Learn Real English: Getting sick and buying medicine

We never plan to get sick, but sometimes it happens. In this lesson, you'll learn vocabulary and expressions you need to visit a doctor, get a prescription, and buy the medicine you need. If you're traveling to an English-speaking country, this lesson is essential. I'll also give you my advice and warnings for buying and taking medication in an English-speaking country. Most importantly, remember that pharmacists are your friends. They will be happy to help you find the medication you need, and to give you exact instructions on how to take it. I hope your next visit to the drug store is a pleasant one. Don't worry, this lesson is non-drowsy!

Test your understanding of the lesson with my quiz: http://www.engvid.com/travel-english-getting-sick-and-buying-medicine/

TRANSCRIPT

E, you're going to need some medicine. Take your medicine. Dunh-dunh-dunh. Hi. James from engVid. Today's lesson is going to be on getting medicine, going to the pharmacy, and who you should see to get these things. Okay, look, you're learning English, and if you're really lucky, you're going to get to travel to different places, English-speaking places, and when you go there, it's not always going to be perfect. I'm hoping most of the time you have a great time, meet interesting people, but you might get sick or feel bad, and when you do, you're going to need someone to help you. And what I'd like to do is help you with today's lesson, and where we're going to talk about how we ack-... Not acknowledge, but we tell someone what's wrong with us, and how they help us get better. Are you ready? Let's go to the board.

So, first: "symptoms". It's a nice, long word. What are your symptoms? "Symptoms" are the things that you feel when you don't feel well. If you say: "My back hurts", or "My head hurts", or "My stomach doesn't feel good", what we are saying is these are your symptoms. When you have a cold, you have a runny nose, your nose is runny-right?-sometimes-[coughs]-you cough, sometimes you have this - well, that would be a fever. If that's the symptoms, I'd say you have a flu; not a cold. All right? Okay.

So when you see a doctor, and that's who you go to, you go to a doctor, they'll ask you: "What are your symptoms?" And you say: "Doctor, my arm hurts and my back hurts." He'll go: "Okay. You know what? I think you have blah, blah, blah, and you need some medicine." So once you tell them the symptoms, if the doctor feels this is something you won't get better in, you know, two or three days, like: "You're tired, get some sleep, or eat some food", the doctor will tell you to get some medicine.

Now, in North America, which is Canada, United States, and Mexico - they have great... Well, we won't say Mexico, because English speaking, Canada, United States, Great Britain, Australia, you cannot get medicine just because you want it. You actually have to go to a special place, and you have to get what's called a prescription. A prescription actually... The word is "prescription", but we say "perscription". The prescription is the doctor saying what medicine you need. Remember we said medicine? And he signs or she will sign it, and say: "Please give this person that medicine." In this case, I said "he" because Mr. E, if you didn't know it, he's a doctor. He is a doctor, bona fide. Anyway, Mr. E will sign a piece of paper and give it to you.

You will then go to a place called "the pharmacy". The pharmacy is where we actually get medicine. Sometimes they actually make some of the medicines, or put them together there for you. Another word for "pharmacy" is "drug store". A lot of times, Canadians and Americans will go: "I'm going to the drug store to get something", because they don't just sell medicine and drugs-and "drugs" is another word for "medicine"-they sell other things you might need, you know, tooth paste, floss for your teeth, and we have a video on that if you really want to go check-okay?-on how to take care of yourself. But you go to the drug store or the pharmacy to get your medicine.

When you go there and you hand it, you're going to hand the piece of paper to the person called "the pharmacist". The pharmacist is the doctor that deals with giving out medicines. They will ask you for your prescription. When you hand them the prescription, they will-here we have number 5-fill your prescription. "Fill it", think of a bath tub, or yeah, a glass of water - it's empty, but as you put the water in, it fills up. Filling the prescription means putting the medicine inside of the bottle for you to take. The pharmacist will fill your prescription.