Today, I want to teach you some advanced
vocabulary words related to politics. Hey everyone, my name is Wes.
This is Interactive English, which is all about helping you practice
and improve your English skills and today is a vocabulary lesson
about politics and I know
that some of you may be very excited about this because
you love talking about politics. Other people may be like, Oh no, I
don't like talking about politics, but still this is very important because
even if you don't like to to talk about politics, you are going to hear
other people talk about it. Maybe your friends or even
if you're listening to the
news or your where you may read about it. So this is very
important for your comprehension. I want to let you know that that these
words specifically refer to American politics. Now you may also be able to use them
when talking about other countries and their politics. It really just depends and you can also
use some of these words and phrases even when you're talking about
things outside of politics. The other thing that I want to warn you
about is that many of these words and phrases, uh, have a bit
of a negative connotation. When people think of government,
when they think about politics, many people have a negative view. Oftentimes they may view it as a necessary
evil and that's the first expression and phrase that I want to talk to you
about when talking about government. People may say that it's a necessary
evil and it kind of means exactly what it says. People don't like governments. Maybe they don't agree with everything. All of the laws that are
being passed and they, they might just describe it
in the extreme case as evil, but it's a necessary evil. It's important you must have it
because if you don't have government, then the alternative is much worse.
So people might describe it and say, you know, you know it's a necessary evil. You can also use this expression
to describe other things as well. If there is some situation could be
at work in a business environment, you don't like it, you don't
agree with it, but it's important. You must have it. You could
say, well it's a necessary evil. The next word is impeachment and this
word means a a serious charge against a public official for some
misconduct and that misconduct, it may be criminal, it may not be criminal and it could
just be some unethical behavior, something that's just wrong and others
within the government may try to impeach this public official and you can use it
as a verb to impeach someone or as the noun impeachment. And again it's a serious charge because
if someone is impeached then they may be removed from public office. So this is a word that that does apply
to American politics but it's also a word that may apply to other countries. Their political system
as well. Impeachment, it is a serious charge against the
public official for misconduct. Then we have quid pro quo and quid
pro quo means the that you are giving something in exchange for something else. And when I say something I'm talking
about something of value so it could be giving something in an exchange for
money perhaps in exchange for information there. There is some kind of transaction
there and it is a quid pro quo. We use this when when talking
about politicians in government, they do favors for businesses or other
individuals and they get something in return. We'd say that is
a quid pro quo. Again, this is another expression that
you can use outside of politics. If you're talking about something
in exchange for something else. Let me give you an example, okay? I am willing to teach you some
more advanced vocabulary words, but you need to do
something for me. All right? This is going to be a quid pro quo.
I want you to hit that like button. You do that for me and I will continue
teaching you some vocabulary words. It's a quid pro quo. Then I have a word that I think
many of you may already know, but when thinking about
politics and government, it is something that is so
important and that is compromise. And what it means is to work together
in order to reach an agreement. So for example, if somebody
has this position right here, this is what they want. The
other person has this position. You kind of need to work together and
you need to meet in the middle so that work can get done. People
need to compromise, politicians need to
compromise and unfortunately, especially in American politics, it seems like fewer and fewer politicians
are willing to compromise and work with other people. They just
say, Hey, this is what I want. If you don't give it to me, well then nothing will get done and this
is one example as to why people might refer to government as being a bit
evil because people don't compromise, they don't get things done, but still
it's a necessary evil and again, this is a word that you can use in so
many different situations at home or at work. If you have people who disagree
about some issue or some situation, then they need to compromise, they
need to reach some sort of agreement, then we have leak and often it's used
as a verb to leak something and that something is referring to secret
information and you make it known public. It's generally known among everyone. You are leaking this information.
It happens in politics, but it can also happen
perhaps in business. If a company has some secret information
they don't want the public to know about that information may
be leaked by somebody inside. Generally speaking, leaking
information may be criminal. It's not something that I think many
people want to happen because they want to believe that governments and
businesses are acting appropriately, but if somebody inside feels
that, okay, this is wrong, they may leak information. Another word which kind of relates to
that is that if they decide not to leak information because it's illegal, they may try to become a whistleblower. And that's the next word I want to talk
to you about because a whistleblower is a person that tries to expose a government
for some wrong doing and what they do is that they would tell a person in
authority that that something is happening and this is wrong and oftentimes it's
used in politics and it's talking about something in government that is wrong
and somebody becomes a whistleblower. And in this case there are channels
that you can use so that it is legal, that it is appropriate and
somebody becomes a whistleblower. The next word that I have for you
or or words, because it's a phrase, two words and that is big
brother and this is just a, an expression that's used to refer to a
government that has complete control and they limit people's freedom, even
their freedom of thought. And, and this expression comes from
George Orwell's amazing book, 1984 and it's talking about, you know, this government that just has complete
control over every aspect of a person's life. Nowadays, I think it's used a little more
informally when talking about a part of government and politics. Something that may be happening
that you don't think is right. You could refer to it and say,
ah, you know, big brother, big brother's watching
you. You gotta be careful. I think there was even a TV show out there
called big brother in which they just put these cameras up all over
a home and people live there. They had no privacy and it was like,
you know, big brother was watching. Then we have a verb which is to lobby, and this is a word that is very common
in American politics to lobby a public official, and when you lobby somebody, it means that you are trying to persuade
or influence this public official to take a particular action or maybe even
to change a law to lobby someone and you're doing it for pretty much your
own personal gain or or somebody else's interests. You may also hear this word used as a
noun when referring to a group of people like and they refer to it as a lobby or
as a person who does this for a living, and this is their job. They
may be called a lobbyist, so a lobbyist would lobby a politician
in order to influence them so that they do something that they want. They might change some law or they may
vote a certain way to lobby someone. This is something that I really
don't like about American politics. There is way too much lobbying going
on and people looking out for their own interests, companies, individuals
instead of the country as a whole. If you have a lot of money, if you are a company or
a very wealthy person, you can pay a lobbyist to represent
your interests and they would lobby the politicians to do what you want. And there's kind of that quid pro quo
because if the politician votes a certain way or tries to change a certain
law, then that that individual, that company will donate
to their campaign, they will try to help them get
reelected and donate to their campaign. Which in a way is a quid pro quo. And campaign is actually the next word
that I wanted to talk to you about it campaign is a group of people working
together to achieve a certain goal and usually that goal is to get
someone elected. So a politician, if they want to get elected,
they need a campaign, they need to get a group of people
working for them to to get donations to do advertising. And these
people work together. And that is a campaign, and this is a word that you will hear
often in American politics because all politicians, when they want to
get elected, they have a campaign. They have people working for them that
are trying to get them elected to office. We can also use it as a verb to
campaign and say that a politician, a public official is
campaigning. They're out there, they're traveling the country,
they're talking to people. They are campaigning because
they want to get elected. They want people to vote for them. Then we have the word pundant and
this is referring to a person. It is a person who knows a lot about
a particular topic and they're usually asked to give their opinions about
this topic. Mostly because they, they sound smart. They sound like they know what they're
talking about and you would say that that person is abundant. Often, I think you could refer to people in
the media who talk a lot about politics. People refer to them as political
pundits. They talk about politics, they share their opinions.
They are political pundits. Next is red tape and this refers to rules
or processes that seem unnecessary and just often caused delay. So if
you want to do something, uh, in the community, you may need
permission from the government. You may need to go talk to your local
politicians and they may tell you, well, you have to do this and this and
this and this, and you think, wow, there is a lot of red tape. There
are things that I have to do. It's completely unnecessary.
I don't why I'm doing it. And that is what you would call red tape. It's often used when talking
about government politics. When you want to do something, you
know, you'd say, well, I want to, I want to throw a parade, but there's
just, there's a lot of red tape. I want to open a business, but in order to do so that there's a lot
of red tape that I have to go through. Next is a word that is,
it is more informal, maybe even a little bit of
slang and that is shady. It is an adjective that you can use to
describe someone who is just dishonest and they do unethical things. Perhaps
illegal things. You could say, well you know this person is a bit shady. Politics and the U S you
know it can be a bit shady. Some politicians may be very shady so
when we describe somebody as shady, it's just somebody who is
dishonest and can't be trusted. We can use this not only when talking
about politics but other situations as well. Just people in our everyday lives. You could say that that somebody is
shady or maybe even somebody looks shady, they look like they
can't be trusted shady. Then we have cynic and this
is just describing a person. Somebody is a cynic and if a person is
a cynic it means that that they believe that other people are only looking out
for their own self interest and that that just the common good can not be done
that that things are not going to get better because most people involved or
just trying to get ahead and trying to work for themselves. You could say that that person is a cynic
and it's often used as an adjective as well to describe a person and say that
somebody is cynical and if somebody is cynical then then they believe that very
thing people are motivated by their own self interest. To be perfectly honest, I can be cynical when it comes to politics
and politicians because I might see the way that that somebody is voting or
what they're doing and I might think to myself, how, how can they
possibly be doing that? They're not looking out for
the interest of the country. They're looking out for their own self
interest and perhaps, I don't know, perhaps there's some quid pro quo
that they are getting something from a lobbyist. Somebody who's lobbying them to do
something that that's not in the best interest of a country and that
just goes back to, you know, thinking that you know, perhaps
government perhaps it is, it's a necessary evil and I'm trying to
use these words and phrases in just a regular context, but also to show
you that they are very common. We use them all the time.
Then we have a word, which is a very serious word, but it's used when talking about
politics and that is treason. And if we're talking about treason, we're, we're saying that somebody
is working with the enemy, with the enemies of a government to
try and often illegally overthrow the current government. And you
would say that somebody trees, and we use it with that verb to commit
treason. And if somebody commits treason, it is very serious. If that person could be
punished very severely, but it means they're just working with
an enemy government to undermine or overthrow the, the current government
to commit treason. So there you have it. These are some advanced words and phrases
that you can use the next time you want to talk about politics,
especially American politics. Or you may even hear this vocabulary. If you are listening to the news or
reading a newspaper about politics, I hope you enjoy this lesson and
learn something new. If you did, hit that like button
down below. As always, thanks so much for watching
and I'll see you next time.
