Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 300. The noun phrase today is white elephant and
we got four meanings and four uses. Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot, do right
now. Let's get right to it. The first one a rare albino elephant. So that's where it comes from.
The elephant is actually white. Just like in most animal species , every now and then you could have
an albino. All right. The second meaning. A large venture construction project etc. that ends up
proving useless or a continuous large loss or big loss. Number three. A valuable possession that is
not worth it because its upkeep is too expensive. Number four. A fundraiser in which people donated
unwanted items that nobody wants. Okay. So all of these could be could be called white elephants.
All right let's go on. The origin of this phrase comes from Thailand and in former times,
Siam. So remember, Siam was the name of Thailand before it changed its name.
In Siam, an albino elephant was considered sacred and greatly prized. However, since they were
considered sacred they could not be forced to work . The king of Siam made a custom of giving a white
elephant to a member of the court he strongly disliked. Thus he gave a rare valuable present
to them. That was extremely costly to maintain and could bankrupt them. However, it would be a great
insult to get rid of or kill such an elephant. Thus they were stuck with it. Okay. So this is
how it came about. This is why we call these sort of situations a white elephant. Let's continue.
All right. We got five examples here to show just how it's used. The Tokyo Olympics seemed to have
turned out to be a white elephant. You know , for poor Japan this time. It's it's unfortunate.
It wasn't really their fault. You know, because of the coronavirus. They had all the expenses.
Plus additional expenses of maintaining these venues for an extended period of time, extra cost
to deal with COVID 19. Plus most of the benefits were lost due to the fact of forbidding foreign
tourists. So that's one of the main ways to make money. Get all these tourists come and not only
the money or the cash that the tourists themselves bring in for the event. But one of the main ways
that Olympics make money is because these tourists come. There's a certain percentage of them that
may think of either returning for another visit. So it could help tourism or possibly starting
a business in Japan or finding items that they might want to import or export things like that.
So that's always a way that a country sometimes could make up. Not every country makes money on
the initial event. Like I think, I think China did and I think London did. But I think Athens
did not and I think Brazil did not. But they still hope that long term that it will bring
in this extra money and they can get ahead that way. But this time for Japan it's like a total
loss because because they don't have those foreign visitors. They can't get any of those benefits.
So this will probably be one of the biggest losses for them. Unfortunately. Let's continue.
Number two. A bridge to nowhere in Alaska was labeled a white elephant and eventually defunded.
Yeah. It was a bridge to an island that I think only had 30 or 40 people on it or 50. Something like that.
A small , a small population and it cost many many millions of dollars to build this and I
think they started it. They started the project, but eventually they stopped it and defunded it.
But it still cost a lot of money for you know something that would affect very few people.
Okay. Number three. The Ryugyong hotel in North Korea is the perfect example of a white elephant.
It has over 105 floors and is the world's tallest unoccupied hotel for decades. So it's like a
skyscraper that hardly anybody knows about because nobody can stay there. It's always empty and it's
kind of rotting. So it's a perfect example of a white elephant. So that would definitely go into
the construction project. Number four. Like this goes back to the original one. The king of Siam
sometimes gave a white elephant to courtiers he dislikes. Some ] people of the court he disliked.
And number five. Jack donated thousands of his old CDs to that charity but since they have become
obsolete no one wants them anymore. So the charity is kind of stuck with this. It's almost like...
kind of like garbage. You know, they have become a white elephant for that charity. It's hard for
them to even give it away or give it away for you know, something that's almost worth nothing. So
in a sense something like this could become a white elephant too. Okay. Anyway, I hope
you got it. I hope it's clear. I hope it's very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.