The Counterargument

All right so let’s look at the counter argument to the idea that video games are bad or do have a negative effect on young people.

So now the answer is No.

And this is our counter which means against or opposite argument argument.

OK now we’re going to use some of the expressions we’ve learned so look out for those.

If that were true.

Remember the previous person said that there is an effect of being very impressionable and so kids will learn that behavior.

If that were true little kids would be would be running around outside right now with knives and guns because violent video games are everywhere.

OK.

Because anybody can play violent video games.

Many kids play them any way we know that.

That’s a fact.

If what you’re saying were true then we would see violence all over the place.

We would have little kids running around stabbing people and shooting people.

That’s the interesting point.

Right.

OK remember what we do here is we show either we ask the question why to show either why what you’re saying is not true because this is true or we’re saying if what you’re saying were true this thing should be true but it’s not.

In fact we don’t see kids running around with knives and guns.

So that means what you’re saying is probably not true.

OK.

Because violent video games are everywhere.

There’s certainly no denying.

Now remember this is the way that we can agree with another person’s point and then change the focus.

The point was.

Isn’t it true.

Isn’t it true that young people are more impressionable.

There’s no denying.

Here we are.

There’s no denying that young people are more impressionable than adults.

OK.

So I’m giving you that point.

That’s true.

That’s true.

But they are also clearly capable of distinguishing real life from video games.

So I’m saying yes they’re impressionable but they can tell the difference to distinguish means to be able to tell the difference if you can distinguish between different types of coffee.

That means you can tell the difference.

All of this one is from Colombia and this one is from Africa for example.

OK.

They’re capable or able to distinguish real life from video games.

The rules of the game are to shoot and kill the rules of the game or to shoot and kill.

If you do those things you win in real life.

If you do those things you lose lose maybe means you know go to jail or something.

Kids aren’t stupid.

It’s up to parents to teach kids what is right and wrong.

So on this side it’s saying hey what you’re saying is not right because if what you’re saying were true you’d have kids running around with guns.

In fact kids can tell the difference in a game.

You have to kill in real life.

You can’t do that in a game.

Violence is good in real life.

It’s not.

It’s up to parents to teach kids what is right and what is wrong.

Kids aren’t stupid.

They’re able to tell the difference between this game and out there in real life.

The rules that you have to play to maybe succeed.

OK.

So this is just a counter argument to the previous one and this could go back and forth.

We could do another one but notice we have used some of the expressions that we learned earlier on in this lesson.

Now I hope that you have a feeling for how debates go now and that you could if you had to then go on and support one side or the other and give more reasons why either violent video games are very negative or why violent video games are no problem.

Hopefully you could use some of the expressions we’ve learned to do that.

But I’m going to give you another topic to work on as an assignment and I want you to make sure to use these expressions and use the things we learned in this lesson.

To do that.

Now to practice this what I’d like you to do is as usual record yourself actually doing both sides of a debate.

Both sides of the debate play devil’s advocate with yourself.

Make sure to record it.

OK give as much detail as you can.

Make analogies if you can to help clarify things to your audience which may be yourself and make sure to use the expressions that we learned in this lesson the debate topic is medical testing on animals is right or wrong.

That means we should test medicine new medicines on animals like rats or we should not.

OK.

And there are a lot of different reasons why we should maybe and why we shouldn’t try to explore those and explore also the expressions we learned.

So good luck with that and I will see you in the next video.