Learn English Vocabulary: FAKE NEWS

296,607 views ・ 2018-06-09

English with Emma


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

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Hello.
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My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you some key expressions you
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can use when somebody tells you something that's not true and you want to argue against
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what they're saying.
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So, in this video I'm going to teach you these great expressions, but before I do that, we're
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going to talk about three words that are very common in English these days.
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Those three words are: "Fake news", "conspiracy theories", and "hoaxes".
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So in this video you will learn what these words mean, and you will also learn what to
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say to somebody that tells you something that's not true.
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All right, so let's get started.
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So I have here three sentences.
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The first sentence is: "Scientists say the earth is flat.
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Not round."
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Is this true or not true?
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Okay, this sentence is not true.
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Some people believe this, but it is not true.
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My second sentence: "Michael Jackson is alive and living as Kim Kardashian."
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True or not true?
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Again, we have a sentence that is not true; I made this up.
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And finally, my third sentence: "Listening to rock music causes cancer."
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Is this true or untrue?
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Again, this is untrue; I also made up this.
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So my point here is that a lot of what you hear from people in conversation not true.
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People say these types of things all the time, and you will know that this is something that's
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not true, so what do you say when someone tells you that the earth is flat, or they
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tell you that Michael Jackson is living as Kim Kardashian?
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Okay?
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So, I will teach you those great expressions you can use.
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Before I do that, I wanted to just say that these three sentences can also be considered
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fake news.
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So, we will look at the meaning of fake news in a moment.
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Okay, so the three main words I wanted to teach you today are words that you will see
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a lot on the internet and in the media.
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The first word is: "fake news".
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So what is fake news?
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Well, "fake" means not true.
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"Fake news" is news stories that are not true, and they're created to damage a person, a
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business, an agency, or a government, or they might also be created to get attention and
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to get clicks on the internet.
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So you'll see a lot of fake news on different social media, like Twitter, Facebook, and
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a lot of other places, too, online.
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So, this is a very common word these days, a lot of people are using it, so it's important
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that you know what it means.
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We also have the word here: "conspiracy theory".
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So, "a conspiracy theory" is an explanation of an event or situation that is different
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from the official account.
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A lot of the times conspiracy theories are about a government or a business doing something
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illegal or to harm someone.
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Okay?
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So let's think of some conspiracy theories.
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Some people believe that the moon landing, so when...
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When astronauts went to the moon in the 1960s, some people believe the moon landing was fake.
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This is a popular conspiracy theory.
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Another conspiracy theory I heard recently is some people believe that Paul McCartney
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from the Beetles actually died in 1966, and there is a different man who replaced him
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and who is actually the better musician.
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So this is a different conspiracy theory.
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So, you'll see a lot of conspiracy theories on the internet, and a lot of people will
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tell you conspiracy theories during conversations.
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The last word I wanted to teach you was the word: "hoax", "hoax".
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So, "a hoax" is a type of practical joke that is meant to embarrass or hurt people.
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So some examples of hoaxes are you'll have these death hoaxes, where they'll say a celebrity
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is dead, but it's not true; it's a joke.
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Or you might have a hoax, like, you know, some people might take a picture of an alien
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or a monster and tell everyone: "Look, we have evidence of this monster alien."
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But if it's not true, then it's a hoax.
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It's a joke, a practical joke.
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So, again, fake news, conspiracy theories, and hoaxes are very common on the internet,
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and so for these things that are not true, what do you say to people when they tell you
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this untrue information?
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Well, let's find out in a moment.
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Okay, so you've heard a fake news story or a conspiracy theory or a hoax, maybe your
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aunt or your friend just told you it and you know it's not true, so what do you say to them?
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Well, what you can do is you can challenge their argument.
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So, for example, you can say: "So let me get this straight.
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You're saying __________."
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And you can repeat what they said.
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"So let me get this straight.
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You're saying Paul McCartney died in 1966."
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Okay?
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And then what you can say is, you can say: "That's not true.", "That's inaccurate.",
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"I find that hard to believe.", "That doesn't make sense."
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So these are all expressions we use when we're saying: "I don't believe you."
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Now, if we wanted to say something that was a little bit more impolite, we can use the
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word: "B.S." as in: "That's B.S." "B.S." stands for "bullshit", and sometimes we don't want
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to swear, so we might just want to say to our friends: "That's total B.S." or "That's B.S."
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You can also say to somebody: "That's ridiculous."
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Meaning: "That's a stupid story.
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That's ridiculous. It's not true."
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So these are all examples of common things people say when someone tells them something
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that they don't believe.
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So now let's look at some other things we can say when somebody tells us a fake news story.
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Okay, so another thing you can do when somebody tells you fake news or something that's not
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true is you can ask them where their source is, or: Where did they get the information from?
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So this is the big: "Where?" question.
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When we talk about sources or news sources, we're talking about who said it, so for example,
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maybe the news came from your Mom, so maybe that's not a great source.
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Maybe it came from BBC News, or maybe it came from Wikipedia, or Facebook.
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Or if you're in sciences, maybe it came from a peer-reviewed journal.
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Maybe it came from Twitter, or your aunt, or your friends.
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So it's good to ask somebody: "Where?
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Where did they get the information from?" and then you can think about: "Okay, is that
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a good source?" and a lot of the times it probably isn't.
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And you can tell them this.
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Okay?
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So if somebody tells you, for example, that the moon landing didn't happen and there's
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a big conspiracy, and aliens control the US and Canada and China, what you can say to
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them is, you know: "Who told you that?
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Where's your news source?" and if they say: "Oh, my friend Gary told me that", well, then
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you can say: "That's not a good news source."
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You can also ask them: "Why?" or "How?"
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questions.
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So, for example, you know: "Why would...?"
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I don't know.
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Let's start with: "How?"
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"How would the government cover that up?" or: "How would...?", "How would rock and roll
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music cause cancer?"
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Okay?
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So you can always ask these questions: "Why?" and "How?" and, you know, maybe they have
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a good explanation, but it's good to ask these questions to find out more about why they
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think what they think.
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You can also counter what they're saying, meaning if they say something and you disagree,
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you can say your opinion.
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So, for example, if somebody told you that Kim Kardashian is really Michael Jackson,
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you can say: "The fact of the matter is Michael Jackson passed away.
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He is not Kim Kardashian.", "The truth is Michael Jackson and Kim Kardashian are not
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the same person."
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You can also say: "In reality...", "In reality Michael Jackson is not Kim Kardashian.
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So these are great expressions you can use when you're trying to tell somebody that what
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they're saying is incorrect and that what you're saying is the correct belief.
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Okay, so we've gone over all these different things to say when somebody tells you something
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that's not true, so let's practice it.
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Okay?
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This just in: Fake news story.
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Did you hear?
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Terrorists have melted Antarctica using a giant laser.
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Okay?
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So, terrorists have melted Antarctica using a gigantic laser.
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So that's the news story which I just made up; it's fake news.
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So your source is Emma, and this is not a good source for this news story.
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So what can you say to me if I give you a fake news story like that?
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Well, maybe you'll say: "That's not true."
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You might say: "Where did you hear that, Emma?
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Why would terrorists melt Antarctica with a gigantic laser?
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How would terrorists get the laser?"
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Okay?
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So you might ask these questions.
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And then you might tell me the truth.
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"The fact of the matter is Antarctica has not been melted by terrorists.
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Okay?
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That is fake news."
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So thank you for watching.
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I hope you've learned something maybe about some of these words, like: "Fake news", "hoax",
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or "conspiracy theory", also maybe some expressions you can use when you hear something that is
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untrue.
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I'd like to invite you to come check out our website at www.engvid.com.
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There, you can actually do a quiz to practice what you learned in this video.
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I would also like to invite you to subscribe to my channel.
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You can find a lot of other resources on many different things about English, including
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English conversation, expressions, vocabulary, work English, and a lot more.
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So thank you for watching, and until next time, take care.
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