Today, I'm connecting to you from my home,
and maybe you're watching or working from
your home during this time of the coronavirus.
Wherever you are, I hope you and your family
are all safe and well and yeah, this is a
difficult, challenging time for all of us
and we have a lot of information coming at
us, so much information, so fast that it can
make us feel confused and worried and scared
sometimes, right?
So, there's also a lot of new vocabulary,
and old vocabulary that's being used in different
ways, so I wanted to help you to understand
this vocabulary in English and also to be
able to speak about it to your friends, your
colleagues or even to medical staff if you
need to, alright?
So, this video is going to be a little bit
different from our usual lesson, but I'm going
to try to give you a lot of information that
I hope will help you, alright?
So, first of all, just a few points.
As you know, I'm an English teacher, right?
I'm not a doctor and I'm teaching you English.
I am not giving you any medical advice.
Second, when it comes to your health, it's
so important that you communicate and listen,
hear, understand in your own language as much
as possible.
When it comes to your health, you want to
be as clear as possible about the instructions
that people give you, okay?
So, whenever possible, use your own native
language for that purpose.
However, if you live, right now, in an English
speaking country and you need to understand
what's being said around you about this virus
by the medical authorities, by the media,
then this video will definitely help you and
also, if you just want to use this time to
improve your English, to be able to understand
more of what's being said, to be able to discuss
this issue, the problems, the issues, the
solutions, okay?
Then, again, this lesson will give you many
of the words and concepts that you need to
be able to do that, okay?
So, let's get started.
So, first of all, let's start with the name
of this illness.
Officially now, it's called COVID-19.
That comes from the words "coronavirus disease
2019", alright?
So, how do we say that somebody has the virus
or this illness?
We can do it in a number of different ways.
For example, you could say, "He has COVID-19",
or, you could make it negative and say, "He
doesn't have COVID-19".
Another way you could just say, "He has coronavirus",
or "He doesn't have coronavirus", okay?
They're using different terms for this illness.
They're saying "COVID-19", "coronavirus",
"the coronavirus", "the new coronavirus" "the
novel coronavirus", "novel" just means "new",
okay?
So, you might hear different expressions for
this illness itself.
Another way you could say it is, as I said,
"She has the coronavirus.", instead of just
saying "She has coronavirus".
Both ways are being used.
Or, "She doesn't have the coronavirus", alright?
A little more formal way they often use and
you might hear on the news is "They tested
positive for the coronavirus", or "They tested
negative for COVID-19", so if somebody tested
positive, it means they have the virus, and
if they tested negative, they don't have the
virus, alright?
Let's go on from there.
So, what are some of the symptoms that people
might have if they have this illness?
So, what does the word "symptoms" mean?
It means that you're showing some kind of
physical or mental signs of this illness,
and what are some of those common symptoms
of the coronavirus?
First one is a cough.
What's a cough?
Something like this [coughs], right?
You know that.
And you saw, of course, and you know because
I'm sure you get this advice in your language
that if you need to cough, or if someone is
coughing, they should cough where?
In the bend of their elbow, okay?
This is your elbow, you should cough in here.
Alright?
That's a cough.
How do we say that, how do we use that in
a sentence?
He has a cough.
Another symptom, a cold.
What's a cold?
You know, when your nose is running and you're
going [sniff] all day long, okay, or you take
a tissue and you blow your nose, alright,
then you would say: She has a cold.
Alright?
Another symptom: sneezing.
What does it mean to sneeze?
I'll try to show you: achoo!
Okay, again, into this part of your elbow.
He is sneezing, is how we would say that in
a sentence.
Next is a fever.
What does it mean to have a fever?
It means your feeling, you know, warm or hot,
right?
So, how would we say that?
You would say: She has a fever.
He has a fever.
And, what is - what are some of the other
words connected to having a fever?
Basically, having a temperature, okay?
So, you could also say: He has a temperature.
Temperature just measures the amount of heat
in your body, right?
Or, if somebody - if you tell somebody that
someone has a fever, probably the next question
will be "What's his temperature?", or "What's
her temperature?", or "What's your temperature?"
right?
So, we could say "His temperature is 39 degrees.",
or "His temperature is 101 degrees", okay,
there's different measurements, right?
Celsius and Fahrenheit.
Another symptom is a body ache.
What does it mean to ache?
It means to hurt, right, your body feels sore,
so the other way you could say that in a sentence
is "Her body hurts", okay, if you're describing
to someone else what's happening to someone.
A person might also feel fatigue.
Fatigue just means very, very tired, okay?
A lot of exhaustion, a lot of tiredness, and
the way we would use that in a sentence, really,
is just to say or to convey this meaning is
to say, "He's very tired", alright, or "He's
feeling very tired".
Also, you might - the person might experience
difficulty breathing.
What does it mean to breathe, okay?
To breathe is like this.
Of course, you don't have to close your eyes
like I just did, you can just --. Okay?
This is breathing.
So, if somebody's finding it hard to breathe,
you could say, "It's hard for her to breathe."
Alright?
So, those are the symptoms.
Now, let's look at some more advanced words,
some more advanced nouns that are being used
about this subject.
So, three very common advanced words that
are being used are the words "outbreak", "epidemic",
and "pandemic".
So, think of is this way, first of all.
An outbreak is like this, an epidemic is like
this, and a pandemic is like that, alright?
So, an outbreak is when something happens
suddenly, so a lot of people are affected.
In this case, how were those people affected?
They got a disease, okay?
So, there was an outbreak in Wuhan, China.
Next, when the outbreak spread to more people
or other areas, it became an epidemic.
Then, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
The WHO stands for World Health Organization,
alright?
And they declared, they said, that now, this
disease has become a pandemic.
So, that means the epidemic now spread to
an even larger area, maybe even all over the
world and became a pandemic.
So, another word that you might hear a lot
is that the health authorities took various
measures to deal with this situation.
So, measures here is just, like, actions or
steps, alright, that they took in order to
try to control this problem.
Another word is transmission.
They wanted to limit the transmission of the
virus.
So, transmission just means the spread of
the virus, the passing on of the virus to
other people, to more people, okay?
Transmission, alright.
Let's continue.
Isolation.
So, a lot of people are being asked to go
into isolation if they have the virus.
So, isolation means that somebody has to be
alone.
They have to be away from everybody else for
health reasons.
So, people who have the coronavirus must be
in isolation.
They must be away from everybody else.
Another word that's being used, which is similar
in meaning but a little bit different is the
word quarantine.
So, people who are - who might have the coronavirus
are asked to be in quarantine.
So, here also, they're being asked to stay
away from other people because maybe there's
a chance that they have the virus.
For example, suppose somebody went on a flight
and then they found out that somebody on the
flight had this virus.
So then everybody else who flew on that particular
flight might be asked to go into self-quarantine,
just in case they are infected by this virus,
okay?
So, you'll also hear these kinds of words.
You should self-isolate, you should self-quarantine.
That means you do it to yourself, by yourself.
Okay.
Another word is lockdown.
A lot of cities and countries right now are
either in lockdown or under lockdown or on
lockdown.
We use different prepositions there.
What does that mean?
You probably do know because it might be happening
where you are, or somewhere else that you've
read about.
It means that people are not allowed to go
where they want.
Schools, shops, offices, businesses, restaurants,
movie theatres, and lots of other places are
shut down, okay?
Also, maybe travel is restricted.
There are many different aspects to a lockdown.
A word - a kind of technical word that's being
used but a very important word, expression
is really community spread, or community transmission.
So, this happens when a disease spreads in
the community, but the health authorities
don't know how people got that disease, okay?
And they're very concerned about community
spread.
The next word I know you probably do know
for sure, face mask, right?
The white mask that people are wearing, many
people are wearing, face masks.
Alright.
So, those were many of the nouns that we hear
- we're hearing today on the news.
Now, let's look at some of the verbs, okay?
To declare a pandemic.
What does that mean?
We talked about it, the WHO declared a pandemic.
That means that they said or they announced
something officially and publicly, alright?
Another verb, to ban, to ban large gatherings.
What does it mean, to ban?
It means to not allow something.
For example, many things are being banned.
Large gatherings, many people are not allowed
to come together in one place.
There's a limit on how many people can be
together at one time.
So, large gatherings are banned or, in many
countries today, international flights are
also banned.
International travelers are banned.
Not allowed, okay?
Also, in many places, travel is being restricted,
okay?
To restrict means what?
To limit it, okay?
Not to stop it altogether, to ban means to
stop it completely, but to restrict means
to control it, to limit it, to limit travel,
for example, to allow only some and not all
people, okay?
So, some flights to come in, maybe.
To restrict something.
What's also happening nowadays is that many
countries are sealing their borders.
To seal, to seal means to close completely,
okay, to close the borders, and the border
is what?
It's like the line that divides different
countries.
So, many countries are closing or sealing
their borders.
We're being asked also to avoid contact with
others.
To avoid something means to try not to do
that.
So, when they say avoid contact, right, touching,
contact with other people, in order to keep
yourself safe and to keep other people safe.
Let's look at some more verbs here.
Many people are stocking up on groceries,
on food, on toilet paper.
So, what does it mean to stock up?
When people stock up, they're getting a lot
of something to use in the future, alright?
Maybe normally they don't buy that much, but
now they're buying a little bit more, they're
stocking up for the future.
That's okay and that's a little bit natural
and normal and it's going on everywhere.
What's not okay is the next word, to hoard
goods.
To hoard means to buy much, much more than
you need and that is not looked at in a positive
way, because if you hoard food or groceries
or toilet paper, then you have more than you
need, but maybe other people don't have anything.
Okay?
So, stocking up is okay, hoarding is usually
looked at in a more negative way.
What's also happening is that a lot of non-essential
businesses are being shut.
To shut a business means what?
To close it.
Just like you shut the door, you can close
the door, you can shut a lot of non-essential
businesses.
What does that mean?
An essential business is something that's
absolutely necessary, okay?
So, right now, supermarkets are still open,
many gas stations are open, okay?
Because they're considered essential and necessary,
otherwise where would you go to buy your food,
okay?
But non-essential means what is not absolutely
necessary.
So, many non-essential businesses are being
shut.
Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and so on.
Next, another verb, to cancel.
Lots of things are being cancelled right now.
Schools, schools are cancelled, universities
are cancelled, conferences are cancelled,
all kinds of things are being cancelled.
So, what does it means to cancel something,
is to decide that something is not going to
happen.
It's cancelled, alright?
The other word is to postpone.
Sometimes, something is not cancelled, but
it's postponed.
So, to postpone something means to delay something,
to plan to have it at a later date.
For example, just this morning, I heard that
the Olympics have currently been postponed,
alright?
So, they're not cancelled, but they are postponed
or delayed until later.
Alright.
Also, please remember that some of the things
that I'm telling you are true today.
Maybe they're not going to be true tomorrow,
but on the day when I'm doing this lesson
for you, it's true.
It may change just like so much is changing,
alright?
Another verb which you can use and which you
will hear is to control, to control the spread
of the virus.
So, to control the spread of the virus means
what?
To limit, to limit the spread, okay?
Make it as little as possible.
Another very simple - sorry, similar word
but a little more advanced and formal is to
contain the transmission.
So, if I say to control the spread or to contain
the transmission, it really means the same
thing, it's just fancier English.
To contain in this case means to control or
limit the spread, the transmission, of the
virus, alright?
Another verb which you can use is to develop
symptoms.
To develop means to start to have symptoms.
And what are symptoms, remember?
We said symptoms are a sign, physical or mental
sign of an illness.
So, what happens when someone develops serious
symptoms?
Usually, they test.
To test the patient, or to test people, and
that means simply to check if they have COVID-19,
alright?
And one of the reasons we are asked to stay
at home as much as possible is to protect
the vulnerable.
So again, you understand all these words,
okay, in your own language, because I'm sure
you're getting the same news.
All you're doing now is you're matching up
the words you've been hearing in your language,
maybe, to the words, the same ideas in English,
okay?
So, to protect the vulnerable means to keep
safe people who are older, who are unwell
or ill, or who are just weak, they're not
as healthy.
Vulnerable refers to this group of people,
alright?
So, let's move on from there to a few more
verbs.
So, you might hear people when they're speaking
casually saying that I'm going to hunker down
at home.
What does that mean, to hunker down?
To hunker down, it kind of means to stay in
a safe place for some time until something
is over, or danger passes.
That's how they're using it right now, okay?
Well, I'm not going to go out.
The health authorities are saying we should
go home, we should stay at home, so I'm just
going to hunker down and stay here for a long
time or for some time until this is all over,
okay?
Why?
They're asking us to do this to take care
of our own health and also to protect the
vulnerable and other people.
Another verb which we're hearing a lot of
today is to livestream.
To livestream a press conference.
So, what does it mean to livestream?
This is a general word, it's not just connected
to the coronavirus, right?
So, to livestream means to show live on the
internet through video and audio, something
that's happening somewhere, right?
Maybe somebody's giving a press conference,
the health authorities are speaking.
The media is there, the cameras are there,
and they're broadcasting it to you live so
you can watch it as it is happening.
And now, this is an expression that a lot
of the health experts use.
They say to flatten the curve, and the idea
here is that they're trying to prevent a lot
of people from getting sick at the same time,
and to try and spread it out so that, instead
of, for example, 100 people getting sick at
one time and then the hospitals are very busy,
having, let's say, ten people getting sick
over many days so that the hospitals are not
as busy.
So, the expression, to flatten the curve,
refers to the graph that they show that if
you're showing how many people are sick or
ill at a particular time, the graph might
look like this, and this is a curve.
So, if they want to flatten the curve, right,
they want it to go down like this so that
they can extend the time when people get sick
and have more resources and hospitals and
doctors and medicines and test kits available
for more people.
So, you might hear very often this expression,
to flatten the curve, alright?
Let's move on, okay?
I know, so much vocabulary, right?
But also, so much opportunity to learn this
specific vocabulary which will be used in
this context but also in other situations.
So, let's look at some adjectives now that
are being used very often.
Contagious.
So, they may say the virus, the COVID virus,
is contagious.
This just means that it can pass easily or
pass to others, alright?
It's contagious, it can pass on to others,
other people can get it.
Another adjective, confirmed.
Confirmed means yes, for sure, for certain.
For example, she tested positive, it is a
confirmed case.
That means they don't have any doubt, they're
saying yes, it's right, it's confirmed, it's
true, it's a confirmed case.
Alright?
Next, we have a kind of pair of words.
One is symptomatic, the other one is asymptomatic.
So, this comes from the word which we learned
in the beginning, right?
Symptom, symptom is what?
Remember?
A sign of an illness, physical or mental.
So, if you're - if someone, not you, if someone
is symptomatic, it means they're showing some
of the signs of the illness, okay?
People are - people who show signs of illness
are symptomatic, but people who don't show
any signs of the illness are asymptomatic.
That means they are not showing any signs
of the illness.
Alright.
Another pair of words that are often used
are mandatory and voluntary.
For example, it's mandatory for him to be
in isolation.
So, mandatory here means he has to be, he
has no choice, okay?
He has to do it, he must do it, it's mandatory,
alright?
The other word is voluntary.
When something is voluntary, you can choose,
you can decide whether to do it or not, okay?
For example, and again, this might not be
true everywhere, it is voluntary to work from
home, alright?
In some cases, remember, right now, depending
on your city, your country, it might not be
voluntary, but in some places, it might be
voluntary to work from home, that means you
decide.
Another word is fatal.
So, if something is fatal, it means people
can die from that.
For example, COVID-19 can be fatal.
It can kill people.
They can die, alright?
That's what the word fatal means.
The noun of that is fatality.
Another word we're hearing a lot at this time
is unprecedented, and this means, well first,
let me give you a sentence with it, maybe
you'll understand by yourself.
All these events are unprecedented in my lifetime.
So, what it means is that they have never
happened before in my life.
Alright?
When something is unprecedented, it has never
happened before, okay?
Alright.
So, let's move from there now to some of the
recommendations and suggestions that we're
hearing from the health authorities in different
parts of the world to help us during this
time.
We're being asked to maintain social distancing.
Now, that has a lot of different meanings
and I will go into it very soon, but it means
to do many things or take various steps to
basically stay away from other people, alright?
We'll look at that in a second.
We're being asked to avoid contact with people
who are sick or unwell.
To avoid means to try not to do something,
right?
So, try not to have contact with people who
are unwell.
Stay away from people who are not well.
Of course, we all know we're supposed to do
what with our hands?
You know, wash our hands frequently with soap
and water.
Frequently means often, okay, not just a few
times, many times, wash our hands with soap.
And, if you don't have soap and you're outside,
we're being asked to do what?
Use something called hand sanitizer, it's
a special liquid you can use to clean your
hands, alright?
Next, we're talking about - we're also being
told to avoid touching our face or mouth or
nose or eyes, to prevent ourselves from getting
sick, alright?
Trying not to do something.
Okay.
Another recommendation, we're being told again,
we talked a little bit about this, to cough
or sneeze into a tissue, right, tissue paper,
we can cough or, if we don't have a tissue
paper close to use, we can cough or sneeze
into the bend of our elbow.
Also, we are told, do not visit vulnerable
people.
You know now vulnerable people are the elderly,
elderly is a nice way of saying old people,
okay?
The elderly, people who are unwell or weak,
alright?
So, those people we want to avoid visiting
because it's easier for them to become sick
than healthier people, okay?
And we're being told that we should, as much
as possible, work from our home.
Alright.
So, I told you I would talk a little bit more
about the social distancing, so let's do that.
So, what does that social distancing?
Again, I'm sure you know in your own language.
Let's try to put an English take on it.
So, it means do not get close to other people.
We're being asked to stay at least two meters
or six feet away from other people, as much
as possible.
Don't touch other people, don't visit other
people, don't invite a lot of people to your
house or, really, anybody to your house, and
don't go out socially, okay, don't go to restaurants,
don't go to clubs, don't go to crowded places.
In any case, in many places, all of these
places are currently closed, so you don't
really have the options, but sometimes people
are still going out to beaches and parks and
if there are too many people there, then that
is not a good thing according to the health
authorities.
So, we're being told to avoid, try our best
not to, and stay away from large groups or
crowds, to avoid public transportation, because
of course, buses and trains and subways can
be very crowded and we don't - we're not supposed
to be in those situations, and in general,
to avoid travelling, okay?
Whether it's locally or internationally.
Of course, you know that a lot of airlines
have cancelled their flights, they're not
flying to different countries, and a lot of
countries have sealed their borders so anyway,
the airlines cannot fly there.
Okay?
So, what are we being told to do?
We should stay home, work from home, keep
in touch with other people by phone, by video,
okay?
Just because we're at home or maybe even unwell
or isolated or in quarantine, it doesn't mean
you can't talk to other people on the phone
or by video, and we should do that, you should
do that.
Keep in touch with family, friends, colleagues,
so you don't feel lonely.
You might be alone, but you don't need to
feel lonely or sad or bad, okay?
Try to stay positive and happy, that's my
suggestion, as much as possible, with all
respect to everything that's going on.
And why are they asking us to take these measures,
or these actions, or these steps?
To reduce or lower the chances of catching
the virus and reduce or lower the chances
of passing it on to other people, okay?
So, you want to avoid catching it and you
want to avoid passing it on to anyone else.
Alright, let's look at some things that you
might hear people saying, okay, these days.
They may be saying, oh, this situation is
unprecedented.
You know what it means, right?
We talked about it; it means it's never happened
before.
That's also why people are feeling really
nervous and scared and confused.
It's a lot, it's so much happening, right?
They might be saying, oh, these are very unpredictable
times.
Unpredictable means you cannot say what's
going to happen tomorrow, alright?
There's a lot of uncertainty.
You can't be sure, you can't be certain, alright?
So, people are using these kind of sentences
and expressions to talk about the situation.
People might be saying something like, you
know what, I'm really concerned about my health.
I'm concerned about my family.
I'm concerned about my job.
So, what does it mean to be concerned about
something?
To, like, be worried, okay?
To be a little bit worried about it, or very
worried.
Many people, as you know, are losing their
jobs or have lost their jobs or have been
laid off, so they may be really concerned
about their finances also, their money.
Or, at a different level, people might say
I'm concerned about the economy.
I'm concerned about the world.
So, the economy, of course, refers to any
kind of activities that are related to trade
or industry or work that people do to make
money, okay, within a country.
People might also be saying things like this:
I hope the situation improves soon, or I hope
and pray that everything will be alright,
okay?
People are expressing their views, their ideas,
their feelings, their emotions in many different
ways, so these are some of the common expressions
and sentences you may hear.
So, what can we do?
Let's try to stay calm, right?
Calm means don't panic, stay cool, okay?
Take it easy.
Stay as positive as you can.
It's good for you, it's good for your health,
good for people around you if we try to stay
positive instead of being too, you know, stressed
out, alright?
Try to stay positive.
Follow the advice of health experts and local
authorities about what to do, and these rules
and regulations, another word for rules, are
different in different parts of the world,
so pay attention to your local news always,
and your national news, not just the international.
Make the most of our time, okay?
Let's do that.
Many of us feel like we're kind of stuck at
home, but maybe it's - we can use this time
to do some things.
We can all use this time to do some things
that we've always wanted to do.
Maybe you can work on your English.
Maybe you can learn something else that you've
always wanted to learn.
Use your time in a positive way so that you
can still feel that you're moving forward
in your life in some way, alright?
You're not stuck.
You might be at home, but you're not stuck.
That's your attitude, alright?
Let's take care of ourselves.
Let's take care of ourselves, first of all,
alright?
Because you can't help somebody if you're
not well, so take care of ourselves, our families,
and do things to help us all to relax.
Whatever that means for you, okay, maybe you
like to meditate.
Maybe you like to do yoga, you could read
a book, you could listen to music - peaceful
music, maybe, or whatever music makes you
happy.
Watch movies, watch a show, okay, do some
things to feel good.
So, keep your heart happy, keep your mind
happy, right?
And let's be kind, be nice, be kind, be helpful
to each other.
Let's take care of each other and help each
other as much as we can through these difficult,
uncertain days, alright?
So, what could you say to others?
Suppose you're working somewhere and you're
working from home, but you are in contact
with your colleagues, with your manager or
other people, or even just family and other
friends.
So, some expressions that you can use at this
time, at the end of a conversation usually,
is something like be well, stay healthy, stay
strong, alright?
Simple expressions.
Be well, stay healthy, stay strong, okay?
And last of all, on behalf of all of us at
www.engvid.com , I would just like to say
thank you for always caring about learning
and growing and becoming better and better,
okay?
It means so much.
We're all fine here at www.engvid.com and
we wish all of you the same.
May you, your family, may you and your family
stay safe, stay healthy, and stay strong.
Thank you so much.
