Lewis:  Ok, Hello everybody, erm so er I’m Lewis, I’m Jack and I’m John.  And er, we’ve gathered here today er to discuss the topic of New Year’s resolutions…ok and first, what is a new year’s resolution?

Jack:  So I suppose I would define a New Year’s resolution as a goal or kind of a target that you are hoping to achieve by the end of the year.

John:  You could also say it’s a promise, probably and promise to yourself to try to achieve something.

Lewis:  And in this case do people usually keep their promises? 

Jack:  No, I would say most new year’s resolutions are broken at some point over the year.

John:  I think initially sometimes it can be easy enough to stick to a resolution maybe in the first couple of weeks or the first month. But then sometimes it is very difficult to stick to them throughout the entire year I think. 

Lewis:  So when you say they stick to new year’s resolutions, what do you mean by stick to because stick, you use glue to stick something, don’t you?

John:  Of course, but in this context it means to continue with something, so yeah to stick to a resolution is to continue with a resolution.

Lewis:  For example, a few years ago erm I made a new year’s resolution erm to go running as often as possible, ok, and I didn’t stick to it, ok, so erm.

Jack:  How long did you keep it up? 

Lewis:  I’d say I kept it up for maybe a month or two, and this year in fact, erm the new new year’s resolution that I have made is to start read more books. Because I read quite a lot but it’s usually the news, different articles, er so I’ve promised myself that I’m going to stick to the new year’s resolution of reading more books.

Jack:  So, what are you reading now? 

Lewis:  Well, I’ve started reading a Spanish book erm and it’s from erm a writer who is from Cordoba erm, I’ve read one chapter in a few weeks so I’m not really sticking to my new year’s resolution, but fingers crossed erm I will improve over the next few weeks and have some more free time and read more often.

Lewis:  Jack, have you made any new year’s resolutions? 

Jack:  Ermm so this year I’ve decided to give dry January a go, erm for those who are unfamiliar with dry January it basically means that for the entire month of January I won’t be drinking any alcohol.   Wow, erm which in Spain is quite a difficult thing to do, erm I’ve learnt that its not something that is really that common in Spain to make this promise. Erm, but, so in one month’s time I will be running the Seville marathon, so I decided that I needed to have a few weeks of peace without too much drinking

John:  So, you’ve decided to cut out all alcohol, just for January or for February as well until the marathon?

Jack: So, I think at the moment I will try to continue going until the end of January and then if I’m still enjoying it, I will carry on till I’m half way through February when I run the marathon.

Lewis: So you’ll carry on, so you’ll continue to do it? 

Jack: I’ll continue to do it until the marathon. 

John: That’s a good idea, I think in my opinion for me its very difficult to do this type of resolution where you are cutting out something completely or in the sense that you are stopping something or quitting something.

Jack:  But its only for one month though which makes it a bit easier.

John: I, that’s a good point , I think for me it’s easier when it is a smaller change so for example cutting down on something, so reducing the amount I consume for example last year I made the resolution that I, after eating a little bit too much during the Christmas period, I decided to cut out all sweets and all chocolate and it was very difficult because stopping something completely is very difficult so this year I’ve taken the approach, I’ve decided to just cut down on chocolate and sweets after eating too much again this year, for Christmas.  So, I’m just reducing the amount I eat so that I have some health benefits, and I think in my opinion it’s much easier to stick to these types of resolutions.

Jack:  See to cut down on chocolate I would find very difficult because chocolate is my biggest weakness. 

Lewis:  You have a very sweet tooth.

Jack:  It would be too much of a compromise for me.

John:  So you love sweet things ok. 

Lewis:  Interesting, erm so in general do you think people usually stick to their new year’s resolutions?  Because in my case the example I gave earlier about running, I didn’t stick to it, erm  the other example I gave this year about reading, let’s say I haven’t quit I haven’t given up it but mmm I’m not doing that well, I haven’t been reading quite as much as I would have liked.

Jack:  I suppose your resolution differs to mine and jonny’s because we want to limit things that we are doing or stop things that we are doing whereas you want to start doing something, which could potentially be easier, would you say?

Lewis:  I’m not sure mm, because I guess I’m trying to create a habit that has never existed before and that’s quite difficult because I’ve never been that interested in reading, fiction, so I’m trying to change my hobby and things that I do and so it’s a little bit of a test to see how I get on, how I do.

John:  I think that is quite difficult, because you are, as you said starting, creating another habit and we are all very busy in our lives so it’s always difficult to add more or to change something completely as opposed to restrict, for example to cut down on something or to cut out something.

Lewis:  So would you say that that is easier to cut down on something or to cut out?

John:  I think that cutting down on something is easy enough in my opinion to cut out something is as difficult as adding something if not more difficult.

Lewis:  Yeah, again you’re changing a habit.

John:  Exactly right, yeah.

Jack:  What do we think the most common types of resolutions are then?

Lewis:  Hmmm, what do you think, john?

John: I think there are a lot of health-related erm resolutions, so for example I am a member of a gym and erm in January the gym is full of new faces, so it is very busy with a lot of people and I think that is a common resolution er for people to join the gym for example er.  Again, I don’t think too many people stick to these resolutions for too long because i think by February or march there will be er a reduction of the amount of new faces that I have seen in the gym.  So, I think health related, for example joining the gym, to cut out, cutting out a particular food or cutting down on a particular food I think they’re the most common.

Lewis:  I’d say another one is money-related so a lot of people choose to save money, in particular after er spending so much money buying presents for Christmas or in this case for the three wise men. Erm and then after that erm, you could say that they need to cut down on how much they’re spending so they need to reduce the amount they’re spending.   I think that, in general this one can help if you’re doing dry January because one of the things that a lot of people spend money on is going out and eating and drinking.  If you are not drinking any alcohol, then I don’t know I guess you would save a lot of money. 

Jack:  Yes, it was definitely a factor in why I decided to do dry January, because I, I felt like in December I spent a lot of money on alcohol with all the Christmas parties err, and nights out I was spending a lot of money, yeah on evening drinks.  And I’ve noticed that since I’ve stopped drinking, I’ve been saving a lot more money.

John:  So, it’s a good way to achieve more than one resolution, good yeah, we would say to kill two birds with one stone where you are achieving more than one thing, so it’s a good idea.

Lewis:  This is a great expression to kill two birds with one stone, in Spanish, I believe that you don’t use the word stone but rather a shot. Ok, so we could say that you are killing two birds with one stone by doing dry January because he is being healthier and saving money. Are there any other common resolutions? 

John:  I think a lot of people have sometimes resolutions that aren’t as concrete, aren’t as specific.  For example, to enjoy life more, to be more generous, spend more time with friends or family. And I think these are good resolutions to stick to because in a sense they are easier.  But they are also a little bit more general, so again I think a lot of people choose these as a resolution.

Lewis:  Perfect.

Jack:  Anything else?

Lewis:  I think that’s it for today, erm so I hope you enjoyed the chitchat, so if you yourself have made any new year’s resolutions you can send us a message erm have a look at the other blogs we have available to watch and read and below you will find an explanation of some of the difficult expressions, phrasal verbs we have used cut out, cut down, kill two birds with one stone and many more so from us thanks for watching and see you later, see you next time…bye, bye, bye.