| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha, and in this video, we're going to talk about 10 phrases you can use to talk about education. Let's get started. |
| Okay. The first word is "education." "Education." So, "education" refers to the process of gaining knowledge, the process of learning new things. So, when we say "Education is important," it means getting new knowledge, learning new things in school or from your work environment. These kinds of knowledge-gaining activities are very important. So, when we talk about elementary school, high school, junior high school, college, we're talking about "education." For example, "It's important to get a good education." Okay. Let's move on to our next expression. |
| Next is "elementary school." "Elementary school." So, "elementary school" is a very long expression but it sounds quite short in speech. We don't say "elementary, school." Generally, we say "elementary school," so that -try at the end becomes quite short. Not -tery, but -try, "elementary school." So, "elementary school" is kind of the first level of official schooling in the USA. So, "elementary school" refers to from about the age of five to about the age of 10. It's usually about a 5-year period, and that's where kids start to learn to build their social skills, they start to learn how to read and write. So, Elementary School is the first level of schooling in the U.S. For example, "I went to elementary school in the city where I was born." Okay. Let's move on to our next expression. |
| Next is "junior high school." "Junior high school." Okay, "junior high school" is the school level after elementary school. You might also hear "junior high school" called "middle school." So, depending on the location, some people call it "junior high school" or just "junior high." And, some people call it "middle school." But, "junior high school" comes after elementary school. "Junior high school" is generally from the ages of maybe 10 to 11, to maybe 13 or 14, or so, depending on the person. So, in junior high school, the level of education moves up, and we start to learn some other types of social skills. For example, "Junior high school is when we start moving to other classrooms for our lessons." So, in this example sentence, we're talking about moving to other classrooms for lessons. Usually, in elementary school, the students stay in one room and the teacher stays the same through the whole day. But, generally, starting in "junior high school" or "middle school," students start to move to different classrooms for their lessons, and they start to see different teachers throughout the day. Okay. let's move on to the next expression. |
| Next is "high school." "High school." Okay. So, "high school" is the next level of education after junior high school or after middle school. "High school" is generally from the ages of about 14 years old to about 18 years old. So, in "high school," we have kind of the next level of education. We're starting to learn some skills that are related to our adult lives. So, it's not just general education, but we start to learn some other things about what we're going to need to know in university for example, or we start to explore our other interests a little bit more. For example: "I have so many good memories of laughing with my friends in high school." So, the "high school" period of someone's life is kind of really well known as being something that helps a person to understand their personality. We have lots and lots of interesting memories and experiences. This is kind of when our emotions start to be really strongly activated too. So, people sometimes have like a heartbreak and really difficult experiences, or they have really good memories of like their sports teams or their athletic experiences. So, "high school," for a lot of people, is a time of life where they learn a lot about who they are as a person. And, it's also a very, very popular setting for lots of TV shows. Okay. Let's move on to our next expression. |
| The next one is "university." "University." So, "university" is the next level of education past high school. So, people can choose to go to "university," or they can choose not to go to "university." So, you might hear a couple different words used to talk about the level of education after high school. You might hear "university" and you might hear "college." They're very similar, but the difference is in the types of courses offered and the level of courses offered. So, a "university" offers the standard four years of education after high school. So, if you want to get a bachelor's degree, you can get that at a "university." |
| A "university" also offers courses after that standard four years of courses. So, if you want to get a master's degree or Ph.D., which we'll talk about later, you can get those things at a "university." They offer graduate-level courses. "Colleges," on the other hand, can offer those standard four years of higher education. You might also hear about types of schools called "technical colleges" or "vocational colleges." These are schools that give education specific to a certain field or to a certain kind of specialty. So, you might find 2-year courses, 3-year courses, 4-year courses, and so on. So, both "colleges" and "universities" offer extra education past high school, but there are some differences. For example, "Have you decided which universities you want to apply to?" |
| Okay, the next word is "research." "Research." Okay. So, "research" is very important at every level of education. When we're in junior high school, we start to do small "science research projects." And, in high school, these continue and we start to learn how to read books and gather information and put our ideas together to come up with our own opinions and our own ideas. We continue doing this at the university level, and our projects get bigger and bigger. They can expand to entire "research" topics as well. Like massive, massive new "research" topics as well. So, "research" is a very important part of the educational experience. For example, "I want to focus on my research topics next year." This is something that you might hear a graduate student say at a university. Someone who isn't so focused on general education, but instead is focused on their specific field of work. They might talk about their "research" a lot. Okay. Let's move on to our next expression. |
| Next is "undergraduate." "Undergraduate." Okay. "Undergraduate" refers to the first four years of college. So, after high school, if someone decides to go to college or to university, they participate in What's called the "undergraduate education program." So, "undergraduate" means the first four years of university. So, most people finish after four years of university, and some people choose to continue on into extra courses and to pursue different degrees. But, "undergraduate" education refers to the continued general education studies at a university or at a college. So, for example, "Where did you do your undergraduate studies?" This sentence is asking about where someone did their four years of university, their standard four years of university. Then maybe they changed universities to go to a different place to study something else after that. So, "undergraduate" refers to those four initial years of higher education. Okay. Let's go to the next expression. |
| Next is "graduate." "Graduate." So, this word, depending on the structure of the sentence, can be used in a couple different ways. I just talked about "undergraduate." So, "undergraduate" refers to those four years of education at the beginning of your college or university experience. "Graduate" education refers to your experiences and your education after that. So, if you study at a college for four years and you receive your bachelor's degree for example, then you might continue on to additional studies or additional research topics. That is called your "graduate" education. So, we have this use of "graduate." You may also see "graduate" used as a verb, but the pronunciation is different. To "graduate" from a school, or to "graduate" from a university or a college, means to finish your studies there. So, we can "graduate" from high school. We can "graduate" from university. We can "graduate" from college. It means to conclude your studies, you fulfilled all the requirements. So, I wanted to mention, these two uses of this word in this video, "graduate" education referring to very high-level education, and to "graduate" as a verb. So, let's look at an example sentence that uses this in terms of your education past undergraduate studies. "She wants to go to graduate school right away." Okay. Let's move on to our next expression. |
| Next is "bachelor's degree." "Bachelor's degree." Okay. I've mentioned this word a couple times in this episode already. But, a "bachelor's degree" is the degree you receive after you complete your undergraduate education. So, after you finish those first four years of university or college, you can receive a "bachelor's degree," if you fulfill all of your school's requirements. A "bachelor's degree" is the most basic type of higher education recognition you can get. So, your "bachelor's degree" takes usually about four years to obtain. For example: "He got his bachelor's degree in 2015." |
| Next is "master's degree." "Master's degree." Okay. So, we have "degree" here as well in this word. A "master's degree" is the degree that comes after a bachelor's degree. So, if you finish your four years of education at university and you decide to continue your studies more, you can obtain a "master's degree." So, depending on the university, depending on the college, it might take two or three more years to get your "master's degree." So, a "master's degree" shows a high level of mastery of the subject. For example, "When are you going to finish your master's degree?" So, this means when are you going to conclude your next level after your bachelor's degree. Okay, great. |
| That brings us to the end of 10 phrases for talking about your education. What did you think? You can let us know in the comments, and let us know what other education-related expressions you like to use. Thanks very much for watching this video, and I will see you again in the next one. Bye! |
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