节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-04-19
难易度:Medium
关键字:grammatical, immigrant, civilization, nowhere, Tagalog
Welcome back, everybody.
Long time no see.
You know, that's what the whales said to the men in the desert. Yes.
You know, I can't think of any other English phrase created by foreigners in
America that's grammatically incorrect and still as popular as this one.
OK. Now for a twist, let's look at an English phrase created by Americans in a
foreign country - The Boondocks - on line 16.
Where Did That Come From?
The Boondocks.
When you're out in the boondocks, or the boonies, you're far away from
civilization.
American soldiers made this phrase popular during the Vietnam War.
Boondock comes from the Tagalog word bundok, which means mountain.
In the Philippines, the mountains are in the middle of nowhere, far away from
the large cities on the coast.
The phrase first came into the English language around the turn of the 20th
century.
At that time, American soldiers began to serve in the Philippines.
By 1909 the word boondocks was already in the dictionary.
Long time no see.
Just kidding.
Well, next we have The Boondocks.
Kaylah, this is such an interesting word, the boondocks.
Actually, you know what, Kaylah, I grew up in the boondocks.
Wow! Brandon, that's interesting because I grew up in the boondocks too.
Really?
Yeah.
Well, what are the boondocks?
Well, let's find out together.
It says: When you're out in the boondocks, or the boonies, you're far away from
civilization.
So "boondocks" is the longer phrase for it, but we also call it the boonies.
That means you're far, far away from civilization.
That's right, "civilization" meaning you're far away from people, from towns.
Maybe if you live in the boondocks, you have trees around you, maybe some
animals, but not many people.
That's right.
Civilization refers to modern society.
There's lots of people.
There're stores.
There's houses.
There's cars.
There's lots of human things that we've created there.
And then if you're not near it, you're out in the boondocks, lots of fields, and
as you said, animals.
Yeah. But we learn more here where this phrase came from.
American soldiers made this phrase popular during the Vietnam War.
And so boondock actually comes from the Tagalog word bundok.
Oh, Tagalog.
Well, "Tagalog" is just a language that is... it's an Austronesian language that
is spoken in the Philippines.
So it's actually another example of an English word or phrase that we borrow
from another language.
That's exactly right.
And it actually means mountain.
So I think you get the idea here:
If you live out in the boonies, or the boondocks, well, you may live in the
mountains where there aren't many other people around.
There's not civilization.
There aren't any stores.
You're kind of out there all by yourself.
That's right.
This is from the Philippines.
So in the Philippines - this is where the term comes from - the mountains are in
the middle of nowhere, far away from the large cities on the coast.
So in the Philippines, the mountains are in the insides of the islands as
opposed to the outsides where the people mostly live.
So they're far away in the middle of nowhere.
I like that phrase, Kaylah, in the middle of nowhere.
I used to describe where I live that way.
I live in the middle of nowhere.
And of course, "nowhere" just means no place at all because no one knows where
it is.
And so you can just say if you live in the country or the boondocks, you can say
I live in the middle of nowhere.
Well, Brandon, of course you do live somewhere, it is a place that exists.
But we use the term "nowhere" to show that it's somewhere that doesn't feel very
important, maybe very, very far away.
Well, this phrase the boondocks, meaning in the middle of nowhere, first came
into the English language around the turn of the 20th century.
And we use this phrase "turn of" to describe the beginning of a new century - so
about around the beginning of the 20th century.
OK. So the "turn of" because we're going from 19th to the 20th century, it kind
of turns over.
That's right.
Well, at that time, American soldiers began to serve in the Philippines.
And so that's why it had... it has become popular in America because American
soldiers were there in the Philippines,
and then when they came back home to America, they were still using this word.
This word became so popular that by 1909 the word "boondocks" was already in the
dictionary.
Well, it's been around a long time then.
Since 1909 this word has been around, and people are still using it today.
Well, Brandon, it's interesting how fast that this... this term caught on
because if you think the turn of the century would be the beginning of the
1900s,
in only nine years later, it was already in an English dictionary.
That is very fast.
And it makes me think of words today.
A lot of words that are dealing with technology come about.
Many times, you know, there are new words created.
And they catch on very quickly because of the subject matter.
And so who knows?
Maybe there're some new words out there today.
And maybe in a few years, you can look back and say this year, this new word was
created.
Maybe you could even create a new word.
I don't know.
That's a good point.
That's something interesting about the English language is we're always adding
new words all the time.
I mean, even the Harry Potter books have added words to the English language.
The word "muggle" was not a word.
It was made up for those books but is actually in the dictionary now.
But I do have to say something we have to be very careful of here, Kaylah, is we
can't just go around creating words.
It has to be accepted by most people in society to use that language.
We can't just go around making up words and expect people to know what they
mean.
So be careful.
Especially if you're writing a formal paper, don't use a lot of informal words
and that sort of thing.
But sometimes these kinds of words that we're talking about today are just kind
of fun words that you may use in conversation.
That's right.
Do... do not be creating your words.
Maybe focus more on your vocabulary now so that you're... it's easy to
understand you and to understand other people.
But these fun words are great to use in casual conversation even though you
should not use them in formal writing.
So try them out with your friends.
Maybe after the show today, you can go and use some of these phrases or words
and see if your friends know what they mean.
If they don't, you can tell them the history behind them.
Well, right now it's time for us to go to the Chat Room.
Hey, Bryan, what are you doing with that map?
My cousin Jack invited me and my family to visit him this weekend.
I'm trying to figure out exactly where he lives.
Haven't you been to his house before?
I have, but it was a long time ago.
And his house is really hard to find.
It's out in the middle of nowhere.
Nowhere?
That sounds like a strange name for a town.
No, Ken. It's not a town.
When we say something is in the middle of nowhere, it means that there isn't
much around it.
It's in the countryside far away from any cities and often surrounded by nature.
So your cousin lives out in the sticks.
Why, Ken, I see you did remember that idiom from last month.
Another term that means a remote area is no man's land.
I think I saw that term in a book about World War I.
You might have.
It refers to the area between where two armies are standing druing a battle.
But it can also mean an area of land where people don't go much.
It sounds kind of frightening.
Yes. "No man's land" is probably the most negative of these phrases.
"Sticks" is also negative while "the middle of nowhere" is a bit more neutral.
But they all refer to an empty place where not many people live.
Well, good luck finding your cousin's house in the middle of nowhere.
Thanks. I think I'll need it.
(Chinese).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
And I guess that's all the time we have for today.
Take care and bye-bye.
Thank you, Michelle.
Friends, I've said this before.
If you don't use it, you'll lose it.
And to help you keep what you've learned, please log on to our website and
download our free Activity Sheet.
For this feature, you'll find a word game that challenges you to use the phrases
you've been learning in this lesson.
Again, you can find it at StudioClassroom.com.
Now please join us tomorrow as we tackle our last two phrases with interesting
origins.
Until then, I hope your Thursday is great.