BBC News Review: Anti-diversity Google engineer fired 2022

July 7, 2022



Neil and Dan teach you the language the world’s media is using to discuss this story:

A software engineer working for Google, who criticised the company’s diversity policy in an internal memo, says he’s been sacked for perpetuating gender stereotypes.

James Damore had claimed there were biological causes for men and women having different preferences and abilities, which might explain the lack of women in leadership and technical roles.

Google has said it won’t discuss individual cases.

[Cover image: GETTY IMAGES]

Key words and phrases

slams
criticises strongly

contentious
causing argument or disagreement

hits a nerve
upsets someone

Try our quiz to see how well you’ve learned today’s language: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/english-you-need/unit-27/session-2

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27 Comments
  1. Diversity is the new purity.

  2. Your lessons are so gripping. I'm totally hooked on 'em. I love your British accents.

  3. Are you a white man that wants to work at google? Well that's too bad. They got too many white men so if you apply at google you will be discriminated against.

  4. what wrong with http://www.bbc.co.uk ? I can't access

  5. 3:57 …"between Neil and I"…. Mustn't it be …"between Neil and I"…?

  6. I love this section!

  7. I love Dan's stories! 🙂

  8. That smart engineer is the first rational person who dared to speak frankly and criticize the "FAKE" gender equality .

    Across the long human history we haven't seen women established dynasties, started wars, took the lead for new adventures, solved radical problems, or shaped the mankind history, except in a very few cases, and nowadays, after calling for the "so-called" gender equality for more than a century, we still see very limited number of women took the pioneer or even became equal to man in number in fields, like aviation, war fields, even in many sports like football and martial arts, when they do them there matches are not interesting, why? the answer is pretty as simple as this. The biological and physical differences between man and woman, which many folks under the leadership of the western values, don't believe in it, and they keep resist these crystal clear facts.

    Seriously, I am not anti-feminist or underestimating the woman's value at all. I had female managers over me in my career path, and some of them I learnt a lot from them, but that because they we worked in a field where women can work in, which is the software business applications. So, this is the point, we must confess that some areas women can participate in and do great job, and some they can't because of their nature, and this is not a hypothetical assumption, as mentioned above, they are the history, the current facts, scientific fact who say this not my opinion or that engineer's opinion.

    With my all respect to every woman,

    Regards,

  9. Reply
    Thảo Huỳnh Thạch July 7, 2022 at 9:37 am

    😘😘😘😘😘😘

  10. Reply
    Константин Ольховиков July 7, 2022 at 9:37 am

    Guys! Do you acknowledge the existence of men and women?

  11. Being diverse just to be diverse isn't good

  12. The title of this piece propagates a lie. James Damore, the engineer in question, supports diversity. He is not "anti-diversity". He is probably not even anti Google's diversity policy. He was objecting to the culture which denies open discussion. He only presented accepted scientific facts about sexual differences. He was fired for speaking the truth. He has been misrepresented in nearly all the mainstream media, including here. Sad.

  13. Reply
    Khonyoung Parents July 7, 2022 at 9:37 am

    i really enjoy watching and learning a new word from this video. thank you.

  14. Reply
    Khonyoung Parents July 7, 2022 at 9:37 am

    thank you for sharing knowledge to us.

  15. Is contentious synonym for controversial ?

  16. Thanx

  17. Hello and welcome to News Review the program where we show you how to use the language from the latest news stories in your everyday English.

    Hi, I'm Neil, joining me today is Dan. Hi Dan.

    "Hello"

    What is our story?

    Our story is about a gender stereo types and diversity.

    Gender stereo types and diversity
    Let's find out more from this BBC Radio 4 bulletin.

    So, basically an engineer working for Google has sent an internal email saying the reason that men and women are good at different jobs is because of biological differences.
    This means according to him that gender equality policies don't work. However he has been strongly criticized for this and he may have lost his job.

    Ok, well, you have been looking around the websites of the world and finding out how this story is being talked about and you've picked out three expressions we need to know.

    Certainly have. we have 'Slams',' contentious ' and 'hits a nerve'

    ( ) your first headline.

    So, the first headline comes from US News.com and says: Google CEO slams Memo on Gender as Employee Reportedly Fired

    So, Slams: meaning criticizes strongly.
    Dan, as ever I'm a bit confused here cause I thought that a Slam was something like this.

    Well, you're not wrong Neil, to slam something is to hit with a force that's the physical meaning.
    When you criticizes somebody, it's a bit like attacking them or hitting them with a physical force. So the metaphorical meaning of Slam is to criticize somebody.

    Yeah, this is an example of a word that is used in newspapers, websites the media.
    but we would never use it in a conversation.
    It would just sound really weird.

    No, it's a word that newspapers like. it's short, it's punch and it's dramatic.
    but yeah, we wouldn't do that.

    So, for example if I was describing that situation the other day when you once again stole my coffee. emmmm, I wouldn't say I slammed Dan for stealing my coffee. would I?
    What would I say?

    No, you would use ( ), you might say Have a go. so for example Neil had a go on me for stealing his coffee.

    Yeah, yeah. can you stop doing that please?

    Sorry, what I quite like is that you use the opposite word afterward you complimented me for stealing your coffee or you flattered me for stealing your coffee because I did it so ( ).

    Ok, shall we move on to our next headline?

    So, our next headline comes from The DailyNews.com and says:
    Google fires engineer behind contentious diversity manifesto slamming women in tech.

    Ok, we've got the word Slamming in there again.
    but the one we're looking at is Contentious meaning causing argument or disagreement.

    Yes, this is a Latin based word, originally meant Obstinate or Argumentative.
    Contentious is an adjective and we also have a verb contend and we have noun Contention and you often see in a collocation A point of contention.
    For example, It is a point of contention between Neil and I who gets the seat in the news review captain's chair.

    It is..

    You usually win.

    I've got it today.

    No contention today.

    No.

    Ahh, this is neither formal or informal word

    No, it's a neutral word. and interestingly it can be used as a personal adjective as well.
    So, you can say that someone is contentious generally. I ( ) they like arguing there argumentative or they're ( ).

    Yeah, we can also say Contentious issue or a point of contention.

    Yeah, absolutely. so a contentious issue of these days might be things like abortion, same sex marriage and climate change. all contentious issues. Both sides of the argument are very strongly about there side.

    and a point of contention? that's slightly different. isn't it?

    A point of contention means that something is up for debate that hasn't been decided yet.

    Yeah. it's still got that sense of debate or argument.

    Yeah.

    Let's move on to our final next headline.

    Alright, our final headline comes from NBCNEWS.com and says:
    Google Manifesto Hits a Nerve in Silicon Valley

    Hits a nerve: upsets someone.

    Yeah. have you ever had a tooth( )? or have you ever had a row nerve or an exposed nerve ( ).

    So the bit between the gum and the tooth.

    Exactly. have you ever accidentally touched that?

    Yeah. so, that very strongly painful and immediate reaction is a physical meaning of touching a nerve.
    Now the metaphorical meaning is directly related to this.
    When you say something that upset somebody,
    often something that they might be quite sensitive about.
    I've got a story about this, personal, I hope ( ).
    I have a friend who came back from a Spanish holiday and enjoyed lots of excellent Spanish food and she put on a little bit of weight. and when I saw her, I was so happy to see her, I did a hug and lift thing you know you wrap your arms and try to pick them up like that. unfortunately, I couldn't lift her and I made this sort of Oooph!! noise.
    and she got very sensitive about it because she knew that she put on a weight.

    So, it hit a raw nerve.

    It hit a raw nerve with her.
    now the additional Raw here, not like raw food but Raw meaning exposed, unprotected.
    so makes the expression even stronger.

    Hit a raw nerve.

  18. Very good news review!

  19. Great news!

  20. Thank you.

  21. Of course there are biological causes for femininity and masculinity and they favour different jobs. How ridiculous the world is becoming. How can there be anything wrong with holding that opinion?

  22. Reply
    James de lo oeste July 7, 2022 at 9:37 am

    The meat of matter is that the men have predisposition to develop the logical reasoning

  23. where can i find the subtitles, please?

  24. I've got a phrase for people learning English: Liberal Brainwashing

    It's true that men and women are different and have different interests. That's why there aren't that many male Daycare workers. While it's true they're stereotyped as Paedophiles, Men usually pick more dangerous Jobs like off shore oil rigging or Jobs that require more muscle that causes back problems later in life like my Brother is a Carpenter that has to lift heavy Wood or technical Jobs that had nothing to do with Digital electronics like Auto Repair. It's just that women are usually happier in artistic and human resource jobs and the few one that want to be engineers, fine, more power to them, but they are also the minority that apply because it's not common for Women to want to build machines.

    It's not realistic to expect a one to one penis to vagina ratio in engineering without telling male applicants "You have a penis, we want more engineers with vaginas, so you're not getting the job".

  25. can i text English under the screen please.

  26. thanks for these beneficial words 🙂

  27. Reply
    samsonjerome anthony July 7, 2022 at 9:37 am

    This guy has to shave and hair cut also, I am afraid but presentation is good

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