BBC 6分钟英语学习 幸灾乐祸有好处吗？

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BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Neil. This is the program where in just 6 min we discuss an interesting topic and teach them related English vocabulary.

And joining me to do this is Rob.

Hello. In this program, we're discussing Shardon Freider a Hold on meal.

Shardon Freider, that's a German

word. Shardon Freuder is what we call a lone word, a word from one language that is used in another language without being changed.

So you're right, chardon Freider is used in English, and am I right in thinking it describes the satisfying feeling you get when something bad happens to someone else?

You're absolutely right. Rob Imagine you're in a queue at the supermarket and someone pushes in, but when they got to pay, their credit card doesn't work.

Think of the feeling you might get just seeing their misfortune.

Another word for bad luck. Yes, that is a very satisfying feeling, but it's quite a mean feeling too, it is.

But will be discussing why that feeling could actually be good for us.

But 1st, let's set a question for you, rob and our listeners at home to answer.

This is about false cognets, also called false friends, words that look the same in two languages but have different meanings.

So in English, we have the word rat, but what does that mean?

In German? Is it A-A big mouse, B annoyed or C?

Advice? That's tricky because I don't speak German, so I'll guess and say, be annoyed.

Well, I'll have the answer later on.

Now, let's talk more about Sheldon Freider Enjoying someone's misfortune can certainly make us feel good, and studies have shown this feeling is quite normal, particularly when it happens to someone we envy.

If we see a wealthy celebrity suffering on a reality TV show, or are exposed for not paying their taxes, we feel good.

We say they've had their come up.

And that's a good word, meaning a person's bad luck that is considered to be deserved punishment for something bad that they've done.

Let's hear from psychologist Wilco Vandyke from the University of Liden, who's been talking about this on the BBC radio program all in the mind.

What have his studies found about our enjoyment of others misfortune?

People especially feel shaun farther when they think the misfortune is deserved.

Then the question is where this joy arises?

Is this actually joy experience towards the misfortunes of others?

Or is it also, at least partly joy about a just situation?

Is that this misfortune of another actually appeals to a sense of justice?

That's also the reason why we like the misfortunes of hypocrites, because if they fall down, that also is a deserved situation.

OK? So Wilco van dike's studies found we get joy when someone's misfortune is deserved.

There is justice. In other words, the punishment someone receives is fair, and a just situation means a fair situation.

It's right. So I guess he's saying we're not just being mean.

Yes? And he also mentioned the type of people whose misfortune is just and deserved are hypocrites, people who claim to have certain moral beliefs, but actually behave in a way that shows they are not sincere.

The All in the Mind program also heard from another expert on the subject, author and historian of emotions, doctor Tiffany watt Smith.

She talks about how Sharden Froider is a subjective thing based on our feelings, and it is not as simple as deciding what is right or wrong.

What word does she use? That means to express sympathy to someone about someone's bad luck?

We don't really experience emotions either, or things.

You know, it's not black or white.

I think it's perfectly reasonable that we could genuinely commiserate with someone else's misfortune at the same time as a terrible, sly smile spreading across our lips.

Because, you know, something that we've envied about them has turned out to not work out so well, or, whatever it is, you know, we have a much deeper ability to hold contradictory emotions in mind, much more so than your average moral philosophy.

For good, allow interesting stuff, she says.

When something goes wrong for someone, we have the ability to commiserate with them.

That's the word for expressing sympathy to someone about their bad luck.

So overall, tiffany Wattsmith thinks we have a range of emotions when we experience Sharden Froider, but these are contradictory emotions, different and opposite emotions.

Maybe, neil, we should just be nicer people.

No way. I love seeing Germany getting knocked out of last year's World Cup.

Not really talking of Germany earlier, we mentioned false friends, and I asked, in English, we have the word rat, but what does that mean in German?

Is it A-A big mouse? B annoyed?

C Advice And Rob, you said, I said, be annoyed.

And that is the wrong answer, I'm afraid.

The right answer is see advice.

Well done if you knew that at home.

Now onto the vocabulary we looked at in this program.

So today we've been talking about Shardon Freider that describes the satisfying feeling you get when something bad happens to someone else.

And that's an example of a loan word word from one language that is used in another language without being changed.

In this case, german, we mentioned come up and which describes a person's

misfortune that is considered to be deserved punishment for something bad that they've done.

Next, we mention justice. That's the punishment someone receives that is fair for what they've done, and the word just describes something that is fair and right.

Hypocrites are people who claim to have certain moral beliefs but actually behave in a way that shows their not sincere.

And finally, commiserate, as a word that means expressing sympathy to someone about their bad luck.

That's the verb. The noun form is commiseration.

Well, commiserations, neil. We run out of time for this program.

See you soon. Goodbye. Goodbye.

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