Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 389. The title of today's lesson
is "The Difference Between Protest, Parade, and Rally." Okay. Now I know for students
that are Chinese that are learning English, they often have problems with
the difference between protest and parade. You know, to a Westerner this
actually seems strange because a protest in a parade seem as different as night
and day. They seem very different. So it's confusing to a Westerner why a Chinese
student might mix this up, but you know of course the Chinese word is similar or
it's almost the same word for both of these words in Chinese. But still we're
also looking at rally and you know, there's , there's some crossover with some
of these. So let's let's take a look at the note here. A protest is usually an
organized meeting in which people very strongly disagree with a law, policy etc.
Yeah. So during protests there's very strong emotions. People are usually angry.
They are probably yelling things. The chances of violence breaking out is
is much higher during a protest. You know, it could be a very serious protest.
Sometimes people might even throw things. Of course , you could have a peaceful
protest too, but there are some violent ones that do get out of hand. And like I
say the the emotions are strong. All right. Now a parade of course is completely different.
A parade is always a public celebration. This is a happy event or it should be ... by
a large group of people. The main point is to entertain people with dancers,
floats, large balloons, bands playing music, etc. The celebration may be for a
holiday or in honor of an event. Lke in New York City every year they have one
for Saint Patrick's Day, because there's a lot of you know ethnic Irish people
there. So they have one for that. We have one for Thanksgiving too. There's a very
famous Thanksgiving Day parade, the famous store Macy's always was the
one that sponsored that. It always goes by their store so this is always for you
know, to entertain people or you could have it for an event. A lot of times in
the US, if a baseball team wins the World Series
maybe that city will throw a parade for them. That could be that. I believe like
when the men men landed on the moon I think they had a parade for that. So any,
anything sort of like that is usually a parade. Yeah.
again it's meant to be a happy event. Okay . Now let's look at rally. A rally is
an organized gathering of people often in support of someone or something. So
support is kind of a key word here. Or being against it. So this is where it
could be a little tricky because some rallies could be a little bit like a
protest too. Rallies tend to be more positive and are especially used to
gather more support for a political candidate. Yeah. So every year during
election time when the candidate goes out to give his speeches and you know, he
has some supporters around holding signs and you know, cheering every time he says
something. And acting like how great he is. You know or booing at the right time. (especially against an opponent)
You know this is usually called a rally. So they have a lot of rallies too,
especially to gain support. So support like I say support is kind of the key word.
Even when it's protesting something , it's more like a protest about awareness. I
don't know if the people are quite that angry yet. Sometimes we call it a rally.
But anyway, a lot of people would go out, there are going out to show their support to
be against something. So it has more of that feeling.
All right. Let's, let's continue here. All right let's look at some examples where
a student might mess up. So a student might say, I went to the protest to see floats
and dancers. No. Of course not. But floats and dances would be at a parade. So you
should say I went to the parade to see floats and dancers.
Yeah. I even remember the first time I encountered this. It was ... you know, I've
been a teacher for a long time , but it was you know, well before I was married.
When I was with my wife when she was a girlfriend. There was somebody that was
you know, we wanted to go someplace in the city and they were saying oh no
there's there's going to be a parade today. And I'm like great. I don't
know is it good ? Do you want to go ? And they're like looking at me why do you
want to go ? Why do you want to go to that ? When really they meant protest. All right.
So that's where it came up. That's why it was confusing. Or here's another
example. I was afraid to go to the parade because I thought violence could break
out. No. Obviously this one should be I was afraid to go to the protest because
I thought violence could break out. All right. And we have a few examples here
for rally too. That political candidate held a rally for his candidacy. You know,
So he's running now and you know, he's trying to gain more support. Go round.
Talk to more people. Or this one here. They held a rally to protest nuclear
power. All right. That could be one where you're using rally but it's really more
as a protest or it's against something. It probably be the you know the start of it.
You know , to especially more like raising awareness. I don't know if the tensions
are quite so high yet. When we call it a rally. Well by the time you're calling it
a protest. You know that's, that's when it's gotten more serious. Maybe they need
more police there to make sure it doesn't get out of hand or out of
control. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your
time. Bye-bye.