Learn the English Terms GAME CHANGER and FAIR GAME

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.

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms GAME CHANGER and FAIR GAME

WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"

If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadian

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Previous Episode

Learn the English Phrases IF ANYTHING and ANYTHING GOES

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IF ANYTHING and ANYTHING GOES

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase if anything. This is a little phrase we use when we introduce the opposite to the current idea. Here's an example. If Jen and I brought flowers to market and we didn't sell a lot, you might think we should bring less flowers, but if anything, we should probably bring more flowers, so that our display is more colorful and people are more attracted to it, and come and buy more. So it's when you introduce the opposite idea. You might think to yourself on a hot day, it's a good idea to spend a lot of time in the shade, but if anything, it might be better to spend a lot of time in the hot sun so that you get used to it. That's kind of a bad example. Don't spend more time in the hot sun, but you get the point. I was introducing an idea which was kind of the opposite of what was being said.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase anything goes. This means that there are no rules or expectations. At work, you might have to wear a suit and tie, but your friend might work somewhere where anything goes. They can wear whatever they want. You might say to someone, "Are there any things you don't like when you get a pizza?" and you can say, "Oh, no, anything goes. I like all of the toppings. Put them all on." I've never had a pizza like that. I should try that someday. But anything goes means that there's no rules or expectations in a current situation.
So to review, if you say, "If anything," it means that you're going to introduce a contrary or opposite idea to the conversation, and when you say, "Anything goes," it means that there's no rules or expectations or things that you have to do in a certain situation. Anything goes.
Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from D.Harish. "After completion of exams, we have to wait and see whether we will pass or not." And my response. "That's your only choice. You just have to wait and see."
As a teacher, I'm keenly aware of this. When I give an exam, my students just have to wait and see what their grade is. Usually I grade exams very, very quickly, though. I'm a fast grader. On a day when students write an exam, I usually have it graded the same day. I don't like to make students wait, so I try to do it as quickly as possible.
Anyways, you can see behind me, I have some equipment lined up here because I'm selling some farm equipment.
So this is a plow. This plow is for sale. I'm asking $750 for it, but I don't think I'll get that much. It's in rough shape. It's a little bit rusty and it needs some parts.
This is a mower that goes behind my small tractor, and I don't need this anymore because my son actually has a couple of lawnmowers, and he does it as a little business, so he mows some of my lawn now, so that's handy. So that's for sale, too. I'm asking $1,600 for this, but you can see a person came to look at it this morning, and they didn't like all of the rust on it, so they weren't willing to pay that much, so that's okay.

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Next Episode

Learn the English Phrases TO SHAKE ON IT and TO SHAKE THE HABIT

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SHAKE ON IT and TO SHAKE THE HABIT

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, shake on it. When you sell something to someone, especially something used, when you agree on a price, you might shake on it. That means you'll literally shake hands. And this means that you've both agreed on the price, and you are both going to make sure the deal actually happens. The other person's gonna give you money, and you're going to give them the item. So you shake on it. It kind of shows that you have formalized the deal. By the way, I'm not sure with the pandemic, whether we're going to come up with a new way to do that, whether we're going to keep doing that here in North America. But when you agree to sell something, you usually shake on it. When you buy a car from a dealership, you'll often shake on it when you agree to buy it.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to shake the habit. We also say to kick the habit, and often, we shorten this to I'm trying to shake it. Do you still smoke cigarettes? No, I'm trying to shake the habit. I'm trying to kick the habit. Is he still, let me see. I'm trying to think of something else people do. Let's stick with the cigarette theme. Is he still smoking cigarettes? No, he's trying to shake it. He's really trying to shake the habit.
So to review, when you shake on something, it means that you agree. So when you make a deal, you will shake on things with someone. And then to shake the habit means to simply quit doing something that you shouldn't do, because it's bad for you.
I feel like I'm talking really fast today. Sorry about that. For some reason, I'm a fast talker today. I'll try to speak just slightly slower.
Let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Francisco. "YouTube is a game changer for people who want to learn English, especially with your channel." And I say, I respond with, "I agree, it's the best thing ever for learning any language."
So thanks, Francisco. By the way, I was saying that I think YouTube is the best thing ever for learning any language, not my particular channel. I do like my English learning channels, but they aren't the most amazing things in the world. I just think I do the best job I can, and people seem to like them. But yes, YouTube is a game changer.
I know for myself, learning and practicing French, it's just amazing. I just remember years ago, if I wanted French videos, I would have to order them, and it would take two or three weeks for the videos to show up. Now I can just go on YouTube, and watch a video. Similar to books. The internet has revolutionized my ability to buy books in French. I know you're learning English, but I'm practicing my French. I can just go on Amazon, and I can say, show me all of the French books, and I can just buy an ebook for my Kindle, just like that. And it arrives. So it's very, very cool, and very, very awesome.
I'm not sure if you can see this. I'll give you a look across the river. I know I mentioned that a tree blew down on our property, well, a tree also blew down across the river. Not sure if you can see it. I will zoom in when I do the edit here, but there's a tree down over there. And if we go this way, we'll walk along here. You can see all of the cool things that grow in the wild in Ontario, Canada.
If we go down this way, you'll see that the neighbor has already been out with his chainsaw across the river there. There's another tree that went down, and he is in the process of chop

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