Should you ignore “basic” English as too easy?

Transcript:

And we rewrote that conversation to be from the perspective of Simon, one of the regular characters from [inaudible 00:01:19], the company that we follow in the stories and the lessons that I create for extraordinary english speakers. And Simon walks into the place with his trousers to get them altered. But instead of just walking in and just saying, "I want these trousers altered," which would be a very simple, very direct way to express what he wants. He says, "I saw on the website that you do alterations. I wonder if it's possible to get these trousers altered." Why does he say I saw on the website or on your website that you do this? Surely it's obvious. It's a tailors. Of course, they do alterations.

Why would they not? That is the service that they provide. Well, he says this to leave room for the person he's talking to to say, "No, we don't do this." It's extremely unlikely, but it's not impossible. It could be that the website Simon saw is very, very out of date and they no longer do this. It could be that he's walked into the wrong place. It could be that the tailor is currently sick or quit and they don't have somebody on hand to do this work. It could be that the place is so swamped with work right now that they can't take any more. So by saying this, by saying that he got this information from a third party, not that he knows it, but he believes it to be true he leaves this room for the guy he's talking to, to say in a way that doesn't result in Simon losing face, we can't do this right now.

Again, it's a very small, very subtle difference. But the feeling that comes from this is extremely different. If Simon had just said, "You do trouser alterations." And the guy said, "No, we don't." That would have been a very direct contradiction, almost confrontational. But because Simon has said, "I believe this to be the case, because I saw it on the website." Now saying, "Sorry, we don't do this because that website is out of date. We don't have a tailor right now." It doesn't come across as confrontation [inaudible 00:03:26]. It's much softer, much subtler to be sure. But the point is, is understanding these deeper subtleties, the social dynamics of conversation are essential for true competence in English conversation. So don't shun the basics thinking you know them when actually you probably don't because you really need to get to grips with the deeper level that we use language on.

#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish

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This video leaves quite an impression on me I was impressed by how a seemingly mundane everyday speech can be enriched in its meaning in a negotiable manner just as seen in diplomatic affairs! But I guess the way you approach and interpret those daily discourses helps them turn into something worth dissecting