In this English lesson, I wanted to help you
learn the English phrase, to breathe life into,
or we also sometimes say, to breathe new life into.
We use this phrase whenever someone
or something makes a situation better.
Here's a great example.
Let's say they are fixing all of the roads in your town,
but they're running out of money.
If the government suddenly decides
to give your town more money to fix the roads,
that money would breathe new life into the project.
When you think about a person,
let's think about a party that's really, really boring,
and if a person comes to that party
who's really happy and excited,
we would say that that person
would breathe life into the party
or they would breathe new life into the party.
So, when you have the phrase,
to breathe new life into something,
it simply means that someone or something
makes the situation better.
The second phrase I wanted to look at is,
to breathe a sigh of relief.
A sigh of relief sounds like this. (sighing)
And a sigh of relief is something that you do
when you were worried about something
and now you are no longer worried about it.
Probably the best example I can give
is from my own childhood.
When I was a teenager, sometimes I would stay out late
and my mom would actually stay up
and wait for me to come home.
And when I came home,
I think my mom would breathe a sigh of relief.
Basically, my mom would have been worried
when I was out with my friends,
and when I got home and she knew I was home
and that I was safe,
I'm pretty sure she would breathe a sigh of relief.
So she would just sit there and probably go,
(sighing) "Oh, good, Bob's home."
So anyways, to review,
when you breathe new life into something
or when you breathe life into something,
it means that you make a situation better
or something makes a situation better.
And when you breathe a sigh of relief,
it means that you were worried
and now for some reason you are no longer worried
and you can just breathe a sigh of relief
and be happy again.
Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
This comment is from the video I did
on what a class clown is, and this is from Qiu Park,
and Qiu Park says "Every class has a class clown."
And my response was, "You are right.
I think every class I've ever been in as a student
and every class I've ever taught as a teacher
had a class clown in it."
So I just want you to read that sentence again
on the screen.
That's a pretty complex English sentence,
but it's a great model sentence for talking about the past.
So again, I said, "I think every class I've ever been in
as a student and every class I've ever taught as a teacher
had a class clown in it."
So anyways, I'm sure some of you were class clowns.
I know in the comments on that video,
some of you shared that you were class clowns,
some of you shared that you weren't class clowns,
but you certainly found class clowns funny.
Hey, let's talk a little bit more about being a teenager.
I know some of you are teenagers,
I know some of you are parents with teenagers,
and I know some of you are parents
and you're going to have teenagers someday,
and I know all of you at some point were a teenager.
Let's talk about staying out late.
I don't think I was very nice to my parents
when I was a teenager.
I stayed out late a lot.
I was supposed to be home at midnight,
and sometimes I would come home
at one or two or three in the morning.
I was a good kid,
but I still tended to stay out late all the time
and I think it really worried my parents.
So, if you are a teenager right now,
just kind of think about that
when you go out and you stay out late.
If your parents are expecting you home
at 11:00 p.m. or midnight,
at least give them a little text message,
send them a text message, if you're gonna be late.
Be as nice to them as possible.
And if you're a parent of a teenager like me,
I totally understand what you are going through.
Sometimes when your kids are out late,
you just can't wait for them to get home
so that you know that they are safe and sound.