Stop using these COVID words!

Magazines, Magazines, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The Economist.

Hi.

James from engVid.

I just got the mail.

I'm like Mr. Rogers here.

Went out, got the mail, got the magazine.

The Economist, why are so many governments getting it wrong?

And they're talking about COVID, which is a very important topic.

You may be seeing this now, you may see this in 10 years from now, but at this time, 2019

to 2020, this rocked our world.

It changed a lot of things.

And with that change came new language.

Words we had used before, but we started using them in a different way, seeing them from

a different perspective, and they got a given meaning, a special meaning.

And I'm, yeah, E said it right, but even though we started using these words, in some way

we overused them and they lost the power that they did have, they once had.

And what I want to do is two things here, a little bit of education for people learning

English, what these words mean, but also to give you a greater power of specificity, specificity.

Being specific.

Specificity.

Specificity.

I'm not even going to try anymore, okay?

Because once you start using a word in a general way, even if it has a very specific meaning,

it loses its actual - to be very specific or getting it to an accurate point.

So I want to bring that back so we can start - you're going to see me use different words

as I explain what - these are my pet peeves, and a pet peeve is something that bothers

me.

It doesn't necessarily bother everyone else, but when you have a language which is as rich

as English, to use four or five words to describe everything, that to me is sad.

It's like having a gold credit card and only using it to buy lollipops.

You can buy a Mercedes.

Anyway, let's go to the board, and he's right.

If I hear that one more time, and in North America you'll hear people say that, and I'm

going to give you the power to change your language and make them smile and go, "Yeah,

that's right."

So, let's start with my first one.

The new normal.

This is the new normal.

We've had to stay away apart from loved ones - oh, by the way, safety, whatever, this is

my PSA, public safety announcement.

I am not saying not to take this period in time seriously, and not to take the proper

precautions to protect yourself and those you love.

All right?

Be responsible in the decisions you make.

This is merely talking about language, not your health habits.

Okay?

So, if you're in your area, they say wear a mask, please wear a mask.

If they say to social distance, please do that, okay?

It's not always about you, it could be about others.

Now, I've been excited, I will go back to being normal, because I'm still pissed off.

I'm sorry, angry at the overuse of these words.

So, before I start a new normal, let's look at overused.

Overused is to use too often, too much, too many times, too broadly, and that's how these

words are being used right now.

So, let's start off with the new normal.

First of all, this is a new normal for me, an airplane going through my lesson.

Shoot that guy down.

Anyway, "new" means new.

First time, right?

"Normal" means all the time, so they don't kind of make sense.

Now, I'm going to explain when we used to say this.

Now, please keep in mind, all of this is about before 2019.

Somebody might say "new normal", and I'll explain a very specific example for you.

One would be if a couple had a new baby, because for that couple, prior to the baby or before

the baby, they had a life where they might go out with their friends drinking, have dinner,

go away for weekends, stay up late.

Once the baby has arrived, it's going to be a new situation for now, but it will eventually

become a normal situation, which means it will not end.

Keep in mind what I just said.

It's not just a new situation, but a situation that will not end.

Now, think about COVID and when they tell us about what is happening now.

They say this is the new normal.

Well, most of us, including myself, don't want COVID to be normal forever, so I think

we should use more specific language that addresses or tells us that this is a special

circumstance, but we will move past it.

There may be other pandemics in the future, but that's in another time, and that will

be a new thing in itself.

So, to call something the new normal doesn't make sense, really, because we are at a special

time in history, which we're told by one of the other words I have on the board, and then

they say it will be like this forever.

Okay?

All right, so you're catching me on that one.

I could say this, we could say these are special times, and we can talk about unfamiliar routines.

You might even say this could be an oxymoron, because a routine is something you do all

the time, but we're saying this is an unfamiliar one, something new that we have to do for

a while, but we're not used to it.

That kind of helps with the new normal kind of aspect they're getting.

It's not going to be permanent.

We don't think it will be permanent, but it is something unfamiliar and a routine that

we must do for now.

Special times tells us that there are normal times and special times.

Now, I have to give this caveat.

For some people, they have said that the years, let's say, from 1950 or 1945 until today,

we have been in a special time, you know, war, not that many diseases, and we have not

been taking care of, you know, our planet and environment.

That's an argument to be made.

But I'm just saying from what we are used to for the generation that is alive now, these

are special times.

We are not used to this.

Cool?

So, we've got unfamiliar routine, right?

So, a routine we have to take on we've never had before, and special times, because it

goes against the argument that this COVID situation will go on forever and ever and

ever and ever, and that's what new normal kind of leads to, right?

All right.

So, that's one you can use.

So try using special times or these are unfamiliar routines for us, and that gives the idea that

I'm not expecting this to be permanent, but I do understand as in routine, it will go

on for a little while, and it's not something I'm used to.

And special times, these are not what we normally or how we normally live.

Now, here's my other favourite one, and this is funny because I'm not the only one who

said this.

Most of our government said this one.

Social distancing.

Before 2019, and you have to be very specific when you talk to people, if you ask people

what is social distancing, they'll say to you right now, "Well, of course you stay six

feet or two metres away from another person.

That's social distancing."

That is new in our lexicon, and lexicon, I mean dictionary.

If you had said to anybody in 2018, "I'm going to go to the bar tonight, I'm going to be

dancing, and I'm going to social distance", they would say, "Have you been drinking?

What does that mean?

What do you mean you're going to social distance at the bar?

You're going to meet somebody, right?"

"No, I'm going to be social distancing."

It made no sense.

The idea of being social is to be in society with people.

Distant means to be away from.

Now, it has come...

We have used this phrase now to say social distancing, because originally they wanted

to talk about physical distancing, because when you stay two feet - sorry - six feet

away from me, or two metres, we are physically distant.

We can still be social.

I can still say, "Hey, Fred.

Hey, James.

How's the garden?

Going good.

What about your dog?

It's got a litter."

We're distant, physically distant, but we're very social.

Now, I'm not saying don't use this because most Western-speaking, English-speaking countries

say social distancing, but you can make your language more specific and say, "Look, I'm

going to be physical...

Doing physical distancing with you right now because I'm worried about, you know, someone

in my family getting sick."

Telling them, basically, we can still be social, but if I stand away from you, it's nothing

to do with not being friendly.

Right?

Makes sense.

Social distancing, you could also talk about computing.

Sitting on your computer, that's kind of social distancing, but that's completely different

than what we mean when we say you need to social distance when there are two people

in a room.

Isn't it?

On a computer, you are being social at a distance.

You're halfway on the planet and I'm over here.

In fact, I'm making a video here and you're over there.

We're socially distant, but we're trying to be social.

In a public space, we're talking about - it's not not be friendly, it means move away, and

I think this would be a better thing to use.

Just saying, give it a try, and if you have to explain it, then you're probably talking

to the wrong person.

They're like, "What do you mean?

What do you mean social distancing?

Physical distancing?

I don't understand."

It's like, you know, "Back up.

Back up.

I'll just email you."

Okay?

Next.

Unprecedented.

Covid is unprecedented, they say, and yes, it is a new virus.

It is new.

We've not had this virus before.

However, in the last 400 years, we've had 20 major viruses.

Once again, please remember, I'm not saying these words are wrong, I'm saying they're

overused and you can use language which is much more specific and actually keeps us thinking

about what's going on as opposed to falling asleep because we just use the same words

over and over until they lose their meaning.

Unprecedented.

So, "precedent" means to come first, "pre" means first, "cedent" means to follow.

It's not unprecedented to have a virus.

When they're saying unprecedented, what they mean is the world did not respond the way

it has now.

We shut down the whole world.

The globe was shut down.

But they did restrict travel and other things back then.

So, our response to the virus is unprecedented.

The virus itself is not.

In 1918 and 1920, we had the Spanish Flu which wiped out approximately 3% of the planet.

In fact, it was so bad that air pollution went down.

It killed that many people.

It just went down because there weren't that many people burning, you know, like - because

back then we would be making fires to cook our foods and that, it wasn't microwaves.

So, that was extraordinary.

So, that leads me to these words, "unparalleled".

So, when something is parallel, you're going to get this.

Unparallel, one is not close to the other.

They're not the same.

They're not on the same lines.

They're not going in the same direction.

They're unparallel, okay?

To say this is an unparalleled virus is absolutely correct.

We have never done what we've done before that I know of.

I wasn't alive in 1918, and if I was, I'd be looking damn good right now.

Hundred-year-old man.

Okay.

And in 2010, we didn't do the same thing.

Now, we're not saying it's unprecedented.

We're saying something like this has happened before, but never like this.

And that, to me, is more accurate in your language.

What about "extraordinary"?

"Extraordinary" means, like, super, really different.

More than ordinary.

Right?

Literally.

Extraordinary.

I love this word because it's like, it's not just ordinary, it's extraordinary, which

kind of makes no sense when you think about it, because if something's extraordinary,

it's really normal.

It's like, it's normally, normally, normally.

But we say this to mean it's above ordinary, so this is an extraordinary time.

See, I'm getting upset about this.

It's an extraordinary time.

It's like, it's not normal.

It's not an ordinary time.

And here, "unparalleled", it's not - nothing has been like it before.

Which is better than saying "unprecedented", in my opinion, and you can play with the language.

It still gives you a message across.

In fact, because you're not speaking like everyone else, people will pay more attention

to what you're saying.

Right?

The rate of infection across the globe has been unparalleled.

We've never seen anything like that before.

Right?

Essential workers.

Now, before you get upset, because some of you will be like, "Well, I'm a grocery worker.

I was told I'm an essential worker."

And then some of you are police going, "I'm an essential worker."

And some of you are, let me say, brain surgeons, and you're being called "essential worker",

and all of you might be looking at each other going, "Oh, no, hold on a second.

No.

No, no, no."

And I'm like, "You're kind of right."

In this time, all of these people are, in my opinion, brave to go into places where

there's possible danger that they didn't sign up for.

But the level of - I'm not saying importance as in status, you know, who's better.

But that society needs can be defined by using better words.

An example, a friend of mine gave me.

If we have grocery workers, they are, I would say, they are necessary workers.

In some cases, we might say "indispensable", right?

But I wouldn't call them "crucial".

And you go, "Why not?"

Well, here's the deal.

My friend put it this way.

If you have a grocery worker and you need grocery workers, you can go out today, grab

five people and say, "Okay, you need to sell groceries.

No problem."

Here's where we have a problem.

You need heart people, people - heart surgeons to work on your heart.

You go out and grab five people and go, "Okay, here's a scalpel.

Go operate."

You just killed five people.

Now, some people are crucial, right?

People who are organizing our police, hospitals, those are crucial.

Some people are necessary.

And some people are indispensable.

Without it, nothing works.

The guys who keep the light on, guys and girls that keep the lights on, right?

They're indispensable.

We need them in society, especially at this time.

So, I'm saying we can use these words to still honor the people doing the jobs, but also

let us know what we need to have for sure, what we can manage, and what we should appreciate.

But they won't - the world won't stop if they aren't there.

And I want to make sure I make a point of saying it's funny how it took COVID in 2019-2020

for people to realize that all jobs are necessary, you know?

You need the grocery guy just like you need the fireman.

Just a point to keep, right?

Respect people who are working.

So, anyway, so essential workers is floated by our politicians and people in the news

all the time.

Everyone's an essential worker, and to the point you're like, "I actually knew this one

woman who was a massage person, and she was like, 'Our careers - we are essential workers

because we massage the people who do the heavy work.'"

You're necessary, doubt it.

People need you, but crucial - moving on.

That's why that's up there.

Okay, trying times.

This is another one where you get prime ministers and presidents, "These are trying times for

the people right now."

What does that mean?

Now, if you speak English, you know it has - it's like difficult times, right?

If you don't speak English, you're like, "What are they trying to do?

Are they trying to eradicate the disease or what?

I don't know."

But yeah, we are trying - trying in this case means stressful.

But even using this word, it's not a fair word to use, because I've given you three

words that can really help you understand what it might mean for different people.

Okay, quickly, stressful times.

If you are a man or a woman that used to go to an office, and suddenly you're at home

because you have to work from home because of physical distancing requirements - see

how I use that?

You can, too.

So, you're at home, but your kids are at home, too, because they are also physical distancing

from other students.

That's a very stressful time for you, because you've got to manage your children and you've

got to do your job, right?

That's stressful.

That is different than demanding times.

When we say these are demanding times, we might be saying to you something like this.

Your government requires you to do something.

They're demanding something of you, and we know we're asking you to do a lot.

Yes, it causes stress, but there's more the thing that you're asking me to do a lot.

You're asking me not to see my family, you're asking me not to see my friends, you're asking

me not to socialize.

You're demanding a lot of me.

It could be stressful, but really what I'm concerned about is the demands you're placing

on me.

So, you can say to people, "I know these are demanding times.

The country and your fellow citizens are asking a lot of you."

And that means more to me or resonates more than stress, because I'm not a parent with

children at home.

Right?

Both are speaking, but we're being very specific.

Now, here's a very simple word that you might say, "Well, hard is up there."

What does that mean?

Okay, my friend, here we go.

Remember the person at home working?

Working at home?

Well, they're bringing in money.

Okay?

So, they've got money coming in, so they can pay for their food, their house, their lights

and everything else, and their kids.

Demanding.

Well, they've got demands on them, sure, but they're okay.

They've got a home over their...

They've got a house over their head, and they've got money.

So, what are hard times?

Hard times are when you don't have food in your house, you don't have a place you can

stay permanently, you don't know where the money's going to come from, and you don't

know if you're going to be living in this place.

It's not paycheck to paycheck.

You have no clothes.

Maybe you have nothing and you're about to live on the street.

Those are hard times.

So, you can have people in the same time, these trying times, some are having stressful

times.

They live in nice houses, but they've got their kids and they're driving them crazy.

Some have demanding times where lots are being asked for them.

They have to take care of their elderly in their home.

Right?

In Italy that happened.

People are having a lot of their older folks at their home, and people are dying.

So, you know, that's very demanding on people.

Hard times is you have no money, no place to go.

That's different.

Different levels, but look at the level of specific - I try it again, I give up.

How we got very specific with our language.

I'm going to get that word down, I swear.

But this is very, very, very, very specific, okay?

And it gives me more information.

When you say my friend is facing hard times, I'm going to go "Oh", because I get an idea

very quickly.

When you're saying stressful times, I'm like "Oh, how's the job, how's the family going?"

And see how that can change just by one word?

Well, anyway, I did the snap by accident.

I'm like Thanos, I'm practicing.

And I'm going to snap again, and half of you - no, you'll all reappear next.

And we're back.

A special time of ours.

You like that?

Okay, we're going to go to the board, practice a little bit more.

Where's my magic marker?

Dun-da-da-dun-dun-dun.

It's quiz time.

All right.

So, first quiz we're going to do - ah, got to get this ready here.

When a routine situation has changed, but you don't want to normalize it.

When we talk about normalizing something, we mean to make it, like, everyday, normal,

regular, okay?

So, what would you use to modify this to let people know that, okay, I know this is different

and it might go on for a while, but I want to give special attention to this period of

time.

I gave you two terms, but I'm specifically looking for one, because you don't want to

normalize it.

That's right, special, because we all know that special means it's not regular, it's

not normal.

So, when these are special times, we know there are different times this is a special

one that we have to pay attention to.

And a pandemic is a special time, right?

Not like Christmas, but it's a special time.

When a situation has no equal or is very exceptional, I gave you two words, and I do want you to

remember these words, okay?

What do you think they would be?

That's right.

Notice I said "has no equal", and I'm going to help you with this one, because I have

a difficulty spelling this word myself.

"Para" means side by side, so it's double L. You can remember parallels, you know the

double Ls in there.

And we talked about being "extraordinary", remember I made that joke?

It's not just ordinary, it's "extraordinary", which should mean really normal, but it doesn't,

it means special.

Anyway.

Third, when a situation causes a lot of stress, and I've helped you with this one, what do

you think it would be?

Well, if you don't know the answer to this question, you would say it is - oops, stressful

- stressful times, right?

These are stressful times.

Tests can be stressful, I can tell you that.

Now what about number four?

I'm sorry, number five for our blanks, number four question.

When an operation or a situation won't work without this, so something, if it's not there,

it has to be, you can't work without it, what would you call it?

It could be a thing or a person, actually.

Well, it's crucial, it's crucial, if it's crucial, it's just, you don't have it, nothing's

going to happen, right?

Oxygen is crucial for breathing, no oxygen, you're dead.

And number six in our thing, but five in the question, you need to keep a safe what?

Distance away.

Yeah, I like this one better than the one we use currently.

It's physical distancing, because it's true, you need to stay physically away.

And as I said, a PSA is a public safety, public service announcement or public safety announcement,

don't remember, but it's supposed to make you safe and feel better at home.

Stay safe, stay healthy, okay?

Do whatever the experts in your region say is right for your people, okay?

I'm not in your country, so I don't know, but take care of yourselves.

Next.

These, okay, this whole lesson was based on these two words.

These two words are, in my opinion, are overused, and then I just thought COVID would be a good

one to work on that, but these are pet peeves.

Pet peeves are things that upset me personally, may not be everybody else, but to me, ugh,

they drive me crazy.

The word "journey", and some of you are like, "Why you got a problem with journey?"

If you watch American television or North American television, and I don't know if this

is in England, Wales, Scotland, maybe they have this program everywhere, there's a program

called "The Bachelor" and also "The Bachelorette", and this is crazy, but this is the premise,

okay?

This is the idea.

One person gets to date 25 other people for three months, and everybody knows about it.

In fact, the men and the women that are dating live in the same house, and they go out on

dates in nice places like Spain, Italy, they'll come to the mountains in America, and the

company pays for it, so the person doing the dating doesn't pay for anything.

Anyway, they go all over these places, and then they talk about it, but this is the key

word.

I don't watch this program, before you think I do, I just usually come home because I leave

my TV on, and this program is on usually, I think, Monday nights.

See, I don't even know, I just know I walk in the door, and I hear this word.

As soon as I walk in the door, I'm like taking my bag off.

This journey we've been on, week one.

This journey, week 17.

This journey, and there's just different people going, "You got no other words?"

They're trying to say that the start of a relationship is a journey, going from one

place to another that can be magical.

I'm like, you know what would be magical?

If you used a dictionary, that would be magical.

Open it up, turn it, there's different pages, different words.

For example, "expedition".

They didn't go on a journey to the North Pole, they went on an expedition.

That means they were looking for something difficult to get.

Love is difficult to get, you know that.

They worked hard, it was dangerous, and finally they got to where they needed to be.

That's an expedition.

That's what your love should be like, not a journey.

Another one is an "adventure".

Doesn't that get you excited?

Ooh, goosebumps.

You know, maybe you're playing your video games and you're on a starship moving around,

that's an adventure.

It's not a journey.

You want your love to be an adventure, both of you excited to be there.

Journeys can be pretty arduous, I mean, hard and difficult, not much fun.

That's it, bachelor.

I'm putting you on notice.

People are going to start complaining about you.

Next, in the news, especially in North America, they've got this special word now.

When I was a kid, we used to use it only in specific times, but now it's the narrative.

We have the narrative for everything, the political narrative.

I don't want to say this one because people will get upset, but lives matter narrative.

Then there's the poli-narrative.

You know, the guys in blue, they have a narrative, everyone's got a narrative.

When I was a kid, here's what it used to be, okay?

Number one, it was an account.

An account, like a bank account, was filled with facts.

This is the account that we've got.

These are the facts, not a story.

Because, you see, the word "narrative" also means "story", and here's something we won't

tell you, or they don't.

In English, when you say "story" or "tale", it means we don't necessarily believe you,

and that's why I like those words, because when you give me your account, you are telling

me these are the facts.

That's it.

The sky is blue, the sun is yellow.

This is my account.

It's not a narrative, not a story, it's a fact.

Now, "portrayal" is how I want to give you my perspective on it.

The portrayal, they said it like this, which is maybe there's truth to it, but you know,

I can't say it's 100% facts.

What's your portrayal?

Like, when you get a portrait done of someone, it is a picture of the person, not the person.

Cool?

Ah.

See how much closer these words are to getting out what we mean?

And if someone tells me, "I don't like your story", you know, someone told me this tale,

I don't think it's real.

I think it's imaginary.

So, if I said, "He told me this tale about why he was late for work", I'm calling the

person a liar.

I don't want to use narrative for that, but this has been very popular and it's pushed

out words that are actually quite accurate when we are explaining something.

Okay?

Anyway, that's how this lesson got started, in case you ever want to see behind the scenes

or how does he pick out lessons.

These two words started this particular one and the situation we're in right now.

Anyway, as always, I've given you your quiz here.

You've got your bonus material, my pet peeve, or peeves, and finally we're going to do homework.

And because there are uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, right, un, dos, tres, cuatro,

cinco, five words here that you're going to look for, I'm going to make it special.

You can have one million points for each one you get correct.

Just imagine if they were dollars.

So, here's the sentence and you have to figure out which words that I taught you would suit

this paragraph better, and don't forget to pull it in and put it in the comments beneath.

So, in these something times, we must thank something workers in the grocery stores and

something workers in the hospitals.

Remember, there's probably a difference between them, what is the word that works best?

Remember to something something for everyone's safety.

Now, what can you do as a person for everyone else's safety?

We worked on it today, you should figure it out.

Anyway, that's your quiz, go get your points, and don't forget to press like or subscribe.

And I say that simply because this is the end of my video, and you're still here so

you clearly liked it because you're looking for more.

I'm going to give you more in 10 seconds, so press like.

And if this is your, like, second, third time pressing like, time to subscribe, I think,

yeah?

Anyway, it's up to you, but I think it would be good for you.

So, to get more, I would like you to go to www.asinenglishvidasinvideoengvid.com, and

you will get a quiz that has 10 questions that you can go and practice your English

on, see if you've mastered what I've taught you today, and find other wonderful teachers

to help you out.

Okay?

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed these special times we've shared.

I've got something that's crucial in my mind that I have to take care of, and I must go.

All right?

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and I look forward to seeing you again in the next video.

Ciao.