Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another brand new Simplified Speech episode here at Q-Lips.
Simplified Speech is our series that features clear, natural and easy-to-understand conversations about an interesting topic.
And today we've got a good one for you, as always, a very interesting one.
I think I'm really interested to see what my co-host is going to say about this topic today because yeah, it's going to be interesting to see the psychology of her thoughts and her opinions on this topic.
Before I go on too much about her, though, I should introduce her to everyone.
It's Indiana.
Hey there, Indiana.
How's it going?
Hey, Andrew.
Hey, guys.
How are you all doing today?
Indiana.
We're going to get inside your mind here for this episode, because we're talking about ethical dilemmas.
Ethical dilemmas.
And yeah, this is actually rather... kind of a high level topic for simplified speech.
So we should break it down and explain to our listeners here what we mean when we say ethical dilemmas.
Do you want to do the honors and explain it to everyone?
Sure.
I would say that an ethical dilemma is a difficult decision that you're put in throughout life.
You know.
Different life experiences bring you into these challenges where you have to decide what the right thing, what the moral or ethical thing is to do.
And it's not easy.
It's a dilemma, which is something where maybe there's two choices and both of them have some pros and cons.
And it's difficult to decide between the two of them.
But ethical dilemmas, they're more centered on.
What do you think is the best, the most moral or right thing to do?
So it calls to your sense of justice or what you believe to be truly the right thing to do.
Do you have any examples Andrew, of what a common or an ethical dilemma that somebody might encounter in their life is?
For example, imagine you are taking an exam and you looked over at your best friend, who's in class with you, and you notice that he's cheating.
What do you do in that situation?
Do you just ignore it and protect your best friend, or do you uh, tell the teacher and get your friend in trouble but then keep the fairness of the exam for all students?
That would be a dilemma right, an ethical dilemma, because we know cheating is wrong, but also we know that standing up for your friends and supporting your friends is a good thing to do.
But um Yeah, so there's an ethical element, right?
Ethics is about what is good and what is evil and right and wrong.
And then, yeah, the dilemma is there's no real good solution to this problem.
If you tell the teacher, your friend's going to be angry at you.
If you don't tell the teacher, then you're letting the class down.
So yeah, that's just the first example that sprung to mind.
Indiana, what would you do in that kind of situation?
Would you tell the teacher or just zip it?
And when I say zip it, we mean like, imagine that there's a zipper across our mouth, right?
And we can just close our mouth and not say anything.
Would you zip it or would you tell the teacher?
It's like, there's so many consequences to being a snitch, right?
And so a snitch is somebody who would go to the teacher and say, oh, so-and-so did something wrong.
So-and-so is not doing what they're supposed to do.
That's not good either.
So maybe I would find a, a middle ground or a third option here.
And like, after the test, I would talk to my friend and say, Hey, I noticed you were cheating.
Don't do that.
We need to talk about this.
You shouldn't do that.
Um, and see how that goes.
You know, I think that could be a possible solution, but I don't know.
Have you experienced this before, Andrew, what do you think you would do?
Yeah, I think in high school, I definitely wouldn't have said anything.
Even in university.
I don't think i would have said anything.
It depends, like on the stakes of the test right, and like it also depends on the kind of test.
If maybe it would put me at a disadvantage, like if if there were a set number of people who get an a in that class and like maybe i wouldn't have gotten a because of my friend cheating, then probably i would have said something, i would have stood up for myself.
But if there were, if it was like a low stakes exam, i wouldn't say anything.
Yeah, you know we have this expression in English, Indiana.
I'm sure you've heard it before, maybe in movies, hopefully never in real life, but definitely on TV and in the movies, I'm sure.
And that is snitches get stitches, snitches get stitches, right?
This is like if you, if you snitch and snitch means to tell on somebody.
In this situation, your best friend is cheating.
You notice, but The teacher doesn't notice.
And then you tell the teacher, this is snitching and snitches.
So a snitch is somebody who does this action, gets stitches.
So I think we hear this a lot in like prison movies, prison dramas, right?
Like the prisoner.
Some prisoner tells the prison guards that some other criminals are doing something bad, and then they beat him up and he gets stitches as a result.
Yeah.
So you got to be careful when you're snitching.
It's not not looked upon highly.
I have an image in my head of a high school not high school, probably middle school bully hitting his fist in his palm like snitches get stitches, threatening another yeah right, right.
Classic movie line or something like that.
Good well, indiana.
We have several other of these ethical dilemmas that we'll talk about here in this episode.
I think i wrote down five, five of them, but before we get to those, i should let our listeners know about the study guide for this episode.
So guys, we have a helpful study guide for this episode, created by our Awesome team of English teachers here at Q-Lips.
And in the guide you will get an interactive transcript plus detailed vocabulary breakdowns and examples and explanations of some of the interesting and useful vocabulary that you'll hear me and Indiana use in this episode.
There's also a quiz and there are questions that you can use, And you can get all of this and more if you are a Q-Lips member.
To sign up and become a Q-Lips member today, just visit our website qlipscom, and you can do that for an affordable price.
And thank you so much to all the Q-Lips members out there for your support.
Guys, we really do appreciate it.
So thank you so much.
Okay.
So, Indiana, let's get to it.
Should we just go through the list one by one?
And maybe we'll start Yeah, we'll start with some of the the easier ones and then maybe move on to some of the more difficult ones.
Let's start with the first one.
I'll read it here.
It says, a friend wants to split the bill evenly, but you ordered much less.
Do you speak up or let it go?
What would you do in this situation?
If it's just one friend, it seems like pretty clear and like that difference in who ordered what.
Like, if it's such a big difference, I would feel a little uncomfortable with the fact that that friend wants to split the bill, because I think they would notice.
Like it's pretty obvious I've paid so much more than them.
So that would already be sort of a problem.
Yeah, that's a red flag right there.
I agree.
And maybe, you know, there's probably other context, like background information, maybe...
I don't know.
They're like going through a hard time with money or something like these things could color or change my opinion.
But if it was just with one friend and there was no other details, they just want me to pay for their food.
I would feel a little weird about that.
I don't think I would do that.
However, if it was a large group, that happens all the time where you just kind of have to um, give up, given like okay, I only ordered one drink and an appetizer, but we're all splitting it evenly.
Like sometimes that's just social etiquette and you do it.
But one-on-one, I feel a little uncomfortable about it.
I would probably be like, oh, we should pay for what we ordered.
But have you experienced this one before, Andrew?
I don't think I've actually ever had this happen to me.
Have you had this happen to you?
No, I don't think just, with one friend.
I agree with you in the group setting sometimes, and especially if people are drinking, right?
Like this is kind of annoying that alcohol is really expensive.
And if one friend has three drinks or somebody else has two drinks and then I have no drinks, and then we all have to share the bill equally.
It's not fair per se, but it's like, like you said, it's the price of hanging out in that kind of situation.
One-on-one, I don't think I've ever had somebody try to pull this on me.
I feel like if somebody did do that, they wouldn't be a very close friend.
Like, it would just be weird.
And if my friend had money problems, they could just tell me.
At least I hope they could just tell me.
Or if they were having money problems, they would say like I'm sorry, I can't hang out, can't afford it this week.
And then I could just be like, I got it or something.
Right.
Like it would happen before, like at, at the moment when it's time to pay the bill, it's too late.
Like, what are you bringing this up now for?
Yeah.
So.
Okay.
We're in agreement.
It's a little weird.
Yeah.
It's, it's a weird, I would definitely talk about it for sure.
Totally.
Okay.
Good.
Let's move on to the next one.
Why don't I read this one?
Yeah.
Go for it.
Okay.
I don't know.
I don't actually remember if you have a car or not in Seoul, but so you can imagine you accidentally dent.
So you run into and you damage a parked car, but nobody else is around.
There's no witnesses.
Are you going to leave a note or just kind of pretend it never happened?
Uh, yeah.
So I don't have a car in Seoul, but, uh, probably will soon.
I think I'm going to take some driving lessons.
I want to take some driving lessons.
So this kind of thing doesn't happen.
Yeah.
So I'm planning to take some driving lessons soon and then hopefully get a car before the end of the year and be on the road.
So I'm going to have to make sure that I'm very careful so that this kind of thing doesn't happen.
But if I were to ding somebody's car or dent somebody's car And guys, these two words, ding and dent, just means a little bit of damage.
Like the fender is just pushed in a little bit, but there's visible damage, right?
It's not like there's, it's not like the car is a write-off or anything, just a little bit of damage.
Yeah.
If I did this to somebody's car, of course I would call them or leave a note.
Yeah.
I wouldn't just, what do you call it?
Hit and run, hit and run.
No, never.
I couldn't do that.
I couldn't live with myself.
How about you?
I want to say what you said.
But if it was like the tiniest ding, the tiniest dent or scratch, I might just throw away all of my morals and just move on.
But if it's some serious, like really a genuine, you know, like, okay, this car clearly got hit.
That's not acceptable.
I think I would definitely have to.
My morals, my heart, would say okay Indiana, you should leave a note.
Yeah.
But I think like a tiny scratch...
I might move on, especially if it's in a city.
That's kind of the risk you take in having a car in the city.
I don't know.
It doesn't sound very good when I say that out loud, but yeah.
Yeah, I don't know.
I think the issue is that, when it comes to insurance, there's so many people who make a mountain out of a molehill right.
It's just a little scratch, but you never know the other party is going to respond.
So sometimes in these situations people lie about the damage and the cost and it can really throw your insurance rates, uh out of whack and make it really expensive and yeah.
So like, when people respond this way, then it makes it so that you're you're not incentivized to be honest and and truthful when something happens.
So i'm, i'm yeah, i haven't driven for so long that maybe i'm just thinking that of course the other party would respond in a measured way.
That's like, you know, not going crazy and not trying to sue me or take a lot of my money and I could just pay for the damage and move on.
But yeah, you always got to be careful.
So yeah, driving lessons, I think, are very important for me, so I can avoid this here in the near future.
And maybe I feel this way too, because there was a time when I was like sitting in a parking lot, uh of a shopping plaza, and like maybe like eating my lunch or something, before i had to go do another errand, go somewhere, and i was sitting in my car and somebody parked next next to me and he just opened his door into my car while i was sitting in it and like just walked away like he hit my car with his door.
There was clearly scratches, and then he just left and i was like what?
Okay, I guess this is the world we live in.
Maybe it's okay if I, I don't know.
But that was, I was pretty shocked.
That was so blatant, right?
Like maybe he didn't notice I was in the car, but I was like, hello, I'm right here.
Did he even stop to check if there were any scratches or?
Not at all.
He just opened his door into my car and left.
It was really weird.
Bizarre.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe that's just like, how things are in your area of the world.
Maybe it's just like a scratch and run.
Scratch and run.
Yes.
Part of the country.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Interesting.
Let's move on to the next one.
Number three, a coworker takes credit for your idea in a meeting.
Would you correct them publicly or talk privately later?
Definitely I'm not somebody who would correct somebody publicly or make a big like I don't want to embarrass somebody.
I don't want to make a big stink about something in front of a bunch of people.
I don't think I would do that.
But, and even to correct them later.
I think it all depends on the what's the impact of this, this idea or this project?
Does this coworker really need a win or to look good in front of the boss?
Whereas I have been performing well recently.
I might just give it to them depending on all of the office politics.
And, like you know, if it seems, maybe it's okay, like they, they could really use this, but no, probably most scenarios I'd talk to them later and be like Hey, like remember how I came up with that?
Like maybe you can correct this later.
Maybe we can talk about, yeah.
Yeah, making sure that I get a little bit of credit for this, because I would also maybe have some less trust in that coworker from that point on.
But it depends.
I feel like office politics play a big role in this.
What would you do here, Andrew?
Yeah, I really don't like public confrontation.
So it would depend.
This one is really contextual.
It would depend on how close I am with the people in the meeting.
If I were pretty close, like if we were on the same team and we worked together all the time, then I probably wouldn't mind stirring things up a little bit.
But if it were like a bigger meeting with people who I don't work with very often, or maybe some bosses who I don't see very often, then probably I would try to not cause a big argument or make things awkward in front of everybody.
But it also depends on the how good the idea was right.
If this like changes the company and is like a a big windfall for the company and suddenly the profits are going to skyrocket because of this idea and it was my idea and it got stolen and maybe that idea would get me a promotion or increased salary or something then of course i'd have to stand up for myself.
But it was just some little idea and it's kind of a jerk thing to do, right.
To steal somebody's idea, no matter how small it is.
But if it was just some tiny little thing, yeah, I'd let it slide or I'd talk about it later.
Like, hey, that wasn't so cool.
It was my idea.
Like, could you not do that in the future?
I think that would be my approach, but really case by case for this one, I think.
Definitely.
Yeah, it could be not worth it to rock the boat.
But yeah, if this becomes a pattern of behavior with this coworker, that's not good.
I think we're in agreement on that one.
The next one.
Do you want to read the next one, Indiana?
Sure.
Let's do.
Okay.
Imagine you were on a plane.
Somebody asks you.
So typically let's say it's a big plane and there's the aisle seat, the middle seat and the window seat.
So that's three.
And of course, the middle seat is the worst seat.
You have the aisle seat, but the person sitting next to you asks if they can have the aisle seat and you get the middle seat.
No other context.
Would you just give up your seat?
What, you know, is that a reasonable request?
Do you feel like because you've been asked, you shouldn't do it?
What would you feel about this scenario?
I hate when people ask me these kinds of things because I think I'm too nice of a person sometimes.
And sometimes I just agree even when I, don't want to do it.
And then later I regret it.
It would depend on the reason for sure.
Like you said, with no context, so no context, somebody just randomly asked me, I want to sit there.
Can I sit there?
Then I would say, no, I need the aisle.
I think especially like I usually fly between Korea and Canada.
So that's eight or nine or 10 hour flight, depending on the direction that I'm traveling in.
So that's like a super long time.
And Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in the middle for that long.
So I think just immediately, without any reason, about why the person wants to sit in that seat, I would say no, and then probably put my headphones on and try to ignore that person for the rest of the flight.
Right.
But if there were some special reason, like if there's a medical condition, maybe that person has to get up and go to the bathroom a million times, or maybe they have a child or something.
I don't know.
Some special reason. then yeah, I think generally I try to be helpful when I can.
So if there was some way that I could help somebody and it wasn't a huge inconvenience to me, then I probably would try my best to accommodate that.
But with no other explanation, then I would say no, I think.
So let me ask you one more possible context thing here.
I mean, it's not so much more background information, but you say, Oh, um, is there a reason?
And they just say, I really prefer the aisle seat.
And that's the one, you know, it's not medical.
It's just that they really feel very strongly about having the aisle seat.
Is that enough to like put you over the edge and be the nice guy?
So do I, I really prefer the aisle seat.
I'm sorry.
That's not enough.
I think in that kind of situation, snooze, you lose, right?
You, You didn't choose the aisle seat or you checked in too late or something.
I'm sorry.
It's first come first serve.
You can pay extra to upgrade your seat.
But yeah, it would have to be like some kind of special, special situation where I would try to accommodate that.
But just because you prefer it, it's not going to cut it.
Unfortunately, I'm not that nice.
I'm nice, but I'm not that nice.
Yeah.
The same for you, Indiana.
I think so.
Maybe it depends on my mood and if it's a short flight and somebody, just if they feel so strongly as to ask me, maybe I'll say, all right, I'll get some good karma and, you know, maybe something nice will happen to be later.
But I don't know.
Probably not.
But if I was in a good mood and it wasn't like South Korea Canada, there's no way.
That's too long of a flight.
Maybe I'll just be nice.
But I would feel like wow, I wish I could be so bold as to just ask to have the good seat.
I don't think I would ever do that unless there was like a really good reason.
You know yeah, the asking is wild to me.
I'm not that brave.
I don't think I could ask a stranger just for no reason to change.
I mean, there's no harm in asking right as long as you're not a jerk about the reaction.
I guess it's okay.
But that just wouldn't even cross my mind to ask.
I think I would just accept right from the start that yeah, That expression snooze, you lose.
I snoozed and I lost.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, let's go on to the next one.
Oh, this one is a good one.
You're at the store, at the checkout, and you're charged far less than the tagged price.
Do you speak up and tell the cashier or do you just quickly squirrel out of the store, run away, sneak out of the store and stay quiet?
I think it all comes down to like, for me, okay.
Is this, is this a giant box store?
Like uh, you know Macy's, or is this Walmart or I don't know some really huge corporation that makes a lot of money?
I would probably just say, well, it's the cost of doing business.
Sometimes your, uh, equipment makes a mistake here.
Your checkout.
Yeah.
It's up.
Sometimes you lose, right?
And I'd feel like, okay, I got to win.
But if it's like a small store, you know, a local store, there's only one location.
And it's like I don't want that place to go out of business because they you know their system goofed or made a mistake or their cashier messed up.
Like that's kind of, I don't know.
For me, I feel like sometimes it's like yeah, I would just feel really lucky if it was some, some really big store that I think rakes in tons of profits.
But yeah, it's kind of a depends on the size of the store.
And if I think this is actually going to impact them, um cause it's very impactful for me, potentially like wow, I'm saving so much money and like I'm not rich right.
Like this could really be beneficial for me right now.
So I think it would depend.
That would be my main like, uh, concern.
Is this actually going to really hurt the store's profits or not?
Um yeah, i don't know, i feel like, like that's kind of um hmm, i want to get free stuff or cheap stuff.
Am i just sort of justifying it so that i feel okay about it?
I don't know, but i do feel like that's immediately my feeling about it.
What do you think, andrew?
How would you, how would you proceed?
Yeah, that was my immediate thought as well.
I'd be concerned.
You know, if it's a mom and pop store, then definitely uh, i'd want to support them and i'd I wouldn't let that slide.
I'd also be concerned if it was an employee that made the error and not just like maybe, a barcode error.
So like if I knew the cashier would potentially get in trouble, then maybe I'd be more likely to go back.
But yeah, if it was like a big evil corporation.
You know, unfortunately it is true that a lot of these, at least in Canada and I know in the USA as well, a lot of these big box stores are.
They do a lot of shady stuff.
They don't treat their employees really well.
They don't pay their employees a fair wage in many situations.
They exploit the workers.
They exploit the customers.
In Canada there's been all these scandals about price fixing, where they work together to artificially set the price of bread.
This was a huge scandal where they're ripping us off on the prices of bread.
So that doesn't make me feel like any.
Any, I guess there's no good feelings, no goodwill between me and these big box stores.
So I think if I were shopping and then I checked out and I did everything correct, I wasn't stealing.
You know I I went through the cashier and I paid the bill.
And then later I noticed, well, I got this for free.
I'd be like, well, yeah, nice.
Sometimes you win.
Yeah, exactly.
Totally agree.
I think in that situation, yeah, I probably would just take the wind.
Yeah.
But again, it depends on like the item and how much, how much it was too.
Like I saw recently on Reddit, some guy on Amazon.
He ordered a graphics card for his computer and they accidentally sent him the wrong graphics card.
And they sent him this.
I don't know about graphics cards really, or GPUs I guess they're called but the GPU that he got sent was this really hard to find one?
And it was, A lot more like way, way, way more expensive.
And I think he also, I mean, I don't know if this is true or not.
It's just what I saw on the internet, but I think they also sent him too many.
So he ordered one, but he got a way better one.
And he also got like five or six or something.
So, and that's what he was asking.
It's like, what do I do guys?
Do I send these back or do I keep them?
And everybody on Reddit was like, keep it, keep it.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
I think a lot of people feel this way.
Especially Amazon, you know, notoriously terrible for our world.
So take the win.
Right.
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
Got to punch back when you can.
Okay.
Last one.
Now this one is more serious, I think.
And this one's a tough one.
I'm not sure.
What do you think?
Final one here.
And Indiana, why don't you read this last one for us?
This one is a bit serious.
So you find out, let's say the evidence that you have is there's no question about it.
This is definitely happening.
Your friend's partner, maybe their girlfriend, their boyfriend, their spouse is cheating on them.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to tell your friend and blow up their marriage, their relationship?
And are you going to keep it a secret because you don't want them to get hurt?
Yeah, serious situation.
I think like a friend, a close friend, even maybe like not that close of a friend, like just maybe even an acquaintance.
Hard to say, but at least for friends, of course, I think I would share that information.
I'm just trying to think about my best friends.
I wouldn't want my best friends to be taken advantage of in that kind of situation, so i think definitely i would share, share that info if i had that intel right.
How about you, indiana?
I mean, i wouldn't want to like wreck their marriage, but um, or wreck their relationship doesn't necessarily have to be a marriage, but i just think that's like so shady and i wouldn't want them to be living a lie almost.
So I think I definitely would tell.
And then later, if my friend were to find out that I knew and I didn't say anything, then that maybe could impact our friendship too.
So I'd have to think about that as well.
So I think, yeah, I would share it.
I wouldn't keep quiet on that.
How about you?
Totally agree.
It's worth it to have the truth and to know that your friend is not going to keep things hidden from you just to protect you.
I think that's...
Yeah, I think that's worth it.
What gets tricky, I think, is if the partner who's cheating on your friend is also your friend.
Then you're kind of between, okay, who am I faithful or loyal to?
In that scenario, I still think it's ultimately the best thing to do is that person needs to find out.
Maybe I would go to the cheating partner.
It's going to be the most uncomfortable conversation, but be like, I know what's happening.
You need to tell your partner, I don't want to do this.
Like, it's not my place.
You need to do this.
Right.
But that's also like, so, so much easier said than done, you know?
So.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These kinds of relationship problems suck.
And yeah, it reminds me of like when, when you have friends, like you're friends with both people, and then they break up and you sort of have to choose, like you're going to be friends with right.
That also sucks.
Like if the relationship sours and then the friend group can splinter.
These are just like really awkward social situations.
Thankfully, now that I'm getting older, it seems like they don't happen as much as they used to.
But in my 20s, when relationships were a lot more turbulent, seemed to happen from time to time.
Well, Indiana, I think we're pretty much like our morals are pretty much aligned.
I'd say it was just the parked car that maybe we differ on.
Other than that, I think we're pretty much the same.
I think so.
Which is good.
I mean, I guess I don't know if the aisle seat one, the airplane scenario, is so moral and more just like putting up boundaries and standing up for yourself.
But yeah, I'd say we're a couple of ethical folks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think so.
And now, of course, what we'd love to do is turn it over to our listeners.
So guys, we really want to hear your thoughts and opinions on these issues.
And the best place to share your opinion with us is on our Discord server.
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It's where the Q-Lips community gathers and we share. stories with each other.
We practice English together speaking and listening and reading and writing, all of the skills and we just grow our skills together.
So you can join the server for free.
The link is in the description for this episode, and we are looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
Okay.
Indiana, I know that your camera is dying.
You only have a few minutes of recording left, so we got to wrap things up.
But thanks so much for your help.
Of course.
Yeah, it was fun discussing, hashing out these ethical dilemmas with you, Andrew.
Yeah, it was surprisingly fun.
I agree.
So yeah, thank you, Indiana.
Take care.
And guys, we'll talk to you in the next episode.
Until then, bye-bye.
