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Phobias

Date: Oct 30 2009

Grammar: Count and Noncount Nouns

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Intro

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What’s scary about flowers? Nothing, unless you happen to suffer from anthophobia, a fear of flowers. But flowers aren’t nearly as terrifying as clouds if you have nephophobia, a fear of clouds.

Most phobias aren’t rational fears, like being afraid of getting sick or experiencing pain. A phobia is an extreme fear of something simple that most people don’t find frightening at all. Some of the most common phobias include fear of heights (acrophobia) and fear of spiders (arachnophobia). But some phobias are much more bizarre, like fear of knees (genuphobia), fear of poetry (metrophobia), or fear of the color yellow (xanthophobia).

If all these big words ending in phobia are giving you logophobia (fear of words), don’t worry. Phobia names come from Latin or Greek and are difficult to remember and pronounce. They sound like gibberish to most native English speakers, too!

Listen to Marni and Ella talk about what scares them the most.

Dialog

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Marni

Ella

Marni: I was wondering if…this might be a sensitive subject, but do you have any phobias?

Ella: What don’t I have a phobia of? I have lots of phobias actually. Water is one of them. But my most recent encounter with my phobia is my fear of butterflies. It’s actually called lepidopterophobia.

Marni: Wow. That’s quite a word.

Ella: But yeah, phobias are very real, you know?

Marni: They absolutely are. I have a few myself. I’ve got a little bit of arachnophobia, fear of spiders.

Ella: Have you ever thought about hypnosis or some type of encountering, where you face the fear to get over it?

Marni: Yeah, I feel like I do that a little bit because I have a fear of heights. Like when I fly and things I feel like I’m sort of conquering my fear. But no, I’ve never felt like I need to invest any money or time into actually…I don’t feel like it impairs my life.

Ella: Exactly. It’s just like, you avoid it. I don’t go to meadows or any type of forests. Or water, I just stay on land. It all works out. I don’t need to pay money to get over my fear.

Marni: Yeah. Well, you might have to face it someday. Water…you know, the earth is 3/4 water.

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Discussion

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Ella has some strange phobias, including fear of water and fear of butterflies. Marni’s phobias, fear of heights and fear of spiders, are more common.

There are different ways of trying to get over your phobias. Some people try hypnosis, where someone puts you to sleep and then tries to send you psychic messages to not be afraid anymore. Other people try facing their fears. For instance, if you have a fear of heights, you might try climbing a mountain or standing atop a very tall building. When nothing bad happens to you, you might realize that your fear is irrational.

Neither Marni nor Ella has ever tried any of these methods. They think it is fairly easy to live with their phobias. But Marni thinks that Ella might have to try to conquer her fear of water eventually.

Do you have any phobias? What is the best way to get over your fears?

Comments

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ayhann

Turkey

i don't really have a phobia.or i assume there isn't any.i agree with marni at the point that if a fear doesnt impair your life, you dont have to conquer it or spending money for it..if you afraid of spiders, just avoid it.if u r not living in a jungle or smth like that:) but some weird phobias like claustrophobia need care because we can ancounter some situations which trigger the phobia in real life..

m2i9n

Thailand

I think being in love can be the most terribly fear. Can you believe that you can be happy and hurt at the same time by someone. You can love him/her like crazy and at a time you can hate him/her as well. Once you disaapointed in love you may be scared of being in love again or never take serious with anyone anymore.

Wish everyone lucky in lpve

jootpee

Poland

cool lesson. I might suffer from Hemophobia

iwori

Japan

My phobias are fear of crown and birds. I can't help running away when birds fly over here because I think they hit my head!

I had a phobia of dogs when I was a child. Thanks to terrible experience being bited my hand by a dog. But now I can touch and huggy them.

Eleniya

Russian Federation

I'm afraid of centipedes (these are the insects which have many pads or little legs & they can crawl very fast)

But I have rather a feeling of disgust than a fear, they are really vile

julywidiawati

Indonesia

I always afraid of long commitment on a relationship, is it a phobias?<!~~-Session data~~->

Finland

i got a really interesting book from my grandma about human brain and there were like…19 pages about all those phobias… and there were a lot of interesting fears such as fear of a beard,hair, eyes, women, ideas, fear of the left side , fear of having fun, fear of wind and many many more…it was really interesting to read about them =DD and i\m soo happy that i don\t have any phobias =)

AgeStone

China

water is my biggest fear

Mary**

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Don't have any phobias, I think :)

sandhya.kv025

India

i too have phobia of heights…

Colibri

Russian Federation

I have a phobia of heights, but I do conquer my this fear different ways like doing mountain skiing, skydiving and wearing high heels :)) (hee-hee). I really do not care any spiders and insect, but I do hate mice and rats. By the way there is special term for the fear of flying – Aviophobia (that really knocks me out since I travel a lot, and I am so grateful for such geratest invention of all time, of course after internet :))). Probably the most common and irrational phobia is claustrophobie, fear of closed and tight spaces. I beliave that self-control really works out when you just begain to feel any kind of fear.

judy-huang

Taiwan

Everyone must have arachnophobia,but I was fear of spiders. Spiders are really creepy and ugly.

midoegy

Egypt

wonerful lesson

saber198811

Egypt

i have acrophobia actually

i conquer this phobia by never go to high places

))~~#~~RO$E~~%~~((

Saudi Arabia

I have a phobia of dentist!!!
I always try 2 conquer that fear;)

Romio79

Russian Federation

I don't like cockroaches too. But I find an easy way to overcome this phobia. I killed them all in my home … in the night of halloween.

taily13

Dominican Republic

oh, I really scared to the clowns. I don´t know why. when I see one I try to confront my fear but… is dificult

frodos

Poland

Hmm it's strange but I'm afraid of Backmasking :D Maybe it isn't a phobia but it's scares me in some way.

david25m

Peru

annia like i said. A phobia could be a remember of a bad time; from a past life maybe, and our gens learn to avoid that for surviving.So it seems to be a nonsense but its a n explanation.