Ted: Hi and welcome back! How are you all doing today? My name is Ted, your host and English expert here at Babbel.

Last week we wanted to know if you could find out what the expression “under one’s belt” means. Well, it means to have achieved or successfully done something.

For today’s episode of Babbel News – English Only, we’ve chosen two news stories that focus on the arts, sourced directly from Reuters. The first story is about the breakdancing community in Kenya, and the second one covers the way Russian comedians are dealing with the war.

If you’d like to read along while listening, check out the link in the episode description for the transcript.

All right! Let’s begin by going over the keywords and phrases from the first story. “To credit” something is to view it as responsible for a good thing. Next, when something is “appealing to the eye”, it is attractive and catches your interest. And if someone is a “pillar of a community”, they are an important or well-known member of a particular group. The next word is “exposure”, which in the context of this story means public attention or interest. Up next, we have the verb “to pursue”, which means to work hard to try to get or to achieve something, like an important goal. Next, “to rely on something” is to need it or depend on it. And the last word from today’s story, “to monetize”, means to make money from something.

Ok, ready to listen to the first story? Then let’s go!

Reuters: In Nairobi, Kenya, breakdancing is taking off. Breakdancer Mzushiafrica was introduced to the art a decade ago and credits the dance for giving him direction.

“For me, it was very appealing to the eye to see, like, some of the crazy moves these people were doing. And I remember the time being, like, very interested like, 'I want to do this.'”

Mzushiafrica is now a pillar in Nairobi's breakdancing community. He says ten years ago, little was known about breaking, which has since become recognized as an Olympic sport and will feature in the Paris 2024 games. He now hosts workshops and events in hopes that more exposure will allow Kenya's breakdancers to make it to the Olympics one day.

However, he says the challenges to pursuing this goal are many. And he attributes it to the lack of support from the Kenyan government.

"You know, at the moment breaking or breakdancing is in the Olympics, and you know, that would have been a very nice sport you know for government to come in and support the local breakdancing scene. But unfortunately, we do not have a dance sport federation, which is what is required in Kenya for you to get support from the national Olympics committee. This was not a unique situation. There is actually for all of Africa only eight countries have a federation, out of 54.”

Mzushiafrica has performed internationally – most recently in Taiwan. But he has to rely on sponsorships and donations to attend the competitions.

“The art of breaking is yet to monetize and so there is a lot of breakdancers who are really good at what they do, but they are yet to make an income or to get a revenue stream from breaking."

Still, the Kenyan breakdancing community is optimistic. Here’s professional dancer Francis Mututri.

"Now, since now breaking has been recognized in the Olympics, a lot of people have hope. For now, I can say breaking is going somewhere, we are heading somewhere."

Ted: And here is the vocabulary from our second story. We’ll start with “tricky”, which you can use to describe something that is difficult to deal with and needs careful attention or skill. And then we have a “red line”, a limit beyond which someone's behavior is no longer acceptable. Next, to “discredit” is to make people lose respect for someone or to stop believing that something is true. And “to shake (or knock) someone off a pedestal” is to make somebody powerful or successful lose their position or influence. Imagine pushing a statue off its base. Next, we have another phrase: if someone has “lost their marbles”, their ideas or behavior have become very strange, making them seem crazy. And finally, “to boost” means to increase or improve something.

And with that, let’s listen to the clip.

Reuters: "My nickname is 'compote.' Why? Because in all dinners there’s a first course, a second, third and then compote for the last course. That’s where I always am."

Okay, maybe that wasn't the greatest joke ever. But this is Moscow, where these days being a stand-up comic like Ivan Garkushko here is a tricky business.

On the one hand, you need to make people laugh. On the other hand, between the war in Ukraine and polarization around President Putin's government, comedians that spoke to Reuters say they need to be more careful than in the past.

Ivan Garkushko: "There's a little censorship. There have been changes in terms of the fact that not everything can be joked about. But it seems like most of the big changes happened only a year and a half ago. Now people are slowly trying to find this red line. And they understand it can be done in a veiled, soft way, and they can continue to joke, including on some social topics."

"On the whole, you can joke about any topic. The important thing is how, so as not to hurt anyone's feelings or create conflicts in the room."

Russia's government passed laws after invading Ukraine that have made it a crime to spread what it considers "false information" about its armed forces or discredit them. One stand-up comic told Reuters that the most popular jokes now are their trade's timeless classics: sex, relationships, everyday things like going to get groceries.

They say comedians who rely on political jokes or big news topics usually leave the country. And that's exactly what Ilya Ovechkin and Ariana Lolaeva did. 
 
Ariana Lolaeva: "I’ve unleashed myself. I’ve allowed myself a few more liberties on the stage, like calling Putin 'a stinker.' What's the purpose? To laugh at him, in order to shake him off the pedestal of some unattainable, important, and scary person and make him look funny."

Ilya Ovechkin: "You can be punished not just for politics, but simply for anything at all. For example, you'll be performing and there'll be some guy in the audience who just returned from the war and lost his marbles. And he interferes with the performance, shouts out. You often get that from those people."

"And you get into some kind of discussion with him, you try to make a joke from the stage and have a laugh, so he calms down. And this can trigger him and cause problems for you. You can get punched in the face without telling a single political joke."

Many Russians have left for Georgia since the start of the war. Lolaeva was fined in Russia last year for "discrediting" the army in a social media post. She and Ovechkin are now co-founders of a group of comedians that left, called Comigration. She says any joke about Putin boosts laughs by about 70%.

Ted: That’s the end of the episode! We hope you enjoyed listening in today.

Each news clip has a different voice, and it can take some time to get used to different accents and styles of speaking. Just replaying the episode or playing the audio back at a slower speed will help your ears get used to each person’s unique rhythm. And if there are still some words you’re not so confident about, you can always look them up in a dictionary.

Speaking of confidence, we’re getting closer and closer to Black Friday, and if you’re looking for another way to boost your English skills, then check out Babbel Live, with online classes led by top-tier, expert teachers. You’ll have real-life conversations and get on-the-spot feedback while attending as many classes as you like. Plus, you’ll have full access to all of the various learning experiences in the Babbel app. Get our extra-special Black Friday offer before the end of November. You can find more details in the episode description.

So, that’s it for this episode of Babbel News – English Only. See you again next week for more world news in English! Bye!