hello michelle how's it going hey lindsay good good i am so excited to be here today to
talk to you we have a fun topic for today don't we we do we do we do absolutely i'm
excited because today's topic is going to be so incredibly real michelle yeah
definitely definitely you know what uh i had a great weekend
side note i have to ask you something later about one of our episodes so just remind me
michelle are you over there taking notes or something what is happening
what's going on i'm really connected i just said side note but you know what i actually i'm not
taking notes but we're gonna talk more about that uh today so this this expression so this is a lot
of fun so uh but before we get into notes and side notes and all the different notes notes
um we want to thank everyone who has reviewed us right lindsay yeah i want to call out a couple of
special listeners who wrote us reviews and raided us wherever they listened to podcasts right that
could be apple podcast it could be cast box google podcast spotify wherever it is i want to thank you
so amul amer januk song from korea matab from iran thank you to waleed taha from egypt wow
that's fantastic listeners from egypt shouk from saudi arabia um and special thanks to omid rajeh
from the united kingdom all of these listeners took the time to leave us a rating and review
and we appreciate you guys so we want to know what you think of the show michelle what should they do
guys write uh rate us and review us right we we want to hear from you and you know what you can
also in your review you could also ask a question that might be answered on the show yeah because
we always read the reviews we always see them guys that's a great way to get our attention
leave us a good question though right michelle we need good questions from our listeners yes good
specific questions that yeah it's going to be it's always great to get the listener questions i love
them absolutely okay so let's get back into this so you're saying you you said side note in the
middle of your phrase here and you're not taking notes so i want to know what's going on i'm so
confused okay so yeah guys today we're going to be talking about notes and idioms dealing with
notes that are this is really good for transitions or like uh interruptions so we said side note so
what i mean i i when i told you oh we're doing something about sidenote today you
were like oh that's really good right why did you why did you say that because i think we're
all you know in a place of distraction and i think as a society we're starting to learn to think
laterally like we move we it's not so linear anymore a lot of us are thinking about one thing
you and i are talking about something and then boom something else comes up oh side note and then
you go back to the other thing you were talking about we're all kind of distracted and this is so
useful because we don't speak in that linear way as native speakers right right oh absolutely yeah
we we do not speak in a linear way and i think it's important to realize that so that when
you're listening to someone you real you know that okay things can change boom boom boom very quickly
and and i think that's the problem with textbooks is that they teach you english in a linear way and
that's why we have our group conversation program at our coffee and conversations program michelle
is that we want to show you how to be non-linear especially in a group and that is hugely important
guys but this is a key vocabulary builder piece for being non-linear in your conversations exactly
exactly so i mean basically what happens is you're talking about something and then you stop and you
say side note and it has to be kind of like that right yeah right yeah and then you switch to the
other topic and then maybe maybe you go back to the first one right um so lindsay so do you
use this in your conversations all the time i was just thinking the other day michelle that
we should talk about this on the podcast to give our listeners a truly high-level piece of english
it doesn't get more high level than this actually awesome awesome so would you like to read the
example for us all right here we go i have to be there at 6 30 a.m side note remind me to tell you
the story of the traffic i got into yesterday oh anyway i'm not looking forward to that day
so i've gone to describing what i have to do maybe the next day and then a totally side conversation
about the traffic from yesterday and then back to what's coming up the next day right michelle
right right exactly so it's it's interesting it's interesting how we do that we just stick
side note in there but there are other things that we do that also deal with transitions that use
the word note for it's kind of funny um lindsay what's what's the first one okay so you could say
on a different note and how does how is this different from side note michelle is there a
distinction in the meaning i think it's a little less like choppy i feel like side note is when
you want to chop things up a little bit more um it just it this one sounds a little bit more smooth
to me that doesn't mean better yeah you're really kind of warning someone that you're veering off
topic entirely right right right right it just seems smoother to me i don't know why
yeah i would agree with you because you are giving them that heads up you know so for example guys
on a different note i think we should talk about our new marketing strategy before the next meeting
so i'm really changing the topic and then i'm probably going to come back into the original
topic after that right michelle right exactly we're just changing directions for a little bit
um and or you could say instead of on a different note you could say on another note
right yes similar idea on another note do you know of any good places to get a haircut
around here yes or if we want to get now the next one i really like because it's not just
about changing the topic it's about changing the tone of the conversation yeah so what is this
on a more serious note this is really good if you've been joking around but then you want
people to focus in and become a little more somber or a little more serious things are going to get a
little deeper now right right right right exactly i mean and i think that this one this one makes me
think of things like toasts or speeches right so for example if you're giving a toast and you say
brandon isn't a perfect guy we all know how terrible his taste in clothes is yeah you're
getting a more serious note oh sorry no sorry keep going michelle keep going on a more serious
note he is perfect for randy and vice versa yeah because typically in an american wedding you'd
have maybe certain members of the bridal party or the groom's party giving um a speech and typically
part of that speech is kind of roasting someone a little bit right making fun of them poking fun
of them saying what you what's quirky about them and then at some point you're going to change the
the tone it's going to become deeper and more profound right michelle right it's like you joke
around about them and then you say like oh but no really they're beautiful couple blah blah blah so
you might say on a more serious note or something like that basically i mean i think on i think you
can pretty much say on an x note right so you could say like uh put an emotion or a
you know something there like on a funnier note or on a strange note or you know um yeah just to kind
of capture the mood that you might be changing but on a more serious note i think is very common yeah
you can fill in the blank here guys once you've already gotten used to using a different note
another note the standard ones now you can have fun with it and fill in the blank on a
weirder note on a funnier note on a you know just fill in the blank with an adjective that's fun
exactly exactly so that's that's kind of how you do it with that with filling in the blank um so
guys also we want you to check out all there's english episode 575 which is about transitioning
uh also in topics uh so speaking of natural ways to transition in english so check that one out
that's from way way back but it's a good one so yeah yeah i mean these are the skills you guys
need to really connect in that group conversation in the office when everyone starts speaking in
that weird way that doesn't seem to make any sense they're talking about tomorrow now they're going
back to yesterday and now they're back in today right real english michelle this is what happens
right right right it's true it's true so we have to be aware of how to do it how to listen for it
is very important um yeah so should we give some role play example so we can hear how it would be
yeah i think this is going to be really helpful for our listeners here we go here's the first one
so i think we should play it safe and reserve the room for about 50 people sounds good on
a different note are you booking the cars or should i okay so here we're planning logistics
of something maybe a wedding or maybe some big event right and what does it mean to play it
safe i'm going to put that as a bonus yeah that's going to be a bonus for today guys great bonus
meaning we should make sure we compensate for all possibilities we want to be conservative meaning
we think only 40 people are coming but there may be 50 so we're going to make get a bigger room
right michelle is that how you see that yeah exactly that's that's that's exactly how i was
thinking of it so to play it safe yeah so but you said on a different note are you booking the cars
or should i so very good stuff and just to keep in mind guys you don't have to say this every
time you transition topics we don't want to hear no you know six times in a two-minute conversation
when you're planning logistics of something right you don't have to do it it's just when it feels
natural to let them know you're about to shift gears that's a good time to do it but after that
for the next point you could just say oh and what about this how about the food and are you going to
be taking care of the food or am i okay does that make sense michelle i just want to make sure that
no i think that i'm glad that you brought that up guys don't overuse don't overuse it don't overuse
this one but it's very useful too um all right let's do another one okay okay here we go uh can
you help me move this of course you know i have strong muscles side note have you seen the new gym
on 37th i haven't i'll check it out yeah so that's a very random uh you know veering the conversation
a right turn right right but it happens it happens all the time constantly actually i
think about this a lot when i'm in groups um you know over the weekend we were skiing with a couple
of people we were in a house and i was thinking about how the conversation was moving and there
was like two or three or four topics going at the same time layered on top of each other i'd say two
or three you know politics and this and someone's business and then the game we are playing right
we're layering things so guys be ready for this oh right yeah absolutely very important skill um
okay so yeah you said side note have you seen the new gym on 37th so yeah we went totally yeah
somewhere else with this but yeah all right so here's the next one i think you should
take out that part why i'm teasing but then i say on a more serious note okay let me read it
on a more serious note the company's been having trouble in the past few months
that is serious yeah well it will be fine but it's important to bring up okay so what happened here
so i'm kind of practicing for some sort of speech right so or a presentation at work um and maybe
you can kind of infer that maybe i'm talking about um making some jokes and then having to
transition to something more serious okay okay so so you were kind of saying that maybe my joking
is a little much and you're saying take that part out and i said why i'm teasing but then i
say on a more serious note and then you read it okay let me read it on a more serious note the
company has been having trouble right so it's this transition here okay got it so guys the
part that's not here that you have to just imagine is in the role play is before that we're teasing
maybe you're again roasting your boss our boss right let's imagine that or you're making fun of
the colleagues or you're poking fun at something or teasing someone and just having a good time
and then you're going to get more serious and say on a more serious note our company is has been
struggling the last few months right so emphasis exactly exactly so on a more serious note so
oh wow a lot of these have i mean all of these have notes
in them um but yeah i think it's very useful to transition in between topics over topics
uh what do you think lindsay 100 again the takeaway here for me today guys is natives
do not speak in a linear way and if you want to connect you really do need to be ready for that
the textbooks have taught you wrong the textbooks have shown you a linear way of speaking natives
never do that so you need these tools please use these tools or more importantly listen for them
that's how you know that's going to be like your benchmark your signal your flag okay they're going
somewhere else they're probably going to come back here but they're going somewhere else okay
absolutely yeah yeah good way to sum it up lindsay yeah try these out not all at once
but this is good stuff good stuff so anyway guys well thank you for listening lindsay thanks for
chatting with me today yeah great stuff guys and if you loved this episode especially for high
level learners of english guys go over and write us a review let us know what you learned today
and ask a question a follow-up question that we could cover in another episode
all right michelle we'll see you soon all right bye lindsay bye
you