Learn English - Talking about crime

Secret notebook. No, I wasn't looking at it. Hi, James from EngVid. I was smiling because,

well, I'm going to teach you something today that I don't think any other teacher would

dare do. I'm going to teach you dun-dun-dun-dun. It's just criminal. In North America today,

about 20% of all our programming is on law and order. Good guys, bad guys, criminal acts.

I'm not going to teach you to be a criminal. That's my next lesson. I have another website

I'll tell you later. How to carjack. Anyway, I'm joking. But if you want to enjoy our entertainment,

you're going to want to know these words. But not only that, there's one word I'm going

to teach you today, which is going to sound very familiar to you, which is very important

for you, actually, and for your safety. So believe it or not, as much as I'm going to

joke, there's also going to be a safety message in here. It's how to get the most out of the

police when you're in a dangerous situation. Okay? So, of course, I'm going to start at

the one that's least useful to you to make it more exciting. Let's go to the board. Number

one, hold up. Actually, before we go that, Mr. E, he's prisoner 666, uh, 66.5. He's a

bad guy. He's got a gun and a cigarette. He's a criminal. And the lesson today is, it's

just criminal. We say that in Canada when we say the price is or something is bad, like

the price is too high. It's just criminal. Something bad is happening. In this case,

we're using it for all the actions Mr. E is doing. He's been a very, oops, busy little

worm. Sorry. There. There you are. He's a very busy little worm. Don't want to forget

the other diagram. What's going on? Okay. First one, hold up. In North America, hold

up means to wait. Okay? If somebody says to you, what is the hold up? Maybe you're in

line. Hey, what's the hold up? Huh? What's the hold up? Why am I waiting? Well, we also

use this in a different way in a bank. When you go to a bank, sometimes you're walking

in, you're about to go, do-do-do, you got some money, you're all happy, going to cast

your check. You see all the people in the bank doing this. Keep walking. There's a hold

up. The people are waiting as in hold up because somebody has a gun. See? That's why he's

not happy. They're holding their hands up. See Mr. E is holding his hands above his head?

They usually say, stick your hands up, hold your hands in the air, put your hands in the

air, hold them up there, keep them there, and you wait. So it's two things. Hold up,

hold your hands up in the air. Hold up, you have to wait because somebody is stealing

the money from the bank or a store. So if someone tells you there's a hold up going

on at the store down there, careful. If you don't see a long line of people outside the

building, don't go there. It's being robbed. Someone is stealing at that moment. Call the

police. Second one, car jack. This is new to North America. It's only about ten years

old. A jack, well if you play cards, a jack is a face of a card. A jack is used in Canada

when people have, at your house, you want to lift up a car, you go and the car goes

up, up, up. You lift the car up. It moves the car. Obviously, this is a car. So you

got a car and a jack. A car jack is when a criminal takes your car while you're driving

it. Here's a story I heard a long time ago. I'm not too sure if it's somewhere in South

America. What they would do is, this is how they would car jack. They would get a giant

rat, okay, a big rat. And you know, because it's so hot, people would take the roof down

on the car. If the car wouldn't have a roof, it would be, yeah, sunroof. They'd be driving,

so happy on their vacation. And then the people would throw the rat in the car. And the people

would run out of the car. As they would run out of the car, the thieves would run into

the car and drive away. The people were car jacked. So if somebody comes up when you're

driving and you stop your car and they say, "Excuse me, do you have the time?" or "Excuse

me, can you tell me something?" You roll down your window and look out and go, "What?"

And they go, "Here, you, get out. You've just been car jacked." Similar to hijack.

The reason why we call it hijack is because the plane is high in the sky and the people

don't lift the plane up. They just say, "All of you people belong to us now. You are going

to die. We have just hijacked the plane." Okay, so car jack, more likely to happen to

you. Now, I'm not going in order because I'm going to say it the best, two to last.

You'll notice that there are five on the board and there's a number there. So you're going

to know this is a good one. Number three. Okay, see, fold up, folding them up. Jack,

you see the jack? Here, you cigarette smoke, you blow. Well, you don't do that. You're

so, right? But you notice this way, Mr. E is blowing so much, the man is flying away.

This is when somebody says to you, if a criminal goes, "Hey, if you move, I'm going to blow

you away." It means I'm going to shoot you. I'm going to kill you, usually with a gun

or a weapon. Mr. E don't play. He's going to blow him away. That kind of rhymes. Mr.

E don't play, I'm going to blow you away. No, I don't have a rap career. I'm never going

to have one. I barely have this as a career. So if you're going to blow him away, blow

away means to blow, make you go away, or shoot you or hurt you. Blow him away. Alright? Now

we have two more to go. One is going to be serious, so I'm going to be serious right

now. Ready? I'm serious. James, serious. Mug. You think of a mug as a cup. My famous cup

from last week is going. It has green stuff in it. Okay. A mug is a big cup that we put

hot beverages in. If we use mug in the criminal sense, it's different. To be mugged, please

listen carefully because this is actually going to help you. If you are in Canada or

the United States or in England and you say you were mugged, it's different than saying

you were robbed. Listen carefully. When someone steals from you or you have been robbed, it

means you may not have been in the area. You were maybe somewhere else or you're at work

and they robbed your house. Or maybe you left your wallet on the table, you went for a drink

and came back, your wallet is gone. You've been robbed. Someone has stolen from you.

Being mugged is different and the police will treat it differently because when you are

mugged, it means somebody has put a gun to you, to your chest, or a knife and said, "Give

me your money," and you have to give it to them then. If you say to the police, "I was

just mugged," they will want to know a description because it means you have seen the person

who has taken your money. When you've been robbed, you may not know anybody who's taken

it. It's just been stolen from you. So I am being serious here because it doesn't happen

often, thank heavens, but if it does happen, you want to tell the police the correct thing.

You want to say, "I was just mugged," because that means to the police that the person was

there, you probably know what they look like. If you say, "I was robbed," sometimes robbed

and mugged means the same thing, but mugged tells the police you saw them. They were there

or maybe they were behind you, so it means they may still be in the area. If someone

has robbed you or stolen from you, it means they may never have been around you. So keep

that in mind, okay? I don't often get very serious, but it's something to know because

often students go, they say, you know, on the street someone came and asked for my money

and then they, they, no, I shouldn't say some students. I've not had a student happen.

This hasn't happened, but when they talk about being stolen, I usually try and explain to

them, "Did you see them? Did they put a weapon against you?" They go, "No." I go, "Okay,

somebody robbed you? Yeah, maybe you left it or forgot it somewhere." But being mugged,

different, okay? So, that was a serious one. So, almost done. I told you five. United States

of America, Ollie North. Ollie North, do you know about drugs and guns? I'll plead the

fifth, sir. To many of you, you're going, "What is the fifth? The fifth dimension?"

That's Rod Sterling. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. He had a program from a long time ago. But

to plead the fifth, plead means, from please, to beg. Please, sir, please. Yeah, that's

how I sing. Very bad. But to plead is like, "Can you please, please, please, please,

please, please help me?" Plead. But it's also to beg or, in this case, to claim. When

you plead the fifth, to plead the fifth, it's from the fifth amendment in the United States

of America. We have adopted it in Canada. People understand what it means. To plead

the fifth means, I cannot speak about what has happened, it's usually a criminal activity,

because I may have been involved. To be exact, the American vernacular, what it means is

this. I cannot incriminate, I cannot self-incriminate myself for the crime of which we are speaking.

Common English, dude, I had something to do with it, I don't want to go to jail, so I'm

not talking. When you plead the fifth, it means, I don't want to speak because I know

what happened or I was part of what happened. So, if I say something, you will send me to

jail as well. Now, that's formally, but you can plead the fifth and not be a criminal.

You come home late at night, your girlfriend or a guy walks up to you and goes, "You smell

like a woman. Where have you been?" Now, you know you've been to a strip club. You know

that doesn't make her happy. So, you say, because you love her and you don't want to

lie to her, you say, "Baby, I plead the fifth." Here's another one, in case you're a really

good person. There are cookies in your house. Your mother has made lots of cookies. You're

the only other person in the house. Your mother goes out and comes back. All the cookies are

gone. You have cookie crumbs all over your mouth. Crumbs are little pieces. A crumb is

a smaller part of a larger part. So, you have crumbs all over your mouth of cookies. Your

mother goes, "Ezekiel, did you eat those cookies?" You go, "No, I plead the fifth.

Can I have some milk?" You say, "I may have eaten them, but I'm not going to tell you

that because I'm in trouble." So, we've done five, well, not idioms, I guess idioms we

could say, they're idioms, but more ideas about criminality. Criminality, look, a nice

long word for safe. Criminal activity. Okay? Mugs. Remember this one in case it ever happens

to you? Because you can get mugs in your own country. It just means in North America, if

someone says, "I was mugged this morning," somebody literally came up with a weapon,

put it against them, and they said, "Okay, I'll give you the money. Okay, okay, okay,

okay, okay." Alright? It means personally attacked. You could see or the person was

near you. Blow someone away. Shoot them, kill them, blow them away with your gun. Plead

the fifth. "I'm not talking. Get me a lawyer. I'm not going to jail for this because I know

I had something to do with it." Carjacks. You're driving, somebody comes and gets your

car from you and takes it from you while you're driving, you're being carjacked. And hold

up usually means robbery. Somebody's robbing a business, usually a bank, there's a hold

up. Cool? Great. Well, what's really criminal is, "I've got to go. I'm tired. I've had

like an hour's sleep today." Working on lessons for you, the people that I love. Okay? And

it's just criminal that I can't stay here longer and give you more of what you deserve.

But I know what I can do to help you because I, Nixon, "I'm not a criminal. I'm not

a crook." I will help you out and send you someplace where you can learn more. Okay?

It will blow you away. In this case, and I'm going to explain this one because I know many

of you will say, "Blow away don't mean to kill. Blow away mean to make you excited and

really change your mind." It's like, you're right. By the way, that's another imitation

of a guy who had a TV commercial in Canada. It was great. "You got me rich. Rich beyond

your wildest dreams. Look at these girls. They belong to me." I love TV. Anyway, to

blow away, a secondary meaning means if something blows you away, it means it's so incredible,

it's like the wind blows you away. "It blew my mind, man." Okay? But in criminal talk

is to kill. I'm going to blow you away by sending you to a place where the learning

is free. No criminal activity. Go to www.engvid.com where you can find, it's just criminal and

other lessons and quizzes to help you improve your English. Now I feel like one of those

guys on the TV shows. If you see this worm trying to educate you, turn him in. Better

yet, tune in. Goodbye. I'm James for www.engvid.com.