Shadowing Practice: What does 'posh' actually mean in British English? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What does posh actually mean in Britain?

Is it about being rich, speaking with a certain accent, going to private school, or simply knowing which fork to use at dinner?

In this episode of the English Right Now podcast, that's what we're talking about.

My name is British English teacher Roy, and joining me to discuss at least 10 pieces of related vocabulary

and teach you about this subject is my dear friend Rob.

Hello.

See, I'm putting on a posh voice.

You did, didn't you?

goodness how are you sensational oh how'd you do how'd you do how'd you do how'd you do yeah

i'm i'm i'm i don't know i feel like i should become more formal the way you started

that it's interesting uh instant now

and say i'm smashing thank you marvelous it's a good point roy actually

when you put on a posh voice yeah you become more formal don't you yes

formality is is a weird one

because it's it's it's i always tell this to students in certain environments it's absolutely necessary

but in everyday life the more formal we are the more distant

and it can actually cause more kind of social problems social distance

if i become formal with you i'm creating a barrier you

might wonder what have i done to upset roy you oh i'm very well rock thank you no i'm fine

but of course it could be it could be down to

my um down to my upbringing maybe i had a very good upbringing

and i was taught how to uh behave

and speak properly you know the queen's english yeah yes okay

so this is we'll talk about upbringing in a moment

but let's talk about that exact word posh good

or bad what do you think

if somebody says oh you're posh yeah would you say it's

good to be called posh i wouldn't want to be called posh no no no

because it has lots of implications really yes um it is

an interesting word i mean firstly you may be going to

mention this anyway about the origins of the word oh no

go for it yeah well the word the word posh actually comes from cruise liners

that used to go from the uk

to america and to have the best cabin with the best sunshine and the best light

was on the port side on the way out

and on the starboard side on the way home so po port out

starboard home posh is that true or is it is it one of those

that is that it could be a myth

but that's what i was told you know what you can let us know in the car

because there's a number of those isn't there

that people go yeah there's a number of those and people go oh and then people I'm going, no, it's not.

It's actually from, I don't know.

So you can let us know in the comments below if that's true, or we'll put something down in there.

But that's a fascinating story.

It's my story.

My story.

Yeah. But posh, yes.

Posh.

Posh can have kind of two implications.

Yeah, posh is you're wealthy, you're well -brought up.

Posh also means you're kind of a bit false.

You're being a bit kind of trying to be better than somebody else as well.

Yes.

We have a word for those sort of people, don't we?

careful careful uh snob uh

which is one of our words a person who believes their tastes background

or social positions uh position makes them superior to others uh

and it's this arrogance this oh such an arrogant snob we sometimes hear it like

that he's such a snob snobbish behavior is like behaving as

though people from a particular social group are lower than them

you know it's like it's like looking down on people yeah

i i don't think the posh itself is a very uh it's a bit derogatory

and i think it i i wouldn't like it

so i'll give you an example i went to york

and there was a we were walking through the streets of york as you do

and this he was drunk actually it was it was in the evening

but there was a rather a drunk fellow i thought oh gosh no

and my son talks to everybody and he started chatting with this man

and i was like oh no he's drunk

and then i thought i better say something i was like

oh yeah we're just on holiday up from here uh we're just up from the isle of white

and this guy went oh you're right posh you aren't you

and i said thank you and he went it's not a compliment uh

but then after a few minutes he realized

that I was just I just had a different accent

and then he realized I was all right

that I wasn't I didn't think I was better than anybody no I have

that as well

because I I come from I was brought up in a town called Henley -on -Thames

so a nice town by the river it's famous for its annual regatta

and stuff very posh and so of course

when I always say I come from Henley -on -Thames they go oh you're you're posh

but I always I always then follow it up by saying

oh I lived the the poor end of henley we lived

in a small house in the poor end of henley which probably a small castle In a small castle, not a big one Yeah,

that's right Barely had two turrets But it's places Places and things have this Connotation of being posh

When it's a very Generalisation, but it's not always Always right So that word posh realistically means Associated with the upper classes Wealth,

privilege, or sophisticated Tastes, but a lot of people do use it In a derogatory way to sort of say Oh, you'll think you're better than us

um we do have a class structure still in the uk

i'd say um it changes from time to time we always

talk about something i always find funny is everybody always says the war on class is over

uh i read a i think it was kate fox she was talking about this

and she said if it was over

why do we keep talking about it it's never over yes

no no we're still there i think the thing the boundaries the divisions have changed

or blurred a bit more it's not as distinct maybe as it was in Victorian times or something like that.

But we still talk about, we still, yeah, have this sort of class structure in our head, don't we?

I mean, I've heard it instead of class, talking about socioeconomic groups and other kind of ways of introducing it.

100

But traditionally, the class system was basically the upper, middle, and working class.

101

They didn't like the word, we didn't, some people said lower class, but we tended to avoid that word

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so upper class belonging to the highest social class in society

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or the hoi polloi as they say the bourgeois this kind

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of you know the the kind of uh tradition it was people

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that didn't really work or was had money from inheritance we'll talk about

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that the middle class the middle class which really grew, I think it grew out of something called the merchant class

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and it was basically belonging to a social group traditionally associated with professional jobs education and relative financial comfort

108

and now we have lower middle, upper middle and then in the past working class traditionally referred to people who did more manual jobs industrial,

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lower paid work so maybe somebody who worked in a coal mine was considered working class

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and somebody who worked in an office

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middle class but you're right it has blurred hasn't it yes yes

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because i think people well we don't have many coal miners do we

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but you're kind of your plumber

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or your electrician i don't think they would think of themselves

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as working class now they have quite a bit of money

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for a start they're not quite wealthy some of them um

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so yes and you have all these status symbols you know the size of the house you live in

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and what kind of car you drive all that kind of stuff

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and And the other term we used to use is like white -collar workers and blue -collar workers.

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Yeah, blue -collar were more industrial and white -collar were office, even though I'm wearing a blue -collar at the moment.

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And I don't even have a shirt at all, no collar.

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Oh, God, I can barely look at you.

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But yeah, I mean, you're right, it's blurred.

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I mean, in the past, maybe a plumber would have been seen as skilled but not educated, lower paid and all this but these days plumbers they're

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so hard to find they're so they're

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so in demand they can charge a fortune there are plumbers

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earning far more than somebody working in an office job

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so yeah you're right it's blurred in a lot of ways

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and i think i think that's a good thing

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but i think there's kind of this sort of middle working class all punched a bunch together

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and it's basically how much money you've got where you stand on

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that scale really uh but there's still anyway But there's still that higher tier, as you say, of posh, people who think they're posh.

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I think it's getting to the upper class and the rest.

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Yes.

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And it's trickled down.

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We might call these posh people toffs, mightn't we?

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Oh, it's a good word.

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It's a good word.

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You know, toff, it's a slightly informal, it's an informal word.

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And it's slightly mocking for upper class or wealthy people.

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If I were upper class or if I were wealthy, I don't think I'd like somebody to call me a toff.

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But it's got this image, hasn't it?

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What would you describe a toff as?

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Oh, somebody who, well, they dress quite smartly.

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I always think they have their nose in the air as well, for some reason.

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Yes.

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Like they look down on you.

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Oh, jolly good, jolly good.

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It's almost a toff has this idea of being rich,

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like snobbish maybe yeah totally unaware of how people live yeah uh real people live

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and of course the opposite of a tough

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if you wanted to insult somebody who wasn't a tough you'd possibly call them common

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which is a bit that's also a derogatory term uh it's quite insulting to say well it's not always

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but insulting description for behavior considered lacking in refinement and class

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so if you if you say all right all right roy you know

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yes you don't know how to comment It's like you don't know how to use a soup spoon, you know, rather than using it properly.

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Yes.

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What's a soup spoon, Rob?

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But I mean, this is this is the thing.

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It's fascinating to sort of talk about those sort of things about common, you know.

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And also, of course, common can also mean every day.

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I'm just, you know, common people and all that.

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And it's it's not necessarily negative, but it just basically means ordinary.

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I mean there are two types I think

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when I think of upper class

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and I think of being posh I usually think of what we would call old money

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which is wealth that has existed in a family for several generations it's passed down

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new money is the opposite which is wealth acquired relatively recently rather than through inheritance like maybe

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I mean I don't know but some of these businessmen

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that now you know maybe they are new money

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because they've made money from money

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or they've made money from money they've made money from nothing yes

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and interestingly and generalizing here but these people don't seem to be

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so posh it's the old money that's no posh new money

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yes you've got lots of money not necessarily uh high class or or sophisticated

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you know yeah and i i think

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that the in the uk in general we are quite class conscious uh

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which is aware of the differences between classes i think we're very class conscious um

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but more so of them and the rest i think it's getting to that level

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because i would consider myself for example relatively well spoken i would consider you uh well spoken uh

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which is speaking clearly and in a way traditionally considered i mean it was considered educated

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and socially prestigious not so much now it's just an accent um

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but well -spoken also means a good command of the language uh

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but i wouldn't consider you posh rob oh thank you not in

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that kind of no yeah well no

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but i wouldn't consider you posh in the sense of you know i consider you well -spoken educated

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yes it's interesting but i wouldn't consider you

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that level it's interesting about the voice i mean these days regional accents are you know perfectly accepted and stuff

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when you listen to old recordings of bbc programs they have

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very well pronounced rp accents who would say oh that's a

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that's a bit posh posh voice you know yeah i i

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mean i think you know there is the difference between a

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modern rp standard southern british english those kind of accent

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that accent and the traditional rp

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which is more you know you may hear the king using traditional rp

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and it's an interesting scale i know this is fascinating well the learners the the listeners will love it

197

but the there is an idea that the posher you are the more you clip vowels vowel sounds

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and the more common you are the more you clip consonants

199

so i mean i think this is a massive stereotype

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and it's a massive judgment and i i don't necessarily subscribe

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but you know you could say uh a handkerchief but

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if you listen to an rp speaker they say handkerchief handkerchief a handkerchief

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and they clip their vowels hello oh it's very good very

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good they clip it i i wouldn't even call it a handkerchief i call it a hanky

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so what does that make me hanky that's that's off the scale isn't it uh

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but uh that's that's that's incredible i i don't we do we do

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we do use the word posh quite informally

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when we talk about something a bit fancy like i'm going

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to a posh restaurant tonight a posh restaurant might be somewhere

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that has a tablecloth on the on the you know how

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you live rob um yeah the mcdonald's with a tablecloth um

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yeah we do use it you know i think it's also

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sort of saying oh i'm going somewhere swanky uh posh also i think

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if you describe a person as posh it's a bit more derogatory than a than a restaurant or Or, you know, I mean, if you came over to my house and went, oh, very posh, I might think,

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you know, I think you'd just mean fancy.

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But then we also have a mutual understanding from years of knowing each other.

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Yeah.

218

Well, I do know you live in a huge castle on your own personal island.

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So it does all sound very posh.

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You have a very posh lifestyle.

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It's true.

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Let's not talk about personal islands.

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It doesn't seem to be.

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Anyway.

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But, yeah, no, no. My castle is always open.

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The drawbridge is always down.

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um but yeah there's this idea i think i think the word posh when we use it in general for things

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it can be a bit a bit more like banter like

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slightly joking it's quite it's quite a posh restaurant isn't it especially i think

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if it's a make it you know you go i'm going to

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that new restaurant oh it's quite posh for you isn't it

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it's almost still attacking your life saying you're trying to be above your station i think yeah um

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but there is this idea that the upper class they're quite privileged as well

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and i think that's the key piece of vocabulary we really

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need you know it's this idea their social status is higher

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they i don't think they necessarily do look down on the

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rest of the yeah some may some may not people are different

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but this i think there's this idea

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that we look up to the upper class and they look down

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and i you know i think i think it's this idea

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of privilege they've gone to the most expensive private schools private

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education they've had yes everything to handed to them they've had it yeah exactly they've had stuff handed to them

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because they've had rich parents who in turn had rich parents

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and so it's all been very easy they've not had to worry about money.

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They've had this privileged lifestyle that they haven't had to suffer.

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That's our impression.

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Maybe it's an inferiority complex, though.

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We think, oh, yes, they've got more money.

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They're better than us.

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You don't need to feel inferior when you're talking to me.

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It's fine, Rob.

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I love that we're painting me as posh.

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I definitely wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

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That's a great expression.

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If you're born with a silver a spoon in your mouth

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it basically means you're posh upper class uh this kind of thing it's probably

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because of the way they talk oh yeah like this uh

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horse riding tends to be associated with the upper class doesn't

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it as well it's another thing i don't know what polo gosh

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if you said i'm trying taking up a new sport roy

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polo i'd be like oh it's too too posh for me rob

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i'd be worried um

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but i mean it's yeah it's it's background private schools public schools uh private school

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and public school are the same thing aren't they basically well they're slightly different

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but they're both fee -paying schools if you go to state school

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which is the actual school then you're seen as more normal your average private private school

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or public school seen as a as a privilege hmm doesn't always mean by the way

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that doesn't calling it posh doesn't always mean it's better it's just um an idea

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that it's rich and and privileged that it's

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or feels it's better you know you know oh it's a posh restaurant

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but i know i just prefer you know the food may

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be better at this what we call a greasy spoon cafe

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like a like a just a bill you know sort of

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place where you see builders the food may be better there than some in fact

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if i'm totally honest a lot of sort of posh restaurants i don't really enjoy them

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because they come with small portions and i'm like

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but that's true all these swirls

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and kind of you talk about the difference in the restaurants

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and a kind of fry up place the thing is they

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could serve the same food greasy spoon would serve up bacon and eggs

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but a posh restaurant would serve up a beautifully served perfect

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egg with some beautiful crispy rashes of bacon same food

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but it's served differently therefore it's it's posh

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and they charge you more money for it i mean this is a whole different story isn't it

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because people do

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if something seems to cost more money they possibly do associate

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it with it being better oh you know this is a real treat uh

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so i mean that's a whole thing about human the human brain psychology working there uh

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but it's a fascinating one

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but I want to say thank you very much Rob for joining me on this subject

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if you would like to buy us a cup of tea

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or apparently a bottle of champagne no just a cup of

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tea there's always a link down below you can buy us a cup of tea to support this podcast

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and help it keep going but Rob thank you very much I'd say you're a down to earth typical bloke

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thank you very much Roy it's a privilege to be on this this posh podcast welcome your majesty

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take care see you in the next one bye

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “What does 'posh' actually mean in British English?”. Este vídeo tiene 296 frases y 3455 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 19:10. El hablante habla rápido, unas 180 palabras por minuto, así que espera sonidos enlazados y reducidos. Solo el 81 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
handkerchief sustantivo	/ˈhæŋkəːt͡ʃɪf/	pañuelo, moquero
accent sustantivo	/ækˈsɛnt/	acento léxico
privilege sustantivo	/ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/	privilegio
spoon sustantivo	/spuːn/	cuchara
collar sustantivo	/ˈkɑlɚ/	cuello
derogatory adjetivo	/dɪˈɹɑɡəˌtɔɹi/	despreciativo, denigrante
fascinate verbo	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	fascinar
plumber sustantivo	/ˈplʌm.əɹ/	fontanero, gásfiter
blur verbo	/blɝ/	desdibujar, difuminar
traditionally adverbio	/tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/	tradicionalmente
upbringing sustantivo	/ˈʌpˌbrɪŋɪŋ/	crianza
vowel sustantivo	/ˈvaʊ.əl/	vocal
educate verbo	/ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/	educar, instruir
insult sustantivo	/ɪnˈsʌlt/	insulto, improperio
podcast sustantivo	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	podcast, pódcast

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Significado
look down on verbo	menospreciar, ningunear
bring up verbo	levantar, alzar
look up to verbo	respetar
pass down verbo	heredar, pasar
walk through verbo	explicar paso a paso, enseñar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

See, I'm putting on a posh voice.
You did, didn't you?
We have a word for those sort of people, don't we?
We might call these posh people toffs, mightn't we?
What would you describe a toff as?

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultado	if that's true, or we'll put
“Used to” used to + verbo — un hábito o estado pasado que ya no es cierto	used to go · used to use
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	have i done · have changed · I've heard
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	was taught · be called · was told

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 131 contracciones y formas reducidas, como don't, you're, I'm. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, snobbish /ˈsnɒbɪʃ/, implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: derogatory /dɪˈɹɑɡəˌtɔɹi/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/, inheritance /ɪnˈhɛɹɪtəns/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: spoon /spuːn/, snobbish /ˈsnɒbɪʃ/, starboard /ˈstɑː.bəd/, smartly /ˈsmɑː(ɹ)tli/, stereotype /ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/
/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: privilege /ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/, vowel /ˈvaʊ.əl/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, behave /bɪˈheɪv/, marvelous /ˈmɑɹvələs/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: generalize /ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹə.laɪz/, businessman /ˈbɪznəsmæn/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como handkerchief, accent, privilege.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

Shadowing Practice: What does 'posh' actually mean in British English? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Gramática en este vídeo

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?