Daily Dose of English 61
Mugs
Daily Dose of English 61
Intermediate
Hey everyone, my name is Ben and you're listening to a Daily Dose of English. This is a short, simple podcast that you can listen to every day to improve your English. You can find the transcripts for all episodes and more on benslanguagelab.com. I'm glad you could make it today. Today, we're going to be talking about mugs. Mugs, because we just talked about glasses yesterday, like water glasses for drinking, and that made me think of mugs. And so I wanted to talk about them. Mugs are a pretty similar word to the word cup. However, they have a different feeling to them. Mugs tend to feel cozier in some ways and they're often thicker and there's a bit more of a specific use for them, which is typically going to be tea or coffee. I specifically use mugs for coffee more often than tea because I don't drink that much tea, just every so often, but I drink coffee every single day. And there's a lot of different forms of mugs. And I think that they're kind of a fun topic. The mug that I have is actually a refold mug, refolds of the company that I work for. And we have branded mugs. They're just normal mugs, nothing special, right? But we put our logo on it. And I have one and I really like it. because it's handy, right? It keeps my coffee warm in the morning. So I keep my coffee as hot for a long time. And it also just looks cool. It's a pretty simple and nice design. And it reminds me of the company that I work for and that I really am a part of and enjoy. And so I like to have mugs to drink out of. And having a refilled mug is just a plus, a benefit for me. I use that mug every single day, probably every single day since I've gotten it because I drink coffee every day. And so it's easier just to fill up that mug and keep using it and reusing it every day than it is to try to change things up because why would I do that? It's a perfectly functional mug. The only problem is that it is starting to crack a little bit on the top. The lid, which goes on top of the mug to close it, the lid, is cracking a little bit. And I'm a little worried that the heat is causing some problems. So I might have to replace the lid. But the main body of the mug is great. It's super functional. It's never hot, so I can grab the mug with my hand. but on the inside it's really hot. So it keeps my coffee hot, but it doesn't burn my hand, which is great, which is exactly what I want. However, there's lots of different kinds of mugs. A lot of people actually think of a mug not as a metal sort of travel mug, but they think of it as essentially a big cup that is a little bit thicker and often made of some sort of ceramic material. Ceramic is like clay once you've fired it. I think there's a little bit of a difference, but a ceramic mug looks visually different from a cup or a glass because those are a bit more see-through and flimsy in some sort. When I think of a glass, it's made of glass, and it's see-through, it's sort of tall. When I think of a cup, I often think of something that's maybe plastic or is just different. It's a little bit smaller. I think plastic is a good cup image. And then a mug is something that's thicker with ceramic, like I said. Maybe it's painted. It looks a little bit prettier. And it has something something on it typically where they typically have some sort of design or image or whatever. A common thing is to get somebody a mug as a gift. And you might see images online of mugs that say the world's greatest dad or I hate Mondays or things like that. Interesting slogans or words or phrases, images. There's so many different kinds of mugs because they are a bit more customized. Like I said, I have an image of the refold bird on my mug, but plenty of people have different mugs with their logo or their favorite, I don't know, YouTuber on it or a phrase. I don't know. There's so many mugs out there. In fact, I actually remember a couple of different mugs that I had that I used. One of them that I used for a long time was just like a $2 mug that I got from, I don't know, like Walmart or something. And it's funny because I almost never go to Walmart because it's, there's like not one close or easy to get to, but I had gone to a Walmart and I needed a mug and I found like this simple, just blue mug. And then I used that thing for like a year until I got just a better mug. And I traveled with it. Like I would bring it places, even though it was not a travel mug, but I liked it. But then I replaced it with a slightly larger mug from the, it's actually, I'm gonna, another big brand, but it's the Starbucks edition mug thing. Because they release mugs that have a design and a text from a bunch of different cities or states or countries on them. And I think they look really cool. They don't actually say Starbucks in like a really obvious way, like it does say Starbucks, it's still marketing, but it's not super obvious and I found one for my home state. I found one that was an Oregon mug and I really liked using it because it's also just a great size and shape and so it's just a nice mug to use. And I found it in a Goodwill for like $2. Again, I get my mugs for pretty cheap, which is really nice. And the funny thing is that I think they sell those mugs for like $20, which is way too much money for a mug, but I found it for basically, it was really cheap. So if you can find a solid mug in like a used store or something like that, definitely go with that. They're fine quality. It's like, it's a mug. It's not good. If it breaks, it breaks. If it doesn't break, then it's fine. Um, and then use that for a while. I also had a mug from, that's the same style, same Starbucks series of mugs, but it was from Boston, and I used that for a while. I have no connection to Boston. I've been there once to visit and never again, and so I don't really know why I had it or why I was using it, but I also used that mug for a while. I think I've had a couple more of those as well. I think I've had a London one. I think I've had a New York one. I've had a bunch of different ones of those because I think they're cool. I think you can Google the Starbucks travel series mugs or something like that and you'll see a bunch of images of them. Anyways, getting off of this weird tangent talking about the Starbucks mugs. I think that mugs are a great way to not express your creativity, but to like have a little bit of interest in your life for something that you like. There's sometimes a bit of a, oh, here's a good word, a stigma against fun mugs or fun things like that. A stigma, by the way, is something where people think that something is bad just because other people think that it's bad or because it's like seen as a negative thing for some reason. So for example, what I was going to say is a stigma against childish mugs. So for example, like a Star Wars mug or a Jurassic Park mug or a Lego Batman mug, I don't know, like a mug or a t-shirt or an interest or something like that where other people think that it's a negative thing. Right, so a stigma that used to be around, it's not really around as much anymore, is against things like anime, or cartoons, or liking things like that, or liking science fiction, for example. Back, whatever, 50 years ago, it was sort of seen as a bad thing. Oh, you're such a nerd, you like Star Wars? What a nerd, right? But now it's a normal thing, it's not really a stigma anymore. However, I do think there's still a bit of a stigma for adults to have that sort of expression. To be like, I like this thing, and my mug that says Jurassic Park on it and has the dinosaur is cool. I like this mug, so you can shut up. And so I think that if you like a thing and you find a cool mug about it, you should have that mug and you should use that mug and you should enjoy it. Whether it is cool or other people think that it's dumb, that doesn't matter. It's for you, it's your mug or your t-shirt or your bedspread or there's a lot of different things that it can be. But I would say don't let other people's opinions of the things that you like ruin your joy, your interest in those things, because you're only gonna live once, and why not enjoy the things that you enjoy? If somebody doesn't like them, then they're probably not gonna like you, which is fine. You don't have to make everybody like you. But yeah, anyways, I like you. I appreciate that you came here to listen to this episode, and enjoyed it, and learned some new words. And I also like that you subscribed, and are gonna come back tomorrow for the next episode. I'll see you then. Bye.
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