Help me.

Question

'One of the problems with students working part-time is
that some of them can not
[ make the most of their studies / neglect their studies ]
focusing too much on their part-time jobs. '

In the above context, what is the difference between
'make the most of their studies' and 'neglect their studies'?

Does 'make the most of their studies' mean that they can not
gain good grades because they are too busy with their part time jobs?

Does 'neglect their studies' mean
a situation that they fail many courses and have to
repeat years?

hmm,,,

Thank you in advance.

Pieanne · Accepted Answer

In the above context, what is the difference between
'make the most of their studies' and 'neglect their studies'?

I'd say "make to most of their studies" means "achieve as much as they could", but not of their own will: they have many other things to attend to.

"Neglect their studies" sounds as if they (have to) choose something else over their studies.

In the first example you've given, ...'One of the problems with students working part-time is
that some of them can not
[ make the most of their studies / neglect their studies ]
focusing too much on their part-time jobs. '

... only "make the most of their studies" goes with "some of them cannot"

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you for your response. I made a big mistake at my first post.
I wanted to say this way.

'One of the problems with students working part-time is
that some of them
[ cannot make the most of their studies / neglect their studies ]
focusing too much on their part-time jobs. '

In the above context, what is the difference between
'cannot make the most of their studies' and 'neglect their studies'?

Does 'cannot make the most of their studies' mean that they can not
gain good grades because they are too busy with their part time jobs?

Does 'neglect their studies' mean
a situation that they fail many courses and have to
repeat years?

hmm,,,

Thank you in advance.

Pieanne · Answer

Does 'cannot make the most of their studies' mean that they can not
gain good grades because they are too busy with their part time jobs?
Yes, that they cannot study as much as they should/would like

(It's cannot/can't get good grades)

Does 'neglect their studies' mean
a situation that they fail many courses and have to
repeat years? I'don't know whether it has to imply they actually fail, but yes, that may happen.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you again for your response.
Your answer helped me a lot.
I think that 'neglect their studies' is stronger in meaning than 'cannot make the most of their studies'.
Hopefully you would agree with this.

By the way, speaking of 'neglect',
I consulted my English dictionary, which says that the basic meaning of the word is
'to give too little attention or care to'.

In my observation, 'neglect' (as a verb) falls into two types.

The first type takes a noun which should be taken care of.
For example, '--- one's favorite book', '--- one's computer', '--- one's family'
'--- one's child' and '--- one's health'.

The second type takes a noun which has something to do with 'social responsibility'.
For example, '--- one's duties', '--- one's obligation', '--- one's responsibility', '--- one's committment',
'--- one's work', '--- one's studies' and '--- one's promise'.

In a way, however, 'social responsibility' is something that should be taken care of. :-)

Do you know any other examples of both types of the verb?

(I like to analyze basic verbs of English this way. Is is too meticulous?)

Pieanne · Answer

I think that 'neglect their studies' is stronger in meaning than 'cannot make the most of their studies'.
Hopefully you would agree with this.

Yes. 'cannot make the most of' implies that they whish they could, but are somehow prevented from doing so. 'Neglect' seems to be more of their own free will.

Could you be more specific as to the second part of your post?

Anonymous · Answer

>Could you be more specific as to the second part of your post?

Sorry for my poor explanation.

I'd like to make generalization of the usage of 'neglect' so that I can use the verb more
correctly and learn about it more efficiently.

I think that there are two types of 'neglect'.

The first type of 'neglect' is related to 'something that should be cared'.

For example, we often see 'you should not neglect your computer', 'it is not a good thing to neglect your favorite book',
'we should not neglect our health' and 'it is wrong to neglect your family'.

Someone's computer, someone's favorite book, somene's health and someone's family,,,
certainly all these things should be taken care of.

Could you give me sore examples of this type of 'neglect'?

The second type of 'neglect' is related to 'social responsiblity'.

For example, we often see 'don't neglect your duty', 'he neglected
his obligation to love and cherish his wife', 'some students neglect their studies focusing too much on their part-time jobs'
and 'don’t neglect your homework if you are a school boy'.

Don't you think, in these examples, that someone's duty, obligation, studies and homework have much to do with 'social responsibility'?

Could you give some examples of this type of 'neglect'?

Help me.

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