You know the world of English is a fun and exciting place to be. I'm so glad you could join us for another lesson.
Hi everybody, this is Misterduncan in England. How are you today? Are you OK? I hope so! Are you happy? "Tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet". I hope so! In this lesson we will look at the many words and situations connected to the power of influence.
The general definition of the word 'influence' means to have the power or ability to change or alter the opinion or character of another person through an action or from something that is said or has been written in a book. The effect of one persons influence on another can change the way they think or behave. Influence can have a deep effect or impact on you. It can change your life… forever.
The word 'influence' comes from the French language and literally means… Flow Into. However it was not used in common English until the late 16th Century, having evolved and transferred from the widely taught language of Latin. Hundreds of years ago, many people thought that the stars above us had the power to affect our lives and change our destiny. The word 'influence' was originally used to describe this effect. To this very day many people still follow their star-chart destiny, or as it is more commonly known… Astrology.
There are many words that can be connected to 'influence' such as…
Affect. You affect another persons way of thinking, or they affect yours.
Change. You change somebody's mind or they change your mind.
Control. You control a persons opinion or they are able to control yours.
Manipulate. You can manipulate what someone thinks, or they can manipulate your thoughts.
Persuade. You can persuade someone to think differently, or they can persuade you.
Shape. You can shape somebody's thoughts or ideas and they can shape yours.
Sway. You can sway a person and make them think differently or they can sway you.
Turn. You can turn somebody around and help him or her to think differently or they can turn you.
I know what you want, you want a nice juicy worm, don't you, yes you do. Influence can come from many places. More often that not, other people influence us, especially in our early life. Parents, teachers and friends within our peer group, all have the ability to influence our life and future during childhood. From my own experience, I would say the strongest influence on me as a child came from my English Teacher Mrs Ryder and my Art Teacher Mr Stephenson. They encouraged me to be myself, be confident and enjoy what I do. Yes they did… yes they did.
It would be true to say that influence can be used in a positive or negative way. We more commonly use the terms… Good influence and Bad influence to describe the way something can change our thoughts or behaviour. An example of good influence could be when you see someone dispose of or throw their litter or garbage into a proper receptacle or container, such as a litterbin or garbage can. That action has a good influence on other people.
An example of bad influence could be when you see a person driving a car too fast or dangerously in a movie or on TV. This could be encourage someone in reality to drive too fast and have an accident, or even worse, kill someone!
Influence can affect one person at a time or it can affect hundreds in one go. One of the biggest sources of influence these days comes from… Television. There can be no doubt that TV has become a very influential tool indeed. Once again this influence can be good or bad, depending on the situation.
Some people believe that TV is an evil device and is mostly used as a way of controlling our thoughts and opinions. While others see it as a useful way of giving out knowledge and encouraging people to learn new things and broaden their horizons.
One of the most common forms of influence comes through selling and advertising. Everywhere we look these days there is a company tempting us to buy a product be it on the Television or across a billboard in the street, or even on the Internet. Believe it or not, advertising influences us slightly less than it did in the past. Many years ago in cinemas during the first movie they would very quickly flash a picture of hot food and a cool drink onto the screen for a brief moment. Which would be just long enough for it to be seen by the Brain but the person watching would be completely unaware of it. During the break in the movie, many people would find themselves feeling both hungry and thirsty and would rush to the cinema shop to buy their refreshments. This type of selling was known as… Subliminal Advertising and has now been banned. You cannot do it anymore. It is… Forbidden.
There is another way in which the word 'influence' can be used. If you have been drinking alcohol or taking drugs then we say that anything you do during the time you are affected is done… under the influence. For example, he crashed his car while under the influence of alcohol.
It would seem that we tend mainly to concentrate on the bad side of influence. There appears to be a growing concern that our way of thinking is gradually being controlled by the people in power or more to the point our governments. But in all fairness, influence is where you find it. What may affect one person, could be completely ignored by someone else, so the power of influence is by no means an effective way of controlling everyone. There is a proverb in English that goes… "You can take a horse to the stream but you cannot make it drink the water." This means that even if you try to influence someone, they may take no notice of you at all.
Influence can come from anyone and anywhere. Who knows, maybe my lessons are influencing someone right now. Imagine if someone was making English teaching videos just like I am. That would be quite nice because after all Imitation is the highest form of praise and flattery. This is Misterduncan in England saying cheerio and I will see you all again soon. Ta-ta for now.