This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2031, why you should chunk your language learning.
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Do you like chunks in your ice cream?
Today, find out the many different ways to use the word chunk in English.
Plus get some advice on the best ways to learn a new language.
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Lindsay, how's it going?
Oh, it's fantastic.
I'm thinking about ice cream, because it's a hot summer day Aubrey, and that's when I love to eat ice cream.
I know.
We know you love ice cream.
I absolutely I have to have chunks in my ice cream.
I don't know if I've told you this before.
I can't eat like soft serve that doesn't have nuts and chunks of chocolate and stuff.
What about you?
Do you like chunks in your ice cream?
Yes, that is totally valid.
That is my ideal.
That's why I'm a big Ben and Jerry's fan.
Huge fan of Ben and Jerry's because they give you not just chunks, they give you like huge pieces of cookies, brownies.
I mean, you get some really good stuff in there.
So yes, I do like chunks of my ice cream.
Yes.
I agree.
If ever I get one of those little Ben and Jerry's cartons, I like put my name on it.
I'm like, this is mine.
I'm eating out of it with a spoon.
Nobody touch it.
Nobody touch it.
What's your favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor?
New York super fudge chunk or Cherry Garcia.
Yeah.
I could name like four others.
There's so many good ones.
What about you?
We have the same taste in ice cream.
I can't remember the name of it.
It's something brownie, chocolate brownie something.
That's always the one I go for.
And if there's peanut butter.
Oh, it's like chocolate and more chocolate.
Yes.
Chocolate on top of chocolate on top of chocolate.
So good.
Well, today, you guys probably recognize this word chunk from episode 2028.
We had a student ask about the words resonate and chunk.
And we promised that we would cover chunk soon.
And here we are fulfilling our promise.
We talk about chunking quite a bit here on the podcast, but it's not about chunks in ice cream.
It's a different kind of chunking.
Right.
So we're transitioning away from the ice cream talk too bad, unfortunately, guys.
We're talking about other ways that we use it.
So tell us a little bit more here, Aubrey.
Yeah.
So we use that verb chunk and you guys have definitely heard us say it on the podcast here to mean to group something together.
And when we use that, when we say you need to learn this phrase as a chunk, or you need to learn this as a chunk.
We're talking about phrasal verbs, idioms, expressions that have to be used word for word.
You change one word, you change a preposition, and the whole meaning is lost.
So often we teach phrases as a chunk grouped together.
They have to go together.
Yeah, it just makes things easier, right?
You can bring things together.
You learn it as essentially one word, but it could be three or four words.
Exactly.
And one thing to point out here this word's a little tricky, because not only does it mean chunks in ice cream.
We're going to go into all of the different meanings of the word chunk in English.
But when we talk about grouping something together, we use it as both a noun and a verb.
So as a noun, we might say, learn this phrase as a chunk, right?
And we're using it as a noun, but we also use it as a verb, right, Lindsay?
Yes, 100%.
Yeah, for sure.
Use it as a chunk.
Chunk You know, chunk these words together, for example, is how we do that.
Exactly, right?
So you can see how it's a verb there.
That's what you do.
Chunk meaning group.
Group these words together and learn them as a chunk.
So we use it both as a noun and a verb.
So that might be a little confusing.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, this is how I tried to learn Arabic when I was learning.
But Aubrey, you learned French in your younger years, right?
I mean, you taught French.
I can't believe you got to the point where you're able to teach French.
Isn't that right?
Yes, I taught in the Bronx High School.
And then I also taught French at Gateway Community College.
And I definitely use this.
I taught my French students to learn vocabulary in chunks like this, because it relates to every language.
One good way to, by the way, one good way to do this is through music, right?
You can remember lyrics.
That's really kind of a chunk right, but it's really.
It's amazing to be so fluent in a second language that you could teach that.
I admire that about you, aubry.
That's really cool, because when i hear you speak french, it feels very authentic.
Your accent is it?
Is that true?
Yeah, I think so.
I had a very good French accent and then I moved to Montreal and now I have a little bit of Quebecois.
But for most French speakers, I think it's just endearing.
But I improved my accent by speaking to native French speakers, of course, when I lived in Belgium and then Montreal.
It takes some work to improve your accent.
Yeah, hearing that native accent really does matter and pronunciation matters, right?
Gives you a certain level of confidence when you know you're saying it more or less correctly, with the correct pronunciation.
And I know, when I think about our listeners, it's something that I know you guys want, that our listeners want to improve, to be able to speak naturally.
Right, Aubrey?
Yes, we do.
We have listeners ask us about improving accent all the time so they can be understood, right?
And to improve your accent if you aren't living in an English-speaking country, you need the right tools that use native voices.
Yeah.
So by the way, guys, we are sponsored by Rosetta Stone.
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Super important, Aubrey.
Yes, absolutely.
Right.
And we'll be talking more about this feature and other amazing features in Rosetta Stone more soon.
But for now, we want you guys to know that using Rosetta Stone is a great way to commit to your language learning on a daily basis and to make sure that you feel confident with pronunciation.
Yes.
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That's great.
Cause I don't like renewal fees.
Same.
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So guys go ahead and get started.
Yep.
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So guys going over there and check that out.
So Aubrey, moving in to kind of the second way that we use chunk, right?
Chunks.
What is it?
Now we're talking about food again.
This is one of those words that has so many meanings in English.
And so, just like the chunks in ice cream, we use this to talk about anything that's a thick, solid piece of something.
So maybe a chunk of wood, a chunk of cheese, a chunk of bread.
So let's give a couple of of examples.
It's similar to the adjective chunky. something that is described as chunky.
Like chunky monkey, right?
The flavor.
There we go.
That's the one I like.
Chunky monkey.
Nice.
It came to you.
It came to me.
So for example, coming back to ice cream, I just want to talk about ice cream the entire episode.
I like ice cream that has chunks in it, right?
Chunky ice cream.
What else, Aubrey?
Or you might say big chunks of concrete had to be removed after they tore out the sidewalk.
This actually happened recently.
They had to remove a big chunk of sidewalk and there were just these huge chunks of concrete waiting to be hauled off because they needed like a giant truck to get them.
Just a couple streets down from me.
And that's what we would refer to these something that's very big and thick and solid.
We'll usually refer to it as a chunk.
Yeah, it makes me think of when we had our tree cut down right here in front of our house.
They were hauling off huge chunks of, you know, of the actual trunk, the tree trunk different word, guys but chunks of wood that were being broken up and then put into a wood chipper.
So Yes.
Yes.
We actually not stole, but someone had cut down a tree and those big chunks of wood were in front of their house and we took a couple to use as like end tables in our backyard.
They're very cool.
Yes, we've got them.
Yeah, we sanded it down and treated it with epoxy and all these things and now we have these really cool, authentic looking end tables.
I love it.
Whenever someone has a tree cut down in the neighborhood, i think it's a hot item.
People go out and grab stuff, stealing the chunks of wood.
Hey, we can no longer say jessica's the only crafty one, because you and i have both made furniture.
We just are selective about what we craft.
Exactly.
And then, of course, cheese.
If we're going to talk about ice cream, we can also talk about cheese, right?
Yeah, we'll always say a chunk of cheese, because often cheese just breaks off of a bigger part of cheese.
And so we'll just call it a chunk.
It's different if you slice it and it's like a perfect slice of cheese.
But if it's a crumbled piece, piece that you've broken off, then it's a chunk of cheese.
And it's kind of interesting because, when it comes to serving cheese, there are certain types of cheese that you might be more likely to serve in chunks, like cheddar right.
You'll see, like at a party, chunks of cheddar, whereas I don't feel like you see chunks of like Gruyere.
Or other kinds of cheese.
Yeah, good point.
It depends a lot on the consistency, right?
A soft cheese, you can't have a chunk.
Like brie, there's no way to chunk it because we're really talking about something that's solid.
Right.
And then other kinds of cheese are so hard that you can't chunk it up.
You can't make it into little chunks.
You just have to kind of slice it with your knife and put it on a cracker or something.
Exactly.
Complex art of cheese cutting.
So we have one more use of chunk that we use all the time, which means a large, like a noteworthy part of something or a section of something.
Okay, good.
So here we go.
So here's an example.
The first chunk of the workout was the most difficult.
Yeah.
So really, that's another way of saying the first section, the first part of it, we'll say chunk.
The first chunk of that was so difficult.
Yes.
Sorry, that is my dog barking in the background.
Anyways, Kiefer wanted to say hi to all our listeners.
Our listeners know Kiefer.
So hello, Kiefer.
Go ahead and share the next one.
You got to come see the YouTube guys because he's like his cute little tails behind Lindsay.
OK, the next example, we can say I fell asleep for a large chunk of the movie.
And it almost would feel too formal to me to say I fell asleep for a large section of the movie, because it's this kind of informal conversation.
Chunk is less formal and always feels more natural to me.
Okay.
I am back.
All right.
Here we go.
Good.
Yes.
Good explanation, Aubrey.
I love that.
Do we have a role play for our listeners?
Yes.
Let's do this.
So in this role play, Lindsay and I are discussing our hobbies.
I don't think wood carving comes up in this.
No, it doesn't.
That's an emerging hobby, right?
Right.
Exactly.
Here we go.
So I wish I had more time to read.
I really do.
Same.
I need to chunk my time so I can organize it better.
Good idea.
Sometimes I have to skip chunks of books since I don't have time to finish them.
Same.
I'd love to sit down with a good book, a glass of wine and chunks of bread and cheese.
But I can't remember the last time I was able to.
That sounds great.
I know, right?
Wine, cheese and a book.
Dreamy.
Dreamy, dreamy.
I love it.
So here you said, Aubrey, same.
I need to chunk my time.
So here you're using it as a verb, which is one of the ways we showed you guys that you can do it.
Exactly that first meaning, just like we talk about grouping words in order to learn them in a chunk.
We talk about time that way to grouping chunks of time.
So yeah, that's we do.
I talk about that a lot with Jessica here at Allers English.
I'm like I have to chunk my time in order to get everything done on my to do list, in order to stay organized.
Yes, 100%.
And then we talked about another way to use this, right?
So I said, good idea.
Sometimes I have to skip chunks of books, or I could say entire chunks of books, since I don't have time to finish them.
This means a large section of something, right?
Exactly.
That third meaning we talked about, right?
If you're having to.
Maybe you're reading a manual and you just don't have time to read the whole thing.
You're going to skip entire chunks of it.
Yes, I love that.
What's the third way we used it in this roleplay for our listeners?
Yeah, this is that thick, solid piece of something where I said I'd like a glass of wine and chunks of bread and cheese.
That just means like a handful of it, right?
Something that has been torn off of something else.
Yes, so good.
Makes me want to travel to France and just eat bread and cheese all the time.
Get a nice charcuterie board.
Yes.
Oh, so good.
So what's a takeaway for our listeners today, Aubrey?
Yeah, many words like this one, chunk, in English have so many meanings.
We use it as a verb, as a noun.
It means several different things.
So context clues, of course, always help.
We give you lots of examples.
And with today's tips, you'll be able to understand all the different meanings and be able to use them yourself, because it's a really fun word.
It's a more informal word in a lot of contexts.
Yes, totally.
Special thanks to our listener who sent in this question about this word.
We so appreciate your questions, guys.
If you do have a question, Aubrey, where should they send their questions?
Yeah, you can email them straight to me, Aubrey at allearsenglishcom, and I can plan an episode about them.
Love it.
So guys, don't forget, we mentioned in this episode that you have a special deal available to you, guys only.
It's a special deal for the Allers English audience.
You can go to rosettastonecom slash A-E-E to get 40 off of lifetime access and unlimited lifetime access.
So go over there to rosettastone.com slash A-E-E.
Okay, Aubrey, good stuff.
Thanks for being on the mic with me today.
Awesome.
See you next time, Lindsay.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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