BBC 6 minute English-A tall story

Transcript of the podcast

Note: This is not a word for word transcript

Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Neil

Catherine: And I’m Catherine

Neil: Catherine, are you tall enough

Catherine: Tall enough for what

Neil: Tall enough to be happy with your height

Catherine: Er, well, yes, I’m alright with my height, I can’t do a thing about it anyway so, how about you

Neil: Well, the same, really. I wouldn’t mind being slightly taller, I suppose, which is appropriate as today’s topic is about heightism

Catherine: Heightism. Now, you may not have heard of heightism before, but it’s like other ‘isms’ – like racism, sexism, ageism and other ‘isms’ that highlight a particular kind of discrimination or unequal treatment that people experience

Neil: But before we find out more about this topic, our quiz question for today. The tallest person ever proven to live was Robert Wadlow from the USA. How tall was he? Was he

a) 2.71m

b) 2.72m or

c) 2.73m

What do you think Catherine

Catherine: Wow, that’s really, really tall! I’m going to guess 2.71m

Neil: Well, listen out for the answer at the end of the programme. Tanya S Osensky is an attorney and author of the book ‘Shortchanged’ about her own experiences of heightism

Catherine: Clever title. To short-change someone is to not give them what they are entitled to, what they deserve. And originally this phrase comes from paying for something and not getting the right money back. So if I buy something for £۶ and I pay with a £۱۰ note and the shopkeeper only gives me £۳ back, I’ve been short-changed – it means I’ve been cheated. And in the context of facing discrimination because you’re not tall, ‘Shortchanged’ is a really good pun

Neil: Tanya spoke about her book on the BBC radio programme Thinking Allowed. She talks first about our general feelings about height. What does she say people never wish for

Tanya S Osensky

Everybody that I’ve spoken to who is tall relishes their height. I have not met anybody who said they would wish they were shorter and people generally tend toeven embellish what their height is when you ask them what it is

Neil: So what is it she says no one wishes for

Catherine: Well, she says no one wishes they were shorter

Neil: And that’s right. She said that tall people relish their height. This means they enjoy being tall, they get great satisfaction from it

Catherine: And another point she makes is that many people embellish their height, if asked. This means they say they are taller than they actually are. Now, to embellish a fact means to exaggerate it to make it seem bigger, faster, better and so on

Neil: Here’s Tanya S Osensky again

Tanya S Osensky

Everybody that I’ve spoken to who is tall relishes their height. I have not met anybody who said they would wish they were shorter and people generally tend to even embellish what their height is when you ask them what it is

Neil: She goes on to explain how some research has shown that shorter people are less likely to get jobs, less likely to get promoted and less likely to earn as much as taller people. What is the financial difference she mentions? She talks about the premium per inch. An inch is about 2.5cm and the premium is a word which means the extra benefit, the extra advantage. Here’s Tanya S Osensky again

Tanya S Osensky

One set of data showed that the premium for height is over $2000 per inch for men and $1000 per inch for women and over time that disparity grows significantly so it ends up being a huge chunk of someone’s paycheck over their career

Catherine: She says that taller men earn $2000 an inch

Neil: For women it’s a bit less, but still significant at $1000 an inch

Catherine: And this disparity – or difference – between the salaries of taller and shorter people is an example of heightism. Shorter people, she says, are getting fewer jobs and fewer benefits because they are short

Neil: Well, one person who certainly wasn’t short was the subject of today’s quiz question. The tallest person who has lived, Robert Wadlow. We asked how tall he was, was it

a) 2.71m

b) 2.72m or

c) 2.73m

What did you say, Catherine

Catherine: I said 2.71m

Neil: Well, you were almost there. The correct answer was b) 2.72m. Congratulations if you got that right. Now Catherine, much as I relish being in the studio with you, we must wrap up the programme now with a review of today’s vocabulary

Catherine: Well relish was one of those words. If you relish something you really enjoy it – so thanks you for that, Neil

Neil: You’re welcome! This programme was about a kind of discrimination. This means the unfair or unequal treatment of people because of, for example, their race, religion, colour, age or indeed height

Catherine: And discrimination because of someone’s height is called heightism

Neil: Something which many of us do is embellish our height – wesay we are taller than we actually are

Catherine: A premium is an extra benefit or advantage that can be gained, in this case, by being taller. And finally we had disparity, another word for difference. There is a disparity between salaries between tall people and their shorter colleagues

Neil: And that is 6 Minute English for today. Do join us again and until then we look forward to seeing you in all the usual places: ­­Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube as well as our website, bbclearningenglish.com. Goodbye

Catherine: Bye