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This week’s lesson is a Q&A – we’re going to answer some of the questions you’ve sent us.
Hey, we’re back in our room with interesting things.
Yes, they come from all over the world, like your questions. So what’s this lesson about?
We’re going to look at a way to say ‘go away’ – and also how we use the word ‘afraid’. And we want to tell you about our live classes.
But first I want to say a huge thank you to our viewers for the captions they’ve been writing.
Oh yes. That’s been amazing.
A few weeks ago we asked for help. We asked our viewers to write captions for our videos in other languages.
The response was amazing.
Yeah, since then we’ve had more than 70 caption files submitted.
It’s incredible.
I feel really touched that so many people have been helping us with this.
Touched is when you feel emotional about something.
And that’s exactly how I feel. People have been so kind and I feel so happy and grateful to them.
These captions are helping us grow our channel and they’re helping learners who need a little more support in English.
And they help people who are deaf or hard or hearing too. I’ll put some of the languages we’ve received captions in here.
There are so many.
I want to say thank you to Anatoliy, David, Dreamy2206, Danny, Marina, Nives, Wilson, Donnie D, Heiricar, Mearv, Mayela, and a big merci beaucoup to you Cecille, you’re a star. You’re all stars!
And we also have a caption file in Vietnamese but I don’t know who gave it to us.
You don’t?
Yeah, sometimes the system doesn’t tell us so I hope I didn’t miss anyone. If I did, please forgive me.
We’re really very grateful. And if anyone else wants to help, please do. I’ll put a link to the video here so you can find out more.
OK, now what about a question…
Nimky had a question about a video we showed where someone says ‘Beat it’.
Beat it.
Yes, let’s run the video. (run video)
Nimky says ‘What beat it means?’
So he means, what does ‘Beat it’ mean?
Yeah
Nimky it means ‘get out of here’, ‘leave me alone. ‘ ‘Go away’. It’s very direct – an order. But I think it’s quite an old fashioned expression. What do you think, Jay?
Yeah. I think these day’s I’d say, ‘Get out of here.’
That works in British English too. And in British English we could also say, ‘clear off’. That’s very direct too. I would say it to someone I was close to but probably not my boss. Would you say ‘clear off’ in American English, Jay? Absolutely not. I would just say ‘Get out of here’.
OK, that was a great question Nimky. Thank you.
OK, next question….
Amit Chakroborty writes I saw most of the people use the sentence ‘I’m afraid that…’ Ah, I think he means I saw many people use the sentence, yeah. I’m afraid that. But I don’t know, what does it exactly mean. So what does it mean exactly? Could you tell me how I can use this sentence, I’m afraid that…
Another great question! The word afraid has a couple of different meanings in English. The first one is to feel fear – to be frightened because you think you might be hurt or something bad could happen. What kinds of things are people afraid of Jay?
Heights, for example. When you’re high up and look down and feel dizzy.
Yep, afraid of heights.
And I’m afraid of spiders. Argh!
And going to the dentists. I’m afraid of that.
Try not to feel that way. You’ve got to speak to get better.
I know something else that you’re afraid of.
What’s that?
Mice.
Help, help!
What?
I saw a mouse.
Where?
It ran into your office. I’m afraid to go in there.
So we use afraid to say we’re frightened of or nervous about something.
But there’s another meaning of afraid, and I think that’s what Amit is asking about.
Yeah, it’s a different use of afraid and it’s very common. If we want to say we’re sorry about something we can say ‘I’m afraid…’. We use it when we’re being polite.
So, let’s look at sales. I’m afraid we don’t have this month’s figures yet.
Never mind. We can use last month’s. Oh good. Last month’s were better.
So ‘afraid’ is like an apology there. Yes, an advance apology because we think we’re going to disappoint someone or upset them or annoy them.
It ran into your office. I’m afraid to go in there.
What happened?
It’s gone. Well where did it go?
I’m afraid it went to your office.
Well, I’m afraid we don’t have time for any more questions. Ah. But come back again and we’ll answer some more. Now we need to tell everyone about our live classes.
Oh yes, that’s very exciting.
Starting in the fall we’re going to hold regular live classes on YouTube every Sunday.
We’ll be broadcasting live from Philadelphia and we’ll have people joining us from all over the world.
Our friend Fluency MC says he’ll come.
Yeah, and lots of other people have said they’ll come. It’s gonna be great.
And because the lessons are live you’ll be able to communicate with us in the chat window.
If you want to come to a live class, sign up for our newsletter so we can tell you the schedule. We’ll put a link in the description below.
Yes, and thank you everyone who has been leaving comments and questions and suggestions for new videos.
We love getting feedback. Bye now.
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