Alice: Hello! I’m Alice and this is 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by
Abdu. Hi Abdu.
Abdu: Hi Alice.
Alice: Today we’re talking about self-improvement – and in particular selfhelp
books. Do you think you can improve yourself by reading a book Abdu?
Abdu: I can try! There are hundreds of these books for sale – and some of
them are very popular. They’ve sold millions around the world. The
titles are often very impressive and inspirational!
Alice: Before we look at the language of self-help and self-improvement,
I’ve got a question. Which of these are real titles of self-help books?
1. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
2. 5 simple steps to emotional healing
3. How to lose friends and alienate people
Abdu: They all sound interesting – but I’m guessing number 3 isn’t real.
‘How to lose friends and alienate people’.
Alice: We’ll find out at the end of the programme. Now let’s hear from bestselling
author Michael Heppell who writes self-help books. His most
recent title is ‘Flip It: How to get the Best out of Everything!’
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He tells us about the kind of people who buy his books:
Extract 1:
I think there are three types of people who would read a book like “Flip It” – people
who are having real challenges in their lives, maybe they’re at a low-point and they
really do need some quick help. Then you’ve got another group of people who are the
self-help junkies, who will read lots and lots of books and they have library shelves
bulging with them, and then there’s a group in the middle which I think are the largest
group, which are people who are generally just getting on with their lives – they’re great
people, happy people but they just want to be that little bit better and they want some
tools and some techniques and probably a little bit of coaching from a book that would
help them.
Alice: Michael Heppell said there are three kinds of people who buy his
books. The first group he describes as people with real challenges in
their lives.
Abdu: Real challenges – difficulties, problems
Alice: He says they’re at a low-point in their lives – they are having a
difficult time – they need help and turn to his books for advice.
Abdu: The next group he calls self-help junkies
Alice: A junkie is a slang word for an addict – usually a drug addict – but it’s
used here to mean people who are addicted to reading self-help books.
He says people like this may read lots of self-help books for fun.
Abdu: The third group he says is the largest group. People in the middle.
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Alice: People who are getting on with their lives – they’re happy
but they want their lives to be a bit better. He says they want some
tools and techniques and a little bit of coaching.
Abdu: Coaching – like a sports coach training a team to work or perform
better. You may have heard of a new profession - a life coach –
somebody who can be hired to try and help organise and improve
the lives of others.
Alice: Some people think that self-help books aren’t always good for the
people who read them. Writer Joan Smith, for example,
thinks they can be wildly optimistic which means they give
people unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve.
She says that some books can be like religion without the bad bits:
Extract 2
My problem with these books – and there are lots of different types of self-help books of
course – is that they’re wildly optimistic – and I think they’re like religion without the
bad bits – they don’t offer you the plagues, and locusts and boils but they do offer you a
kind of heaven on earth. There’s a sense of - it encourages grievance – I should have all
these things, I’m entitled to these things, I’ve done what the book tells me and I don’t get
them.
Alice: Joan Smith says that some self-help books offer the reader a kind of
heaven on earth. But she says – they may give you a sense of
grievance.
Abdu: It encourages grievance – a feeling that you have a right to be annoyed
because life isn’t fair and you haven’t got what you feel you deserved.
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Alice: Critics like Joan Smith say that we can’t control everything in our life
– so thinking that we can will make us feel disappointed.
Abdu: But author Michael Heppell receives many letters and emails from
people who have read his self-help books and made changes in their
lives which make them feel happier.
Alice: He says the key is not trying to control everything in your life, but
trying to control how you react to the things that happen. So Abdu,
have you thought about the answer to my question at the beginning
of the programme? Which of these titles were real and which one
was false?
1. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway
2. 5 simple steps to emotional healing
3. How to lose Friends and Alienate People
Abdu: I’m guessing the last one – How to Lose Friends and Alienate
People
Alice: You’re right of course! But it is a book – and a film – by Toby Young
who wrote about what it felt like to fail in his career and
personal life as a British man living in New York. It’s actually a joke –
because there’s a very famous self-help book called ‘How to Win
Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie which was first
published in 1937. And before we go, a chance to hear some of the
language we heard in today’s programme. Would you mind reading
them for us Abdu?
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Abdu: Yes of course.
Self-improvement
Self-help
alienate
challenges
low-point
junkies
addict
coaching
wildly optimistic
grievance
self-esteem
the key
Alice: Well that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thanks for joining us and see
you next time.
Alice/Abdu: Bye!
