Sometimes the words we use are like the clothes we put on. Like our wardrobe.
If we need to be formal, we choose more formal and academic words. When we need to be friendlier, we relax our tone a bit. Of course, when we're hanging out with friends or close colleagues, we pretty much say things in a casual way.
Unfortunately, when using English as a second language things are not always so simple. This is especially true for speakers of Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian) who tend to use the familiar "latin-based" words in any given situation. Well, as it happens, those sound formal in English. Whereas, the "anglo saxon" words usually sound more common and relaxed.
To provide some insight, here are ten formal wordsand their informal (or more relaxed) counterparts used in context so it makes more sense.
This plan is convenient = This plan works for me.
Please contact Susie this afternoon = Please get in touch with Susie this afternoon.
Could you provide us with some assistance please? = Could you help us out?
I need to postpone the meeting until next week. = I've got to put off the meeting 'til next week.
Inform them that the conditions of the agreement are not acceptable. = Tell them the deal is off.
Later, I will arrange a meeting between you and the team. = Later, I'll set up a meeting between you and the team.
They require two references. = They need two references.
Thomas has not replied yet. = Thomas hasn't answered back.
We need to inquire you on what happened. = We need to ask you about what happened.
I truly regret the incident at the club. = I'm so sorry about what happened at the club.
Read the list over a few times. See which one you would probably use and in which situation. Ask yourself if you tend to be more formal or informal when using English as a second language.
And speaking of formal and informal wardrobe, we invite you to practice listening comprehension with "The Pen is Mightier than the Pencil" epidode of THE ODD COUPLE, a classic American sitcom about Felix and Oscar, two divorced men. Felix is a neat freak while Oscar is sloppy and casual. They share the same apartment, and their different lifestyles inevitably lead to some conflicts and laughs. Enjoy!
New Year's is usually a time of resolutions.A time to think about all those things you wanted to do, but didn't get aroundto doing. A time to SEIZE THE DAY! In other, words... don't hold back, make the most of the day, of the year... of Life!
So on this occasion, we are posting one of the most memorable scenes in movie history from the film DEAD POETS' SOCIETY with Robin Williams that dealsprecisely with resolutions and seizing the day.
Below, we transcribed this part of the original movie script written by Tom Shulman and directed by Peter Weir. Enjoy!
INT. ENGLISH CLASSROOM - DAY
The junior students--Todd, Neil, Knox, Charlie, Cameron, Meeks and some of the others we've seen--enter. They are loaded down with books and look weary. Sitting in the front of the room, staring out the window is JOHN KEATING, the teacher we glimpsed earlier. He wears a collared shirt, tie, no jacket.
The boys take seats and settle in. Keating stares out the window a long time. The students start to shuffle uncomfortably. Finally Keating stands, picks up a yardstick, and begins slowly strolling the aisles. He stops and stares into the face of one of the boys.
KEATING (to the blushing boy) Don't be embarrassed.
He moves off, then stops in front of Charlie Dalton.
KEATING (CONT'D) (as if discovering something known only to himself) Uh-huh (he moves to Todd Anderson) Uh-huh (he moves to Neil Perry) Ha!
Keating slaps his free hand with the yardstick, then strides to the front of the room.
KEATING (CONT'D) Nimble young minds!
He steps up onto the desk, turns and faces the class.
KEATING (CONT'D) (energetically) Oh Captain, My Captain. Who knows where that's from?
No one raises a hand.
KEATING (CONT'D) It was written by a poet named Walt Whitman about Mr. Abraham Lincoln. In this class you may refer to me as either Mr. Keating, or Oh Captain, My Captain.
Keating steps down and starts. strolling the aisles.
KEATING (CONT'D) So that I become the source of as few rumors as possible, let me tell you that yes, I was a student at this institution many moons ago, and no, at that time I did not possess this charismatic personality. However, should you choose to emulate my manner, it can only help your grade. Pick up a textbook from the back, gentlemen, and let's retire to the honor room.
He steps off the desk and walks out. The students sit, not sure what to do, then realize they are to follow him. They quickly gather their books, pick up texts, and follow.
INT. THE WELTON OAK PANELED HONOR ROOM - DAY
This is the room where the boys waited earlier. The walls are lined with class pictures: dating back into the 1800s. School trophies of every description fill trophy cases and shelves. Keating leads the students in, then faces the class.
KEATING Mister... (Keating looks at his roll) Pitts. An unfortunate name. Stand up, Mister Pitts.
Pitts stands.
KEATING (CONT'D) Open your text, Pitts, to page forty and read for us the first stanza of the poem.
Pitts looks through his book. He finds the poem.
PITTS To The Virgins to Make Much Of Time?
KEATING That's the one.
Giggles in the class. Pitts reads.
PITTS Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a flying
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
KEATING Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. The Latin term for that sentiment is "Carpe Diem." Anyone know what that means?
MEEKS Carpe Diem... seize the day.
KEATING Very good, Mr._?
MEEKS Meeks.
KEATING Seize the day while you're young, see that you make use of your time. Why does the poet write these lines?
A STUDENT Because he's in a hurry?
KEATING Because we're food for worms, lads! Because we're only going to experience a limited number of springs, summers, and falls. One day, hard as it is to believe, each and every one of us is going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die! Stand up and peruse the faces of the boys who attended this school sixty or seventy years ago. Don't be timid, go look at them.
The boys get up. Todd, Neil, Knox, Meeks, etc. go over to the class pictures that line the honor room walls.
ANGLES ON VARIOUS PICTURES ON THE WALLS. Faces of young men stare at us from out of the past.
KEATING They're not that different than any of you, are they? There's hope in their eyes, just like in yours. They believe themselves destined for wonderful things, just like many of you. Well, where are those smiles now, boys? What of that hope?
THE BOYS are staring at the pictures, sobered by what Keating is saying.
KEATING (CONT'D) Did most of them not wait until it was too late before making their lives into even one iota of what they were capable? In chasing the almighty deity of success did they not squander their boyhood dreams? Most of those gentlemen are fertilizing daffodils! However, if you get very close, boys, you can hear them whisper. Go ahead, lean in. near it? (loud whisper) 'Carpe Diem, lads. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary. -
Todd, Neil, Knox, Charlie, Cameron, Meeks, Pitts all stare into the pictures on the wall. All are lost in thought.
EXT. THE WELTON CAMPUS - DAY
The class files out of the honor room. Todd, Neil, Knox, Charlie, Cameron, Necks, and Pitts walk together, books in hand. All thinking about what just happened in class.
PITTS Weird.
NEIL But different.
KNOX Spooky if you ask me.
CAMERON You think he'll test us on that stuff?
CHARLIE Oh come on, Cameron, don't you get anything?
Every year at Christmas time, there are many who ask about the origin of Santa Claus and how it connects with the central theme of Christmas. Normally, very few know the real story, yet the American version seems to be the one we are visually most familiar with.
This holiday season, PLS English Usersinvites you to view and read about the real story.
The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name Saint Nicholas).
Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century.
As early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as "St. A Claus," but it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback each Eve of Saint Nicholas.
This Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas" by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney. (Moore's phrase "lays his finger aside of his nose" was drawn directly from Irving's 1809 description.)
The American image of Santa Claus was further elaborated by illustrator Thomas Nast, who depicted a rotund Santa for Christmas issues of Harper's magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s. Nast added such details as Santa's workshop at the North Pole and Santa's list of the good and bad children of the world. In the first Nast illustration, Santa was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the Civil War. The cartoon, entitled "Santa Claus in Camp" appeared in Harper's Weekly on January 3, 1863.
A human-sized version of Santa Claus, rather than the elf of Moore's poem, was depicted in a series of illustrations created by Haddom Sundblom for Coca-Cola advertisements introduced in 1931. In modern versions of the Santa Claus legend, only his toyshop workers are elves.
An advertising writer named Robert May, invented Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, while working on a catalog for the Montgomery Ward Company in 1939.
In looking for the historical roots, one discovers that Santa Claus, as we know him, is a combination of many different legends and mythical creatures.
The basis for the Christian-era Santa Claus is Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna(Izmir), in what is now Turkey. Nicholas lived in the 4th century A.D. He was very rich, generous, and loving toward children. Often he gave joy to poor children by throwing gifts in through their windows.
The Orthodox Church later raised St. Nicholas, miracle worker, to a position of great esteem. It was in his honor that Russia's oldest church, for example, was built. For its part, the Roman Catholic Church honored Nicholas as one who helped children and the poor. St. Nicholas became the patron saint of children and seafarers. His name day is December 6th.
In the Protestant areas of central and northern Germany, St. Nicholas later became known as der Weinachtsmann. In England he came to be called Father Christmas. St. Nicholas made his way to the United States with Dutch immigrants, and began to be referred to as Santa Claus.
In North American poetry and illustrations, Santa Claus, in his white beard, red jacket and pompom-topped cap, would sally forth on the night before Christmas in his sleigh, pulled by eight reindeer, and climb down chimneys to leave his gifts in stockings children set out on the fireplace's mantelpiece.
Children naturally wanted to know where Santa Claus actually came from. Where did he live when he wasn't delivering presents? Those questions gave rise to the legend that Santa Claus lived at the North Pole, where his Christmas-gift workshop was also located.
From all of us at PLS English Users, we wish everyone Happy and Safe Holidays!
Sometimes the words we use are like the clothes we put on. Like our wardrobe.
