Learn English with Bob the Canadian

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases "to catch a break" and "if you catch my drift"
TRANSCRIPT:
In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to catch a break. When you catch a break, it means something has gone your way. Let's imagine that you're trying to buy tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert, and you know that the tickets are gonna sell out really quick.
But then you catch a break because your cousin calls you and says, hey, I got, six tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert, and I only need three of them. Do you want to buy the other three? So when you catch a break, it means something goes your way. Something goes, in a positive way when you thought it was not going to go well.
And by the way, the past tense is caught. Like, I caught a break. My cousin got tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert for me. By the way, that's just an example. I don't have tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, if you catch my drift.
This simply means if you understand what I'm saying, but usually kind of in a sly or funny way. If I was to say, I'm trying to think of an example here. If I was to say, I'm going to... Oh, this is rare.
I'm drawing a blank. By the way, do you know the phrase draw a blank when you can't think of an example? But I might say this. If I say to someone, I'm going to be sick tomorrow, if you catch my drift. Basically, what I'm saying is I'm not gonna be sick.
I'm just gonna take a day off work and say that I'm sick. So to review, to catch a break means to get lucky. It means to have something go your way. And if you catch my drift, means basically, if you understand what I'm saying, you see how I'm raising my eyebrows?
Like, that would be a good example, though, if a colleague said to me, I think I might be sick tomorrow if you catch my drift. They're basically saying they're not really sick, but they're gonna call in sick tomorrow. But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
This comment is from Mahenina. I don't know how to pronounce your name. Sorry. Hey, Bob, I've been watching your videos for more than five years, but I have never sent you a comment. This is my first. You really do a good job. Thanks. And my reply, thank you for watching for so long and I'm glad you finally commented.
So that's very cool, Mahenina, thank you so much for leaving a comment. I love it when people leave comments. So this is a little bit of a trick here. You might be wondering, where is Bob? He's standing in front of this farmer's field.
What will be planted here in the future. But then if I do this, if I start to turn, you will see a little bit of, a vacant lot area. And then you'll see my car, but then you'll see a subdivision.
So I am on the outskirts of town. If you are a member on my larger channel, you know that I just talked about what outskirts are. Outskirts of a town are where the town borders on farmland or nature or something like that.
But what I did want to show you is this. It says, no dumping. Let's get a little bit closer. No dumping. But then if we look on the ground, we see old cigarette packs. Even over here in the weeds.
Earlier, I saw some garbage as I was walking around. Sometimes when I make videos, people talk about how beautiful Canada is. But it isn't all beautiful. Sorry, I have to get over this way really quick, before time runs out, so you can see that there is more junk.
I'm not sure what that is. I hope I didn't set off some kind of alarm by looking out here. If you look here as well, you'll see an old tire over there, and you'll see just a whole bunch of garbage. Not very nice.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little short English lesson. And I will see you next week with another one. And I'll figure out what that alarm is.
Bye.

In this English lesson, I’ll share with you a simple technique that can help you start thinking in English instead of translating from your native language. Many English learners ask how they can train their brain to think directly in English, and in this lesson I explain an easy method you can practice throughout your day.
You will learn six powerful sentence starters you can use anytime and anywhere: I need, I want, I love, I hate, I feel, and I think. By using these simple sentences while you go about your daily activities, you can slowly build the habit of thinking in English and improve your fluency naturally.
This technique is easy to practice in everyday places like when you wake up in the morning, while you’re at work, or even when you stop somewhere like a gas station. With a little practice each day, these small thoughts in English can help open the door to better conversations and greater confidence.
If you enjoy learning English with practical tips like this, don’t forget to subscribe, like the video, and leave a comment telling me where you practice thinking in English!

In this English lesson I will answer as many questions from you, the viewer, as I can in about an hours time. We'll start the English class at 10AM Eastern Standard Time, and you can submit questions to me as early as 5 minutes before.
During the lesson I'll respond live to your questions about the English language, my life, life in Canada, strategies for learning and more.

Welcome to part 2 of a series of English lessons about describing people. In this English class I will help you learn words we use to describe people. I'll be sure to help you learn the pronunciation of the word, its meaning, and I will give lots of example sentences that you can use in your next conversation.
In this English lesson you'll learn words like: shy, talented, unpleasant, respected, observant, quiet, outspoken, ambitious, artistic, blunt, brilliant, competent, considerate, dramatic, distant, eager, fussy, impulsive, and many more.
After watching this English lesson you'll be able to have even better English conversations as you describe people.

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase pales in comparison. So when you're talking about two things and one thing is significantly bigger or better or different in a way than something else, we say that it pales in comparison.
Here would be a good example. Today is a beautiful day, but it pales in comparison to the day we had a few days ago when it was 15 degrees Celsius. So this day isn't as good as the other day. You might also use this to talk about a sports team.
You might say, this year's team is good, but it pales in comparison to the team from 10 years ago that won the championship. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is doesn't hold a candle to. And this is also a very similar phrase to do a comparison.
If you're talking about two things and you say one thing doesn't hold a candle to the other thing, it means the first thing isn't as good as the second thing. So when people talk about sports again, they might say, you know what? Your team is good, but it doesn't hold a candle to my team, basically meaning my team is better.
So to review, if something pales in comparison, it's not as good as something else, or it's not as big, or it can even be something bad. Like that storm pales in comparison to the one we had five years ago. So. So it can also be a negative thing and then doesn't hold a candle to is very similar.
When you compare two things, it means the one thing is certainly more significant or bigger or different or worse than the other. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Mohd Ags. Thanks for the short lesson, Bob the Canadian.
There's been a lot of talk about banning the Canadian curling team from the Olympics because they touched the stone and people were like, that'll teach them not to cheat. Oh, nice use of the phrase. But not only did they get away with it, they even won the gold medal. P.S. phrases for the future pales in comparison and doesn't hold a candle to.
Thanks for the suggestions. My response, I was a bit embarrassed about that. Not only did we double touch, we also claimed that we didn't and it was on video. Oh, well, I'm not sure it really makes a difference anyways. Maybe they should just allow double touching. Thanks for the phrases.
Yeah, thanks Mohd for that. Thanks for the phrases and thanks for the comment. So, yeah, should they just allow double touching? Should that be what they do? I'm not sure if that would be the best solution. I don't know a lot about curling. You might be wondering, though, why am I here today? So this is the gas station.
You might be able to guess why I'm here today. It's because I want to talk about gas prices. So gas prices are about to go through the roof. We're at $1.37.9 cents. I hope you can see that on the video.
Because of things that are happening in the Middle East, it looks like gas prices are about to go through the roof. That's a good phrase. But that price pales in comparison to what we were paying over a year and a half ago or two years ago. We used to have an extra tax on it, so I think it was closer to a dollar fifty.
And then I wanted to show you this bus, because someone in the last video. I forget who it was. It might have been Unsal commented on how it was cool to see the bus. The yellow bus like they normally just see in the movies. Might have been Vitor. Actually, sometimes I get people confused.
I probably shouldn't say names when I'm remembering what people have left in comments, but, yes, that is what most school buses in North America look like. I would say 80, 90% of them probably look like that. I know in some US States, they might look a little bit different, but certainly in my part of Canada, that's what a school bus looks like.
And that's what a gas station looks like. So, anyways, thanks for watching. You guys are awesome. Got a little bit of a loud truck going by there.