hey there michelle how's it going today
it's great to see your face on video
hey lindsay hey how are you good i'm
excited guys today's episode is over on
youtube as a video you can see our
studios how we talk to each other and
then you can also of course always
listen to it as a podcast which is the
way we love right michelle
that's right yeah we love all of it good
times good times yeah so yes
i'm excited to be on here today uh but i
have a question for you i feel like this
is kind of a deep question um
so i'm curious especially off the top of
your head if you're gonna have an answer
for this okay
was there ever a time in your life that
you felt you were robbed of something
you deserved oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my
gosh that is such a deep question yeah i
know it really is maybe not by a person
or maybe robbed of time or
anything
um not really nothing major stands out i
guess in a way okay so i'll say with the
pandemic
um
and this is coming from my world view my
perspective on things right it's you
know
i realize there's some privilege in this
but i feel like i was robbed of some of
the places i wanted to travel
right
so you know i still in my life i have a
bucket list i have places i feel i need
to see in the world before i die india
is a big one
uh you know or uh the south of argentina
like patagonia big one and also egypt we
had a trip planned to egypt so i do
i was a little robbed of the of travel
during the pandemics i will say that
yeah
i think that's a perfect example i think
everybody feels like with the global
health crisis that they've been robbed
of something i think that everybody was
robbed of something
like yeah for for me
travel as well yes um
i think my sanity you're saying you're
prompt of your sanity
i mean some people were robbed of like
traditional weddings i i attended a few
zoom weddings which
you know in the end if you're marrying
the love of your life you're happy maybe
you don't care but some people probably
did care that they had to get married on
zoom right right
it's really yeah yeah yeah for sure and
then obviously i mean it goes without
saying the people who lost their lives
who lost loved ones like to be robbed of
something so i mean i think they'll see
that i'm glad you brought that up
because that is a very relevant example
that i know i think everybody in the
world can relate to yeah i think um
so but what does that even mean like
let's talk about that for a second yeah
we're gonna we're gonna talk about this
idea of being robbed and what that means
because it doesn't mean that i literally
like went up and stole from you right
right it's a little bit more
metaphorical or
harder to touch it's not it's not about
stealing someone's keys out of their
pocket right of course you could say i
was robbed on the train today i was
literally robbed yeah physically robbed
right you could so let's talk about the
other robbed a little bit more on this
episode and before we get to that we
want to remind you guys that if you
haven't listened to the ielts energy
podcast yet you were missing out because
jessica and aubry are over there really
with everything that you need to know
about the ielts yeah michelle it's such
a good time to go over and check it out
guys because it's you know the very
beginning of january if this is your
year to finally i mean hopefully we're
going to move past this global health
crisis if this is your year to immigrate
go and start with the ielts energy
podcast to get ready for your ielts exam
exactly exactly all right so again like
we said we're not talking right now
about literally physically being robbed
yeah um
have you ever been robbed
like this
well i had my camera stolen but not off
my body i i stupidly left it on my bed
at a hostel so i deserved in argentina
so i deserve to have it stolen that is
so silly of me
oh and i think i had my shoes stolen off
the back of my bag when i was traveling
through a market in colombia but those
are just me being stupid um i i've you
know cleansing yeah just being careless
you know being silly have you been
robbed or pickpocketed michelle
physically i think i i think probably
you remember the story where i was
pickpocketed in amsterdam
yeah my phone my oh my cell phone yep
right out of the pocket literally oldest
trick in the book yeah i mean just
literally right out of my pocket i was
standing in her waiting in line at a
restaurant one guy bumped to me yeah
okay i was distracted by that i was i
looked at dan i said what was that and
then i put my hand in my pocket oh my
gosh i still remember that there was a
chill that went through my body
and my phone was gone
so did dan
notice someone getting into your pocket
or no was it that fast no he just it was
so fast like it was like crazy i mean i
always say like it was like a magic
trick like as much as i hate that it
happened yeah it was very crafty like
very crafty like job well done like
creating a diversion so
and yes they created a diversion by like
bumping me first you know it's
interesting yeah the chili you mentioned
it's a very human response when you've
just been kind of yeah violated right
your personal space has been violated
that almost happened to us on the train
in paris on our way from the airport the
most obvious place for someone to
instigate a pickpocketing we knew what
these kids were doing i mean they were
starting fights and picking fights with
people on the train and we knew we're
like okay there's going to be a
pickpocketing or robbing here so we
stood up and kind of faced them and had
our bags in front of us and kind of face
them right next to the door so we
wouldn't be a target but you can tell
when something like this is maybe
happening that people are trying to
create this diversion
right
it was crazy and you know you know
sometimes you put your hand in your
pocket and you're looking for your phone
and you're like oh did i just like leave
it somewhere you know like you kind of
you're not you don't have that feeling
but like as soon as i like i didn't have
that feeling at all i put my hand in my
pocket and i was like that's okay i know
exactly what happened like in that
moment there was no question to me and
we tried to run out and how did i wonder
how they knew that you had the phone in
that pocket why not the other pocket or
did it was it just more opportunities i
think it was probably sticking out it
was sticking out okay wow okay they are
i mean that's what i'm guessing yeah so
guys if you ever like are bumped by
somebody don't look at the person
bumping yeah yeah yeah the thing is in
the u.s
that's a real interesting difference
between traveling in the us and
traveling in europe it's much less
common i think in the us at least right
now to be pickpocketed
uh i guess gun violence is probably more
common in the u.s
i guess so yeah but i think in europe we
do face these kinds of things western
europe sometimes yeah so okay but we're
not talking about that kind of being now
we are talking about it i got into it um
but yeah but now let's talk about the
other way like you said kind of more the
more metaphorical way yeah so this means
to have something taken from you that
impacted you in some way right so an
example would be sports i feel like i
hear this a lot in sports like they were
robbed because the referees made such
bad calls right yeah that's a really
comment where you were supposed to win
the game it was obvious but the ref
stole it or maybe the team cheated or
something
right or
right or you think they cheated
or maybe for a job right getting a job
at your job i was robbed of the chance
for a promotion because of the pandemic
it all comes back to the pandemic right
michelle
and not being able to get to where you
want because things weren't going well
you know
at your work or something so you
couldn't get your promotion yeah being
robbed or something um or a relationship
right she was robbed of the chance for a
happy marriage because her parents her
parents her husband she did yeah i think
something that's really important to
highlight here is the grammar right so
what has to go what preposition
if we're putting the noun after it has
to go before this has to go with this ch
as a chunk michelle what are we doing
here
you do robbed of yeah right
to to be robbed of something yes and the
only exception yeah go ahead go ahead
i mean you could say to be robbed by
someone of like an opportunity maybe if
it is a person who like
you know kind of took an opportunity
from you you could say to be robbed by a
person right sure oh yeah so by is the
person doing it and the of is for the
thing that you're losing right so that's
the key yeah love it
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um so i mean lindsay do you say oh i was
robbed yeah and then the other question
is like is this very like whoa is me
like to be like i was robbed of this
like putting you know the responsibility
on someone else or and and what does
that mean what was me whoa is me woe is
me guys write that one down that's a
great one uh so colloquial so typical um
what was me kind of oh you're feeling
bad for yourself right and that's a way
yeah yeah it's not a positive
connotation when when someone says that
to you it means you are just crying too
much you need to get over it take
responsibility but i actually think
michelle this is a good way to connect
to someone else for example in sports if
you went to watch your friend's
basketball game and they just lost by a
point
you could empathize after the games that
you were robbed you guys should have won
that game the ref made a bad call
right what do you think about that
strategy
yeah absolutely kind of commenting on
someone else's situation
um is is definitely good to connect you
to them to show that you feel sorry for
them or to show that you know you're
outraged
you believe something shouldn't be
should have been done in a certain way
yeah it's like you're kind of saying i
know you could have done better i feel
like my dad used to i used to lose a lot
of tennis matches
[Laughter]
i think my dad used to say this a lot to
me but i know i was just not playing
well
oh no
that's funny is there anything else we
use that our listeners would want to
have as alternative phrases
sure yeah well one thing is to be held
back by something yes right so this is
slightly different but a similar idea
right like i mean the global health
crisis held me back from being able to
do x y and z right yeah held me back
from and then so again we're dealing
with different prepositions here guys
for every one of these chunks so you
want to learn them in chunks
and what's another one this is a this is
a really good one yeah to be cheated out
of something and i guess this is a
little bit more direct by saying
yeah someone actually cheated
right
right right
uh
right exactly i mean i don't know like
sometimes i think it's used in a similar
way to rob like oh i was like cheated
out of the opportunity to blah blah blah
blah blah so it could be like that as
well but um yeah i mean i i think both
of these are useful for similar ideas to
saying i was robbed yeah i wonder if do
you think that for cheated out of could
you use that for like if someone
overcharged you for something like if
you bought or i'm wondering if in a
sales type position like a scammy sales
type thing like you were cheated out of
that car because they offered you too
little when you sold your used car
yeah i think that you could you could
use uh that as well for that kind of
situation yeah
um like if a purchase went wrong or
somebody tried to scam you that makes me
think of scams right scams absolutely
yeah we gotta be careful for sure for
sure this is good exactly exactly um so
should we do a role play yeah let's do
it michelle in this role play you and i
are friends and i'm going to be talking
about a promotion that i did not receive
so i'm really bummed here oh
yeah
all right okay here we go oh i'm sorry
lindsay what a bummer you were robbed oh
thanks michelle it happens i do kind of
feel like i was held back by a rigged
system at work i know i deserve that
promotion
you totally did you're the hardest
working person i know
i think you were really cheated out of
something special maybe look for another
job yeah i'll think about it
all right so that's something yeah so
this is interesting because the example
we chose
it shows how friends are empathizing a
friend is empathizing with another
friend by saying you were robbed so this
is a really good use case for this
phrase michelle
right right right exactly so it's a
different way to show your sympathy than
just saying like oh like i'm sorry
that's too bad you know like this is
this is taking it really one step
further actually
you know not only like you know
you're putting the blame on really
something else that's out of lindsay's
control do we know in this situation if
lindsay was really robbed out of it
maybe she didn't deserve it yeah yeah
yeah but i like the way you put that
michelle you know taking empathy one
step further right because it is more
than just saying i'm sorry oh by the way
how's the weather or something right no
you want to spend a little more time
talking to the person about what they
feel they lost or missed because maybe
yeah i didn't deserve the promotion but
i i feel that i deserved it and it
matters what people feel right
oh
absolutely and you know
whether you know that sometimes you just
got to support your friends and be like
yeah no that wasn't fair you deserve it
right like sometimes
i mean that's that's what friends are
for i feel like
you know it's a it's uh you know there
there's a time and a place to uh
you know decide whether to
you know talk about really what went
wrong and then there's a time to just
support someone and be like yeah no that
like that was not good
complain about it for them exactly it
feels good to have people in your corner
have people in your corner over there
supporting you no matter what happens in
your life and they're like your cheering
section in a way you know that feels
good
yeah
that is that's absolutely true lindsay
so should we go through this sure let's
talk it over do it so the first thing
again guys we said i'm sorry lindsay
what a bummer you were robbed right you
said that to me
as that next empathy step right and i
didn't need to say you were robbed of
right right because i'm just commenting
on the whole situation we know what
we're talking about so you can just say
you were robbed that's it yeah i love it
and then what did i say after that
you said i do kind of feel like i was
held back by
a rigged system at work so you feel that
like you were you were kind of a victim
to whatever is going on in this funky
funky workplace yeah exactly and i like
i want to add for our listeners this is
your bonus phrase for today's rigged
system ooh what does that mean something
is rigged
is what michelle what's going on it
means that it's it's it was already like
pre-planned something is like it kind of
cheated and right you know not fair it
was like by
by design right it's not objective there
was already a plan that you were gonna
not get it someone else was going to get
it but they pretended that there was a
real competition right that's what
rigged means okay
and then you said um yeah yeah go ahead
okay and then you said you totally did
you're the hardest working person i know
i think you are really cheated out of
something special so now again we're
using the same meaning here cheated out
of something special yeah
exactly exactly so yeah guys these are a
few different ways to express this and
you know we talked about it how it could
be like a little woe is me if you use it
constantly on yourself or also i just
want to introduce one more little
expression maybe we'll do an episode
about this yeah maybe we should just do
that but anyway i'll share it it's pity
party oh pity party that's good what
does that mean michelle a pity party is
when somebody just likes to feel sorry
for themself and it's almost like
it's almost like they're just throwing
themselves actually a little party
because it feels good sometimes to feel
sorry for yourself or complain about
something and yeah and i think that's
kind of the art of being a good friend
is to call your friend out when they are
engaging in their own little pity party
right and you could say i'm not coming
to your pity party you've invited me but
i'm not coming
right like get out there like let's not
be sad about this exactly we'll maybe
we'll do a whole episode yeah we could
do a whole other thing about the
victimhood victim mentality right and
you know all that stuff oh my gosh
michelle there's a lot we could do
there's a lot we could do but for today
what's our takeaway for our listeners
guys so rob isn't always about actually
being physically
stolen from right these are
uh useful expressions to you know
sometimes bring you closer to a friend
yeah um so think about how you're using
it are you using it all the time on
yourself are you using it to take your
empathy or your sympathy one step
further what is it but try this out
today and let us know how it goes ooh
such a youthful connection skill here
michelle and guys remember as we
mentioned before if you are taking ielts
in 2022 go and find the ielts energy
podcast from all this english our
colleagues jessica and aubry are over
there showing you how to get your seven
or higher all right michelle this has
been great i'll talk to you soon
all right bye lindsay have a good day
bye you too
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