have heard it. Though there is a much more common expression

'a mid-life crisis'

Callum: Yes, I'm more familiar with that expression too! But quarter-life crises was a new one for me, I only heard it for the first time this weekend just gone. Today we'll be learning a bit more about this expression. But first, as always, a question. There was a recent survey which asked people in Britain when they thought middle-age began. What did the survey say? Does middle-age begin at …

a: 35 years old?

b: 40 years old?

c: 45 years old ?

Kate?

Kate: Well I think people tend to think they're staying younger much longer these days. So I'm going to go for c: 45 years old.

Callum: We'll find out if you're right later on.

What is a quarter-life crisis? Well this phrase comes from a more established phrase, which we were talking about before, a mid-life crisis. So first, let's look at that phrase. Kate, what can you tell us about the meaning of that phrase – a mid-life crisis?

Kate: Well, a mid-life crisis describes the emotions of someone who is in their 40s or

50s and who realises that they are more than half way through their life. In other words they are beginning to realise that they are getting old and are closer to death than to birth. For some this causes them to become depressed or to look for ways to recapture their youth, to be young again. So you might see a middle-aged man buying a leather jacket and a motorbike, or leaving his wife for a much younger woman. These are some examples of what people have described as symptoms of a mid-life crisis. But essentially is a worry and fear of getting old.

Callum: From your examples there it seems that it's only something that affects men. Is that right?

Kate: No, I think women are affected by it too. I think everyone worries about getting old and becoming middle-aged and never going to be young again.

Callum: So if that's a mid-life crisis, what's a quarter-life crisis? Damian Barr has written a book about the subject and in an interview with the BBC he explains what it is.

Damian Barr

It's that kind of, you know, people asking who they are, where they're going that are doing it in their twenties rather than their forties. A lot of people being really depressed,very anxious and very kind of status conscious in a way that their parents certainly were not.

Callum: Kate, what was he saying there?

Kate: He was saying that it was something that happened in people's 20s rather than 40s. Young people being worried about who they are and what they were doing.

Callum: He also mentioned that people were 'status conscious in a way that there parents weren't'. What does he mean by that, being 'status conscious'?

Kate: I think he was saying that young people feel a pressure that their parents didn't

- a pressure to have the latest gadgets or most fashionable clothes, for example.

These things seem to be more important now than in the past. Young people are more 'status conscious'. These material things are seen to give status.

Callum: Let's listen again

Damian Barr

....

Callum: Apart from material pressures, what are other reasons for a quarter-life crisis?

Here's Damian Barr again. How many different things does he mention?

Damian Barr

I think it's kind of caused by student debt, unaffordable property and a really competitive jobs market in the recession.

Callum: A few reasons there, could you run over them again for us?

Kate: Oh dear! Yes, he mentioned three things: the first was student debt – the money that young people owe from the loans they took out to pay for university education. The second thing was unaffordable property – so it's very difficult for young people to afford to buy a house or flat. The third thing was a very competitive job market in the recession. So lots of qualified people are all looking for jobs and there just aren't that many jobs around.

Callum: Let's listen again.

Damian Barr

.....

Callum: Oh dear, it all sounds so depressing!

Kate: Yes, doesn't it?

Callum: But is this something new? Is this different from a mid-life crisis or is it just the same thing but 20 years earlier?

Kate: Well no, I actually think they're very different things. I think begin in your 20s is a very stressful time. I mean I remember being very worried about the job market and finding a place to live. And I think a lot of my friends at the time felt the same. And I think actually it's getting worse for the young people now.

Callum: Oh dear, how things have changed. I mean, there was always pressures but I don't think when I was in my 20s I had the same kind of pressure that I think young people feel themselves under these days. Just time now for the answer to today's question. According to a recent survey in Britain, when does middle age begin? Is it …

a: at 35?

b: at 40?

c: at 45?

Kate, you said?

Kate: Well no one likes to think of themselves as middle-aged really, so I went for the oldest option – c: 45 years old.

Callum: Well, in fact the answer, according to this survey was a: 35 years old.

Kate: Really? Gosh that seems very young to be middle-aged.

Callum: I know, I don't feel middle-aged now myself and I'm, what, nearly 100.

That's all we have time for today, but do join us again next time for another 6 Minute English. Good bye.

Kate: Goodbye.

Multi-million dollar sound

What makes this instrument so valuable?

Violins made by the Stradivari family in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are worth millions of US dollars. Why are they so special?

In this week's 6 Minute English, Alice and Neil talk about quality of sound and some of the language used to describe it.

 Alice asks Neil which language the word timbre comes from. Is it:

a) Russian

b) Italian

c) French

Listen out for the answer at the end of the programme.

Listen

here

Alice: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English: the programme in which we talk about a story in the news and learn some vocabulary while we’re doing it. I’m Alice and joining me today is Neil. Hi there, Neil.

Neil: Hi Alice.

Alice: Now, Neil I know you’re very musical – but can you spot a multi-milliondollar violin when you hear one?

Neil: A multi-million dollar violin? So, that’s a musical instrument which costs several million US dollars? Who’s got that kind of money to spend on an instrument?

Alice: Somebody with lots and lots of money. When we talk about dollars in English, they usually mean US dollars. Anyway, let's listen to these two violins, and then tell me which sound you like the best, and which do you think is the most valuable?

Neil: OK.

The same musical scale played on two different violins

Alice: So, did you like the sound of the first violin, or the second?

Neil: Well, my perfect musical ears are telling me the second violin was the multi-million dollar one.

Alice: And was that the one you liked best?

Neil: Oh yes. Of course!

Alice: Good taste. Well done. One of the qualities which makes the sound so wonderful is what’s called timbre – the quality of the sound. And that leads me to another question, Neil. Which language does the word timbre come from originally? Is it:

a) Russian

b) Italian

c) French

Neil: Hmm. Definitely not Russian. I would be tempted to say French but most musical expressions come from Italian. So I’m going to say Italian.

Alice: Well, as usual we won’t find out the answer until the end of the programme. Let’s talk some more about violins. What makes one violin sound so much better than another?

Neil: I like that very mellow sound – a sound that that is sweet and rich.

Alice: Mellow. We talk about coffee being mellow, rich and sweet - and sound can be mellow too. What makes an instrument top of the range? The best that is on offer. Here’s Professor Tasmin Little from the Royal Academy of Music, who is also a concert violinist – a soloist.

Professor Tasmin Little:

There are two most famous and great makers. Stradivari is the most famous, but also there is Guarneri del Gesu who is also very favoured by top soloists, perhaps the instruments are more mellow in sound. But certainly, there is nothing to beat a Stradivarius, because they are just really the top of the range instruments. And I'm very, very fortunate to have this instrument on loan from the Royal Academy of Music.

Alice: So Professor Tamsin Little says there is nothing to beat a Stradivarius –it’s the top of the range.

Neil: And she’s very fortunate – very lucky to have one on loan. That means she’s borrowing the violin to play at concerts.

Alice: Yeah – as some Stradivarius violins cost several million dollars, I don’t think many musicians would be able to afford them themselves.

Neil: And what is it about violins made by the Stradivari family in 17th and 18thcenturies that makes them so special?

Alice: As we’ve heard that word before, they have great timbre – the sound they make reverberates.

Neil: Reverberates – it echoes back at you. A really rich, deep sound. How did violin makers like the Stradivari family give violins that special sound quality?

Alice: Professor Little says that’s the billion dollar question. It means that’s the question that everybody would like answered. If we could only understand what gives these violins their very special quality, people would have copied the technique ages ago:

Professor Tasmin Little:

That’s the billion dollar question, isn't it – it's one that has foxed people for centuries.

People have come up with all sorts of explanations. There are a few, such as: at the point when Stradivarius was choosing his wood, there had been a particularly cold spell of temperature and the trees had grown very slowly and, therefore, with more density.

Apparently he used to go into forests and tap on the trees and listen to how reverberant they were and, according to the results, he would chop them down or not.

Alice: So it’s believed that violin makers chose the wood they used to make the violins for their reverberant qualities. There had been a cold spell, and the trees had grown slowly, so the wood was more dense.

Neil: Professor Tasmin Little says that’s one possibility why the violins are so special.

Alice: Now, before we go, Neil - have you had a think about the origins of the word timbre? I asked if the word came originally from French, Russian or Italian.

Neil: Well I said Italian, but judging by the way you’ve been pronouncing that word, I think I’m probably wrong!

Alice: You’re right. It’s French. Well, well done anyway. Now, time for a recap of some of the words we heard in today’s programme.

Neil: They are:

multi-million – several million

timbre – quality of the sound

mellow – rich and sweet

top of the range - best

reverberates – echoes back

the billion dollar question - the question everyone wants to know the answer to

Alice: Join us again soon for more 6 Minute English from bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil: And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Alice: Bye for now.

Neil: Bye.