Hey subscribers, welcome to another great Spoken English lesson, from our Spoken English course library at Let’s Talk Spoken English Institute, Mumbai. In this lesson, you are learning English phrases and Vocabulary related to Trending and Viral things. The word Viral is certainly made famous by Facebook and Trending comes from YouTube. We haven’t heard these words more often in the past than in the present. So, how to do you speak in English about trending and viral stuff, that’s what this English lesson is all about.
Complete Lesson Transcript –
So what are trends? Have you heard this word before? Trends? Well, the word trend means something that is becoming very popular. It could be clothes that celebrities wear or it could also be challenged. What kind of challenges? Have you heard of the challenges on Facebook which are going really viral? People are challenging each other. Yes, probably because they haven’t got anything else to do. So all these things which are becoming very, very popular are called trends. But in this lesson with me Michelle, you’re learning all about media trends and economic trends. Join me, so let’s start with the first one.
It’s becoming a big thing. So that thing is already popular, that’s when you use this phrase when something is already very popular and it’s you know going really viral. So let me share a real life situation with now. Once I was out of town and I was coming back to the city and I saw on the streets people wearing really funny masks on their face and they were kind of scary and I was like what’s wrong with them? And I was wondering, I went ahead and I still saw some people wearing masks, carrying pumpkins in their hands and the pumpkins looked really funny and scary. And then I realized oh, this is Halloween. So you know Halloween, it’s becoming a big thing almost in every country. Although it’s origination is in the US but now you see people all over the world celebrating Halloween and it’s become more like an international holiday. So that’s where you can use this phrase, it’s becoming a big thing. For a popular cultural happening. So anything in your society, which is becoming very popular and initially you didn’t even know about it and now almost everyone is celebrating it, that’s where you can use this phrase, particularly, for a cultural event or something in the society. With that, we move on to the next phrase.
The next big thing. So the word, next clearly says that it’s not yet the big thing, it’s going to become the next big thing. Going to, not yet. So let’s say, there’s a celebrity who is, you’ve seen a couple of their movies, his or her and you think they’re really nice. You like the movies but they’ve not yet gained a lot of popularity but you’re expecting that in the future, they will gain popularity. So usually you hear, you must have read in a lot of magazines, they predict about celebrities becoming popular in the future. So you’d hear then use this phrase very often that he or she is the next big thing means in the future they are going to become very, very popular. They are catching on, they’ve made some noise but yes, they are still to make the bang. Let’s look at the next one. It’s a thing of the past. So like this one talks about something in the future. This one talks about something in the past. So, alright what about digital learning? What do you think? It’s digital learning the next big thing or is it the thing of the past? Well for me, digital learning is the next big thing but classroom teaching is becoming a thing of the past. Because you are watching me on YouTube and you can learn online. You don’t even need to go to a classroom. So that’s why classroom teaching is becoming a thing of the past and may be you can also use this to talk about your job. So what do you think about a job for all of your life? Maybe you know if you’re doing the same job for ten years, you’re climbing up the ladder. Do you think it’s popular anymore? I’ve heard of people in the generation before us doing such jobs but nowadays, we keep hopping. We want new challenges; we want to try other jobs. So may be a job for life has become a thing of the past.
Let’s look at the next one. Still a thing? Still a thing? Means something that we thought would end but continues to be very popular. What do you think about it? So you can use this phrase to talk about couples. yes, so for example, if you know a couple and you thought that they broke up long ago and one of your friends tells you that they are still going around, you could say, Oh, Jane and Damien are still a thing? Means you were not expecting them to go on. But they are still going on. Something that’s still going on, right and what do you think about buying CDs? Do you think you need to buy CDs anymore? I don’t think so. You can watch all the videos on YouTube and you have other platforms where all the movies and the videos are available. So you could say that buying CDs is that still a thing? I don’t think it is. So these are some of the phrases that you can use to talk about media trends or everyday trends or patterns in society or around you. Media or web trends.
Alright with this, we look at the next set of phrases which are used to talk about economic trends. Yes, you need to talk about them as well. It’s not all about media trends and you have different vocabulary for both. So maybe you wouldn’t want to mix media trends with economic trends. So start to sky rocket. Sky rocket, so that means something that is going very, very high or is shooting up. So what do you think about the cost of bringing up a child? I think it’s sky rocketing over a third by now. So that’s where you can use this word for something that is dramatically increasing. Dramatically increasing, right?
The next one, to bottom out at. Yes, something that is going really low or possibly because we are talking about, we’re using the preposition at, it means that it’s stopping somewhere. So that means, it’s stopping at the lowest point. So when the Sensex bottomed out at its lowest point, the share market shut down. So here we are talking about the lowest point. So let’s say that the Sensex was dropping at this rate, forty, forty-eight, forty and then it goes further at thirty-seven and here it levels out. Levels out, this one here, levels out means to form a plateau. To form a plateau is when you use the phrase, to level out or flatten out. So the share market leveled out at thirty-seven points, that’s how you can use this phrase. Now we also look at to plummet at. Like bottom out, bottom out is the lowest point and to plummet at means a sharp fall or a dramatic fall. It’s the opposite for to sky rocket. A dramatic fall. So you could say that the share market plummeted or the Sensex plummeted or a better explanation. A better example would be that after the Brexit, the Euro plummeted against US dollar but now it has risen again. So that’s how you can use this phrase or maybe you could say, that after Brexit, the euro plunged against the US dollar and now it has skyrocketed again, possibly. And plunge is another synonym for to plummet it, means to fall
I hope all these phrases, I’ll add it here economic trends. yes so I hope you use all these phrases, to talk about the new media, web or economic trends for something that is ion the radar or something that you read in the newspaper about all the trends and the patterns in the Economic Times possibly and use these phrases to talk about them to the people around you. Thank you so much for clicking, I hope you come back for another lesson, till then you take care, bye.
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