Hello guys, welcome to the lesson and what is this? So this is called a globe as you
would know. And how many colours do you see on the globe? Of course you could see many
colours here. But which is the most prominent colour on this globe? And that is blue. Why
is that so? Because our earth is covered 71% by water. So in that case we know the names
for different water bodies, shouldn’t we? Well that’s the topic of this lesson. We
are learning the names of different water bodies and we are finding out what they are.
But that’s not all, we are also learning how to use those names in English for our
everyday conversation. So my name is Michelle and I’m really happy to have you with me,
stay tuned, I promise you loads of fun.
Right, so here we are and we are going to look at some common names for water bodies,
okay? And if you don’t know their geographical meaning, then don’t worry, I’m here to
help you. Now the first thing I want you to remember is, this is pronounced as geographical
or you say geography for the subject, you don’t say geography or geography, you say
geography. Alright so with that we start the lesson. Have you read this word in your geography
books? So ‘oasis’, while you were maybe in grade six or seven or maybe in grade four
for that matter, you might have come across this word ‘oasis’. So in geography ‘oasis’
is a small area of water in a huge desert, alright? It is usually a pond or a lake, alright,
and around the pond or the lake you find a lot vegetation, which is quite natural because
whenever we have water, we have trees and plants growing and where there are trees and
plants, there are animals also. So one isolated area in the desert, where you find water and
you do not find anywhere else except in the ‘oasis’. Alright so this is an isolated
area of water in the desert. So this is the geographical meaning, but how can we use ‘oasis’
in English? So ‘oasis’ in English means a peaceful and a calm area in the midst of
a lot of chaos. So if you see that there is a lot of chaos around you and you find this
really peaceful area, you can call it ‘oasis’, okay? So if you go to a place which is really
chaotic and there’s this office, okay? And it’s very peaceful, you could say, “Her
office was an ‘oasis’ of peace and the sanity in the midst of the chaos.” So oasis
means an area of peace in the midst of lot of disorder, noise and chaos. So ‘oasis’
is an area of peace. Now do you know that ‘oasis’ were one of the most important
modes of transportation back in historical days, well if you don’t know, now you know
that. Okay, now we look at the next name that we have and this is the ‘coast’. So all
these nouns, right? Nouns because they are names of water bodies. Now what is a ‘coast’?
So ‘coast’ is the area of land where the land meets the sea, okay? So this tis the
land, and here is the sea and this area is called the ‘coast’ because here the land
is meeting the sea and it’s a beautiful place. It’s also called a beach and we all
love being on the beach or we all love being on the ‘coast’. Now how can you use ‘coast’
in English? That’s the challenge. So coast means to succeed through something without
any struggle. So when you pass something without making any effort. So it often happens you
know that the younger kids, I mean your younger siblings, they don’t have to work very hard
in school, right? Because they get all your notes. So it happens with me, my younger sister
coasted through school with top grades while I was struggling. So here coasted means that
she passed through school without any struggle. So in English it means, to pass through without
struggle. Do you even know where do you get all your chocolates from? It comes from Ivory
Coast in Africa. Yes that’s the place where 31% of world’s chocolate is made because
that’s where you get your cocoa beans from. Which is basic ingredient to make chocolate.
So you know it now, Ivory Coast. Okay, now we look at the third word that we have for
the day and that is an ‘island’. So you must have heard about this name earlier, so
‘island’ is an area of land okay, in the midst of sea. It’s a small area of land
in the middle of the sea and it’s not connected to any continent, it’s not connected to
any other part of the land. It’s just there in the middle of the sea. And it’s very
beautiful to be on the ‘island’, trust me. So an area of land
in the middle of the sea. Do you know one out of six people on the earth, live on an
‘island’? I wish I was one of them. But sadly I’m not and if you are one of them
watching the video on an ‘island’, then do leave it to me in the comments, exactly
where are you watching from. Okay so now we can use this name in English as well, alright?
So just like ‘oasis’, ‘island’ also means a place of peace or place which is very
calm in the midst of a lot of chaos. And from this meaning we have a word, called, actually
it’s a combination of words called, a Traffic Island. Okay, now what is a traffic island?
So do you see that the roads they are almost intersecting and there’s a lot of traffic
on the roads most of the times and there are people who want to cross the road by walking
on it, right? But how do they do that? Where do they wait until the traffic passes by?
So for this purpose in many countries, there are traffic islands okay, which look something
like this, in the middle of you know, the roads, they are right there in the middle
of the roads. It’s a high platform where people can stand and wait until the traffic
has passed, alright? So this is traffic island for you and next time when you are struggling
to cross the road, you know where to wait. You must wait at the traffic island. Great
now with that we look at the next word that we have, so ‘bay’. ‘Bay’ is again
a water body. Now ‘bay’ is, alright I’ll draw it for you, when we have land, curving
in the water, okay? So this is water, and we have land which is curving in the water,
so the land is actually going inside the water, the coast is going inside the water and it
is covering it by three sides alright? So the water is covered by three sides, on three
sides by water. Water is covered on three sides by land, this what a ‘bay’ is. And
the world’s most beautiful ‘bay’ is Wineglass Bay, you can see it for yourself.
A Wineglass Bay looks like a Wine Glass, it looks as if you see the bird eye view, you’ll
feel that it’s a wine glass. Alright so that’s what a ‘bay’ is, but how can
we use it in English? Right so in English, ‘bay’ means a marked space. A space where
a specific activity is done. So you could say that the truck pulled in the loading bay,
which means the area where the truck would be loaded with material and stuff that it
is supposed to carry. So ‘bay’ is a marked space for a particular activity. Now we also
have an idiom, which is, ‘to keep someone at bay’. Now to keep someone at bay is,
to keep them at a distance from yourself, right so if you want to keep someone at a
distance, this means that you wanna keep them at bay, which is at distance. The next word
that we have with us is a ‘gulf’. So a ‘gulf’ is a larger bay. It’s nothing
very challenging or very difficult to understand, geographically it is a large bay. So ‘gulf’
is a large bay nothing very difficult to understand. But we can use ‘gulf’ in English to talk
about a large distance or a large gap between opinions and thoughts. So you could say that
the rich and the poor people in the society have a great ‘gulf’ in their ideas, which
means a great gap, alright? So ‘gulf’ means a big gap or a great gap. We also have
an idiom related to it, which is, ‘bridge the gulf’. So bridge the gulf means to finish
that gap between two communities or two, you know, parties. So you could say that the peace
plan can bridge the gulf between two countries, which means it can bridge the gap between
two countries. Now we look at the next one, so ‘spring’ is actually in geography it’s
like, water coming out of rocks, okay? Water from rocks. Sometimes this ‘spring’ can
be really hot so be careful with hot springs. In English of course you know that ‘spring’
is a season as a noun, right? Between winters and summers when there beautiful flowers that
are growing. But we can use spring to talk about someone suddenly appearing in the scene,
so like you are walking or you are in your room and you see that someone just entered
in the room and you see them sitting right opposite to you and you were possible reading
a book, so didn’t pay attention, you are like, ‘where did you come from?’ ‘Where
did you spring from, I didn’t see you’, which means that, where did you come from,
I didn’t see you. Okay, and we also have ‘spring’ in the step, which means that
a person who is very excited or very happy will have a spring in his step. Okay, now
we look at the next word which is ‘delta’. So ‘delta’ is this, in geography also,
this is the shape that this river forms when it meets the sea. So when the river is meeting
the sea, it forms a ‘delta’, which is this triangular shape. And in English it’s
not very hard to understand because ‘delta’ is the fourth letter of the Greek Alphabets.
Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, right? Okay, I hope I was correct on that. Alright, the next
one that we have is a ‘watershed’. Now this is a very important word in English and
you will hear it very often, so geographically it means that a lot of water is entering into
the sea from a high area of ground into the river. So water from ground, high area of
ground into the river. But in English, ‘watershed’ means an important period or our life, like
the turning point. So ‘watershed’ means the turning point. So a point where you possibly
marry someone or you change your career, so you could say that, 2011 was the watershed
year in her life because she changed her career and she remarried. Okay so this is how you
use this word. Now we have the last two words from geography and first one is the ‘channel’.
So you know what a ‘channel’ is, like a river ‘channel’. So any area of a river
that can allow ships to pass through. So when a ship can pass through any area of river,
that’s called a water ‘channel’. But in English, we use channel to communicate
with someone, so ‘channel’ can be used to communicate. So if you want to use it,
it can be used very formally by saying that, complaints should be made through the correct
channel, which means the correct route or the correct way to communicate. So ‘channel’
actually means route. So in English it means a route to communicate. Right, now the last
one that we have for the day is an ‘iceberg’. So ‘iceberg’ is actually a part of the
glacier, okay? That is floating in the water which is like a formation of ice which is
floating in the sea. Now you know what an ‘iceberg’ is, what you see on the top
is very little but what you see under the ‘iceberg’, what you can’t see is really
huge. The same way in English we can use this to ‘tip of the iceberg’. Tip of the iceberg.
So as you know that the internet is so vast and what you find on the search engines, it’s
just the tip of the iceberg. When you actually research, you find so much detailed information
on the internet. Great, so with this we come to an end of today’s lesson and I’ll come
back to you with more geographical terms that you can use. Thank you so much, I hope you
had loads of fun, bye-bye.