Học tiếng Anh: #119 Dị ứng với hoa cỏ khi Xuân về (Med)

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This lesson is suitable for intermediate-level learners. After listening, test your knowledge with our quiz.

Learning notes:

Learn everyday English for for describing symptoms, talking about medicine, and responding kindly when someone has hay fever.

Examples of phrases you can use when talking about hay fever:

• My allergies are really bad at the moment.  
• I can’t stop sneezing.  
• I get hay fever every spring. 
• I think the pollen is getting to me today.  
• I’ve been sneezing all morning.  
• I’ve gone through so many tissues today.  
• My eyes are itchy.  
• My throat feels itchy.  
• I keep rubbing my eyes.  
• Try not to rub your eyes too much.  
• I’ve already taken an antihistamine.  
• It hasn’t kicked in yet.  
• I hope my antihistamine kicks in soon.  
• My hay fever is starting to ease up.  
• I’ve been hit hard by hay fever this year.  
• The pollen is really out in force today. 

Examples of phrases you can use to respond to someone with hay fever:

• Bless you!  
• That must be doing your head in.  
• Are your eyes itchy too?  
• You’ve really been hit hard by it.  
• Hopefully it eases up soon.  
• You poor thing.  
• Hay fever can be such a pain. 

Colloquial expressions:

To do your head in means to annoy or frustrate someone

To get to someone means to irritate or annoy them.

To kick in means to start.

To be hit hard by something is to be badly affected by something.

To be out in force is to come out or be around in large quantities or numbers.

To be a pain is to be annoying or difficult.

Vocabulary:

Hay fever is an allergy that can make you sneeze and give you watery eyes or a runny nose.

An allergy is a condition in which your body reacts badly to something that is usually harmless.

Pollen is a very fine powder produced by the male part of a flower or seed plant.

To sneeze means to suddenly push air out of your nose and mouth when something irritates you.

To rub means to move your hand back and forward over something.

Itchy describes the feeling you get when something irritates you and you feel like you want to scratch or rub that part of your body.

An antihistamine is a medicine that people can take to make them feel btter when they have allergies, including hay fever.

To go through something means to use a lot of it.

To ease up means to become less strong.

Learning notes:

When you are talking about something that started in the past and is still happening, you use the present perfect (have/has + past participle). We often use it with the words ‘already’ or ‘yet’:

• I've already taken an antihistamine (he took one and it is still in his system)
• but it hasn't kicked in yet. (he took one but it hasn’t worked yet)
• I've gone through so many tissues today (He started this morning and is still going)
• We ‘ve been hit hard by the rent increase..(the rent increased and he is still having difficulty)
• You've really been hit hard by it. (his pain started in the past but is still going)
• I've been sneezing all morning. (she started this morning and is still going)

Transcript: 

(Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript)

SBS acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and their connections and continuous care for the skies, lands, and waterways throughout Australia.

Spring can be beautiful. The weather warms up, flowers start blooming and suddenly everyone is outside enjoying the sunshine.

Allan: Achoo!

Claire: Bless you!

Allan: Thanks.

Well, almost everyone. For some people, spring also means sneezing every five seconds.

Hi, I'm Kate, and in this episode, we're practising everyday English you can use to talk about hay fever.

Hay fever is an allergy that can make you sneeze and give you watery eyes or a runny nose. It often happens when there's lot of pollen in the air.

Pollen is a very fine powder that comes from flower. And in spring there is a lot of it in the air. Maybe, when spring comes, you, like Allan and me, struggle with hay fever. Or perhaps you know someone who does.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says that nearly one in four Australians — more than 6 million people — had hay fever in 2022. That is a lot of sneezing.

So, let's learn how to talk about it!

Allan: My allergies are really bad at the moment. I can't stop sneezing.

Claire: Oh, that must be doing your head in. Are your eyes itchy too?

Allan: Yeah, really itchy. I keep rubbing them. I've already taken an antihistamine, but it hasn't kicked in yet.

Claire: You've really been hit hard by it. I hope it eases up soon.

I know exactly how Allan feels. When my hay fever is bad, I can go through a whole box of tissues before lunchtime. If that sounds familiar, let’s learn some useful ways to talk about it.

Allan first said:

You have an allergy is when your body reacts to something that is usually harmless. Some people have an allergy to certain foods, animals, dust or pollen.

A lot of people have an allergy to very small bits that float in the air from pollen, dust or mould. We call this hay fever.

You could say:

Or:

If something is getting to you, it is starting to affect you or make you feel unwell or upset. Here, Allan means the pollen is causing his hay fever symptoms.

Allan also said:

To sneeze is when you react to something so that you suddenly push air out of your nose and mouth. You often sneeze when you have a cold in your head. You could also say:

Or:

To go through something means to use a lot of something. So, Allan has used a lot of tissues because he has been sneezing and blowing his nose. If someone sneezes, you could say:

Did you know that ancient people believed that a sneeze could make your soul leave your body? So, people said “Bless you” to help keep you safe.

Let's go back to our dialogue. Claire said:

Doing your head in is an informal expression. It means that something is very annoying or frustrating.

You can use this phrase in a. Lot of different situations when something is annoying, and you don’t like it. For example:

Claire also asked:

If a part of your body is Itchy, then it is irritated and you feel like you want to scratch or rub it. If you have hay fever, you might have itchy eyes, an itchy nose or:

Allan replied that his eyes felt very uncomfortable:

To rub means to move your hand back and forward over something. People often want to rub their eyes when they are itchy, but it only makes them feel worse, so you might say:

Allan also said:

An antihistamine is a medicine that people often take to help with their allergies, including hay fever.

When a medicine kicks in, it starts working. For example:

At the end, Claire said:

If someone has been hit hard by something, it has affected them very badly.

For example, when I visited the US, I was hit hard by jet lag. Or this summer, parts of southern Europe have been hit very hard by bushfires.

You can be hit hard by all kinds of different bad situations – by difficult news or by the cost of living ...anything that has a big effect on you. For example,

Claire also said:

To ease up means to become less strong. For example:

And if someone you know is struggling with hay fever, there are a few simple, kind things you can say to show that you feel for them:

• You poor thing.
• Hay fever can be such a pain.
• pollen is really out in force today.

If something is out in force, there is a lot of it. Here, Claire means there seems to be a lot of pollen in the air today.

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Paul Nicholson and Lily O'Sullivan voiced the characters of Allan and Claire, and Professor Lynda Yates was our educational consultant.