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Words comfort for an Unfortunate Event Other Than a Death

27 january 2009

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more adviceabout

RS: Last month, English teacher Baker talked about things to say. Now, wemove on to writing.

LIDABAKER: "Ithink if you're writing someone a personal note, you would write the samethings thatyou wouid say to a person. Irn so sorry for year

loss.' 'My condolences. if yourepicking out a card to send to a person, look

for a card that has or, it either the word condolences or the word sympathy.

For example: 'Our heartfelt sympathy.' 'My deepest sympathies on your loss.'

"So those are things that are appropriate to say as well as tc write whey someone has died."

RS: "And to go beyond that, if you know the person that died, you can add a few personal notes to

make the note a little bit more personal."

AA: "An anecdote about a memory or something, or a fond

memory." RS: "Right."

AA: "What about ---"

LIDA BAKER: "Absolutely."

AA: " -- an e-mail. How do you feel about , (it)? I mean: it offers immediacy, but is it

really appropriate?"

LIDA BAKER: "I suppose that there are people who would say that an e-mail is too casual or too

informal and that you really should send a handwritten note. But I would rather receive an e-mail

than nothing, wouldn't you?"

RS: "Absolutely."

AA: "Sure."

RS: "Is this something you can teach in the classroom?"

LIDA BAKER: "Normally, when we're teaching functions of this sort, the standard classroomactivity is to have students role-play. But dealing with this topic, which is so sensitive, probably I

would not push my students to role-play expressing condolences to somebody if they didn't feel

comfortable.

"On the other hand, it is a topic that is worth spending some time on because in real life this is a skill

that we all have to have. We have to know how to express condolences. So maybe instead of role-playing, perhaps bring in a scene from a movie, a funeral scene, or a little section of a book or a play.

Or the teacher can write her own short, little script -- just a very natural conversation that might take

place at the home of a person that you're visiting after there's been a death in the family."

AA: "Let me ask you one more question. Let's talk for a second just about a different kin loss-let's say,the loss of a job. When you find out, let's say, that a friend or someone you ow has lost a job, any

thoughts on what is appropriate to say in, let's say, an e-mail or a han itten note or a phone call?"

LIDABAKER: "To my knowledge, we don't have any set phrases for expressing sympathy

event of a loss which is not a death. In other words, when someone has died, we have gases that


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everyone in our culture is familiar with -- such as 'I'm so sorry for your koss' or 'Mycondolences.' You would never use the word condolences when someone has suffered,let'ssay, a job loss or if they've had a car accident or some other unfortunate event.

"The words sympathy and condolences really are only used in the event of a death. But if

someone has had another unfortunate event happen to them, I think I would say somethinglike 'I'm sorry for what happened. Is there anything that I can do to help?' What would yousay?" RS: "'What can I do to help' or'I'm sorry'

... "

AA: "'Thinking of you."'

L1t7A BAKER: ' :i heard what happened. How can i help?' Again, I don't think we have anyset phrasF for a situation like that."

RS: "You try to be optimistic while being -- showing some sort of sense of reality."

AA: "Aczuaily, in fact, that saying, 'I hegira the news,' that's what I wrote recently tosomeone who'd had some cuts where he worked and I sad 'I just heard the iiev:s and I wasvery sorry to hear that."'

RS: "I t:~ink the point of all of this is just to communicate and to tell people whatyou're thinking, because I think tnat that helps on any level, whatever the loss is."

AA: "Transcends tanguage; right?"

LIDA BAKER: "Right, and_I think the phrase 'I'm sorry,' when it comes from your heart, isappropriate in any situation. And, you know, people are going to hear the intention, thekindness in your words. And remember that even !f you make a grammar mistake, or if youaccidentally use the wrong word, it'syourkindness and your intention that comes acrossand that, you knoN, people will remember."

RS: The first part of our conversation with English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles isor our Web site,voanews.com/wordmaster.

AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble,

I'm Avi Arditti. Advice (Not 'Advices') and Information (Not

'Informations') About Nouns

22 December 2009

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: A listener,Akbar Gandi in Iran, is asking for an explanation of "countable and uncountable nouns andthe difference between a name and a noun."

RS: English teacher Lida Baker has the answer, starting with some background about

nouns.

LIDA BAKER: "A noun is usually defined as a person, a place, a thing or an idea. So youhave abstract nouns, things like love or democracy or beauty. OK, those are abstract

nouns. Furthermore, nouns can be divided into two categories.'There's what are called proper nouns, which are the ones that sta

capital letter, like Barack Obama or California or English. And t

common nouns, which are the ones that start with a lower

"So to answer the writer's second question first, names are proper nouns, K? They start ncapital letters. So a name is one kind of noun. Now the writer's first question isactually .ie much more interesting one."
http://voanews.com/wordmaster.http://voanews.com/wordmaster.http://voanews.com/wordmaster.


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AA: "And this has to dc~ with the difference between countable and uncountable nouns."

LIRA BAKER: "Right, and uncountable nouns are also called non-count nouns. A count noun kind of isself-explanatory, because it's something that you can count.

"For example, 'mlcrot hone' is a countable noun. You can say one microphone, two microphones and so

on. So anything t,,;~t can actually be counted and that has an s to form the plural is a countabi noun.

"Non-count nouns are ones where you cannot separdte them into individual units. So 'water,' forexample, is a non-count noun. You can't say one water' or love -- `one 1cve,' it sounds silly.

"Pti'o:v, why is th;,, an issue for people who are learning English? For one thing, we have nouns thatrepresent whole groups, but within those groups there are individual items which are countable butthey have a different name.

"Let me give you some examples. So we have a word like 'luggage.' It's correct to say 'I need to go buysome luggage.' But if you want to speak about an individual item within that category, you haveto use the word suitcase or bag. 'I need to buya suitcase, a bag."'

AA: "Right. Or two suitcases would equal

luggage. LIDA BAKER: "Right, right." AA:

"Or three or four. Or even one bag."

LIQA BAKER: "It's very confusing. I'll glue you one more example, something like the word 'food.' 'I'mgoing to the supermarket, I'mgoing to buy some food.' But 'I'm going to the supermarket, I'm goingto buy three packages of spaghetti.' ,

"OI''I need to buy apples, ! need to buy eggs..So the category 'food' is uncountable, but the items

ithin that category are cou, ~table. So that's onC of the reasons that count and non-count nouns are veryconfusing for people who are trying to learn English.

"Now, another problem is that a lot of nouns which are uncountable in English are countable in other languages,so when people are translating they end up making mistakes. And that's why it's so common for us Englishteachers to hear students making mistakes like 'Can you give me some advices.' Or 'I need someinformations.'

"Or There's a lot of pollutions in that city.' Or 'I can't go out tonight because I have a lot of homeworks.' All thosenouns are actually uncountable: advice, information, pollution, homework. Those words don't take an sbecause they're uncountable."

RS: Lida Baker says another complication is that some nouns are both count and non-count nouns, but themeaning changes.

LIDA BAKER: "Let's take an example like 'coffee.' And there's a store in my neighborhood that sells all kinds ofdifferent 'coffees.' In other words, many different varieties of coffee. OK, so there's an example where thesame word is used in both a count and a non-count sense."AA: English teacher and author Lida Baker in Los Angeles.

RS: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosaniie Skii=bld.

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Our theme is f , or moreprecisely, slang having to do with food. So we're dusting off a vintage WORDMAS c: a segmentwe did with our old friend, David Burke, better known as "Slangman." It's gory he wrote for our listeners basedon a children's classic, "lack and the Beanstalk."


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SLANGMAN: "Once upon a time, there lived a woman who was as American asapple pie. She lived in The Big Apple."

RS: "Where else."

AA: "New York."

SLANGMAN: "New York. With her only son lack, the apple ...

AA/RS/SLANGMAN: " ... of her eye!"

SLANGMAN: "The most important thing to he-. Unfortunately, she just couldn't cut themustard in the working world. And to cut the mustard means tosucceed. So she could notcut the mustard in the working world, and Jack was such a couch ... "

RS: "Potato!"

SLANGMAN: `-Very good. A coach potato, a lazy person K`:o does nothing but sit on thecouch andusually just watch television. He was such a couch potato that there was no one to bringhome the bacon, which means to earn money fe- food. For now, selling milk from their cow was theirbread and butter, which means the only way they could earn money. But the cow they boughtturned out to be a lemon, defective. [laughter] That's something you buy then you discover later that it

just doesn't work."

AA: "Like a car."

SLANGMAN: "Right, we hear that a lot, especially of course with cars. If a car doesn't work after youbought it, it's a lemon.

"But in this case, the cow way a lemon and stopped producing milk! They were certainly in a pickle - - abad situation. I have no idea why we say that, although we do. That's the interesting thing aboutsome of these expressions. If you ask an American 'why do you say that, where does it come from?' we don'tknow, we just use it. So, 'Jack,' said his mothcr. "I'm not going to sugar-coat this.' That means to tell it like itis, even though it may be painful for the other person to hear. Well, the r cther said, 'We have to sell the cow.''Sell the cow?!' Jack exclaimed. 'Mother, I think your idea is half-baked!"

RS: "Not a great idea."

SLANGMAN: "Right, not carefully considered. It's half-baked. But Jack's mother kept egging him on, whichmeans pushed him to do something, to encourage him. And the next morning, lack took the cow to the city tosell it. Well, on his way to the market, lack was stopped by a man who said 'I'd like to buy your cow, and I'llgive you five beans for it.'

"And lack said: 'What are you, some kind of a nut?` -- somebody who's crazy. We can say nutty. Infact, the movie 'The Nutty Professor' means the crazy professor. 'Ah, but these are magic beans!' said theman, 'and that's no baloney!' And baloney, which Is ... "AA: "Processed meat."

SLANGMAN: "Processed meat. I was going to say it's a food, but it simply means in this case nonsense, 'that'sbaloney.' The man told Jack that if he planted the beans, by the next morning they'd grow up tall, tall, tall andreach the sky. Well, since Jack really didn't know beans about ...

SLANGMAN/RS: " ... beans!"

SLANGMAN: "If you don't know beans about something, it means you don't know a _iiing about it. Well, hedid agree, and took the beans, then ran home to tell his mother the g ews. When his mother

discovered what Jack had done, she turned beet red. Now a beet is a v stable that is ly deep red. Sheturned beet red and went bananas, and threw the beans out the window.

"When he woke up the next morning, to Jack's surprise, there was growing an enormo beanstalk.


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'Hmm, I'Il see where it cDe~.;' thought Jack, and with that he stepped out of the window onto the beanstalk to ciimfb up ard up and up.

"In the distance, he could see a big castle. When he walked in, Jack tried to stay as cool as a

cucumber -- which means very calm, very relaxed. Well, it was difficult to stay as cool as acucumber, because sitting there at the table was a giant who was rather beefy."

AA: "A big guy."

SLANGMAN: "A big guy. Big any muscular, that's beefy. And the giant was definitely what you would calla tough cookie, a stubborn and strict person. The giant placed a goose on the table end said, 'lay threeeggs!' and c::, cap;,-- three golden eggs!

"The giant took the eggs, and left the room. 'Wow!' thought lack. 'If I borrow the goose, my mother and Iwill have no more money problems! This is going to be as easy as pie!' he thought. Which meanssomething extremely easy to do, which is kind of strange because pie is not that easy to make. Haveyou ever tried to make a pie?"

AA: "That's ti up. "SLANGMAN: "So he climbed up the table and grabbed the goose. The giant came running after lack. Jackquickly climbed all the way down the beanstalk, took an ax, and chopped it down. And that, my friends,is the whole P^ch;:a::_-."

RS: "Enchilada."

Sl..",NGMAN: "That's a Mexican dish, meat and cheese, that's wrapped in a tortilla which is made of flourand water. 'The whole enc~;:ada' -- that means that's the whole story."

AA: For more of-a taste of how you can learn English with help from Slangman David Burke, you can visithis Web site, slangman.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

Health Advice for Couples: Wnen Arguing, Bs Careful What You Say

08 December 2009

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: how the words thatcouples use when they fight could affect their health.

RS: In a new study, forty-two married couples made two overnight visits to a laboratory to discuss theirbiggest areas of disagreement. Researchers drew blood before and after the sessions to look at levels ofproteins known as pro-inflammatory cytokines. These molecules help fight off infections, but their levels canalso rise with psychological stress.

AA: And there is evidence that a lot of stress can unbalance the immune system and put us at risk of disease.The study took place at Ohio State University, but Jennifer Graham from Penn State analyzed the data.

JENNIFER GRAHAM: "So I looked at these transcripts of what people actually said. And I focused on wordsthat are related to insight and reasoning. The use of these types of words when describing stress and yourreactions to stress, has been associated with positive mental and physical health outcomes."And so I found that, in fact, the individuals who used the m wordsIndicative of cognitive processing -- and these are words think, reason

it because, why; things like that -- that those Individuals ually showed erpro-inflammatory cytokine Increases over the twenty- our hour pe at we observed them. And they actually

had lower levels at that twenty-four hour time pert as well. So smaller increases and also lower absolutelevels."
http://slangman.com/http://slangman.com/


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AA: "First of all, were there any differences between the husbands and wives in who would use more ofthese sort of thoughtful words, versus more hostile words?"

JENNIFERGRAHAM: "Yeah, there were some interesting gender differences. Men and women used anequal amount of words over all, which I think is important, but women used more of the cognitiveprocessing words. And, in fact, women's cognitive word use actually predicted their husband's, at leastone of the cytokine's change over time. And then the spousal average cognitive word use predictedhusbands' cytokine patterns over time. But the men's cognitive word use did not predict a woman's."

AA: "So what does that m.--3n, in plain English, what does that mean?"

JENNIFER GRAHAM: "% do think it's interesting, I think it may reflect the fact that women seem to bemore likely in our society to spend time thinking about these types of conflicts, and maybe resolving themin their minds more often, doing more of that rumination about some of these conflicts. And so perhaps[they] are already sort of a little farther along down toat process, perhaps, and therefore may be more

able to influence husbands' uy their word use."RS: "Where do you hope to go with this data? And what are the next steps for you?"

?ENNIFER GRAHAM: "What I think this sho:a is that this sort of process of making meaning from stress, thatwe're sort of seeing reflected in this word-use pattern, is really important for people. You know, It'simpossible to avoid stressors, but if you have to deal with them, finding ways to sort of incorporate them intoyour worldview and make sense of them, and also he ab!e to articulate that clearly to another, is reallyimportant. And I would love to do a study down the road where I'm actually able Lutry to manipulate thatin sort of an intervention kind of design, and then actually look to see the effects of that manipulation."

AA: "So when you're talking about these words !Ike think, because, reason, why -- mean, this is,

-let's say the woman, 11["e wife, saying 'The reason why

Jr"'"'-

rR GRAHAM: "Exactly. 'The reason why I'm mad is because ... '-1...+,

AA: ` -- you bug me :;c much is the reason why I'm mad.'"

JENNIFER GRAHAM: "But I know you're interested in words, and I think it's fascinating that you could usethat same word in a negative way, right? You could say 'I want to tell you why I hate you so much.' Oryou could be mean with those words."

AA: "But that's not what you found, you found that the levels in the blood of these stress-related proteinstended to go down the more of these came up in the con -- "

JENNIFER GRAHAM: "Those words were used, that's right."

RS: "So what advice would you have for both [married] couples and perhaps our listeners who speakEnglish as a [foreign language] "

JENNIFER GRAHAM: "I would just say, when you do find yourself fighting, when possible it r=eally is a verypowerful thing if you can find the words to be really clear, not just about how you feel, but why. And being ableto articulate that In a way that the other person can understand may not only help your relationship but possiblybenefit your health as well."

AA: Jennifer Graham is an assistant professor at Penn State University. Her findings appear in journal HealthPsychology.

RS: And that's WORDMASTERfor this week. Archives are atvoanews.com/wordma

With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- t language ofnverbal communication. Two writers, Melissa Wagner and Nancy Armstrong, have put tog _aer a book
http://voanews.com/wordmahttp://voanews.com/wordmahttp://voanews.com/wordma


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ofone-hundred-eight qr;:StUr_5 and their various, and sometimes mUltIr!e,meanings around the world.

RS: "Field Guide to Gestures" is the name of the book, and

Melissa Wagner starts with one that Americans wouldimmediately recognize as the sign for "OK."

MELISSA WAGNER: "Index finger and the thumb cometogether to make a ring, and then the three other fingers onthe hand kind of splay out. And youmight put that up and say'OK' with a big smile, and you're really giving approval."

AA: "We're doing it here in the studio."

MELISSA WAGNER: "I'm doing it too! In certain areas of the world, the OK symbolthat we just discussed might actually mean something else. In Belgium or inFrance it might mean that you're worthless. Or it might mean zero. Or in Japan itmight mean that you want your change in coins if you show the OK symbol, or

whatAmericans know as the OK symbol, at the cash register.

"So around the world these things that Americans take forgranted, and I suppose that we all take for granted, asbeing something that everyone understands, actually are

jest as difficult to learn as language."

AA: "Th.::'s right, you don't went to be perceived

as a 'loser."' MELISSA WAGNER: "[Laughter]

That's right!

AA: "That's a fun little gesture -- why -don't you describethe gesture to indicate that-someone is a loser."

MELISSA WAGNER: "OK, either hand, both thlimb and index finger out, and theother three fingers curled under. You're making kind of an L with your thumb andindex finger. Raise that up to your head and put it on your forehead."

RS: "Now what does it mean to be a loser?"

MELISSA WAGNER: "It means that you maybe have said something that is maybedumb: It's more of a chiding gesture, where you're showing kind of jokingdisapproval."

RS: "Tell us some more of the gestures in the book. What were the most obvious

gestures that you recorded in your book?"

AA: "And how did you collect your observations?"

MELISSA WAGNER: "Sure. Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so weactually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made itvery accessible for anyone to be able to understand. And some of the other gesturesthat we covered that we were very Interested in finding out the origins and meanings of,were things like what's known as 'the finger' here in the United States -- which is aninsulting gesture that's often used by motorists.

"And by 'the finger,' I mean the middle finger on either hand is extended and the otherfingers in the hand are kind of curled down. Here in the United States that's also referredto as 'flipping some the bird.'"

RS: "Well where did it come from?"

MELISSA WAGNER: "It actually has been around for thousands of years. It's erred toin cla L, ancient Roman texts. In Latin it's known as 'digitus impudicus' -- indecentdigit [laughter] ich makes it sound quite noble."


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AA: "Yes, I'll have to remember thatf [laughter]"

MELISSA WAGNER: "Right! There are certainly things that we don't really think of as being gesturesthat are also in the book. Like the handshake, for instance, which is a very typical greeting. And, youknow, the most acceptable greeting here in the United States is a nice, firm handshake. We found outthat that actually was brought over into this country from England. It kind of came about around thesixteenth century as a way to show the binding of a contract."

RS : "After doing all this work, do you have a favorite gesture?"

MELISSA WAGNER: "I really enjoyed learning about the horns gesture -- this one's kind of hard

to explain."

RS: "Where you lake two fingers and, like, make horns on your head?"

MELISSA WAGNER: "No -- your index and pinky fingers are held

straight -- " RS: "Oh, OK."

MELISSA WAGNER: " -- and then your thumb comes down aid holds the two middle fingers down."

AA: "And that's the 'hook 'em horns,' isn'ta? That's the Texas ... "

RS: "That's rightf It's the 'hook 'em horns,' so the Texas Longhorns -- " .

AA: "Which is a ... "

RS: "Football team."

MELISSA WAGNER: "A football team, college -- "

AA: "A college football team."

MELISSA WAGNER: " -- here in the United States. Also it was adopted by hard rockers."

AA: "That's right!"

MELISSA WAGNER: "Rock-and-rollers would make this gesture at concerts or just kind of to show an

affinity with each other. But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually

mean your wife is cheating on you."

RS: And, yes, there are more explicit gestures included in "Field Guide to Gestures," co-authored byMelissa Wagner. It's from Quirk Books complete with pictures and detailed instructions.

AA If this were television, it'd be tempting to close with the "call me" sign -- thumb up, pinkie out,other fingers down, ea if you're holding a telephone up to your ear. But Melissa says it'sbeen usedto the point of becoming a little obnoxious.

RS: So we'll just point you to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, and tell you our e-mail address,[email protected]. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

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One Word, Two Opposite Meanings: Terms That ]anus Would Have Loved

03 November 2009
http://voanews.com/wordmaster,mailto:[email protected]://voanews.com/wordmaster,mailto:[email protected]

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