In this English lesson, I wanted to help you
learn the English phrase a rookie mistake.
Now, this is a term we use
when we're talking about someone who's new at something
and then they make a mistake.
At school, oh, by the way,
a rookie is someone who's new at something.
When you play a sport, you can be a rookie.
It means it's your first year.
But we use this in other things as well.
At school, sometimes we hire a new teacher
and we call that teacher a rookie for the first year.
And a rookie mistake as a teacher
would be to try and use the photocopier
right before the school day starts.
That's the busiest time.
If you need to photocopy something in a school,
don't do it (laughs) right before school starts
because there will be a lineup of teachers
all making the same mistakes, including the rookie.
So anyways, a rookie mistake is a mistake
that someone who is new at something ends up making.
The other phrase I wanted to teach you today
is the phrase an honest mistake.
Now, an honest mistake is just a mistake
that anyone would make,
and it's a mistake that doesn't really harm anyone.
A good example would be this.
Sometimes I'll teach a student
and then a few years later, I'll teach their brother.
So I'll teach two brothers, and then a few years later,
again, after they've graduated
I'll meet one of them somewhere and I'll use the wrong name.
And that's just an honest mistake.
Sometimes brothers look a lot alike,
especially after they graduate from high school.
If you meet two brothers in their 20s,
they can sometimes look quite a bit alike.
So it's just an honest mistake
if I use the wrong name when I run into one of them.
So to review, a rookie mistake is a mistake
made by someone who's new at something.
A rookie mistake for a farmer
is to try and work up the soil before it's dry enough.
That's a rookie mistake.
And an honest mistake is just a simple mistake
that anyone would make,
and it's not a mistake that harms anyone
or costs money or anything like that.
So I make a lot of those, actually.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
This comment is from Judit.
"Thanks for the video. It was quite short, as usual.
"Christmas is coming as well as the eagle season
"in North Florida, check them out."
And my response, "I'll have a look."
And I did, I actually just spent a little bit of time
reading about bald eagles.
And I wanted to show all of you something as well.
So the bald eagle is native to North America.
It's an eagle with a white head.
I think it's the national bird in the United States.
But if you look behind me here,
there's a really tall hydro pole right there.
We call 'em hydro poles in Canada.
And at the very top, sometimes in the summer
we'll see a bald eagle.
There is a bald eagle that lives on our farm.
I'm sure it's gone now, though,
because I'm sure it's gone south for the winter
where it's a bit warmer.
But interestingly enough, Judit, thanks for that comment.
I did read a little bit about bald eagles, and again,
there's one that sometimes perches right at the top
of that hydro pole.
You might call it a utility pool if you are in America,
or something like that.
By the way, I'm out here in the rain.
It's a little bit slippery out here.
Let's see if...
So I actually ended up staying home today.
We had, I guess we would call it technically,
we would call it a snow day,
but it's actually more accurate to call it an ice day.
We woke up to freezing rain.
It was very, very dangerous to walk outside.
It was very, very dangerous to drive.
So we found out that school was canceled.
So I had a day off. It was kind of nice.
It's been a while since I've had a day off.
It's been a while since I've had a snow day.
Now it is a little wet and cold still,
but it's above zero now so it's not as dangerous.
But I'm glad I'm not at work now
because it's supposed to get really cold again.
So the drive home would've been dangerous.
Anyways, see with another video in a few days. Bye.