Learn English with a bad newspaper!

84,789 views ・ 2015-09-12

Benjamin’s English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi, everybody. Today I'm going to be having a look at The Sun, one of the fine contributions
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to U.K. publishing. We're going to be looking at terms, words that are used in a tabloid.
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A "tabloid" is a small newspaper that opens like this. We're looking at use for journalistic
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terms used in the U.K. press. Lovely. Lovely. I hope you enjoy my words that I'm going to
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be giving to you today. Make sure that as we're going along, you practice saying them,
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too. I don't want you sitting there, like this. That's no good. You're going to say
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the words back to me. Okay?
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So, on page number seven, I read about an "Obsessive Mum and Dad". Look at them, they're
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talking about their little child. They're really thinking about what they should do
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with the child. They are "helicopter parents". Okay? They have a lot of money. Right? And
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they can afford to give anything to their child, but they think a bit too much about
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that child. We call them "helicopter parents". Yeah? Great.
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Now, I turn to page 11, and it's this person, Ulrika Jonsson, and she is showing me some
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arguments. Now, she makes a good point about Miley Cyrus, and she goes: "Boom!" Okay? If
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you're having a bit... A bit of a conversation with a friend and you win the argument, you
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go: "Boom!" Okay? It's an exclamation mark to show that you won the argument. This is
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an exclamation mark. You're shouting out. "Ex", out, "clamo", the Latin word "to shout".
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Yeah, I'm a bit of a boffin; clever person.
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Now, I turn to page, I think it was 12, and I'm reading all about the economy, and the
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"EU is in trouble". The European Union, right? So, what do we call it? "Eurageddon". Okay?
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All this language, it's exaggerated. Yeah? It's silly language. We make it like a disaster
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movie, because bad news sells. "Eurageddon", obviously we get that from Armageddon, end
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of the world, the EU in trouble.
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Now, some poor girl's got bitten by a dog. Where was she? But look at the use of verb.
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We say that she's been "mauled". Yeah? A "savage" is like a wild person. The dog has savaged
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her so much she's got blood bursting out. [Roars] Yeah? Savage, mauled. It's... You
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know, she's actually just been bitten by a dog, but you know, we exaggerate. These are
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strong verbs. Strong, yeah, strong.
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Oh, dear, there's a man wearing tights. Good thing he's called David Beckham. What do we
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call these "man tights"? We call them "mantyhose". Yeah, that is the correct word for "man tights".
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Not quite sure where... Why Becks is wearing them here, but there we are. Becks, mantyhose.
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So, some people have been criticising David Beckham's choice of man tights, here. In fact,
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they've been "slamming" them. Yeah? Because The Sun likes to exaggerate. Yeah? So it's
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slamming it. Yeah? It's not just saying: "Becks, not a very appropriate choice of underwear."
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They've slammed it. Slam, yeah? You slam the door, that's how badly they've criticised it.
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They've said he's a little bit different, but they haven't just said: "He's a little
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bit different", they've called him a "loony". Yeah? That's really rude to call someone a
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loony. He's completely mad.
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And the new launch, okay? It didn't go very well, so they don't just say that it "went
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badly", something can go badly or it can go well; they say that it "flopped". Yeah? It
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flopped. So we could talk about this the opening weekend of a film, the premiere of a film,
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and it flopped. Okay? No one went to go and see the film.
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And if I look on page 15, if I remember correctly, we have a "1st time that the story has been
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told", yeah? "Revenge Slayer", okay? So this is a "world exclusive". "World exclusive"
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means the first time it has been told. Okay? It's just a... Sort of, again, exaggerate.
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It sounds really important: A world exclusive.
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"Showing off his legs" in a photo, we call that a "legbombing". See this lucky lady,
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here, she's showing off her legs, she's sticking in her legs, she's legbombing. We're not talking
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about... We're not talking about a bomb, okay? We're talking about the surprise caused by
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showing a bit of leg. Uh-oh.
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Now, if I turn to page three, I see a bit of a "stunner". Okay? So, "stunner" is a word
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for "good looking".
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Now, what I want you to do is become a bit of a "boffin", a "clever person", and go to
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the quiz, and get 10 out of 10. And never buy this newspaper. Thank you. You'll become
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much more of a boffin if you read a slightly more intellectual newspaper. Thank you very
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much for watching today. We've had an obsessive Mum or Dad; a helicopter parent. "Boom!" You're
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going to win your arguments. EU in trouble, we hope not, but if it is, it's Eurageddon.
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I hope you subscribe to my YouTube channel, thanks for watching today, and really go out
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there, read some English papers. You can get them online as well, if you're not in the
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U.K. So, keep reading, keep learning. Until next time,
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see you later.
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