Vocabulary & Life Tips: BE RESPONSIBLE! DON’T BLAME ME! WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Hi. James from engVid.

Excuse me for a second.

Oh, look the star is born.

What do you mean?

Who is responsible for spilling your coffee?

I don't know.

I don't know who to blame; it's not my fault.

You know, in life a lot of times things go wrong, and in English we have three words

that we use a lot to indicate who should fix it, who is responsible for it, and who we

want to point out who's responsible for it; and sometimes they're the same and sometimes

they don't match up at all.

But today I'm going to teach you three words or we'll work on three words to talk about

how to fix up a situation, and who can fix up this situation, and who we might point

the finger towards.

Okay?

So, let's go to the board.

I'm going to give you some formal and some informal, some words on responsibility.

So, my worm is upset because his coffee is on the floor.

He thinks he's a star; he's wearing some glasses.

And let's check the board: Who can help us here?

Okay?

So, three very popular words in English are: "blame", "responsibility", and "fault".

Each of these words are actually tied together, and in some of the definitions, you might

actually see me use some of the words in another... in the definition, you're like: "But you have

'responsibility' and 'blame', and you have 'fault' and...

'Fault', 'blame' and 'fault'."

Yeah, because they're kind of mixed together; they're comingled or, like, they're joined

together because they are attached to each other.

So, what I want to do is start off with the first one, which is funny enough the nicest

one: "responsibility".

It's a noun.

The adjective is "responsible": You are a responsible person, and you have a responsibility.

Now, we look here: What is a "responsibility"?

Well, the first thing we say is: A state or fact of having a duty to deal with a situation

or person.

So, whose responsibility is it?

Who has to deal with somebody or take care of a situation; whose responsibility?

So, at work, you know, whose responsibility is it to fix this?

You know: "Is it the plumber?

Is it the boss?"

Right?

You got to deal with it.

The state of being accountable.

That means you... say, if something goes wrong, I'm the one-count-you can count on to fix

it; I'm the one you can come to.

And a part of a job.

If it's your responsibility as manager to close the door and count the money, those

are part of your jobs.

Right?

The final one is the moral obligation to act properly.

I expect you to not throw food at a teacher in a classroom.

That's your responsibility; it's a moral obligation.

It's not a job that you have to do: Not throw food at somebody, but it's a moral obligation

we call, and we expect people to, you know, act properly, and not have orange hair and

act like babies when they're in political office.

But that's another thing.

So, anyway: "responsibility".

Now, you notice this, and you go: "What is this and what is that?"

I'm going: Well, don't freak out too much.

This is how you would say it because a lot of times people from different language groups

will have problems saying it, because if you speak Spanish, for instance, they will say

"spec-eal" instead of "special", because the "e-s" is the sound you make.

So, I'm going to give you something to help you, so: "r-E-sp-on-sib-il-ey-T".

That's a big T, right?

Responsibility.

Not: "Responsibilite".

Responsibility.

Cool?

All right.

That's how we say that one.

And to make it easy, to make it basic: This is the person who can fix it; they either

have the power to fix it, it's their job to fix it, or it's a moral obligation to fix

it.

Responsibility.

So, we each have the responsibility to take care of ourselves, to pay our bills, to be

on time, and to be good people.

All right?

And you can say it's a duty almost, in some cases.

So, if we're talking about responsibility, when somebody does something bad... okay?

We can't say it's their responsibility to do something bad.

What we do is we blame them.

"Blame" is a verb; when you blame somebody.

And now you look here, I'm going to go from here, and look, it goes: Assign responsibility

for a fault or wrongdoing.

"Assign" means give.

So, we're taking this word "responsibility" as in you take ownership for it and you say:

"Okay, it's mine.

I will take care of it."

When we blame somebody, we go: "Okay, well, it's not mine; I blame you."

So, I'm going to give you the responsibility for the bad action - that's why we say "fault"

or "wrongdoing".

Don't worry, if you don't know what "fault" is, I'm going to get there in a second.

But something's gone wrong and I need to point out who's done it.

Okay?

Next: It's a... sorry.

A responsibility for something bad.

So, there's a wrongdoing but it's a bad situation.

I blame the weather for my plants dying.

Okay?

This is bad.

The weather isn't doing anything wrong; it's something that's bad: My plants are dying

and I need to blame someone.

I need to put the responsibility on something or someone, and I say it's the weather.

Okay, so the third and final one I want to discuss is responsibility for a fault or a

wrong.

Commonly in English, we say: "Take the blame."

Something is wrong; someone must take the blame.

Someone must take something.

In this case, you must take that responsibility for the fault or wrong.

So you'll commonly hear someone say: "You've got to take the blame for what you've done."

Responsibility for a wrong.

Cool?

Now, finally, because you noticed that word "fault" came up, and you're like: "I don't

know what that means and you keep saying it", but before I get there: "bl-A-mm; blame".

Okay?

So, the large A indicates I want you to say the vowel sound a lot: "blame".

Who is to blame?

Okay?

Now, I said that blame directs it, but what is "blame" directing, exactly?

When we talk about a fault - a "fault" is a problem or something we don't like.

First one we talk about: Unattractive or unsatisfactory feature of work or a person's character.

If you have character faults, you are dishonest, you talk behind people's backs - that's something

wrong with you.

Or there's a fault in your work - it means there's a problem or something not good.

Okay?

So, a "character fault" is about a person.

And when we talk about an "unsatisfactory feature", something we don't like about somebody's

work.

Yeah?

Responsibility for an accident or misfortune.

This is where the blame comes from.

You have to be responsible for something that happened; usually it's an accident.

We don't think when it's your fault... by saying it's somebody's fault, we're not saying

they did it on purpose.

We're saying something happened, it was unfortunate or it's not a good thing, or it might have

been an accident, but you end up becoming responsible for that action.

Ultimately, we say you're responsible for the bad thing happening.

But it gets confusing saying you're responsible for the bad thing happening, so we say: "We're

going to blame you.

It's your fault because it's your mistake."

Next, as a verb: To criticize for inadequacy or mistakes.

So, if I say: "I can't find fault in your work", I can't criticize or find weakness

in your work.

Sometimes people say, you know... we can... yeah: "We find no fault in your work.

You did a good job."

We find no problems or we can't criticize you.

So, "fault" can have any of these meanings, okay?

But in this case, it takes on a verb form.

And you notice, here, it's: "f-all-t", as in "all": "fault".

Whose fault is it?

And this is the person who did it.

It's like: "Who done it?"

Sherlock Holmes.

Right?

So, we found out that these big fancy words: "responsibility" is: "Who can fix it?

Who has the power?

Who has the situation to do so?"

Okay?

I can't say orange anymore.

I won't say orange guy anymore.

When we talk about "blame", we're directing it: "Where is this going?

Where are we putting this responsibility for bad things?"

We're pointing; it has to go this way.

Somewhere it has to go.

And, finally: "Who did it?

Whose fault is it?

Who is the actual one who did it?"

So, these are three, big, powerful words.

And if you think about it, you do this all the time anyway, most of the time in a day,

you'll say: "Whose fault is it the door was unlocked?

Who...?

Why do I take the blame?"

Actually, a lot of times we talk about "blame" is like: "Why are you blaming me?"

People don't say it to you; you say: "Why are you blaming me for the open door?" because

you're saying I'm responsible for not doing my job properly.

And somebody might say: "Well, it was your responsibility to do it", and I would say:

"Don't blame me."

Okay?

And I go: "It's not my fault; it's E's fault."

Cool?

And you notice how these three words play into each other in, first of all, the definition

for each one?

The other word seems to come in; you got blame, you got fault, you got responsibility, you've

got fault - they all play together, and they work together like that in the real world

where we talk to each other in this way.

You probably use words similar to this in your own language, and I want to give you

the three words that we use a lot.

Now, once again, using a word and not really understanding it is no good, so we're going

to go into our second part of the lesson where we'll explore it, use it, see if you can use

it, and then I'll give you a bit of a bonus.

Are you ready?

[Snaps]

Okay, we're back.

Now, I know it's my responsibility to teach you how to use these words, or it'll be all

my fault, or actually you'll blame me if you don't, so let's go to the board.

And I've got a little story about Shingo, one of my favourite Japanese students, and

his problem with money.

Let's take a look at the board.

So, Mr. Shingo... let's read it out.

Read it out.

So: "Shingo is bad with his money and he says it's because of his parents, because they

were poor.

Shingo knows he has a duty to educate himself about money but one of the biggest weaknesses

is his inability to save money."

Okay.

"He knows the mistake is his and it's his job to pay his bills, but he prefers to consider

his parents for the problem."

Hmm.

I would say this one should be: "...are the problem", but we'll see why that might change

later on.

Okay?

So, he thinks his parents are the problem.

So, let's look at this.

Shingo isn't good with money; he thinks it's his parents' fault.

He has a weakness.

He considers them the problem.

And I'm going to bet that we can find the new words that we... that we learned will

help us actually make this story sound better, have a greater flow, and be more interesting

to the person who's listening to it.

So, let's try this first: "Shingo is bad with his money and he ______________

his parents."

Actually, let's go back a step.

Let's identify what we have to change before we go there.

Shingo is bad with his money and he says it's because of his parents.

Hmm.

Why don't we...?

If we say this... if we change this part, here, that could be one of the parts we change.

Can you find anything else we might change?

Yeah, I think "duty", because we have a word that means "duty", right?

Okay.

We can say: "biggest weaknesses".

What else do you think we should change?

Okay.

We could say: "mistake" and "his job".

What else do we have left?

Let's take a look.

Is there anything else you can see?

I've got one, two, three, four, five maybe.

"...consider".

Now that we've identified the parts we can change, let's look at what words we can actually

put in there.

The first thing we notice is that: "Shingo is bad with his money and he ______________

his parents."

Do you remember we talked about directing, directing when the responsibility for someone

or who's at fault?

The word we used was "blames".

Now, we said "blame", but I told you "blame" is a verb and this is third-person singular,

so we change "blame" to "blames".

Okay?

And he blames his parents because they were poor.

"Shingo knows that he has the ______________ to educate himself".

When we dealt with fault and blame, we talked about "fault" was who broke it, and "blame"

is to direct it, but the one word we used that said you have the power to blame... one

word that we said that gives you the power to fix it was "responsibility".

Right?

If you're responsible, it's not just authority; you have the power to fix it.

And I drew that man with a hammer.

So... so, he has the responsibility to educate himself about money.

"...but one of his biggest ______________..."

Now, it won't be "blame" because "blame" is to point, and he's not pointing; it's a fact.

And it's not going to be "responsibility", A) because we just used it, but that's not

right.

"Fault".

Remember we talked about "fault" is something that's unsatisfactory or not nice; a character

flaw?

In this case, one of his biggest faults is his inability to save money.

"He knows the ______________..."

What?

Yes, the "fault" is his.

Similar word for the similar meaning.

"...and it's his ______________..."

What?

His "blame"? "...it's his responsibility to pay his bills..."

"...but he prefers to ______________..."

And "preferring" is something you like.

And when you like it, you kind of direct it towards yourself.

I'm pushing it on that one, but you understand what I mean because he wants to blame his

parents for the problem.

And that's why I... honestly, I changed the word, here, because really-okay?-we need to

change it; we need to show preposition for that means someone to receive; and in that

case, receive is for blame, and that doesn't really work up here.

Sorry, I'm good, but I'm not perfect.

Okay?

So I'm trying to make it work for you.

So, if you notice over here... let's read the whole sentence together now, let's read

the story.

The first one was: "Shingo is bad with his money and he says it's because of his parents,

because they were poor.

Shingo knows he has a duty to educate himself about money but one of his biggest weaknesses

is his inability to save money.

He knows the mistake is his and it is his job to pay his bills, but he prefers to consider

his parents are the problem."

It's okay.

But with our new words, a little snappier: "Shingo is bad with his money and he blames

his parents".

That's much more powerful in English, to point that blame at somebody than to say it's them;

to blame them.

Right?

Stronger.

"...because they were poor.

Shingo knows the responsibility to educate himself".

That word "responsibility" really weighs on your shoulder, because it's like: "Oh, it's

a burden.

It's heavy."

Right? "...to educate himself about money.

And one of his biggest faults", now, look: You've gone from: "I just learned English",

to: "Look, I can use English."

One of my greatest faults; so weaknesses.

It's a nice word.

I mean, it may be smaller than "weakness", but it has a greater umph in English.

"...is his inability to save money.

He knows the fault is his", the problem is his.

See?

Look at that: I'm getting like a preacher, here.

Like: "The problem is yours.

The fault is yours."

Right? "...and it's his responsibility to pay his bills"-he has the power to do so;

he should be doing so-"but he prefers to direct that blame to his parents".

Nice, right?

I would kiss you if you were here this is so good.

Thank you for helping me with that.

But before we go, I need to give you a bonus, and you know the bonus is to further our English

because you've done a good job.

Why don't we look at something?

And we will at the board.

Where?

I'm going to give you the three words we worked on, I'm going to give you the antonyms.

An "antonym" means the opposite; usually means the opposite of what a word means.

Okay?

And then I'm going to give you some other synonyms, and "synonym" comes from "syn",

meaning same, same name with a similar... they're similar; you can use them maybe not

exactly in the same way but they have sort of the same meaning.

I'll start off with the first word: "blame".

Okay?

If you blame someone, you can "absolve" them.

It's a fancy word for saying: "I remove the blame from you.

You are not responsible for it.

I absolve you of this.

You are free of this, you are not responsible, you are not to be blamed."

Okay?

"Absolve".

I absolve you of this.

Another word for "blame" is "j'accuse", French for: "I accuse you".

Okay?

"Condemn".

"Condemn" is a little bit more than blame; it's not only do I blame you, but I want something

bad to happen to you.

I condemn you to Hell.

Okay?

But what I like is this one, is much more regularly used in English, is: "point the

finger".

Who do you point the finger at?

You remember I had a finger pointing over here for a reason.

Usually I say: "Don't point the finger at me", which means: "Don't blame me."

Cool?

Okay, so that's this one.

Now let's look at "fault".

The opposite of "fault", which is "weakness", remember?

I have many faults as a human being; I have many problems or weaknesses, is... one of

my strong points is I like to talk - that's why I'm teaching you.

That's different than a fault.

Actually, some people think I like to talk is a fault; I like to see it as a strong point,

and that's how we can use these two.

Now, there's words such as: "mistake", "error", and "glitch".

We talked about faults being problems or they can be mistakes, or you can say: "You made

an error.

Your fault."

It's a nicer way of saying: "Your fault", not as strong.

But a "glitch" means a problem.

"We have a glitch."

So, instead of saying we have a fault in a situation: "We have a glitch."

And a glitch is sort of like a hiccup, hiccup.

It just doesn't quite work; there's a small problem that we have to get by.

It's not as strong as "fault".

And this like: "point the finger" is a softer, and I say colloquial, used by more people,

so: "You have a glitch in your system."

The system isn't quite working just right.

Okay?

"Responsibility".

Well, that's it, there's no other word.

There is no antonym for "responsibility", except for "not responsible".

The word is so powerful in itself, we say: "You're responsible" or "You're not responsible".

There's not really another word that can... we can use as an antonym to this; it's just

"not": "It's not my responsibility."

That's how powerful that word is, so use it wisely.

Okay?

When we say it's a responsibility, remember I talked about job, part of your jobs or your

responsibilities?

Another thing is saying: "One of your roles is", it means: "One of your jobs is".

One of your roles as a teacher is to help students feel comfortable; that's part of

your job.

"Responsibility" can be "accountable".

A lot of you know about accounting, and the account numbers, and they make bills and they

say: "This is what this means."

When you're accountable, like an accountant, you have to bring the things together and

at the end show what it means.

I am accountable.

I count, I bring it together, and I present it.

Or, in this case, I'm responsible.

"Who is accountable for this situation?

Who will take care of it?

Who is responsible?"

And finally: "responsibility" comes with authority.

"Who is the one who's responsible here?

Whose responsibility?

Who has the authority to do something?"

And this is where we say "responsibility" talks about the ability to change a situation.

If you have the authority, you have the power to actually do something about it.

And I would say that's true: You have the responsibility for your education, and you're

using it wisely because you're watching this video right now.

Before I go, I just want to give you one small thing or one more thing, which is homework.

It will be your responsibility to do the homework.

I don't blame you if you're rolling your eyes now, going: "Oh my god, homework.

I'm not in school."

Well, you came to the video, so now it's your fault if it doesn't get done.

See?

I use all three words because I speak English.

By the time you're done this video and done the homework, I expect you to be able to use

these words in the same fashion.

So, I want you to create five sentences using the bonus words or the ones I gave you before.

And once again, as I always say, join our community and use your examples at the end

of this when you make comments for the video; show people you can use it and show me.

And also go do the test at engVid: www.engvid.com, where there's a test, you can go in there,

and there's a vibrant... vibrant, sorry.

There's a whole bunch of people happy, looking forward to meeting you, that exchange information

and get together, and actually chat offline as well, and I'd like you to be part of it.

Don't forget: Subscribe.

There's a bell; ring that bell and I'll ring your bell.

Sorry.

I got too excited; don't blame me.

You'll get the latest video that I do, and yeah, that's about it.

Look, I hope you had a great time.

I look forward... as always, thank you for being part of the audience.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Ciao.