Hey, in today's English lesson, I am going to teach you five English expressions
that Native English speakers know and use, and now you will be able to as well.
Are you ready?
Well, then I'm teacher Tiffani, let's jump right in.
All right, so the very first expression is to talk trash about somebody . I know
you're probably wondering, Tiffani, what?
Talking trash about somebody, even me.
Well, let me explain.
Talking trash about somebody, it literally means to say
insulting things about someone.
The best way to understand this is gossiping.
You're talking trash about someone.
You're saying something about them that's unkind.
You're insulting them.
You are gossiping about them or talking about them.
In other words, you are talking trash about somebody.
Now, let me give you an example sentence.
Here we go.
I heard from a mutual friend.
That he's been talking trash about you.
He's been talking about you behind your back.
He's been gossiping about you behind your back.
Again, I heard from a mutual friend that he's been talking trash about you.
The easiest way to remember this, again, trash is something that's
thrown out, something that's not good.
It has a negative connotation.
So when someone is talking trash about you, they are something, they're
saying something negative about you.
Right?
Again, we say talking trash about somebody.
Now, here's another example sentence.
Why are you talking trash when he's nothing but kind to everyone?
He's been nothing but kind to you, to our friends.
Why are you talking about him?
Why are you speaking negatively about?
One more time.
Why are you talking trash when he's been nothing but kind to.
Everyone makes sense, right?
Okay, here's the third example sentence.
Stop talking trash if you can't back up your statement.
Now, this is something very interesting.
This is another use of the same expression, but it's when
you are, for example, playing.
I love basketball, right?
And sometimes when you play basketball, you say, listen, I'm better than you.
I can beat you in any game, any time, any day.
I know my skills are better than yours.
So I, in this example, am talking trash to that person, right?
I'm saying that my skills are better than their skills.
I'm in essence speaking negatively about them.
We say talking trash.
So again, stop talking trash If you can't back up or support your statement.
Makes sense, right?
So again, the expression is to talk trash about somebody.
Now, this next expression is also a good one.
A one.
A one, one, the native English speakers also.
This one is concrete details.
Concrete details now concrete details.
I want you to repeat after me for pronunciation practice.
Concrete details.
Excellent.
Now, concrete details.
This just means a specific description of a particular item, person, or setting.
So concrete details, it just refers to this term, this expression, giving
exact information, factual, something that a person can take away and say,
Hey, this is truth, for example.
Let me give you concrete details.
My next class will be on this day at this time.
Concrete details, date and time.
Again, details that are factual, right in English, we say concrete details.
Now here's an example sentence.
I'm going to need concrete details before we detain.
Before we keep him, I need to know the facts.
Tell me the concrete details.
Give me the concrete details.
Make sense?
Right.
Here we go.
Next we have sentence two.
A patient may need to have the research described in concrete detail,
all the facts to make his decision.
He needs to know exactly what's going.
And finally, sentence three.
Detectives must have concrete details of the crime to start their investigation.
They can't go off of people's opinions or suggestions.
They need the facts, the concrete details.
Makes sense, right?
Again, so this one is very helpful, concrete details.
Now the third English expression is also one that will help you as you
are trying to speak English fluently.
This expression is to hint at something again, to hint at something.
Let me give you an example before I tell you the meaning.
So imagine a little.
Right before Christmas Day, he's talking to his parents and he says, Hey, mommy and
daddy, you look like you're doing well.
He said, you know, I was just thinking to myself, man, tomorrow's Christmas and woo.
How wonderful it would be to have something that I could ride on outside.
Something that, um, is, is kind of electric and I could ride on it.
Wow, that would be so wonderful.
I know that tomorrow is Christmas.
You kind of caught it right?
The little boy is actually trying to give his parents some clues
that he wants an electric car.
Right.
The little toy cars, kids driving.
He's actually hinting at something and that just means that he's talking
about something in an indirect way.
You know, mommy and daddy, tomorrow's Christmas and I will love, you know,
something that moves and that's electric.
He is hinting at something, speaking about it in an indirect way.
Makes sense.
All right.
Okay.
Now here's the example sentence.
He's been hinting at the possibility of running for mayor.
Not saying that I wanna be selected, but I could do the job well.
Hinting at the possibility of running for mayor next.
My son has been hinting to me about going out for ice cream mom.
Ice cream would be great, wouldn't it?
What do you think?
Saying these things over and over again.
My son has been hinting to me about going for ice cream or going out
for ice cream, and finally I tried hinting at my interest to Jane, but
she's not picking up any signals.
I'm trying to speak about them in an indirect way, but she's
not catching what I'm saying.
Again, in English, we say to hint at something.
Now this fourth expression, this fourth English expression, will also help you
sound more like a native English speaker.
The expression is first of all, first of all, now, first of all, this one literally
just means before doing anything else.
At the beginning.
So first I want you to do this first.
I want to make this point first, first of all, before doing anything else.
So, for example, here's an example sentence.
First of all, let me ask you something before you make your judgment.
Hey, I wanna stop you really quickly before you move forward.
The first thing I wanna do, first of all, let me ask you something again at the.
Next.
Here we go.
First of all, I'd like to give you a little background information at
the beginning right now, before we do anything else, even for this lesson.
First of all, I wanna make sure you're able to pronounce the word
properly first after me first.
Excellent.
You see, normally when I'm teaching vocabulary, I wanna make
sure you as an English learner can pronounce the word properly.
First of all, let's go over the pronunciation.
You got it?
All right.
Here's another example sentence.
First of all, you need to clean the wall before you start painting it.
I think that's the best thing to do First, clean the wall again.
In English, we say, first of all, before doing anything else at the.
Now we have four English expressions that are very helpful, but
this fifth, this fifth English expression is also very good.
It's to change one's mind, and it just means to adopt
a different opinion or plan.
Again, in English, we say to change one's mind.
Hey, you know, normally I do one podcast episode a week, but you know, I wanna help
my students more, so I'm gonna actually have two podcast episodes every week.
I just changed my mind, and actually it's true on my podcast,
speak English with Tiffani.
There are two episodes now.
There used to only be one.
Now there are two episodes.
You can check them out, but again, I changed my mind.
I adopted a different opinion or plan.
Now here's the first example sentence.
After showing her the evidence, she changed her mind about him.
You know what, Brandon?
He's a good guy.
After seeing the evidence.
Now this next sentence is also good.
I changed her mind after showing her the reviews of the restaurant.
I said, listen, look at the reviews.
This restaurant is good.
I changed her.
And finally the third example sentence.
After trying to plan a trip, Joe changed his mind due to
this week's weather forecast.
Joe looked online and noticed that it was going to be extremely cold.
Where he wanted to go.
Nope, I'm gonna change my plans.
He changed his mind.
So once again, the fifth expression again.
Once again, we have change one's mind.
Change one's mind.
Now, I hope you enjoy today's lesson.
I hope you use each of the five English, English.
I'm gonna lead that in there, English expressions, and I hope
they help you each and every day to sound more like a native English.
I'll talk to you in the next lesson.
Do, do Is understanding you still there?
. You know what time it is.
Here we go.
Altogether it's story time eight.
I said it story time.
Alright.
Today's.
It is actually kind of funny, , so this happened to me when I was living in South
Korea, so you know that I'm an early bird.
I wake up normally around 4:00 AM literally, and sometimes earlier.
I'm an early bird.
That means I go to bed extremely early.
I normally go to bed around 8:00 PM or at least I'm in the bed by 8:00 PM.
The same was true of me when I was living in South Korea.
Because I was an early bird, I had no problem teaching the 6:00 AM class.
That's right.
I had a 6:00 AM class, so individuals, uh, office workers that wanted
to study English before going to work, they'd come to my class.
So I loved the class.
I had no problem getting up in the morning because I was an early bird.
I would teach that class, but what would happen is was at night, at around
6:00 PM I would start getting extremely sleepy because I had woken up so early.
So again, even when I was in Korea, I'd probably eat dinner around five 30.
Then around 6, 6 30, I'd go to my room, maybe watch some TV or something and
kind of wind down by eight o'clock I was in bed and ready to be asleep on this
night, remember I was an early bird.
I had a class at six.
, I was sleeping, knocked out when, all of a sudden, now let me pause real
quick and put a pin in the story.
I go to sleep early, but I am not easily awakened.
Like I don't wake up easily.
Or if someone does wake me up, normally I'm okay because I can fall back asleep.
However, on this night I was sleeping soundly, woos
great, and I heard some loud.
Noises.
Now, it wasn't my roommates.
They were talking, but that didn't bother me.
The person that lived above me, their child, I had never met them
before, but I knew it was a little boy because I could hear him.
He was yelling, throwing things, and I could hear the mother yelling
at him, telling him to stop.
Now, it was all happening in Korean, but I could speak.
and it went on and on and on after about 15 minutes and
I couldn't go back to sleep.
That was the problem.
Normally, I can go back to sleep without any issues.
I couldn't go back to sleep.
Now I was tired and I had to wake up early, so I got out of my bed.
I was irritated.
I got out of my bed.
I put my shoes.
and I opened my door.
Now, my roommates, they were in shock because they had late classes, and so when
I opened the door, it was about 11:30 PM and they were like, TIFF, are you okay?
Like, did we wake you up?
I said, no, and my eyes were half closed.
I said, you didn't wake me up.
I'll be right back.
They looked at each other, looked at me, I said, I'll be right back.
and I, again, I had my, I say night, night clothes, my clothes
to sleep and my pajamas on.
I had my bonnet for African American women.
Black women.
We wear bonnets.
At night, I had my bonnet on my pajamas and my shoes, and
I proceeded to walk upstairs.
Remember, I was in Korea.
I had never met these individuals, these people.
I went right to the apartment that was above me, and I rang the doorbell.
Now, remember, black woman in South Korea and they had never met me before.
I had my bonnet on, my pajamas on and some shoots.
It was 1130 at night and I rang the door.
And the woman opened the door.
I knew it was the mom, and I could see the little boy, right?
The mom opened the door and she was in shock again because I was
a black woman and she probably didn't expect me to speak Korean.
She opened the door and she looked at me and the little boy was standing there.
He was also kind of shocked because many kids at that time had not seen
black people either, and I looked at the woman, and I'll say it in
English, but I said it in Korean.
I said, I have to wake up and teach a class at 6:00 AM in the morning.
I need to sleep, and your son is being extremely too loud.
Please, please keep him quiet.
That's what I said in Korean.
Again, I wasn't raising my voice or anything.
I really just wanted to go back to sleep.
But what happened next?
I will never forget.
Remember black woman bonnet pajamas, shoes.
This woman that probably had never seen a black person in person in real
life now looks at me, . She said, can you help me ? I kid you not.
That was enough to shock me and wake me out of like I was still half.
And I said, nay, nay just means pardon of me.
Like she said, he won't listen to me.
Can you tell him to be quiet?
And I said, in my head, I said, am I in a movie right now?
So I said, the little boy was standing there looking at us, looking at me,
and looking at his mom as we're having this conversation fully in Korean.
So he knew what was happening.
So I looked at her and I said, ma'am, I can't raise your son.
I can't tell him what to do and what not to do.
I'm not coming back up here tonight.
I'm gonna go back to sleep and it's going to be quiet.
Now.
I was actually indirectly speaking to the little boy, but the mom and
I were talking to each other, but I was actually telling the little boy,
little boy, I don't wanna hear anything else out of you, but I was saying it
to the mom and I think she caught it and she said, okay, we're so sorry.
I said, it's okay.
I just want you to know, like I really wake up early in the morning and so it's
very hard when it's loud up, you know?
. She said, okay, we're so sorry little boy's still standing there looking at me.
Still in shock.
A black woman, but she's speaking Korean.
She has a bonnet on, I don't even know what a bonnet is, mommy,
because we don't wear them in Korea.
A lot was happening.
She said, I'm so sorry.
And they shut the door.
Now I lived in that apartment for a full year.
After that, I never heard that little boy again, . I was never,
uh, awakened by any sounds at all.
I will never forget that situation again.
It did wake me up in the middle of the night, but that mom looking at
me and saying, would you help me
I will never forget that.
I hope you enjoyed this story and I hope you have an awesome week, and
I'll talk to you in the next lesson.