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  • [Sings] That's like the funeral march from Star Wars. If you know Darth Vader, "Luke,

  • I am your father." And I am James, from EngVid. And I'm going to talk about, well, not a happy

  • subject, but a subject we should talk about nonetheless. "Nonetheless" means "anyway",

  • right? So what are we talking about? Death. In this case, it's Mr. D has died. Long live

  • Mr. E. You may not have met Mr. D. He's from an unsuccessful website that was started and

  • died. That's why he's gone. The king is dead. Long live the king. Mr. E is here. Right,

  • E? Props.

  • Okay. So let's talk about death. And I may be smiling too much and laughing too much,

  • but you know what? Around the world, there are different ways to talk about or deal with

  • death. And we're going to talk about a couple of different ways. But I'm going to give you

  • the basic Western way of looking at death, okay?

  • Now, number one, this person is dead -- well, this worm is dead. One of the things we say

  • when someone dies -- we say this: pass away. If someone has "passed away", they've died.

  • We don't always want to go, "Did he die? Is he dead yet?" You know? It kind of seems as

  • little bit like, "Back up. Slow down." So we say they "pass away" like a gentle breeze.

  • They fly away. Their soul goes, right? So if you say, "Johnny, Mr. D passed away last

  • week", it means he died. So listen for Canadians when they say that, or Americans or British

  • people. Did they "pass away". Or they might also say it this way. They might say "gone".

  • "When did they go? Are they gone?" You're like, "No. Still dead." Sorry. That's bad.

  • Okay. Enough "levity", which is fun or making light of something, okay?

  • So let's talk about death. So if someone's gone or passed away, one of the things we

  • like to say is "R.I.P.", R.I.P. Some people rip one, but that's not what I'm talking about.

  • "R.I.P." as in "rest in peace". You usually say that when you give your condolences. "Condolences."

  • All these words. "Condolences." What is a "condolence"? A "condolence" is when you say,

  • "I'm sorry about your loss." Usually for death. "I'm sorry your father has died. I'm sorry

  • your mother has died. I'm sorry." It's a big sorry, condolence. "Do you have any condolences?

  • Or I'd like to give my condolences. "All right?

  • So they've died. They're resting in peace. Hopefully, they were good, right? Rest in

  • peace, because they look so happy. Right? And you give your condolences. Guess what?

  • You're not done. Unlike a wedding -- because funerals are like reverse weddings except

  • the person gets to live through it. You've got to go to the funeral, right? Usually,

  • before the funeral -- or part of the funeral -- is the viewing. Notice we have these people

  • watching a picture? Well, this is when you go and see the person in their casket. See?

  • Mr. D is in a casket. That's the thing we put them in after they die. They die; we put

  • them in a casket. And then, you can go to a viewing. The "viewing" is you walk by -- yes.

  • Believe it. There's a dead body -- okay. Look. Picture this. There's a dead body in the room.

  • There are people dressed in shirts and ties like this. They walk by, and they look at

  • the dead person. And they say things like, "I'm sorry you're dead. It was nice knowing

  • you. Rest in peace. See you later, Chuckles." Or, "You're next." Right? So you view. You

  • take a look at the dead body, okay?

  • Another word to say besides that is -- because some people say -- oops. Sorry. I want to

  • say "coffin". C-o-f-f-i-n, "coffin". A "coffin". So a "casket", "coffin". Another way of saying

  • what this is, okay? They say, "Look at the coffin", or you buy the casket -- you buy

  • the casket. When you put the body in it, it become a "coffin". That's the difference.

  • You say, "How much is the casket?" Coffin. Rest in peace, dude. Okay.

  • So not everybody goes through this process. And we'll get to that after. But you go for

  • the viewing. You look at the person in their coffin. All right? Now, what are you going

  • to do with this thing? Well, you're going to have to put it in the ground. And that's

  • what we call the "burial". We bury it. We put it. You go there. They pick up the earth.

  • They put the coffin in the ground, and they bury it. Okay? That's what we basically call

  • the "basic funeral". Notice these people don't look happy because there's no fun in a funeral,

  • Son. Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Bad joke, bad joke. Okay.

  • So there's no fun at the funeral. You've done your viewing. They've buried the casket or

  • the coffin, right? Now, some people, after they're done, especially if they're Irish

  • -- good old Irish people -- they have what's called a "wake". You see? He's waking up.

  • Their belief is that the spirit or the person has died, and you want them to go off in a

  • very -- I don't know. You want them to be happy in heaven or whatever your view of the

  • afterlife. "Afterlife" is the time after you've died. So they have a wake. Everybody gets

  • up. They dance. They sing. They tell great stories of what happened to the other person.

  • And other people, at their funerals, they have -- they're just really sorry and sad.

  • Everybody has to be feeling bad. No fun. Okay?

  • So this is what can happen after, say, Irish -- but not just Irish funerals. Many places

  • around the world believe in wakes. We call it a "wake" where you celebrate the death

  • -- or you celebrate the life of the person after they've died.

  • So we've done our funeral, our burial, right? Our coffin. But is that how it ends for everybody?

  • Not really. I told you this is going to be slightly international. So we've got the Irish

  • wake. But if you go to somewhere like India, for instance, they have a pyre. And if you're

  • a comic book fan like me -- Thor. They would have had pyres, funeral pyres. What that is

  • -- they take somebody, like this worm over here, for instance. They would throw them

  • on the fire. They're dead, okay? Remember they're dead. [Screams] And they burn the

  • body because they think, you know, you burn the body. The ashes go up. It spreads. The

  • person -- it helps them get to the higher world. Right?

  • We, in the West, have something similar. We burn the body as well. But we "cremate" it.

  • "Cremation". What that means -- we burn it. We collect it. Instead of making it go up,

  • we put it in a little bottle, and you take it home. Daddy in a jar or Mommy in a jar.

  • You know? "I just bought a jar of my father." But it's not called a "jar"; it's called an

  • "urn". So if you're with a person who is British, Irish, Australian, Canadian, American, and

  • they have a jar on their table, and they say "urn", don't play with it. It's somebody.

  • It used to be somebody, okay? Don't open it up. Don't go look. They go, "That's an urn."

  • Don't drink it. Don't go make coffee out of it. Don't touch it. Just say, "I'm sorry about

  • your loss." That's something -- that's a condolence right there. "I'm sorry about your loss."

  • You can use that one if you get invited to a funeral.

  • So before I pass away, I think we've covered everything here. Right? Rest in peace, caskets,

  • coffins, burial, cremations, condolences. Before this lesson dies a terrible end because

  • I kill it -- I just love it. [Whispers] Mr. E, hope you, well, read in peace. I'd say

  • "study in peace", but we don't got that there. So study in peace. What are you going to do?

  • Where are you going to go to keep studying? After viewing this particular lesson, I'm

  • sure you want to go back to www.engvid.com, "eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video",

  • where you can have fun. It's not a funeral, right? But we will bury you with knowledge,

  • okay? But it will help you wake up to the fact that English is a fun language. You like

  • that? I do, too. That's why I do this. Anyway. You have a great day. I'm off. And we'll study

  • soon. Long live the king. Peace out.

  • See? I'm gone away now, but not passed away.

[Sings] That's like the funeral march from Star Wars. If you know Darth Vader, "Luke,

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