this is an alley's english podcast episode 1838 don't throw in the towel with english idioms
welcome to the all ears english podcast downloaded more than 200 million times are you
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on connection not perfection with your american host aubrey carter the ielts whiz
and lindsay mcmahon the english adventurer coming to you from arizona and colorado usa and to get
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are you experimenting with giving up any kind of food to see what happens today get the skills
you need to say that you are taking a break from a substance like coffee for example and
find out when it's okay and not okay to bring this up in american culture listen in today
hey aubrey how's it going today how's everything excellent what about you oh my gosh i'm doing well
but last week i went off coffee and our listeners know i'm crazy about coffee so yeah i don't know
what's going on i don't want to read about you i know it doesn't make any sense at all it's it's
going okay i i miss it i definitely miss it like i love the ritual of making coffee in the morning
and the smell of it is starting my work with my coffee uh is the best thing and why why did you go
off coffee so i wanted to see what it would feel like you know to if coffee was impacting anything
in my body or making me tired or too overly energized and to see what it feels like and i also
want to yeah just kind of clear out the system a little bit for summer yeah do you feel like you've
experienced caffeine withdrawals or not really not surprisingly not really i did have some headaches
the first couple of days um and but now i'm really i'm good i mean other than i i think about it like
my heart wants my coffee right but my body's not like oh my god we can't live we can't survive nice
i think it's a lot what you said the ritual of it though because it's the ritual we of course we
all love our rituals and i'm the same i love like brewing it in the morning there's just something
so good peaceful about something being the same every day there really is and so many people get
this pleasure out of coffee it's true or other things right maybe breakfast rituals other things
we do every day yeah but what are we talking about today i feel like everyone is going to be able
to relate to today's episode sure yes this came up when you were talking about being off coffee
because natives really don't say like i stopped drinking coffee we have all these other different
idioms yeah we're stopping something for quitting yeah and that was one of them we talked about it
briefly um to be off something like i said before that i would go off sugar you went off coffee just
meaning we're going to stop trying assuming that for a while i also think it's kind of good to know
like to check whether you're addicted to something you know like yeah right let's see if you can
experience withdrawals exactly it also speaks to self-control right just kind of a mastery over
one's body right which i think is valuable and to know that you you're not out of control with
a substance or a food or a flavor or something right yes and this actually um it's a really
good thing to joke about too to talk about going off something that's actually really good for you
you know like if you ask someone if they're going to the gym or if they're exercising you'd be like
no i'm off exercise for a while like that should be funny right about quitting something that you
actually you should be doing right right or i'm off carrots you know i'm i'm off in my doritos
this is what native speakers do and this is one of what we want you to take away from today's episode
we're going to get into some of these expressions but think about this as you listen today
think about using it in the other direction the other way to actually make it sarcastic to be
funny in english yes i love that i would love to hear you guys do that right so that's really
good humor fun wordplay yes so the first one you already know right i'm off coffee i'm off sugar
really common and native and natural and more interesting than saying i've stopped
drinking coffee yes and then let's give you a few more idioms that we also use the first one
is to quit cold turkey so often when we stop something we'll sort of phase it out we'll
maybe drink we'll maybe go down from four cups of coffee to one cup of coffee and slowly stop cold
turkey means you stop immediately is that what you did with coffee cold turkey that's what i did
yeah about a week ago i was like because yeah i felt like that was gonna be the right direction
for me the right route for me but other people you know smokers for example i've never smoked
so i don't know but i would imagine this would be really really hard to quit cold turkey right that
builds up more of an addiction like that where there definitely are withdrawals certain drugs
alcoholism cigarettes is very difficult to quit cold turkey because your body needs it physically
oh my gosh so so that phrase is particularly used you'll hear native speakers using that a lot when
they talk about smoking i feel like i hear that a lot with hungry for sure yeah so do we have
anything yeah i've been smoking for 20 years i just had to quit cold turkey right and some people
do it and it works it just depends on the person the the situation there's a lot of factors right
yeah yeah you might also say like it doesn't work for me to just eat less sugar i have to quit cold
turkey and that's really true for me i'm not really good at just eating less of something
right because it's a slippery slope you want a little bit more it's better if you just say
we're putting this away we're not even buying this right it's not in the house if it's not in
the house it's easier yes that's really true right i'm really good about when i'm in a grocery store
about not selecting the things that are unhealthy i'm not grabbing chips and cookies and whatever
because if it's at my house when i feel peckish when i want a snack that's when i'm gonna eat
whatever there is that's kind of my motto yeah that's my motto towards healthy eating is like i
don't buy those things so i don't really keep them at home so i can have them out like i can have ice
cream on the street on a summer evening the best thing and i do it pretty much every weekend in the
summer yeah all the time but you don't have like a gallon of ice cream in your freezer i don't have
ice cream at home because it's like a special then it becomes special you know yeah i haven't heard
the advice of not grocery shopping hungry because if you're hungry yes you're like wanting to get
all these snacks and if you're not hungry you're more thoughtful about like okay what am i going
to cook that's healthy yeah i've heard that too that's a good point i'm sure it's i'm sure it's
true i'm sure it's true um all right what else we have throw in the towel for our listeners
guys write this one down yep and it just means to quit something right we use this a lot at work
in business english we'll say i'm getting nowhere with this project it's time to throw in the towel
yeah and i don't know where that comes from what it has to do with an actual towel or swimming or
showers but we say it all the time just meaning to stop something to quit something right or on
a previous episode we were talking about the band right they didn't throw in the towel for 10 years
they resisted the temptation right exactly good point the same what we want you guys to do don't
throw in the towel too early right and stick it out make sure you've exhausted all possibilities
and put in all the effort and then sometimes we do have to throw in the towel when something's
not working out right but you may want to say to someone you know if you if you spot talent in them
don't throw in the towel just yet there's potential here right and i think sometimes we know
that's why i kind of understand that band like we know when we're creating something that's really
special right yes right yeah so they listen to their internal selves maybe not to all of society
that said oh you don't have any audience it's time to throw in the towel right exactly i really love
that phrase as a way to encourage someone where if you see they have real talent maybe i think of my
dad he was an artist an oil painter yeah and my mom had to really encourage him and she may have
said this exact thing to him because it would have been really easy when financially it was difficult
he you know wasn't seeing a lot of success to start maybe teaching art classes or do something
else and she would have said this right you have right talent don't throw in the towel right yeah
don't give up yeah and how long for your dad did it take uh how long was that period of time
where years he wasn't really seeing a lot of success even when i graduated from high school yet
so i'd say maybe 20 years before he became quite successful and it was easier it was just a lot of
you know weekend shows and just really hustling to like make ends meet wow that's incredible 20 years
good for him that's amazing that is amazing that's so admirable isn't it yes it really is right and
all of our listeners we know you are out there you're that's what you're doing right you
believe in yourself you know you have certain talents and skills and you're pushing and
we recognize that right it's a very admirable quality to not throw in the towel to not give up
as soon as it's difficult to like push through i completely agree okay aubrey should we dive
into a role play for our listeners yes let's do it all right here we go i'll start us off
my daughter is off gluten as of last week oh how's that going did she just quit cold turkey
yeah we're trying to see if it's causing a skin condition she's been experiencing
oh i tried to be gluten free for a while but it was so hard i eventually just threw in the towel
i get it it's worth it though if it makes you feel better i'm worried she'll call it quits though
because it's so hard oh my gosh is that is that actually happening with your daughter right now no
i just made that up for the role play but i have i do have a good friend who is gluten free because
she was having all these allergic reactions and um like intestinal issues too so she's sort of
experimenting to see if it makes her feel better i think this is pretty common a lot of people who
just don't feel well and they're trying to figure out is it dairy is it a gluten
intolerance what's happening here yeah it's becoming more and more common and yeah for sure
i i feel like i would struggle so much with beer not being able to drink beer i love craft beer
yeah they do have like gluten free but it's not the same and it's it would be hard it would be
hard yes and i do i know of at least one person who's gluten free and can't drink most beers and
oh what a bummer what a bummer because like at least in my life like we go to breweries all the
time on like a sunday afternoon with our dog it's sunny everyone's outside with families and kids
and dogs it's like a it's more an event that's kind of part of the problem when certain events
are built around food or drink you know giving that up and not having that option to go to that
place becomes it changes your life yes it's true and there are certainly alternatives right there
are different places that people can go luckily there's a cider spider where do you have sort of
this tradition built around that it would be sad for that to change i think so for sure for sure
but for some people it really is a true health issue like some people have very extreme stomach
problems vomiting all this stuff it's crazy celiac disease definitely celiac disease okay let's go
through the vocabulary for our listeners here yeah so first i said my daughter is off gluten
so that means she has stopped eating any gluten right and then i asked you oh wow
did she just quit cold turkey right now stop eating all at once or did she sort of phase it
out right yeah and then you said she's been off for a while or you said that you tried to be off
and then you eventually threw in the towel meaning it was too difficult so you gave up
exactly exactly and then one last one here right i said call it quits this is a little bit of a bonus
that's another way we say to quit something we use this phrase to call it quits right
and we'll often say this with business english too be like okay you know we're getting nowhere here
let's call it quits meaning like let's end the meeting we'll pick this up later
yeah that's a great bonus for today guys write that one down that one is also used a lot we
could talk about this another day used a lot when it comes to like relationships and divorces
and breaking up right we called it quits things weren't going well right very common so that's
true a really native way to say like we decided to end the relationship to say we called it quits
yes love it all right what's the takeaway for our listeners this has been great i know right
there are so many interesting phrases to talk about quitting something and this comes up in
conversation all the time so you guys want to be ready with these idioms with this native vocab so
that you can have that conversation i ask friends about this a lot i'll talk to friends a lot about
things i went off and i stopped doing sure all the time yeah it's interesting especially
because when you quit doing something it's sort of encompassing everything you're thinking about
it's on your mind a lot yeah right especially if you're having withdrawals from the thing right
exactly sure um yeah guys and in terms of culture this is not a taboo to talk about right especially
with closer friends or co-workers in many cases it is okay to say hey i'm off coffee this week
you know i'm giving it a try and share that with someone right totally fine in american culture
talk about it go into it a good way to connect i would also say on a level of our lives let's
challenge ourselves to go off of something right like coffee or gluten or something we feel maybe
is not super great for us and we're not quite sure how addicted we are it's an interesting just
as an experiment right aubry what do you think yes i really love that idea i know a lot of um
sort of spiritually or through religion people will fast right right and often it's like all
food all drink but it can be just one thing in particular either for 24 hours or for a week
just to gauge like am i addicted to this how bad is this for me how do i feel if i don't have it
it's really interesting to see how one food right i like that idea not everything just that one
thing does affect how is that affecting your body how are you feeling differently especially if you
are consuming that thing every single day you know i like to stop and check at things i'm consuming
every single day you know what i mean yeah exactly and i think with um when it comes to like someone
um going to alcoholics anonymous this i know that they're encouraged to share the journey
with friends to talk about it we don't want it to be taboo we don't want it to be something we're
hiding and not talking about it makes it so much because we need that accountability yeah so again
this is going to be something you're talking about because yeah if you're trying to quit something
and you want that accountability you're going to need the vocabulary to talk about it with friends
co-workers yes in order to have that i would say that when it comes to alcoholism drug addiction
you know hard drugs we're talking about another level of addiction and i would say it's fine to
talk about it just make sure you're around the right company right that's not gonna judge you
or that that are actually gonna support you right that would be one to not necessarily a brand new
person oh i'm you know i've quit alcohol like you know maybe i would just hold back on that a little
bit right that's a good point right this isn't something to talk about with acquaintances yeah
at a conference someone you just met yeah yeah i'm imagining definitely close friends people you've
worked with for some time that are your support team you know they're going to be behind you yeah
you've probably had lots of conversations with them already and they know that this is something
you want to change and they're going to be behind you 100 exactly so there's the difference
between you know coffee food gluten versus alcohol and drugs different kind of category
make sure you're in front of the right audience but definitely bring this stuff up and challenge
yourself to experiment with different things good stuff very interesting episode this is a really
fun episode yeah really interesting all right aubry i'll see on the show very soon bye bye bye
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