Hi everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them. Maybe! |
Let's get to your first question this week. |
First question this week comes from DJIBRIL... DJIBRIL, I'm sorry if I said your name incorrectly, I hope that's okay. |
DJIBRIL asks, being childish, what does it mean? |
For example, sorry, it was childish of me. |
Okay, so childish, yeah, so to act in a childish way or to be childish means to act similar to a child. |
So we use this ish, this I-S-H to mean something like the noun that comes before it. |
So in this case, childish means like a child or in the same manner as a child. |
So when someone tells you as an adult you're being childish or he's acting childish, it means that person is acting in the same manner as a child. |
The idea here is that that person is immature or they're doing something that seems like it's not appropriate for an adult to do. |
So for example, if you're at work and someone at your job starts having a temper tantrum, which means that they get really, really upset and they just start demanding things, they ask for things and they just want somebody to like help them or give them attention or whatever, you might describe that person as being childish. |
They cannot control their emotions or they're making requests that are unreasonable. |
So when we see somebody acting in a way that is not appropriate for their age, when they see somebody that is acting similar to the way a child acts, we can call them childish. |
So that's the key with the word childish. |
It's referring to someone that is acting in a manner similar to a child. |
Here are a couple more examples. |
My co-worker was acting so childish today. |
My roommates are so childish, they never clean up after themselves. |
Okay, so I hope that this helps you understand the word childish. |
Thanks very much for the question. |
Let's move on to your next question. |
Next question comes from Alhassan Colley. |
Hello Alhassan. |
Alhassan says, what is the difference between "questioning" and "interrogation?" |
Ooh, nice question. |
So let's take a look at these two as nouns, questioning as a noun and interrogation as a noun. So first let's look at questioning because I know that ing at the end there might seem kind of confusing. |
We can use question as a verb as well. |
Yes, but I want to focus on using questioning as a noun in this example situation. |
So questioning refers to asking someone a formal set of questions. |
Usually it's because there's some kind of problem, like some kind of legal trouble. |
Maybe there's been a police involved situation and someone needs to ask someone else some very formal questions. |
There's some kind of like system that they have for asking this person questions. |
This is called questioning. |
So for example, the police brought him in for questioning or questioning will begin tomorrow at noon. |
So in these example situations, there's a formal series of questions that someone is going to ask someone else about usually some kind of serious problem or serious situation. |
So for example, with the police, they might ask questions about a theft maybe, or maybe there was a fight and the police need to ask somebody about the details of the fight. |
When they do that, they refer to that as questioning. |
So as a noun, even with that ing form, this is how we use the word questioning. |
Let's compare this now to interrogation. |
So interrogation is very similar to questioning in that someone is asking someone else, like a system, a series of questions about some very serious event. |
However, interrogation usually sounds much more serious. |
It can also sound very, very aggressive too. |
And usually the results or the effects of that situation are more serious. |
So in the questioning examples that I gave earlier, it was like a police questioning or maybe a company questioning if there was some problem or some situation that required attention. |
So these situations are serious, yes, but generally when someone is asked about them, it's not like a life or death situation. It's not super serious, but it is important. |
Interrogation on the other hand, it sounds kind of like something that maybe top level lawyers are used to do or the results of it are extremely serious, like lots of money is involved or maybe politics is involved or maybe there are spies or something like that. |
So the problem with interrogation is it's very serious and sometimes very aggressive. |
Maybe you've seen an action movies too, that in interrogation situations, maybe there's some kind of torture or horrible things that happen to the person that is being asked all these questions. |
So the idea is that the person asking the questions wants to make the other person very, very uncomfortable by like hurting them or maybe saying awful things to them and so on. |
These can also be parts of the interrogation process. |
So again, you're asking a series of questions. |
Usually some kind of system or something like that is used to ask these questions from someone, but kind of the seriousness, the level of importance is quite different generally with questioning and with interrogation. |
So this is really the key difference between questioning and interrogation. |
Questioning is asking someone some questions about something that happened that is probably important and serious and interrogation, the level of seriousness is much higher and sometimes it can be more aggressive and just generally a lot more important than just questioning. |
So I hope that this helps you understand the differences between questioning and interrogation. |
Thanks very much for an interesting question. |
Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
Next question comes from Bhavna Singh. |
Hi Bhavna. |
Bhavna says, Hi Alisha. What is the meaning of big picture? |
Okay, nice question. |
Yeah, big picture. |
So of course, this expression does not simply mean a picture that is very big. |
We have the expression big picture in English. |
We use it in sentences like, look at the big picture or think about the big picture here. |
So what does this big picture mean? |
Big picture means look at the situation or think about the situation, not just in terms of the small details, but look at everything happening in this situation. |
So we use the expression big picture in this way. |
It might help you to understand this expression to think about maybe a big picture or a big painting. |
If we focus on one small part of the painting, maybe we can see brush strokes, we can see the parts where the artist changed colors, we can see maybe very small details of something. |
But if we focus only on one small part of the painting, we can only see that part, right? |
So when somebody says, look at the big picture or think about the big picture, it's saying, don't think so much about the details of something or don't look so much at the details. |
So kind of take a step back and think about everything in this situation. |
So when we say look at the big picture, it's like you're maybe focusing so much on the details. |
Just try to think about the whole situation. |
So for example, if you're looking for a new apartment maybe, and you're really, really focused on like the cabinets in the apartment or something, even though it's a beautiful place and you say, I love this place, but the cabinets are just not my style. |
Your friend might say, look at the big picture. |
This is a great apartment and you can always change the cabinets. |
No big deal. |
So this is kind of a silly example situation, but people might use the expression, look |
at the big picture or think about the big picture. |
If you're a little bit too focused on the details of something, or if they think it's good for you just to kind of take a step back and think about the whole situation. |
So I hope this helps you understand the expression big picture. |
Thanks very much for sending your question. |
And okay, that is everything that I have for this week. |
Thank you as always for sending your great questions. |
Thanks very much for watching this week's episode of Ask Alisha, and I will see you again next time. Bye! |
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