Plastic surgery? Have you ever spoken about plastic surgery in English? In this video lesson
I've invited Leila and Sabrah from Love English, Learn English with Leila and Sabra to talk to us a little bit about
plastic surgery. In this video lesson, you'll listen to a natural conversation between
Leila, Sabrah and myself talking about plastic surgery. In the natural conversation between
Leila, Sabrah, and me, you'll hear both the British and Australian accent.
You'll practice listening to different accents. You'll hear us talking about plastic surgery,
you'll hear new words, phrases and expressions
you can use when speaking about
plastic surgery in English. Make sure to watch the whole video lesson, as at the end I will teach you
four important grammar points which came up throughout our natural conversation.
Friends, before we begin this video lesson, I would love to hear from you.
Tell me in the comments below this video is plastic surgery common in your country.
So do a lot of people get plastic surgery done, is it common to see people with plastic surgery in your country?
Remember friends, by commenting your answers below, you are practicing your writing skills and you are using the new phrases and expressions
you are learning throughout this lesson. Friends, this video lesson is brought to you thanks to using English TP members.
Have you not heard about using English TP? Using English TP is a virtual classroom and
community teaching English learners from around the world real
English. Every Monday using English TP members receive a new lesson set
focusing on an interesting topic. This video lesson is only one part of the lesson materials
sent to using English TP members. Okay, back on topic and let's hear from Leila and Sabrah,
and let's learn about plastic surgery together.
Surgery, what is plastic surgery? When you end up like this...
Like what?
Well, lots of people when they get plastic surgery
start looking very pinned, so their faces have been pulled back, if they get a facelift, and start to look like that. Have no expressions anymore.
Also, I have to be honest, my aunty got a facelift.
And actually, she looks a lot better for it.
Is it common in the UK for people to get a facelift or?
I think it has become very common. In western countries,
also in the Middle East, I know a lot of Middle-Eastern... In Iran, for example, I'm half Iranian,
Everybody gets a nose job. It's like the biggest operation over there.
I would like to have a nose job. I actually would. She's fine. It's very interesting, because people in the UK, I think,
used to be very anti plastic surgery, used to be very worried about it and were very concerned about it becoming part of the culture.
But I actually think in recent years it has become a big part of the culture.
And I think that it's becoming more and more accepted,
I think, because it's celebrity culture, a lot of people do follow that and I think the expectations of what
they want to look like have increased, and they're not very realistic either.
And it's just fantasy, really? Do you think so, Leila?  I do, I do,
I think it's fantasy... But really, but, if someone's getting a nose job, maybe...
Always vanity, or maybe for health purposes, maybe..They could be. But also,  I think if somebody has a
feature, like something wrong with their face, in their opinion, that is causing them a lot of unhappiness,
so a really big nose or a very prominent jaw... Why shouldn't they get it changed, if it's gonna make them happier.
It's gonna improve their quality of life, in my opinion,
why not? I think it can become addictive, though.
And you're right, someone might feel that they have a very big nose or a very big chin,
but actually, it can also be psychological, and I think there's a fine line,
I think... I'm not against it per se, but I think that there's a fine line between having something done and then done,
I'm happy ,and then the addiction of
wanting more and still not being satisfied, and finding things wrong with yourself, and I think that's a lot more deep-rooted than... Yeah, perhaps.
It's just, I mean, I have known people, have known actually somebody who did get a nose job.
And she had a very prominent nose, and it really made her unhappy,
about her ppearance and once she got the nose job, she was a lot happier, and she's...
Okay, that's fine.
Why not, but yeah, asLeila was saying, if it becomes something that, man, you think:
Oh, but now I want bigger boobs, and that can happen,
I think that is when... And you find fault with yourself,
and I think there is a habit in our society to put too much value on how you look. Yeah, true.
And I think that's quite worrying and especially when it comes to women,
I think we are under a lot of pressure, there might be lots of men that disagree with that, but generally speaking, women have always come...
Yeah, although I think men are increasingly interested in procedures and improving themselves, actually,  which shows a real change
in society. Yeah, I think it does.
But what about for work purposes? I read an article recently,
I think it was in China, so, or in Asia, that people getting plastic surgery done to improve their chances of employment.
Do you think that maybe if someone has, maybe, an unusual nose or
something,
there's no nice way of putting it,
but maybe a feature on their face or some part of their body that could prevent them from being employed or...
Well, I think that's, that's really bad, to be honest.
Discrimination, really.
Because I think you should be judged on how good you are at the job, not how you look.
You should, but...
It depends what line of work you're in, I mean, if you're a singer, singer, or an actor or something in the entertainment industry,
then perhaps, there might be in a call to look a certain way,
but, I mean, I would still think that if you're a fantastic singer,  shouldn't really matter what you look like.
And then there's the extremities of Barbie and Ken.
You know Barbie...
That's the psychological problem I'm talking about.
I think somebody that has to change their appearance, that they don't even look like the person they are,
or they're trying to amulate a celebrity,
Yeah, I think that's terrible, yeah.
I've seen the story about the Ukrainian Barbie, that is really scary, and I think there's something... When we go to that extreme
all natural beauty is lost, and I think that there is definitely something to be said for natural beauty.
And I think this is what you were saying Leila, that kind of, as a society,
we've put too much value on our appearance, we want to make ourselves better and improve and look  like celebrities.
When actually, you know ,natural beauty, when you get to know somebody,
sometimes you don't notice the features that they think are terrible. Yeah, you know,
the pursuit of youth, everybody wants to keep looking young, yeah, and that's something that again, like,
beauty, that's something
we've put more emphasis on... Can I just say though, this is from somebody who did recently Google
"How to remove under eye wrinkles"
I did, I did
It's okay, I've done it too.
And I was thinking, I even need to up the lighting when I am filming,
or I need to get a botox
I could do a facelift
You are beautiful!
Oh no, she's fine, she's beautiful, she is.
In some countries,
plastic surgery really is a cultural norm, like in South America, to get a boob job, to get breast implants is
extremely common,
And your bum lifted. You can get a bigger bum, higher bum...
Rounder bum...
When you get a bum lift or a boob job,
do you have to maintain that, sorry, excuse my ignorance on this topic, but say tomorrow,
I want to get my boobs done, or I want to get a bum job, whatever it is...
No, but you do, you are meant to get... I don't, I don't know about your bum,
but you do your boobs. You're meant to get them done every ten years.
Yeah, every ten year.
Because, I've got friends, and my cousin had a boob job.
Yeah, I have girlfriend's who've done boob jobs, you need to get them fixed every ten years.
I mean, if we talk about ,we're talking specifically about boob jobs, I think, when it comes to like reconstructive surgery,
it's amazing, the plastic surgery.
Whether
your breasts after cancer or anything else, the stuff
that's out there that... the techniques that are out there are amazing and help people live normal lives again.
I mean, I think also, with something like breasts,
it's very interesting. In the UK, for a while, for people who were completely
flat-chested, who didn't have any boobs at all, they actually used to let some people if they were very depressed about this, the government would
pay for this on the National Health Service.
On what basis?!
They've got money in the national fund.
If it made people depressed and they said that it made them feel not like a woman and they didn't have breasts and they felt so depressed about
physical appearance, it was affecting their life.
Okay, in some cases the government would pay for that when it would be on the NHS. This does not happen anymore.
We've had to cut back.
Yeah, really.
We'll pin it to a
psychological issue.. It's mind boggling
It is a bit, but then, we have reasonable boobs, so...
Okay, sorry, I'm not talking about...
What about in Australia then? So, you're from Australia, so, what, what...
Is plastic surgery common in Australia?
I've been being abroad now for about seven eight years, so I do tend to forget of what the cultural norms are back there.
But when I was back in Australia, I didn't see anything too drastic. Again,
I have friends, but within my circle of friends or family don't... Or maybe people don't speak about it,
maybe it's something they just hide,maybe someone has had a Botox,
but I don't know anyone who's had Botox done or a boob job or...
Maybe it's a circle that... A lot of my family and friends are...I like to think, confident and
maybe more acceptance of who they are as a person,
rather than changing those external features, but to say that all Australians are like that...That would be wrong...
Nicole Kidman has had a bit of...
Yeah, she definitely has.
You can tell. I mean, she's always, she's always been stunning, Nicole Kidman,
but I think, that again, pressure.
When you're looking at the media today, a lot of media personalities, of course, they've had a lot done, and I think...
Maybe it's not the nicest thing to say, but you know when you're watching when you're watching a movie or when you're reading,
flicking through the newspaper or just some magazine, it's always nice to see a beautiful woman and or a man and...
How bad that sounds? I think that is the reality and...
I think we are... I think as human beings, we are quite naturally looks orientated,
but if you think about, it does sound strange,
but in the animal kingdom, it's the same.
That's true. You know,  the bird...birds have beautiful feathers,
and look beautiful to attract the opposite sex and I think it's
reflected in society. However, I think, you know, we are
intelligent beings and so we need to put a limit on these things and there's a point
where, as lady was saying before, it goes too far and gets addictive and,
you know, you have the cases like the Barbie and Ken,
but there's the other case about the lady who wanted to have huge boobs and
she's got double sized boobs or something with double XX or whatever...
She, she then had tanning injections to the point where she actually changed her whole skin tone.
And she now looks like a black woman, not a white woman.
They weren't ever happy with what they've got. Then you'll have people with darker skin that want to be lighter,
and, you know, it's a case of if you're constantly looking outward,
you're always gonna see something else that you'd rather look like. Yeah.
Fantastic,  you've listened to the natural conversation between Leila, Sabrah and myself.
if you struggled to follow the conversation,
make sure to turn on subtitles and listen to the conversation
again. Now, let's go through four sentences
which came up throughout our natural conversation and
analyze the grammar and vocabulary used in these sentences. In the natural conversation, Leila said:
Well, lots of people when they get plastic surgery start looking very pinned...
So their face is being pulled back, they get a facelift and start looking like that...
In this sentence we can see that Leila said they start looking very pinned. Here, pin is a verb. To pin something
means to attach or fasten something using a pin. In this
context, the verb pin is being used because a part of their body is being held quite firmly,
so it's being held firmly in position. In this sentence,
we can also see that the passive voice is being used here.
We are using the passive voice because we are emphasizing the action, in this case, the action of the face being pulled back.
Also, we can see that the continuous tense is being used because we are emphasizing the fact that their action is happening now.
It's happening at the exact moment. We can also see from the natural conversation the sentence: If it's gonna make them happy,
if it's gonna improve their quality of life in my opinion, why not?
Friends, if you improve the quality of someone's life, it means that you make life better.
Somehow their life is being made better. In this sentence, you can also see the contraction "gonna". Friends, gonna is slang,
native English speakers use it all the time. You can see that Leila, Sabrah and myself used it quite often
instead of going to. If you want to speak for naturally in English, sound more like a native English speaker,
use gonna when speaking in English. In the natural conversation,
we also had the sentence: We had to cut back. Friends, if you cut back on something, it means that you reduce the amount of
something. We usually use cut back with spending, for example, we had to cut back on our expenses.
So here we had to reduce our expenses. In sentence
we can also see that the present perfect tense is being used. Here the present perfect simple tense is being used because
something that was done in the past has a result, it has
an impact, some effect on the present. To finish up, the last sentence
which came up was: When you're looking at the media today, a lot of media personalities, of course, they've had a lot done.
Friends, if you've had a lot done, in this context is being used because they're talking that they've had a lot of plastic surgery,
cosmetic surgery.
They've had a lot of work done on themselves. Another example of this being used, related to plastic surgery could be:
My neighbor has really had a lot done,
he doesn't look 50 anymore. Here in this context, the phrase he's had a lot done
is being used to explain that he has had a lot of plastic surgery done. Friends, this lesson was made possible
thanks to using English TP members. If you'd like to continue learning about plastic surgery,
head over to usingenglishtp.com and join our private community and classroom and start speaking in English today.
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Remember to like this video lesson and to let me know in the comments below if plastic surgery is common in your country.
Thanks for being here and see you next time. Bye for now!
