Roswalle's Workstation

As your vocabulary grows, you start to find words that are similar to ones you already know. Sometimes a dictionary can help you to understand how similar words are different, but it’s not always that easy. Let’s look at this time to a pair of those words that I know people have trouble with.

Let me start by telling you about a student who is in his late 30s and has a good job as a computer programmer with a big company, he was offered a different job a at small start-up company. He decided to change jobs and told me, “It’s risky. I hope he will not ‘repent’ it later.” I wouldn’t choose the word “repent” for this situation I think “regret” is a better choice.

When you repent something you did, you feel sorry for what you did. But I thing “regret” is more than simple “regret” because you feel so sorry that you decide to make changes in your life so that you’ll never do it again. I saw a program on TV about a man who teaches people how to make their homes safe from burglars. He used to be a burglar himself. One day several years ago he decided to stop stealing; he repent his life of crime. Did he regret stealing from people? Of course he did but he also repented because he changes his life and promised himself never steal again. My student can’t repent his decision to change jobs. Changing jobs is not a bad thing; you can only repent the bad things you’ve done. I hope he doesn’t regret his decision, but only time will tell.
Another way they are different is that you can regret things that you didn’t do. For example I regret not studying harder in the University; I regret I didn’t work harder, if I were still a student, then I might be able to repent and start studying harder. You can’t repent things you didn’t do you didn’t do any mistakes; you didn’t do anything wrong. Be sure to read my blog every time you can, if not you might regret it later. See you next time. Bye.