Do you love them or hate them? Whatever you think of politicians we’re going to put the language they use under the microscope in this episode of Aprender Ingles con Reza y Craig.

Voice message from Orestes from Madrid – El carajo
sensitive to dizzy – it really made you (feel) dizzy
Everybody was afraid to be sent there / Everybody was afraid of being sent there (by the captain)
That is the history (story)
Thank you for listen (listening) to me

English expressions from the sea – Episode 150 https://inglespodcast.com/50

We also spoke about el carajo recently in episode 195, and when Angélica sent me the transcript she also sent me more modern meanings:
“El carajo“, “Al carajo“, “del carajo“ from the Diccionario de la lengua Española – Real Academia Española: http://dle.rae.es/?id=7PHLd6o
It has several meanings, most of them MALSONANTES, be careful!

Email from Gema Monzon
Os escribo por si es posible me puedan aclarar una duda que tengo y no he conseguido despejar. La cuestión es que leyendo diferentes textos, muchos de ellos biografías, me he encontrado con maneras diferentes de expresar “a la edad de”, y me gustaría conocer vuestra experta opinión como nativos, pues no he encontrado nada que aclare si hay alguna diferencia en la construcción, por ejemplo añadir years, years old, cuando se escribe la edad con número o con letra, o simplemente no es necesario porque en inglés sonaría redundante.

Perdonad si es una pregunta tonta, pues si nadie habla de ello debe se serlo, pero si podéis confirmarme que todas estas frases que os dejo a continuación son correctas os lo agradecería enormemente.
Geniales vuestros cursos y muy agradecida por sentirme parte de vuestra Mansión y por vuestro tiempo!
Saludos Gema.

He is a professional pianist at the age of eighteen. – correct
He is a professional pianist at the age of eighteen years. – NOT common in spoken English, but sometimes used in formal and legal written English.
He is a professional pianist at the age of eighteen years old. – correct
He began to play at age six. – correct
He began to play at the age of age six. – correct
PLUS “He began to play aged six”

He is a professional pianist at the age of 18. – correct, informal
He is a professional pianist at the age of 18 years. – NOT strictly correct, but accepted, informal
He is a professional pianist at the age of 18 years old. – correct, informal
He began to play at age 6. – correct, informal
He began to play at the age of age 6. – correct

How old are you? I XhaveX 18 years – I AM 18.
When were you born? – I was born in (PASSIVE)……..(X I born X)
To bear (a child) – bore – born

Voice message from Alex Cuadra from Nicaragua
Thank you for help (helping)

The Language of Politicians 

We spoke about Politics and Government in Episode 89 https://inglespodcast.com/89

(Credit to George Carlin – The Language of Politics)

to indicate = to say – ‘as I indicated yesterday’ / to suggest – ‘Let me suggest’ – ‘Let me suggest that as I indicated yesterday’

to determine / to make a judgment = to decide – ‘I haven’t determined that yet’ / ‘I haven’t made a judgment on that yet’

to make an assessment – ‘I haven’t made an assessment yet’ = I haven’t decided

to tell = to advise – ‘I advised him that I had made a judgment’ – ‘When I’ve made an assessment I will advise you’

to answer = to respond – ‘so far, they have not responded’ – ‘He hasn’t responded to my initiative’

an initiative = an idea that isn’t going anywhere / a new course of action  – ‘When he responds to my initiative, I will review his response, take a position and make a recommendation’

review = read
take a position = have an opinion
‘As soon as I review the report I’ll inform you of our position and make a recommendation’
make recommendations = give advice

address the problem = to do something – ‘We’re addressing the problem’
to proceed (with an initiative) / to move forward
‘Have you solved that problem?’ – ‘Well, we’re moving forward on that’
problems = challenges – ‘to meet the challenges’
working in government = serving the nation / ‘I’m in public service’

George Carlin – The Language of Politics

Groucho Marx, (not Karl Marx,) may have defined Politics perfectly:
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”

Reza can’t stand (hates) a term that many politicians use very often: “going forward”.
They throw it in anywhere in any context in the hope of sounding constructive, positive and honest, even while lying and actively trying to block the truth!
Would there ever be a need to say “going backward”? Of course not! “Going forward” is utterly superfluous and redundant. – you can’t go any other direction unless you have a time machine!
– “In the fullness of time.”

George Orwell invented the term “Newspeak” in his dystopian novel “1984”, published in 1949. It was a strictly controlled language, with very limited and repetitive vocabulary and grammar to avoid any thoughts not in agreement with the politics of the fictional dictatorship of the novel.

“Doublethink” is a key concept of Newspeak. Orwell defines it as:
“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”
Orwell could be describing any one of many politicians and world leaders alive today in the 21st century (2018). He also would have fully understood the power of the very recent term “fake news”, which certain politicians seem to use to disqualify any news they simply don’t like!

…and now it’s your turn to practise your English.
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On next week’s episode: The World of Bikes

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’
Photo by Kayla Velasquez on Unsplash