| 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 P. Kasi Viswanadham. I hope I said your name correctly. |
| P. Kasi says, please explain how to make poetry, Alisha. Very nice question. Okay, poetry. So we have a couple of different types of poetry that we can talk about. |
| The most basic form that we learn usually when we are very little kids in school is about creating lines of text, |
| creating sentences that have the same sound at the end. So this is called a rhyme in English. |
| So for example, words that rhyme in English would be, for example, something like bake and cake, right? |
| Or snake and make and take. All of these have the same ending sound, right? |
| The ending syllable has the same sound in all of these words. So we say these words rhyme. |
| So when we're very, very little kids, we learn to make very simple poems by creating short sentences that rhyme. |
| So that means the end of the sentence has the same sound as the end of the next sentence. |
| So here's a very, very basic example of what it sounds like when the ends of the sentences that we put in our poems rhyme. |
| So, I heard you like cake. How about we bake? What would you like to make? |
| So in these three lines, we have the ending sounds that all rhyme, right? We have cake and bake and make. |
| So this is the simplest form of a rhyme. We make short lines or short sentences that have the same sound at the end of them. |
| So this is, as I said, the simplest way to create a poem. So you can start here if you've never created a poem before. |
| But then, as you get more advanced and as you start reading more and more things, a lot of poets, so poet means person who writes poems, |
| a lot of poets go outside of this kind of general rhyming frame. |
| So we see this kind of rhyming style of song making and poem making in popular culture a lot today. |
| And that's very, very common and very, very popular. There's no problem with it. |
| But if you read poetry from English authors, you'll notice that there are a lot of different rules that they apply. |
| So the rules that more advanced poets and advanced authors use include considering the syllables, |
| which means the beats of the words that are used in the lines. |
| They have specific numbers of syllables that they use in lines, for example. |
| This is a different kind of poetry rule. |
| You might also read poets that use very, very strong imagery. |
| So they choose to talk about maybe topics like love or they talk about topics like war. |
| And they use very strong images of those things to talk about the very challenging experiences or the joyous experiences of life. |
| On the other hand, you might have poets that use very, very abstract imagery. |
| You might read something and you think, what is this person talking about? |
| And it's actually a poem about love. |
| So depending on the poet, depending on the writer, they may use very strong imagery. |
| Or when I said abstract, that means it's very hard to understand exactly what it's saying. |
| So these are kind of very different from the very basic rules that we use in a lot of popular media today. |
| But these are also very, very popular, especially among people who appreciate literature and poetry and writing. |
| So these, as I said, are more advanced ways of writing poems. |
| But generally, the topics that people cover are those specific life challenges or the specific kind of high and low points of life. |
| People talk about those and express themselves through their writing. |
| And so they choose different words and different rhythms and so on to express these things. |
| So in sum, if you want to get started with poetry and you're OK to just start with the super basics, which is great. |
| All kids in US schools, I think, start with making poems that rhyme. |
| You can start there. |
| And if you want to look at more advanced topics, you can try Google searching for a few very, very famous poets |
| and also search for analysis of those different poems that you find. |
| That will give you a really, really good idea of the different ways that people write poems and choose their vocabulary words, |
| what was happening in the world at the time and so on. |
| So this is a super quick introduction to poetry, but I hope that this answers your question. |
| And I hope that you enjoy creating poetry for yourself. |
| OK, thanks very much for sending this question along. |
| Let's move on to our next question. |
| Next question comes from Spring. |
| Hi, Spring. |
| Spring says, hi, I'm Spring from Vietnam. |
| Hello. |
| I would like to ask you a question. |
| Here's the context. |
| OK. |
| My friend and I went to the supermarket and forgot to take the key from our motorbike lock. |
| Luckily, it was still there after we were done shopping. |
| I told her we were lucky that no one stole the motorcycle. |
| She quickly replied to me that nobody came to take it. |
| But the supermarket doesn't have any barriers, so it would probably have been easy for the thief to do it. |
| In this case, is it grammatically correct for me to say, oh, you're so innocent? |
| Or should I say, oh, you are naive? |
| I think that maybe she doesn't have much experience in life and is not thinking this thing through. |
| I hope that you take a look at my question. |
| Thank you so much. |
| Yeah, really interesting question. |
| So the key question here is really what's the difference between innocent and naive, right? |
| So someone who is innocent is someone who doesn't have very much knowledge about the world, and it's not their fault. |
| We often say children are innocent. |
| They don't have life experience. |
| They don't know very much about the world, and they just are learning things as they go, right? |
| So someone who is innocent doesn't know those things, and that's OK. |
| But on the other hand, someone who is naive is someone who is probably old enough to have some |
| life experience, to know some things about the world, and to understand the ways that the world works. |
| So if I were you, if I were in this situation, it sounds like naive is maybe the better vocabulary choice. |
| However, using the word naive to describe somebody, especially to them directly, it can sound really |
| insulting because you're saying you're old enough to know better, right? |
| You're saying that, like, your life experience should have taught you this by now. |
| Why don't you know this? |
| So it can sound kind of insulting to call someone naive. |
| If I were in your situation and I wanted to express this, I might say something like, |
| you really want to see the good in people, right? |
| But there are so many thefts that happen here. |
| We really want to take care. |
| So that expression, I know that you really want to see the good in people, means that you try to |
| think about people in the best possible way, even if that's not always true, right? |
| So this is the difference between innocent and naive. |
| But just be careful. |
| If you call someone naive directly to their face, you might upset them. |
| OK, so let's take a look at just a couple more examples of the different ways that we can |
| use these words so that you get an idea of how they're actually used. |
| Let's start by talking about innocent. |
| So earlier, I mentioned that we often say that children are innocent, right? |
| They don't have a lot of life experience or world experience. |
| But we can also use this in situations where someone doesn't have the specific |
| kind of information required to make the right decision. |
| So let's say that there is somebody who works in a really big company. |
| And there are lots of different departments. |
| There's A and B and C and D. And there's a bunch of them. |
| So let's say that some guy who works in Department B has to work with someone from Department F. |
| OK, and they each have different rules in the places where they work. |
| So this guy, B, goes to F and says, hey, I need to file this report. |
| And F says, great, OK, please do that right away. |
| And so B does it. |
| And there's a mistake in it. |
| And F gets really, really angry. |
| And it's like, why is this not done correctly? |
| And F's co-workers might go, he's innocent. |
| B guy is innocent. |
| He doesn't know. |
| B has different rules for filing reports than we do in Department F. |
| So this is a situation in which just the type of knowledge is different. |
| In this situation, we might say, he's innocent. |
| Don't worry about it. |
| It's just a different policy or a different way of doing something. |
| So we can also use the word innocent to talk about situations in which someone's life knowledge |
| or just like their job knowledge as well doesn't quite match with the other person's. |
| And it's not anybody's fault. |
| It's not a problem. |
| But we just want to point out that's not something to get mad at that person about. |
| We just want to say, he's innocent. |
| It's OK. |
| He did it according to his rules, according to what he knows. |
| Let's fix the problem another way. |
| So we tend to use innocent more when we're talking about kids and very young people that |
| don't have a lot of life experience. |
| You may hear it in like a job situation like this. |
| Someone may use it from time to time. |
| But probably in the situation I described with all of the different departments, you |
| would probably hear somebody say like, oh, he just did it the way he knows how or something |
| like that. |
| But you may hear someone say, oh, he's innocent or she's innocent to mean that person has |
| nothing to do with the problem or they didn't do it on purpose or something like that. |
| So this is how we use innocent. |
| And we use naive as well, as I said before, to describe people who should be able to know |
| the way the world works or should have a little bit of knowledge or information but don't. |
| As I said before, we typically don't use this word when we're saying this to someone |
| directly. |
| We typically use it to talk about someone else like, there's a new hire at the company, |
| but she seems a little bit naive. |
| I noticed that she doesn't know this, this and this. |
| So you typically use it to talk about somebody else. |
| We typically don't say you're naive or I think you're really naive. |
| It sounds quite aggressive and quite direct. |
| Okay, great. |
| So those are the differences between the word innocent and naive. |
| I hope this long answer helped you understand the differences between them and also gave |
| you another expression that you can use when you're speaking directly to someone about |
| their life and world experience. |
| Thanks very much for sending this interesting situation and question along. |
| All right, let's move on to our next question. |
| Next question comes from Bruce. |
| Hi, Bruce. |
| Bruce says, which preposition is appropriate to use before a reservation? |
| For example, I made a reservation under Bruce's name. |
| Is it under or with or by? |
| Nice question. |
| Yeah, generally we say the reservation is under so and so's name. |
| So the reservation is under my name or the reservation is under his name. |
| The reservation is under my mom's name, whatever. |
| We usually use under to talk about the reservation name. |
| So when you arrive at the hotel, you arrive at the restaurant, you usually say, hello, |
| there's a reservation under Alicia. |
| Or you might also say, hello, there's a reservation for Alicia. |
| When we arrive there, when we talk about making the reservation, however, we use under. |
| So I would say, I made a reservation under my name or I made the reservation under Alicia. |
| We don't use with, we don't use by, we don't use for. |
| I'll come back to for in a second because we use for in a different way. |
| But let's talk about the other options that you presented. |
| With, in particular, I want to talk about. |
| If you use with to talk about a reservation, if you say something like, I made a reservation |
| with your name, it sounds suspicious. |
| It sounds like you created a reservation using my name. |
| And I might think, why? |
| Why did you make the reservation using my name? |
| Why didn't you use your name? |
| So generally, when you say, I made a reservation with his name or with your name or with that |
| name, it's going to sound a little bit suspicious. |
| And the reason for this is that the person making the reservation could use their name, |
| right? |
| So when you use with, it's going to sound a little bit suspicious. |
| So please keep in mind that using with tends to sound a little bit suspicious. |
| Even if, for example, your boss says to you, hey, can you please make a reservation at |
| this restaurant? |
| Please use my name. |
| When you get that permission from your boss to do that, and then you make the reservation, |
| it still sounds better to say under. |
| The reservation is under your name or I made the reservation under your name. |
| You don't really use with in this case as well. |
| It sounds most natural to use under to do that. |
| The next preposition you suggested was by. |
| We do not use by in any way in this kind of pattern. |
| So you don't have to worry about by. |
| The same thing goes for to. |
| We don't use to to talk about making a reservation. |
| I made a reservation to her or to me. |
| Nope, don't use it. |
| Don't worry about it. |
| But I want to talk about for. |
| We do sometimes use the word for when we want to talk about making a reservation, not for ourselves. |
| It's not my reservation. |
| In other words, when we want to make a reservation and the reservation is a different person's reservation. |
| Great! So I hope that this answered your question. |
| And please make sure to use under someone's name when you make a reservation from now on. |
| Thanks so much for sending your question along. |
| All right. That is everything that I have for this week. |
| Thank you, as always, for sending me your awesome 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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