😫 Boredom (S02E09) + Transcript Flashcards
Vocabulary
Major (adj.) — important, serious, or significant.
To get down to business (idiom) — to start doing what needs to be done.
Irrelevant (adj.) - not connected with or relevant to something.
To rehash smth (verb) — to reuse (old ideas or material) without significant change or improvement.
Last resort (noun) — a final course of action, used only when all else has failed.
Novelty (noun) — the quality of being new, original, or unusual.
Rhyme or reason (noun) — logical explanation or reason.
Part 2
Maria: Rory, we’ll start off with speaking part two. I’m going to give you a topic which says, describe an experience when you walk with people and you got bored. I chose this topic because one of our listeners, Irina. Irina, hello, if you’re listening, asked us to talk about boredom. So here you are, Irina. We’re going to talk about boredom, OK? Are you ready now? We have one minute to prepare. Rory, I’d like you to describe an experience when you were with people and you got bored just speaking out, please.
Rory: So it was actually about two weeks ago or so, I was in a meeting at work and it wasn’t really to decide anything major. It was just to exchange some information. So already I didn’t see the point on being there. And it didn’t really help matters that we were in a small and cramped room in the office. So that didn’t really do anything to help my mood either. I think I didn’t get bored initially because it’s always nice at the start of the meeting when you see everyone and you’re just welcoming people to the meeting and then you get down to business. But to be honest, as things progressed and we were just working through material that was completely irrelevant to me and I was waiting for my turn to speak, and I kind of realized that I wasn’t interested in what other people were saying, because I’d heard it all before and I just didn’t have anything to contribute at that particular point. So I was just bored. I was paying attention to what people were saying, but there was nothing really to hang on to, in the sense of anything that would catch my attention, for example, because, you know, if you’ve heard things before, then you’re not really particularly interested in them. Anyway, we got to the end of the meeting and I was quite happy to leave at that point. But I decided that in the future I would only have meetings when absolutely necessary. If there was some really new information to be presented. Information can be exchanged in so many ways, but I feel like meetings are not the most efficient way, to be honest with you. Especially not when it’s just old information being rehashed again and again. It’s not a good use of people’s time and I think it’s important to value people’s time, don’t you?
Questions and Answers (Part 3)
Maria: Well, let’s talk about boredom in general. How often do you get bored?
Rory: Um, not too often, I suppose. I suppose I’m too busy being buried under work, but it does happen from time to time.
Maria: What activity do you do when you are bored?
Rory: I suppose it depends what I’m doing at the time. So, for example, it sounds weird, but sometimes I’m playing video games and I just get bored of playing them. So if I get bored of playing video games, then I’ll write. But if I’m writing and I’m bored of writing, then I’ll play video games. And then of course the weapon of last resort in this sense is reading or going for a walk. I quite like going for a walk actually. I like being around people.
Maria: Do you get bored more now compared to when you were younger?
Rory: I think so. For example, when you’re young, everything is a novelty, isn’t it? So obviously everything is new and exciting and interesting. And I think, actually, as people get older, they can fall into a kind of trap where they’re constantly chasing that same experience of novelty, although it can’t come back to you because you’re not a child anymore. I try to be more content with what I have now. But I still find myself getting more bored than when I was younger.
Maria: How do most people in your country deal with boredom?
Rory: I think they deal with it in the same way that a lot of other people do. I think everyone’s first stop in this day and age is probably social media. I don’t know why, because I don’t have any social media myself, so I do not see why it’s attractive. But it seems to be what everyone does.
Maria: It doesn’t have a Facebook account.
Rory: I know I’m boring, but such is life. But, you know, social media is just one thing. I also think that people in Scotland and everywhere else like to socialize more generally with their friends. I personally find myself browsing the Internet and I think a lot of people do the same thing. It’s just random browsing. There’s not really any rhyme or reason behind it, to be honest with you.
