Hello and welcome to English Like a
Native.
My name is Anna and today we're very
lucky to be joined here by Chris from
Learn British English Free which is a
fantastic channel. Chris actually has
lots of social media platforms where he
provides lots of English education, so I
would definitely recommend checking out
Chris's channels if you aren't already aware
of him.
Thank you very much Anna, yeah like Anna said
I have the YouTube Channel "Learn British
English Free'.
We're also on facebook and a website
learnbritishenglish.co.uk so everyone
is welcome. The lessons are free that we
publish there; about the British accent,
pronunciation, and even things like slang.
So hopefully you'll be able to learn
some things with us.
So today I've got Chris here and we're
going to be talking about proverbs. Now
a proverb is a saying which kind of
gives you some advice for how to live
your life, so it's like a moral, absolutely.
Or a lesson. We're going to be talking about
some of our favourite proverbs. Now we've
already discussed six of our favourite
proverbs on Chris's channel, so if you
want to watch that video and I highly
recommend it because there are some very
common proverbs we've discussed. Then
please do check that out after you
finish watching this one.
The link will be in the description box
below and also on this video at the end.
So here are six more of our favourite proverbs:
This is a really popular one and very
wise as well. Yes it means that if
something is working well, then there's
no point in adjusting it. Don't try and
fix something if it's already working.
Why don't you tell us one. Okay then well one for me is:
What does that mean?
What we're talking about is that no one
can really function independently. You
can't be completely alone in life, not
completely, not completely. You always
need, we all need someone. Exactly.
We need someone don't we Chris. We do indeed.
We do so much better if we work as a team. One proverb that my mum used
to say to me all the time was:
Have you heard that one?
I have and I use it often. Do you? I do indeed yes.
So beggars can't be choosers means if you're
asking someone for something, if you need
a favour, if you're begging for something,
"please can I..." then you can't turn around
and be picky about it. So if I ask you to
lend me a pen
yeah, I can't let say "oh I don't want a
blue pen. I want a green sparkly pen.
Oh no that pen's not very good. Can I
have a better pen please?"
I mean, not only is it rude but it's just
going to make the person who's happy to
help you initially, not want to help you
in future. So beggars can't be choosers.
Another one for me is:
Ok so this is a both positive and
negative spin. So we should be optimistic
We should be looking forward to
good things happening but at the
same time we also have to be careful and
be prepared just in case things don't
work out how we would like. Yeah I guess
you should always have a back-up plan.
Absolutely always have a back-up plan
and then there's no nasty surprises.
Never hurts.
Yeah. Rather be safe than sorry. So the
last one from me is:
Now you can say anything. You can. You can
say anything, but what really resonates
with people is how you behave and your
actions. So I might profess my love for
someone" I love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you." But actually it's how you
behave that suggests that you love them.
So it might be turning up on time, not
standing them up on a date, and bringing
them flowers, cooking them dinner, just
being there when they need a
shoulder to cry on, that kind of thing. So
actions speak louder than words.
Yeah and if you promise something
then make sure you do it.
Yeah because words are cheap. They are
cheap. Words are nothing!
Ok and the last proverb for me (yep) is:
And what we mean by this is that if
there's someone who you know perhaps
isn't on your side then you should
be careful with them. So maybe don't
argue with them openly but stay close to
them so you can watch them and observe
just in case.
Yes because if you're close to your
enemies then you can keep an eye on
exactly what they're doing, and they're
not a danger to you if you've got them
close to you. Correct. I'll have to bear that one in
mind, although I don't think I have any
enemies
luckily, I hope not! So let's just
recap all the proverbs we've covered
today.
The first one was: if it ain't broke
don't fix it.
I had: no man is an island. Beggars can't
be choosers. Hope for the best but
prepare for the worst.
Absolutely. Actions speak louder than
words, and keep your friends close and
your enemies closer.
Now I hope you learned something from
that, don't forget that there are six
other fantastic proverbs; very commonly
used proverbs, on chris's channel so do
click on that link in the description
box below, go and check out that video
and don't forget to subscribe both here
and on chris's channel. That's all from
us today, so thank you for watching and
goodbye.