How Understanding Global Population Decline Can Help You Learn English Faster Ep 777

English Listening Practice: Why women are choosing careers over children!

Do you think delaying having children for a career is worth it? What if people simply don’t want children any more?

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Why are fewer women having babies, yet the world’s population keeps rising? In this lesson, you’ll explore a fascinating global trend that affects us all, while expanding your vocabulary on topics like family, population, and statistics.

If you’re aiming for higher-level English, this is the perfect way to practice understanding real-world discussions. Stay with us until the end—you won’t want to miss the surprising reason why this trend is happening, and how it’s shaping the future!

Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
⭐ Thomas Malthus

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More About This Lesson

In this lesson, we’ll learn English words and phrases to talk about social trends and statistics. We’ll focus on why fewer babies are being born around the world.

The world is overpopulated, and it’s only getting worse.
⭐ Jane Goodall

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This lesson will help you improve your English in a fun way:

1. Learn useful British English vocabulary for everyday conversations.
2. Improve your listening skills by hearing natural British English speech.
3. Expand your understanding of real-world English topics and discussions.
4. Practice pronunciation by repeating phrases and words in the lesson.
5. Gain exposure to British culture and common societal trends.
6. Build confidence in using new vocabulary through relatable examples.
7. Develop a better understanding of British English intonation and flow.
8. Reinforce your grammar knowledge through practical sentence examples.
9. Learn how to discuss global topics using English vocabulary for statistics.
10. You enhance comprehension by hearing English in a conversational context.

This lesson is great for English learners who want to talk about real-world issues.

Learning about global trends helps you understand the world better. It also gives you interesting things to talk about with others. In this lesson, we look at why birth rates are going down in many countries. This is happening even though some countries are getting richer. We’ll explore how education and jobs for women might be changing family sizes. By discussing these big ideas, you’ll learn English in a natural way, just like how you learned your first language.

If you want to learn more English while exploring fascinating topics? Follow our podcast for more lessons that make learning fun and useful!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How can I improve my British English pronunciation?
   To improve your British English pronunciation, you need to listen a lot. Exposure is key. Immerse yourself in British podcasts, TV shows, and conversations. Try mimicking the sounds and intonation patterns you hear. Focus on the way vowels and certain consonants are pronounced in British English, such as the soft “r” and clearer vowel sounds. Recording yourself and comparing it with native speakers can help you spot the differences and improve over time.
2. What are the best ways to expand my British English vocabulary?
   The best way to expand your vocabulary in British English is through consistent, meaningful exposure to the language. Reading British newspapers, watching British media, and engaging in conversations with native speakers are all effective. Whenever you encounter new words, make sure to note them down and use them in sentences to build context. Don’t just learn lists of words; use the words to develop a sense of how they fit into everyday conversation.
3. How can I learn to understand British accents better?
   Understanding British accents can be tricky, but the more you listen, the better you’ll get. Start with more standard British accents, like Received Pronunciation (RP), before moving on to regional accents. Focus on listening practice with material spoken by people with different accents, such as TV shows set in different parts of the UK or YouTube channels that feature various British voices. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything at first—your brain will get better at picking up the sounds over time.
4. What is the fastest way to achieve fluency in British English?
   Achieving fluency in British English quickly involves a combination of active practice and passive immersion. Speaking regularly is essential—find conversation partners, whether through language exchange apps or British friends. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, as they’re a natural part of the learning process. Pair your speaking with lots of listening, reading, and writing. Fluency comes from using the language daily in real-life situations and gradually building up your confidence.
5. How can I use British English slang and informal expressions naturally?
   The best way to learn British English slang and informal expressions is by immersing yourself in casual conversations, TV shows, or podcasts where natural language is spoken. Pay attention to how British people use slang in context, and don’t rush to use it yourself until you feel comfortable with the meaning and situation. British slang can vary regionally, so it’s also important to know where the expressions come from and how they fit in different social situations.

Most Unusual Words:

• Trend: A general change in the way people behave.
• Fertility: The ability to have babies, often measured by how many children a woman has.
• Infant mortality: The number of babies that die, usually because of poor healthcare.
• Contraception: Methods that prevent pregnancy.
• Demographic: Related to the structure of populations, such as age and birth rates.
• Replacement rate: The number of children needed to keep a population the same, usually 2.1 in developed countries.
• Sub-Saharan: Referring to the part of Africa located south of the Sahara Desert.
• Syndrome: A group of symptoms that together indicate a condition or problem.
• Expectations: Beliefs about what will happen or what should happen.
• Equity: The quality of being fair and equal, especially in relationships or opportunities.

Most Frequently Used Words:

Word	Count
Women	21
Having	15
Countries	15
About	13
Fertility	12
Number	11
Their	9
Fewer	9
Means	9

Listen To The Audio Lesson Now

Transcript: How Understanding Global Population Decline Can Help You Learn English Faster

Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.

 Learn How to Talk About Global Trends in English

Hi there! Something I was surprised to learn recently – big companies in the UK, especially in London, are offering their female employees the benefit of paying for them to freeze their eggs. You heard that right. Female employees, women who work for them, are being offered by big companies ‘We can freeze your eggs for you’! That’s so that they can delay having children until much later in their career. That seems crazy to me. It tells you something of the demands that these big companies make on their employees. And I also read an article this week entitled, ‘The Truth about why we stopped having babies.’ So today, let’s do some English language learning while talking about a trend that affects many of us. What’s a ‘trend’? T-R-E-N-D. It’s a change in the way that lots of people are behaving. And the trend that I’m talking about today, well, women in many countries of the world are having fewer children, smaller families, and in many cases, no children at all. So ‘The truth about why women stopped having babies’ – what’s going on? And if this is the case, why is the world’s population still rising? ‘Population’, P-O-P-U-L-A-T-I-O-N simply means ‘the number of people’. Lessons like this one can help you learn important vocabulary and phrases for discussing trends, social issues, and statistics in English. That’s useful for everyday conversation, but it’s also useful in more formal contexts, like if you have to write essays for your course. If you’re aiming at higher level English, today’s lesson is the perfect way to practise understanding this type of discussion. Stay with me until the end. You won’t want to miss some of the surprising reasons why this trend is happening.

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Why is the world’s population rising if fewer people are having babies?

So that article, ‘The truth about why we stopped having babies’ – it’s an interesting one. But let’s practise your English first of all with some real world statistics. See how much of this you can understand. The world population is currently 8.1 billion and that’s expected to grow by another 2 billion over the next 60 years to around 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s. That’s a lot of people! So why that newspaper headline, ‘The truth about why we stopped having babies’? How can both be true? Well, because in most countries, the population is declining, it’s getting less. What’s going on? Well, there’s an interesting statistic called the ‘fertility rate’. That’s ‘the average number of babies born per woman’ and an ‘average’ A-V-E-R-A-G-E – you’ll have done this in Maths at school – it’s the number you get by adding two or more amounts together and then dividing by the number of amounts. That’s ‘average’. And in the UK, this measure, the fertility rate, the number of babies per woman, it’s been falling since 2010. In 2022 in England and Wales, women had an average of only 1.49 babies. That’s the lowest fertility rate ever recorded here. And that fertility rate is well below 2.1. That’s the number in developed countries that’s required to ‘replace ourselves’, to keep the population level the same, in other words. I say in developed countries because in less developed countries, something called ‘infant mortality’ is higher. ‘Infant mortality’ just means the number of babies that die, usually because healthcare is not good. So with a fertility rate of only 1.49, the UK population is in decline. It’s going down. There will be fewer and fewer people here. So smaller families, fewer children is the trend. The average number of children per family is one and a half. I’m well above the trend as I have three children.

Two-thirds of the world’s countries have falling populations, yet some countries have ‘higher fertility rates’ than ever

And this fall in the fertility rate isn’t just in the UK. It’s mirrored in developed countries all over the world. In fact, two thirds of countries in the world now have fertility rates below this ‘replacement rate’ of 2.1, meaning two thirds of countries have a falling population. So how can the global population still be increasing and expected to reach 10 billion in the next 60 years? Well, part of the answer is of course, we’re all living a bit longer. Healthcare is better and we live to a greater age. But it’s also that there are some countries where the fertility rate is high. But it’s not China or India, the world’s really big population countries. In India, I was surprised, the fertility rate is only 2.03. And less surprising in China, it’s 1.45. The one child policy only stopped in 2015. But if you look at the fertility rates for African countries, it’s startlingly different. In fact, the top 15 countries in the world, the ones with the highest fertility rate are all in Africa. For example, in Niger, the average number of babies per woman is 6.7. In Angola, it’s 5.7. And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s 5.5. So women in countries in Africa are having many more babies than they are in countries like the UK. In fact, the only country outside of Africa with a fertility rate higher than 4.0 Afghanistan with 4.53.

Mentioning Afghanistan reminds us that actually some of the explanation for these trends is that where women have choice, they have fewer children. And Afghanistan is probably the country in the world where women have least choice. And infant mortality in Afghanistan is horrific. Remember that statistic means ‘the number of babies that die’. But in what we call sub-Saharan Africa, so that means countries in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, women have more babies partly because that’s the normal expectation, but they also don’t have access necessarily to contraception. That’s ‘contraception’, C-O-N-T-R-A-C-E-P-T-I-O-N. And that means ‘methods that prevent pregnancy’. The other term for ‘contraception’ used more commonly in the US is ‘birth control’.

Better healthcare, lower infant mortality, contraception and education means women choose differently

So if you want to look at the official data, the sensible reasons why populations are in decline, the website, The World Population Review is really good. And it talks about three main factors in developed countries, why women are having fewer children. There’s better healthcare, so fewer babies die. There’s greater access to contraception and there’s better education for women. Women are busy getting an education and are seeking to establish careers before or sometimes in place of having a family. But let’s go back to the answers in that UK newspaper item – ‘The truth about why we stopped having babies’. The wording of that title, ‘The truth about…’ suggests that there might be other reasons too. What are they?

What if women simply don’t want children anymore?

Well, this article starts by looking at a tweet on X. Someone asked, ‘What’s your pet theory about the causes of birth rate decline?’ And various people answered. They said things like, ‘People everywhere have higher expectations for everything, their spouse, for quality of life, for their kids.’ That means ‘children’. Or another answer, was ‘Birth control and the cost of living?’ Another one, ‘People are too stressed, overworked and focused on their careers and personal goals.’ And I like this one. ‘Men are mean and everything is expensive.’ So it is those three factors I mentioned earlier. Fewer children die, women have contraception, and women have better education and access to jobs. But it’s more than this.
Many women choose not to or think very hard about having a child. They may not want the change in lifestyle that having a child means, and they have choice. Many decide they’re only willing to have one child.

Learn English: How Lego & Accidents Teach Us About The Sea

So why do women want only one child or no children? Well, in places like the UK and Europe, the cost of living gets ever higher. It’s hard to pay for where you live. Rent is high, and the cost of owning your own home is impossible for many people, especially in cities like London. And in developed countries, although jobs pay well in comparison with other places in the world, jobs are insecure. ‘Insecure here’ means ‘you never know whether your job is going to continue’. And the fear of being out of work, not able to earn, is ever-present. Add to this the cost of childcare. That’s paying to have your child looked after while you go to work. Average childcare costs in the UK, if you do a full-time job, so say the child is in childcare for hours a week, that’s £300, which totals over £14,000 a year. That’s difficult to afford. And for many people, getting married, buying a house, having a family – normal things in other words – it feels unaffordable, beyond their reach. And what the article calls ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’ can set in. ‘Peter Pan’ is originally a character from a play by J M Barrie, and it’s famously ‘the boy who didn’t grow up, who never became an adult’. So ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’, young people can’t afford houses and families, so they decide they’re just going to enjoy themselves instead. They go on lots of holidays, eat out a lot at restaurants, enjoy nice clothes, and a great lifestyle instead.

Is it that ‘Men are too mean’?!

But what about that statement, ‘Men are too mean’? What does that mean? Well, ‘mean’ in this context can have two meanings. If you’re ‘mean’ to someone, it means you’re ‘not very nice to them’, but ‘mean’, M-E-A-N, can also mean that ‘you don’t like spending money’. The article in The Independent quotes research from a study in America by the American Enterprise Institute, and they asked why nearly half of college-educated American women said they were single. That means ‘no boyfriend, no girlfriend, no husband, no wife, no partner of any kind’. And the majority of women who’d like to date men reported that they struggled to find men that meet their expectations. They complained that ‘Men are not willing or able to be emotionally present in a relationship, the way the women want them to be’. American women were disappointed by what men offered in relationship, in other words. And the writer of the article, a 37-year-old British woman, Helen Coffey, also has no partner or children. She said to her, that seems ‘inevitable’. She’s tried dating and ‘not found any suitable men.’ I think typically women in developed countries have expectations of ‘equality’, E-Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y, ‘of men and women being equal’. So women expect that a partner or husband will share equally in the effort of raising children, in having a family, but they’re not finding men who are willing to do this. The men’s expectations are not the same as the women’s expectations, and this is a problem.

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Can governments really persuade people to have more children with money?

Add into this people’s worry about overpopulation and climate change, as well as the cost of living that I’ve already spoken about. And it’s no wonder that government measures in certain countries seem unable to stop this trend. And governments are considering action. In South Korea, for example, where the fertility rate is an incredibly low 0.72, the government are considering offering the equivalent of £59,000 per child. It sounds a lot, but the cost of bringing up a child is probably a lot more than that. So people in developed countries are having fewer children or no children, and it doesn’t seem as if this is going to change anytime soon.

There’s a lot to practise on in this podcast lesson. Make sure you listen to it a number of times until you can understand all of it comfortably. It’s great stuff for your English language learning.

Goodbye

Enough for now, have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon.Goodbye.

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