Big English Boobs.
What am I talking about?
Well, I'm here to talk to you about
some of the biggest and most embarrassing
mistakes, that I've heard from students of mine
or that I've personally experienced with non native speakers.
These are some of the most embarrassing situations which I hope..
non of you will fall into.
Now, the reason I've titled this 'Big English Boobs'
is because the word 'boob' is one of those words that.. [SIGHS]
In America, the word 'boob' is more often used to mean a mistake.
'Oh, I just made a boob'.
And it means 'I made a mistake'.
Or you could call someone a boob.
Apparently, say 'Hey, you're a boob.'
Meaning 'you're a silly or a stupid person'.
But in the UK, the word 'boob' most often just refers to a 'woman's breast'.
We could also use the alternative word for boob, which is tit.
Now, we do use that to mean 'a silly' or 'a stupid' person.
'Oh, you're such a tit'.
But you wouldn't say 'I made a tit'. 'Tit' never means 'mistake'.
So, the word 'boob' is only a 'woman's breast',
and the word 'tit' can be a 'woman's breast',
Erm..
'You just elbowed me in the tit'.
You might say, but it's very much a slang term.
Or you could call someone a 'tit'.
Obviously, erm.. only do that with your friends..
Don't call your boss or someone you work with a 'tit'.
That wouldn't be a very good idea.
Also note that 'boob' and 'tit' are types of birds.
That's right. You might out in the woods and see a beautiful little 'blue tit'
sitting in a tree.
That's a bird, not a breast.
So, the first one comes from one of my regular students who recently..
called her friend 'very chubby'.
She said 'Hey! You're very chubby today'.
[GIGGLES]
Now, 'chubby' means 'fat'.
So, she said to her friend 'You're very chubby today'.
What she meant was the word 'chirpy', 'chirpy'.
Now, in some languages, typically in Arabic language,
the difference between a 'P' and a 'B' is not very clear.
So, you have to really work in that particular sound 'B', 'P', 'B', 'P'.
One is voiced and one is voiceless.
'Chirpy', 'chubby'. 'Chirpy', 'chubby'.
[CHUCKLES]
I can't see how that mistake occurred.
She's lucky that it was her friend that she said to,
and not a client or someone she worked with.
My next embarrassing story comes from Italy.
I was there not so long ago climbing and doing lots of activities.
I got talking to one of the locals, and they asked why I wasn't doing a certain activity,
and I said it was because of a medical complaint.
And he said 'Oh, furry muff'.
I was shocked.
Now, a 'furry muff' is a slang term.
'Muff' refers to a lady's private area.
So, if you are saying 'a furry muff', you're talking about...
her hairy private area.
And I was like.. 'Why is he saying furry muff to me?'
And later I've realised that he had once heard a native saying 'furry muff',
which can also be a slang term for 'fair enough'.
'Fair enough'. Because they sound similar.
So, he was saying 'fair enough', no problem, not to worry, I won't ask any more questions.
But because he'd heard this native saying 'furry muff',
he thought that was how it was said.. not realising it was a slang
and not appropriate slang to use with someone you don't know very well
[CHUCKLES]
And so he was using it all the time.
So, don't do that one.
During a Skype lesson with one of my students recently,
he was describing a very stressful situation in the home.
And he said it was terrible. I was really stressed out.
All this bad stuff was happening. The kids were playing up.
We ever was stressed. My wife was creaming.
I said 'hang on a minute! Your wife was doing what?'.
He said 'my wife was creaming.'
It's like.. what!
'Your wife was creaming?'. He said 'yes, my wife was creaming.'.
Now..
When we say 'someone is creaming', it's very personal thing.
If someone is creaming, it means they are excited,
but excited in a very adult way. If you know what I mean.
It's not something you'd really share with your teacher or with anyone.
And for him to tell me his wife was excited, in an adult way,
while in the middle of a very stressful situation,
it just seemed very odd. So I questioned him again, and I got him to write it down.
And what he meant was 'my wife was screaming'.
My wife was screaming.
Now, it's a very easy mistake some make, because the word 'was' and 'scream'
both have this 's' sound.
Of course 'was' is a voiced 's', so it sounds like a 'z',
but screaming is voiceless.
Regardless of whether one is voiced or voiceless, if you have..
[GIGGLES]
this word, you need to make sure that you pronounce the 's' very clearly.
So, he should said, he should've said, 'my wife was.. ss..creaming'.
'My wife was screaming.'.
'My wife was screaming'.
So, articulation is really important.
In order to make sure you're not misunderstood.
Another one of my students got a difficulty recently when sat at dinner with her boss
and a few other colleagues from work.
They were discussing a very interesting topic.
And she said 'Ah, this is very interesting. I am aroused'.
She couldn't understand why they reacted so badly to that statement.
And then I explained to her.
There is a big difference between 'I am arroused'
and..
'this has aroused my interest'.
'To arouse your interest' means it has got your attention.
It's very interesting. You have woken up.
Wow! This is interesting.
It has aroused my interest.
That's perfectly safe. Normal.
If you simply say 'I am aroused', he is aroused, she is aroused
it means (they are sexually excited), or (sexually interested).
Okay. So, a very, very different meaning between these two phrases.
Be careful!
Now, the next story is a story I have told in a lesson before
and it's one of my student was talking about changing the bed lining,
so changing the sheet on the bed. She talked about putting a new sheet on the bed.
But she didn't say 'sheet'.
She made the vowel in the middle very short and said 'Sh', 'it'.
'Sh', 'it'.
I'm not gonna say it fully because I don't want YouTube to get upset and ban this video.
But, yes. It became a swear word
which.. you never want to talk about putting something like that on the bed because
this word.. means (poo), basically. And you don't want a bed with poo on it, do you?
And the final one which was hilarious was when I was in Argentina
doing (white water rafting).
My rafting master was whatever you call him the guy who was leading us in the raft
turned around to me at the very back of the raft and said 'Anna! Focus'.
However, he didn't say (fo-cus), he said (Fu-ck us).
So, instead of saying (O), he said (U)
which made a very bad word, again I can't say it.
But asking someone to (F-U-CK us), is a very very inappropriate request.
So.. [CHUCKLES]
I hope that you found this somewhat informative and.. erm..
entertaining.
Making mistakes is all part of learning a language
and so it's important that you feel.. happy to make mistakes because..
that's how we learn.
And if makes us laugh on the way,
then.. you'll remember the lesson for the rest of your life, probably.
I do hope you found this helpful. If you did then show it a thumb up.
Don't forget to subscribe and press the ball of the subscription button
before you leave. Otherwise, take care. And see you next time.
And.. Bye.