Bob's Short English Lessons
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Learn the English Phrases TO KEEP BUSY and BUSY WORK
Bob's Short English Lessons
09/01/21 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP BUSY and BUSY WORK
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to keep busy. This is a phrase that we mostly use when talking about people who are retired. My mom is retired. She worked for a long time, and around age 65, she decided to retire, but she likes to keep busy. In English, when you say that someone wants to keep busy, it usually means they don't have a job, but they still like to do things. My mom, in order to keep busy, volunteers at what's called a thrift store. A thrift store is where people donate clothes, and then the people who work there put prices on them and sell them and the money's used for a good cause. So in order to keep busy, my mom likes to work at the thrift store. We could also say she likes to keep herself busy. That's another way of saying it.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase busy work. Busy work is any kind of work that you do that isn't really productive. It's work that you do for the sake of doing the work. Here's the best example I can think of. Sometimes, when I give my students lessons, I try to make it very, very effective. I want them to learn a lot. I don't want to just give them a bunch of busy work. If I was to give them busy work, that would mean I would make them practice things they already know. I would make them do things that weren't teaching them anything new. I would be giving them busy work. It would just look good. If the principal came in the classroom, it would look like my students were working, but they would just be doing busy work. If I was making them review things that they learned last year, or if I was making them do something over and over again, it would just be busy work.
So to review, to keep busy, or to keep oneself busy, means to do things similar to work, to stay active, to do activities, especially when you are retired or when you don't have a job, maybe you just don't need to work. Maybe you have so much money, you don't need to work, but in order to keep busy, you find little things to do. And busy work is any kind of work that just isn't productive. It's work that you do for the sake of work. I hope that makes sense.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Roman and the comment is this. "Hi, Bob, many people shy away from public speaking. "So do I, thanks for the lesson." And my response was, "The funny thing is that once you've done it for a while, "it becomes a lot less stressful. "I think a lot of things in life are that way."
So the funny thing is when I replied to Roman, my first reply, I actually said, "Once you've done it for a while, "it becomes a lot more stressful." I typed the wrong word, so I corrected it, but I thought Roman would probably have a bit of a laugh or maybe be a little confused by that initial response.
But yes, there are many things in life that are just easier once you do it for a while. It doesn't mean it's easy to do that thing. It doesn't mean that there's no stress involved. Usually, there's lots of stress, but I have found that if I can push myself, if I can get to a point where I convince myself to do something stressful, instead of shying away from it, great use of the phrase, by the way, Roman, sometimes, you just do it for a while and you become good at it.
Learn the English Phrases TO BE IN HOT WATER and TO MUDDY THE WATER
Bob's Short English Lessons
07/16/21 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE IN HOT WATER and TO MUDDY THE WATER
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be in hot water. We sometimes also say to get in hot water. When you are in hot water, you are in trouble. When you lie to someone and then they find out that you lied to them, you might be in hot water. If I was to say to Jen that I was going out to visit a friend, and instead I went to the casino and started gambling, if Jen found out, I would definitely be in hot water. By the way, I would never do that. I would never lie to Jen. That's just a bad thing to do when you're in a relationship. But certainly, when you do something that someone doesn't want you to do, that person could certainly be annoyed with you and you would then be in hot water. Not a good situation to be in.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to muddy the water. When you muddy the water, it's when there's a conversation and you introduce new information that makes everyone a little bit confused. Here's a good example. Let's say we were trying to figure out who stole something from the kitchen cupboard. Well, stole is a strong word. Who took something from the kitchen cupboard. My example is usually the last cookie. We're trying to figure out who took the last cookie. Well, if I said to my son, "Did you eat a cookie last night?" and then I said to my daughter, "Did you eat a cookie last night?" and then if my other son started to talk about how much he likes brownies and whether we should be buying brownies, and if we had brownies instead of cookies, then this wouldn't be a problem, I would say that he is starting to muddy the waters. He's starting to introduce information that has nothing to do with the current conversation, and it's making everyone a little bit confused. So he's starting to muddy the water. We also sometimes say, and I just said it, to muddy the waters.
Anyways, to review. When you are in hot water, if you are in hot water, or if you get in hot water, it means that you are in trouble of some kind, usually because of something you did, maybe a lie or maybe just something that you did to someone. And when you muddy the water, it means that you introduce information that kind of confuses all the people who are having a conversation or a discussion.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Athanasios, and the comment is this. "Thanks for these useful phrases, Teacher Bob. I have a funny feeling that Teacher Bob is going to buy a pizza for the whole family tomorrow at night. LOL! Bon appetit, sir." And my response is this. "Your guess is very close, although it might actually be tonight," which today is Friday, if you're watching this on Friday. "We usually buy pizza on Friday nights, about two times per month. It's the most reasonably priced food from a restaurant."
So thanks, Athanasios. That was a great use of the phrase a funny feeling or the term a funny feeling, but that was excellent. Yes, good job. I was gonna talk a little bit about the pizza that we get every once in a while. I've talked about from time to time, that sometimes, about twice per month, we'll go and we'll buy pizza. I get it from the restaurant that I went into when I made my video of how to speak English at a restaurant on my other channel, because I feel like it's a good idea to support them. They helped me make a video that was quite successful, so I like to go there and buy pizza at least twice a month, sometimes longer.
Learn The English Phrases TO DUMB DOWN and DUMB LUCK
Bob's Short English Lessons
05/20/22 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DUMB DOWN and DUMB LUCK
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to dumb down. Now I think you know what the word dumb means. It's kind of an insult for someone who's not very smart. If you say he's dumb, you're saying that that person isn't intelligent. So it's not a nice thing to say. But we do use the phrase to dumb down to talk about making something simpler, and easier to understand. Think about it this way. Sometimes you read a book, and it's a really good book, and it's very complex, and a little bit hard to understand, and then they make it into a movie, and then they dumb down the story a little bit, so it's easier for people to understand. Sometimes too they'll make instructions for something, and the instructions might be really hard to understand. So they might say to someone at that company, hey, before we ship that product, someone needs to dumb down the instructions. You need to make them simpler, and easier to understand.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase dumb luck. So luck, when you're lucky, it's just means that something goes your way for no reason. And dumb luck is the same thing basically. A good example would be this. Normally I take a certain road to go to work, but the other day I took a different road, and then I ended up finding out the road I normally take, there was an accident there, and I would've been stuck. So it was just dumb luck that I took the right road. There was no reason when I got to the end of my driveway, I decided to go one way and not the other. It ended up being dumb luck that I just ended up going the way where there was no traffic, and no accident that would have held me up.
So to review, when you dumb down something, when you are going to dumb something down, it means you're going to make it simpler, and easier to understand. And when you have dumb luck, it just means that things went your way for some reason, usually just 'cause you got a little bit lucky.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Gill. Thanks, Bob, I like lilac. In Russian, we call it a bush, not a tree. Could you tell me what you call the color of that cat of yours in Canadian English, ginger or red? My response, we also sometimes call it a bush, lilac tree, lilac bush. I think it depends on how tall it is. Also, we would say it is an orange cat. So yeah, technically the lilac trees that I showed you in the last video, technically I think they would be a lilac bush. They look more like a bush than a tree, but we've always called them lilac trees, I think because they are taller than me.
And the cat, yeah, we don't usually call a cat like that a ginger cat. We would usually just say it's an orange cat. And the other name we have for it is Tabby. I think Tabby refers to the pattern of the fur on the cat. So I would've called that an orange Tabby cat.
Hey, an interesting thing is happening at work. For some reason, we are trying to figure out how we used to do all kinds of things in May and in June. Last year in May and June, we were learning from home. Two years ago in May and June, we were learning from home. So there's all these little activities, and things that we can do now that we can do in person. And as a staff, as teachers, we're trying to figure out how we used to do certain things. I was in a meeting this morning where a lot of people were saying, well, how did we do it three years ago the last time we did it? Or how did we do it three years ago? Who was in charge back t
Learn the English Phrases TO STRIKE ME THAT / TO STRIKE ME AS and TO STRIKE A BALANCE
Bob's Short English Lessons
05/12/21 • 3 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO STRIKE ME THAT or TO STRIKE ME AS and TO STRIKE A BALANCE
In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it strikes me that. This is a phrase that I used yesterday a couple of times when I was talking about the emojis that I like to choose, I said, well, I just choose emojis that strike me as cool. When something strikes you when you describe something as striking you in English, it literally means something hitting you, a ball can strike me in the face, hopefully that doesn't happen. But when something strikes you in the way that I used it, it means that you notice it or you've decided that it's cool. So I pick the emojis based on ones that strike me as cool, ones that I notice are cool or ones that I just think are cool when I see them. So they strike me as being cool.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to strike a balance. When you try to strike a balance, you're trying to create a solution to something. Usually you're trying to get two people to agree on something in a way where they're both happy but they don't both get exactly what they want. Sometimes there's three cookies and I have five children that want the cookies so in order to strike a balance, I cut the cookies in pieces and everyone gets a half and then I get a couple cookie halves too. But anyways, I'm not sure my math is correct but I think you understand what I mean when you strike a balance. If I wanted to strike a balance, I create a situation where everyone gets some of what they want, but not exactly what they wanted and hopefully everybody's happy.
So to review when something strikes you, it can be something that physically hits you like if my, one of my kids kicked a ball at me it could strike me in their head but it can also be used to talk about something that you've noticed. It might strike you as a little bit funny that there are goats behind me, I'm not sure you can see them today. Is that a goat right there? It might be. I know some of you noticed them yesterday. And of course the phrase to strike a balance means to create a situation where everyone gets a little bit of what they want but not exactly what they wanted but hopefully everyone's happy.
Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is a comment from Judit. And Judit says, thanks a lot, cameraman. My response was you're welcome. My camera moving skills are great when I want to show something but not so great when I want to put the camera back in the exact spot I took it from, this time it went quite smoothly.
So in my last video, I actually moved the camera while I was doing the lesson and I thought that maybe I should do that more. Maybe I should actually move the camera a little bit more so you can see more of the things that are happening right around me. I think maybe I scared the goats, maybe not. By the way, some of you thought they might be sheep, they do look a little bit like a type of sheep called a Dorper sheep but they are actually Boer goats.
Learn the English Phrases "to miss out" and "to miss the point"
Bob's Short English Lessons
04/19/23 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MISS OUT and TO MISS THE POINT
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you understand the English phrase, to miss out. When you miss out on something, it means you don't go to that thing or do that thing. Here's a good example. If I knew that tomorrow if I stayed after work, I would get free supper, I would say, I can't go. I'm going to miss out, because I have other things that I have to do. If someone said to me, hey, we're going to go see a Toronto Raptors game next week, Thursday night, this is fictional by the way, the Raptors aren't actually playing anymore, but I might say, oh, I'm going to have to miss out because I have other things that I need to do. So when you miss out, it simply means that you can't do something because you have to do something else, and then you miss out. You don't get to do it.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, to miss the point. When you miss the point, it means you don't understand something. Sorry, there was a loud truck there. You don't understand something or you misunderstand it. When you miss the point. If I said to my students, let me think of a good example here. If I said to my students, you should study chapter one, just in case, they might miss the point, and think that they're studying chapter one just because it's fun, when the point was there might be a quiz or test on it. Don't think I'm explaining this one really good. But when you miss the point, it means you don't understand something or you understand it wrong. If you watch this lesson, thinking that you are just going to learn two phrases, you've kind of missed the point. 'Cause the point of this lesson is to learn two phrases and to practice your listening skills and to watch me walk around and show you the town and to get to know me a bit better. So hopefully you don't miss the point.
So to review, to miss out means you don't do something because you can't go or you have other obligations. And to miss the point is to simply misunderstand something or to understand it wrong. Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Aline. "Hi Bob! Thanks a lot for another really nice video! And yeah, it's amazing to see and hear nature around you during the lessons." And my response, "Today's lesson will be in town, so no nature to speak of!"
But certainly, loud pickup trucks. I think that might have been in your field of view. I'm not 100% sure, there was a loud pickup truck there. Hey, today, by the way, thank you for the comment, Aline.
So today, I'm in front of an old building. This is actually an old feed mill. In fact, I think it says that somewhere way up there. I'm not sure if you can see it. It says Niagara Grain and Feed. This was a place that made feed for chickens and cows and pigs. But it has been abandoned for a long time. In fact, you can tell it's abandoned by looking at the flower beds in front of it. You can see they're a little bit overgrown. There's not very many nature sounds here. There's a lot of truck sounds. You can see it's overgrown. You can't even use the stairs.
There are signs here like no smoking and no dumping. So they don't want people to dump their garbage here. That's why there's a no dumping sign. But anyways, we used to get feed from here when my parents were dairy farmers. This was one of the places. You can see a big green grain bin, as well. This is one of the places where we got our feed, and it's right in town, by the way. It's smack dab in the middle of town, because it's located, on the other side of
Learn the English Terms GAME CHANGER and FAIR GAME
Bob's Short English Lessons
07/29/22 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms GAME CHANGER and FAIR GAME
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, a game changer. Game changer is a term we use, sorry, it looks like the garbage truck is here, picking up the garbage. I'll try to continue the lesson. Something is called a game changer when it makes the situation way better. Years ago, we didn't actually have garbage pickup on the farm. When I was a kid, we had to take our garbage to the dump. But when they started to do garbage pickup with the truck, it was a game changer for my parents. It meant that they had more time to work on the farm. They didn't have to drive to the dump once a week to drop off the garbage, so it was a game changer.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase fair game. When something or someone is fair game, it means it's okay to criticize or joke about them. Politicians are fair game. A lot of times comedians will make fun of politicians, because we consider them fair game, that it's okay to make jokes about them. Well, I guess that depends on what country you live in, but I'm not gonna get into that. For my English lessons, pretty much everything is fair game. Although, I usually don't do lessons on politics or religion. I avoid those. So I guess not everything is fair game when it comes to my lessons.
Anyways, to review, when something is a game changer, it means that it changes the situation, or changes your life in some way, that makes it a lot better. And when something is fair game, it means that it is okay to make fun of that person, or that thing, or to criticize them.
But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Mahmood. And I actually ran out here quickly to do this, Mahmood. "Hi, teacher, Bob. Thank you for the useful lesson. Why don't you take us near the road? Thank you, Mr. Bob." And my response, "I'll go out near the road today, when I make Friday's lesson, maybe."
So I am out here, and I ran out, because I really wanted to catch the garbage truck. As coincidence, as, sorry. The coincidence was that as I came out to make this lesson, I'm having trouble speaking English today, did you notice that? I saw the garbage truck down the road. So I ran to the end of my driveway, because I wanted to catch the garbage truck on the video. But yes, I'll do a video out here by the road, for sure. We look this way, we can see there's a truck going by.
If you look here, you can see all of our recycle bins on the ground. And the green bin is actually for compost. So in Ontario, Canada, you can put your compost at the road, your kitchen scraps and all those kinds of things, as well. The road is a little bit busy today. You can see there's a couple cars coming behind me, and there's a couple cars coming towards me as well. It's usually not this busy, but I guess people have a lot of stuff to do today. So they're out and about.
Learn the English Phrases "out of reach" and "out of touch"
Bob's Short English Lessons
08/28/24 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OUT OF REACH and OUT OF TOUCH
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out of reach. When something is out of reach, it simply means when you try to grab it, it's a little too far away. Sometimes in the kitchen, there are things on the top shelf and they are out of reach. You can't reach them, but it can also mean that something you want to do is something you'll never be able to do. I will never be prime minister of Canada. That is out of reach for me. I would have had to have started my political career years ago in order to get to that point in my life. So becoming prime minister is out of reach. So something can physically be out of reach, but something you want to do can also be out of reach for you.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase out of touch. When someone is out of touch, it means that. Oh, sorry, this is one of the first times I forgot to teach something. You can also say you're out of reach when someone can't get a hold of you. If I was to go on vacation really far up north, I would be out of reach for a few days because phones don't work that far north. Now, let's move on. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase out of touch. When someone is out of touch, it means that they don't really know what the current way of doing something is. So you could say that old people are a little bit out of touch. They don't use their phones to watch things on social media. They still watch things on a computer. Maybe instead of, I'm trying to think. Maybe instead of taking an Uber, they still take a taxi because they're out of touch and they don't realize there's a new way to do it.
So to review when something is out of reach, it means it's hard to actually grab. When something is out of reach, it means it's something you won't be able to do. And if you go on vacation, you might be out of reach for a while. And when you're out of touch, it simply means that you don't know what's hip and cool anymore. You've just gotten too old and you don't know. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Denis. Thanks a lot for the lesson, Bob. As you get older, you get stuck in your ways. Just as you become stiffer physically, you also become stiffer mentally and more narrow minded, unless you make a conscious effort to keep yourself flexible. That's from Viggo Mortensen, a quote from a famous actor. And my response: I'll try to stay flexible on all fronts.
You know, there's some truth to that. Like, you become physically quite stiff as you get older. Like, it's hard to bend and touch your toes and do things like that. And mentally you kind of get stiff as you get older. It's kind of unfortunate. It would be nice if we could stay really open minded and not become as stubborn as we get older. And it would be nice if I go and run 5 km, if I could walk the next day instead of sitting for the whole day waiting to feel better. I did that a couple weeks ago, by the way, with my son, and I was very stiff the next day. I'm not sure it was a good idea. I was able to run the whole race. I got one of my worst times ever, but still I was able to do it.
But yeah, it would be nice if we weren't. But there is always some advantage. I think we need people who want things to change and people who want things to stay the same. And then I think together we actually get a nice balance. We get something in the middle and I think that's a bit of an advantage. We don't want the new idea people to always get their
Learn the English Phrases "to lay low", "to lie low", and "a low blow"
Bob's Short English Lessons
01/15/25 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO LAY LOW, TO LIE LOW, and A LOW BLOW
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrases to lay low or to lie low. This is one of the situations where we use lie and lay in the same way, and it means to hide. Usually you will hear these phrases if you're watching a show where the police are chasing some criminals and the criminals might decide to lie low or to lay low. Sorry, lie low, lay low. I should say them in the right order. Lay low. Sounds kind of funny when you say it, though. It kind of rolls off the tongue in a funny way. Anyways, the criminals might decide to lay low or to lie low. That means they're going to hide somewhere where the police can't find them.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a low blow. So a low blow in boxing is if you punch below the waist. Like if you punch below the belt, it's considered a low blow. But we also use this phrase to talk about any behavior or action that's not really nice. So for instance, if I lent my brother $100 and told him, you can pay me back in a year, and then if I asked him for the $100 back tomorrow, that'd be a low blow. Like I'd be doing something that's not very nice and not very kind.
So to review to lay low or lie low means to kind of hide out. Maybe you've stolen something and the police are after you, so you hide out at your cousin's place. You decide to lay low. You decide to lie low. And a low blow is anytime you do something to someone that's just not very nice and not something they were expecting.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I'm just going to read the beginning of this comment from Know that for the sake of time. It's a great comment, but I'll read the... we'll get the gist of it from Know that every now and then you squeeze the recording of your videos lessons for us into your lunch break. Bob, I was wondering if you plan these, let's say, trips or if you do them more spontaneously, depending on what's on your to do list for the day and then you can read the rest. But my response sometimes it is on a whim, sometimes it is intentional, sometimes it is just convenient. There isn't a rhyme or reason most of the time. Sometimes it just depends on the weather.
So thanks Know that for that comment and that question. Yeah, sometimes it's just, you know, how I'm feeling that day. Or maybe I'm doing an errand. So I just jumped out of the van and do an English lesson as well. Today. I came out this way because it's just a nice area to do it. I know that some of you like seeing views of the farm and some of you like seeing little glimpses of Canadian life. You like seeing trucks drive by and you like seeing what's happening in my local town. So yeah, sometimes I do it intentionally.
If you watch my Members Only video on my other channel today I did that intentionally. There's a new bakery in town, so I decided to walk past it. I didn't go in, but I do know that sometimes some of you like seeing just a little glimpse of Canadian life.
There's a glimpse of Canadian life coming towards me right now. There's someone walking three dogs. So I think I might actually move into this driveway and let them go past. So I'm not afraid of dogs. But do you remember that one video where a dog almost bit me? That wasn't very enjoyable. Hi. How you doing? Good. There you can see the dogs going by. If I sounded extra cheerful with my hello, that's because I recognized that person. It's a former student of mine, so I didn't want to say her name, but she was a good student. V
Learn the English Phrases GET YOUR FEET WET and MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
Bob's Short English Lessons
09/17/20 • 4 min
Read long to learn the English Phrases GET YOUR FEET WET and MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK:
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, get your feet wet. When we say that someone needs to get their feet wet, it means that before they do something big, they just do a smaller version of it. A good example would be this. My son is learning to drive. Before he starts to drive for a long time or before he goes for a long drive or before he drives on the highway, it's good for him to get his feet wet by going for shorter drives from time to time. So we actually go out once a day for about 10 or 15 minutes, and he practices his driving because I think it's important for him to get his feet wet. So again, instead of driving on the highway or driving across Canada, which would be a really big thing to do, he's just going to get his feet wet by doing short drives from time to time. I think this phrase comes from when you wanna get into a swimming pool. Sometimes if you get your feet wet, it's easier to jump in.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, more bang for your buck. When we say that you can get more bang for your buck, it means that you get more value for the dollar that you pay. Let's think of an example here. I'm trying to think of an example with apples, for instance. If you go and buy an apple, one apple costs $1, but if you buy a whole bushel of apples, you get more bang for your buck. Basically what that means is you're gonna pay less than $1 per apple if you buy a whole bushel of apples. You can say the same thing if you are buying a car. Maybe there are two cars that have the same price tag, but one car has more features. Maybe it has power windows and air conditioning. You would say that because the cars are the same price and the one has more things in it, it has more features, you would get more bang for your buck if you bought the car with air conditioning and power windows.
So again, when you get your feet wet, it means you just try something by doing a little bit of it instead of all of it. And when you get more bang for your buck, it means that for the same dollar value, you get more things or more features or you actually get more of the items.
Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Archer Chen, and Archer says, "My life philosophy is if you are not able "to change it, then just let bygones be bygones. "You don't have to forgive and forget, "but it's better to learn something "from the bad experiences, "figure out how to do better next time and then move on." And my response to Archer Chen was, "This is very wise advice, Archer. "It can be hard sometimes, "but I agree that there is something "to be learned even from bad experiences." So that was from the video that I just did on forgive and forget, the phrase, forgive and forget, and the phrase, let bygones be bygones. So thanks, Archer, for that comment. And I do agree. If possible, if you can forgive and forget, or if you can let bygones be bygones, it is healthy, I think, to be able to do that, but not always easy.
Hey, I'm in the barn today. I haven't done a video in the barn for a really, really long time. This is what we call the haymow Some people call it a hayloft, and it's where we keep hay for our sheep and goats. But I had to come in the barn today because I was outside earlier today and made a short video, but then it got really windy, and I couldn't find a spot where I didn't wanna be in the sun and I didn't wanna be in the wind.
Learn the English Phrases "to sit in on" and "to sit out"
Bob's Short English Lessons
09/11/24 • 4 min
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SIT IN ON and TO SIT OUT
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sit in on. It's a nice phrasal verb with two prepositions at the end, which makes it a little confusing. This means to go to something like a class to observe rather than take it. At work, sometimes the principal needs to check if I'm teaching properly and so the principal will sit in on one of my classes. When you visit a school and you're thinking about going there, you might sit in on one of the classes to see if you like it. Maybe your town has a meeting and it's open to the public. And if you want, you can go sit in on the meeting. So it means you go to something to observe it. It doesn't mean you're going to participate or ask questions. You basically are just going to sit and watch and listen. You're going to sit in on whatever's happening.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to sit out. This means to not do something. Sometimes a player on a team will be injured and they will sit out for a game or two. Sometimes it's a minor injury and if they just sit out for a game or two, it will get better. So it simply means to not do something. In fact, if you're part of something where you can volunteer whether you want to do it or not, sometimes you can say, oh, I'll just sit this one out. That means you're not going to do it.
So to review to sit in on something means to go to something like a meeting or a class. Just to listen and watch and to not participate. And to sit out means to simply not participate in something. It's not fun when you're on a team and you're hurt and you have to sit out for a game or two. You just sit on the bench and watch everyone else play.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from MRfisheri. Wow, Bob got contacts to get a plane flying above for a video. Puntastic! And my response. Yep, it cost quite a bit. So that's in reference to my last lesson where a plane flew over and I made a pun about puns while a plane flew over. And some of you not necessarily questioned whether a plane actually flew over, but suggested maybe that it was just some sound effects. But it wasn't. A plane actually did fly over. I promise you in the future, any time a plane flies over during a lesson, I will spin the camera around and show the plane to you. Even if it's a tiny dot in the sky.
Well, what am I doing today? Well, I am walking to the drugstore to get more of these. It's the second week of school, and as usual, I'm using my voice too much. Actually, that's not necessarily true. I think I'm speaking too loudly so I don't have a sore throat. And this does happen at the beginning of every school year. I just feel like it's strained a little bit. So I like to buy throat lozenges to just kind of soothe my throat while I'm teaching, and at the end of the day. So I'm on my way to this drugstore up here. Not the dollar store. They don't have very good throat lozenges. I'm on my way to this drugstore to buy a few, and interestingly enough, they're not very cheap anymore.
I feel like maybe my school should buy them for me, but then they might question how much talking I do on my YouTube channel as well and whether I should be resting my voice. But anyway, it's just one of the things that happens when you're a teacher. You talk a lot. You talk like, I don't yell, but I talk just a little more loudly than I normally would talk when I'm teaching my classes. You say a lot of things like, hey, could I have your attention, please? And all thos
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How many episodes does Bob's Short English Lessons have?
Bob's Short English Lessons currently has 470 episodes available.
What topics does Bob's Short English Lessons cover?
The podcast is about Language Learning, Learning English, Podcasts and Education.
What is the most popular episode on Bob's Short English Lessons?
The episode title 'Learn the English Phrases "to back off" and "to go back on"' is the most popular.
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The average episode length on Bob's Short English Lessons is 4 minutes.
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Episodes of Bob's Short English Lessons are typically released every 2 days.
When was the first episode of Bob's Short English Lessons?
The first episode of Bob's Short English Lessons was released on Aug 26, 2020.
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