Hi this is to Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 298. The idiom today is play it by
ear. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.
If someone plays it by ear, they will wait for a situation to develop more
fully. Fully meaning more completely before one decides to do something. Okay.
The origin of this idiom goes back to the 1800s and was first used in a way
that is related to music and is still used today in this way. Okay. If an
experienced musician plays music by ear he or she can figure out the notes and
play the song just by listening to it. So no sheet music is needed. So they just
need to listen to it and they just by their ear they can figure out there must
be you know, A or B or whatever whatever note it is. And they they could just play
it , especially with guitar or piano. It could definitely be done this way. Oh.
Let's continue here, by extension you know , some meanings you know they could
be extended out in a different way. The more common meaning today of waiting to
decide depending on the circumstances came into being. You could reason you
know , you could use your logic a good reason if one plays it by ear, they
listen to gather more information or the latest information and decide when the
event is nearer in time. Perhaps at that time you may be able to make a better
decision depending on the situation. Yeah. You may have found out some things that
you know makes you more sure that this is the right decision or you say oh I'm
glad I didn't do that. You know , the way, the way this situation developed. So you
want to play it by ear. You want to wait. You don't want to decide yet. You want to
see how things go. See how the situation develops and decide later. Decide then.
Okay. So we have a couple of examples here. I am not sure how late we will be.
Yeah. Maybe somebody's going out and they say what time you going to return? And they
say well we don't know. We decided to meet at the park and see what everyone
wants to do. We're playing it by ear. Well this might be a reason why you don't
know how late you'll be back. Because you don't know what you're doing yet.
You know, you're meeting a group of friends and you know , maybe nobody
decided what they're going to do yet, but when you get there, you'll figure it out.
And then then once you know what you're going to do you might have a better idea
what time we'll return home by. Okay. Good. That's a good number to hear I'm not
sure which Beach Resort we are going to visit in Thailand. Once we get to Bangkok
we will play it by ear. I figure I'll ask some other travelers what they would
suggest. Maybe you'll meet some other travelers, if you're staying an area with
a lot of travelers and you know maybe they visited a lot of the resorts
already and this way you may decide you know which one might be best or which
one you could skip or so on. So you're playing it by ear. You're waiting. Okay.
Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.