hello aubrey how's it going today i am great lindsay how are you
so excited to be recording today's episode is on video over in youtube and
it is also a podcast as always yes and i have a fun question here for you okay i'm wondering
do you think people should recycle more um that is a good question yeah i do actually because
i've recently done oh sorry i've recently done a couple of trips where i've stayed with some family
friends and they didn't recycle and i thought oh my gosh it's 2022 how are we not recycling right
so yeah available everywhere in the united states at least a lot of rural areas you have to like
take recycling and take it pretty far to deliver somewhere it's not picked up at your home so it's
less convenient and it costs more money right so it doesn't always make sense for people yeah
for sure it's true i agree though i do think it should happen more this is an interesting
topic that comes up on ielts a lot which is interesting right but our question today is about
your response to my question right i asked you if you think people should recycle more and you said
oh that's a good question which is often the first thing we say when someone asks us something
a little bit interesting a little bit thought provoking right yeah yeah and i love that the
other reason i do this is because i buy myself some time right and we'll probably talk about
this here and that could work on ielts too buy ourselves a little time to actually say what we
want to say because sometimes when we rush to the answer we don't say the true answer what
we actually believe we just say what comes to mind first right yes exactly with ielts prep we call it
a filler phrase where you need to have something to say that doesn't take any of your brain space
you've practiced it you know you can say it perfectly and this is how it is for natives we
can say this without thinking about it well we give ourselves a second to think what actually
is my opinion about this yeah and i think for our listeners guys you can learn to do the same thing
very quickly right to be able to take these filler phrases buy yourself a little time and
get an interesting answer right because we don't want dull answers we want interesting answers
yes exactly and this episode was inspired by a really good question from someone in
our chinese community we have a really good friend sandy who posts all of our posts in
china on billy billy and this came from a lister in china i'll go ahead and read the question yeah
yes please do would you please teach us what people really mean when they say that's a good
question does it mean the question is good or the question is hard to answer oh i love this question
and it means that this listener has been actually paying attention to real native english right
aubry yes exactly because you guys hear natives say that this listener has heard us say this
and it is you can kind of tell it's a filler so what do you mean do you mean that's difficult
for me to answer or do you mean it's interesting and there is a pretty specific meaning here it's
a filler phrase like you said yeah we don't say it when it's something hard to answer it's just
when we it's something interesting something a little thought provoking i might have to think
about my answer here not necessarily difficult i would never say this if someone asked me to answer
like a chemistry question right like nano math or something yeah exactly you know i wouldn't
say that's a good question i would say something else right because that question i mean i'm not
going to make any presumptions right but for me if someone asked me a question about nano math
i would not be in the ballpark to answer that question so if by saying that's a good question
i'm implying that i can actually answer that legitimately right and i can't i can't i love
that you're not making any assumptions assuming maybe i know something about nanotechnology
right no i also would not know how to answer those questions okay so that's the reasoning here yeah
yes and there are specific phrases that we do use if a question is difficult hard to answer
so we're going to first give some information about the nuance of this of saying that's a good
question yeah and then also give you these phrases that you would want to say if something is more
of a tough difficult question yeah i love this this is a very high level topic for our listeners
today aubry do we have any other episodes that are related that our listeners could check out when
they're done today yeah i think we should point out that this is really a compliment this is kind
of a filler but you're also complimenting someone that they're asking you a thoughtful interesting
question and there's a really good episode if you guys haven't listened to it or not recently
eller's english episode 718 is the best way to give a top-notch compliment at work in
english and this is one of those ways right to let someone know they've asked an interesting question
and there's a lot of other great advice in that episode be sure to check it out yeah i love that
great idea it's all about how we talk to our co-workers at work aubry giving compliments is
a way to build that relationship and we're gonna need those relationships someday right we wanna
we wanna like the people we work with so go for it guys and aubrey i just wanna take a minute to
say thank you to our reviewers of all ears english guys you can leave us a review and you'll have a
chance to get your name announced on the show so i want to say a special thanks to miriam
from the us to who else silk road 1123 from taiwan mabuse from iran and thank you to fat
fatim aramesh from the u.s those are just a few of our amazing reviewers in the last couple of months
guys leave a review and a rating for all ears english yes awesome i love reading those reviews
so yes keep them coming guys yes all right aubry let's get into it so where do we start today
yeah so there is quite a bit of nuance when someone says this right especially if it's
a teacher i feel like if a teacher says that's an interesting question to a student there are a few
possible things that that teacher means right so let's go through these first of all yeah the first
is kind of what we were saying where it's clear that you have thought about what's being discussed
and or being taught and you have an interesting thought-provoking question right yeah this is not
something a teacher is going to say if it's not a great question right yeah of course um like what
page are we on yeah this is not something that people just throw out as a compliment when they
don't mean it right they would not say that it's only so if you do get this you know response it's
a good sign that you're actually creating a nice environment right yes exactly a teacher might also
say it if you are bringing up a point that hasn't previously been considered or discussed they're
sort of complimenting you that okay you're taking this conversation in a really interesting way
yeah and then the third one guys is to encourage participation right and what kind of situation
would this be aubrey tell us i used to say this to my students all the time in the bronx in new york
right if especially if it's a student that doesn't participate very often
so if you want to encourage them you want to them to feel good for having asked a question
okay there's that mindset of all questions or good questions in some classes right yeah because
especially language classes it's a little scary to put yourself out there and to
comment so i often a student would ask something i'd be like that is an interesting question yes i
love it i love it that makes sense okay all right and then but can this ever be patronizing aubry i
mean what do you think about that is this going to create an air of superiority when we say it yes i
think that can definitely happen right so i think of a specific moment i was in a college course
and a student wasn't paying attention and they asked about something that had just been discussed
at length and the teacher was like interesting question and they were sort of being sarcastic
and patronizing them and i can see that happening right so it isn't okay to say this after just any
question we want to kind of point this out right here right for example if you're in a business
meeting if a co-worker has asked a question that was answered recently making it pretty clear they
weren't paying attention if you say this it's going to come across as very sarcastic sort of
patronizing and you wouldn't want to do that that might damage their relationship yeah i'm wondering
what happened in that classroom where did the student eventually catch on that you know she
was being made fun of by the teacher in a way yeah because they did say after it was sort of like can
some can anyone answer this question and so then the person was like well like we just discussed
you know and then they answered it and the student felt pretty sheepish like oh
i should be paying attention better that's a great bonus phrase for our listeners today i
love that you just threw that phrase that word in their sheepish what does that mean
it's funny to think of someone feeling like a sheep it means to feel a little embarrassed
a little foolish you've done something that you regret so you feel a little bit sheepish
i love it guys so write that word down okay aubrey what else do we need to know today
yeah so let's go over a few phrases that you should say if a question is hard to answer if
it's a difficult answer if someone asked us about nanotechnology what would we say
all right well i would say something like that's a tough question right or that's a difficult
question okay so that's different than that's a good question or a great question yeah that's
a tricky one i love the word tricky meaning just we use it just to mean difficult right oh i don't
know the answer that's a tricky one yeah or i here's another great vocabulary for our listeners
to stump you right something has stumped you so that one i i might say that one stumps me right
in the present tense but you had suggested in the past tense and the present perfect
what do you think yeah this is how i'd say it i'd be like oh that one stumped me meaning has to know
the answer right and this isn't something you'd say like oh that stumped me and then
and then you say the answer then you think of it this means i don't know right right you got
me i'm stuck yeah i'm stumped and then i think in the pres yeah there's a lot of ways we could
do this a lot of different ways we can use this word but i'm stumped as good too i'm stumped i
don't know what's the answer right exactly i love it sorry i think we should do a couple of little
mini role plays yeah this first one it's it's like a co-worker is um asking you a question that is
personal that you don't wish to answer okay i'll start us out ready here we go um what religion are
you do you mind me asking oh yeah i'd rather not say you know what they say never discuss
politics or religion oh yeah true what about hobbies have you gotten into anything fun lately
okay so this is interesting what we're talking about here is some questions aren't as appropriate
to ask right but how do you handle that if someone asks you a question at work
and it you don't want to answer this could potentially create a really awkward
a really awkward interaction and we want to avoid that so you need the vocabulary
for that how can i politely say no i don't want to answer that right yeah that's a good example
yeah and so how does this tie back to the good question don't say that's a good question exactly
right this is a question that you wouldn't answer with oh that's a good question that's
a great question and then say but i don't want to answer very awkward very weird and honestly we can
do another episode someday on how to handle those questions right those questions that are awkward
that you just don't want to talk about but totally different response guys okay yes exactly and and
here's um a possible better reaction than my professor had let's assume that student
asks about something or at work in a meeting somebody asks about something that you just
discussed let's do a mini role play on a better way to handle that vocabulary you can use to
get rid of the awkwardness to avoid that awkward interaction okay here we go go for it you can
start us off yeah yeah what impact has our recent volunteer work had on public opinion
well we discussed that while reviewing our most recent survey right if you can get notes from jan
that would be great and that way we can move on to the next agenda item oh okay sounds good i must
have missed that sorry okay so what you're saying here is we've already talked about that right your
question is inappropriate is that what we're doing right exactly right this is that scenario where
you're in a a work meeting and someone's asked about something you just discussed at length
yeah and so we're not going to again discuss that at length to answer their question because
everyone in the meeting has already heard it that would be a waste of their time so you need to have
a polite way to let them know okay we've discussed this you know what should they do and how can we
quickly move on to the next agenda items right love this way of handling that yeah because
oh and this could be another great episode too aubry you know certain words are just
they can sound very rude even if you don't want them to sound rude for example if i had said
we already talked about that that sounds rude and it doesn't sound professional right or
aren't you paying attention we just covered that anything like that which might be what your first
instinct that might be what you want to say because you're frustrated with this colleague that
let themselves get distracted and missed something i can see frustration coming and you responding
with something that might embarrass them or call them out it is a real skill to avoid doing that
it is instead pull yourself back and politely let them know oh we discussed that while and i think
name right yeah from the previous agenda point yeah we discussed that while reviewing our most
recent survey now oh if you can get the notes from the person sitting next to them then we can move
on to the next point i think you can say that very politely and avoid humiliating them yeah it's a
real art form guys i think this could be a whole other episode i'll be for another day that we'll
go into this more guys but and by the way it's okay if your inner dialogue says we already talked
about that right you're you're free to think that actually that's good because that means you're
thinking in english that's great but you're not saying it right you're not saying it you're coming
up with more professional things that you can say and still communicate the point that's for another
day i love it i love it so where should we wrap up today's episode coming back to good question aubry
yeah so thank you to the listener that sent in this question because it is a good question yeah
and yeah just saying that phrase that's a good question is a great way to let someone know you
think their question is thought provoking yeah to encourage them and then today's vocabulary gives
you great ways to express also that a question is difficult or tough to answer yes i love it
and don't forget it is a good way if used at the right time guys this is a good way to buy yourself
time i think for me the takeaway today is don't give boring answers right right when someone asks
you a question use something like that that's a good question to buy yourself a little time
so that you can come up with something a little more interesting maybe an example a case study an
anecdote a story you just heard and a point you read on the read about in the newspaper just a
few minutes ago this is why we have to consume information so we can say interesting things and
have good conversations right aubry so we're ready for that yes i love that and then yeah just keep
in mind unfortunately you know not all questions are good questions right and not all questions
would be worthy of this response to sure that's a good question right yeah that might actually just
make someone feel foolish or awkward if they if it turns out they actually just missed something so
if it's not a good question use these phrases from our mini role plays to tactfully respond
right avoid any awkward situations yeah because it can sound a little disingenuous guys if you're
always giving out these comp oh good question what about the people that are hearing you say that
to that person you lose credibility in their eyes right if you give out compliments when they don't
deserve it when you're just trying to keep the peace right i love it yes that's true right and
the more you say the same thing over and over the less power it has right so no one's going to feel
complimented if they hear you say that 20 times a day oh my god point lindsay that's fantastic i
love it all right i know we're going to come back to this topic another day so we'll finish up for
today aubry thanks for hanging out with me on the mic and on the video guys remember if you want
to catch this on video today go over and check us out on youtube this episode will be there as well
yes so fun thanks lindsay all right aubry take care bye