Ba Lao Shi Perfect English

10/12/2025

I read a lot of world history and it is very clear that greed is nothing new. And it is also clear that the biggest moneymaker is not always a good business. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, capitalists in Great Britain made fortunes selling o***m to China. Before the Civil War, the cotton industry in the American South was based on slavery. Human beings were captured and put in chains so that the plantation owners could live in splendid mansions.

Today, corruption drains economies throughout the world and harms so many in the process. And, as in the past, addiction is profitable. Tech companies make billions of dollars by creating and encouraging screen addiction. AI will make more billions for a small few, but put millions of people out of work.

In my life I have seen that some people look at the world through a lens of maximizing profits at all costs, without any constraints and without consideration for others — and they can become extremely wealthy. But there is also such as thing as “enough.” There is also such a thing as doing what is right and trying to help people. Succeeding this way is much, much harder. When you have a conscience that illuminates what is right and wrong, it puts boundaries on what you can do. You can still succeed if you try hard enough, but if you choose to follow your conscience, your success will not be measured simply by how much money you make. You can be at peace knowing that you did not take the easy road and do things your conscience told you were wrong. You can feel pride that your success is genuine. And you will be blessed…

我閱讀過許多世界歷史，很明顯，貪婪並非新鮮事。同樣顯而易見的是，最賺錢的生意並不總是好的生意。 18、19世紀，英國的資本家透過向中國販賣鴉片而致富。美國內戰前，南方的棉花產業建立在奴隸制之上。人們被抓捕並戴上鐐銬，只為了讓種植園主能夠住在富麗堂皇的莊園裡。

如今，腐敗正在掏空世界各地的經濟，並在此過程中傷害了無數人。而且，正如過去一樣，成癮也能帶來利潤。科技公司透過製造和鼓勵螢幕成癮來賺取數十億美元。人工智慧將為少數人創造更多財富，但卻會讓數百萬人失業。

在我的人生經驗中，我看到有些人看待世界的方式是無條件地追求利潤最大化，沒有任何約束，也不考慮他人——他們最終變得極其富有。但人總有「適可而止」的時候。做對的事，盡力幫助他人，這當然也是一種選擇。但要走這條路，成功要難得多。當你擁有能夠分辨是非的良知時，它會為你的行為設限。只要你夠努力，仍然可以成功，但如果你選擇遵循良知，你的成功就不能只用金錢來衡量。你可以心安理得，因為你沒有選擇捷徑，而是去做那些良知告訴你該做的事。你可以為你的真正成功感到自豪。你將會得到祝福…

03/12/2025

Though we certainly have a lot to be depressed about, this year’s Oxford Word of the Year, “Rage bait,” is especially troubling since it comes on the heels of last year’s winner, “brain rot.” Both word phrases evolved out of the devolving of the human condition due to screen addiction, especially social media addiction.

“Rage bait” is a pretty horrible concept. It’s essentially “content” that is designed to make the person reading it angry. The person reading it is seeing it on their screen because their harvested tracking information indicated by algorithm that they would be interested in it. “Algorithms amplify outrage, it makes people think it's more normal,” says social psychologist Dr William Brady. Enraged people tend to stay “engaged” and type comments, thereby adding to the statistics about the page or account. This makes the “rage bait” creator happy, as their account can be monetized (pay money), and allows for higher advertising rates.

“Rage bait” can include misinformation, AI-created fake images, and false conspiracy theories—all harmful, but the “content creators” that make them can earn thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, the people “hooked” not only learn nothing, are misinformed, and their cognitive and emotional functions damaged, they waste many hours every day responding to rage bait and spend their waking hours in a state of aroused anger. There are large segments of the population living like this.

Hopefully, next year’s Oxford Word of the Year will reflect something better about the human condition.

儘管我們確實有很多令人沮喪的事情，但今年的牛津年度詞彙“Rage bait”（激怒誘餌）尤其令人擔憂，因為它緊隨去年的獲獎詞彙“brain rot”（腦腐爛）之後。這兩個詞組都源自於人類因螢幕成癮（尤其是社群媒體成癮）而導致的心理退化。

「Rage bait」的概念相當糟糕。它本質上是一種旨在激怒讀者的「內容」。讀者之所以會在螢幕上看到它，是因為演算法收集的追蹤資訊顯示他們會對此感興趣。 「演算法會放大憤怒情緒，讓人們覺得憤怒更正常，」社會心理學家威廉·布雷迪博士說。憤怒的人往往會保持“參與度”，發表評論，從而增加頁面或帳戶的統計數據。這讓「激怒誘餌」的創建者感到高興，因為他們的帳戶可以變現（付費），並獲得更高的廣告價格。

「煽動性言論」可能包括虛假資訊、人工智慧生成的偽造圖片和虛假陰謀論——所有這些都有害，但製作這些內容的「內容創作者」卻能從中賺取數千美元。不幸的是，那些「上癮」的人不僅什麼也學不到，反而被誤導，認知和情感功能受損，他們每天浪費大量時間回應煽動性言論，醒著的時候也一直處於憤怒的情緒中。相當一部分人正生活在這樣的環境中。

希望明年的牛津年度詞彙能反映出人類境況中一些更好的面向。

29/11/2025

Though as mentioned in the previous post, many of the common, everyday words in English are of Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) origin, over 60% of the words in English have Latin roots. For scientific words, the percentage of words that are Latin-based increases to over 80%. For example, the names of the parts of the human body are Latin.

Latin became a part of the English in English language several steps. The Latin-speaking Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD and ruled until 410 AD, so Britain was Roman for about 367 years. Many English place names, such as London, are of Roman origin, as are words like “wine” and “mile.”

After the Romans left, the people of Britain invited three Germanic tribes to live in England. One of these, the Angles, gave their name to the language, “Angle-ish,” which evolved into “English.” Some of the Roman Latin words were incorporated into this language.

Latin entered again later, as in Europe it was also the language of educated people and the Catholic Church.

England was conquered in 1066 by the Normans, who spoke Norman French. This is why there are often two words for things in English: an Anglo-Saxon-based word and a Norman French, Latin-based word. Usually, the Norman French Latin word is the more formal of the two. For example, the Anglo-Saxon word is “lawyer” and the Norman French Latin word is “attorney.”

Also, because the Normans were the conquerors and the native Britons were the underclass, the Norman French words were for the end-use product or luxury name of things. For example, the names of farm animals, “cow,” “sheep”, and “pig,” are Anglo Saxon, but the meat or cooked version of the farm animals are Norman French, “beef,” “lamb,” and “pork.” Most hotel, restaurant, and cooking words are of French origin, including “hotel” and “restaurant,” and “concierge,” “entrée,”“filet,” “omelet,”

The way English words from Latin are formed is somewhat different from the Anglo-Saxon-derived words. I will discuss this in later posts.

You can also watch video I made on the subject on the Ba Lao Shi Perfect English YouTube channel, which will be changing its name soon to “BLS Education.”

如前文所述，英語中許多常用的日常詞彙都源自盎格魯撒克遜語（日耳曼語），但超過60%的英語詞彙都源自拉丁語。對於科學詞彙而言，源自拉丁文的比例更是高達80%以上。例如，人體各部位的名稱都源自拉丁文。

拉丁語融入英語的過程經歷了幾個階段。西元43年，講拉丁語的羅馬人征服了不列顛，並統治至西元410年，因此不列顛曾被羅馬統治約367年。許多英國地名，例如倫敦（London），都源自於羅馬語，諸如“wine”（葡萄酒）和“mile”（英里）之類的詞彙也是如此。

羅馬人離開後，不列顛人邀請了三個日耳曼部落來到英格蘭定居。其中一個部落，盎格魯人，將他們的語言命名為“Angle-ish”，後來演變為“English”（英語）。一些源自羅馬拉丁語的詞彙也被吸收進了這種語言中。

拉丁語後來再次傳入英國，因為在歐洲，它也是受過教育的人和天主教會的語言。

1066年，諾曼人征服了英格蘭，他們講諾曼法語。這就是為什麼英語中經常有兩個詞來指同一件事：一個源自盎格魯-撒克遜語，另一個源自諾曼法語和拉丁語。通常，諾曼法語拉丁語的單字較為正式。例如，盎格魯-撒克遜語的字是“lawyer”（律師），而諾曼法語拉丁文的字是“attorney”（律師）。

此外，由於諾曼人是征服者，而英國本土居民是下層階級，諾曼法語的詞彙通常指最終用途的產品或奢侈品的名稱。例如，農場動物的名稱“cow”（牛）、“sheep”（羊）和“pig”（豬）源自盎格魯-撒克遜語，而這些動物的肉類或熟食名稱則源自諾曼法語，分別是“beef”（牛肉）、“lamb”（羊肉）和“pork”（豬肉）。大多數飯店、餐廳和烹飪詞彙都源自法語，包括「hotel」（飯店）、「restaurant」（餐廳）、「concierge」（禮賓）、「entrée」（主菜）、「filet」（菲力牛排）、「omelet」（煎蛋捲）。

英語中源自拉丁語的詞彙的構成方式與源自盎格魯-撒克遜語的詞彙略有不同。我將在後續文章中討論這一點。

19/11/2025

Though the majority of words in English are of Latin origin, most of the common, everyday words, such as those related to family, nature, or life are Anglo-Saxon. For example:

ear, mouth, child, sister, sun, winter, hill, fire, tree

You can see some similarities in these Modern English words with Modern German. For example:

English: German:

house. Haus
father Vater
wind Wind
green Grün
night Nacht

Note that in German, nouns are capitalized. This is to make them easier to categorize when reading. German is the only language in the world to do this.

Longer English words from Anglo Saxon are usually made by combining shorter, simpler words. For example:

overall, forward, sidewalk, birthday, landmark, armband, mailbox, leftover, afternoon, basketball

Basic English verbs are Anglo-Saxon in origin. For example:

go, say, see, make, be, give, have, take

English phrasal verbs are also derived from Anglo Saxon:

give up, throw away, think about, break down, get going

In the next post I will talk about English words with Latin roots.

雖然英語中大部分詞彙源自拉丁語，但大多數常用日常詞彙，例如與家庭、自然或生活相關的詞彙，都源自盎格魯-撒克遜語。例如：

ear（耳朵）、mouth（嘴巴）、child（孩子）、sister（姊妹）、sun（太陽）、winter（冬天）、hill（山丘）、fire（火）、tree（樹）

你會發現這些現代英語詞彙與現代德語詞彙有一些相似之處。例如：

英語： 德語：

house（房子） Haus（房子）

father（父親） Vater（父親）

wind（風） Wind（風）

green（綠色） Grün（綠色）

night（夜晚） Nacht（夜晚）

請注意，德語中名詞首字母要大寫。這樣做是為了方便閱讀時進行分類。德語是世界上唯一採用這種做法的語言。

源自盎格魯-撒克遜語的較長英語單字通常是由較短、較簡單的單字組合而成。例如：

overall（整體）、forward（向前）、sidewalk（人行道）、birthday（生日）、landmark（地標）、armband（臂章）、mailbox（郵箱）、leftover（剩菜）、afternoon（下午）、basketball（籃球）

基本的英文動詞也源自盎格魯撒克遜語。例如：

go, say, see, make, be, give, have, take

英語片語動詞也源自盎格魯撒克遜語：

give up, throw away, think about, break down, get going

下一篇文章我將討論源自拉丁文的英文單字。

12/11/2025

English has the most words of any language and is the only language with more than one million words. It has words from Ancient Greek and Celtic, but the majority of its words come from Latin and Germanic languages. English is actually a Germanic language and it’s older form, Old English, is sometimes called “Anglo Saxon” after two of the three Germanic tribes who came to live in England after the Romans left in AD 410 AD, the Angles and the Saxons. The words “England” and “English” actually came from the name of the Germanic Angle people.

But the largest number of English words are actually of Latin origin. Latin entered the English language in waves. First with the Romans, from AD 43 to AD 410. Then with the Normans in 1066, who spoke Norman French, which was a Latin-based language. In later years, Latin also entered directly from the Catholic clergy and educated Europeans from different countries, who used it as a “lingua franca,” a shared language.

Two words from different languages that have the same root are called “cognates.” For example, the English word “information” and the Italian word “informazioni.” But cognates can develop different meanings because of semantic changes. That is, the word develops a specific meaning because of its use.

For example, the Spanish word “arena,” and the English "arena" are cognates and come from the Latin “harena,” which means “sand.” Athletic activities often took place outdoors or in large facilities with sand on the ground. In English, “arena” came to exclusively mean the sports facility, whereas in Spanish, the original meaning of "sand" was retained, though it can also be used fora sports arena.

In modern English, the large number of vocabulary words presents a challenge for learners. An additional challenge is that there are so many different connotations of the different words — from two different sources.

I will write more about this in subsequent posts.

英語是所有語言中詞彙最多的，也是唯一詞彙超過一百萬的語言。它包含一些源自古希臘語和凱爾特語的詞彙，但其大部分詞彙來自拉丁語和日耳曼語族。英語實際上是一種日耳曼語，其更古老的形式是古英語，有時也被稱為“盎格魯-撒克遜語”，這得名於公元410年羅馬人離開後定居英格蘭的三個日耳曼部落中的兩個：盎格魯人和撒克遜人。 「England」（英格蘭）和「English」（英語）這兩個詞其實都源自日耳曼盎格魯人的名稱。

但英語中數量最多的詞彙實際上源自拉丁語。拉丁語分階段傳入英語。首先是羅馬人，時間從西元43年到410年。然後是1066年諾曼人，他們說的諾曼法語是一種基於拉丁語的語言。後來，拉丁語也透過天主教神職人員和來自不同國家的受過教育的歐洲人直接傳入英語，他們將其用作「通用語」。

來自不同語言但詞根相同的兩個詞被稱為「同源詞」。例如，英語單字“informations”和義大利語單字“informazioni”。但同源詞會因為語意變化而發展出不同的意義。也就是說，一個字會因為其使用而獲得特定的意思。

例如，西班牙語單字“arena”和英語單字“arena”是同源詞，它們都源自拉丁語“harena”，意思是“沙子”。體育活動通常在戶外或鋪有沙子的大型場館中進行。在英語中，“arena”逐漸專指體育場館，而在西班牙語中，它保留了“沙子”的原始含義，儘管它也可以指體育場館。

在現代英語中，大量的詞彙給學習者帶來了挑戰。另一個挑戰是，來自兩個不同來源的詞彙竟然有如此多的不同意義。

我將在後續文章中對此進行更詳細的探討。

01/11/2025

Cards number 11A & 11B of my Vocabulary Victory English Root Word Cards are about words that are derived from the Latin “claudere,” past participle, “clausus,” which means “to block up or make inaccessible, shut or close.” This extends to the meaning of “confine” or “enclose.” And it also means “put an end to.” The Old French “clore” and “clos” moved into Middle English as “close” and in the 16th century, it began to also mean “draw near to.”

In modern English it takes the root forms “clause, close, clad, and clus” and is used to form more than 80 words that are related to the concept of the root, but can be quite different in application. Some examples are: clause, close, closure, closet, conclusion, disclose, exclude, foreclose, include, occlude, preclude, reclusive, and secluded — and all the various forms of those words.

It’s a perfect root to study to understand how prefixes and suffixes combine with base roots to form words in English.

The Vocabulary Victor English Root Word Cards won the Bronze Medal from the Independent Publisher Awards. 6275 words are grouped into 69 Latin, Greek, and Anglo Saxon root-base families. Each word family has a unique illustration of the essence and feeling of the root. There are a total of 161 cards, with an accompanying dedicated YouTube channel.

They are available from my website https://blseducation.com for USD$34.95 + shipping.

我的 Vocabulary Victory English Root Word Cards卡片中的第11A和11B張卡片，介紹的是源自拉丁語“claudere”的過去分詞“clausus”，意為“堵塞或使無法進入，關閉或封閉”。它引申為“限制”或“包圍”，也指“結束”。古法語“clore”和“clos”進入中古英語後演變為“close”，並在16世紀開始有“靠近”的意思。

在現代英語中，它的詞根形式有“clause”、“close”、“clad”和“clus”，並由此衍生出80多個與詞根概念相關的單詞，但這些單詞的實際應用可能大相徑庭。例如：clause、close、closure、closet、conclusion、disclose、exclude、foreclose、include、occlude、preclude、reclusive和secluded——以及這些單字的各種變體。

這是一個非常適合研究的詞根，可以用來了解前綴和後綴如何與詞根結合形成英語單字。

《詞彙維克多英語字根卡片》（Vocabulary Victor English Root Word Cards）榮獲獨立出版商獎銅獎。這張卡片包含6275個單詞，分為69個拉丁語、希臘語和盎格魯-撒克遜語詞根-詞幹家族。每個詞根家族都配有獨特的插圖，展現詞根的精髓和意義。全套卡片共161張，並附有專屬的YouTube頻道。

您可以在我的網站https://blseducation.com 上購買，售價34.95美元，另加運費。

24/10/2025

Halloween was originally an ancient Celtic celebration of the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, which was thought to be November 1. It’s original name was “Samhain.” The Celts thought this time was when the world of the dead was closest to the world of the living, so they put on costumes and lit fires to drive off spirits. The Irish carved original carved turnips into Jack-O’-Lanterns, but when the tradition spread to America, pumpkins began to be used. As Christianity spread, these traditions merged with the Christian observances of All Saints' Day (November 1st), which Pope Gregory III had named in the 8th century to honor saints, with the evening before being called, All Hallows' Eve, which evolved into “Halloween.” Today it is one of the most popular holidays around the world and is celebrated by retailers for the consumer spending it inspired for costumes, candy, and special events. Enjoy the video! Happy Halloween!
https://youtube.com/shorts/4syzVBYYENI?si=Jjt0Kz2wGeJ9882s

聖節最初是凱爾特人慶祝豐收結束和冬季開始的節日，冬季通常在11月1日。它最初的名字是「薩溫節」（Samhain）。凱爾特人認為此時亡靈世界與生者世界最為接近，因此他們會穿上亡靈服裝，點燃篝火來驅趕亡靈。愛爾蘭人將最初的蘿蔔雕刻成南瓜燈，但當這項傳統傳到美洲時，人們開始使用南瓜。隨著基督教的傳播，這些傳統與基督教的諸聖節（11月1日）融合。諸聖節由教宗格里高利三世於西元8世紀命名，以紀念聖徒。萬聖節前夕被稱為「萬聖夜」（All Hallows' Eve），後來演變成「萬聖節」（Halloween）。如今，萬聖節已成為全球最受歡迎的節日之一，零售商也藉此慶祝萬聖節，因為它激發了消費者在服裝、糖果和特殊活動上的消費。請欣賞這段影片！萬聖節快樂！
https://youtube.com/shorts/4syzVBYYENI?si=Jjt0Kz2wGeJ9882s

A Happy Halloween message from Ba Lao Shi Perfect English.

16/10/2025

https://youtu.be/K76ODuHag3I?si=hLkt_pOzU8xdXyXX

I just posted my newest read-aloud video of the extraordinary 1993 Caldecott Medal-winning “Mirette on a High Wire.” This is a wonderful story, written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully. Set in 19th century Paris, it is about a plucky young girl named Mirette, daughter of Madame Gateau, who owns a boardinghouse that caters to performers from all over the world. She befriends a retired high wire walker named Bellini. It is a fun, uplifting story about bravery, friendship, and never giving up. Ms. McCully’s illustrations are gorgeous, each page is like a French Impressionist painting and make you will feel like you are in Paris during those wonderful days! You can clearly see the words and practice reading aloud and pronunciation and learn some great vocabulary. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and never miss a video!

我剛剛發布了我最新的朗讀視頻，視頻內容是1993年凱迪克獎獲獎作品《高空走鋼索的米雷特》。這是一個精彩的故事，由艾米麗·阿諾德·麥卡利創作並繪製。故事背景設定在19世紀的巴黎，講述了一位名叫米雷特的勇敢年輕女孩的故事。她是蓋托夫人的女兒，蓋托夫人擁有一間專門接待世界各地表演者的公寓。她與一位名叫貝里尼的退休高空走鋼索演員成為了朋友。這是一個充滿樂趣、鼓舞人心的故事，講述了勇氣、友誼和永不放棄的精神。麥卡利女士的插圖精美絕倫，每一頁都如同一幅法國印象派畫作，讓你彷彿置身於那些美好時光中的巴黎！你可以清楚地看到文字，練習朗讀和發音，也能學習一些很棒的詞彙。訂閱我的YouTube頻道，不要錯過任何影片！

Robert Badal reads the 1993 Caldecott Medal winning "Mirette on the High Wire," by Emily Arnold McCully. Set in 19th Century Paris, where performers from al...

06/10/2025

Happy Mid Autumn Festival 2025! 2025年中秋節快樂!

28/09/2025

“get a kick out of it” — enjoy something: “I get a kick out of you!” (famous song by Frank Sinatra)

“has a kick to it” — a drink that is either strong alcohol or caffeine.
“This double espresso has a real kick to it”

“kicking a dead horse” — futilely trying to do something that will not succeed “Trying to get a stupid person to listen to reason is like kicking a dead horse.”

“kick ass,” “kicked ass,” Kicking ass” — verbs that indicate physically beating someone or winning convincingly or doing a great job. “Kick ass” can be used as an adjective and can also mean “great” or “powerful. “Kick butt” is a variation.
“We kicked ass in our sales presentation.”

“A kick in the ass” — a strong encouragement in the form of a criticism. “Some students need a kick in the ass to make them study.”

“kicking back” — relaxing, sometimes shortened to “kickin’ it.” “I like to kick back on the sofa in front of the TV.”

“a kickback” — receiving secret, possibly illegal, payment or commission for arranging a sale or deal. “The political who approved the construction project got a kickback from the building company.”

“kick in” — a phrasal verb that can also be an adjective in its participle form. As a verb, it usually means a second phase of an action is starting after a first one has already been going. “The economy began to improve once the effects of the stimulus spending kicked in.”

“kick off” — a noun referring to the opening kick of a football game, used as an idiom to mean the beginning action of a campaign, political, promotional, celebratory, etc. Can also be used as a verb.
“We kicked off our sales campaign with a lucky draw promotion.”

“Kick someone when they are down” — to criticize or perform some kind of negative action when someone is already suffering, often given as a negative admonition to not do it. “My colleague’s wife just died and the boss wants to fire him. He shouldn’t kick him when he is down.”

“Kickstart” (verb), “kickstarter” (noun) — a foot-operated, crank-like mechanism to manually start a motorcycle engine. Often used to mean give a boost, with a new plan or money, to a project. “We are going to kickstart our company expansion by offering a bonus for new accounts.” There is a crowdfunding platform called “Kickstarted” to help startup businesses raise money by selling new products.

“kick the bucket” — die. “When I kick the bucket I don’t want a big funeral.”

“kick the habit” or “kick a habit” — quit an addiction or quite doing an addicting behavior.
“Smoking is expensive and terrible for your health and the health of people around you. You need to kick the habit.”

“kick upstairs” — to transfer a person or problem to a higher level of management. “The sales team couldn’t figure out wha to do with the payment issue, so they kicked it upstairs.”

“that’s the kicker” — a problem in an otherwise acceptable situation. “I really like that brand of car, but it is not very reliable. That’s the kicker.”

17/09/2025

Do yourself a favor and switch off your phone tonight and read a good book instead. 幫自己一個忙，今晚關掉手機，讀一本好書。

08/09/2025

The words “holiday” and “vacation” are sometimes used like they are the same, but are they? Yes and no, but it also depends on where you are.

Specifically, a “holiday” is a day recognized by the government — and usually banks and many businesses — as a day of no work and no school and is sometimes called a”legal holiday.” These can differ from country to country. For example, in most Western Countries, Christmas is a holiday, whereas in China, it is not, but Chinese New Year, is a holiday and lasts 4 days.

In American English, a “vacation” is a period of time with no work (or school) and can also be used to refer to leisure travel. For example, all American students look forward to “summer vacation,” an extended time with no school.

In British English, “holiday” is used instead of “vacation.” English students love their “summer holiday.”

When used to refer to time off work or school or travel, both words use the preposition “on” :

“My boss is on holiday in Italy.”
“My boss is on vacation in Italy.”

“Vacation” comes from the Latin “vacare” — “to be empty or, free,” which expanded into the Latin word “vacationem“ which means “being free from duty.” A new word is “staycation,” which refers to taking a vacation but not traveling anywhere. “Vacare” has a lot of related English words, like “evacuate,” “vacant,” and “vacuum.”

“Holiday” come from Old English “haligdæg” or "holy day,” denoting a Christian festival day. It was extended to mean a “day of joy.”

Whichever word you use, it is something we all need!

「holiday」和「vacation」這兩個詞有時被誤認為是同一個字，但它們真的是同一個嗎？是也不是，但這也取決於你在哪裡。

具體來說，「holiday」是指政府（通常是銀行和許多企業）認可的無工作、無上學的日子，有時也被稱為「法定假日」。各國的法定假日有所不同。例如，在大多數西方國家，聖誕節是法定假日，而在中國，聖誕節不是，但農曆新年是法定假日，為期4天。

在美式英語中，「vacation」是指一段不用工作（或上學）的時期，也可以用來指休閒旅行。例如，所有美國學生都期待著「summer vacation」（暑假），一段不用上學的漫長時光。

在英式英語中，「holiday」取代了「vacation」。英國學生喜歡他們的“summer holiday”。

當用於指休假、休假或旅行時，這兩個詞都使用介詞「on」：

“My boss is on holiday in Italy.”
“My boss is on vacation in Italy.”

“Vacation”源自拉丁語“vacare”，意為“空著或自由”，後擴展為拉丁語“vacationem”，意為“不用承擔任何責任”。一個新詞是“staycation”，指的是度假但不去任何地方旅行。 「Vacare」有許多相關的英語單字，例如「evacuate」（疏散）、「vacant」（空的）和「vacuum」（真空）。

「Holiday」源自古英語「haligdæg”，意為“holy day”（聖日），指基督教節日。它被擴展為“歡樂的日子”。

無論你使用哪個詞，它都是我們每個人都需要的！