Name: Improve your Vocabulary: Foreign Words in English
Uploaded: 2020-08-10T19:10:59.000Z
Duration: 11 min 8 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam.

To-infinitive

In today's video we're going to learn non-English words.

You're thinking surprised because this is an English video lesson, it's supposed to

be about English, but in English we tend to borrow a lot of words from other languages.

We keep them as they are, we even keep their meanings more or less, but we like to apply

This is just a sample of the foreign words that we use regularly in English.

Some of them have been changed to apply to other things besides the original meaning

First, let's start with the actual words: "tsunami", this is Japanese.

So, first I'm going to explain to you what the words mean, where they came from, and

what they mean originally, and then how we use them in English.

So, in Japan after an earthquake, sometimes...

They have a lot of earthquakes, but sometimes they get a tsunami.

So the ocean after the earthquake sends a big wave and it covers the land.

There was a big one a few years ago, a lot of damage.

But we use this, again, to mean the same thing.

Whenever there's a tsunami, whenever there's a big wave after an earthquake, but we also

use it to talk about anything that's large and sudden.

So, for example, the whole world is facing a refuge situation now.

Moving from all parts of the world to other parts of the world, and the countries that

are receiving these refuges, they are facing a tsunami of refuges.

So whenever you have a big, sudden, wave or whatever, a big, sudden situation or a big,

sudden change coming at you, you can call...

So, "gung ho" basically means very enthusiastic.

In Chinese it means basically part of a team or teamwork, but in...

The way we use it in English, if we say: "That person is really gung ho",

it means he's really enthusiastic, really eager, really wants to work hard.

So, if I work at a company and a new employee comes in...

And I've been at this company a long time, you know, I'm settled, everything, I do my

But this guy comes in and he's so gung ho that everybody's a little bit worried because

Anytime you're ready to do something, you can do it gung ho or you can do it casual.

So I'm going to actually write this because these are a little bit long to write.

A lot of doctors or lawyers when they start their business or when they're very successful

and they can afford it, they do a lot of pro bono work.

Means they'll go provide legal advice to somebody who can't afford it,

or they'll do medical assistance to people who can't afford it.

For example, they'll go around the world to poor countries and they'll help children especially

Anytime somebody does something for free, like but professional, like work and they

We also have an idiom: "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

Okay? It means: You do something for me, I'll do something for you.

For example, if I do something, some professional work for you because I'm a lawyer, I will

give you some legal advice; you're a designer, you will design my website.

I don't pay you money, I pay you with legal service; you pay me with your design work.

I do something for you, you do something for me.

And this is also a very common expression.

Okay, so now we're going to move to the Italian: "prima donna".

Now, "prima" means first, "donna" means lady, so it's the first lady.

So when we speak about the opera, the lead female singer is the prima donna, but we mean

But it's somebody who's very temperamental.

Someone who's temperamental is very moody, changes his mood or her mood all the time,

Somebody you don't really want to spend too much time with because they're a little bit

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Improve your Vocabulary: Foreign Words in English

situation

deserve

basically

common