hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's
number one English Fluency Guide and in
this video I'm going to help you improve
your listening so you can understand
native speakers much more easily with
one simple trick now typically i'll
receive a comment or question from a
learner and they'll give me some phrase
like a whole sentence that they heard
and they're asking me what it means
so in this video hopefully i'll give you
a way of correcting that yourself so
that you don't have to mail a teacher
and say what does this mean when i
received recently was a friend of mine
had food on the brain so someone sent me
this sentence they're talking about like
a friend of mine had food on the brain
so they heard this phrase they heard
this sentence a friend of mine had food
on the brain
now this is an ATM so you're thinking
okay how does this work like what does
that mean a friend of mine had food on
the brain food on the brain
if you don't know this idiom it was
obviously sound quite strange and
interesting to you but before we get
into that let's just look at the phrase
or the whole sentence itself so a friend
of mine had food on the brain and you
can think about this how do i how do i
take this and be able to search it on
google or whatever search engine used so
you have to first break down that
sentence into a couple of pieces and
think about okay what's the part of the
sentence that I don't understand that
maybe I can try to figure out a search
for online so if we think about like a
friend of mine had food on the brain
like a friend of mine so I think I
already know what that means it's just
somebody I know a friend of mine so we
can forget about that part and to have
food on the brain
okay so have food on the brain now i
cant maybe I could search for that so
maybe we forget about the friend part
and just search for having food on the
brain but we might even try to go
smaller than that where we look for on
the brain or to have food on the brain
so maybe research for that if we can't
quite find something we keep making it
shorter and shorter trying to get to the
the colonel the like the smallest bit of
something that we don't understand and
then we can work out from there
so if i look for on the brain what I
find is that it's actually an idiom for
something that I'm thinking about a lot
so when you have something on the brain
it just means
ok like something is on my mind it's
really that it's really the same thing
but people will use I have something on
my mind where I have something on my
brain
so even though mind is more of a mind
would actually be a better idea or a
better way to express it native speakers
will use both so if there's a girl I've
been thinking about for a long time I've
got this girl on my brain I've got this
girl on my mind or if it's a young kid
who's it's cool and he's always thinking
about playing his instrument or playing
some video games he's got his instrument
on the brain or on his mind all the time
now when you're getting something like
this you can again begin with the whole
thing and start making it smaller and
smaller until you get to a part of the
phrase that makes sense but then it's
much easier if you start trying to
connect that thing to something you
already know where to create some kind
of story
so if you think about maybe even your
physical head once you understand what
on the brain means then try to create
that story so either the origin story
that you know because you research that
or because you just created that origin
story in your own mind and again the
story is something that you should be
connecting in English either a visual
thing I've got water on the brain so
literally it's like on on my brain as an
example maybe I'm talking with you and I
say yeah I was like with this girl and
you know we were talking and like I
really like her but maybe she's not
really interested in me so much and i'm
talking talking I'm like wow I've really
got this girl on the brain
now you can think about that like what
is the larger context of that what's the
main idea not really the words I'm
saying but what is the conversation
about some talking about
ok I'm like thinking about a girl i'm
talking about her she's a focus of my
attention she's on my brain so I'm kind
of reviewing that and saying I really
got this girl on my brain
I can't get her out of my head so just
an example obviously you can use it for
like sports or anything or business
whatever it is you're focusing on or
that you can't stop thinking about when
you've got something on the brain now to
make sure this is clear let's try
another one so suppose you here i'm
talking with a friend of mine you know
we were i was going to the wedding and
I'm like describing the wedding story to
him so hey man I went to this wedding
I and you know it seemed like a really
great occasion lots of people were
having fun but right before the ceremony
was about to begin the bride got cold
feet and left so the Brad got cold feet
about the wedding and left so i'm i'm
saying this whole phrase the bride got
cold feet about the wedding so the Brad
got cold feet about the wedding now
maybe if I searched that whole thing I
might find something because this is a
pretty common usage but again if I
understand most of the parts of this and
I understand the whole context
ok maybe like we're talking about a
wedding and like so so I'm describing
things is happening in like a good way
so that like everybody was happy things
were going very well but then the bride
got cold feet about the wedding so I'm
describing something happy and then
using but then as ok now we're going to
introduce something that's contrasting
to that so maybe the opposite situation
so something that's kind of sad so
you're getting clues about what
something might mean so you really have
to listen for these in the conversation
so I got the bride and groom so we
already know about that and about the
wedding we already know like a marriage
or a wedding we already know what that
is so we can forget about those other
things and just focus on searching the
thing that we don't understand which is
to get cold feet so to get cold feet
means that you're having maybe second
thoughts about something or you're
nervous about something typically right
before you have to do it so if I'm going
to get in an airplane and jump out of
that plane to go skydiving maybe I'm
really prepared i'm excited i get on the
plane and no and then when I look out I
get really scared about that and then
maybe I decide not to so I could
describe that is I got cold feet about
jumping out of the airplane so the bride
got cold feet about the wedding I got
cold feet about the jumping out of the
airplane that kind of thing
and speaking of being up in an airplane
i'll give you one more example just to
make sure this is really clear to you
so this example maybe I'm talking with
someone I'm like yeah we're we're we're
trying to decide what we want to do with
the company i said i wanted to do this
and a friend of mine said you know maybe
we should do this other thing we're kind
of up in the air about it
we don't really know what to do now
again again again listen carefully
what's happening in this conversation so
we're describing something like i'm
saying i'm setting the stage i'm
explaining what's happening in our
situation so in this case we've got many
different options or at least two
different options we can use and I could
say something or do something and maybe
somebody else says something else
so this is describing indecision so we
don't know what to do we're trying to
figure out the best way to solve
something or what choice we should make
so I'm describing that and then again i
come back at the end and this is what
native speakers will often do they
explain something in regular everyday
English that most people understand but
then though using adium after that to go
back and kind of recap to to really
explain the whole thing but in a
conversation away time describing
indecision and then i use an idiom that
explains indecision so to be up in the
air about something just means you don't
know what to do
imagine I jump up like I'm holding a
basketball and I like in the rules of
basketball you can't hold the ball jump
up and then come back down again
so if i hold the ball and I jump up i
have to figure out what to do i'm up in
the air i can't come back down i have to
throw the ball to somebody else or it
would be any legal play
so just thinking about that same idea
i've understood the whole the whole
conversation or at least this part of
the conversation and then we say like
we're up in the air about what to do so
like what to do okay that makes sense so
we know that like about what to do yet
where we're focusing on that but the
part I don't understand is up in the air
but if I still don't understand what
that is
I've removed the things from that
sentence that I don't quite understand
and then I can use that to search for
specifically so i go to google and type
up in the air and then typically when
you're searching for something like this
add the word idiom as well so if you're
searching for it like or English phrase
it's a it's much faster that's a quick
tip for you to be able to find things
much more easily typically when you're
speaking with natives or you're just
listening with them you can understand a
lot more than you think you can if
you're just a bit more strategic about
how you think you have to not pay
attention to like the individual words
but first try to understand what's
really happening in the situation
is somebody sad somebody happy are
describing an adventurous situation or
something else and then from that are
they are they explaining something or
using simple things like and so or but
that is going to indicate a change in
that or a continuation of whatever it is
they're talking about and then when you
get to the part that you don't
understand eliminate the pieces of that
that sentence that you do understand and
then you're left with just that one
thing that you can search and remember
to put medium next to that now even if
it's not a medium it doesn't matter but
typically the word medium also helps you
find things much more clearly are much
more quickly and easily when you're
using a search engine for them
well that's it for this video if you
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you in the next video bye bye