Carolina's PodBlog

As you probably heard, I recently had a haircut! It is more o less the same as it used to be but a bit more fresh, perfect for the summer! I am not a very adventurous person when it comes to hair styles, particularly this time in Newcastle because I was scared of not understanding what the hairdresser said and ending up with something I didn’t feel comfortable with, like it happened to Emily! It also happened to me once when my friend talked me into cutting my hair very short, above my shoulders -I didn’t like it at all!!

Anyway, I am happy about my new look and although the service in here is amazing and very punctual, I still miss the hairdresser at home. In Venezuela, hairdressers are not only about hair styles but also about nails and other beauty service -Venezuelan women love taking care of all these little details all the time and when you go to the hair dresser you can get everything done in the same place!

There are three main differences between the UK and Venezuela that I could notice at the hairdresser. One is that back home women tend to go regularly to the hairdresser, even up to three times a week, and not necessarily to get a haircut or highlights, but we might go to only get the hair blow dried. Sometimes, this also makes hairdressers back home a bit less informal, you can just pop round and see if there are any available spaces and it is more flexible because you can have your nails done whilst having your hair done too -I think that's very practical in terms of time!

The second main difference is to do with people's preferences in haircuts. I think in the UK people are more willing to try new styles and a lot of women like short haircuts. Back home I think there is a bigger tendency for longer hair, though some girls will go for the short looks too. Boys in Venezuela look after themselves too, they like their clothes and like wearing perfume but boys here seem to pay more attention to their hair cut -long, short, spiky... I think some of them are quite nice!! The third main difference is that at home hairdressers are much more affordable than in the UK. I think that the combination of lower prices and vanity in Venezuelan women are probably why you will see most hairdressers full at almost all the time in Venezuela!

Vocabulary

It is always a good idea to look at “phrasal verbs” and learn them. They will help you understand native speakers and improve your conversational English too. A phrasal verb is a verb plus a preposition or a verb + adverb and has a meaning different from the original verb.

I must warn you, you have to be careful, by changing the preposition or the adverb in the phrasal verb, the meaning of the phrase can be completely changed!

I am going to briefly explain some of the ones used in this blog, but remember that there are many of these phrasal verbs and people use them in almost every sentence!

• Talk someone into “doing something”: Persuade someone to “do something”
• End (ending) up: When you end up somewhere or in a certain state, you end there or that way after a series of events.
• Pop round: short, informal visit.