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Persistence VIP – Point of View

Hello, this is A. J. Welcome to the Point of View stories. Let’s get started.

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We’re going to play with a couple uses of the word would. There was a cat named Socrates. What would he do every day? Well, every day he would do lip pushups, and every day he would get a lip massage and every day he would rub coconut oil on his lips.

Did he used to rub coconut oil on his lips? Yeah, he did. He used to rub coconut oil on his lips. Does he rub coconut oil on his lips now? No, not any more. Why not? Because now he’s not training for kissing championships.

Did he used to do lip pushups every day? Yes, he would do lip pushups every day.

When would he do lip pushups? Well, he would do them in the morning usually and it was when he was training for kissing championships. That’s when he would do it.

Did he used to get lip massages every day? Yes, he used to get lip massages every day. He would get lip massages every day. Why would he get lip massages every day?

Well, he would get lip massages every day so that his lips would be nice and soft.

So, he got lip massages every day. He used to do that every day. He would do that every day. However, he doesn’t do it now. There’s no need now because he’s not training for kissing contests.

He went to the Regional Championship contest in North Dakota. Would he train every day for that event? Yes, he would. He would train every day before that event. Did he win that event? No, he didn’t. He didn’t win that event. He lost. Why did he lose?

Because he had fish breath. He lost because he had fish breath.

Then before the North Dakota event, would he brush his teeth every day? No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t brush his teeth every day. In fact, he wouldn’t brush his teeth at all and he used to eat fish almost every day back in those days.

So, he used to eat fish almost every day but he wouldn’t brush his teeth. That’s why he had fish breath and that’s why he lost the North Dakota event. Where did he go next?

Of course next he went to Florida. He entered the Florida event.

Would he brush his teeth all the time every day before the Florida event? Yes, he would.

He would brush his teeth every day. It was part of his daily routine. Does he still brush his teeth every day? Yes, thankfully he does. He still brushes his teeth every day.

He entered the Florida event and he didn’t get first place, but he got second place, so he could qualify for – he could enter the World Championship in Helsinki. So, next he went to Helsinki.

Before the Florida event, would he do lip yoga all the time every day? No, before the Florida event he wouldn’t do that. He didn’t, but before the Helsinki event he added it.

Before the Helsinki event, every day he would do lip yoga.

Of course he would also do lip pushups. He would also rub his lips with coconut oil. He would also get lip massages and then he added lip yoga. So, he would do lip yoga every day too at that time.

Did this help him win? Well, it helped him. He almost won but he tripped and he fell down and he knocked over the judge. Because of that, he did not win. However, later on he talked to the judge, a beautiful woman, and eventually they got married.

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Now let’s go to the next version. In the next version, we’re going to talk about possible futures. We’re going to talk about things that might have happened. Maybe these things could have happened but they didn’t.

Let’s go to the beginning. We know that Socrates the cat did not win the North Dakota event. If he had brushed his teeth every day before the event, would he have won that event in North Dakota? Would he have won if he had brushed his teeth every day? Well, maybe, it’s more possible.

Would he have won in North Dakota if he had brushed his teeth every day? Well, we don’t know for sure but maybe. It’s possible he would have won if he had brushed his teeth every day.

Did he actually brush his teeth every day before that event in North Dakota? No, actually he did not brush his teeth every, and so he lost that event. We also know that he went to Florida and we know that in Florida he got second place. We also know that he did brush his teeth before that event.

However, did he do lip yoga before the Florida event? No, he didn’t. He did not do lip yoga before the Florida event. He didn’t train with lip yoga before that event. If he had done lip yoga before the Florida event, would he have won the Florida event? I think probably. Probably he would have won the Florida event if he had also done lip yoga.

If he had also done lip yoga before the Florida event, probably he would have won.

Probably he would have won the Florida event. I think he would have won the Florida event if he had done lip yoga before the Florida event. Did he do lip yoga before the Florida event? No, he didn’t and so he got second place.

Finally he went to the World Championship in Helsinki, Finland and he had a great kiss because he did do lip yoga. He did all the other things also but he had an accident. He accidentally tripped and fell down and also knocked down the judge after his kiss, so he didn’t win.

If he had not done that, would he have won the World Championship? Yes, possibly, maybe even probably. I think probably he would have won. I think probably Socrates would have won the World Championship if he had not fallen. If he hadn’t fallen, he probably would have won the World Championship.

Probably he would have won the World Championship if he hadn’t – had not – fallen down, but of course he did fall down and so he didn’t win. But I think if he hadn’t fallen down, he would have won the World Championship.

However, if he hadn’t fallen, would he have met his future wife? I don’t know, maybe not. If he hadn’t fallen, then maybe she wouldn’t have talked to him afterwards. Maybe he wouldn’t have apologized to her again and maybe they wouldn’t have started to date, and then maybe they wouldn’t – would not – have gotten married.

Of course we don’t know for sure, but maybe they wouldn’t have gotten married if he hadn’t – had not – fallen down. So, maybe it was good that he fell down because they did get married.

That’s the end of version two of our Point of View story.

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We’ll talk about version three in a little more exciting way because when we use the present, it’s a little more emotional, a little more exciting and it feels like it’s happening now, so it’s kind of nice way to tell a story sometimes.

There is a cat named Socrates and he wants to win the World Kissing Championship, so he trains every. He does pushups every day. Not with his arms. He does pushups with his lips – lip pushups – and he gets a lip massage every day so that they’re nice and soft, and he rubs coconut oil – virgin coconut oil on his lips every day.

He trains and he trains and he trains, and he goes to the Regional Championship in North Dakota but he loses badly because he has fish breath. Lots of kitties have fish breath. Have you noticed this? Have you ever smelled a kitty’s breath? A lot of them have fish breath. I’ve done this. I’ve smelled kitties’ breath many times, and I’m telling you that lots of them have fish breath.

So, like many cats, Socrates has fish breath too. He has fish breath, so he decides to brush his teeth. He brushes his teeth every day and gets rid of the fish breath. Yay.

Then he goes to Florida to another Regional Championship contest, and in Florida he gets second place.

That’s good enough to qualify for – to enter – the World Championship, so he’s happy but he realizes that he needs to do more if he’s going to win, so he adds lip yoga to his exercise routine, to his training routine.

During the World Kissing Championship in Helsinki, Finland he has a great kiss with a woman. It’s fantastic. The crowd is cheering and everyone’s thinking he’s going to win, he’s going to win, he’s going to win. But just as he’s stepping back, he trips and he falls down and he knocks down the woman also – the judge.

Because of this, he loses the championship. He loses and he’s quite sad. He feels bad because he knocked down this poor woman, so afterwards he goes and he apologizes to her again. I’m so sorry I knocked you down. Please forgive me.

Because he’s so nice, the woman talks to him more and more. They talk and they talk and they talk all night long. They really have a great connection. They connect very well, so he stays in Finland and they start to date. They date for many months and then finally they get married. So, Socrates lost the Kissing Championship but he gained a new wife.

That is the end of our third version.

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In our three versions, we have some different points of view. When we say points of view, we mean we’re looking at the story from a different point in time. That’s what we’re usually doing. You can look at a point of view in different ways.

We can look at it through the eyes of different characters. For example, Socrates could tell the story himself through his own eyes.

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Hi, my name is Socrates. I want to win the World Kissing Championship, so I’m going to train every day. In fact, I am training every day right now. I’m doing pushups with my lips every day because I want strong lips, so every day I do pushups. I do pushups with my lips, and every day I rub my lips with coconut oil and every day I get a lip massages.

That’s one point of view. The time stays the same but we’re changing which character is telling the story. In these versions, usually I’m telling the story as if it’s me, A.J., and I’m watching it all because most of you already know how to say I, he, she or we. It’s pretty simple English.

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A little more difficult is when we change the time point of view. This is more tricky. It’s a little more difficult because it’s more complicated. For example, we have this story and we can look at it from right now and we can look at it backwards, back into time, so it happened already in the past. We’re here now in the present and we’re looking back at the story, so we use a certain kind of English and grammar when we look at a story that way.

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Or if we could go back in time, we could go before the story starts and we could look forward into the future. Now we’re in the past and we’re looking at the story as if it’s in the future. It’s ahead of us in time. If we do that, we’ll use lots of future grammar, like I’m going to or he will or she will.

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In this one, we changed it a little bit differently. We were looking towards the past and we’re looking at things that were being done again and again. What was Socrates doing several times that he doesn’t do anymore? That was in the first version. He used to, he would do lip pushups every day, but now in the present moment he doesn’t because he doesn’t need to anymore.

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In the next one, we changed the point of view and we actually had to use our imagination. We’re trying to predict, we’re imagining what possibly could have happened. If the situation was different, what might have happened? What probably would have happened? We were just guessing and imagining.

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In the third version we’re talking about the story as if we’re just right next to Socrates and we’re going along with Socrates as it happens. Those were our three versions. You don’t need to think about the grammar terms for that. Just listen to each one each day and it becomes more and more familiar and easy for you.

See you next time. Bye-bye.