LET'S SPEAK ENGLISH:
Broadcast Wednesday, December 22, 1937 at 8:30 PM

Second Talk - Vocabulary

Second Talk - Vocabulary

II. Differences between
a) Economic and Economical
b) Propagate and Propagandize

III. Words that are seldom used in Palestine:
a) Request
b) Punctual

TRANSCRIPT: SECOND TALK - VOCABULARY

But before I give you some new English words, I must remove some of those that claim to be English but aren't. They're deceiving you and you must turn them out at once.

What about GAZOZ? You know what I mean, that cold; sweet and fizzy drink that's sold in Tel Aviv in the summer. It gives a livelihood to the hundreds of people who sell it and bad digestions to the thousands who drink it. The only way to avoid a bad digestion in Tel Aviv is to sell gazoz; then you don't have to drink it. Have you ever seen a gazoz seller drinking his own gazoz? I haven't! .

Now GAZOZ is not an English word. It's a Palestinian corruption of the French words 'eau gazeuse' - or gassy water. In England, we don't say GAZOZ. If you ask for GAZOZ when you dine with the King at Buckingham Palace no-one'd know what you meant. The English name is MINERAL WATER or even MINERALS. But I'm afraid GAZOZ is already part of Palestinian English and nothing that you and I can do or say will get rid of it.

So let's pass on to PROJECTOR. Now PROJECTOR is a German word which, tn English, means search-light. Search-lights are used in war time against enemy aircraft and in Palestine in peace time to show people the way, when they want to visit Jewish villages at night. So as long as search-lights are necessary, either in peace or war, I hope that you'll call them search-lights and not PROJECTORS.

While we're talking about military things, I must warn you against using the purely military word BARRACKS when you really mean peaceful wooden HUTS. The word BARRACK, meaning a wooden HUT, has immigrated into Palestine from Germany. But it never had a proper immigration certificate and it's here Illegally. In English, BARRACKS are reserved entirely for soldiers and are usually of stone or brick and not of wood. So next time, when you want to refer to any small wooden building, call it a HUT and you'll be talking proper English.

In England we've many workmen of different kinds. Some are called FITTERS, others are called PLUMBERS. FITTERS are mechanics who are expert in fitting together machines. PLUMBERS are men who deal with pipes and domestic sanitation. But in Palestine a FITTER is called a MONTEUR, which is a French word - while a PLUMBER is called an INSTALLATOR which is a German word. But an English FITTER and an English PLUMBER are just as good as a French MONTEUR and a German INSTALLATOR. So I hope you'll remember to call for a FITTER next time your refrigerator wants taking to pieces and for a PLUMBER when your kitchen sink needs attention. If no one understands what you're talking about, tell them to join the Brighter English League and learn how to speak English.

Now let's talk about clothes - men's clothes, I'm afraid, not women's. If you are a man and you are asked out to dinner, don't say "Shall I wear ze SMOKING?" What you're referring to is called a DINNER JACKET. A SMOKING is a French misuse of the old fashioned SMOKING jacket, cut in somewhat the same way as a DINNER JACKET but usually of velvet or silk and worn only at home in the library. For dinner parties one wears DINNER JACKET with a stiff shirt and a black tie. I wish one didn't, as a stiff shirt's undoubtedly one of the world's most uncomfortable costumes, especially in the summer heat in Palestine. It seems, however, to be essential to the Englishman even in the tropics: and he would rather lose his wife and children than be separated from his DINNER JACKET when evening comes. So if we have to have DINNER JACKETS in Palestine let's call them DINNER JACKETS and not SMOKINGS.

Now let's consider the word SICK which is often used in Palestine in the American way and not in the, English way. In English, if you are not well you say you're ILL. You can only use the word SICK in a few special cases. For example, if you're a nice, kind person (which I doubt ) you go to hospitals to visit THE SICK; that is, all those people who are lying there ILL. SICK is used here as a collective noun - THE SICK.

Or if you are in the army or the police, or even in the civil service and you want a day off, you report SICK. You all know only too well how it's done, so I won't go into that.

Or if you're on board ship in a high wind and are unwise enough to have a large meal - well, you're SICK - and we won't go into that either.

Lastly, you can use slang and say "I'm SICK and tired of my lessons". The great advantage of the lessons that I give is that, if you're SICK and tired. of them, you can always switch off your wireless. But if you don't feel well, you can't say in English you're SICK. You're ILL. Only in America can you say "I'm SICK" if you're not feeling well.

But I must warn you that if you're ILL in England it's no use your having a fancy disease - the kind of thing your cook in Tel Aviv goes to Vienna to see a specialist about. In England there are only three diseases : first, indigestion; secondly, cold in the head; and thirdly, chill on the liver: and you get the same treatment for each of them.

Another English word that's changed its meaning in Palestine is NERVOUS. In England NERVOUS means TIMID. As I'm sitting here talking to you over the wireless, ! feel NERVOUS. I might sneeze and make you deaf for life, or I might accidentally say something too awful for words. Or what's worse than anything else, I might say something I thought was funny and you didn't. So I'm just NERVOUS.

But in Palestine NERVOUS usually means EXCITABLE. A policeman will complain that his Police sergeant is NERVOUS. But if nervous means TIMID that can't be correct, because I've never yet met a sergeant who was TIMID. If he were TIMID, he wouldn't be a sergeant: but he might be - and often is - EXCITED when his recruits are stupid. So don't say NERVOUS when you mean EXCITED, only when you mean TIMID.

Now there are several pairs of words in English which come from the same root and have slightly different meanings but are often interchanged in Palestine with curious results.

Let's take ECONOMIC and ECONOMICAL.ECONOMIC regers to the science of wealth. You can say " I took a degree in ECONOMICS". But ECONOMICAL means thrifty. My cook's very ECONOMICAL: that is, she doesn't throw away all the food that's left over.

But yon can't say ECONOMICAL when you mean ECONOMIC. So don't talk about the ECONOMICAL state of the country when you mean the ECONOMIC state of the country. And if you'll take my advice, you won't talk about the ECONOMIC state of the country either because it is too damned depressing.

Another pair of words that come from the same root are PROPAGATE and PROPAGANDIZE. But although PROPAGANDIZE means to spead PROPAGANDA, PROPAGATE usually means to multiply plants or animals by natural processes; in other words, to produce offspring. So it's better not to talk about people going around PROPAGATING in the villages because you might be misunderstood. What you mean is PROPAGANIZING - or preferably spreading PROPAGANDA. All English newspapers editors and translators in Palestine who are listening in, please copy.

This evening, so far, I've only dealt with English words that are already Palestinian citizens. I'm now going to mention a few English words that've hardly made their appearance in this country at all as yet.

Take the word REQEST. It's years since I heard anyone in Palestine say "I REQUEST". The usual Palestinian word is "I DEMAND" - when it isn't "I INSIST". Although you may think that DEMAND is more effective than REQUEST, let me whisper in your ear 'it isn't' - at least when you are talking with (or generally at) an Englishman. First he'll think that you've got no manners, and he'll be right. Then you've overlooked that current fashion of deliberate under-statement in using English. If an Englishman is overjoyed (he really is sometimes, though you'd never guess it) he'll say "how nice". When he's talking about a millionaire (if he ever does) he'll say that the chap's not so badly off. When you'd he "violently opposed" to something the Englishman's merely "inclined to disagree". So when you say "I DEMAND" instead of "I REQUEST" your voice's so loud that the Englishman just doesn't hear what you're saying.

PUNCTUAL is another good old English word, which is sometimes asked for in Palestine but never actually supplied. How often have you been misled by the announcement that a play's due to begin PUNCTUALLY at eight p.m.? You innocently arrive at five to eight to find the hall completely deserted and in darkness. There's only a ragged boy throwing a fresh supply of sunflower seeds, silver paper and pieces of orange peel between the seats in preparation for the evening performance. At least that's how I believe the rubbish gets there. You go out into the street again to make sure that there isn't curfew, that the performance is really that night and at that hall. Then you take your seat and wait. At 8:15 the lights go up and you are joined in the gallery by three other people. At eight thirty the audience begins to arrive. At eight forty-five a bell goes, but that's only to say that there's another half hour before the performance begins. Then the scene shifters get to work with hammers behind the curtain. More people arrive and sit happily reading their evening papers. The pianist takes her seat. A worried face appears round the side of the stage to see if the three missing actors are chatting with their friends in the hall or are just late, as usual. A quarter to nine a second bell goes. But the hall's not full yet and we can't possibly start until everyone's arrived. At nine, the third bell rings and, at nine fifteen, the performance starts; being 8 p.m.. PUNCTUALLY, bidiyuk and tamaman. OH! PUNCTUALITY, what sins are committed in thy name!

Let me now invite you once more to join Brighter English League. After my talk last week, i received many letters from all over Palestine and even from Trans-Jordan from Listeners who wanted to become members of the League.

To each I have sent an outline of this evening's talk and I hope that those of you who have it in front of you found it easier to follow what I am saying. Any of those of you who would like to have outlines of each of my future talks should write to the president of the Brighter English League c/o the Palestine Broadcasting Service, Jerusalem, and send me your name and address.

If you don't feel like giving me your real name, just give your name as 'Listener' with your address.

Several listeneres who wrote to me last week gave me useful suggestions for future talks and I shall try to use them. If you have any more, please include them in your letter.

One charming young lady wrote and asked whether, if the English do not like rules, she was correct in saying that the English language was unruly. I'm afraid that's wrong; at present it's Palestine that's unruly.

My next talk will be on Wednesday evening at 9 p.m. and I'll tell you how to use English idiom. So if you want the outline of the talk beforehand just write to the President of the Brighter English League, care of the Palestine Broadcasting Service, Jerusalem.