You know the world of English is a fun and exciting place to be. I'm so glad you could join me for another lesson.
Uh!! Nurse! Hi everybody, this is Misterduncan in England. How are you today? Are you OK? I hope so! Are you happy? I hope so! In this lesson we will take a look at one thing everyone has in common. Something we all do very often. In today's lesson we will look at Making Mistakes.
Hello? No. I'm terribly sorry, you've got the wrong number. That's quite alright. Bye-bye! A mistake is something you did that was not supposed to happen. It was unintentional or wrong. Mistakes can be small or large. A simple mistake may cause no problem at all while a big mistake can cause a terrible disaster!
There are many words connected to making a mistake. Such as… Accident, Blunder, Boob, Bungle, Clanger, Cock-up, Error, Faux-par, Gaffe, Mess, Mishap and Slip-up.
The word Faux-par means to say something you should not have. Maybe you accidentally gave away another persons secret. The actual word comes from the French language and literally means… False-Step.
There are many reasons why a mistake can happen. Perhaps you are feeling tired or sick and cannot concentrate on what you are doing. Maybe you have no experience or knowledge of the task that you are carrying out. Maybe it is almost time to go home after a hard day at work, so you will be in a rush or hurry to finish what you are doing, or even worse, you simply don't want to do the job at all.
It would be true to say that no one wants to make a mistake. But sometimes we may carry out a task without concentrating or being careful. We do something badly, without trying. If someone finds out that you have done this they may be very angry and say…
"Oh look what you have done; you have made a real bodge job of that!"
"Oh you have made a real mess there!"
"What is that supposed to be? do it again!"
The result of a mistake can be called… The effect, The outcome, The result, The consequence, The upshot.
If we make a wrong choice or a bad decision in our life, then we may also look at this as a mistake.
"Oh I wish I hadn't got married so young… What a mistake that was!"
"Why did I smoke for twenty years?… It was a foolish mistake."
"Oh… it was so wrong of me to steal that money… What a stupid mistake I made."
"I should have accepted that job offer. I have really blown it now!".
Do you sometimes make a mistake? What was the worst mistake you ever made? What was the consequence?
When we discover that someone has made a mistake, we have two choices of how to react. We can forgive them and allow the mistake to be forgotten or we may choose not to forgive them and never forget their error. This particular action depends on what the mistake was and how serious the consequence will be.
There are many ways of forgiving someone… We can excuse them for their mistake. We can absolve them. We can let them off. We can pardon them. We can choose to forgive and forget. If we do not forgive them, then we… Hold it against them. We do not let it lie (Rest). We choose not to forgive and forget. We blame them. We condemn them.
They say that the best way to learn is by making mistakes. In fact as we go through life, some of our most important lessons come from the terrible mistakes that we have made. So in a way, getting something wrong and making mistakes is a natural part of living. There is a well known English proverb that goes… "To err is human, to forgive is divine." This means that it is easy to forgive our own mistakes, but not so easy to forgive other people for theirs.
Before I finish my lesson today I would like to say a special HELLO to my new friends watching in… Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Spain, Sudan, Taiwan and Vietnam. And a special… "Hi!" to the boys and girls at Youtube, both here in the UK and over the pond in California. Until the next time we meet inside this little square box. This is Misterduncan in England saying I hope that I did not make too many mistake today and Ta-ta for now!