Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Chatterbox, the QLIPP series for intermediate to advanced English learners, where we pick a really interesting topic and we have a conversation about it. In Chatterbox, in the past, we've covered everything from technology and business to pop culture and relationships. And I think today's topic is one that's going to really resonate with many of you.
And I hope you'll find it as fun as I did. By the way, my name's Andrew. And in just a second, I'll be joined by my co-host, Anna. And in today's conversation, we're going to be talking about the ick. The ick. If you haven't heard about the ick before, basically it's just the feeling where someone you were into suddenly does something and because of that, you're just totally put off by them.
And the weird thing is, it's usually something that's really small that causes it. Maybe it's the way they laugh or a word they keep saying, or even maybe the way they eat. So Anna and I are going to talk about everything related to the ick in just a moment.
But before we get started, I want to let you know about the helpful study guide and interactive transcript that's available for this episode to all Q-Lips members. It's a fantastic way to learn and improve your English with this conversation. And I highly recommend checking it out. As I said, it's available to all Q-Lips members.
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Now we know when you're learning English, you need to do a lot of listening, but also being active with your English is a very important component of building your fluency. And we got you covered for that. We have an awesome community of Q-Lips listeners from around the world, and we hang out and spend time together on our Discord server.
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Okay, I think those are all of the announcements out of the way for now. So why don't we get started with this episode in earnest and welcome in Anna. And here's our conversation about the ick.
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Chapter 2: What is the ick and why does it happen?
Hope you enjoy it. And joining me now to talk all about the ick is my co-host Anna. Anna, how's it going today?
Really well, thank you, Andrew. What about yourself?
I'm doing really well as well. Anna, we always record on Fridays. That is like our regular recording time is Fridays. So yeah, we're probably always in good moods on Fridays. You're right. It's better than recording like on Monday, right?
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Friday feeling and all that. Definitely.
Yeah. So today we are going to talk about the ick. And Anna, you introduced this to me just before we started recording. You gave a really good background and breakdown of it. So maybe you could do that for our listeners as well. Could you tell us what we mean by the ick?
Absolutely. I guess I'll start with the definition and then I will explain a little bit about how the ick came to life again recently. The ick is defined as something within a romantic context. It's something that somebody does that all of a sudden makes you not like that person.
This could be something serious, it could be something really silly and superficial, but whatever it is, if something gives you the ick, and that's the phrase that people often use to give yourself the ick, It just means that suddenly you're like, oh, you're completely turned off by that person. You don't want to continue with them anymore. And it's something really sudden.
It was actually a phrase that was popularized apparently in the 1990s on a show called Ally McBeal, which was a really, really popular show. And then recently, in the last few years, it's made a huge comeback on shows like, for example, Love Island. I don't know if you've heard of that, Andrew, but that's got lots of shows around the world.
And it's kind of had this big comeback of people saying he, she, they gave me the ick, which, as I said before, means something they did completely turned you off that person. So instead of it being general day-to-day things like pet peeves, like people not washing your hands, for me, it's more of a phrase within a romantic context, if that makes sense, and dating.
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Chapter 3: How do personal values influence our perception of the ick?
And guys, I'll link the articles in the description for this episode, too, so that if you're interested in learning more and reading more, then you can check out those articles. But I'm going to pull up one here, Anna, and I wanted just to read a section from it. And the article was saying that a lot of the times the ick is subconscious and evolutionary.
So it gave the example of a couple on a date and suddenly, you know, the date was going fine. Maybe this was like the third or fourth date. So it wasn't a first impression, but maybe on one of the third or fourth dates. The guy had chapped lips and then suddenly the chapped lips were like the ick.
The woman saw the chapped lips and she maybe subconsciously in that moment thought that, oh, maybe this guy isn't so healthy or maybe he doesn't take good care of himself. And that could be a kind of evolutionary signal that perhaps. You know, he won't have a long life.
If this guy can't take care of his hydration to have like properly hydrated lips, then maybe he can't take care of himself in other situations. And that could eventually lead to like dying early, right? Or it gave the example of a guy who, I don't know, let's change it to a woman.
I'll pick on someone. Yeah, we were picking on guys here, aren't we, a little bit.
I'm picking too much on guys. I'll switch to a woman. A date who claps when a plane lands. And, you know, some people do that for some reason. Maybe they're just like nervous in the air and then the plane lands and they're like, oh, thank God we landed. Okay.
But that could evolutionarily signal that they do something embarrassing and that maybe that could mean that you're not accepted by a larger social group and you could be perhaps an outcast.
in some social situations and that could be like the ick it's like maybe this person doesn't have great social skills and they do something that's non-standard or embarrassing and it just makes you feel icky about that right so those were some examples from the article that i thought were really interesting that this could be really really deep-rooted and evolutionary and that's an uphill battle to fight i think against those deep instincts that we have
I think it's really hard to fight against those instincts, actually. The other theory they put on the table in these articles is actually that sometimes these behaviors perhaps reflect our own insecurities back at us. So, for example, if we take the clapping on the plane... I would find that a little bit awkward.
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Chapter 4: What are some examples of the ick from real-life experiences?
I mean, if you go on the internet, I don't know if you did this, Andrew, while you were researching the episode. I mean, it's just like a plethora of information about different ics people have that just... But I mean, I also think if I can add another comment here, I think this also is part of this dating world where we are so judgmental now of other people.
So this type of dating app culture where it's here are all the factors of somebody and we're judging them on all these factors, right? And I think it's part of this environment of being so judgmental of other people and having such high expectations. Like, I want them to be this. I want them to earn this amount of money. I want them to like this and this.
Oh, and they can't do this, this, this, this. And if they do this one thing, like, for example, one of the things, one of my eggs, Andrew, is almond milk.
Yeah.
Oh, no way.
That is one of my biggest eggs. So if I meet somebody and they drank almond milk, am I really going to stop seeing that person just because they drink almond milk? Like that's ridiculous. So I think it's also about this part of very judgmental dating culture as well that we've has been facilitated by these types of apps and things like that.
Yeah, that's a great point. So that's hilarious. So for you, if you were to go on a date to a cafe with a guy and he had a latte with almond milk, that would be an ick for you.
Huge turnoff. Absolutely. I just have a personal aversion to almond milk. It's like, why would you want to drink liquefied nuts? Like I just, it's something visceral. Like I just don't, don't get it. But again, of course the other side is maybe people prefer almond milk. Maybe it's tastier for them or whatever.
So, you know, I mean, it's ridiculous, but I have to be honest, like that would be a turnoff for me.
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Chapter 5: How does the ick relate to evolutionary psychology?
And this is more like friendships, because I think the ick, we can maybe extend it a little bit to friendships as well. Like one thing that I don't like is when people talk like this, and it's like vocal fry. Vocal fry guys is when people vibrate their voice and it has that like sound like this and oh, I just can't. I'm so sorry if you do that and you're listening, you're like, that's me.
But it's just, but again, silly, right? Who cares about how somebody talks that doesn't have a reflection on them as a person, right? But well, what can I say?
Yeah, and in fact, that speaking style I would say is pretty popular for very highly educated women in my generation, around my age, maybe late 30s to 50, like that demographic of North American women, especially sometimes guys. But I think vocal fry is mostly a female speaking trait. But yeah, usually they are super hyper intelligent individuals.
That's kind of a characteristic of people who use vocal fry. However, I agree that sometimes it can be very irritating to listen to. So it doesn't really have anything to do with your intelligence. It's just a kind of characteristic of that community. And yeah, it can be grating. But I was laughing again, Anna, because you do that so well.
Yeah, I know. I'm not sure which accent it is, but I can do that kind of standard, neutral, stereotypical American accent. So yeah, I've got that one in my arsenal.
Yeah, you morphed into American. I'm shocked because I can't do the British accent at all, but you totally nailed it. That's amazing. Okay.
Yeah. Maybe I'm a secret, secretly from the United States, but just living a British life. I don't know.
Double agent. Yeah.
Double agent. Yeah.
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