Hi there. I'm Drew Badger, the English Fluency Guide. In this video, I'm going to help you
learn a little bit more about persuasion and how some words can have almost a magical effect.
One of the things I talk about often on the channel and in the letters that I send to
students is that you have to really go beyond definitions and just learning what words mean
to understanding how some words are more powerful than others or even have an almost magical
effect on the way we communicate. I'll talk more about this in future videos if people
enjoy today's topic, but the general idea is to go beyond fluency and not just think
about, again, remembering definitions, but really understand how to use words to communicate
effectively, persuasively, to get people to follow what you're saying, or to follow instructions,
or do something. There are lots of good reasons why you pick certain words over other words,
and I thought this example today is a really good example of this.
So I was actually watching a video today from Scott Adams, who is the creator of Dilbert,
and I thought it was a really interesting example of specific words, and this is from
CNN. So let me just read to you the article that this came from. I'll read the title of
it for you. So this is from CNN, and it came out I think maybe a day or two ago. So Brazil,
it is talking about Brazil. Brazil swipes at FDA, pushes hydroxychloroquine for pregnant
women and children. Now, if just read it very quickly... First
of all, for people who might not know everything here. So to swipe at something, this is a
phrasal verb meaning to try to... you're trying to hit something or attack it in some way.
It's not really a direct attack, but you're swiping at something the way a fly might come
at you and you're trying to swipe at something. This means to swipe. The same idea of swiping
a credit card when you drag it through that little credit card reader. So to swipe at
something means to try to hit it, but you're attacking something in a sort of indirect
or not really powerful way. So Brazil is swiping at the FDA, and the FDA is the American Food
and Drug Administration. Now, what's happening here is there's a lot
of controversy, and debate, and discussion about different drugs that might work against
COVID-19, coronavirus, and so one of these is hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. I'm
not any authority. This video is not about whether this drug is good or not. I have no
idea whether that's the case, but what's interesting is this specific language that CNN is using
to describe this. I don't want to go over the whole article, but it's basically talking
about how Brazil is choosing not to do something that the United States recommended.
Again, it's not about me to decide whether Brazilian doctors should be doing something
or not, or whether a drug is good or not. But again, in this case, CNN is swiping at
the doctors in Brazil. So they are almost taking a hit or attacking them in a subtle
way by the language they're using. So what they say is they're pushing when they're pushing
a drug on someone. So CNN is saying that Brazil swipes at FDA, pushes hydroxychloroquine for
pregnant women and children. So Brazilian doctors like basically saying the whole country
is doing something really bad by pushing this. Again, it doesn't matter whether you like
the drug or you believe in its ability to cure or prevent coronavirus, but the idea
here is they're saying not that they're prescribing it, which is typically what you say when a
doctor is telling you to use a certain kind of medication. So you go to the doctor. You
say, "I have this problem," and the doctor will prescribe certain medication for you.
But a drug dealer, someone who's standing on the corner, who's trying to offer you some
kind of drugs or to sell you something, that person is described as a pusher, so a drug
pusher. So to push drugs on somebody, again, you're trying to move those drugs, to push
them on someone. It's a negative idea and a very unprofessional way of describing them,
so it's really interesting that CNN is using this language.
What you'll find more and more if you look carefully is that often news outlets have
a particular slant. This means that they maybe care more about a liberal perspective or a
conservative perspective. They support one of these or the other, and maybe the information
they're providing is... It could be true. It could be not true. It really depends. But
what's interesting is you can see very clearly that CNN is not happy with what Brazil is
doing just by the title of the article. So they're not saying, "Here's an interesting
news story about what Brazil might be trying to do or what is trying to do." They're saying
that they're pushing this on pregnant women and children. So they're saying, "This is
a big problem. Here's a big warning, and here's something that we don't like about what Brazil
is doing." So again, if you go and read the article, which is... It's not very long, but
it's just talking about how Brazil needs to decide for itself what they want to do, and
even if the Food and Drug Administration in the United States is saying one thing, we're
going to do what we think is best. Now, CNN, maybe they are doctors. I don't
know. Again, this is not about whether it's using a drug is good or bad, or anything like
that. But the whole point is looking very carefully at the language people use and how
even something like a very well-known or respected news outlet like CNN... Again, whether you
like CNN or not, it doesn't really matter, but paying attention to the language and how
they might say one word or use one word rather than something else. So remember that words
have power. Words really have a magic over us. If you think about words and how you communicate,
you can become a much more confident speaker. If you found this interesting and you'd like
me to talk about more examples of how this works in my writing or how you see other examples
of this around, or even if you see any examples and want to let me know, let me know in the
comments down below. I think these kinds of things are what I think about a lot when I
write off and write an email or something, or think about a lesson and how I want to
teach it. I'm very careful with my language. I might have a typo or something. This is
like a grammatical error or something. But often, I'm very careful about using one word
rather than something else because words mean something very different depending on what
you're trying to say. Well, that has been it. If you have enjoyed
this, do click that "Like" button and subscribe to the channel. You can click on the bell
icon to get more of this, but let me know in the comments if you have enjoyed this.
I'm hoping that this is something that you'll be interested rather than just more lists
of 10 grammar points or something like that that you want to know. Again, I'm trying to
take you beyond fluency, where we're really talking about how successful communicators
are being able to persuade or really, to communicate their ideas very well because what we really
want to do when we communicate is motivate other people to do what we'd like them to
do or to express certain ideas or other things like that that we hope will motivate people.
Well, again, that's it. If you have liked it, let me know in the comments below, and
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