This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2059.
Should you take a ride on someone's coattails?
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Has anyone ever helped you get a leg up in life?
In today's episode, our listener asks us what the term ride someone's coattails means.
Plus, we touch on culture and society when it comes to becoming successful in your life and your career.
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Hey, Michelle, what's going on with you?
How's everything in New York?
Hey, Lindsay.
Everything is good over here.
Actually, last weekend, my family and I went to this place, Alice's Teacup.
I don't know if you had ever heard of it when you lived there, but it's pretty famous and it's just this cute little tea shop and they serve tea time, basically like a whole thing.
Tea time.
I hadn't been, since I was, you know well, since I first moved to New York, and I'd always dreamt of going back there one day.
And so we got to go.
So that was cool.
Oh, fun.
Yeah.
I know when you go to London, you can do that too.
You can go and order like have high tea.
We did that in London.
You did do that in London.
Okay.
I didn't hear that story.
Or even when I was in Egypt they offered that, but it's a little bit not quite as like.
I don't know.
I do it in London, right?
London or New York, I guess more so London.
We did a Charlie and the chocolate factory themed one.
So cool.
Yeah.
All right.
What are we getting into today, Michelle?
Well, we are not talking about tea, but we are talking about Lindsay.
I have a question.
Do you, do you like when a celebrity's child is famous?
Like, do you feel like they always deserve it?
Or do you feel like sometimes it's undeserved?
I think it depends on if they've, built a career or done something themselves.
Right.
So the kids, so it shouldn't just be famous because your parent is famous, I think.
Right.
Is that what you're asking?
So if the child, yeah, they have to do something.
Yeah.
Like, I don't know.
Well, I mean, some people, they, you know, they kind of get lucky.
They I mean their parents are able to get them into things.
And you think oh, if they had this, you know, if they had a different parent, would they have still had the same success?
You know.
The legacy, the legacy issue, right?
It's all over the news right now, not just in this well, in the celebrity world is another way of interpreting it but also in academic institutions, universities.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So I don't know.
I think there are some people who have famous parents who are actually really talented, and maybe some who aren't as so.
But this kind of leads us into a great listener question from Molly.
Would you read the question for us?
All right.
From our listener, Molly.
Molly says, dears.
I love that.
I have a quick question.
What does ride on someone's coattails mean?
I grasped that it's having success due to someone else associated with you.
But does it exclude one's own efforts?
And can it mean to follow in their footsteps?
Best regards, Molly.
What a good question, Michelle.
Oh, yeah, I love this one.
This is good.
And I like how she threw another expression in there, too, that we can talk about.
So thank you, Molly, for that question.
So yeah, Molly, you're right.
And we're going to talk more about why you're right and go into this in just a second.
But guys, we want to remind you, wherever you are listening to the All Ears English podcast hit follow, make it easy on yourself, so the podcasts come to you.
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Good stuff, exactly.
Yes okay, so to ride someone's coattails?
Um so Lindsay, what does the dictionary define this as okay?
So let's go straight to the dictionary first.
That's our starting point and then we will expand on this.
So the dictionary says the free dictionary says to benefit from someone else's success.
To use someone else's success as a means to achieve one's own.
Very interesting Yeah, for sure.
And guys, we also want to remind you that we had a great episode yesterday that you should check out if you haven't heard yet.
It's 2058 five years down the road future plans in English.
So listen to that one.
Don't miss a day.
Yes, I love it.
I love it.
So Michelle, is this a does this word this term in itself?
Is it positive or negative?
What's the connotation behind it?
Yeah, good question.
I think it's mostly negative because it's I mean well, we're thinking of physically, like I mean well, let's talk about the expression first to ride on someone's coattails.
So coattails, right?
It's like someone's wearing something and they're like dragging you.
And so you can get that image in your head, right?
You are like holding on as they move forward and then you can move forward too, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, like what are coattails anyways?
Is that like?
Would that be if I were wearing like a long robe type thing?
It would be the back of my robe.
What is it?
What is coattails?
I don't even know.
Or is it just... I'm looking.
I'm looking.
I mean, well, I imagine it one of those long coats.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A long coat, like a king or a queen.
No, no, no, no, no.
More like...
More, I mean, maybe... Like a tuxedo, a long tuxedo?
Okay, that kind of thing.
That's what I think of.
Okay.
Or just like a nice coat and then, yeah, it's... Okay.
So the idea is this person is wearing a very nice coat because they're successful, right?
Probably a long tux or something if it's a man or a really nice dress if it's a woman.
And then someone is, as you said, grabbing on and sort of riding...
I love that image.
Yeah, that's why I like this idiom so much is because you do get that image in your head.
I can't help but think of a picture in my mind when I hear it.
And guys, that's a really helpful way to learn as well, to have an image in your head to match an idiom.
Maybe we can do an episode on that once.
I think we should.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Using that as a way to help remember what things mean.
So anyway, I think it's, I think it's a mostly negative connotation, because you're not getting there yourself.
You're using someone else.
Yeah.
This kind of comes back to the weird the weird.
I guess it's a juxtaposition in American culture where
Yeah. rugged individualism, do it yourself, tie your shoes all by yourself.
We've talked about this, like the narrative we say to kids and everything.
But in the end, I think that we all use someone's help.
Like everyone in the world has name dropped, right?
Once someone they know or someone... Yeah.
There's some people that do it more than others, right?
Or know um, associating in some small way.
So some people do this more than others, but i think we don't do anything all by ourselves.
It's just a matter of how do we go about it?
Do we go about it in a classy way, you know, an explicit way, trying to ask for help, or do we try to kind of sneakily associate ourselves somehow with that?
Right yeah yeah, right no, i think that's true.
I recently heard something on tv about that and people were saying you know, it's not necessarily wrong, the wrong thing to do, because we should help each other.
We should, but i think it's.
I think one of the problems is when somebody doesn't get an opportunity because someone else yes, hundred percent, because of their connections, and that's where, and that's where it's not fair, like um.
So, but i think, helping each other, there's nothing wrong with that.
So there's a little bit of a difference.
But molly asked oh sorry, go ahead, lindsay.
No, i was gonna say well said, i completely understand.
That's a systemic issue right michelle, and something that we need to look at in our system in the coming years, that we have to fix.
And that's why there was just the decision on affirmative action, which is where there's a lot of mixed opinions about it, but it is going to become more challenging to get a leg up.
And now I think that there needs to be some action taken on legacy priorities, in the same way that that action was taken with affirmative action.
So we will come back to this, guys.
Yes, that's a bigger, much bigger discussion.
Sure.
Interesting topic.
Yes.
So but Molly asked if this excludes one one's effort.
So I'm not sure I understand this part of the question.
But basically I think that someone can be respected if they ride someone's coattails, if they prove their value.
So that's what we were saying.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Okay.
I like that.
Do we have any examples, Michelle, that we want to share then?
Yes, exactly.
Let's do it.
So here we go.
She rode on her sister's coattails to get the job, but once she showed she wasn't a hard worker, they let her go.
Sometimes that happens, right?
Sometimes you know having an association with someone can get you the job but it won't keep you the job right.
Yes yeah right yes, that's true.
Um, and what's another example?
Uh, the team wrote on their predecessors coattails to get sponsorships, but they didn't actually win any games.
Okay, that's no good.
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Ah, that sounds interesting.
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Honestly, Oh my gosh Michelle, I know that moment.
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Good stuff.
All right michelle, so shall we Wow.
Let's go into some more examples or some words and phrases that kind of associate with this concept of one's coattails.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
And I just wanted to touch on following in someone's footsteps because Molly asked about that, too.
I mean, I think to follow in someone's footsteps is generally different.
And I
I think this one doesn't have a negative connotation.
I agree.
What do you think, Lindsay?
I totally agree with that.
Yeah.
To fall in one's footsteps is a little more like, oh, my dad was an optometrist.
I'm thinking I might want to do that, because I kind of want to follow my dad and be like my dad, kind of.
Right?
Exactly.
So that's a different kind of thing.
But let's give a couple other expressions.
Just go along with this theme.
So what's the first one?
All right.
So to prove oneself.
Right.
So you might have to do this, even if you did ride on someone's coattails to get in the door.
You know, to get a foot in the door, as we say.
Her father got her the job, but she still needs to prove herself.
And that's for sure.
Yes, yes, yes, exactly.
And then this is a big word coming up.
So this is nepotism.
That's the first word I thought of.
Yeah, that's the first word I thought of when I read this listener question, actually.
So Lindsay, what do you think about this one?
What is nepotism?
I love this.
So it's the idea that especially I think of this in the political realm a lot of times, but I don't think it's just for politics.
You see I mean we've seen it in different presidencies where people's family members end up in the cabinet or end up having important offices.
And I think especially in our country it's frowned upon because people should be elected, or should even in one's cabinet.
I think, you know, it's important that we feel there's some transparency.
So, for example, nepotism is frowned upon in the company, and that's in the corporate world too, right?
Mm hmm.
For sure.
So yeah, nepotism, I think, is generally a pretty big problem in many different areas of society.
And then the last one is to have friends in high places.
So this one is just in high places, just like people who are, you know, at a certain level of authority, who have some pull, they can get you jobs.
They can, you know, they can get you certain perks.
So she has friends in high places.
So it's easy for her to get job offers.
Yeah.
And I've even heard you know kind of plays on this expression.
Friends in high places, there's a country music song.
And I think it has a line is like friends in low places.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we know these are icons in society when it comes to talking about, I guess, succession and, you know, following in someone's footsteps and kind of letting someone else help you get a leg up right.
These are phrases that we use in our culture.
Super common, guys.
Good stuff.
Yeah, for sure.
So should we do a role play?
Yes, let's do it, Michelle, to finish off today's episode.
Here we go.
So Michelle, you and I, we are co-workers.
We're gossiping about our other teammate.
Uh-oh.
All right, here we go.
So did you know her dad is the dean?
Wait, really?
I wish I could get a job using nepotism.
Yeah, but she will still have to prove herself.
This isn't an easy job.
True.
Maybe she's talented and not just riding on her dad's coattails.
Yeah, it helps to have friends in high places.
For sure.
Ooh, controversial.
And that can also be demotivating for employees in a company if they see okay yeah, the boss's daughter has a job automatically, right.
That kind of thing.
Not always good for the morale of the company.
So what did we do here, Michelle?
What did we use?
Yeah, so well, you told me her dad is the dean.
And I said, I wish I could get a job using nepotism.
So like my family ties getting getting perks because of my family.
Yeah, you got it.
So and then I said, yeah, but she'll still have to prove herself.
So she'll have to work hard to show that she actually deserves the job.
Right.
And that's that difference that Lindsay and I were talking about.
Where is it OK or not OK?
And then I said, well, maybe she is talented and not just riding on her dad's coattails, like using her dad's success. yeah and then i said yeah it helps to have friends in high places yeah yeah and then rochelle we could go into this topic another day this topic needs to be fleshed out more on the societal side we don't have time for it today because we just did the vocabulary but there's a lot to be said oh yeah a whole lot a whole lot so but guys i mean this was a great question thank you again molly for this um i mean i think the takeaway is that like what we were talking about Lindsay it's okay to get help like we we succeed but I mean especially we always talk about making connections trying to make friends you know that's that's part of the part of this natural way things go I mean otherwise we wouldn't do things like networking and trying to form those relationships we they have they have to be done and also if your family member helps you or somebody does help you get an in, as you can call it, it's, um, you know, as long as you can prove yourself, I don't think that, yeah, I think it's, it's a fine line because you may have not gotten in the door at all, unless you had that in, but I don't know.
I think, I don't know.
It just happens.
It's the reality of things, unfortunately.
Yeah.
It's a reality.
And so I'm really curious what our listeners are going to say.
You know, maybe we'll talk about this in a fluency party for our students one day.
Who knows?
We'll see.
We'll see.
But, you know, it's it's interesting to reflect on in your culture.
How is nepotism looked upon?
You know, Is it expected and accepted that someone in any position of power in a company or even in politics, would pull you up and put you in a position?
Would that be questioned or challenged?
And to what extent?
That can also be really cultural.
So I'm super excited to hear from our listeners on this one, Michelle.
Me too.
Me too.
All right.
Well, this was fun.
And Lindsay, I will see you on the next episode.
Everyone, thank you for listening.
All right.
And guys, don't forget to go over and get that special deal just for you guys at Rosetta Stone.
Again, go to rosettastone.com slash A-E-E.
All right, Michelle, you take care.
I'll talk to you soon.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
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