Transcript of AE 1096 - Expression: Fall Victim to Something

G'day, you mob, and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken down under. So, whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flipping hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So, sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

G'day, guys. How's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. If it is your first time coming to the podcast and listening to it, welcome. If you are a repeat offender, someone who has done this many times, welcome back, mate. It is good to see your face. Well, more or less once again. So, welcome back to the podcast.

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Now, man, what have I been up to this week? It has been a bit of a relaxing week. It's kind of the first part of January, so yeah, been working hard, working hard inside the academy. All the new students joined up. We've added new teachers, I think we've got now six teachers inside the academy.

We have eight classes every single week, and so I think that's almost 400 classes a year. It's insane. It's insane. But people are getting a lot out of it, so it's been a lot of fun and just, yeah, trying to keep endeavouring to make it better and better and better. So, guys, today's question comes from Harris. Let's have a listen.

Hey, Pete, how's it going? My name's Harris and I'm from Pakistan. I've heard you talk on racism in Australia a number of times in your podcast. However, I feel like you haven't really shed some light on what one's response should be against these racist remarks or comments. What do you think? Should we just ignore these people and get on with our lives? Or do you think they deserve some response? And if so, what kind? Thank you.

So, Harris effectively asked, what should you do when confronted with racism in Australia? Should you ignore it, or should you respond to it? Now, this is a sort of difficult one to answer because racism can appear, it can raise its ugly head in many different kind of situations, right.

It can be subtle, and it can be overt. It can be very, very, very obvious or it can be not so obvious. So, how should you respond to it? Obviously, if it's something that's a little more discreet and subtle, it's the kind of thing that I would probably ignore it.

I would advise you to just, you know, let it be water off a duck's back. Racism occurs in Australia like probably everywhere else in the world. It does, you know, as I said, raise its ugly head from time to time, you will hear of it. I've even experienced racism towards myself at times in Australia. Go figure.

But yeah, if it's very subtle, you know, if it's the kind of thing in how someone behaves and it's not really, really confrontational, I would just say, ignore it and get on with your day. If it is something that is very, very, very overt and in-your-face, then I probably would suggest doing something about it.

You know, if it is someone in a shop and you've gone there, or a restaurant or something and you've experienced racism as a customer, I would probably tell someone, you know, it's the kind of thing you can probably tell the police. You could give them the person or the business a review. And then if it's something that you experience, say, at school, at university, talk to the authorities there, right.

So, if it is that kind of thing where someone has just come up to you and racially abused you, then yeah, I would respond to it like that. But again, I would always suggest avoid violence, avoid confrontation at any cost, right. It's just not worth it. So, if you do fall victim to racism in Australia, just do your best, be the best version of yourself and avoid confrontation, don't put yourself in danger.

But obviously, if it is a serious issue, talk to someone who is in a position to do something about it. So, hopefully that helps. It's a difficult question to kind of answer Harris because it obviously depends on the exact situation and what's happened. But I think more often than not, it's probably best to either ignore it or respond by telling someone else who can do something about it.

All right, so on to a more happy note, let's slap the bird and get into today's joke. So, I wanted to tell you a joke about falling today, but I didn't think it would go down well. Did you get it? I wanted to tell you a joke about falling, but I didn't think it would go down well. So, if something falls, obviously it goes down, it moves downwards, usually in a sort of uncontrolled manner until it hits the ground.

It falls. But if something "goes down well", something "goes down well" with someone, this is to be received by someone in a positive way.

It's to be received well by someone, for people to like it. So, something, I don't know, you go to a party and your mum's cooked all this amazing food, she's brought it to the party. Everyone at the party loves it. The food's really "gone down well". If it falls off the table, it's "gone down" off the table.

And you could probably also use "go down" here, the sort of phrasal verb here for to be consumed. So, someone eating the food might say, "mate, that went down well, you know, that tasted amazing." All right, so let's go through the expression. We'll break down the words in the expression. We'll break down its meaning. We'll go through some examples of how to use it in day-to-day English.

We'll go through a pronunciation exercise. Then we'll do a little sample clip exercise, and we'll finish up. So, "to fall. To fall", this is a verb that means to move from a higher place to a lower place, typically rapidly and without control. But we can also use this to mean, say, to be defeated or captured by someone. So, the "fall of Rome", the city, right. In Roman Times, the "fall of Rome". "The city fell".

And we can also use it to mean to pass into a specified state situation or position. So, "night falls", "night fell" and the animals came out to play. The animals came out when "night fell". "A victim. A victim" is a person harmed, injured or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. So, "a victim" of a car accident, right, is someone who was in the car accident.

They may have been the person who caused it. They may have been the person who suffered the car accident. Someone else had the accident or, you know, caused the collision and, you know, injured this person, they were the "victim".

But a "victim" can also be a person who's been tricked or duped, right. Duped is a nice little fancy word here for tricked, effectively, they're synonyms, right. If you dupe someone, you trick them, you fool them. So, maybe you take someone to the casino, they get duped by one of the games and they lose a heap of money. They "fell victim" to that game. They were "a victim" of that game.

Maybe they were "a victim" of their own gambling habits. They were "a victim". So, as you've probably worked out to "fall victim to something" is to fail or suffer because of something. If we want to use it in a figurative sense, a non-literal sense, to fail or suffer because of something, to fall victim to that thing. And if we use it literally it would mean to be attacked or injured or killed by someone or something. Right.

So, I don't know, if I'm out in Australia and a drop bear falls out of one of the trees and decides to kill me. "I fell victim to a drop bear." Don't worry about them, guys, they're not real animals. So, let's go through three examples of how I would use this in everyday English.

Number one. So, there are a lot of scam text messages and calls in Australia at the moment. My phone is always going off and I'm getting different, you know, text messages. I'm getting messages on WhatsApp every day from, you know, these random Chinese ladies who are like, hey, do I know you? I just happen to have your number. And I'm always like, can you just F-off? You know, like, I'm not giving you money.

I'm not falling for this. I'm not going to be duped. I'm not going to "fall victim to you guys as scammers". But unfortunately, Aussies are being scammed out of millions and millions of dollars every year because of these really well organised scammers, these syndicates that have been set up to dupe their victims and trick them out of their money, causing them to fall victim to these scammers.

Example number two. Imagine a person goes missing in a town, right. Then another person does, and another person does. Quickly, the police realise there's a pattern to this and they think, you know what? There must be some psychotic serial killer out there on the loose, kidnapping and just killing people.

Hopefully, that's not actually happening anywhere in Australia at the moment. So, these poor people are "falling victim to a serial killer". They're being kidnapped and murdered, they're the victims, they're "falling victim to this psychopath, this serial killer." That was a bit of a macabre example.

Example number three, the final example here. So, COVID's affected loads and loads of businesses around the world at the moment, not just in Australia, but worldwide. Heaps of businesses locally, though too, have found it increasingly difficult to find workers because, you know, border closures and other restrictions mean that it's just hard to find people to work for you.

So, they've "fallen victim to the lack of workers in Australia currently, they've fallen victim to COVID, they've fallen victim to government restrictions." These things have made their businesses suffer, so "the businesses have fallen victim to these various causes of this situation". So, hopefully now guys, you understand the expression "to fall victim to something".

It means to fail or suffer because of something, if we want to use it figuratively. Or if we use it literally, to be attacked, injured or killed by someone or something. So, as usual, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise where I'm going to read out a bunch of different phrases, see if you can focus on my pronunciation, the link speech that I use, the connected speech and the stress.

Which words are being stressed and why in these phrases? Remember when we're stressing words in English, because English is a stress timed language, the words in a phrase that gets stressed are usually those carrying the most important meaning. So, the verbs, the nouns, the pronouns, those sorts of words. Okay, so here we go.

"To. To fall. To fall victim. To fall victim to. To fall victim to something. To fall victim to something. To fall victim to something. To fall victim to something. To fall victim to something. I fell victim to the scam. You fell victim to the scam. He fell victim to the scam. She fell victim to the scam. We fell victim to the scam. They fell victim to the scam. It fell victim to the scam."

Great job, guys. So, if I repeat one of these phrases, let's pick a random one. "We fell victim to the scam." Which are the words that you hear being stressed? "We fell victim to the scam." So, obviously, the pronoun at the front and then "fell" the main verb, "victim" and then "scam". So, "victim" and "scam", two important nouns that are being used in this phrase. "We fell victim to the scam."

And then within the word "victim" because it is a two-syllable word, which syllable do you hear being stressed? Is it the first one? "Vict-". Or is it the second one? "-im" or "-əm". As I say it, and I think I just gave you the answer. The first syllable "VICT-im, VICT-im, we fell victim to the scam."

So, as a result, "-im" at the end of "victim" becomes a schwa vowel sound and you have "victəm, victəm, victim." Great job, and don't forget guys a scan- A scan? A scam. I misread my own notes. "A scam" ending with M is a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation. "A scam".

As opposed to "a scan" where I should probably look this up and define it for you guys. "A scan" is an act of scanning someone or something. Yeah, great. Good on you Google dictionary, use the actual word in the definition. So, I guess it would be like, quickly looking at someone. Scanning them. So, there you go.

And don't forget, guys, if you were trying to improve your English pronunciation, reduce your foreign accent and sound more Australian, speaking more confidently. Be sure to grab my Australian pronunciation course. You can get this at AussieEnglish.com.au/APC. Inside, you'll learn how to use the IPA to improve your pronunciation without a teacher.

You'll get detailed tutorial, video and audio lessons, teaching you how to pronounce every single vowel and consonant sound in English. And you'll also have heaps of exercises in there to work on your most difficult sounds.

You'll also get access to the most recently added portion of the course, 25 advanced English pronunciation lessons where you learn things like connected speech, assimilation and sound changes that occur when speaking, as well as pronunciation of things like consonant clusters in words like "strengths". It's one of those most difficult ones.

So, just go to AussieEnglish.com.au/APC. So, now for the final part of this episode, guys. This clip that I'm going to play for you comes from the movie 'Finding Nemo'. I wonder if you guys have found this movie on Netflix, 'Finding Nemo'. And it is a classic kids' animation movie about a little clownfish from the Great Barrier Reef of Australia that just gets lost in the wide-open ocean and has to find his way home back to his family.

So, the rules of the game, I'm going to play a clip for you two times. The goal is to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and write down what's being said. See if you can work on your listening comprehension and get every single word, the entire phrase that's being said.

Okay. Remember, you'll be able to check your answer if you download today's worksheet or have joined the Premium Podcast membership and use the transcript for this episode. You ready to go? Here's the first playthrough.

I'll start the testimonies. Hello, my name is Bruce. Hello, Bruce. It has been three weeks since my last fish, on my honour or may I be chopped up and made into soup.

How'd you go? Did you get it all? All right, time for the second playthrough.

I'll start the testimonies. Hello, my name is Bruce. Hello, Bruce. It has been three weeks since my last fish, on my honour or may I be chopped up and made into soup.

So, that was a bit of a long one, but hopefully you guys can go back and listen a few times if you need, you know, there was actually quite a few sentences in that one. Anyway, that's it for me, guys. Don't forget if you want to read whilst listening to today's episode, be sure to grab the Premium podcast membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. For everything else check out the website and I'll see you next time. See ya!