So originally, I wasn't going to make
an English lesson for this week.
We have a lot of work to do on the farm
and I was going to spend some time doing that
and just take a little break from making videos.
But then it kind of rained yesterday
and it rained again this morning,
so I can't really do any work on the farm,
so I thought why not pop outside
and let people know how my summer is going.
But then when I thought about that question,
"Hey, Bob, how's your summer going?",
I thought about all the different answers I could give,
and then in my mind I thought
I should just make a little English lesson about this.
So this is a little English lesson
where I'm going to talk
about how to answer questions like that.
How's your summer going?
How's your new job going?
How's your trip going?
When people ask you about how something is going,
I'll teach you about four or five ways that you can respond.
One of my favorite ways to respond
when someone asks me how something is going
is to use the English phrase, "So far, so good."
I like this phrase
because it doesn't mean that everything's been amazing.
It doesn't mean that everything's been going badly.
It means that up until this point,
things have been going pretty well.
So far, so good.
So from the beginning of summer until now,
if you were to ask me the question,
"Hey, Bob, how's your summer going?",
a good answer, an answer that I would probably give,
is to say, "So far, so good."
It's been a nice month so far of summer vacation for me,
and up until this point
everything has been going really, really well.
So far, so good.
Let's imagine you've started a new job
and someone says to you,
"Hey, how's the new job going?"
A great answer would be to say, "I can't complain."
It's kind of a funny answer, right?
I can't complain.
"Hey, Bob, how's the new job going?"
"I can't complain."
Hey, Bob, how's your summer going so far?"
"I can't complain."
what this means is that up until this point,
nothing bad has happened.
There's nothing to complain about.
It kind of implies that up until this point
at the new job or in my summer,
everything has been pretty good.
So another way that you can answer a question
that someone asks you about how something is going
is to simply say, "I can't complain."
"Hey, Bob, how's your summer going?"
"I can't complain."
Another way that you can answer questions like this
is to say, "Pretty good so far."
I've been walking a lot more this summer,
and I've even been going to the gym and working out a bit.
If someone said to me,
"Hey, Bob, how's your new workout routine going?"
I could answer by saying, "Pretty good so far."
"Hey, Bob, how's your summer going?"
"Pretty good so far."
When people ask you this type of question
and you say pretty good so far,
it means the same as so far, so good.
It means that you started something in the past
and you're still doing it,
and at this point in time
when you look at the things that you've done,
all of them have been pretty good.
There's nothing really bad that has happened.
So, "Hey, Bob, how's your summer going?"
"Pretty good so far."
So a few weeks ago I was at a family reunion
and I got to see some of my nieces and nephews,
who I haven't seen in a while.
And a question I asked them quite a bit was,
"How's school going?"
A lot of them are university students and they're studying,
so I said to them, "Hey, how's school going?"
And a common response from them was to simply say,
"Not too bad."
This is another really subtle way to answer the question.
It doesn't mean that school is amazing,
it doesn't mean that school is going badly for them,
it means that they're doing fine,
that they're probably enjoying it,
and it's not too bad.
So, "Hey, how's school going?"
A good answer would be, "Not too bad."
"How's your trip going?"
"Not too bad."
"Hey, Bob, how's your summer going?"
"Not too bad."
So to review, let me see if I can remember
all four of these phrases off the top of my head.
If you were to ask me this question,
"Bob, how's your summer going?",
I could respond by saying, "So far, so good,"
"I can't complain," "Pretty good so far," and "Not too bad."
I almost forgot the third one there.
Anyways, thank you so much
for watching this little English lesson.
If this is your first time here,
don't forget to click that red Subscribe button,
and gimme a thumbs up if this video helped you learn
just a little bit more English.
And I just wanna say bye, and I hope you have a great week.