1
00:00:02,550 --> 00:00:08,920
Hi, my name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson,
I'm going to show you how to stop using lazy

2
00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:16,551
English and start using energetic English.
How do you do this? Very easy. For the next

3
00:00:16,590 --> 00:00:21,710
few minutes, I'd like you to participate in
a little experiment with me. I'd like you

4
00:00:21,710 --> 00:00:29,768
to pretend that you are a professor, and join
me in checking these sentences on the board.

5
00:00:30,709 --> 00:00:37,039
So, six students wrote these sentences in
an English exam, and what I'd like you to

6
00:00:37,039 --> 00:00:43,609
do is to help me to decide which students,
which two students should get the highest

7
00:00:43,609 --> 00:00:49,501
marks. Let's start looking at the sentences.
Number one wrote:

8
00:00:49,650 --> 00:00:52,184
"It was a good lecture."

9
00:00:52,778 --> 00:00:56,838
Two: "It was an interesting lecture."

10
00:00:57,190 --> 00:01:00,995
Three: "It was an informative lecture."

11
00:01:01,464 --> 00:01:07,947
Out of these three students, which student
do you think should get the highest marks?

12
00:01:10,197 --> 00:01:18,636
Think about it. Well, according to me, it
would be the third student. Let's look at

13
00:01:18,660 --> 00:01:23,130
another set of sentences.
Number four wrote:

14
00:01:23,130 --> 00:01:28,562
"I had a bad week." Student
number five wrote:

15
00:01:28,585 --> 00:01:33,037
"I had a tiring week." And
student number six wrote:

16
00:01:33,091 --> 00:01:38,670
"I had an exhausting week." Again,
put on your professor's cap and tell

17
00:01:38,670 --> 00:01:47,741
me: which student do you think should get the best marks?
Which one? Well, according

18
00:01:47,770 --> 00:01:55,598
to me, it would be student number six. Now, why did we
- I think you probably chose

19
00:01:55,620 --> 00:02:02,620
the same ones as me -, why did we choose student
number three and student number six? Why did

20
00:02:02,670 --> 00:02:10,308
we choose these responses and why didn't we
choose one and four? Because one and four

21
00:02:10,349 --> 00:02:17,492
use the words: "good" and "bad". And what
I'd like you to learn in this lesson is to

22
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:25,907
use any words when you're speaking or writing
other than: "good" or "bad". Why? Because

23
00:02:25,950 --> 00:02:31,590
"good" and "bad" are overly used, they're
rather boring words, and they're not very

24
00:02:31,590 --> 00:02:36,950
descriptive words; they don't tell us anything
specific, they're very vague, they're very

25
00:02:36,950 --> 00:02:41,740
general. What I'd like you
to do instead is to do what

26
00:02:41,740 --> 00:02:48,700
these other students went on to do which is to be
more detailed, more specific, more descriptive,

27
00:02:48,700 --> 00:02:55,700
more energetic, more dynamic in your speaking
and in your writing. This one change will

28
00:02:55,780 --> 00:03:00,930
make a tremendous difference in the way that
you speak and definitely in the way that you

29
00:03:00,930 --> 00:03:05,980
write. This is a really important lesson if
you're planning to appear for the TOEFL, or

30
00:03:05,980 --> 00:03:11,160
the IELTS, or the TOEIC exam, or any English
proficiency exam, or even if you're just in

31
00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:16,200
school and you're submitting assignments and essays.
This one technique of getting rid

32
00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:24,163
of the words: "good" and "bad" and replacing
them with more interesting words is going

33
00:03:24,180 --> 00:03:30,858
to give you a much higher score. Next,
I'll show you exactly how you can do this.

34
00:03:31,733 --> 00:03:37,709
So, now I'll show you how to avoid using the
lazy words: "good", "nice", or "bad", and

35
00:03:37,757 --> 00:03:44,819
start using more powerful words instead. All right?
You're going to go from the basic,

36
00:03:44,819 --> 00:03:50,810
to the intermediate, to the advanced level
word or you could say the more vague word,

37
00:03:50,810 --> 00:03:56,870
general word to a clear word, to a more specific word.
Okay? That's what you want to keep in

38
00:03:56,870 --> 00:04:01,440
mind when you're coming up with your words.
I've just given you some examples, but you

39
00:04:01,479 --> 00:04:06,726
can certainly come up with lots of other examples.
Let's look at some of these.

40
00:04:06,874 --> 00:04:12,241
A "good" meal. A "tasty" meal.
A "delicious" meal.

41
00:04:13,085 --> 00:04:20,470
We had a "nice" evening. Okay. We had a "fun" evening.
We had an "enjoyable" evening.

42
00:04:21,673 --> 00:04:28,990
It was a really "good" meeting. It was a "useful" meeting.
It was a "productive" meeting.

43
00:04:29,084 --> 00:04:35,449
You see how I'm adding so much more information
with the more powerful vocabulary. Right?

44
00:04:35,449 --> 00:04:40,509
More detailed vocabulary. We had a "nice" holiday.
Well, what is "nice"?

45
00:04:40,509 --> 00:04:45,930
"Nice" is a very general word. If you want
to stay general, you can still use a better

46
00:04:45,930 --> 00:04:53,014
word. So here I've given you an example: we
had a "pleasant" holiday. We had a "relaxing"

47
00:04:53,050 --> 00:04:59,969
holiday. Okay? So... Oh, I'm sorry. We had a
"pleasant" holiday. Or: we had a "delightful"

48
00:04:59,969 --> 00:05:06,360
holiday. That's if you want to stay more general.
If, by "nice holiday", you meant that it was

49
00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:13,649
really a quiet holiday, then say: "quiet". A
better word than "quiet" is: we had a "relaxing"

50
00:05:13,689 --> 00:05:19,210
holiday. Okay? So you see how you're being
more specific because when I say: "I had a

51
00:05:19,210 --> 00:05:23,995
nice holiday", it doesn't tell you very much;
just gives you a very general impression.

52
00:05:24,143 --> 00:05:30,809
Let's continue with using the word: "bad".
Also, another very overused word.

53
00:05:31,063 --> 00:05:39,977
It was a really "bad" journey. It was a "difficult" journey.
It was a "problematic" journey. "Problematic"

54
00:05:40,011 --> 00:05:46,259
means there were many problems that you had
or that you encountered on the way, during

55
00:05:46,259 --> 00:05:52,419
your journey. It was a... Such
a "bad" experience. It was

56
00:05:52,419 --> 00:06:00,114
such a "scary" experience. It was a "traumatic"
experience, from the word: "trauma". Okay?

57
00:06:00,186 --> 00:06:06,490
Now, obviously, the intensity can also change. So
it depends what you want to say, but sometimes

58
00:06:06,490 --> 00:06:10,514
it's more interesting when you
change the intensity as well.

59
00:06:11,209 --> 00:06:20,183
I had such a "bad" day. I had a really "hard" day.
I had an extremely "stressful" day. Okay?

60
00:06:20,261 --> 00:06:27,868
You can see I'm changing many words there.
That's a "bad" song. That's a "sad" song.

61
00:06:28,219 --> 00:06:35,229
That's a "depressing" song. Okay? Now, here, I changed...
Of course "bad" and "sad" don't

62
00:06:35,229 --> 00:06:41,180
mean the same thing, but I gave it a particular meaning.
All right? So, in this case, it was

63
00:06:41,180 --> 00:06:47,559
bad for me because it was sad. Or even better:
it was depressing. All right? You... Or you

64
00:06:47,559 --> 00:06:50,235
could... It could be a bad
song for many other reasons.

65
00:06:50,532 --> 00:06:59,169
And the weather... This country has such "bad"
weather sometimes. Such "cold" weather. Such

66
00:06:59,239 --> 00:07:05,499
"freezing" weather or "arctic" weather. All right?
So this is an example of what you

67
00:07:05,499 --> 00:07:12,499
can do to stop using lazy English and start using
more energetic English. This is a wonderful

68
00:07:12,550 --> 00:07:17,409
game, you can play it by yourself when you're
on the bus, or while you're walking down the

69
00:07:17,409 --> 00:07:22,529
street, or in the subway. Look at people around
you, look at places around you. Try to think

70
00:07:22,529 --> 00:07:28,379
of words to describe them. Start with positive
things: "She looks good.", "She looks pretty.",

71
00:07:28,379 --> 00:07:33,599
"She looks beautiful.", "He loo..." Okay?
Things like that or about a place. Try to

72
00:07:33,599 --> 00:07:40,368
avoid "good", "nice", "bad". Even "interesting"
is overly used so try to find better and better

73
00:07:40,407 --> 00:07:46,129
words. After a little while, it will become second nature.
"It will become second nature"

74
00:07:46,129 --> 00:07:51,879
means it will come to you more automatically
to use a more interesting word, a more dynamic

75
00:07:51,879 --> 00:07:56,762
word, and a more energetic word than
simply saying: "good" or "bad".

76
00:07:57,090 --> 00:08:03,224
I've also done something for you, I've written
a resource on our website: www.engvid.com

77
00:08:03,263 --> 00:08:09,189
where I've written a list of words that you
could use instead of saying: "good" or "bad"

78
00:08:09,189 --> 00:08:17,218
to describe a variety of different things. You
could also go to our website: www.engvid.com

79
00:08:17,309 --> 00:08:23,199
to do a quiz on this subject. So thanks very
much for watching. Good luck with your English.