Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 347. The title of today's lesson is the
difference between sympathy and empathy. This is another one that comes up that
students will ask what's the difference between these two ? Because they both mean
that you feel sorry for someone. All right. Let's take a look at the note here.
If someone has sympathy for another person or animal in a bad situation, he
or she feels sorry for them and often shows it in one's behavior. Yeah. You know
like maybe wanting to do something for them or just saying, " oh sorry that's too
bad' or something like that. Let's continue here. If someone has empathy for
another person, he or she is able to understand how that person feels because
he or she is able to imagine what it is like to be them. When you have empathy
for another person you are able to put yourself in that other person's shoes. So
this is really one of the key differences here. With empathy you can
imagine what it's like to be them. You can put yourself in their shoes. You are
more likely to have empathy with someone in which you had the same or a very
similar experience. That's why it's easier for you to put yourself in their
shoes. Because you had that experience it's easier for you to imagine what it's
like to be in that position. Because maybe you had that experience or like I
said maybe someone very close to you had it. So you were able to really feel it
and understand it more. And in that sense you feel even more sorry than just
sympathy by itself. Oh. In this way you can relate to
them better. Now to be honest with you, you could probably use sympathy in most
cases you use empathy. But it doesn't work the other way around. There are
certain situations where empathy doesn't sound right or feel good. All right. Let's
look at ... we have .a number of examples here to try to cover this idea. Let's
look at the sympathy ones are on top here. So example number one. I have
sympathy for that three-legged dog. All right. So maybe it's a dog. It's missing a
leg. You feel sorry for it. But this is a good example. I mean if you're trying to
put empathy in here it just doesn't really work as well. I have empathy for
the three-legged dog. Can you imagine what it's like to be a three-legged dog ?
Not exactly. So you wouldn't likely use empathy. You would most likely just use
sympathy here. Okay. Let's look at number two. I have sympathy for any families
that lost loved ones in a terrorist attack. All right. Again, you feel sorry
for them , but if you yourself never lost one. It's not likely you have empathy for
them. It's harder to imagine what it's like to be in their position then. That's
such a heart-wrenching experience that it's it's not likely that you could
almost understand exactly the way they feel. You still feel sorry for them. You
know they're in pain. But to put yourself in their shoes is a difficult one. So
again in these cases with a you know , you use sympathy here. But empathy wouldn't
work as well. Let's look at number three/ When her grandfather died, I sent her a
nice sympathy card. I thought I just had this one. But really
sympathy card is a noun phrase. But we don't say empathy cards. We say
sympathy cards. I don't know empathy cards would be kind of weird.
You're imagining you're in the same position as the dead person or the
family. No. That, that doesn't feel quite right. So we don't say that. So if
somebody dies and you want to send a card to say like sorry for your loss or sorry
that somebody died, we call that a sympathy card not an empathy card. All
right. And let's look at number four here. Well it's the last sympathy one . I have
no sympathy . Yeah a lot of times you'll say that. You rarely say I have no
empathy. That, that's just weird. But you say I have no sympathy for him. He
brought this trouble on himself. Yeah. Empathy is something you could
relate to more. So you're not as likely to say you have no empathy. But you might
say you have no sympathy for someone. All right. And now let's look at you know,
these last three examples. These are good ones for empathy. Now that I am a parent
I have more empathy for parents who must deal with screaming children. Because now
you know. what it's like to be in that position.
I've often hear a lot of young people say this sometimes . What's wrong with
those parents ? Can't they take care of that screaming child ? Until you're in that
position. Well you, you may not realize how how difficult it is to sometimes
control children when they want to misbehave. All right. Let's look at number
six. I have empathy for her because I had the same exact experience. Yeah. So
again it wouldn't be entirely wrong to use sympathy in these situations. But
empathy you know, really has a deeper meaning that you really relate to them
more. Again you put, you're putting yourself in their shoes.
All right. And number seven here. She has more empathy for children in an
orphanage. You know, that's one of the places that holds orphans. Children where
they lost their parents or their parents are gone. Because she was an orphan as a
child. Okay good. Anyway , I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. I hope
it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.