Extra English Practice
In this video, we're going to talk about a situation we all have to deal with in life
which is when we hear some bad news.
So we're going to give you some ways to respond to bad news,
some things to say to people when they're upset,
and the examples we're giving are appropriate expressions to use in North American culture
to make someone feel better.
So if someone tells you that they lost their job or their friend,
or someone close to them is sick or someone has died,
it's hard to know sometimes how to respond to that. We want to talk about that.
And the main go-to expression you're gonna want to keep in your mind and use is:
I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sorry to hear that.
So we call this giving condolences, giving your condolences to someone.
So like Larissa said we can always say, "I'm sorry to hear that."
This is a very useful phrase and always appropriate.
You also have some other things that you can say with this, and it depends maybe on what the situation is.
So if there's something that's bad news, but it's not as serious,
so not... not a death or a serious illness, but maybe a bad test mark or a lost job,
something like this, you could give some wishes for the future.
So you could say ...if Larissa told me she lost her job, I could say,
"Oh, I hope you find something else soon," or, "I hope you do better on your next test."
So "I hope.....", and then tell some positive thing that you're wishing for them for the future.
If it is something more serious, like a serious illness or a death,
then we wouldn't give a hope or a wish for the future.
Instead, we would offer to help.
So we would say something like, "I'm here if you need anything" or, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
People likely won't often take you up on this offer, if you ask "Is there anything I can do?"
but it will give them comfort to know that you're thinking of them in that way.
It's very meaningful for someone when I'm ...when I'm upset about something,
for someone to offer help, it's very meaningful.
The last thing you might want to do in the case of some serious bad news
is to give your thoughts and prayers. This is an expression we use in English,
so it means you just let the person know you're thinking of them.
So you might say, "I'll be thinking of you," or, "My family and I will be thinking of you."
You could also give prayers if that's something you do.
So I could say to someone, "Oh, I'll pray for you," or "We'll be praying for you."
Just to kind of put this all together.. when someone shares with you their bad news,
a very appropriate response is "I'm sorry to hear that,"
and then from there you can follow up with either "I hope things get better," or "Is there anything I can do?"
Or "I'll be praying for you.." or "..thinking about you.."
And remember, in the case of a really serious piece of bad news,
such as a death or a serious illness, you wouldn't use the expression, "I hope....(etc)"
because in this case it's just very sad. You're acknowledging that it's very sad. Yeah, that's all.
So we would use this expression "I hope you.... (you know).. find a new job."
In a less serious situation.. if someone has a cold or something that they they will recover from.
"I hope you get well soon"..." I hope you feel better soon." Mm-hmm, very common, yeah.
We're gonna do a couple of role plays just to show you it all put together.
Oh, Misha. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm just.. I've been so sick all week I have a really sore throat and a bad cough.
I'm sorry to hear that! I hope you get better really soon. Thanks, Larissa.
Hello. Hey, Larissa, it's Misha. Oh, hello, Misha, how's it going?
I'm pretty good, how are you doing? I'm.. I'm okay.
Are you? You sound a little... you sound a little down.
Well, I was in a car accident the other day. Oh no! Oh my gosh, are you okay?
Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I just broke my leg.
Oh, that's awful! I'm really sorry to hear that.
Thanks, thanks.
Is there anything I can do to help? Do you guys need me to go get some groceries or something?
Oh, that's really thoughtful, thanks, Misha. Yeah.
Hey, Misha, you look down!
Yeah, it's been a really awful week. My uncle was really sick and he died on the weekend.
Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that. Thanks, Larissa.
I'll be praying for you. Thank you.
So in these sorts of situations, even in our native language,
so even in English for Larissa and I, it's really hard to know what the right thing to say is.
I'm sure the same is true for you, so these are just some options in English
to hopefully make it a little bit easier to respond to bad news.
So while we hope you don't have many chances to use these expressions,
we wanted to make sure that you had some good, useful, kind expressions
to pull out when someone shares their bad news with you.
Thank you for watching. Bye.