Talk about Puberty and Body Changes in English

0:00 Hi, everybody.

0:00 Welcome to www.engvid.com.

0:02 I'm Adam.

0:03 Today's lesson is for mature students.

0:06 And the reason I say that is because I'm

0:09 going to talk about very natural things that happen

0:12 to everybody.

0:13 It happened to me, it happened to you,

0:15 it happened to your parents, it happened to your

0:17 children.

0:18 And if you don't have children,

0:19 it will happen to your children, brothers, sisters, friends.

0:22 It happens to everybody.

0:23 It's a very natural thing,

0:25 but some people might not be very comfortable discussing this.

0:30 We're talking about puberty.

0:32 Puberty is that age and stage of your life

0:36 where you change from being a child into beginning

0:41 the process of becoming an adult.

0:43 And the first process of becoming an adult,

0:46 physically, is being able to reproduce.

0:49 So I'm going to give you some vocabulary that you need to know about puberty,

0:54 what happens to girls, what happens to boys as their bodies mature.

0:58 Again, mental side of adulthood, that's a whole other issue.

1:02 The physical side we're going to talk about.

1:05 And again, all of these words are natural words.

1:08 If you're not comfortable hearing them or seeing them,

1:11 keep that in mind and make your

1:14 choices, but that's what we're going to look at today.

1:17 Anyway.

1:18 So, again, puberty is usually in most kids,

1:23 they'll start around 12, 13 to start seeing

1:27 changes in their bodies, but the actual process begins much earlier.

1:32 For girls, it starts from anywhere from 8 to 11 years old,

1:35 and for boys, from anywhere

1:37 to 9 to 11 years old.

1:39 Now, you're thinking 8 and 9 is too young.

1:42 This is just the beginning process.

1:44 You don't actually see anything.

1:46 You don't really feel any difference.

1:47 The body is starting to change, and it starts in the brain.

1:52 There's a gland in the brain called the pituitary gland,

1:55 I hope I'm pronouncing it correct,

1:57 and it starts sending signals to the rest of

2:00 the body to prepare for the changes that

2:02 are coming.

2:03 And then puberty itself could be anywhere from 2

2:06 to 5 years in length until the process

2:09 is finished.

2:10 So, it starts young, and then slowly after that,

2:14 you'll start seeing physical changes

2:16 in the body.

2:17 So, for girls...

2:18 Actually, for both boys and girls, the main thing that changes is the hormones.

2:25 You start developing the hormones that make you

2:27 an adult male or an adult female.

2:31 For girls, this hormone is called estrogen, you start developing this hormone.

2:35 Boys start developing testosterone, so estrogen, testosterone.

2:42 They're big-looking words, but they're pretty common words.

2:46 People use these words even in everyday situation,

2:49 like you'll often hear somebody walk into

2:52 a room...

2:52 Like, a woman will walk into a room full of men,

2:55 and she'll say, "Oh, there's just too

2:56 much testosterone here." It means too much male attitude,

3:00 but again, that's a whole other story.

3:03 Okay, let's get back to puberty.

3:05 Now, as far as actual physical changes that will

3:08 be noticeable to the young boys and girls,

3:12 girls start developing breasts, okay?

3:16 Their breasts start to grow.

3:18 They also...

3:18 Obviously, they don't see this,

3:19 but they also start developing their ovaries, which is where

3:22 the...

3:23 Basically, where they will have the baby,

3:25 where the baby will start to grow once conception

3:28 is made.

3:29 Now, if you want to learn about conception a little bit more,

3:32 I actually made a video

3:33 about having a baby.

3:35 You can look for the link in the description to this video,

3:37 and it talks a little bit about

3:39 the actual process and what happens before, during, and after.

3:44 Boys, on the other hand, start developing their testicles.

3:47 This is where they're going to produce the sperm

3:49 that they will be able to use to make

3:52 babies, and that's what makes them adults as well.

3:55 Now, both boys and girls start to develop pubic hair.

4:00 Be very careful, this is not public pubic hair;

4:04 that's a little hair around the genitals.

4:07 The genitals are the actual sex organs of humans.

4:11 For boys, it's a penis; for girls, it's a vagina.

4:14 These are the correct words; don't be shy about using them.

4:18 And the more...

4:19 The most noticeable difference for the boys and girls.

4:22 Girls will start to menstruate.

4:27 They begin their menstruation cycle.

4:30 The more common word for this is their period.

4:33 So, every month, they will have a period;

4:35 again, depending on a regular cycle or not.

4:38 Menstruate is the verb; menstruation is the noun, the process.

4:42 Boys will start having erections;

4:44 that's when the penis starts to get hard because all the

4:48 blood is flowing to it.

4:49 Both...

4:50 The girls obviously release blood;

4:52 the boys start to release other types of fluids as

4:56 they get more and more excited as they grow up.

4:59 Okay, so now there are some other things that

5:02 you're going to see physically or even emotionally

5:05 during puberty.

5:06 Okay?

5:06 And we're going to look at some of the other signs that appear during this time.

5:12 Again, both boys and girls will start growing armpit hair;

5:15 armpit is under your arm.

5:17 Maybe some leg hair and some facial hair; mostly for boys, not all boys.

5:22 Some girls...

5:23 Again, that depends on the hormones inside your body.

5:28 This especially for boys, it does happen to some girls,

5:31 but mostly for boys, their voice

5:33 breaks.

5:34 Now, boys, when they're young, have a very high voice.

5:38 And then suddenly, during puberty, it starts to crack,

5:41 and they're in a very uneven tone

5:44 of voice,

5:45 and then it starts getting deeper and deeper until it's finally set, and they

5:49 have their deeper male voices.

5:52 That's called a voice breaking, or sometimes their voices crack, we say.

5:58 A lot of young people have acne;

6:00 acne are like the little red dots on your face that

6:04 happen during this time of your life.

6:06 Again, that's all based on hormones.

6:08 You could get treatment for it, but it's a natural part of it.

6:12 Some kids have it much worse than others.

6:15 If it's a source of embarrassment, or shame,

6:17 or whatever, it shouldn't be, but kids are

6:20 kids.

6:21 Oh, a very common expression, a very common proverb,

6:26 we say, "Children can be cruel."

6:33 So, children can be very cruel to each other,

6:35 but this is also part of their growing up

6:38 and becoming adults.

6:39 Unfortunately, puberty is a very hard time of life to go through,

6:43 I think, for everybody.

6:44 So, anyways, there's muscle growth.

6:47 Again, both boys and girls will start developing muscles.

6:50 Boys generally are a bit faster than the girls.

6:53 There's something called "growth spurts".

6:55 So, if you think back about your school time,

6:58 where maybe you were the tallest child in

7:01 the class, and then you went on summer vacation,

7:04 and then you came back, and then, like, three

7:06 of the boys are, like, a lot taller than you, because they grew over the summer.

7:11 So, this is called a "spurt",

7:12 where there's a very fast and sudden growth, and then it

7:15 slows down again, and then maybe another one.

7:18 A lot of kids will have two or three of these spurts over their...

7:22 during their puberty.

7:24 And everybody starts developing body odor, right?

7:28 Your hormones are changed, your mechanisms are changed,

7:31 your systems have changed, now

7:33 you're starting to sweat and you're starting to have a smell.

7:37 And again, it's a natural smell,

7:40 but a lot of kids start using antiperspirants, deodorants,

7:44 maybe some cologne and perfume, although not recommended.

7:49 Just by the way, I just have to make sure everybody understands,

7:52 I'm not a doctor, I'm

7:53 not a biology teacher, I'm an English teacher.

7:55 I'm giving you all the vocabulary.

7:57 It's very important that if you want to know more about all of this,

8:01 and if you want more

8:02 specific details, you should do your own research,

8:05 you should go ask your doctor what

8:08 is happening with your child, etc.

8:10 I'm just giving you the basics so that

8:12 you can have that conversation in English,

8:14 so I hope it helps a little bit.

8:17 Now, a few other things to keep in mind about puberty.

8:21 We have an idiom or an expression that's

8:23 called "talking about the birds and the bees".

8:26 Now, this is a very old-fashioned expression,

8:29 but people still use it now just for fun,

8:32 I think, more than anything else.

8:34 The birds and the bees,

8:36 when it's time to talk to your child about how babies are made.

8:40 About sex, basically.

8:42 What they should do, what they shouldn't do,

8:44 you have to be careful, you have to do this,

8:46 you have to do that, how to treat a woman, how to treat a man, etc.

8:49 But basically, it's sex education.

8:52 Now, sex education is part of many schools' curriculum, curricula.

8:58 Some schools are against it, some schools are for it,

9:01 some parents are against it, some

9:03 parents are for it.

9:05 It all depends on the school and the area you're in.

9:09 But if the school doesn't do it,

9:12 it's very important that parents talk to their children

9:15 about sex before there's a problem, right?

9:18 Teenage pregnancy is a big problem in many countries,

9:22 so that comes from lack of education.

9:27 Puberty is also a time of discovery,

9:30 a time of self-discovery, where a child learns about

9:33 his or her body, about what he or she likes,

9:36 the type of people he or she is attracted

9:39 to, the type that they've developed for themselves,

9:42 also a very important part of this life.

9:47 Mood swings, this is a very common thing that happens during puberty.

9:52 Kids will come to school in the morning, they're all happy and cheerful.

9:56 By the end of the day,

9:57 they want to kill everybody, they're very angry and violent.

10:00 And then they go home, they're happy again,

10:02 and then they're angry again, they go all

10:04 over the place.

10:05 The hormones are not balanced yet.

10:09 So, as the hormones get more balanced, the mood will settle.

10:13 But during the heat of puberty,

10:15 you can have a child go through many different moods in

10:19 any given amount of time.

10:21 It takes a lot of patience for parents,

10:24 for teachers, for classmates and friends, etc.

10:27 And in some cultures, this is when social interactions start happening.

10:33 Girls start to like boys, boys like to...

10:36 Girls start to like boys,

10:37 boys start to like girls, or whatever other combination, and

10:41 they start dating, and there's more parties,

10:43 and there's more outings, and this is basically

10:46 when their interactions begin more seriously,

10:48 and again, all of this comes down...

10:51 It's very important to have sex education to help them, anyway, protect them.

10:57 So, this is in a nutshell, puberty.

11:01 Of course, there's a lot more to know.

11:03 You should do some research if you have kids or

11:05 if you want to have kids in the future.

11:08 If you're teachers and you're dealing with kids,

11:10 if you're young teachers and you're

11:11 dealing with kids,

11:13 and you're not sure what's going on with your 12-year-olds, find out

11:17 more about this stage of their life.

11:19 Very important, especially for teachers and young parents.

11:23 Okay?

11:23 So, if you have any questions about this stuff, I hope I can help.

11:27 Please ask me at the www.engvid.com comment section.

11:30 There's also a quiz to practice your understanding of the English we discussed,

11:34 and I hope you

11:36 liked this video.

11:36 I hope it was informative.

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11:52 See you then.

11:53 Bye-bye.