| 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 Gerardo Vega. Hi, Gerardo. |
| Gerardo says, Hi, Alisha. I'd like to know the difference between stare and look at. Thank you so much. |
| Okay, yeah, nice question. So let's break down the differences between stare and look. |
| Let's begin by reviewing the meaning of the verb to look. |
| So to look means to focus your eyes on something to direct your eyes onto something. |
| So for example, we could say, look at the camera or look over there or look at this picture, right? |
| It means move your eyes and use them to focus your attention or direct your eyes in this direction or that direction. |
| So to look is like the most basic way that we can talk about seeing something, right? |
| It's about directing the eyes in in some way. |
| On the other hand, to stare means to direct your eyes on something and not move. |
| So when we stare at something, we look at it for a very long time and with very strong focus. |
| We use the word to stare when we're talking about looking at other people a lot. |
| And this is often used to talk about uncomfortable situations. |
| So here's an example sentence, the staff stared at me while I ate my food in the restaurant. |
| So in this example sentence, the staff in the restaurant just watched me without doing anything else while I ate my food in the restaurant. |
| It's an uncomfortable situation, right? |
| So when we stare at another person, it means we look at them only at them for like a long time without stopping. |
| And when we say stare, it often has this feeling of like uncomfortable levels of focus or like the person is maybe doing something strange, |
| like the person that is being watched is doing something strange. |
| You might feel like you're doing something strange or it feels a little bit creepy somehow. |
| So when we stare at another person, we are watching them without looking at anything else, like the focus is just on them. |
| So we tend to use this verb a lot when we're talking about other people, |
| like he stared at her from across the room or something like that, or she stared at the man as he was walking down the street. |
| So when we stare, it's often like, you know, looking at someone very intently for a long period of time. |
| On the other hand, look just means to use your eyes to move around, kind of. |
| So if I said, for example, the staff looked at me when I received my order, it sounds totally normal, right? |
| Like you look at the person when you give them something, right? |
| In that sentence, it sounds totally normal, like a normal situation. |
| If I said the staff stared at me as I took my order and went to my seat, it sounds like it's a little bit uncomfortable. |
| So this is the difference between to look and to stare. |
| So I hope this helps you understand the differences between these two verbs. |
| Thanks very much for the question. |
| OK, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Tula. Hi, Tula. |
| Tula says, what's the meaning of he has big shoes to fill? |
| Nice question. So we can use the expression he has big shoes to fill or she has big shoes to fill or you have big shoes to fill, |
| usually in like work situations or perhaps in school situations. |
| So this is an expression that we use when one person is replacing another person. |
| So let's use an example situation. |
| Let's say person A has been working at a company for 10 years and they did a great job, but they've decided to change jobs. |
| OK, so the company has hired person B, a new person. |
| Person A was so good at their job. Many people really liked them. |
| And person B is going to take over that person's job, their responsibilities. |
| So the co-workers at the company or maybe the team members there might say to person B, person B, you have big shoes to fill. |
| This is saying you have a lot of responsibility now. |
| And it's like saying the person that came before you was a really great person. |
| They were really great at their job and they did such a good job that it's going to be very, very hard for someone to replace them. |
| The kind of thinking that might help you to remember this expression is to remember that if someone has a big shoe, |
| they have a big foot that goes inside it, right? If you have a big role or a big responsibility, |
| it takes a big person to do all of those kinds of things, right? To take care of all those things like to manage a team and so on. |
| So you can kind of imagine the role or the responsibility like the person's job in this situation as being like the big kind of shoe. |
| And the person that is in that shoe or in that job has to be a big enough person to take care of all of those things. |
| So that might be helpful for some of you to kind of remember that this is like a role and a person that needs to fill that role to do all the things in the role. |
| So when we say, wow, you have big shoes to fill, it means the person who came before you was really, |
| really great or lots of people loved that person. They did a great job and now it's up to you to try to get to the same level as that person. |
| So this is a very positive expression. We use it to mean person A was great and we really liked them. |
| We hope that you can do the same thing, but it's going to be a challenge. |
| So some people might like feel a little bit worried. If you're person B, you might feel a little bit worried like, |
| oh gosh, that person, person A, everybody loved person A. I don't know if I can do this, but they might be a very supportive team. |
| It might be a good situation. So it kind of depends on the situation a little bit. |
| Generally, if you are person A and someone says that about you, that means that people really appreciate you. |
| If you're person B and someone says that, it means they have really high hopes like expectations and the other person was really great. |
| So this is what the expression big shoes to fill means. I hope that that answers your question. |
| Thanks very much for sending it along. Okay, let's move on to your next question. |
| Next question comes from Paulo Nabais. Hi, Paulo. |
| Paulo asks, could you tell me the difference between we told him to wake up by 6am and we told him to wake up at 6am? |
| Thanks. Okay, so the difference here, the key difference here is by 6am and at 6am. |
| What is the difference? Let's start with at 6am. |
| So we told him to wake up at 6am means at exactly 6 o'clock and exactly 6 o'clock in the morning, 6am. |
| This person's alarm will go off and the person will wake up. That is at 6am. |
| However, if we say by 6am, it means 6am and any time before 6am. |
| So 5am is okay. 4am is okay. 530, 545. Any time before 6am is also okay. |
| No later than 6. So this is the difference between by and at when we're talking about time. |
| So we could say, you know, in other situations too, please call me back by 5pm means any time before 5 is okay. |
| Please call me back at 5pm means exactly 5pm. Please call me. |
| So do not call me at 4 or 4.30 or 3. Call me at exactly 5. |
| So this is the difference between at and by. It's a really good one to keep in mind. |
| So I hope that that helps and I hope that that answers your question. |
| Thanks so much for sending it along. |
| All right, 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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