This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 126.
Does American optimism annoy you?
Five phrases used by the optimist.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts.
Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
Americans tend to be optimistic.
Is this part of American culture annoying?
Will it always be this way?
Find out what Lindsay and Michelle think and pair it to your own culture today.
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How's it going, Michelle?
Good, Lindsay.
I am feeling so optimistic.
Oh my gosh.
I am optimistic too.
Why are you optimistic today?
I am optimistic because I think this is going to be the greatest episode yet.
It's just in your personality, Michelle, to be optimistic.
Luckily, me too.
So do you see the glass half full or half empty most of the time?
Well, what do you think I see it as?
I would say... Oh, that's interesting.
I don't know, actually.
I think you might see it as a little bit of both.
I could see both for you.
What's the truth?
What's the truth?
You could be honest.
Well, you know what?
You're actually right.
Like, I would say, you know, sometimes we have this view of ourselves...
But it may actually not be true.
Like, I think of myself as one way, but in reality, I'm another.
Like, I think of myself as a glass half empty person.
But I'm very cheerful about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I'm like generally happy and I you know and so like is that?
But like, optimism and happiness are not necessarily the same thing and cheerfulness.
Interesting.
I don't know.
Ooh, and an even more interesting question is, you know, how did you feel by saying that, right?
Yeah.
Because I feel like I mean, maybe you felt just fine, but I feel like in American culture there's definitely a bias towards optimism.
You know, we kind of in a way want to see, we value sort of seeing things in a positive light.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, I do agree.
You seem like you're an optimist.
Yeah.
I mean, I think that I'm a natural optimist.
And I think as I've gotten older, I've become more of a realist too.
So there's like optimism blended with realism in my mind, but not pessimism, not so much pessimism.
I mean, we could not be podcasting as much as we do.
No, that's so true.
Yeah, exactly.
I do think that saying like, oh, I can be kind of a glass half empty person.
Like when I said that I did feel like a little vulnerable or like a little like you do, feel like a little sense of shame.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
That's what I was asking about because that's culture.
Because if you were from another culture, another place, maybe you would be proud to say that.
Maybe that would mean that you were a little more critical and smarter, or something, for example right,
So this is why culture is so interesting.
Guys, I just want to let you know today we have Michelle on the show.
The last few weeks we've had Aubrey on the show.
We've got our whole team, Jessica, me, Aubrey, Michelle here on this podcast.
So you can enjoy getting to know all of us here on the show.
So good.
So good.
Yes.
And Michelle, what should our listeners do?
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Awesome.
Okay Michelle, today we're going to teach our listeners about five phrases about optimism in And we're going to see if our listeners, how our listeners feel about optimism in general, right.
Yes, yes, yes.
Okay.
Exactly.
So the first expression is to look on the bright side.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, this feels like a cliche.
Look on the bright side, right?
Yeah, always just trying to, you know, you're always looking for that one bright spot.
And, you know, that's a good thing.
I mean, but yeah, it is kind of cliche.
But you could say, hey, don't be sad.
Look on the bright side.
At least you're healthy.
Interesting.
At least you're healthy.
Yeah.
And it's always good to have that friend that's going to remind you of the positive things in your life.
You should be careful to not say this too much.
I think all of these phrases, we do want to be careful.
People could get annoyed if we say it every time, all the time always, because life does have its downsides, of course, and we can't ignore those right.
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
I know.
Sometimes I think there is like a tendency to force people to just be thankful for everything they have.
And that is important.
But it doesn't mean that people can't have real feelings.
And, like, you can also keep things in perspective.
I can be upset about something.
Right.
And also know...
This isn't the worst situation in the world, but it doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to have the feelings.
That's what I've learned.
Yeah, you can feel the feelings.
I completely agree.
That's really important insight Michelle, because if you don't feel those feelings, let's say you're upset about something.
Yeah, your life is great.
You have a family.
Everyone's healthy.
You're good.
Things are good.
But then you're really upset about something that happened at work or something that happened with your husband.
You're allowed to feel that way and you should fully feel it so that you don't stuff it away.
Right?
Right, right, right, right, right.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And then the other one is to stay positive.
Yeah.
Okay.
To stay positive.
Just a common phrase, guys.
So things are tough right now, but let's stay positive.
Yeah, we're looking to buy a house here in Denver and it's not easy.
I'm trying to stay positive Michelle, but we just keep getting outbid.
Oh man, it's a tough market.
It's a anywhere in the us.
It's a really tough market and denver is like on the list of the cities where everyone's trying to move now.
So it's a really tough time to buy a house here.
But i'm trying to stay positive.
So it's okay.
Stay positive lindsey, it's gonna come through.
You know my, my brother and his wife.
They looked for their house for like A very long time.
And then they're where they're supposed to be now.
It worked out and they got, you know.
Awesome.
It does work out.
It happens.
Things work out.
Things work out.
Okay.
And then what else could you say to someone that's feeling low?
Okay.
You can say chin up.
It's like, oh, yeah, sorry.
No, I was just going to say, for some reason, this sounds British to me.
Chin up, chin up, right?
I don't know why.
I don't know.
You lived in England.
Did they say this, Michelle, over there?
I don't remember that specifically, but I feel like it's like in the movies a lot.
Okay, perfect.
Chin up.
Yeah.
All right.
And then using the phrase at least.
This is a way of setting up a chance for someone to see something that maybe they didn't see before.
All right.
What would be an example, Michelle?
Well, you could say you lost your job, but at least you still have your house.
Right.
And there's always an at least, right?
At least you still have, you know, your friends, your family.
We have so many things to be grateful for.
Like we said, that's why I like to do my gratitude practice that I've mentioned before on the show.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then the last one is to see the world with rose colored glasses.
So this is about, you know, having having those.
Well, this is a little bit different than just optimism.
It's almost I feel like sometimes when you say this, it's about like the person being naive.
Yeah, I think you're right, actually.
This has a slightly negative connotation to it.
Being naive, being unaware, being inexperienced, right?
Right.
It's like you just see things that are good and only good, but you're missing.
You can't even focus on that there might be a problem, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's interesting.
I mean, so how do you think that let's talk about culture a little bit.
You guys have gotten the phrases just real quick for a few minutes.
I want to talk about culture.
Do you think that optimism is linked to like just being okay with uncertainty Michelle, like not being sure about what's going to happen in the future?
Is that common with optimism?
Are the two linked?
Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah, I guess I would being okay with that feeling.
Yeah.
Still thinking like, oh, everything is going to kind of just work out.
Like, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, being okay with it.
Yeah, I do think that that's probably true.
Probably if you're a pessimist, you like to have more control.
Yeah, sure, sure, sure.
I think this is really rooted in the history of our cultures, right?
So the US is such a young country.
And the US was built on people wanting to do something different, breaking away, right?
Kind of, there had to be a sense of optimism just in the founding of the United States, right?
Wouldn't you say?
Right.
Oh, of course, of course.
I don't think that everything that was achieved could have been done if it was just a bunch of pessimists.
No.
I mean, do you think Americans are too optimistic these days, though?
I mean, is it kind of what do you think?
I mean the fact that we are.
We tend to see things on the bright side in our language and our culture.
What do you think?
Maybe in our language and culture.
But I also think that there's kind of been started starting to be a backlash against that.
In what way?
Tell me a little bit more.
I don't know.
I feel like, you know, the memes, I feel like we're becoming more cynical.
Oh, yeah.
That's sad too at the same time.
Than like optimistic.
So maybe, I don't know.
I feel like you know, in the past few years, like people have started to become cynical, more honest about things.
You know, like you'll see, like you know memes, it's okay not to be okay.
And you know, like mental health has also become more of a thing and like okay, you know there's been more of a focus.
So i actually think we're starting to like kind of get turned the other way, as like you don't have to be.
You know the world through rose-colored glasses.
I don't know, do you think that's true?
Yeah, I see what you mean.
I think we need a culture where, yeah, if something's wrong mentally, you have to address that.
You should not ignore that.
And I think we also need to maintain a sense of we can do what we want to do.
Like if we have a dream, we can work to achieve it.
You know, that's important too.
So how do we find that balance?
Yeah, that's a good question.
Right?
Like not waiting for someone to hand us something or something like that.
I feel like we got to find that balance.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens to American culture in the next 2025 years.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
For sure.
I hope that we do.
I mean, I hope we are optimistic still, but maybe not.
Yeah, we'll see.
So much so.
Yeah, we'll see.
We'll see.
We'll stay tuned in, right?
Yes, exactly.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned, guys.
So guys, come and make sure you are following All Ears English.
And next time we're going to talk a little bit about traveling and speaking English.
So come and listen to that episode right after you finish this one.
All right.
All right.
This was by Lindsay.
Okay.
Take care, Michelle.
Bye.
Bye.
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