Focus on Vocabulary. Part 2

Steve: Some of the phrases he uses are pretty standard. I've always had an interest in business. So, he, when he was at university, he was interested in 'when he graduated' interested in finding work in some kind of a business-type occupation. Jill: I find it interesting he said I took a degree in geography and I think, in general, I would say I got my degree or I got a degree in geography or I'yeah, I don't know, I think that's more common to say it that way. Steve: Right. But, one thing there that I think that's interesting is that even native speakers don't always use the language not necessarily correctly, but as accurately as they should. Jill: Right.

Steve: I mean, typically, you take a course.

Jill: Right.

Steve: So, I took a course in geography. I got my degree in geography. I earned a degree in geography. He didn't take his degree in geography. He took a course and he passed it and got a degree.

Jill: Right.

Mark: And, probably, if he were writing, he would write I got my degree or I got a degree, but he was speaking and he was thinking and it just kind of came out I took a degree, probably.

Steve: Yes. So, then he said I got into geography. I got into geography. I took geography. You could also say I took geography. So, again, one thing is that we are looking at the spoken language here, which is necessarily going to be a little more casual and, you know, different people will have different ways of speaking.

Mark: And, of course, one thing we should point out about our content at The Linguist is that we don't write it or most of it we don't write. Most of it is authentic conversation and when people are speaking in real life situations they don't always speak grammatically correctly. This is an example of a phrase that, you know, probably shouldn't have been said that way, but Fraser said it that way. Everybody understands what he said and it's just part of a natural conversation. Steve: But, not necessarily something that you should copy. Fraser, again, says I was partial to the environment. Well, no one is opposed to the environment, you know. We are all partial to means in favor of. I like. You know, between pollution and non-pollution, I prefer pollution. I mean non-pollution, alright? So, we wouldn't normally say that. You might say I am interested in the environment. I think the issues surrounding the environment are very important, but, I was partial to the environment that.

Jill: Not as accurate as it could be.

Steve: But, we understand what he's saying. Jill: Right.

Steve: What he's saying? Jill: That's important with non-native speakers is they need to be able to infer a little bit. They need to, from the whole context of the sentence or the paragraph, understand what the person means even if they don't always choose the most accurate word. Steve: You know, it reminds me I've often been in situations where either I've had to be the interpreter from say Japanese to English or English to Chinese or whatever or I've watched as an interpreter; tried to interpret. We've had Canadians go over there and I listened to this Canadian and I can kind of guess what he's trying to say because he speaks so poorly as a native speaker. Jill: He speaks English so poorly.

Steve: His English.

Mark: You say Canadians go over. Over where?

Steve: To China, Japan, sorry, I wasn't you see, here again, I'm not being very accurate in my speech. Mark: Right.

Steve: So, someone will get up and say something in a very homey, very sort of casual, lots of inferences, you know, lots of things that we as Canadians might pickup on; maybe some grammatically incorrect statements. I look at the face of this poor Chinese or Japanese interpreter who does not understand what he's talking about. I have trouble understanding what he's saying. So, this is often a challenge for an interpreter. There are many people who speak their own language very inaccurately. It's a fact of life. Jill: That's right. Steve: So, ah?

Mark: So, that's another thing to consider too for learners out there who are too caught up in trying to speak perfectly. You don't have to speak perfectly. Jill: You need to get your meaning across.

Mark: You need to get your meaning across. Obviously, the more in this, you know, and that isn't -- maybe not a good phrase for you to learn, but we'll try to point out good phrases for you to learn. If you can spit out those correct phrases when you're speaking then, obviously, your language is going to be more correct. Steve: However, a word of caution, the native speaker will wander away from correct usage in a way that is somehow, it corresponds to things that he has heard and that other native speakers can relate to.

Jill: It's acceptable. Steve: The non-native speaker doesn't have that luxury cannot afford to do that because the non-native speaker already has so many things that the native speaker can't really relate to. So, in my book and I always say this, I really believe it, although many teachers don't, you should write as if you're speaking and speak as if you're writing, if you're a non-native speaker. So, when you go to write, don't write in some very complicated and, you know, sophisticated pros where it takes you half an hour to write two lines because you're looking every word up in the dictionary, write as if you're speaking. Jill: And, as you get better, Steve: Yeah, but even when? Jill: you can write longer sentences.

Steve: But, keep it simple. Simple sentences; it's the most effective, even for native speakers. Many books today are written in a very conversational style. I really recommend that and then, when you speak, don't try to be too slangy. Don't try to be too casual. For the non-native speaker -- I've always taken this approach in speaking other languages -- try to have one neutral form of the language that works both in speaking and writing. Of course, necessarily you'll be a little more formal in writing; you'll be a little more casual when speaking, but you shouldn't consciously try to be too casual when speaking. Anyway, there it is.

Mark: Sure and moving on, we can move on to the next phrase, I thin, which is what sorts of things have you been doing? What sorts of things is probably a useful expression, Jill?

Jill: What kinds or what types of things have you been doing? Things is very, very general. I mean, you could just say what have you been doing? You don't have to say what sorts of things or what types of things or what kinds of things have you been doing? You can omit things but, basically, it means what have you been doing? What has been going on in your life?

Steve: However, if you say what sorts of things, it's a little different from 'what have you been doing'. If you say what sorts of things have you been doing? I mean, in fact it means the same. But, if you look at it more closely, you might say well, I've been playing tennis. I went skiing. You know, I went on a holiday. I had a good, you know, dinner last night. In other words, you're kind of looking for information about a variety of activities; whereas, if you say what have you been doing? Well, you know, I've been hanging out with my brother or maybe I'm wrong. Jill: But, that's if that's what you were doing. I mean, if somebody's been traveling the world and they've been doing a whole bunch of things and you say what have you been doing, they're likely to list the things that they've been doing. Steve: That's true. Jill: If they haven't been doing anything then they're going to say well, I haven't been up to too much. Mark: Now, in this case, where he says so that made you look at the forest industry, what sorts of things have you been doing? It's kind of hard to explain why, but in that situation what have you been doing probably wouldn't be as good. What sorts of things?

Steve: That's why I suggest that in this context, in particular, he's looking for a little more information; what different approaches? Like, if I were being more formal I would say what different approaches? What kinds of people have you gone to see? So, you're looking for some more specific information. But, I mean, we have to realize that communication with language -- there's a whole there are many things that go into it and we don't necessarily rely only on the very specific meaning of each word to convey the overall meaning. We don't want to get too philosophical here. I think we've beaten the first part of that conversation to death, as we say. Mark: I think so. I think everybody, obviously, should spend time listening to the excerpt, ideally, coming to our site at thelinguist.com, finding this item in our library and listening to it many times and reading it and looking up the words and looking up the phrases.

Steve: When you say looking up, in other words, saving them in their Linguist database.

Mark: Saving them and also, obviously, looking up the meanings or translation, Steve: On the automatic dictionary. Mark: using our translation tools and, of course, asking our tutors if you have questions about some of the phrases that you still aren't able to understand. You can, of course, ask questions on our forum, which our tutors will answer.

Steve: And, you can come to a conversation to discuss this item with other learners and a tutor, if you're interested. Jill: But, I'll just point out that you do have to be a member of The Linguist to do all of these things. Just coming to our site does not permit you to do all of these things. You will need to sign up for the 14-day free trial.

Steve: Absolutely.

Mark: Well, good. Thank you both for joining us and we'll see you all next time. Steve: Thank you. Bye, bye.

Jill: Thank you.

End.