YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast
Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.
English Phrase: The benefit of the doubt
There’s a constant struggle between giving people the benefit of the doubt and second-guessing them until they give you a reason to trust them.
Giving someone the benefit of the doubt means to believe what they say or do is right or justified until you have a reason not to believe them.
It would be easy for me to tell you always to trust people until you have a reason not to, but you may already be in trouble by that time.
Most of us, by ‘us’ I mean Japanese and white Canadians, were raised to trust those in authority.
We were told the police are there to help us, we should never be afraid of them, and always to give them the benefit of the doubt.
As we have seen on countless occasions in North America, we should no longer do that.
Many times, the police have explained away black deaths in custody as justified, and society, in general, gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Hopefully, the George Floyd incident has put an end to that once and for all.
Like or follow ArtisanEnglish.jp on social media.
Here in Japan, too, people of colour are stopped on the street and asked to produce their Alien Registration Cards much more often than white people.
Never have I been asked for my card, even when in the police station, to register my vehicle’s parking space.
I have never been stopped on the street or while driving and asked to produce it.
Now, we could give the police the benefit of the doubt and say there must be a reason why they stop non-Japanese for an ID check, but I suggest you read this article from the Japan Times before making up your mind.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 68.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
