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Insightful Conversation in Art Gallery to Improve Your English

This 6 minutes lesson offers a good mix of art-related vocabulary and descriptive language, which can be helpful for English learners to understand every nuance in the spoken English. A conversation scene from 'The Idea of You' is used.

In today's lesson:

  • "art is subjective". - What does it mean?
  • "untouchable genius in a rarefied space". - What do you think this phrase means?
  • "its honesty incredibly moving". - Why does she say that?
Today, we learn English with Solène, an art gallery owner, and Hayes, a 20-year-old pop star. Solène shows Hayes some artwork, which he can buy for his new apartment. Let's watch and learn!

"subjective" means based on personal opinions and feelings, rather than facts. 

"art is subjective" means everyone's got their own opinion about it. What one person loves, another might hate. Solène says that it's all about you – your personal feelings, experiences, and what you think it means. So, there's no right or wrong answer when it comes to art.

Let's focus on the grammar of the sentence: 'Do you really want the lecture about how art is subjective?' -  "how art is subjective" is a noun clause acting as the object of the preposition "about". "noun phrase" means a group of words in a sentence that together behave as a noun.

"self-portrait" means is a picture or drawing that an artist creates of themselves. It's like a visual representation of how they see themselves.

"untouchable" means not able to be punished, criticized, or changed in any way.

"genius" here means a person who has very great and rare natural ability or skill, especially in a particular area such as science or art.

So, "untouchable genius" means someone who is incredibly smart and talented, so much so that they seem perfect and impossible to reach or equal.

"rarefied" means without any of the problems of ordinary life, especially because of being related to wealth, high social position, art.

Putting it together: An "untouchable genius in a rarefied space" is someone who is extremely intelligent and skilled, and who seems to live in a world that is far removed from ordinary people.

"incredibly" means extremely, it's also used to say that something is very difficult to believe.

"incredibly moving" means something made you feel very strong emotions, like sadness, happiness, or inspiration. Solène says that the picture touches her heart deeply and has a big impact on her feelings.

"piece" here means a "piece of art", one single artwork, like a painting or a sculpture.

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