Fluency News: Pokémon Go might help your depression

Hello, everyone!‍

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui você vai treinar a sua escuta e ficar por dentro do que está acontecendo no mundo, sempre com as principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português das coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!
‍No episódio desta semana, nós falamos sobre a reeleição do presidente francês Emmanuel Macron, sobre a aquisição do Twitter por Elon Musk e sobre as medidas que a China está tomando contra a Covid. Também falamos sobre como jogos como Pokémon Go podem ajudar a minimizar sintomas de depressão.‍

Temos uma página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, aproveite para conferir! @fluencytvingles
Toda semana, temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar! See you!

Transcrição do episódio

Hello, everyone! Welcome to a brand new episode of Fluency News! I’m Scott Lowe and this is the podcast that helps you train your listening and comprehension skills, while getting world news to keep you an informed citizen of the world.

We gather some of the week’s most important or relevant stories, and we share them with you, adding Portuguese explanations wherever necessary. You can find the transcript of this episode and all of our sources by going to fluencytv.com and checking out the description. While you’re at fluencytv.com, remember to check out some of our other free content. We have over thousands of lessons in all the different languages Fluency Academy currently teaches, all free for you to enjoy.

Now let’s jump in! We start today’s episode with Macron’s win over Le Pen in the French elections.

France’s incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron, was reelected with 58.5% of the votes compared to 41.5% for his rival, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Macron’s victory makes him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

In his winning speech, Macron promised to be a “president for all”, thanking the people that voted for him in the first and second rounds, and those who voted to block those of the far-right.

“I’m not the candidate of one camp anymore, but the president of all of us,” he said. “No one will be left by the side of the road,” Macron said.

Several European leaders and politicians have swiftly congratulated Mr. Macron for his reelection, as his far-right rival conceded defeat.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted in French, “together we will make France and Europe advance.”

The Dutch Prime Minister also tweeted in French his hope to “continue our extensive and constructive cooperation in EU and NATO.”

In Germany, politicians around the political spectrum offered support, including from the pro-business Free Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and conservative Christian Social Union. Many in Europe had worried Le Pen would undermine European unity and its post-war order.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated French President Emmanuel Macron on his re-election and defeat of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

“I sincerely wish you success in your state activities, as well as good health and well-being,” Putin said in a telegram to Macron, according to a statement from the Kremlin.

Nessa história nós temos o uso de “will” para falar de futuro. O recém reeleito presidente francês usa o semi-modal para dizer que ninguém VAI ser deixado de lado e que juntos eles VÃO fazer a França e a Europa avançarem. Para falar do futuro, nós temos três maneiras diferentes. Podemos usar “going to”, “present continuous” e “will”, como temos nessa notícia. Will é usado quando há uma certeza maior de que algo vai acontecer. It will happen. Essa forma é usada principalmente quando falamos de uma decisão tomada espontaneamente, no momento da fala, e não planejada com antecedência. No dia a dia, a diferença entre essas formas é mais sutil, e quanto mais contato você tiver com o idioma, mais fácil vai ficar de identificar quando usar cada uma. Nesse caso, não é que a decisão tenha sido tomada de forma espontânea, mas sim que há uma certeza, ou aqui, uma promessa do que vai acontecer durante o segundo mandato de Macron.

Speaking of tweets, Twitter is set to accept Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal. Last week, it was reported that Musk had secured the funding for the deal, after he bought more than 9 per cent of Twitter, making him the biggest company’s biggest shareholder.

The transaction will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world’s richest person.

Discussions over the deal, which last week appeared uncertain, accelerated over the weekend after Musk wooed Twitter shareholders with financing details of his offer.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement.

On Monday, Musk told his more than 80 million followers that the company has tremendous potential, and he wanted to make it better by adding new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust and defeat spambots.

The transaction was approved by the board and is now subject to a shareholder vote. No regulatory hurdles are expected, analysts said.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said the company’s board of directors had its back “against the wall” once Musk detailed his financing package and no other bidders or white knights emerged.

A palavra shareholder é uma interessante em inglês. Ela pode ser traduzida para “acionista”, no português, mas em inglês ela é a junção de mais de uma palavra. Share pode ser “compartilhar”, como você já deve ter visto em redes sociais, como um verbo. Mas “share” também pode ser um substantivo, que significa “parte”, “quota” ou “ação”, no sentido de parte de uma empresa. Holder também é um substantivo, que pode ser literalmente “aquele que segura”, ou “proprietário”, “detentor”, “dono”. O shareholder é aquele que detém, que é dono, de uma parte de alguma coisa, de uma empresa, nesse caso.

Beijing is racing to track a Covid-19 outbreak that may have been spreading in the capital for a week, city authorities said over the weekend, raising the prospect more stringent restrictions could soon be implemented in line with other Chinese cities.

The number of new cases in Beijing rose by 22 on Sunday – all locally transmitted – compared with six the day before, according to official reports. Beijing authorities have so far not taken steps to lock down the capital, but they have ordered a number of gyms and after-school activity providers to suspend in-person classes.

Residents rushed to stockpile food amid rumors of tougher measures in the coming days, panic buying despite authorities’ assurances that there were ample supplies.

Chaoyang, one of the city’s largest districts, announced Sunday that it would launch three rounds of mass testing of those who work and live in the district, some 3.5 million residents, according to the latest census.

The outbreak in Beijing came as Mainland China’s most crucial financial hub, Shanghai, enters its fourth week of city-wide lockdown. Thirty-nine new deaths were reported on Sunday, compared with 12 the previous day and by far the most during the current outbreak.

Authorities in Shanghai have installed metal barriers and high fences around people’s homes to stop residents from going out in the city’s latest brutal measure to battle Covid.

The move has sparked further outrage in the city, where its 26 million residents are already frustrated by a harsh and indefinite lockdown.

According to the BBC, authorities put up most of the fences in the city’s “sealed areas” — where at least one person tested positive for Covid.

The outlet interviewed a foreign national living in Shanghai who said fences were installed in his residential complex last Thursday.

“No one can get out,” he told the outlet, adding that no reason was given for the sudden fence installation. “I feel helpless. You don’t know when the lockdown is going to end.”

Shanghai has been under a strict lockdown since late March amid a surge of COVID-19 cases. Public anger continues to mount over the authorities’ handling of the situation, with people across the city claiming they are running out of food — and patience.

Nessa história nós temos o uso do tempo verbal Present Perfect Continuous. O Present Perfect Continuous é usado para falar de algo que começou no passado e continua no presente. Diferente do Present Perfect, no Present Perfect Continuous, não há nenhuma dúvida de que a ação continua no tempo presente, e tem repercussões no momento. Esse tempo verbal é formado pelo uso do auxiliar HAVE, o verbo BE na forma do present perfect, BEEN, e o verbo seguinte terminado em ING. Aqui, nós temos como exemplo a frase have been spreading.

And, as always, we’ll end today’s episode with some positive, uplifting news. Pokémon Go might alleviate mild depression symptoms, as it turns out. A new study by the London School of Economics and Political Science argues that Pokémon Go “may alleviate non-clinical forms of mild depression for users”, because it encourages physical activity outside and face-to-face socialization.

The game, which became a world-wide sensation in 2016, is a mobile augmented-reality game from Niantic, in which you can battle and catch Pokémon based on your location.

While the developers altered the game because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it largely requires you to actually get out and take a walk to collect Pokémon and battle with them at virtual gyms.

The study by the London School of Economics looked into how the global phenomenon affected local depression trends. Since the game had a staggered launch, the study was able to compare the amount of depression-related searches in areas that had access to the game and areas that didn’t.

The research team used Google Trends search data from the Google Misery Index to measure how much people search terms like “depression,” “stress,” “anxiety,” and “fatigue” in a given region. What it found was that there were fewer searches for depression-related terms.

The data covers 166 different regions, 15 of which are in English-speaking countries, and spans a period of 50 weeks between January 1, 2016, and December 12, 2016. Those dates include a time period that covers before and after Pokémon Go’s release.

The study believes the reason for fewer depression-related searches is that it, and other location-based video games, “encourage outdoor physical activity, face-to-face socialization and exposure to nature.” All things that tend to make people happier.

The study argues that its findings highlight the mental health opportunities of video games like Pokemon Go, and that due to their relatively low cost and accessibility, they may be of more interest to people who make public health laws and policies.

It’s important to stress that the study is not claiming going outside for a bit can cure clinical depression. It’s found that being out in nature, socializing face-to-face, and mild exercise can help alleviate symptoms of mild depression.

And this is where we’re going to end this week’s episode, folks. Se você quer evoluir o seu inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês, mandarim ou coreano, aprendendo com os professores da FluencyTV, inscreva-se na nossa lista de espera.

Assim quando a gente abrir uma nova turma você vai ter uma chance ainda melhor de conseguir uma vaga! É só se inscrever clicando no link na descrição desse episódio.

É super rápido e assim você não arrisca perder a próxima turma e ficar meses esperando uma nova chance!!

Don’t forget to check out fluencytv.com to have access to all of our sources and the transcript of this episode. There are new episodes of our podcasts every week, and we’ll be waiting for you. Peace.

‍Stories‍

‍Macron wins French presidential election
https://www.thelocal.fr/20220425/putin-congratulates-macron-on-french-elections-and-wishes-him-success/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/police-teargas-paris-protestors-after-macron-re-elected-2022-04-24/
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/le-pen-concedes-french-presidential-elections-handing-reelection-victory-to-macron/3660399/
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2022/04/24/macron-wins-french-presidential-election_5981506_5.html
https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/24/emmanuel-macron-pledges-to-be-the-president-of-all-after-french-election-win‍

‍Twitter is Set to Accept Elon Musk’s $44B Deal
https://freespoke.com/story/ZX3pEYmP5jRbBxuv6JNXK/twitter-is-set-to-accept-elon-musks-dollar43b-deal
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-twitter-set-accept-musks-best-final-offer-sources-2022-04-25/
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/twitter-on-track-to-reach-deal-with-elon-musk-as-soon-as-monday/articleshow/91075205.cms
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-twitter-set-accept-musks-best-final-offer-sources-2022-04-25/‍

‍Shanghai lockdown continues
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/24/china/beijing-covid-outbreak-lockdown-fears-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shanghai-installs-metal-barriers-fences-032052304.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/covid-lockdown-fears-spark-panic-buying-in-beijing-as-largest-district-begins-mass-testing
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/24/shanghai-blockade-of-covid-hit-buildings-sparks-fresh-outcry4
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-beijing-city-expand-mass-covid-testing-more-districts-2022-04-25/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/19/locked-down-shanghai-reports-seven-more-covid-19-deaths‍

‍Pokemon Go Study Found It Led To “Decrease In Depression-Related Internet Searches”
https://www.newsweek.com/pokemon-go-could-help-depression-nintendo-gaming-1700094
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pokemon-go-may-alleviate-some-depression-lse/
https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2022/d-Apr-22/Location-based-mobile-games-like-Pok%C3%A9mon-Go-may-help-alleviate-depression
https://www.polygon.com/23037613/pokemon-go-depression-study
https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-go-study-found-it-led-to-decrease-in-depression-related-internet-searches/amp/