Global Problems - People Involved in Disasters

This week in Perfect English with Danny Podcast, we will be talking about global problems. We will talk about natural disasters, the verbs we use with natural disasters, the people involved in disasters and finally the top ten global problems. 

We talked about natural disasters in episode 136 and episode 137. In this episode, we will talk about people involved in disasters.

Table of Contents

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• Episode 138 – Global Problems – People Involved in Disasters
• Episode 138 Transcript
• Episode 138 Keyword Translations into 62 Languages

Episode 138 – Global Problems – People Involved in Disasters

Episode 138 Transcript

Danny:

Hello and welcome to another episode from Perfect Englishwith Danny. Today we will continue talking about our theme for this week,global problems. We have talked so far about natural disasters. We talked aboutthe words: famine, landslide, drought, epidemic, explosion, hurricane, earthquake,flood, volcano, avalanche and many other words related to these disasters. Ifyou didn’t have the chance to listen to these two episodes, they’re episodes136 and 137, so check them out if you like.

In this episode, we will focus on the people involved indisasters or tragedies.  

But before we start, let me remind you that in order to makethings more understandable, we will translate the keywords into as manylanguages as possible in the show and in the link you will find in thedescription of the episode, you can find the translations into 62 languages andtoday’s episode transcript. There are also the interactive and downloadableactivities at the end of the week. These are very useful to retain the new wordsyou learn and add them to your active vocabulary bank.

So, without further ado, let’s get cracking.

Hi Ben,  are we readyto talk about people involved in disasters or tragedies?

Ben:

Yes, but first, I think we should talk quickly about some verbswe use with disasters. I have here some headlines about some disasters wherethey used these verbs. I think our listeners need to know about them. How aboutI read the headlines and you explain the verbs?

Danny:

Sounds like a good idea.

Ben:

All right. Here goes our first headline. “A volcano eruptedin Indonesia.”

Danny:

All right, so the verb here is erupt. We use this verbspecifically with volcanoes. When a volcano erupts, it throws out a lot of hot,melted rock called lava, as well as ash and steam.

Ben:

Can we use erupt in other contexts as well?

Danny:

Actually, we can. If violence or fighting erupts, itsuddenly begins or gets worse in an unexpected, violent way. And When people ina place suddenly become angry or violent, you can say that they erupt or thatthe place erupts. But as far as natural disasters are concerned, we mainly useerupt with volcanoes.

Ben:

Great! Now our second headline. “Hundreds are feared dead.”

Danny:

Well, the special verb we have here is fear. You see when wesay hundreds are feared dead, wounded or lost, the use of the verb fear is alittle bit different than usual. Usually, If you fear someone or something, youare frightened because you think that they will harm you. But in this context,it is a little different. If you fear something unpleasant or undesirable, youare worried that it might happen or might have happened, just like in this headline,“Hundreds are feared dead”. What we are trying to say here is that we are worriedthat this might have happened, and that hundreds of people may actually bedead. Let me just mention something important when we use expressions likethese. Whenever you want to talk about a fact you are 100% sure of, don’t useany of these expressions or modal verbs, such as may, might or could. When you knowsomething for a fact, just say what happened. For example, if the newspaper wassure that hundreds of people were dead, they would simply say. Hundreds aredead, not may be dead, could be dead or feared dead. You see, we use theseexpressions when we are not 100 percent sure of what happened. However, that isa big topic in English. I think we should dedicate a couple of episodes to coverit.

Ben:

I guess so. Maybe, we should include it in the weeks to come,but now let’s return to our headlines, and let’s make it quick because we stillneed to talk about the people involved in disasters.

Danny:

Yes, you’re right. I promise, I won’t get off the topic.What’s your next headline?

Ben:

“The flu epidemic spread rapidly throughout the country.”

Danny:

So, our verb here is spread, and it is used with epidemics. Ifsomething spreads or is spread by people, it gradually reaches or affects alarger and larger area or more and more people.

Ben:

That’s great! Now our next headline is, “Millions arestarving as a result of the famine.”

Danny:

Yeah, the verb is starve, and If people starve, they suffergreatly from lack of food which sometimes leads to their death. A tragic way todie, especially when you see the huge amount of food waste in richer countries.Anyway, our word is starve and that’s usually what happens to people when thereis a famine.

Ben:

OK, our next headline is, “A big earthquake shook the cityat noon today.”

Danny:

All right, the verb here is shook, which is the past form ofshake. This verb is usually used with the word earthquake, but of course it canbe used in different contexts with many different meanings, but in our contexthere, if a force shakes something, or if something shakes, it moves from sideto side or up and down with quick, small, but sometimes violent movements, justlike what happens in an earthquake.

Ben:

All right, our next headlines is, “This area is sufferingits worst drought for many years.”

Danny:

Well, the verb here is suffer. We usually suffer bad, harmfulor painful things or conditions. Just like this area that is suffering a drought.We usually use suffer with an illness or a bad condition; in our case here, it isa drought.

Ben:

OK, I have two more headings. “Civil war has broken out inthe north of the country.”

Danny:

Well, our verb here is break out, which is a phrasal verb.We use break out with wars, fighting or even diseases if we want to say thatsomething begins suddenly. In our example, civil war suddenly began in thenorth of the country.

Ben:

All right, now for our last headline, “A tornado sweptthrough the islands yesterday.”

Danny:

We use the verb sweep with storms in general, in our case,it is a tornado, but you can use sweep with a hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone. Ifwind, a stormy sea, or another strong force sweeps someone or something, itmoves them quickly. Of course, in the case of severe storms, that meansdevastation and destruction.

Ben:

All right. So, we are done with the verbs we can use withdisasters. Now let’s move on to talk about people involved in disasters. I havesome headlines about that, too. Would you like us to continue doing this for peopleinvolved in disasters?

Danny:

Yeah, sure. It’s a good idea to look at words in context andfigure out what these words means. Fire away.

Ben:

OK. “The explosion resulted in 300 casualties.”

Danny:

All right, so our first keyword today is casualty, C A S U AL T Y. Well, A casualty is a person who is injured or killed in a war or in anaccident. We usually use the word in plural, we say casualties, but sometimesit can be used in singular if we are talking about only one casualty. Nowtalking about this, I remember a very insightful quote by Aeschylus, “The firstcasualty of war is truth.” Which is, unfortunately, so true.

Ben:

“The first casualty of war is truth.” Wow, that is so true.So, our word is casualty:

French: accidenté

Spanish: víctima

Italian: morto

German: Verunglückter

Portuguese: vítima de acidente

Arabic: ضحية

Danny:

Now before we move on to the next word, I have to say that theword victim is also used in a very similar fashion to talk about someone whohas been hurt or killed. We usually use casualty in a general way, just likethe headline you mentioned, “The explosion resulted in 300 casualties.” We don’tusually use the word victims in this context, although it has the same meaning.We use it in more specific sentences when we are not only counting casualties.For example, the real victims of civil war are children left without parents.

Ben:

We use victim instead of casualty when we talk about a crime.For example, we say he or she was the victim of a hideous murder. We don’tusually use casualty in this context.

Danny:

Yeah, that’s right. And we say for example, victims ofracial prejudice. We don’t say casualties because we are not talking aboutinjured or dead people. We are talking about emotionally hurt people.

Ben:

Well, this kind of damage is way stronger than physicaldamage.

Danny:

I agree, but people think you get hurt only when they seeblood .

Ben:

That’s right, so let’s move on to our next keyword. “Therewere only three survivors. All the other passengers were reported dead.”

Danny:

All right. Survivor, S U R V I V O R. A survivor of adisaster, accident, or illness is someone who continues to live afterwards inspite of coming close to death. Like the survivors of a plane crash, but we canuse survivor in a different meaning as well. A survivor of a very unpleasantexperience is a person who has had such an experience, and who is stillaffected by it. For example, ‘This book is written with survivors of childsexual abuse in mind.’ This one is no less tragic than a plane crash. Actually,it’s much worse.

Ben:

So our word is survivor:

French: survivant

Spanish: superviviente

Italian: sopravvissuto

German: Überlebender

Portuguese: sobrevivente

Arabic: ناج

Danny:

Perfect. Now what’s next?

Ben:

“Thousands of refugees have crossed the border looking forfood and shelter.”

Danny:

So, our keyword is refugee R E F U G E E. Refugees arepeople who have been forced to leave their homes or their country, eitherbecause there is a war there or because of their political or religiousbeliefs.

Ben:

And refugee is:

French: réfugié

Spanish: refugiado

Italian: rifugiato

German: Flüchtling

Portuguese: refugiado

Arabic: لاجئ

Now we have our lastheadline for today, “Millions of migrants enter the country every year, lookingfor a better life.”

Danny:

So, our keyword is migrant M I G R A N T. A migrant is aperson who moves from one place to another, or from one country to another, especiallyin order to find work. He or she usually does that because of the low standardsof living in their own countries, so they migrate in search for a better life.So, it is not like refugees who are forced to leave their countries usuallybecause of war, migrants kind of voluntarily leave their country.  

Ben:

But sometimes, I feel that migrants are as forced to leavetheir countries as refugees.

Danny:

You have a point here, it is difficult to endure injusticeand corruption in your own country, so that can force you to leave, but as aword, migrant is done voluntarily.

Ben:

Yeah sure, so our word is migrant:

French: immigré

Spanish: emigrante

Italian: emigrante

German: Migrant

Portuguese: emigrante

Arabic: مهاجر

Danny:

All right. I think we have covered a lot of ground today.

Ben:

Yes, we did. We talked about the verbs that collocate withdisasters and the people involved in disasters or tragedies.

Danny:

Thank you very much, Ben for helping me out today. Rememberthat you can practice these words by the end of the week with our interactiveand downloadable activities that will be available at the end of the week andwill include all the keywords we talk about during the week.

Also, do not forget that we will include the translations ofthe keywords we talked about today in 62 languages you will find along with thetranscript of this episode if you click the link you can find in thedescription of the episode.

This is Danny and Ben saying thank you very much forlistening to another episode from Perfect English with Danny. We will see youin the next episode.

Episode 138 Keyword Translations into 62 Languages

English	casualty	survivor	refugee	migrant
French	victime	survivant	réfugié	migrateur
Italian	vittima	sopravvissuto	profugo	migrante
Spanish	víctima	superviviente	refugiado	inmigrante
German	Opfer	Überlebende	Flüchtling	Wanderarbeiter
Portuguese	acidente	sobrevivente	refugiado	migrante
Chinese	受害者	幸存者	难民	农民
Japanese	死傷者	生存者	難民	移民
Korean	사상자 수	살아남은 사람	피난 자	이주자
Arabic	مصاب	ناجي	لاجئ	المهاجر
Afrikaans	ongevalle	oorlewende	vlugteling	migrerende
albanian	fatkeqësi	i mbijetuar	refugjat	shtegtar
Azerbaijani	bədbəxt hadisə	survivor	qaçqın	köçəri
Basque	ezbeharraren	bizirik	errefuxiatu	etorkina
Bengali	দুর্ঘটনা	জীবিত	উদ্বাস্তু	অভিবাসী
Belarusian	няшчасны выпадак	ацалелы	бежанец	мігрант
Bulgarian	жертва	оцелял	бежанец	миграционен
Catalan	víctima	supervivent	refugiat	emigrant
Croatian	žrtva	preživio	izbjeglica	putnik
Czech	oběť	Pozůstalý	uprchlík	přistěhovalec
Danish	tilskadekomne	overlevende	flygtning	vandrende
Dutch	ongeval	overlevende	vluchteling	migrant
Esperanto	viktimo	postvivanto	rifuĝintoj	migrantaj
Estonian	avarii	ellujäänu	pagulane	migrant
Filipino	nasawi	nakaligtas	takas	mandarayuhan
Finnish	uhri	selviytyjä	pakolainen	siirtolainen
Galician	accidente	sobrevivente	refuxiado	migrante
Georgian	მსხვერპლი	გადარჩენილი	ლტოლვილთა	მიგრანტების
Greek	ατύχημα	επιζών	πρόσφυγας	μετανάστης
Gujarati	અકસ્માત	સર્વાઈવર	શરણાર્થી	સ્થળાંતર
Haitian Creole	aksidan	sivivan	refijye	migran
Hebrew	ההרוג	שורד	פליטים	זר
Hindi	दुर्घटना	उत्तरजीवी	शरणार्थी	प्रवासी
Hungarian	sérült	túlélő	menekült	vándorló
Icelandic	slys	Survivor	flóttamaður	farfugl
Indonesian	korban kecelakaan	selamat	pengungsi	migran
Irish	taisme	mharthanóir	dídeanaí	imirceacha
Kannada	ಅಪಘಾತ	ಬದುಕುಳಿದ	ನಿರಾಶ್ರಿತರ	ವಲಸೆ
Latin	casus comparant	superstes,	fugit	ADVENUS
Latvian	kritušais	apgādnieka	bēglis	pārceļotājs
Lithuanian	auka	išgyvenęs	pabėgėlis	migrantas
Macedonian	жртва	преживеан	бегалци	мигранти
Malay	mangsa	yang masih hidup	pelarian	asing
Maltese	diżgrazzja	superstiti	refuġjat	migranti
Norwegian	havari	overlevende	flyktning	migrant
Persian	سانحه، کشته	بازمانده	مهاجر	مهاجر
Polish	wypadek	niedobitek	uchodźca	emigrant
Romanian	victimă	supravieţuitor	refugiat	migrator
Russian	несчастный случай	уцелевший	беженец	мигрант
Serbian	жртва	преживели	избеглица	који се сели
Slovak	obeť	pozostalý	utečenec	prisťahovalec
Slovenian	žrtev	preživeli	begunec	migrant
Swahili	majeruhi	survivor	wakimbizi	wahamiaji
Swedish	skadade	efterlevande	flykting	migrerande
Tamil	விபத்துக்	உயிர் பிழைத்தவர்	அகதி	புலம் பெயர்ந்த
Telugu	ప్రమాద	ప్రాణాలతో	శరణార్థ	వలస
Thai	อุบัติเหตุ	ผู้รอดชีวิต	ผู้ลี้ภัย	ผู้อพยพ
Turkish	kaza	hayatta kalan	mülteci	göçmen
Ukranian	нещасний випадок	вцілілий	біженець	мігрант
Urdu	گرے	زندہ بچنے والے	پناہ گزین	مہاجر
Vietnamese	tai nạn	người sống sót	người tị nạn	nhập cư
Welsh	anafedig	goroeswr	ffoaduriaid	mudol
Yiddish	קאַסואַלטי	איבערלעבער	פּאָליט	נאַווענאַדניק