Sep 9, 2010 - I'm Alice and this is 6 Minute English. I'm joined today ... They've sold millions around the world. The titles are often ... Page 2 of 5. He tells us ...
Self-help books NB: This is not a word for word transcript
Alice:
Hello! I’m Alice and this is 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Abdu. Hi Abdu.
Abdu:
Hi Alice.
Alice:
Today we’re talking about self-improvement – and in particular selfhelp books. Do you think you can improve yourself by reading a book Abdu?
Abdu:
I can try! There are hundreds of these books for sale – and some of them are very popular. They’ve sold millions around the world. The titles are often very impressive and inspirational!
Alice:
Before we look at the language of self-help and self-improvement, I’ve got a question. Which of these are real titles of self-help books? 1. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway 2. 5 simple steps to emotional healing 3. How to lose friends and alienate people
Abdu:
They all sound interesting – but I’m guessing number 3 isn’t real. ‘How to lose friends and alienate people’.
Alice:
We’ll find out at the end of the programme. Now let’s hear from bestselling author Michael Heppell who writes self-help books. His most recent title is ‘Flip It: How to get the Best out of Everything!’
He tells us about the kind of people who buy his books:
Extract 1: I think there are three types of people who would read a book like “Flip It” – people who are having real challenges in their lives, maybe they’re at a low-point and they really do need some quick help. Then you’ve got another group of people who are the self-help junkies, who will read lots and lots of books and they have library shelves bulging with them, and then there’s a group in the middle which I think are the largest group, which are people who are generally just getting on with their lives – they’re great people, happy people but they just want to be that little bit better and they want some tools and some techniques and probably a little bit of coaching from a book that would help them.
Alice:
Michael Heppell said there are three kinds of people who buy his books. The first group he describes as people with real challenges in their lives.
Abdu:
Real challenges – difficulties, problems
Alice:
He says they’re at a low-point in their lives – they are having a difficult time – they need help and turn to his books for advice.
Abdu:
The next group he calls self-help junkies
Alice:
A junkie is a slang word for an addict – usually a drug addict – but it’s used here to mean people who are addicted to reading self-help books. He says people like this may read lots of self-help books for fun.
Abdu:
6 Minute English
The third group he says is the largest group. People in the middle.
People who are getting on with their lives – they’re happy but they want their lives to be a bit better. He says they want some tools and techniques and a little bit of coaching.
Abdu:
Coaching – like a sports coach training a team to work or perform better. You may have heard of a new profession - a life coach – somebody who can be hired to try and help organise and improve the lives of others.
Alice:
Some people think that self-help books aren’t always good for the people who read them. Writer Joan Smith, for example, thinks they can be wildly optimistic which means they give people unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve. She says that some books can be like religion without the bad bits:
Extract 2 My problem with these books – and there are lots of different types of self-help books of course – is that they’re wildly optimistic – and I think they’re like religion without the bad bits – they don’t offer you the plagues, and locusts and boils but they do offer you a kind of heaven on earth. There’s a sense of - it encourages grievance – I should have all these things, I’m entitled to these things, I’ve done what the book tells me and I don’t get them.
Alice:
Joan Smith says that some self-help books offer the reader a kind of heaven on earth. But she says – they may give you a sense of grievance.
Abdu:
It encourages grievance – a feeling that you have a right to be annoyed because life isn’t fair and you haven’t got what you feel you deserved.
Critics like Joan Smith say that we can’t control everything in our life – so thinking that we can will make us feel disappointed.
Abdu:
But author Michael Heppell receives many letters and emails from people who have read his self-help books and made changes in their lives which make them feel happier.
Alice:
He says the key is not trying to control everything in your life, but trying to control how you react to the things that happen. So Abdu, have you thought about the answer to my question at the beginning of the programme? Which of these titles were real and which one was false? 1. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway 2. 5 simple steps to emotional healing 3. How to lose Friends and Alienate People
Abdu:
I’m guessing the last one – How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Alice:
You’re right of course! But it is a book – and a film – by Toby Young who wrote about what it felt like to fail in his career and personal life as a British man living in New York. It’s actually a joke – because there’s a very famous self-help book called ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie which was first published in 1937. And before we go, a chance to hear some of the language we heard in today’s programme. Would you mind reading them for us Abdu?
Sep 23, 2010 - NB: This is not a word for word transcript. 6 Minute English ... There are so many famous universities around the World â let me guess â is it.
Jan 21, 2010 - Page 1 of 5. Dan: Hello and welcome to this week's 6 minute English. I'm Dan Walker ... January, Scottish people across the world gather for a.
Nov 11, 2010 - Now Rob, you may not know this, but experts say that men are the weaker sex. Can you explain that term for us please, 'the weaker sex'? Rob:.
Nov 11, 2010 - Now it's time for today's question! Rob, compared with the early 1960s, each year, the number of men who enter medical schools in the UK has doubled. But ... Mmmâ¦as usual, we'll find out the correct answer later on. So, why ...
Sep 16, 2010 - in 1950, 8% of the world's population was over 60 years old. Currently ... According to a BBC survey, only 2 out of every 10 people around.
Nov 18, 2010 - the law â to advertise a house or a flat in a way that might discriminate ... language they use to stay within the law. ... idea of what is makes sense.
Dec 9, 2010 - And this is 6 Minute English! Now, I don't ... Page 2 of 6. Alice: ... This is the BBC radio series called âA History of the World in 100. Objectsâ.
Dec 2, 2010 - words, the vocabulary that we hear. But of course, as people who speak traditional Cockney move out of London, they also take that language ...
Dec 2, 2010 - Mm. Now if I say, "Hello me ole china" â am I being rude, Alice? ... traditional Cockney move out of London, they also take that language with.
Oct 28, 2010 - NB: This is not a word for word transcript ... Well I suppose it's what you call 'smart casual'. ... smart skirt and blouse or dress or trousers. And for ...
Dec 6, 2012 - Multi-million dollar violin. 6 Minute ... vocabulary while we're doing it. ... Yeah â as some Stradivarius violins cost several million dollars, I don't.
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm ... thing you have to do is spend the morning going through all the work emails that.
Oct 11, 2012 - Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, the programme in which we discuss something that's been in the news and teach you some vocabulary.
Jan 14, 2010 - NB: This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript ... Hello and welcome to this week's 6 minute English. I'm Dan Walker ... Page 2 of 5. Dan:.
OK, well before you go on, I've got a media question for you: according to the latest Facebook figures, how many active Facebook users are there in the world?
It listens to the sound - as it's happening - of the dentist's drill inside the patient's mouth, which as everybody knows is a horrible sound. So bad, in fact, that it ...
BBC Learning English ... And this is 6 Minute English! We've had a ... Tom Feilden: It's time to get down to the serious business of scanning our MPs â one left.
Dan: So he was so embarrassed by this that he decided, with his fellow diners, to set up the Diners' Club credit card, so that you could pay for meals without.
Professor thinks Africa could change from being an importer of food to an ... a) rice b) maize c) wheat. Yvonne: I think I'm going for maize because I know that is something that's used in ... Alice: According to Neil Bowdler, Juma has a wish list.
Now BBC radio in the UK has had a family week. They surveyed their listeners and web users to find out how they feel about their families. Yvonne: And - they ...
BBC Learning English. 6 Minute English ... Hello and welcome to this week's 6 Minute English. I'm Dan ... exclusive restaurant in Britain opened for business.
Oct 4, 2012 - pollen from plants or trees. Jen: And what happens when you get ... process in a technique called RNA interference. Jen: Scientists identified a ...
Dec 27, 2012 - minutes and fifty-five seconds of wonderful English language ... traces they found were of viruses, the tiny creatures that spread infectious ... If you would like to know more about these words, download our pdf script on.
