hello Aubry I have an interesting question for you today all right let's hear it
well give it to me straight how tall are you oh I am five five so five okay five feet five inches
what about you Lindsay I actually have no idea how tall you are well we're about the same so I'm five
four five four and a half in that in that world so you and I are kind of the average height of an
average American woman um I love when we're our height that half matters right it would be like
I'm five four and a half it doesn't matter say it or someone who's five nine five ten if there is a
half they're just not gonna say it yeah when I was growing up well actually still one of my closest
friends Emma she is I think she's like 5 10. and she was always kind of self-conscious about her
height in high school and worried about dating boys that were shorter at some point you should
just Embrace herself which is beautiful right um and you know but she's a beautiful tall woman and
we should just Embrace how we are absolutely oh man if someone's an athlete all the volleyball
players I know were so hoping to be five nine five ten because then they could get that scholarship
up right when you need that height but for a lot of us it's fine to be average doesn't matter I
was just reading an article in the New York Times actually about that about very very tall people
um how they're always asked recruited for the basketball team and as did you play basketball
and for some of them they get annoyed with it right yeah maybe if they're not athletic like
no I'm just tall there's so much here and this is especially interesting nowadays for us as a
remote team and for our listeners because we don't know we've you and I have never met in person I've
worked in person with Jessica and with Michelle but you and I you joined our team in 2019 we've
never been in the same physical space I know we hit covid and all of our great plans to meet up
and dude it was wrecked so yeah we've never been in the same room it's kind of crazy I actually
assumed you were taller than that I thought you were maybe like five nine okay all right you have
a big personality a tall personality hahaha I love that I love that well yeah we always I think it
always ends up being different than what we think right for some reason every time I meet someone
it's sort of the opposite of what I thought you know that happens to me too I'm curious I
actually don't know how tall Jessica and Michelle are either are they about our height taller yeah
Jessica is a little taller so Jessica you're gonna have to ask her how tall she is but I think she's
closer to five seven maybe five eight and Michelle is I think like five three in that
region oh really four five four I I don't want to quote them because I don't know I'm just something
like that no idea yeah I think it would have been the same for me I would meet them and be
like oh you're taller than I expected or oh who knows it's it's so funny so anyways this is what
we're getting into today because this can totally be a connection topic for our listeners maybe
they also have remote colleagues that they've never met in person right yeah right it's kind
of fun to to meet someone in person and then and share don't be afraid to be like oh you're taller
than I expected or or you know just kind of chat about what were the expectations and why it's an
interesting thing to talk about yeah so did this come out of a listener question then yes we had
a listener that asked us about the word height and we're going to share a common mistake to avoid and
we'll also share two idioms with the word height so we have a lot of great stuff for you guys today
okay do you want to share this listener question for us Lindsay yes let's go let's do it so I'm
gonna go ahead and read it dear Lindsay Michelle and Aubry I've been listening to your podcast
since 2016. I'm so glad that you're still active up to now so many things happen but your podcast
always holds a place in my heart I love that idea oh it's so fun well we keep our listeners in our
hearts too right we think about you guys all the time how come we make your life better how can we
learn in a new way and focus on that connection right yes absolutely please keep up the good
work she says I'm writing this email to ask you a question regarding ways to talk about a person's
height so a few days ago at my part-time English class I was asked to write rewrite the sentences
he is 1.67 meters tall without changing the meaning and I came up with this sentence
he has 1.67 meters in height the teacher said it was incorrect and that it should be his height is
1.67 meters while I think the teacher sentence is correct I wonder if my answer can be considered
an alternative as I found some examples of such use by researching online and I find it confusing
thank you so much for your attention I wish you a nice weekend you're sincerely Jiang wow what
a great listener what a great question right I love disco I love this um letter this email this
comment I'm not sure exactly where it was left but thank you thank you for sending in your questions
and yeah this is an interesting one I have a feeling this has happened to me as well in classes
at school and I have a feeling you guys out there have had this happen where you're corrected and
you're pretty sure that's not right or you're not positive so then you try to Google and you
and you get conflicting advice what a frustrating confusing situation to be in yeah you end up in
forums it's an awful place to be trying to Google what's grammatically correct right exactly and so
this is interesting because um Jiang sentence is grammatically correct right you can say
um he is 1.67 meters in height but I have a feeling that that teacher may have corrected
it because we don't often say it that way anymore it feels very formal it feels sort of a little
old-fashioned so I wish that teacher had made that clear if that's why they were correcting it
it's also Possible English isn't this teacher's first language and they they might think it is
grammatically correct that definitely does happen right but though it is correct I actually wouldn't
recommend saying it that way just because I don't hear it that way very often right and our whole
reason for existing at all there's English again is connection not Perfection so we're always going
to steer you towards more so what's going to help you connect yes it's good to be correct you should
know what's correct but you should use what's going to put you on the same level as the people
around you what's going to help you to emotionally connect with people in front of you right Aubry I
don't know how to say that no you don't want to break the connection by saying something whether
it's grammatically correct or not that will sound just a little bit off to native speakers or to
language Learners so just because it's not used very commonly yeah I would say instead he is 1.67
meters tall or yeah he I wouldn't even say what the teacher recommended this is kind of strange
when teachers were like rewrite this sentence and it's like but the sentence I have is the way we
say it it makes the most sense right so in today's episode that's why I'm excited for today we'll
show you the what we actually say and also some common mistakes right Aubry yeah let's dive into
this we sometimes will hear students eliminate the measurement word we'll share some examples
here to so that you're clear on what this means and this is a very common mistake that you'll
want to avoid will hear someone say you know I am 5'5 tall and they've eliminated feet or meters and
there's a reason this happens because sometimes we do just say I am five five right I mean when
you and I hopped on I'm pretty sure if we go back into our transcripts we're going to get a quote
that says I'm five four and a half right I'm five five five yeah and I don't say I am five five feet
or I don't say I'm five inches five feet usually right it's um we just dropped that to be simple
to be quick I'm five five yeah so what are what the mistake is here guys that we're hearing out
there in the world is that students are combining two ways of the slangy way five five combining it
with putting tall at the end right at five feet five inches tall so we're putting it all into one
sentence that does not work right exactly and you can if so if you say that I am this is rare but if
you say the whole thing which is kind of long I am five feet five inches tall yes that's correct
because you still have the feet inches but what you can't do just like you said Lindsay is have
this very short and slingy way I'm five five and still say tall I'm five five tall oh that doesn't
work if you're going to say tall at the end or in height then we have to say feet or meters
or inches so it's like you said it's either the full long thing or the very very shortened bit you
can't go halfway yeah it's kind of like you like dip your toe into slang and then you came back out
try to have the best of both worlds that could be a fun episode to try to plan a good challenge
for one of these days Aubrey is like what are some Expressions where people do half
slang and half formal or half slang in half just the the textbook wave saying it doesn't work it
just bombs completely yeah right this is one of those and I know there are more I feel like this
is a very common error when you go to try and shorten something to try and make it slaying to
accidentally drop necessary words or add a word that shouldn't be there and all of a sudden it
sounds um yeah really off and it's a sort of a glaring error so yeah that's a good idea we'll
have to keep an eye out for more of those yeah that's a great one guys hit follow on all ears
English wherever you're listening if you are watching in YouTube hit subscribe but if you're
an apple podcast Spotify hit follow now so you don't miss that episode when it comes out so any
other common mistakes we need to know about Aubry this is the main one right that I've heard but
also there are a couple of idioms with the word height and we of course we always hear errors with
idiom because they have to be used word for word often right we can't switch them up and change
them around so we're going to share a couple of idioms and exactly how you need to use them
with examples so you can use these to uplevel your vocab I love it I love it so let's get into it I'm
going to give our listeners our first idiom here and then we'll talk about what it means right so
idiom number one new heights um definitely meaning to improve right to make something excellent make
it better would you say so Aubry yeah we use this a lot of in business English as well we'll say
like we're taking our company to new heights just means we're improving something we're trying to
really make it better yes I love it so this might be something you might see on like in a brochure
of a company a web page of a company a CEO giving a speech inspirational kind of talk broad ideas
would you say so yeah and it's interesting because there is a literal meaning right a new height I'm
going to hike to new heights means like I'm gonna hike a higher Mountain in right but there's also
this idiomatic meaning just means to improve it in any way so like you said you might see it in
a brochure here in a business meeting you could use it about your language learning right and say
this goal will push my language learning to new heights it's just a very interesting way of saying
it will improve it yeah is there anything you want to bring to new heights anything you're working
on specific specifically right now Aubry that you would like to push to new heights anything I think
um like the time I spend with my children especially one-on-one I really have a goal
to because kids like you can tell them you love them you can tell them yeah you care you can buy
them gifts but sometimes their love language is just quality time and there's nothing that
that can replace that right so I want to take my relationship with my kids to new
heights by really figuring out what is their love language what do I need to do if that's
quality time one-on-one that's what I need to make time for you know I love it you gotta have
them take the survey the love language survey exactly I think I haven't figured out from each
of them but then sometimes they'll surprise me right yeah and sometimes there's multiple
they need words of affirmation and they need quality time and they need gifts it's almost
like a child hasn't figured it out yet they need it all right they're sampling every thing right
okay do we have another one a second medium this next one is to reach Great Heights which means to
achieve a high level of success in a particular activity so for example an athlete you might
say he reached Great Heights in his baseball career means he was very successful at baseball
also also a very both of these idioms today are like very uh you know presentation ish right uh
brochures websites like we said before speeches motivational speaking they're very broad okay so
they're good but just in the right moments right if you're getting into the weeds and the details
we don't want to be using these because people are going to be annoyed that you're being too
broad and not specific enough yeah right if someone were to ask you like what is a
specific thing I can do a specific thing I can change and you just said you just need to reach
Great Heights no that doesn't help me it's true it's very big it's very broad talking about high
level of success and so it is more like in a in a motivational meeting right a boss might be like we
are ready to really reach Great Heights together and so it's just something to sort of boost you
and say hey we want to achieve great success then we'll get into the nitty-gritty into those details
exactly I love that and it can also be you know when when people are applying for jobs right that
kind of scenario cover letters these can be red flags when people speak broadly with these big
Grand ideas and there's no specific examples or data things like that so just be careful
as we're learning these that you use them at the right times that's such a good point you
don't want to put in a cover letter or resume uh you know I'm good at reaching Great Heights
instead I want to know exactly what have you done what are your successes what are your
skills right that's a really good point that's not the place for sure I love it so let's show
our listeners how these fit into a role play shall we yeah let's do it so in this role play
you and I are at a friend's college graduation at a posh Hotel was your graduation at just like
at the school or was it at like a fancy hotel oh my gosh I've yeah my I grew up at a very middle
class town in New Hampshire our prom was in the high school gym right our graduation was in the
on the football field we but as I've grown up I've met people and have said oh our prom was
at this hotel or this fancy Marketplace Downtown like what what you didn't just have it in your gym
cafeteria talking about what about you did you have a posh the graduation was just like in the
gym because it was a very small graduating class so we didn't even have to go out on the football
field it was in the gym but we did have um there was a commencement dance one year I remembered
that they had in like a hotel in town which oh that felt so fancy that's so fancy sometimes I
wonder where do high schools get the money for that kind of thing to rent out a hotel for a
night is not cheap it's true I do remember our tickets they did pass some of the expense along
to us the ticket to go was a little pricey but I guess I remember we you know we were excited so
I guess we didn't mind yeah prom's an exciting moment for for high school kids in the U.S we
maybe we'll do another episode someday about the you know these events in high school life
right I'm curious how that is in other cultures if that exists probably but yeah it's true it's
pretty important in the US all right let's dive into this role play I'll start us out okay this
is quite the venue they've taken it to new heights this year true last year it was at the school so
this is so much fancier I'm excited for Mark to be graduating do you know if he has a job lined
up yeah you got a job at a law firm I think it'll definitely reach Great Heights in his career nice
so we used both of those idioms here let's kind of Point them out I first said they've taken it
to new heights this year which is a fun way to say oh this is much improved this is better than last
year when it was just at the school yeah that's a fun way to say it's kind of it's almost using
kind of an analogy kind of here which is which is cool it sounds cool um and then you know we
said I said I think he'll definitely reach Great Heights in his career and again be careful it
could sound a little cliche you know this phrase I think if we're not careful about how it gets
delivered I think yeah I can see that it's true when we think about if you know who are we maybe
we're the parents of kids that are graduating from college this is maybe something thing I would say
right someone got a great job at a law firm oh he's going to reach Great Heights in his career
it's such a broad overall just saying like I know he's going to be successful exactly like if you're
I'm thinking of another scenario where this would work let's say you're hosting a graduation party
for your kid who's graduating and their friends and you're giving a speech as the host these kids
have worked so hard I'm so excited to watch them Reach Great Heights in their early careers fine
but if you're one-on-one and you start using that people are gonna be like am I talking to a human
being or am I knock knock like what's going on right why are we being so vague and so formal
really it's a pretty formal expression right most of us just one-on-one just be like he's gonna do
great things I know he's going to be successful oh he's going to be a great lawyer like that's more
likely what we would say when we're just chatting with a friend right yeah yeah so on this show guys
we want to show you not just the words not just how to be correct but how to connect which means
read the room right when are you present sending these phrases that feel Broad and big and when do
you want to speak more like a human one to one that's such an important skill at our listeners
level so true such a good point I want to share one quick little bonus phrasal verb that was in
the role play you had said or I said do you know if he has a job lined up which really means like
for something to be arranged that's for something that will happen right so this is really a great
phrasal verb instead of the more formal way of saying like do you know if he has a job yet or
it just is so informal and friendly to say oh you have a job lined up yeah I would definitely prefer
uh do you know if he has a job lined up versus do you know if he has a job yet because it kind
of Nags the lack of right yeah that feels so much more judgmental to say like they have a job yet
like you think it's a problem if he doesn't where you know it's a kid graduating from high school
this feels yeah the the nagging isn't there the pressure it's like oh so you have a job it's like
you would be fine if he doesn't that foreign just a little bit of informal feeling it really does
certain words can really indicate a tone big time Big Time so good stuff what's the takeaway where
should we leave our listeners in terms of their mindset their thinking around this yeah I love
what you said Lindsay that when you're learning idioms it is so important to think about how
formal are they what situations would you want to that's not something you can learn in a textbook
or online with just a list of idioms right you you need our podcast like we're going to go into
this every time where should you use these when would it feel too formal and yeah I think that's
so important that you when you're learning English that you think about that with every
new phrasal verb with every idiom you know when is it appropriate to use this it's so true guys
so if this is where you're at with your English if you're looking to push push to that advanced
level high intermediate intermediate level hit follow on this show hit follow hit subscribe on
YouTube wherever you want to consume the show we're out four days a week good stuff awesome
um so fun Lindsay yeah great episode and it's fun to talk about height I love that concept I love
it I know I'm glad I finally gotta learn your height and Jessica's Michelle's I had no idea
yeah yeah good stuff all right I'll talk to you soon have a good one you too bye bye
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