Is there such a thing as a Stupid Question?
Transcription
You are listening to English Made Simple, Episode 33, Numero 33.
Hey everyone, hope you are well! How’s your week going so far? Welcome to this episode of English Made Simple, my name is Milena. I wanted to ask you a question, is there such a thing as a Stupid Question? In English there is a saying: There are no Stupid questions, only Stupid Answers.
I like that saying, because I am full of stupid questions haha
Well, in this episode of Short and Sweet, I want to tell you that it is Ok to ask any type of question no matter how big or small, how simple or complex it may sound. I also want to share an experience that I recently had with my friend who asked me a question that I thought was a bit silly.
Silly is another word for ridiculous.
So let me repeat again, you should never be afraid to ask questions, no matter how simple or complicated they may sound to you. After all, you must ask questions in order to learn something new, for that reason don’t be scared to ask any question. Right. Now….
I had to remember this when my friend asked me a question that I thought was a bit ridiculous…. but I can’t say that the question was ridiculous, because I also ask silly questions. So, we just need to be more understanding in situations like these, we have to remember that we shouldn’t expect everyone to know everything!
Let me tell you a true story, it goes like this: The other day, a friend asked me, hey Milena you were in South America last year, is that right? I said. Yes, that’s right. What country were you in? He asked me. I said, I was in Chile.
Oh that’s where the Olympic Games were. Uhm….No. the Olympic Games were in Rio. Rio, where is that? he said. I said in it’s in Brazil. The next question, where is Brazil?
Let me paint you a picture guys, my friend is not a young boy, my friend is an adult, and he is about 40 years old. He is asking me these questions. I assume everyone knows where Brazil is, right?
So I was thinking of different ways of replying to this question. I could be a smartass. A smartass is someone who makes a sarcastic comment with an intention of teasing the other person. OR I could help my friend even though I am not a Geography teacher. My knowledge of geography is close to zero.
And also, how do you answer this question with a straight face? How do you not laugh at this question…be nice Milena, just be nice.
Anyway, so I just smile and say, well Matthew, let’s look at Google maps, I will show you where Brazil is on the map here, hmm? See this huge land mass, see this huge, enormous area right here in the South America….yes that’s Brazil.
It’s fair enough, poor guy he didn’t know, he doesn’t travel a lot.
You see, it’s OK to ask any type of questions.
If I asked my friend a question about Australian cities, I would also sound ignorant. I don’t want to say stupid, I just say ignorant, just sounds nicer.
Before I moved to Australia I always thought the capital city of Australia was Sydney. But it is not Sydney!!! Let me ask you this question then: Do you know what the capital city of Australia is? I’ll give you 3 seconds to answer this question, you won’t have time to google it!!! Time is up. The capital city is Canberra. I have been to Canberra, it’s a bit boring….actually really boring. It’s a small city, It’s beautiful but nothing much happening there, no pasa nada.
So that was a little trivia question for you. Maybe you learned something new today! I hope so!
That’s it for now folks. Check out the transcriptions on www.www.englishmadesimple.net.
Today, we learnt that it is OK to ask questions, don’t be afraid to ask silly questions, no matter how ridiculous they may be. As the English saying goes, There are No Stupid Questions, Only Stupid Answers. I love this saying.
Thank you guys for joining me!
Muchachos, que la Fuerza te acompañe! Let the Force be with you! Hasta la proxima!