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Part 1

Special costumes

This episode's vocabulary

  • Kilt (noun) - a skirt with many folds, made from tartan cloth and traditionally worn by Scottish men and boys.
  • To force smth on smn (phrasal verb ;)) -  to make someone accept something that they do not want.
  • Dress party (noun) - a costume party (American English) or a fancy dress party (British English) is a type of party, common mainly in contemporary Western culture, where many of the guests are dressed up in costumes.
  • Not my thing (phrase) - its not something you enjoy.
  • Fortune (noun) - a large amount of money, goods, property, etc.
  • Tailor-made (adj.) - specially made for a particular purpose.
  • Prop (noun) - an object used by the actors performing in a play or film.


Questions and Answers

M: Rory, let's talk about special costumes. Do you like to wear special costumes, Rory?

R: Not really. No. I don't even like Halloween when everyone gets dressed up. I just think it's a lot of effort for not much reward, to be honest with you. Even when I wear my kilt. It's not for me. It's more for other people around me. They're usually curious about it and the colors and patterns and have lots of questions about it. But it doesn't really do much for me, I'm afraid.

M: Did you wear any special costumes when you were young?

R: I think one of the reasons why I'm not a great fan of costumes now is because of the ones my parents used to force on me when I was younger. I never quite got into it, even though they were obviously really big fans of the idea. There were ones for Halloween, fancy dress parties, and some birthdays. But still, it was never really my thing.

M: When was the last time you wore a special costume?

R: Well, I wore my kilt in Yegoryevsk, so people could take pictures and ask questions about the culture and history behind it. To be honest, though, in this sense, it was more of a prop than a costume, really.

M: Do you ever buy special costumes?

R: Oh, absolutely no. I think it's a huge waste of money in my opinion. Like even my kilt was a gift. It cost my parents an absolute fortune to have handmade.

M: Where can people go to buy special costumes?

R: Well, I suppose it depends on the kind of costume. If it's like a fancy dress costume, then there are sort of special specialist stores for this, I guess the called fancy dress shops where I'm from. If it's a sort of national dress, then you might have to pay for it to be tailor-made or handmade. And then it's got to go through all of the logistics behind that as well. So it will depend entirely on what costume you want.

M: Rory, thank you very much for your answers.



M: Wow, so special costume, such an interesting topic.

R: Yeah, I can't believe that they're asking questions about this now.

M: Well, special costumes, dear listener, first of all, what is a costume? So a costume is the set of clothes typical for a particular country or period of history suitable for a particular activity. That's a costume. Right? For example, we can say to be dressed in historical costumes. I wore historical costumes. But also a costume means like a costume of a vampire for Halloween, right? A costume of Donald Trump for example. Is it a costume?

R: Well, I suppose so if you're putting on for like a special occasion and it's not something you would usually wear. Because that really is the fundamental difference between a costume and clothes. You usually wear clothes, but your costume is something you wouldn't usually wear.

M: Right, so clothes, your clothes, but a costume is yes, special, right?

R: Yeah. And it's not just one thing, a costume is like it's not just like clothes or trousers shirts. Those are individual... Costumes, they're tied together by a single theme.

M: Yes, it's complete. And a costume for special occasions. Again, for example, Halloween costumes, or Christmas costumes. You can be dressed up as an elf. I don't know, as Santa Claus. Santa Claus has a costume.

R: Yes. Well, you have a Santa suit or outfit as well.

M: Yeah. Okay. And if you want to have for example, a party and you say, okay, I'm throwing a Star Wars party, and everybody should wear a costume from Star Wars. So for example, Rory is going to be Chewbacca.

R: Why would I be Chewbacca?

M: Scottish Chewbacca.

R: The Scottish language is about as understandable as wookie language. Well, I'm quite furry in general.

M: Yeah, so. So a costume of Chewbacca would be a costume. Right? Hairy. Anyway, so what about a suit? We have... He's yawning.

R: Sorry, it's early in the morning.

M: Yeah, we're recording early in the morning.

R: Early, quarter to 11 o'clock in the morning is very early.

M: Well had to get up at like what eight? Costumes. Okay. So s suit. I can wear a suit. Is a suit similar to a costume?

R: If you're speaking Russian iit is, but it's not. They're different. Suits are for professional or very formal occasions. costumes are more context specific. So you could wear a costume for it could be a play, or it could be like you say at a fancy dress party.

M: So when then go to the theater actors are wearing ccostumes.

R: Yes.

M: Oh, nice. Okay, Opera, theatre.

R: I think the department that organizes clothes for actors is actually called the costume department, isn't it?

M: Hmm. Okay, maybe. Right. So a suit is a formal suit like trousers, a jacket, right, for a woman or for men. So a suit, a smart suit. So clothes, suit for your business interview and a costume. A Batman costume, for example. And you wear a costume. You can wear a costume at a fancy dress party, right, Rory?

R: Yes.

M: What is a fancy dress party?

R: Oh, fancy, well, there are different kinds of fancy dress party, but usually it's where people dress up as different characters from different contexts and come together for a reason. So someone could have a fancy dress party for Star Wars, like you said, or you could just have a fancy dress party in general, and people have more freedom to choose where they get their costumes from.

M: Yeah, for example, once I went to a fancy dress party, the topic was mafia. So we were smoking cigars. There was this Don Corleone with his wife, that was fun. And you get dressed up, right. So get dressed up, means you wear this costume. So you put it on first, and then you wear it.

R: Well, to get dressed up more generally means you put a lot of effort into what you're wearing. But you can get dressed up in a fancy dress costume, but you can also get dressed up for work or get dressed up for any party if you put much effort into it.

M: I can also say dress up. Do I have to dress up?

R: You don't have to dress up but you choose to.

M: Yeah, for example, I do dress up like everyday.

R: There's an expression dressed up to party.

M: Oh, dressed up to party. We can also say just a fancy party. Not a fancy dress party. But a fancy party, right?

R: Yes. Although that might be difficult. That's very different from a fancy dress party. A fancy party would be something more like you have to wear nice clothes, and probably there will be extremely elite people there.

M: Oh, so the Hilton Hotel is this fancy party. But it doesn't mean that people are wearing costumes.

R: Well, I don't know if I associate the Hilton family with being fancy. But yes, you get the idea here.

M: What about a party when people wear masks to hide their faces? What do you call it?

R: Well, that will just for a normal party, won't it? No. No, not really. Oh god. Isn't it a masked ball? Is that not what it's called?

M: Masquerade?

R: Oh, really? No. I thought like, I've heard of masked balls where like, people go with masks over their faces. And nobody knows who they are. And you can dance with people but you don't know who you're dancing with. That's quite fun.

M: Yeah. Have you ever been? No, because it's something I associate with the 18th century.

M: Masked ball you said.

R: Yeah.

M: Masquerade. Oh, yeah. masked ball. Yeah, absolutely. So Cambridge on my dictionary. Masked ball.

R: Isn't a masquerade where you pretend to be someone as well as wearing a mask.

M: How do you spell masquerade? A masquerade ball or a masquerade party. A party or dance, where people wear masks. There we go.

R: So you don't pretend to be different people?

M: Yes. or other disguises. Yeah. Clothes that hide who you are, or make you look like someone else. So when she agreed to accompany him to a masquerade, she doesn't know who exactly she's dancing with. Oh my god. Yes, dear listener, now you have a crystal clear idea hopefully about costumes. But also costumes could be like, some costume of a nurse. A costume of a flight attendant. A costume of a school girl. These are also costumes.

R: Why does it always have to go down this path with you.

M: No, but we should look at all possible contexts. Right? So costumes could be something sexy, sexy costume.

R: Isn't that this line from Family Guy, isn't it?

M: What is it?

R: Let's have a sexy party. That's like what Stewie Griffin says.

M: I don't watch Family Guy.

R: I don't watch it anymore either, because it's not funny anymore.

M: I watch Southpark. It is funny.

R: That's funny. Yeah.

M: Yeah, that's funny. The latest episode is very funny. Anyway, Rory, you told us that I'm not a big fan of costumes. You said I'm not a great fan of costumes.

R: It's not my thing. No, I don't like them. It's just another way of saying I don't like it.

M: So if you don't like dressing up like a Batman, it's fine. Or even if you don't like dressing up like a Spider man or Superwoman. So I'm not a great fan of costumes. It's not my thing. And then you talk about your parents. Surely. My parents used to force on me.

R: Yeah, so it's not like they forced me like physically forced me to wear things. Although I didn't get much choice. If you force something on somebody, it's more like you make them believe the same idea as you at least outwardly. So you can force your religion on people, you can force your ideology on people. All of these are very, this sounds really dark. My parents are nice people. It's just that they had like, they want to do fancy dress parties, and I thought it was just stupid.

M: Oh, did you have to dress up like a bee? Or like a tree?

R: This is gonna say so much about my life. My mother, my mother dressed me up as Elton John for one fancy dress party. Does this not just explain everything ever?

M: No, it's a costume of Elton John. So did you have glasses?

R: Yes. It was just like a chronic case of asking for it. Right. Moving swiftly on...

M: So, Rory, so you can say that? I never really got into it.

R: Yeah. So if you never really got into it, if it wasn't your thing. If you're not a great fan of something. It just means it's not for me. I don't like. Although it as it turns out, it doesn't matter how much you say these things to people, they still treat you like you're personally responsible for the death of Princess Diana if you don't wear a fancy dress costume for some reason.

M: So, dear listener, you do know that Rory has a kilt and his kilt is handmade and costs an absolute fortune. And Rory sometimes wears his kilt on some occasions. And you said that it was more of a prop than a costume, really?

R: Yeah. So, well, a costume is something you wear. But a prop is something that's used on a stage for a specific purpose. Or as part of an act really, maybe props not the right word in this context, I probably should have said conversation piece. But you get the idea. It's all about theater and drama.

M: So, Rory, let's imagine that you have to go to this fancy dress party, there's no option of not going, so you're going and you have a choice of special costumes. So and you must choose this like no option of not choosing. So would you be dressed up like a Ronald McDonald? So a costume of Ronald McDonald. Catwoman, a costume of Catwoman. Aladdin.

R: Alladin might be slightly, slightly politically incorrect.

M: So Ronald McDonald costume, Catwoman, Aladdin, a costume of a burger. Like a burger, like a real burger or Gandalf. So which costume?

R: I think Gandalf.

M: Like with a hat and stick?

R: Gandalf isn't as cumbersome as the other ones. Imagine like being dressed up as a burger. And you're like, knock into people and get in their way. dressing up as a clown requires a lot of effort and makeup if you're Ronald McDonald and Catwoman, I feel like that wouldn't go down so well in some suburbs in Moscow. If I'd dressed up as Catwoman.

M: Oh God, like a burger. Really, dear listener, just Google it. Like a costume of a burger. Oh my God. So Gandalf, would you be white Gandalf or grey Gandalf?

R: I would be whatever required the least amount of effort Gandalf.

M: Okay, good. Yes. Choosing a costume and dressing up is a lot of effort.

R: But hopefully we've given you a lot of vocabulary to make your effort in the exam a little less stressful.

M: Yay. Now you're all ready to talk about special costumes.

R: On the subject of making things less stressful. If you would like to suffer less stress during your part two and three preparation. Don't forget to check out our premium podcast where in this week, I'll describe a film or a movie that made me laugh. And then in part three, I'll discuss watching comedy films and movies in general. See you next week.

M: Bye!

R: Bye!



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