We live in a consumer society, in a quite lazy culture, where it is widely believed that one can get anything he paid for – just by paying for it. The provider of the „something“ is expected to give it to his customer, while he sits comfortably and enjoys his product. While such an approach may work in many cases, sadly, it fails when the „something“ is knowledge or skill. To learn a skill, one has to do what he tries to learn. Sure, a teacher can explain the thing ad nauseam, but the time must come when one must stand up, roll up his sleeves and start working. This blog is part of the series Thinking about stuff, which seeks to promote the more active participation of the reader. Today, it is a real treat. A video which is very funny, relatively easy to understand (B1, maybe) and also philosophical. A video which can teach you a lot of vocabulary, both very formal and casual. And all that in a couple of minutes. So, without further ado, let’s plunge right into it.
Imagine you have died and ended up in Hell. Why in Hell? Maybe you never did your homework when you were still alive, and now it’s time to pay the price. You are welcomed by the Devil himself. Before you click the link and play the video, I recommend you familiarize yourself with the following questions. You might even take a pen a piece of paper, or rather, open your favourite text processor and start making some notes. Especially regarding questions number 1, 3 and 5. When you are done, or more likely, after you disregarded my recommendation completely, you can proceed to the video itself. Have fun.
- What do you expect the Devil to be like? Does Toby match your expectations?
- How is Toby being sarcastic when talking about Eternity?
- Toby splits the sinners into groups. How would you go about it?
- How does he actually do it?
- Much of the terminology he uses is either archaic or religious – or both. Explain the difference between the following words: Looters and P
illagers , Fornicators and Adulterers - Why does he put certain two nationalities together (and why does the audience find it highly amusing?)
- Toby suggests that one group of sinners should feel particularly silly. Which one and why?
- There is a certain facility that Hell lacks. Which one and why?
After you have finished listening, caught your breath again and wiped the tears of laughter off your face, feel free to start answering the questions and perhaps replaying parts of the video. When you are done, you can compare your answers with mine. Some of them may not be the same and still be correct. If you have your own teacher, you can discuss your answers with him. I am sure he will be absolutely thrilled. I would be. I encourage my own students to be doers rather than mere consumers.
After you have checked your answers, feel free to make your own list of words you would like to learn from this video. There may even be expressions which are not directly used, but which are relevant to the topic. When I did this very same exercise at one of my classes, the students came up with „The Seven Deadly Sins“ and we learned words
Possible answers
1. The Devil is portraying himself as a kind, polite, reasonable and casual guy. Whether he really is like that is to be doubted, however, as he sometimes asks his „guests“ to stop screaming, lines them up for a particularly unpleasant treatment or forces them to make groups that won’t probably get along very well.
2. The simplistic definition of Eternity as „forever“ makes it impossible for the sinners to get to know each other by the end, as there is NO end to forever. The more philosophical approach to the problem of Eternity is that it is entirely TIMELESS, it is above and beyond time itself, so it does exactly last a long time, because, there is NO time. Either way, there can be no end to it, because that word itself implies there was a beginning, and both words relate to time. In either case, the sinners would find it impossible to get to know each other well „by the end.“
3. Well, it’s up to anybody’s imagination and preferences, what I find particularly educational, however, is to confront the sinners with the consequences of their actions as if they were on the receiving end of such actions. Such a procedure might not even have to take Eternity, I consider it quite a waste of time – or timelessness, whichever way you look at it.
4. Toby divides the sinners into the following groups: Murderers, Looters, Pillagers, Thieves, Fornicators, Adulterers, Lawyers, French, Germans, Atheists and Christians.
5. A looter is a kind of thief who takes advantage of a natural or socio-political disaster and burgles the houses whose inhabitants have fled or been evacuated. A pillager is hardly any better, but he tends to be a member of an invading army who simply takes from the city whatever he likes after the defenders were vanquished. From a strictly legalistic point of view, looters are occasionally shot on sight by the law enforcers, while pillagers act in accordance with the normal procedures of military conflict. I seriously doubt, however, that the victims really appreciate the difference.
Fornicators, as I understand the term, are people who indulge themselves too much in unlawful sexual relationships, not necessarily with somebody else’s wives and husbands, but certainly not exclusively with their own wives and husbands. The contemporary point of view on this issue is that it is nobody’s bloody business who people choose to have fun with, as long as it is based on mutual consent and takes into consideration the appropriate age-related restrictions. It was not always the case, and there are places in the world even today where it is still not the case.
An adulterer is a subcategory of the more general term of a fornicator. An adulterer maintains a sexual relationship with married women – none of whom is his lawful wife. The female version is an adulteress. The fact that the male adulterers in the video get send to the „small guillotine“ while their female counterparts are not further mentioned only indicates that there is as little justice and equality in Hell as there was on Earth.
6. French and Germans. It is no surprise that the English audience finds it highly amusing, given the historical rivalry between the English and French, which dates as far back as the Norman invasion of 1066, perhaps even further. It has certainly continued through centuries, let’s just remember two particularly nasty conflicts: the Hundred Year’s War and Napoleonic Wars. The French have perhaps just as
7. Those who should feel like a bunch of nitwits are of course the atheists, who had spent their lives believing in reason and logic, not knowing that the religious superstition would bite them in the butt as soon as they kick the bucket.
8. And, of course, there are no toilets in Hell. As Toby explains it, taking The Holy Bible as his witness, Hell is damnation without relief. Though I am fairly certain the authors of the Bible meant „relief from the torment“ rather than simply not allowing the sinners to take a leak, either way, it seems fairly unpleasant and indeed not very enjoyable, as Toby himself sincerely acknowledges.
If you enjoyed this activity and you´d like to improve your already great English even further, you might consider enrolling into my online course.