So I just popped out of work for a
minute to make this English lesson for you about
idioms you can use to talk about work.
The first idiom I want to teach
you is, "to roll up your sleeves".
Now, this is a phrase we use when
we're getting ready to do some hard work.
Maybe you need to rake some leaves.
There's a lot of leaves on the ground. Good morning. Morning.
There's a lot of leaves on the ground here in Ontario,
Canada, so I'm sure a lot of people had to roll
up their sleeves this past weekend to rake up those leaves.
Last week, I had a lot of work to do at school.
I needed to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
So it doesn't actually mean that
you're rolling up your sleeves.
You could roll up your sleeves, but you don't have to.
It simply means that you're getting
ready to do some hard work.
So hopefully, you're ready to roll up your
sleeves and learn a few more English idioms
that you can use to talk about work.
So the next idiom I wanted to teach
you about work is "to bend over backwards".
Now, again, this doesn't mean that you actually have to
bend over backwards, but when you are working on something
for someone and you bend over backwards to get it
done, it means you work really hard on it.
It might even mean that it's a difficult thing to do
because of the person who's asking you to do it.
So you might say something like this, I worked
on the project for Jim, and I needed to
bend over backwards to get the job done.
That means you did way more work
on it than you normally would.
It means maybe Jim asked for a lot of things
on the project that people normally don't ask for.
So when you bend over backwards to get
something done, you do a very thorough job.
You do everything that the person is asking you to do.
The next idiom about work that I wanted
to teach you is, "to get cracking".
When you need to get cracking, it means you
need to get started on something right away.
When I got to work this morning,
I decided I needed to get cracking.
I had a lot of work to do. Good morning.
How are you? Not too bad.
Just making a little English lesson here.
You can say hi as you walk by if you want.
Have a good day. You too.
When I got to work, I decided I needed to get cracking.
That means I had a lot of work to do,
and I wanted to get started on it right away.
Sometimes I sit and drink a cup
of tea with the other teachers.
They drink coffee, but I drink tea.
But this morning, I had too much to do.
I needed to get started right away.
I needed to get cracking.
Sometimes when you're working for someone or doing
a job for someone, you want to make
sure that they're really happy when you're done.
And so you go the extra mile.
A mile is about the distance from
here to that stop sign down there.
I'm not sure if you can actually see it, but
when you say that you're going to go the extra
mile, it doesn't mean you're actually walking a mile.
It means you're doing the job
to the best of your abilities.
You're doing the job really, really well.
When Jen has someone order flowers from her,
she likes to go the extra mile, maybe
put a few extra stems in each bouquet.
When I do a job for someone,
I like to go the extra mile.
I like to do a little extra I like
to do a little more than what they're expecting.
So when you go the extra mile, you do the job well,
and you even do a little bit more than maybe the person
who asked you to do the job is expecting you to do.
So here's something you shouldn't do at work.
You shouldn't cut corners.
When you cut corners, it means you do something
by spending less money or less time on it.
Let's say you were a chef.
Let's say you owned a restaurant and
you decided you wanted to cut corners.
That would mean that you would buy cheaper
flour and cheaper ingredients than you normally do.
You would do things so that you would save money.
But then the thing you are making wouldn't be as good.
I don't cut corners ever.
I think it's bad to cut corners.
I think if you are making bouquets or
making English videos on the internet, I think
that if you start to cut corners, the
thing that you're making just isn't as good.
So this is one of the idioms you should not do.
Don't cut corners at work.
Do the best job that you can do.
So if I knew that you had a lot
of work to do this afternoon, I might say
that you have your work cut out for you.
If you had a long, hard afternoon of
work coming up, I might say, wow, you
have your work cut out for you today.
When we say this, it means that
someone's going to do something hard.
This past summer, Brent visited.
I'll put a link to his channel somewhere here.
And when Brent visited, we decided we
were going to do six or seven
English lesson videos and four live streams.
We certainly had our work cut out for us.
Notice I changed the phrase a little bit
there because I'm talking about two people.
So we had our work cut out for us,
but we certainly were able to get it done.
So if someone says that you have your work cut out
for you, they're simply describing that you have a job and
that that job is going to be really hard.
So this next one is "to pull your socks up".
Now, your socks are obviously the thing right
here that you wear on your feet, not
your shoes, the thing inside that's your sock.
And to pull your socks up means to work harder.
Maybe after not working hard enough or even making some
mistakes. Sometimes people start a job and they're not very
good at it, and the boss might say, you better
pull your socks up or you're going to get fired.
So again, it has nothing to
do with this article of clothing.
It probably has its history somehow
related to that article of clothing.
But if you tell someone you need to pull
your socks up, you're telling them to work harder.
You're telling them to do a better job at work.
And sometimes if they don't pull their
socks up, they might lose their job.
Sometimes at work, you have so much to do that you're
not sure how you're going to get it all done.
In that situation, we would probably say
that you have your hands full.
Sometimes at work, I have my hands full.
I'm not able to get all the work done
that I need to get done that day.
And that's a great way to describe it.
Last summer, when we were getting ready to
go to the market every Thursday, we often
had our hands full on Thursday mornings.
There were so many little jobs and tasks to do
that we felt busier than we wanted to be.
So when you have your hands full, it means
you're having difficulty managing the job that you're doing.
Hey, thanks for watching this English lesson.
I hope you were able to learn a few more English
phrases that you can use in your next English conversation.
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Bye.