Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to "Ask Alisha," the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them, maybe. Okay. Let's get to your first question this week.
First question this week comes from Jayakrishna. Hi, Jayakrishna. Jayakrishna says, "In school, we call teachers other names like 'madam' or 'miss.' What is the difference between 'teacher,' 'miss,' 'madam' and other words?" Yeah, it's a good question. In American English, in schools in the U.S. that are high school and below, So, like junior high school or elementary school, we do not call our teachers "teacher." We don't use that title for our teachers. We use "Mr." for male teachers, or we use "Ms." and last name and "Mrs." and last name for female teachers. The difference between "Ms." and "Madam" and "Mrs." is usually related to whether or not the woman is married. So, if a woman is not married, usually, we use "Ms." or if you're not sure, we use "Ms." If the woman is married, we use "Mrs."
"Madam," however, is something that we don't really use in settings like these. We use "madam" in service situations, usually. So, we use this, particularly, in like luxurious settings. So, imagine going to like a really expensive hotel and you meet staff at the hotel. They address you, if you're a woman or you're a female companion, with "madam." So, that's like a high kind of respect term. So, it's kind of an old-fashioned term as well. We don't use it so much in everyday speech in the U.S., "Madam," but you might hear it in kind of like these luxurious expensive situations.
Another situation where you might hear "madam" used in U.S. English is in situations relating to official positions like in the government. So, there's a position, for example, where a woman holding the position might be called "madam," job title. So, for example, "Madam Secretary." There is a government position called Secretary of State. And if a woman holds that job, we might call her "Madam Secretary" when referring to her official duties. So, that's a very specific case where we would use "madam" in relationship to someone's job. But, generally, when we're talking to somebody in other fields of work, we do not use this title.
If you are going to school in the U.S. and you're going to high school or below, just use "Mr." or "Ms." or "Mrs." plus the last name for your teacher. If, however, you're going to college or university in the States, you should use "Professor" if your instructor is a professor, or "Dr." if your instructor has achieved that level of education, if they have their PhD. Many professors or instructors prefer to be called "Dr." So, you should use that title. Of course, some professors also like to keep things casual and they say, "Please use just my first name," or "Please use my last name," whatever. So, pay attention to how your instructor prefers to be called and just use that. Okay. Thanks very much for the question. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Françoise Luzy. Hi, Françoise. Françoise says, "Hi, Alisha. Thanks a lot for your videos. Could you please explain the difference between 'remember,' 'remind,' and 'recall?' from a French follower." Sure. So, "remember" and "recall" have the same meaning. They both refer to thinking of something, being able to think of something that happened in the past. So, that could be a conversation, it could be a person, a place, whatever. So, "remember" and "recall" both have that meaning, to be able to think of that. The difference between them though is that "recall" sounds much more formal, much more polite. We don't use "recall" so much in everyday conversation. In everyday conversation, we use "remember."
Some examples, "I can't remember that phone number." "Do you recall the name of that restaurant?" "I can't believe you remembered my birthday." So, "recall" and "remember" do have the same meaning, yes, but in everyday life, we use "remember" much more often. So, please try to use "remember." If you want to sound more polite, choose "recall." "Remind," however, is a bit different from "recall" and "remember." "To remind" means to cause someone to remember. So, you give someone information like to refresh their memory. They know about something and you want to tell them again. So, to cause them to remember some information. For example, "Can you remind me about tomorrow's lunch meeting?" "You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago." "Did someone remind you it was my birthday?" Okay. So, I hope that this helps you understand the differences between "recall," "remind," and "remember." Thanks very much for the question. Okay. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Win Min Swe. Hi, Win Min Swe. Win Min Swe says, "Hello, Alisha. What is the difference between 'trust' and 'believe?'" Okay. "Trust" means to be able to rely on something. We feel confident about our understanding of something or someone. So, we can trust a person, or we can trust a situation, or we can trust an object. So, "to trust" means you're able to rely on that thing. For example, "It's important to work with people you trust." "This computer crashes a lot. I don't trust it."
"To believe," however, refers to having faith in something, like you are confident that something is true. So, we use "believe" a lot when talking about religion or when listening to people's stories, like, when we believe a story, we are confident the story is true. When we don't believe a story, we are not confident the story is true.
So, you may here "believe" used in the common expression, "I can't believe it," which we use a lot when we feel shocked or surprised. So, depending on the speaker's intonation, this can mean they actually do believe it, but they're very surprised, or they really don't believe it. So, let's hear a couple of examples. "I believe hard work is important for success." "I got a huge promotion. I can't believe it." So, in the second example there, that kind of excited voice shows that the speaker is really surprised and really excited. And even though they say, "I can't believe it," they're just kind of expressing shock. So, it's a true situation, yes, that condition is true, but they want to express their shock in an excited way. So, I hope that this helps you understand the differences between "trust" and "believe." Thanks very much for the question. Okay. Let's move on to your next question.
Next question comes from Majd. Hi, Majd. Majd says, "Can I say I don't give a damn in an English lesson?" I would not say this, no. This sounds very aggressive and rather rude. So, if you want to communicate that you don't have a strong opinion about something or that someone else can make the choice, I would recommend something like, "I don't have a preference," or, "It doesn't matter to me." Something like that sounds a lot lighter and a lot more friendly. If you say, "I don't give a damn," you're probably going to make people upset. They'll probably think that you're being very rude. Similarly, please be careful with the expression "I don't care." So, if you say, "I don't care," a lot of people feel that it sounds kind of rude again. So, slightly rude, not as rude as "I don't give a damn." But "I don't care" can also sound a little too rough. So, instead, please use an expression like, "I don't have a preference," or maybe, "Whatever you think is fine." So, please try to be polite in your English lessons. Although the expression you used is grammatically correct and it communicates an idea effectively, you will probably upset someone in your class. So, I hope that this helps you. Thanks very much for the question. Okay. Let's go on to your next question.
Next question comes from João Paulo. Hi, João Paulo. João Paulo says, "Alisha, you know the video about American convenience stores? Can you explore something similar to the way Risa did on the Japanese channel?" Yes. We have started making videos about culture in the U.S. So, this video about the U.S. convenience stores is now available on the English Class 101 channel. I'll put it behind me on the green screen here. Yay. Okay, great. So, we didn't explore it. I personally did not explore the channel, but we're trying to think of some other similar things that we could maybe do. So, check this out if you haven't seen it already, and also check out the second video in the series about supermarkets in the U.S., and we'll have some more stuff coming out there soon as well. So, we're kind of exploring some culture topics. If you are interested, please check those out. Thanks for this idea. We can consider it, but we'll try to see how we can work things out. So, thanks very much for this idea. Much appreciated.
Okay. That is everything that I have for this week. Thank you as always for sending your questions. Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of "Ask Alisha" and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye.

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