This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1830.
Are you accident prone?
How to connect over your cuts, scrapes, and bruises in English.
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Do you tend to get injured a lot?
In this episode, Lindsay Michelle will show you how sharing these moments can be an amazing way to laugh and connect when you have the right English vocabulary.
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Hey, Michelle, I have a question for you.
Yes.
What is it?
Well, when you were a kid, were you accident prone?
Were you always scraping your knee, falling down, breaking your arm or things like that, or not so much?
I'm sure I got a lot of scrapes, but I have...
I've never broken a bone.
Actually, I don't think I have either, to be honest.
Yeah, that's a good thing.
So how did you manage to get through?
I don't know.
I did like sprain my ankle once.
But I had one of my best friends.
She was like known for spraining for I think, was it breaking her wrist, i don't know.
She always like she, she was the accident prone one and like it was one of those situations where she had done it so much that, like you know, do you know those people like before it rains?
Yeah, they can tell because they feel the pressure that's awful, so it would.
So would it break more easily again the next time because it's the bones never healed fully.
Maybe, I don't know.
Maybe that's what it was.
But yeah, I mean, so you so you also didn't get injured that much.
I also don't really know what it feels like to break a bone.
Thank goodness.
Let's knock on wood both of us right now.
And all our listeners should do the same.
No, I have hit a tree on skis when I was a teenager.
I did that.
And I have broken I've Okay.
Maybe like a hairline fracture.
I broke my wrist.
So I did fracture my wrist, a hairline, but I've never like broken an arm or things you see on TV where like the bones coming out.
I've never done anything like that.
Thank goodness.
And I've sprained an ankle before, but that's it.
So we need to have Aubrey on to talk about this.
I feel like she like has like all these like crazy stories.
Aubrey has done a lot of like has had a lot of injuries, I think, for sure.
She would be the expert today.
So we're going to go over vocab, though, for these situations.
If you do get an injury, like when you're a kid, like you might call it like a boo boo.
Yeah, right.
But not as an adult or an ouchie.
Yeah, did you, Lindsay?
Did you call your?
Did you call your injuries or your cuts or scrapes boo-boos when you were little?
I guess I did Michelle, it's so long ago right, I can't even.
I honestly don't eat probably.
I'm sure I did, but I don't remember.
And I know for kids they always have like the colored band-aids and things, who knows, like dinosaurs or whatever on them, you know.
So that's kind of fun for them.
But definitely guys, Be clear here.
That vocabulary is not for adults.
So if you get hurt, you would never say I got a boo-boo or I got an ouchie.
That's just for kids.
Right, unless you're talking to your kids like, oh my gosh, no, but my son has become like...
Sometimes he'll like get something and it's like nothing.
And he's like, I have a boo boo.
I have a boo boo.
And I'm like, what are you talking about?
I'm like, yeah, then he'll.
But it's I think it is because then the kids like the band aids.
They like the band-aids, they like the attention.
I think it's more than just the band-aids, Michelle.
It's you going up to them and holding them and, oh, let's go get you a band-aid.
Oh, of course they do.
Adults like that too, right?
I mean, adults can be drama kings and queens too.
They get hurt and they want their partner to come over and say, oh my gosh, what happened?
Are you okay?
When I was a I hated that.
I actually remember once I scraped my leg on a pool diving board.
I did a weird dive and on the way down, I hit my leg on the diving board itself and everyone saw.
I was mortified.
I would get embarrassed when I would get hurt and I didn't want people to know.
I would curl up and be like, I'm fine.
I'm fine.
I hated it when people would come over and say, are you okay?
I hated that.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, no, that makes sense too.
So we're going to go over some adult words that you can use when you get an injury.
So this is a heavy vocab episode.
So you want to definitely write these down.
Um, and also we want to remind you guys that we have the IELTS energy podcast and maybe I don't know maybe I'm sure Aubrey tells some crazy stories over there about insurance.
Oh my gosh.
Go over there and hear all about injuries that Aubrey's had and learn about IELTS, guys.
We have 14 years of examiner expertise and knowledge over there.
That is pretty much more than anything you can find anywhere on the internet.
So if you want to work with true IELTS experts, work over there with Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter on the IELTS Energy podcast.
Go find it right now and hit follow in your podcast player.
Okay.
Good stuff.
Awesome.
All right.
So let's go through and we're going to talk about these and we're going to talk about if we've had these or when they usually happen.
Okay.
So what's the first one, Lindsay?
A paper cut.
These are so annoying.
I mean, this happens to me now.
You don't have to be a kid to have this happen to you, right?
Just a tiny little, let's say I accidentally move this paper.
We can see on YouTube, guys.
We're on YouTube, right?
Like this.
Oh, the little annoying, little pesky, little cut you get.
It's like a little line and it's like.
It's like so, such a minor thing, but it's like one of the more annoying ones.
You know.
It's just for some reason gross and annoying and hurts, and it can be deep.
It's like paper thin.
I like that expression.
By the way, that's going to be a key word for today.
It's paper thin, but it can be deep.
This kind of paper cut right um, And so not so good, but definitely a typical office injury.
Right.
Yes, absolutely.
Around the office.
So this is not a fun one.
And then there's a cut, a regular cut.
And that's not necessarily from paper.
And it's usually like a larger thing, a cut.
A paper cut is like teeny, you know, like this.
Paper thin.
Whereas, you know, yeah, paper thin.
Like a cut is like a little bit different.
So you might – this episode is making me get the heebie-jeebies.
The heebie-jeebies.
What comes to mind for me, Michelle, is cooking.
Have you ever –
Chopped your finger or let's not say chopped.
Do you remember my avocado story?
No, I don't remember that one.
Would you tell that one again?
I would tell it.
Yes.
So I took a cooking class and I was terrible in the cooking class, i mean the worst of all the people in the class.
And i took her with a friend.
I mean really like i was just like the one who like ended up like hanging out in the back of the group like yes, That would be me too.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Good.
And so they were working on knife skills and the avocado pit.
The teacher taught us to take the half with the pit and just take the knife and go...
Get it.
Yeah.
Pull it out.
Okay.
Oh, twist it.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I, and I was really proud of myself and felt very confident because I knew how to do that.
And I was.
This is when I just started dating Dan and we were having, like he was coming down to stay with my family over the winter break and we were actually going to go see, go on a tour of the White House, and we had it all planned.
And it was the morning, we were staying with my family and my sister-in-law was making breakfast and she was like oh Michelle, you want to show us your avocado skills.
So I went out and and I was like yeah yeah, I like remember, like I ran out, I was like let me show you.
And I held it and my mom was watching me and she was like what are you like?
I kept on, like like this, and she was like what are you doing?
Why are you cutting into your hand?
Stop it.
Like, don't cut into your hand.
And I was like mom mom, like it's fun, oh my god.
One two three, And you went right into your hand and you missed the avocado.
Did you like miss the avocado completely and went right into your hand?
Oh, that's good stuff.
Yeah.
I mean, I have a little you can't see.
Oh, yeah.
We had to cancel.
Well, actually the funny thing was that a couple of people still went to the White House, but some of us didn't.
And I had to get a couple of stitches.
And so that was that was a cut.
Okay.
That's a good one.
I cannot top that.
That's good stuff.
You were overconfident.
Your mom had the mother's intuition and she had some cooking skills, right?
Some real knife skills in the kitchen and it led to disaster.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, i've heard a similar story with a friend of a friend who was cutting oysters.
You know, when you shuck the oysters and she went right into her wrist like right there yeah, not good, not good.
So these are cuts, these are real cuts, these are not paper cuts, guys.
So there's a big difference between a paper cut and a cut okay.
And then there are scrapes, right.
And that's like what you hear like a lot with like the little kids.
Yeah.
But a scrape can be like, so it's light.
Like it doesn't usually break the skin, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, usually... But maybe a little.
It's like kind of peeling.
That's peeling.
I think there's also... I'm going to add a bonus here.
Just like to skin your knee, right?
To skin your knee or something.
To skin would be like a deeper... Deeper than a scrape.
But yeah, scrape you look...
It's just a line that you can see there's been some kind of an injury, but usually I think the skin hasn't broken.
But to skin a knee would be more of the skin actually comes off.
That happened to me sandboarding last fall in...
The great sand dunes in Colorado.
I mean when you fall, you're boarding, you're on a board, you're going down the hill, down the dune and you fall, then you've got the sand will skin your knee and I had a pretty big skinned knee for quite a while.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was bad.
It got worse.
At first I was like, oh, no big deal.
And then a week later, I'm like, oh, this is actually a bad injury.
Yeah.
So good stuff, Michelle.
Oh, geez.
Okay.
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Well, there's so many more.
I mean, we're going to go through a few more, but I'm just thinking like twist and pull.
And there are so many more that maybe we'll have to do a follow up.
But then there's also to bruise, right?
A bruise.
Um, so this is a mark that looks like it's black and blue and maybe sometimes yellow.
Yeah, we can get lots of creative colors depending on how bad it is.
Right, Michelle?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this is usually from bumping something.
And then there's sprain, right?
And that's like to sprain your ankle.
What is it technically?
Technically, I don't.
I mean, I guess the difference between a sprain and a break, right?
You have a broken ankle or a sprained ankle.
I've also sprained my ankle skiing as a kid.
I've never broken it, I guess.
I'm not a doctor.
So you know, just as a qualification, I guess when you have a broken ankle you just break it like it just sever or it just breaks and a sprain is just, it's been turned the ligaments.
It's probably more about the ligaments being strained.
I'm guessing, but I could be completely wrong.
So it is different.
Maybe a sprain is worse than a break because, you know, different things are several.
I'm not sure.
I'd have to try both.
Guys, if we have any doctors on here, let us know.
Our doctor listeners are probably cringing as we speak. oh they're getting it wrong oh no and then there's of course a broken bone and usually that's something that needs a cast and if you're a kid you know you wear it to school and everybody signs your cast right Of course.
Yeah, that was always a big thing.
And then I remember kids signing kids cast and then they'd get it off.
And they always said it felt weird and their arms were all skinny because they had not been building up any muscle atrophied.
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
So, yeah, I mean, there is there is a lot. that a lot of vocabulary for this.
So why don't we, should we do a role play?
Yeah, let's do a role play here.
Let's do it.
So here we are college friends and we're talking about our days playing lacrosse.
Now lacrosse can be a brutal game and so can rugby rugby.
I feel like it's the scariest.
Have you ever gone to a rugby game?
I haven't, but I've seen an episode of Friends about it.
Okay, I feel like it's football, but without the padding, which seems crazy to me.
Yeah, that's probably not a game that I'll be playing.
No, me neither.
All right, here we go.
Okay.
All right.
So, oh, man, I got so many injuries from lacrosse.
I always had bruises and scrapes on my legs.
And there was that one time I got a broken arm.
Oh, yeah.
I remember.
We all signed your cast.
I got a lot of bumps and bruises, too, and actually cuts.
Even that silly paper cut when I was looking at the roster.
Ugh.
Right.
Oh, didn't you sprain your ankle once too?
Oh yeah.
Oh, that was horrible.
I hated pulling muscles.
That's why I always stretched.
Yeah.
I even hurt my funny bone once.
Oh my gosh.
You know what is the worst injury you could get?
The worst.
What do you think it is?
I mean, this is my opinion, I'm going to say, but I'm going to say the worst.
Any guess?
Any guess of what you think it could be?
Something to your teeth?
Tailbone.
The tailbone.
That is the worst.
You know why?
Because then you can't sit down for like a year.
I remember in tennis, we were backpedaling and I fell freshman year.
I was trying to impress my coach, went too fast, backpedaling, fell back, strained my wrist or sprained my wrist and then bruised my tailbone.
And I couldn't sit.
Literally, I could not sit down for a year without being in pain.
Are you serious?
You have to sit on one of those donuts.
Those donut things?
Yeah, the donuts.
Yep.
I know the donuts.
Don't ever injure your tailbone.
Oh, that's really scary.
Oh, God.
This is really making me very superstitious.
I'm like knocking all over the place.
Yeah for sure.
Okay, i can't believe.
I like i almost when i was planning this, i was like i don't even know if i can talk about this, because you're okay.
It sounds like you live a pretty safe life though, michelle.
I mean, these things happen to people that are off swinging from the trees right, like mostly mostly, but then we never know, there's always like ice and stuff and winter, yeah that kind of thing.
So Yeah,
And then there's things like, you know, not necessarily complete.
Well, it could be from an injury, but people have like chronic pain from something.
That means like that's not going to go away.
I have chronic pain in the back of my knee.
In your knee, in the back of your knee?
That seems like a weird place for it.
It's not like my kneecap, but like the actual back of the leg, like if this is like my leg.
Okay.
Wow.
What's that?
Is that from an injury or is that just, it's just there?
I don't know.
I've tried to look into it.
I'm going to look into it more soon, but it's to the point where every night I'm like 100 years old.
I ice it or I have a heating pad.
Jeez, Michelle.
Oh my goodness.
I'm falling apart.
Guys, as you can see, I mean, this is a normal conversation of two people in their 30s, 40s, right?
This is by the time you get to your 30s, your mid 30s or 30s, you've had injury experiences.
So native speakers are going to talk about these things.
And that's why we're talking about this today.
You need this vocab.
To connect.
There's also been a lot of laughter on this episode, Michelle, right?
Sharing stories.
Sharing stories.
Because a lot of injuries happen out of just being stupid, right?
We did something stupid.
And that's fun to share, you know?
So you could connect in this moment around your injuries.
It's true.
It's true.
Like that avocado story.
I tell that.
I mean, I don't tell it all the time now, but I actually used to tell it in class as like a lesson.
I love it.
I mean, I used to do a lot with it.
And there's.
You know, there's so much much that you can like with one of these stories.
Maybe one day, like I'll bring my, maybe I'll bring my avocado story again and we'll go through like the whole, like how, like how I told it and like what points maybe I decided to use humor.
You know things like that.
Like, you know, telling kind of a story about yourself and like really like going through it.
I love that, Michelle.
Maybe that would be a good bonus.
I think that'd be really cool for our listeners.
Yeah, take how to take an experience and turn it into a funny story, right?
How to take especially self deprecating story.
I just I just have to ask you one thing.
How do you cut your avocados now?
What's your new method?
Oh, it took me so long to.
I was like so petrified of knives after that and still I'm not like thrilled with them.
How do I cut my avocados now?
So I did get an avocado slicer, but I don't understand if the avocado is actually ripe, like it should come out easily, right kind of pop it out like I don't even know why they're.
Oh, but I do sorry, just really quick.
Very soon after that I went to dinner with a friend and I was at a restaurant and we happened to be like there were like a lot of the chefs were like on, you know, like cooking out in the open.
Oh yeah yeah, and Literally there were like two guys that were like going through and just cutting the avocado.
Like that?
That same way?
Yes, just like that.
And I couldn't look.
It was so soon that I was like.
Yeah, it's the avocados and the shucking, oyster shucking.
Scary stuff.
You got to be careful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that.
Oh my gosh, we didn't go through the role play.
Well, Michelle, let's just go real quick and then we'll finish up.
OK, real quick.
Yes, real quick.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you said, oh, man, I got so many injuries from lacrosse.
I always had bruises and scrapes on my legs.
Right.
And and there was the time I got a broken arm.
So, guys, we know that vocabulary.
Right.
Mm hmm.
Yep.
And I said I had tons of bumps and bruises too.
And oh, you said and actually cuts.
Cuts.
Yes.
And then and then you said even that silly paper cut I got when I was looking at the roster.
Exactly.
And again, remember guys, paper cuts a little thinner than a cut happens to be due to a paper going across your skin.
And then I said, you said, right, didn't you sprain your ankle once too, right?
Sprain is not break.
It's something more, I think it's the ligaments, but we're not 100% sure.
So don't quote me on that if you're a doctor.
All right, Michelle, I think we already gave the takeaway to our listeners.
It's that clearly we've connected around our own stupidity, right?
Our own injuries, our own physical mistakes, right?
So this is what you can do too, because now you have the vocab to do it.
Good stuff, Michelle.
All right.
All right.
This was fun, Lindsay.
Stay safe.
Stay safe.
Talk to you soon.
Talk to you soon.
Bye.
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