Learn Vocabulary about Glasses & Vision with JenniferESL 👓

Hi everyone. It's Jennifer.

I'd like to share some useful vocabulary with you, and I'm dedicating this lesson to those who wear glasses.

Do you?

Well, my daughter was recently told that she'll have to get a pair of glasses, and to show my support

I'm going to wear my glasses for this whole lesson.

Let's get started.

My children and I go to the eye doctor once a year for an eye exam. In everyday conversation, people

say "eye doctor."

Technically, we see an optometrist or perhaps an

Ophthalmologist, but truthfully, I think a lot of people get confused between the two.

If I'm not mistaken, an optometrist has a license in optometry.

An ophthalmologist is a physician, and this person has gone to medical school and can do eye surgery.

"Ophthalmologist" is a tricky word to spell and say. There are at least two different ways to say it.

With an F sound: ophthalmologist. Or with a P sound: ophthalmologist

Well, this year I told my eye doctor that I'm not fully comfortable driving at night.

I can still read the signs very well, but the glare coming from the oncoming cars bothers me a bit.

So that's why I got fitted for a pair of glasses for nighttime driving.

When my daughter read the chart at her exam, she had some trouble with the small letters.

It turns out that she no longer has 20/20 vision.

That means that she no longer has perfect vision.

20/20 vision refers to the standard way people see. The numbers refer to the distance between

you and the objects you see.

We don't use the metric system here in the U.S., so "20" refers to 20 feet.

Some people have problems with their vision, and they need to be closer or farther from the objects in order to see them well.

They use glasses or contact lenses to correct their vision. If you don't have 20/20 vision,

then each year an eye doctor should check to see if your vision has changed. If it has, then you'll need a new prescription.

Prescription eyeglasses are specific to each person.

When people have problems with their vision, we can talk about being nearsighted or farsighted.

If you're nearsighted, you see well when things are close, but not far away.

And if you're farsighted, you see things well when they're far, but not close.

I had to wear glasses as a child I was nearsighted and I had astigmatism, which means things got blurry.

I decided to have LASIK eye surgery to correct my vision in 2008.

In the past, I wore contact lenses, or as we say for short, contacts.

But I don't mind that now I'll have to put on glasses for a nighttime driving.

That's a small part of my life. For the most part, I still enjoy 20/20 vision.

My daughter will also enjoy not having to wear glasses all the time,

just when she reads. We took the time to choose a stylish pair of glasses for her.

There are different types of glasses. Some people wear glasses all the time.

Others use reading glasses.

There are also bifocals, which perform two jobs. They allow you to see far and near.

If you ever wore glasses as a kid, you'll know that it's not always easy.

Classmates aren't always so kind. I remember back in the fifth grade how one boy teased me about wearing braces and glasses.

There's a part of me that wishes I could go back in time and say something nasty in return.

I was too embarrassed to say anything at that time.

But you know, when people start criticizing your appearance, it's probably because they can't think of anything else to say.

Back in 2016, our former first lady Michelle Obama delivered this famous line:

"When they go low, we go high." You can find a copy of that speech online and hear those words for yourself.

I hope the kids at school won't whisper behind my daughter's back or say anything to her to make her feel bad

about having to wear glasses.

There's a mean, offensive word for people who wear glasses.

Kids can tease and call you four-eyes.

If someone says anything mean to my daughter, I hope she remembers that while others can sink low in their behavior,

she can remain on high ground and ignore them.

So we've studied some basic vocabulary related to glasses and vision.

Let me give you some more colorful expressions you can use.

You know that 20/20 vision refers to perfect vision. We say that hindsight is 20/20.

This means that when we're in a situation, things may not be easy to understand at that time.

Later we can look back and think about the situation and see things a lot more clearly.

So when you arrive at an understanding that you didn't have before you can say well hindsight is 20/20.

You learned about reading glasses,

driving glasses, and bifocals.

There's another type of glasses.

Though they're not real. If someone sees through rose-colored glasses,

then they look at the world with optimism.

Others may criticize this view and say it's not realistic.

If you think someone considers a situation to be better than what it actually is,

you might say, "You're looking at the world through rose-colored glasses."

They say that seeing is believing, and that refers to how much we trust our own judgment.

We have to see things with our own eyes in order to believe them.

For that reason, it's usually not wise to make a major purchase without checking out the product, right?

Why would you buy a house or a car sight unseen?

If you buy something or do something sight unseen,

then you don't see it before action is taken.

Imagine if someone bought a car sight unseen

only to find out when they got it, it didn't work!

The person would be furious, and the resulting conversation between the seller and the buyer

wouldn't be a pretty sight.

Not a pretty sight refers to a situation that's very unpleasant.

Buying a house that hadn't been taken care of would also be very unpleasant.

I imagine that a kitchen or a bathroom that hasn't been cleaned in weeks is

definitely not a pretty sight.

Our last two expressions have to do with forgetting. Have you ever forgotten to do something,

although you meant to do it from the moment you woke up?

Well, you likely forgot because there were no reminders.

We say "out of sight out of mind" when we tend to forget about people or things because we don't see them.

The expression explains why we become forgetful.

Of course, sometimes we want to forget, so we may, for example, put a parking ticket or a bill under a stack of

papers because we want to deal with it later.

But if something is out of sight out of mind for too long,

we could face bigger problems. Later

Our last expression is also related to forgetting, but for a different reason. If you lose sight of something

literally, it means you can't see it anymore.

But sometimes people get busy with other things in life, and then they can lose sight of their goals,

lose sight of their objectives, or lose sight of what matters most.

We can use this expression "lose sight of" with a noun, a noun phrase, or "the fact that."

For example: When he got really famous, he lost sight of the fact that his old friends were the ones he needed most.

For practice, why don't you choose one or two expressions and create your own examples? I'll offer corrections as time allows.

Well, we'll end here. If you found this lesson useful, please remember to like this video.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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