Man vs. Bear? Learn English with the News

Welcome my amazing students.

Today we're going to learn  English with viral news.

There is this topic that has gone viral on  Tiktok and this topic is man versus bear.

And everyone on social  media is talking about this.

So let's review a news article of this viral news  together so you can learn advanced vocabulary,  

learn advanced grammar, sentence  structure and improve your pronunciation.

Welcome back to JForrest English,

Of course,

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started. Our viral news Man or bear?

Have you seen this on social media?

Man or bear?

A viral question has spawned scary responses.

Now of course, viral means to  become popular very quickly.

And notice is an adjective.

It describes the question.

A question has spawned A viral question, a  question that became popular very quickly.

So of course, I'm sure you want this  video to become popular very quickly.

So if you do put in the comments,  

let's go viral and notice your verb  is go and then viral is the adjective.

So you could say this question went viral because  

you would take your verb go and  you would put it in the past.

Simple.

So let me write that for you.

This question went viral or of  course this video went viral.

So if you want that to happen, put  let's go viral in the comments.

Because if you practice this,  you're more likely to remember it.

A viral question has spawned,  has spawned scary responses.

So if something, a viral question,  spawns, this is the verb to spawn.

What verb tense is this in the present perfect?

But the verb is to spawn, so if something  spawns something else it causes it to exist.

I wrote that here for you.

An easy way of thinking of it is  has resulted in because remember,  

my verb tense is the present perfect has spawned.

Notice that pronunciation.

Our vowel is on spawn, spawn,  and then a soft D for the past.

Simple spawned.

Try that.

Spawned, spawned.

Scary responses.

Don't worry about taking these notes because  I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can find the link in the description.

Now let's learn more about this viral  question that has spawned scary responses.

Another day, another hypothetical scenario.

Scenario tearing people apart on social media.

Don't worry about hypothetical.

We're going to talk about that in a minute  because the article provides a definition,  

but I'm sure you know this from  learning your conditionals.

A hypothetical scenario is of  course, an unreal scenario.

Now notice here my pronunciation  tearing, tearing people apart.

Here's a piece of paper and the  verb to tear is what I just did.

Now let's look at this phrasal  verb to tear people apart.

And then you need an additional preposition  on to mention the location on social media.

So let's say I have one group of people  here and one group of people here.

So if an issue tears them apart, it does this.

It causes some people to be over  here and some people to be over here.

So before they were together and now  they're apart, so it divides them.

Another example is the new  policy tore our team apart.

This is what verb tense, the past simple.

Listen to that pronunciation here.

Tear, air, tear, repeat, tear.

And in the past simple.

Or Tor repeat Tor.

You got it.

So this hypothetical scenario, remember that is  

man or bear because this isn't a real  question, it's an unreal question.

Hypothetical.

Of course you know that because  you know your conditionals.

It is tearing people apart.

On social media, however, this cultural  discourse has some sharp teeth.

Oh ha ha ha.

This is what we call in  English a pun, a play on words.

Because they're only using this expression.

Because why?

Because a bear, of course, has sharp teeth.

If you describe something, this cultural  discourse, as having sharp teeth,  

it means it's influential, it's  powerful, it's having an effect.

But to be honest, this isn't  the most common expression  

to describe something as having sharp teeth.

The journalist is using it because a bear has  

sharp teeth and the journalist  is making a play on words.

But now you know what that means.

The question directed towards  women directed towards means  

that the question is being asked to women.

Women are being asked the  question directed towards women.

Seems simple.

So here's the full question in the headline.

It was just man or bear, the full question.

You know this sentence structure.

Would you rather base verb?

Would you rather be alone, alone in the woods?

So this is the woods, the forest,  the woods with a man or a bear.

But remember, this is a  hypothetical question to answer.

You can use the same structure as the  question I'd rather and then bass verb  

BE alone means to be alone with it means it's  the bear and you the man and you nobody else.

And remember this question  is directed towards women.

Women are being asked this question.

I'd rather this duh this apostrophe D,  which is a contraction stands for would.

I would rather native speakers use contractions  the majority of the time in spoken English.

Listen to that pronunciation.

I'd very soft D I'd rather practice that.

I'd rather I'd rather be alone with.

And then you state your choice, a man, a bear.

Now you don't have to but make your  answer stronger by explaining the  

reason why because and then state your answer.

This is one way to answer.

You could also comment on the question.

Interesting question.

I'd choose.

I'd choose a man, a bear, and then again,  not required, but you can make your answer  

stronger by adding the reason because  this is the same thing it represents.

Would I would choose.

Again, a native speaker in spoken English  will most likely say the contraction.

I'd Let's practice this.

I'd choose.

I'd choose.

Notice how soft that is.

I'd choose.

Now you have two different ways to answer this,  

so it could be an interesting discussion to  have with your friends or family tonight.

Great conversation to  practice your English as well.

Are you enjoying this lesson?

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This is my premium training program where  we study native English speakers from TV,  

the movies, YouTube, and the news so you  can improve your listening skills of fast  

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You can look in the description  for the link to learn more,  

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

While there is no unanimous answer,  unanimous means everyone said the same thing.

So let's say I asked my students,  

would you like me to record another lesson  where we learn English with the news?

And if I ask 10 students and 10 students  say yes, I could say it's unanimous.

The answer is yes because it could  also be unanimous the other way.

I asked 10 students and they say  no, thank you, it's unanimous.

The answer is no.

So let's put this to the test and  find out if we got a unanimous answer.

Do you want me to make another lesson  where we learn English with the news?

If you do, put yes, yes, yes in the comments.

If you don't, put no thank you and  we'll see if the answer is unanimous.

Notice in our article they said  while there's no unanimous answer,  

which means that some people  said man, other people said bear.

A good number of women on TikTok,  

Instagram and X have made it clear they'd  prefer the bear a good number of women.

This isn't clear to me how many  women, but if it's a good number,  

I would say maybe 60%, but it  could be less, maybe 40% to 60%.

But that's just my interpretation of this,  

because there is no definition of  what this means, but a good number.

It sounds like more women said bear than man.

Now listen here, because again, what do we have?

They'd prefer, they'd prefer here  we have would they would prefer.

So this is another option.

Because we had these two options, I'd choose.

I'd rather I'd prefer the bear or  the man and then your reason why.

So that's another option.

This has sparked anger among some men online.

Let's look at this.

This has sparked anger.

If something this the fact that a  good number of women chose the bear.

That's the this has sparked anger.

It means that the this created the anger.

It led to the anger.

The anger only exists because a  good number of women chose bear.

Some common alternatives  led to created, resulted in.

Make sure you remember the sentence structure  because as you can see, they're all different.

This has sparked anger among some  men online, but more than that,  

it has snowballed into a valuable discussion.

It has snowballed into well,  I know many of my students are  

in countries where you don't have  snow, but a snowball, what happens?

It starts very small and then  the more you roll it in snow,  

the bigger and bigger the snowball gets and  eventually it turns into a giant snowman.

But it starts very small and as it  rolls, it collects more and more.

So that's what happened here.

So it was very small, the discussion,  the debate about this question.

But then it grew and grew and grew.

So you could simply replace it with.

Has grown into or has turned  into would be replacements.

It has snowballed into a valuable  discussion about violence against  

women and how danger doesn't always take  the shape of a wild animal on the prowl.

So take the shape of simply  means to look like violence.

Doesn't always look like a bear in the woods.

A wild animal like a bear on the prowl.

If an animal is on the prowl,  it means it's hunting for food.

It's looking for prey which it  will eat that is on the prowl.

Let's continue in one TikTok video  viewed more than 16.7 million times.

So this is this is showing  the virality of the video.

Virality means the fact that it is viral.

So in this one TikTok video, this  viral TikTok video, an interviewer  

the person asking the questions,  the interviewer asks 8 women.

So the eight women would be the interviewees,  the one receiving the questions.

An interviewer asks 8 women on the street whether  

they'd rather be stuck in a  forest with a man or a bear.

So again, same thing.

They'd rather they would rather be stuck.

So if they're stuck, it means  that they're unable to to leave.

They don't know how, Probably  because they are lost.

You may know this because  you get stuck in traffic.

You're unable to leave the street  because there are cars surrounding you.

So you can say I'm stuck in traffic.

So notice to be stuck is how that's used here.

So you need your verb to be to be stuck.

I'm stuck in traffic, whether they'd rather  be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear.

Seven out of the 8 answer  with very little hesitation.

So with very little hesitation means they  answered quickly, with very little hesitation.

The latter.

So what did they answer?

What is the latter?

Do you know?

Notice for pronunciation it's pronounced  with two soft DS ladder, der, der.

So it's the same as what you climb.

You climb a ladder and this is pronounced as  ladder because the TS are between 2 vowels,  

so we pronounce them as a soft D ladder.

So again, what did those seven out of eight women  the interviewees, which one did they choose?

Well, they chose the bear because  the latter is the second choice.

The first choice is called the former.

So if it said the former, it means they chose the  man, But it's the latter, so they chose the bear.

I wrote that note for you.

Let's continue.

A lot of detractors also  seem to be misunderstanding  

the definition of a hypothetical question.

Oh, remember I said at the  beginning will have a definition.

But you already know what  I hypothetical question is.

A detractor is a person or a group of people who  

disagree with the the either the  question or the majority opinion.

The detractors.

LSD law.

A portal for law students.

So they're giving us the definition of what LSD  law is because it's not a commonly known thing.

I certainly have never heard  this before, but now I know.

Oh OK.

It's a portal.

A database A an area for law students  offers an especially clear explanation.

Hypothetical means something  that is not necessarily true,  

but is used to help explain or  under understand something else.

It is like a pretend situation that we  use to learn or think about something.

But you, my very smart student,  

already knows what hypothetical means  because you learn it for conditionals.

Many men have shared their take on the situation.

Ah, their take, their take.

But it's not take.

It's their take on this situation.

And I know it's one's take on because  there is the possessive pronoun.

You definitely want to add  this to your vocabulary.

It's one's take on something,  something being a situation,  

and this simply means one's opinion,  perspective or interpretation.

We commonly use this in the question form.

What's your take on the  whole man versus bear debate?

So what's your take on it?

I'm asking what's your opinion?

What's your perspective?

Interpretation?

Feel free to share in the comments.

What's your take on it now off.

Another way we use this is we state our opinion.

I think I'd rather I prefer  and then we add at the end.

But that's just my take on it, to soften it,  

to let the person know that what  I'm saying isn't a general truth.

It's simply my opinion,  perspective, interpretation.

It's my take on it.

So remember, you need that possessive pronoun.

My take on it, your take on it.

Excellent expression to have in your vocabulary.

Many men have shared their take on the situation  and come out on the side of the bear as well.

Unexpected.

So if they come out on the side of the bear.

This is quite wordy.

But it simply means that after considering  something they choose one side bear.

So the come out on it just emphasizes the  

fact that they they considered it  before they stated their opinion.

So seven out of eight women  chose the bear and many men.

We don't know how many also chose the bear.

Let's continue.

However, some positive comments have argued  that the question isn't meant to lamb base men.

Lamb based.

Notice that pronunciation aced aced so along a  sound lamb based men means to severely criticize.

So they're saying that it isn't  meant to severely criticize men.

That's not the purpose of  this question, this debate.

Now to use this in another example,  my audience lambasted this video,  

which means my audience  severely criticized this video.

Let's hope that doesn't happen.

So notice this is a verb.

So in the past, simple lambasted,  beasted it is in the way.

Hypothetical questions are  a door to something bigger.

So this information here is in is within  commas, which means that you can remove  

this entire section and it will  still be grammatically correct.

So I can read it as it is  a door to something bigger.

This question man or bear this question  is a door a gateway to something bigger.

I commonly hear a gateway to something bigger.

So a door, it leads you from one place to another.

A gateway leads you from not one place to another.

So this question can take us from where we  are now to another location hypothetically.

So maybe another opinion or another  way of thinking about things.

I hear this expression more with gateway.

So my example is J4 is English  is my gateway to fluency.

It will lead me to fluency.

I hope you agree with that you  started an important conversation,  

one commenter wrote on Tiktok.

It didn't just go into a debate, so if it went  into a debate, it means it resulted in debate.

People debated this question man or bear.

It led to some of us mothers having  important talks with our older sons.

This is the kind of thing  that can change the future.

Now this was either, oh sorry, I was  going to say either said or written.

But it says right here, wrote on TikTok.

This was written on TikTok.

What do you notice about this word here?

What does this word stand for?

This is the kind of kind  of thing in spoken English  

native speakers reduce these sounds to kinda.

So we take of and we pronounce it more of a  ah ah and then we just combine it together.

Kinda kind of.

This is the kind of thing.

This is the kind of thing.

It smooths out the pronunciation.

But just know kinda is not a word.

But when native speakers write in a casual way,  when I write a text message to my friends or my  

husband or a quick message to someone on  my team, I write to them the way I speak.

So I will use kinda in text messages.

But in more formal writing, I would not use that  because it is not actually a word in English.

If you're not sure what to do, always use kind of,  

because this is grammatically correct and kinda is  slang, but very commonly used in spoken English.

This is the kind of thing  that can change the future.

A very interesting viral question.

I'd love to hear your take on it now.

What I'll do is I'll read the  article from start to finish,  

and this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

Man or bear.

A viral question has spawned scary responses.

Another day, another hypothetical scenario  tearing people apart On social media.

However, this cultural  discourse has some sharp teeth.

The question directed towards women seems simple.

Would you rather be alone in  the woods with a man or a bear?

While there's no unanimous answer,  a good number of women on TikTok,  

Instagram and Axe have made it  clear they'd prefer the bear.

This has sparked anger among some  men online, but more than that,  

it has snowballed into a valuable  discussion about violence against  

women and how danger doesn't always take  the shape of a wild animal on the prowl.

In one TikTok video viewed more than 16.7  million times, an interviewer asked eight  

women on the street whether they'd rather  be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear.

Seven out of the 8 answer  with very little hesitation.

The latter a lot of detractors,  

also seem to be misunderstanding the  definition of a hypothetical question.

LSD law, a portal for law students,  offers an especially clear explanation.

Hypothetical means something  that is not necessarily true,  

but is used to help explain  or understand something else.

It is like a pretend situation that we  use to learn or think about something.

Many men have shared their take on the situation  and come out on the side of the bear as well.

However, some positive comments have argued  that the question isn't meant to lambaste men.

It is in a way.

Hypothetical questions are  a door to something bigger.

You started an important conversation,  one commenter wrote on TikTok.

It didn't just go into a debate.

It led to some of us mothers having  important talks with our older sons.

This is the kind of thing  that can change the future.

Did you enjoy learning with viral news?

If you did put viral, put viral, put viral in the  comments and of course, make sure you like this  

video, share it with your friends and subscribe  so you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

And you can get this free speaking  guide where I share 6 tips on how  

to speak English fluently and confidently.

You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And I have another article on a trendy  topic, so make sure you watch it right now.