Hey, in today's English lesson, I'm going to teach you five English
idioms you've never heard before.
Are you ready?
Well, then I'm teacher Tiffani.
Let's jump right in.
The very first English idiom is be in a tight spot.
Again, be in a tight.
Excellent.
Now, this just means to be in a difficult situation, so I want
you to think about it like this.
Imagine you had a shirt, your favorite shirt, and every time you wore this shirt,
you felt good about yourself, but all of a sudden you started gaining weight.
So when you go to put on the shirt that you love so much, all of a.
Ah, it's a little tight.
It's, it's difficult to get the shirt on and even more
difficult to get the shirt off.
Taking the shirt off requires extra energy.
It's a difficult situation.
That's why we say be in a tight spot.
Makes sense, right?
Again, a difficult situation.
So let me give you some examples.
Ands.
Here's the very first one you have put.
In a tight spot.
So I think I need to let you go.
This is a very hard situation for me to be in.
I, I can't really help you anymore.
I need to let you go.
You have put me in a tight spot, so I think I need to let you go.
Sentence number two, her divorce put her in a tight spot, a difficult
situation, but she is doing better now.
It make sense and sentence number three, Jeremy put me in a tight
spot when he brought up the bankruptcy in front of everyone.
I didn't want everyone to know about my bankruptcy, so I felt very awkward.
It was a difficult situation when Jeremy told everyone revealed brought up my ba.
makes sense, right?
Again, we say be in a tight spot.
Now, idiom number two is also a very useful one.
Idiom number two is be off the mark.
Be off the mark.
Once again, be off the mark.
Excellent.
Now, this one just means not achieving the desired result due to inaccuracy.
Think about it.
Maybe you took a test and you expected that you were going to get an A on the
test, but then you receive your test results and instead of an A, you get a C.
Wait a minute.
That's not the expected result.
, you were off the mark again, not achieving the desired result due to inaccuracy.
Here's the first example sentence.
I was really off the mark on my exams.
You got that one right.
Number two, his efforts were off the mark.
He didn't achieve the desired result.
His efforts were off the mark and.
The weather forecast was really off the mark today.
You know, the weather forecast said that, Hey, it's going to be a
sunny day, but it rained all day.
The weather forecast was really off the mark today.
Make sense?
All right, let's move on to English idiom number three, English idiom
number three is bend over back.
Bend over backward.
I want you to repeat after me.
Bend over backward.
Excellent.
Now this idiom just means to work extra hard in an effort to make someone happy.
Again, you're going the extra mile.
You're working extra hard in order to make someone happy.
Now, think about bending over backward.
Oh, it's not really the easiest thing to do.
You have to put a lot of effort in order to do it right.
It's just saying that you're working extra hard to help someone else out
In English, we say bend over backward.
Now check out this example.
Jamie's husband constantly bends over backward for her.
He loves her so much.
Whatever she wants, even though he comes home from work, extremely tired, he will
go right back out to get her some flowers to get her the food that she wants.
Why?
Jamie's husband constantly bends over backward for her.
He worked extra hard.
He.
Extra, extra hard in an effort to make her happy.
All right.
Sentence number two.
I bent over backward for that guy and he still treats me poorly.
I worked hard.
I put in my best effort, and yet he still treats me poorly again.
I bent over backward for that guy and he still treats me poorly.
And what about sentence number?
I only bend over backward for family.
I only put in an extra effort for my family.
Once again, I only bend over backward for family.
Makes sense?
Right.
Okay.
Let's check out idiom number four.
Idiom number four is bite off more than you can chew.
Bite off more than you can chew.
I want you to repeat after me Bite.
More than you can chew.
Excellent.
Bite off more than you can chew.
Now, this just means to make a commitment you cannot fulfill.
You tell someone, Hey, I got you.
I'll make sure to complete all of the things you asked me to complete.
And then you realize, oh my.
I'm not going to be able to do what I said.
I bit off more than I can chew to make a commitment you cannot fulfill.
Hey, I'll record a video for you every single day.
Wait a minute.
I'm a little too busy to do that.
I bit off more than I can chew.
Make sense?
All right, let me give you an example sentence.
Here we go.
I think I bit off more than I can chew with this new job.
Next I need to expand my company, but I don't want to
bite off more than I can chew.
I, I want to get bigger, but I, I, I don't wanna make a commitment that I cannot.
, I need to expand my company, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.
And this one, he is about to bite off more than he can chew by marrying Sabrina.
I don't think that's a wise decision.
This might be a little bit much for him.
He is about to bite off more than he can chew by marrying Sabrina.
You got it right.
Okay.
Now let's move on to idiom number five.
Idiom number five is bitter pill to swallow.
Bitter pill to swallow after me.
Bitter pill to swallow.
Excellent.
Now a better pill to swallow.
This just means an unpleasant happening that is difficult to.
Something that happens that it's hard for you to accept.
It's hard for you to believe that this thing is happening to you.
An unpleasant happening that is difficult to endure.
It's not easy, a bitter pill to swallow.
Now, let me give you an example sentence that will help you understand
this idiom moving away from.
Was a bitter pill to swallow.
It's so hard to move away from family, for example, you know, I lived in South Korea.
I lived there for almost 10 years, and during that time I
missed so many family events.
It was a bitter pill to swallow.
But now I'm home and I'm with my family, so I'm happy.
But again, moving away from family was a bitter pill to swallow.
You got it.
Good.
Next we have this.
The pandemic is a bitter pill to swallow, but we will overcome this.
Yes.
You know about the pandemic that we experienced all around the world, right?
With 2020 and the Covid Pandemic.
The pandemic is a bitter pill to swallow, but we will overcome this.
Make sense?
All right, and sentence number three, failing the bar exam yet again.
Was a bitter pill to swallow.
I failed Again, I, I gave it my all, but I failed.
Failing the bar exam yet again was a bitter pill to swallow.
Make six.
All right, excellent.
So now you know the five English idioms that you didn't know before,
but now you can use them in real life.
Now I wanna keep helping you, so if you want my free English newsletter,
all you have to do is go to www.speakenglishwithTiffani.com/newsletter.
Each week I send out English tips and so much more to help you along your English.
So remember to keep speaking English, keep studying hard, and
I will see you in the next lesson.
You still there?
? You know what time it's, it's story time eight.
I said it's story time.
Alright, now today's story is actually about my neighbor.
That's right.
So, You might not know this, but I am an artist.
I love to draw and I love to paint.
I've been a painter my entire life.
I can remember when I was around five or six years old, just drawing for hours.
I have always enjoyed drawing and painting.
So when I moved into my new apartment and I had set everything up, I walked
into my bedroom and it looked perfect, but I realized that one thing was.
I realized that I didn't have an art table.
I didn't have an area in my bedroom where I could be creative and express myself.
So I decided to purchase an art table.
Mm.
I bought a beautiful art table.
I went on Amazon, didn't find one that I wanted.
But then I went to a store called Michael's.
Michael's is a popular arts and craft store here in America, and
I found the exact table I wanted.
It was a glass top table with black legs, and it had a very, um, uh,
a very useful way of lifting up.
The mechanics were beautiful.
I could tell by watching the video that it lifted up just so nicely.
It was the table I wanted, so I.
, buy now.
Purchase the table.
Now remember, it was a table, so it was going to be big.
Now I live on the third floor, so I said, okay.
When they deliver it to my apartment, I hope they don't leave it downstairs.
I was praying they would bring it to my door.
So a few days went.
Then a few more days, and I got a notification on my phone.
Tiffani, your table, your art table has arrived.
Ooh, I was excited.
So I went to my front door.
I unlocked the door and I opened it and there was nothing, and I could
hear the music playing, da, da, da.
I said, no.
They left the table on the first floor.
Remember I said I live on the third?
Three flights of steps.
I'm one person, I'm strong, I'm in shape, but not enough to lift an art
table up three flights of stairs.
Now I had just moved into the apartment, so I didn't know anyone really.
So I walked downstairs and I saw the art table, a huge box.
So I said, well, let me see if I can try to maneuver it.
No, there was no way to maneuver.
So I walked back upstairs and right when I was about to go inside of my apartment to
try to figure something out, I remembered, wait a minute, one of my neighbors in
passing, I had seen him in passing.
He just said, hi, how are you?
I said, Hey, I'm new here.
And that was it.
Few days prior to me receiving my art table.
So I knocked on his door.
I said, Hey.
He said, Hey, how are you?
I said, I'm fine.
I said, I'm so sorry.
Would you mind helping?
Bring this table upstairs.
His response, of course, sis, no problem at all.
It kind of caught me off guard.
Remember he didn't know me at the time, but he was so happy
and so willing to help me.
So we went downstairs, we both lifted up the table and we brought
it back up to my apartment.
Now I couldn't get it into my apartment at all, so he brought it into my apartment.
Again.
I didn't know this guy.
He brought it into my apartment.
And he set it at the door.
He didn't come in too far and I said, thank you so much.
He said, SIS, anytime we're here to help each other.
And then he walked out and I thought about this situation for a while.
We live in a world in a time where, Many people are separated, right?
At the time, we had just come out of the pandemic and people were very nervous
about being around each other, right?
Because you could possibly get covid and people were nervous
about, Hey, is this person okay?
Are they sick or not?
But this gentleman was so kind, he helped me without asking for
anything, without hesitation.
And since that time, we've become good friends.
He's still my neighbor, he and his family, his wife, his kids.
They're very, And I just thank God so much for his kindness
that night, and now I have an art table in my bedroom and I love it.
So remember, you can help someone out and they will appreciate it so much.
I hope you enjoyed today's lesson, and I'll talk to you next time.