Bob's Short English Lessons

• Learn the English Phrase "to edge out" and "a double-edged sword"

  Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EDGE OUT and A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to edge out. When you edge someone out, it means you pass them. Maybe at work you and a colleague are both trying to get a promotion, but there's only one spot. And maybe because you know a bit more, you can edge out your colleague because you're just the better choice. Sometimes when teams are playing towards the end of their season, they edge out someone who's kind of at the same spot as them they win a game and the other team, maybe in a different city, loses a game. And that helps them edge out the other team. It helps them surpass them.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/bobthecanadianThe other term I wanted to teach you today is a double edged sword. So of course a double edged sword would be a sword that is sharp on both sides. But in English we use this to describe a situation that both benefits the person but also is negative in some way. The classic example is always to say fame is a double edged sword. Being famous is a double edged sword. Sure you have lots of money and you can do whatever you want, but you can't just go to a normal grocery store because people all want your signature. So fame is a double edged sword. It has an advantage. It has a lot of advantages probably, but it also has a disadvantage in that you can't do what normal people do in life.So to review, to edge out means to surpass. I think that the best example is the sports team. You know, they can edge out the competition and then maybe finish in a better spot. And a double edged sword is any situation where there's both like a positive or many positives and negative and a negative or many negative aspects to it.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Cecilia. Good luck, Bob. And then a nice four leaf clover emoji. Thanks. It went extremely well. So Cecilia is referring to the fact that yesterday I'm going to stop trying to do this. Yesterday or two days ago for you was the first day of second semester for me and it went really well. In fact, it's Thursday morning right now as I record this and I'm realizing that it's very enjoyable to get up, to go for a walk and then to make an English lesson for all of you.I think I'm at my best in the morning. I think this time of day, right now it's about quarter to nine, I think. I think this time of day is just a better time of day for me. And for a full year I've been teaching in the morning. And then coming home to make YouTube videos and lessons for you in the afternoon. And now I'm realizing that I get to get up and when I'm fresh, when I have lots of energy, that's when I'll be making YouTube lessons. So I think that this is a win win for you guys. I think. I don't know for sure, but I think the English lessons will get better. I think I'll be a little more creative. I have plans to still make sure I do one of these short lessons in town once a week, but I just feel a bit more relaxed.In fact, I keep looking at the clock this morning and realizing it's way earlier still than I thought it was. For some reason I was getting ready to go to work and I had this kind of feeling like I was late for some reason, which I'm not at all. I think I'm actually going to get to work earlier today than I need to. I probably need to be at work around 10:30 every day. As many of you know, I'm 70%, so I don't work full time. So yeah, I'm gonna get up, work on YouTube. You might see me replying to comments at a different time of day on this channel, but either way I think it should be foSupport the show

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  4:21
• Learn the English Words "schemozzle" and "bamboozle"

  Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words SCHEMOZZLE and BAMBOOZLEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the word schemozzle. When there is a schemozzle, it means that something is a mess. Let's say you're at work and you need four truckloads of, I don't know, flour in order to make bread that day. Maybe you work at a bread factory and only one truckload showed up. That would be a real schemozzle. Or maybe instead of four truckloads showing up, eight truckloads show up. That's a schemozzle. It's a funny word. I don't even know if I'm quite saying it correctly, but I heard a colleague say it today. They said, wow, there's just a real schemozzle. And I won't give you the specifics, but whenever you use this word, it means something is a mess. It means it's not going the way it's supposed to or it isn't the way it's supposed to be.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/bobthecanadianThe other word I wanted to teach you today is bamboozle. This means when you trick someone, usually for financial gain. By the way, I just. I like the funny words today. Schemozzle and bamboozle. When you bamboozle someone, it means that you trick them into buying something that isn't worth what you think it is. If Jen was to bamboozle people at market, eventually people would be annoyed with us because she would be tricking them, maybe selling them, you know, 10 flowers in a bouquet and saying there's 30 in there or something like that. She would be bamboozling them.So to review. Oh, I already put the words away. A schemozzle is a mess. And when you bamboozle someone, you trick them, usually because you want to get money from them somehow.Oh, it's getting a little cold out here. Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Sajonara. Hi, Bob. By the way, did you fasten the seat belt around the bottle? And my response? I did indeed. I learned my lesson a long time ago when a bottle fell over in my van and the lid came off. Yeah, that was a... That was a mess. I was going to say schemozzle, but that doesn't really describe it. But yes, I did have that. Thanks for the comment, by the way. I did have that once... By the way. I put a water bottle in my van in the last video. And after I put it. Or in my car, and then after I put it in there, I did put the seat belt through the handle and fasten the seat belt, because that's a good Way to prevent it from falling over.So. So anyways, how's everybody doing? I have to admit I'm a little bit nervous. It's the first day of school or first day of second semester tomorrow. That's probably why I'm talking so quickly. I'm just gonna go over here out of the wind a little bit. It's. It is quite a bit colder than I was expecting out here. Sorry. I was just looking at the ground here because it's a bit of a different color. And this is where my van was parked, so I better check the oil in that van. I don't think it's oil. I don't know. What do you think it is? You see how the. It's a little darker there than it is over here. I think, though, that might just be from yesterday. Things melted a bit and so the vehicles all have, like, salt and sand and stuff on the side from the roads. And maybe that just kind of slipped off.So can I venture out into the cold again? Yeah, probably. I'll do that. So. Or maybe not a little colder than I was expecting. I was gonna. Expecting. I was gonna show you this as well. We had a windstorm that was not there the other day. That actually came from. I think it came from over there. We have a bit of a junk pile over there. You've probably seen it in a few videos. I do really need to clean that up. Support the show

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  4:18
• Learn the English Phrases "to bottom out" and "from the bottom of my heart"

  Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BOTTOM OUT and FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEARTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to bottom out. So whenever something is going down, like the price of a stock on the stock market, eventually it will bottom out and then it will start to go back up again. So to bottom out means kind of to hit the bottom. This can also happen with a car. If you drive an old car over some railroad tracks, tracks, or a really big bump, sometimes the shocks compress, but they compress all the way, and then it's just this really loud bang. And we usually say that's when a car bottoms out. I used to have a car where if I drove it too fast over a bump, it would bottom out. You would just hear it go bang. In fact, my blue van is starting to do that as well.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/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is from the bottom of my heart. This is usually a way to thank people. It usually goes with the phrase thank you. So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching my English lessons. Sometimes we associate the heart with gratefulness, thankfulness, love. I am just extremely grateful. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching my English lessons.So to review to bottom out means when the price of something or a graph is going down, eventually it hits the bottom and starts to go back up again. Well, hopefully. And then from. Oh, and a car can do it as well. Bang. That's what it sounds like when your car bottoms out. And then from the bottom of my heart is usually a phrase we say when we say thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Konstantin. Not only Canadian technique though. That's the pulling glove on with mouth. We all use it now and then. Well, teeth are for chewing after all. Sticking are not only for chewing after all. Stick and carrot policy is common at school. The challenge is to find a balance. Oh, you know the ropes. Sorry. Any chance of sharing your teaching of sticks? My response, my main stick is to put a zero in the grade book and then message the student and parents and say it's not too late. I can Always replace the 0 if you hand something in. So I'm not sure if the words matched what you saw on the screen because when I printed it didn't print everything. So there might be a little bit of a discrepancy. So, Konstantin, thank you, fellow teacher, for sending that comment.Yeah, what am I going to do next? Well, you see that big thing back there? That's a water tower. I'm actually here with my water jug because I need to go to this tap here, and I need to fill up this water jug. We fill our water jugs up in town. That didn't work so good. I think that's what this little. Whoa. That is frozen solid. There we go. Hopefully you were able to see that. Now I can do this, and then I can flip this tap here, and it will fill up my jug.We do not drink the water from our cistern. It's collected from the rain that falls on the roof of our house. So we get our drinking water from town here. There's a filling station. You can pause and read that if you want. If you want to read the fine print. There's also a camera on me right now somewhere. Oh, it's almost full. I need to stop it. Oh, it overflowed a little bit. That's probably why there's so much ice on the ground here. People haven't stopped it in time. But now I have in my pocket, if I didn't lose it, my little blue lid. This is really hard to do with one hand. And then I will put it in my car. There we go. TSupport the show

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  4:26
• Learn the English Sayings "the carrot and the stick" and "to stick your neck out"

  Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CARROT AND THE STICK and TO STICK YOUR NECK OUTSorry, I had to put my glove on using my mouth. It's a Canadian technique. I think I showed you that before. But super cold out here today. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the carrot and the stick. So the carrot and the stick refers to a way to motivate people. I think it comes from the idea that a long time ago, if you wanted a donkey to move forward, you could hit the donkey on its butt with a stick, or you could use a carrot to make it want to walk forward. So the carrot is a reward method for getting people to do something, and the stick is a punishment method.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/bobthecanadianHere's a good example. If your boss wanted you to work on Saturday, he could say, you have to work Saturday. And if you don't, I'm gonna make you work on that job that no one likes doing. So that's kind of like the stick. If you don't work Saturday, something bad will happen. Or your boss would say, I want you to work Saturday. And if you do, I'll give you double pay for every hour you work. That would be more like a carrot, something positive. So the carrot is like a nice way to motivate someone, and the stick is a not nice way to motivate someone.The other phrase I wanted to look at today. Wait, am I holding this up wrong? Yeah, sorry. The carrot and the stick. Here we go. And did I have it up right the first time? I'll have to check. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to stick your neck out. When you stick your neck out, it means you do something risky. Let's say your boss gets angry really easily, but your boss is doing something wrong. You might have to stick your neck out and tell your boss, but there's a risk that your boss might get mad at you. So when you stick your neck out, it means that you do something risky at work or in life.So to review, hopefully I held this up right the first time. If I didn't, this is just the lesson. I'm not doing this one twice. The carrot and the stick refers to a nice method to motivate someone. That's a carrot or a not nice way to motivate someone. That's the stick. And to stick your neck out means to. Yeah, to do something risky must be from.Yeah, I'm not sure where that phrase originates from, but hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video before my ears freeze off. This comment is from Vitor. A short lesson from Bob on Saturday. I can't complain. Thank you, Bob. You're the best. And then my response, Yeah, I got a little bit behind last week with the semester ending and all.Yeah. So the semester is ending. Let me get my glove back on here. We'll go for a walk. The semester is ending. The school year is half over and the semester is ending. So I have like kind of a nice week this week, but last week was a little bit busy. For those of you that have been around for a long time, you know that we have the semester system in my part of Canada. So students have class for about 90, 93 days and then they have exams and then we start brand new courses next week, Wednesday. For students, it's really, really stressful right now, but for teachers it's a little more relaxed. I only have to go to work three days this week out of five, so I have a little more time to get a few things done around the house. Jen and I are going to work on filing our taxes for last year and obviously I'll get some more YouTube work done as well.But, yeah, what was I saying? Oh, I can't remember. My ears are so cold. I can't remember what I was saying. Do you know what temperature it is rigSupport the show

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  4:32
• Learn the English Phrases "the calm before the storm" and "to storm off"

  Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM and TO STORM OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the phrase the calm before the storm. Now, you can use this literally to talk about the fact that there's going to be a storm later today. But it's actually quite calm and peaceful out here right now. And that's actually true. It's really warm outside. I'm just wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap. It's like 5 degrees or something and raining a little bit. But this is the calm before the storm. Later today, it's supposed to drop to -9. And for the next week it's going to be like minus 8 or minus 10 every day. So it's going to be super cold. So this is kind of the calm before the storm. We use this in real life as well, though. Let's say you're a student and you have exams coming up in a week. Right now it's the calm before the storm. It's peaceful now, but it's going to be really, really busy in just a little while. Maybe you have this at work. You're working and it's just a nice day at work. But you know, it's just the calm before the storm because a big project is due soon.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/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to storm off. By the way, this is a repeat of a lesson from 2020. I think it's the first time I'm doing the same two phrases in the same lesson. I haven't done that before, but I really wanted to talk about to storm off. When you storm off, it means you're angry and you leave. So maybe you're in a store and you're like, you charged me too much for this. I'm annoyed. And then you leave. That's probably not exactly how you would say it, but when you're angry and you're so angry, you leave the situation. We say that you storm off. So he was so angry that he stormed off.So to review, the calm before the storm is any time of peace and calm before something bad happens or something more intense happens. And to storm off means to leave a situation because you are not happy.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Pedro. It looks like you guys are getting more snow than last year. Bob, Love to see it. My response. We have a bit. I hope we get more. So we'll see. Thanks for the comment, Pedro.We have had more snow than last year. I think at this time last year, it was... I think it was kind of warm out last year, but. But we'll have to see what actually happens the next few days. It's supposed to get really cold, like I said, but I don't know if we're going to get a lot of snow. I really hope we do. I don't enjoy this. I like seeing everything white in the winter. I don't like it when my... I can see my lens is getting raindrops on it. There should be snowflakes falling out of the sky, but hey, it's just the way it goes.You can see down here on the driveway, we have a little bit of ice underneath water, and that's actually quite slippery. But I think this will all probably melt today before the temperature starts to drop. We'll have to see. Who knows?The other thing I don't like about this is when it goes from wet to really cold, it can be quite dangerous to drive on the roads because the rain hits the road and then when it freezes, it forms a layer of ice. And that's just not nice. I'd rather drive in snow than in ice. I'm not sure if all of you are aware of the difference. When you drive in snow, you slip and slide a little bit. When you drive on ice, it's really, really slippery. Like, I'd rather drive on a road that's packed down with snow then drive on a road that is icy. Ice is just super, super dangerous.So we'll see hoSupport the show

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  4:22

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