This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 768.
Do you recall or do you remember?
Find out how to talk about memories in English.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast downloaded more than 50 million times.
We believe in connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
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Today, we answer a listener question.
What's the difference between recall and remember?
Plus, get a new bonus word and find out why the phrase I don't recall is famous in our culture.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How's it going today?
Hey, Lindsay.
I'm doing well.
I'm doing well.
How are you?
Oh, I'm good.
It's, you know, it's the middle of the summer and actually yesterday was the 4th of July.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What'd you do for the 4th of July, Michelle?
Well...
On the 4th of July, I believe I was.
I mean, I don't believe I know because it was just yesterday.
I was on a plane.
I was on a plane because I went to New Orleans.
Oh, New Orleans.
What a cool place to visit.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, I'll tell you about it soon.
How about you, Lindsay?
What did you do? camping in maine i went to acadia national park did some hiking and some camping and then i i went to some breweries in portland portland maine yeah i did a new england new england summer vacation so it was fun Good times.
We got to relax.
You know, we work so hard.
We got to take some time out, get away from, do our digital detox, right?
And get away from the computer.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah.
So Michelle, let's dive into a couple of awesome reviews, awesome people that reviewed us in iTunes, and say thank you to them.
Who reviewed us?
All right.
Well, thank you to Ajux D from Guatemala and someone, I'm sorry, I can't read your name, from Japan.
And thank you to Goodheart001 from Australia.
Yes.
Yeah, and thank you to Rafael Damiati from Brazil, Harpreet2326 from India, Ayman Mohamed from Jordan, Jin from Taiwan, Sue Gu from Taiwan, Debra Vasconcelos from Brazil, Tiny Yue from Taiwan, Junior Ferreira from Brazil, Fad Salim from USA and Alonso.
Alonso Frere from Brazil.
Wow.
Awesome.
Catch your breath.
I know.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
Guys, you're awesome.
Thank you so much for reviewing us.
We so appreciate those reviews.
And if you haven't done it yet, go over and leave our show a review, guys.
Okay?
Cool.
Please do.
Thank you.
So, Michelle, what was the exciting thing that we announced the other day?
Well, 50 million downloads.
50 million downloads.
That's not even a number.
Like, what is that?
That's not even a number.
It's like you can't even imagine.
Yeah.
Thank you guys so much for being fans of the show.
It keeps us so motivated to see you guys reviewing, listening, downloading, subscribing, especially.
That is the most important thing you can do to help us is subscribe to the show.
Okay, so guys, that's the first thing we want to ask you to do.
Let's celebrate 50 million downloads.
Go ahead and hit subscribe to the show in your podcast player.
And what's the other thing we asked our listeners to do yesterday, Michelle?
We want you to tell one friend about the show and tell them how to listen to it, right?
So that helps us build our community.
Exactly.
What kind of person should they tell?
The cool person.
The cool people, only the cool kids.
The people that you feel would enjoy the show really get something from it.
Like definitely tell those people about it because, you know, we'd love to.
We'd love to help everyone.
Exactly.
We want to help people who understand and really get the phrase connection, not perfection.
That doesn't resonate with everyone, right?
Some people actually do want to memorize grammar phrases and stick with their textbooks and you know like grind it out.
But we don't want to do that here.
And you guys want to get inspired for your English and focus on connection, not perfection.
So if you know someone who wants to do the same thing, then share the show with them.
Yes, for sure.
Yeah, exactly.
And also remember guys going over to allearsenglishcom forward, slash bridge to get the seven simple secrets to connection in English.
There's a very cool free video lesson over there waiting for you.
Okay.
Okay, Michelle, so what's your earliest memory?
I'm going to ask you a quick question.
Are you ready?
We're going to shift gears here.
Okay, you're ready.
So what is your earliest memory that you can recall?
I remember sitting in this is such a weird first memory sitting in a class in preschool and sitting like I remember we were all sitting in a circle and we all had, just like our legs out or sitting cross-legged and I remember my legs were out and I remember seeing a bug crawl on the floor and I remember stepping on that bug and I think I was wearing a pink sandal.
That's my earliest memory.
That's a weird one.
Killing a bug, right?
That's very vivid.
That's very vivid.
Wow.
You were how old?
Maybe three.
Wow.
That's cool.
So you have a good memory.
I'm impressed.
I actually don't.
Like that's like the one thing I remember.
And then like the whole everything else is a blur.
Yeah.
What about you?
Do you have one?
Yeah, I remember once driving down to Delaware with my dad.
We were on an adventure and we were in the Volvo, which eventually became my first car.
But this was back in like 1984. five or something.
I must have been about four.
And we're driving on the highway and we're headed towards Delaware to see my grandmother.
And it was really late at night.
And I remember just feeling like this is an adventure.
This is so fun.
And I think that's part of what inspired me to go on adventures, you know.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's so funny how those little early memories can really inspire who we become.
It's really interesting.
For me, it's a bug killer.
But you're a bug killer.
I don't like bugs ever since.
Yeah.
All right.
So I asked you there, Michelle, what is the earliest memory that you can recall?
Could I have asked you what's the earliest memory you can remember?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Of course.
Right.
Because basically they mean something pretty similar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So today, Andreas asked us a good question about some small differences between these words.
He wanted to know the difference between recall and remember.
So yeah, they're the same, but they're also.
They have nuanced differences and they're used in slightly different places.
Sometimes.
Okay.
So let's read the listener's question, Andreas' question, and then let's answer it.
All right.
Here we go.
Hey, Lindsay.
Hey, Michelle.
I really enjoy listening to your podcast.
Thank you.
Since you like specific questions, here are two.
You're right.
We do like those.
Okay.
We do.
What is the difference between recall and remember?
I'm sure you'll be able to give some clarifying examples, as you always do.
Thank you very much.
Keep on going.
Best regards from Germany, Andreas.
Oh, very cool.
Love those specific questions, guys.
Again, if you have a specific question, write it in to lindsay at allearsenglishcom and we'll try to feature you on the show if it's a good question.
Okay.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, Andrea's also asked another question, but today we're going to focus in on this topic of the vocab words recall and remember and we're going to add a few extra ones in here for you guys.
But first, Michelle, the pitfalls.
Let's go through the pitfalls.
What are the pitfalls?
What does a pitfall mean?
Something where you could make a little bit of a mistake.
Oh, yeah.
Mistakes to avoid, right?
What's the first one?
The first one is remember versus remind, right?
Those things are not the same.
Not the same.
And we did an episode on this, guys.
So you should know it.
So episode 360, you can download that right now.
And just go through that episode.
But real quickly, what's the difference?
Michelle, what is remember?
Remember is you're actively grabbing the memory in your head.
And remind is you're telling someone else to remember to do something.
Exactly.
You're telling someone else.
So that's a really important difference, right?
And is this a mistake you've heard students make?
Yeah, I think that this one's pretty confusing.
I mean, well, it can be unless you understand it.
But yeah, I've heard this mistake.
Exactly.
So be careful, guys.
And we have a second pitfall.
False friend alert.
We have a false friend alert.
So in Spanish the word recordar I'm losing my accent, but that word in Spanish is as far as I know, means recordar.
But in English, you can't just say record when you want to remember.
So if you are translating literally, if you're falling for this false friend, then you might be saying record when you mean to say remember.
Okay?
Right.
But what is record?
Record.
Record is to write something down, right?
So taking notes or even hitting record on an audio recorder.
Right.
Right now, we're recording this episode using Audacity, right?
Yeah.
And then do you journal at night?
No.
I don't.
I always think I'm going to.
I bought a journal at the beginning of the year and it's, of course, one page full.
What about you?
I actually do.
I do a bit of a gratitude practice every night.
I try to.
I want to do that.
Yeah.
I don't...
It really.
It makes a difference if you actually think about what you're writing, but if you're so like write it so quickly and then move on, it's kind of I don't know.
It doesn't really do the trick.
You got to soak it in, soak in the memory, soak in the gratitude.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So here's where we could use record.
Again, I record my thoughts every night in a journal, right?
Record.
So a couple different places to use record, but it doesn't mean to remember, guys, okay?
So don't fall into the pit.
Watch out for those pitfalls, okay?
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So, Michelle, should we answer Andreas's question?
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
OK, so what does it mean?
Recall versus remember.
I mean, what do you think?
Go ahead.
So, yeah.
So, I mean, they do mean basically the same thing.
But recall, it's used more in legal or professional spaces.
Right.
So in a courtroom, the prosecutor asks the defendants.
Do you recall the time you left your home on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017?
And, you know, it's funny.
I don't know if you remember this Michelle, but the phrase, I don't recall was made famous during the Iran-Contra affair.
And I remember because it was a phrase... It became like a household phrase as kind of a joke.
In this episode, guys, we will link to an article in the Chicago Tribune from 1990.
So this goes way back, but...
You're going to see a transcription of excerpts from President Ronald Reagan at the time, his testimony when he was a defense witness, and also other people on his team use the phrase I don't recall like over and over and over again.
So now it's kind of a cultural joke a little bit.
I mean, you know about this, right, Michelle?
I don't recall.
Right.
What does it kind of mean now culturally?
Like when someone says that in court, what does that kind of mean?
Like that maybe they're hiding something.
Yeah right yeah, that they're avoiding the, that they're guilty, basically like exactly.
It kind of means that they're guilty exactly because i remember i mean i remember my parents joking around about this phrase in our home when i was super young, like i guess i was about nine or ten at that time.
Um, it's just it's in our cultural conversation now, so that's important to know about that phrase.
Really interesting Yeah.
Yeah.
So, Michelle, but what is one kind of important difference?
There is a kind of one big difference between recall and remember.
Okay, so remember is to, oh, oh, we didn't even do remember.
Oh, we didn't do remember, did we?
What is remember?
What is remember?
Just real quick, guys.
So to think of something again.
So like, I remember the 90s so vividly.
Yeah, exactly.
Or it could be to retain something in your memory.
So, there's a few definitions that are related, really similar, right?
It's to think of something again or to retain something in your memory, right?
For example…
Uh, you know, remember that you have an appointment next week.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm telling you, remember you have an appointment.
Don't forget.
Okay.
Right, right, right.
Or to have something come to your mind again.
Like I just remembered that he's coming to visit tonight.
Okay.
Exactly.
But there is one kind of important difference.
So, as we said before, the first difference is that I don't recall or recall is used more in like courtrooms, legal situations, more official things.
And what's the second kind of big difference?
Okay.
The second big difference is...
Oh, yeah.
Sometimes you... Wait.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Oh, that's okay.
I'll talk about it.
That's okay.
So, basically, you can substitute not to forget with remember but not with recall.
So, this is an example that I found from EnglishStackExchange.com.
So an example is you're going to the store and your wife tells you, please don't forget to pick up the diapers.
Okay.
You could also say please remember to pick up the diapers, but you can't use recall for this right.
You can't say, please recall to pick up the diapers.
No, that's weird.
Okay, there we go.
Thanks, Lindsay.
No problem.
I mean, that's one that I hadn't thought about until I Googled it a little bit and checked it out.
But that's true, right?
That makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, that's interesting.
Yeah.
So again, the biggest differences are what, Michelle?
Okay.
So recall is used more in formal situations like legal situations or journalism.
Yeah, sure.
And then the last thing we said was that you can't always interchange them, right?
Like when you're trying to say don't forget, you can't stick in recall there.
You can only use remember.
Okay.
Right, right, right.
I think we have a few other fun ones that we could give our listeners here.
Okay, so should we start?
Yeah, let's do it.
What's the first one?
The first one is to reminisce.
I like this one.
I love this one.
I reminisce all the time.
You do?
I know.
I feel like sometimes I just like live in the past.
I know.
Me too.
Well, what does it mean to reminisce?
It means basically to go through old memories.
So, it could be verbally or with videos or scrapbooks or just looking at photos and telling stories.
That's to reminisce, right?
So, like, let's try it out.
So, Lindsay, so when you see your friends from college, what do you reminisce about?
Oh, just the easy lifestyle of college.
You know late night pizza parties, spring break, you know the typical stuff.
Right, right, right.
I was reminiscing so much.
I mean, I had a bad case of just reminiscing but kind of feeling depressed about it, because back in May was a year since I began my trip around the country, around the US.
And for our listeners who are in the course, The Secrets of the Connected Communicator.
You guys know this.
And When that year anniversary came around, I was a little bit depressed.
I was like, oh, my God, a year from today.
Last year, I was leaving on this amazing adventure.
It's just hard when those year anniversaries come along.
Oh, I know.
I know.
Trust me, I know.
I'm like a very nostalgic person.
I could imagine that.
Yeah.
My husband sometimes has to tell me to stop it.
He's like, live in the moment.
It's hard, isn't it?
I guess what it means is you know we need to keep creating amazing experiences.
You know, every year, all the time.
We can't just have that one amazing experience and then always be looking back to it.
We got to keep creating our lives, make them awesome.
Right?
That's right.
Yeah.
What's another cool one that we could throw in there, guys?
Or Michelle?
So are we doing it to look back?
Yeah.
To look back.
Casual, conversational, right?
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
So, Michelle, when you look back on your years in New York City, I mean, what are you most proud of?
Um, well, probably the fact that I took full advantage of the city and really immersed myself.
Yeah.
And usually this would be used more like when you're not in New York anymore.
Yeah, right, right, right.
But just an example.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Just an example.
So looking back, super common, super conversational phrasal verb there, guys.
So write that down.
Yes, yes, absolutely.
And the last one is what?
The last one is to treasure.
Oh, I love this.
I love this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this one is to hold in great importance, right?
So when you recall something.
Yeah, this can also be used to not even about recalling things, but to be about like talking about your values, right?
Like I actually we had a meetup for all ears English in Boston last night.
And there was a a woman from China there.
And she said, I treasure my time, right?
Or I treasure my freedom.
So she actually did a cross country trip to this summer.
And she used that not so much to talk about her memories, but to talk about what she values.
But this is another good way to talk about it to treasure a memory.
Okay, absolutely.
So Michelle, what would you say is your most treasured memory from childhood?
Oh, so many to choose from, right?
Yeah.
What was my most treasured?
I would say going on vacations with my family.
We did.
We tried to do a vacation every year.
And I mean, you know, we were lucky to be able to do that.
And it really Yeah, I think that that made me who I am today with traveling.
So I would say that overall that was that.
What about you?
Yeah.
So something similar for me, it was skiing with my parents on Sundays.
I mean, we used to always go skiing.
We got the half day deals and it was fun.
I mean, some days I didn't want to go, but we always went and I always had a nice time.
So I treasure those memories.
Yeah.
Good.
And there are other ones, right, guys?
So this category of talking about memories, thinking back, you could say reflect recollect, to know something by heart.
I mean, there's a lot of different words we could teach you guys, but we don't have time to do them all today.
So at least learn the words that we learned today, write them down, practice them and start to use them.
Okay?
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
Exactly.
So guys, if you want to save 50 and get the transcripts from today delivered every week to your inbox, go to allearsenglishcom.
Forward slash, subscribe.
All right.
Very cool.
Okay, Michelle.
So that wraps it up for today.
Thanks for hanging out.
Awesome, Lindsay.
All right.
Well, have a great one.
And yeah, let's live in the moment.
Live in the moment.
Create new awesome experiences, right?
That's right.
That's right.
Well, thank you for listening, everyone.
Have a good day.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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