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Lesson Transcript –
Hello thanks for clicking, my name is Emmelda. Let me tell you something that happened to me some time ago. I was flying to some place and I think a passenger got very irritated, he had some complaint and he was trying to tell his complaint to the steward and the steward’s reaction was, yes sir I’m sorry I understand. Yes sir I understand I know how it feels and suddenly the passenger snapped, no you don’t understand how it feels like. He was loud that everybody turned and looked at him. Point to note is, what do you think that aggravated his feeling? What do you think that added fuel to his already ignited brain? The word understand. You know if you keep repeating the same word, I understand, I understand to someone who is already very depressed or who is trying to make a point, repeating the same word actually makes you feel that you are insincere, you’re don’t really what you are actually saying. So one of the ways to make your interaction or your acceptance more applicable or more welcomed is to use better words and many word for the same situation. Okay so if you have a friend who is crying or sobbing or if you have a friend who is trying to tell you something, just don’t keep using the word, I understand, yes I understand. Don’t do that, it becomes very repetitive. so what are we going to learn today are few words or phrases that will help you replace the word understand and make you sound better.
Okay so let’s get started with the first word of the day, appreciate. Now a lot of people would be thinking, appreciate, appreciate is a compliment. No appreciate is not a compliment. The full and the right meaning of appreciate is to understand one full word. Okay so that means you understand the situation or the person or his actions completely. A lot of people use the word appreciate for compliments. Yes we appreciate your gesture of you coming to our apartment and helping us clean the house. Appreciate that means, actually what he means is, I understand that you’ve taken a lot of effort to come over to my house and I understand what it means for me, I understand or I appreciate your gesture.
Let’s move on to the next thing or the next word, got that. Got is past of get. I get that or I got that. Okay you have to understand this that a lot of words is you know they don’t really make sense in English. You know English is very damn confusing. But the only way or better way to understand or to learn such phrases is, when you find a reason or logic behind those words. So the logic of got that or get that is, you can take the piece of information or knowledge as something like a ball, something that you can see and hold. So if someone throws things at you and you catch it right? So you say, ya I got it. So that’s how you’re supposed to treat information or anything that someone is talking to you. So maybe I’m throwing this pen or marker to you and you catch it. So you say, ya I got it. so this time I’m gonna say something, I’m gonna say some information to you or I’m gonna throw an information to you and you’re gonna catch it. So that’s how you use the word, I got it. So next time, when somebody is saying something to you and you’re trying to say, yes I understand what you’re trying to say, you can be a little casual by saying. Yes I get it or I got it the first time itself. So I get it, I got that. You can replace it with it or that. I get it or I got that.
The next word I have for you is, aware of, what is aware? That means knowledge. When you say, I am aware of what you’re talking about, that means I understand what you’re talking about and I know how it feels or what you mean, okay. So I’m aware of is more advanced. It is very formal, okay. I’m aware of is formal, whereas got that is informal. Okay so, if you’re speaking in office or something and instead of just saying, yes I understand, I understand. No Mr. Smith I’m aware of the situation and I will be able to help you if you allow me to. That’s how you use the word, I’m aware of in a very formal framework, okay.
The next word I have for you is, realize, what is realize? Realize is again saying I’m aware of and when you understand. That means an event is happening or somebody is saying something very important to you and you’re trying to calculate. Okay this is happening, that is happening, so you’re trying to get, to understand what exactly is happening around you or happening in a particular place. The sense is called realization. Okay that’s a noun but when you use it as a verb, you say realize. One thing to note, that se is pronounced as ze. I realize, it’s not realise, it’s I realize. The pronunciation is ze. It’s a better way of saying, I understand how you’re going through or I realize it is quite difficult for you at the moment. I realize that you’re not in a very good position to talk to me. Instead of saying, I understand that you’re not in a very god position to talk to me, okay. So realize is a more sophisticated word and very similar to I am aware of.
Moving on to, another one is, I’m able to grasp. Remember when I said, let me throw a marker at you and you get it. The other word for that verb or the activity is, grasp. That means you absorb things in. so it goes very well when somebody is giving you information. Why? Because you can treat yourself as a sponge or something which has cushion which has lot of holes. You see how sponge when you put into water, it absorbs a lot of water and becomes fluffy. That is similar to grasping. That means to treat yourself as a sponge and when the information comes in, you’re able to grasp every bit of it. You can also use the word or the phrase, I’m able to grasp, even for a situation. Let’s say a situation is very tense, maybe you’re watching a football match. Okay and the match is getting very tense, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. But for someone who’s coming may be from a class or from a lecture and he just barges into your room, he may or may not be able to grasp your tension or grasp what is happening around you. Okay so that means he does not understand the seriousness of the situation, that is I am able to grasp. That’s how you use he is able to grasp, I am able to grasp. So a better word to say, I understand.
Moving on, to the next one I have for you is, catch up on that. Again it is informal. We usually use this when you have missed information or something is happening and you don’t know. Maybe you were outside while an event was happening inside the room. You don’t know what has exactly happened. So when you come back to the situation, you say let me catch up on that. That means let me understand what exactly happened. Let me catch up on that. You need to catch up on that.
Okay the next one I have for you is figure out. What is a figure? Figure means diagram. You usually need to draw something, so when you use the word figure out for information that means you visualize you make pictures of all the information given to you and you try to make a diagram of it. So that’s when you say I figure out what you’re trying to say.
The next one I have for you is infer. Infer is a very sophisticated word for I understand or interpret. That means may be you’ll read information which is very tough, the language is very tough but you need to make sense out of it, you say I infer, she infers or we can infer, this probably is talking about some previous mistakes or some previous activity. So you can use the word infer and interpret, it’s a very sophisticated word.
Last I have for you is, know. Remember the first instance I said, the steward said, yes I understand, I know, I understand, I know. Yes know and understand is same but if you are in a situation where you are trying to console someone, please avoid using the word, know as much as possible because it is too simple and people will just snap back at you.
So folks that’s all that we have for today. These are the words that you can use in case if you want to say, I understand to someone else. I hope you got my lesson correct this time. Okay so I’ll be back with another one, hope to see you soon, bye.