Gourmet English: Intermediate Trick Two: Describing a statementfor ...

Gourmet English: Intermediate Trick Two: Be accurate!


The way human beings (and maybe animals too – who knows?) think it that we try things and then react. So when we, as children, touch, say, a hot frying pan and get burned, we learn not to do it again.
It works with people too. I have had, as a mature teacher, a terrible experience with an Indian colleague. By a flat lie, he got me into a lot of trouble which caused me a lot of grief. I lived with that for a year. Then, in a new job, guess what? A lovely Headmistress was replaced by – an Indian! He was even worse.
My reaction? I only knew these two Indians! So I came to the conclusion (never uttered even to nearest and dearest) that all Indians are rogues.
Now I have been to our Catholic Church and worshipped with several really nice Indian families from Kerala. I know now that the two dreadful colleagues were the exception.
But it doesn't alter the facts: we humans draw conclusions based on what happens to us. That is how it works.
The remedy? Looking at the whole picture and breaking it down.
An awful lot of racism (see above) is down to this. And it can be discussed calmly by looking at the whole picture. Black knife crime in Luton? Yup. President Obama of USA also. Martin Luther King also. Satchmo Armstrong also. My friend Philip and his family also.

An Example:

In the recent EU elections, the Green Party (EFA) increased its share of the vote. Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party in UK was thrilled. It proved that people were becoming more aware of the dangers of climate change. 69 seats in the European Parliament!

When we come to describe the different countries that make up the electors of the EU, though, we get a totally different picture!
EFA (Green) gains masked losses in Sweden, Spain and Austria, and its total loss of seats in Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Estonia leaves the EFA without representatives from 12 of the 28 member states of the EU. Far from reflecting voters concerns from ‘right across Europe’, then, the EFA’s truly remarkable successes in Germany (an increase of nine seats), France (an increase of six seats) and the UK (an increase of five seats), actually reflect a marked geographic split on climate issues within the EU. 

It seems environmentalism is just a north-west European preoccupation: not a Green landslide at all.

Another example:

All the Conservatives who are trying to become PM say that they want to get us out of the EU. They have seen the Brexit Party grow. But this table shows the MPs supporting them - and only two candidates are backed by Leavers: the others are backed mainly by Remainers. I wonder which candidate Brexiteers will support? I wonder which Remainers will support?
Once again, looking at the whole picture gives a different result.

But you don't have to stick to politics:

“Brie cheese originates from the Île-de-France region near Paris, home to, the two famous AOC protected Bries: Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun. The appellation is important because it is a guarantee that a Brie called de Meaux or de Melun is only made with unpasteurised milk.”
Well, we all knew that! Brie is French and limited entirely to France.
But by looking at world production – describing the entire production of Brie cheese – we find this: Danish Brie??? Indian Brie???

Assume: It makes an ASS of yoU and ME.