5-Minute English: Injuries and Getting Hurt
Welcome back. Hope you guys are having a nice day.
Let’s jump right in. It’s not every day that you get hurt, but when I was a kid, it felt like every day. My mom said I was accident-prone, meaning that unlike other kids, accidents seemed to occur more in my life. As an adult, I now realize it’s partially due to the fact that as a kid I had two left feet. This is kind of a fun way to say that I wasn’t graceful, I was clumsy. I had two left feet. Perhaps my feet were literally too big for my body or my body too big for my feet. Either way, while walking, I’d often trip over things. Sometimes I’d catch myself, other times I’d fall and get hurt.
What I think unites us as humans is that we all have stories of getting hurt. Think about your stories. Did you ever end up in the emergency room? Have you gotten into an accident where you broke an arm? Cut a leg? What’s your story?
I encourage you to think about this topic and jot down some stories that you can think of. Why not write them down as a journaling exercise? Use this as a writing prompt. See if you can tell your story in English.
Now, if you’re missing some vocabulary, wait until the end of this lesson. We are going to cover everything you need to talk about getting hurt in English. As with all 5-minute English episodes, this one is topic specific. I like to call these lessons fluency, one topic at a time, because I create them thinking of every possible word related to a specific topic, including phrasal verbs, collocations, must-know vocabulary, everything that you’d need to have a real conversation with a native speaker.
These lessons are advanced, I won’t lie. This is an advanced listening exercise, but that’s why it’s short. You can get the transcript, definitions of the 20+ challenging words and phrases, exercises and quizzes, to make sure you master the terms you hear today, all by signing up to Season 3 or All Premium Content. If you sign up, you’ll also get the chance to tell your story and get it corrected by me. So check it out! You’ll find the links to Season 3 and All Premium Content in the episode notes. One last thing before we begin: The story you’re about to hear is 100% real. We should all share our stories. I’ll go first.
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Getting hurt isn’t fun, but it’s always a story. Here’s mine.
A few weeks ago, my family went on a trip to Brazil. Normally when we go, it’s winter there and we celebrate an event called "Festa Junina" or the June Festival. Our family dresses up in plaid, we paint our faces, sing, dance and eat canjica, a famous Brazilian corn pudding.
This year, the family decided to roast marshmallows and to make it the real deal, a mini bonfire was built in my sister-in-law’s front yard. It was pretty magical. All the kids were thrilled to stand by the flames and watch as their white marshmallows turned golden brown. Meanwhile, I was on my phone taking pictures, trying to capture all of their happy faces in that orange light.
Then suddenly, while making my way around the fire, I walked into something sharp. I bent over to clutch my foot and realized that my toe and the top of my foot were bleeding profusely. Profusely is an adverb that means abundant or in an excessive manner. My foot was bleeding profusely, blood was gushing out.
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That’s it for the free version of this transcript. If you’re interested in getting the full transcript and full lesson that go along with this episode, be sure to click on one of the buttons below.
