This is an All Ears English Podcast, episode 2268.
Put out dumpster fires with these trendy English phrases.
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With your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS Whiz and former IELTS examiner, Jessica Beck, coming to you from Arizona and Portland, Oregon, USA.
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Today you'll learn five phrases that all describe bad situations.
After today's episode, you'll be ready to connect with others over bad days and life's problems.
And then you'll both feel better.
Good morning, Aubrey.
How are you? I am great.
Jessica, I have a question for you.
Yes, have you had to put out any dumpster fires recently?
You know, I feel like as an adult, there are kind of always dumpster fires to put out.
No big dumpster fires to put out, thankfully.
What about you? Have you had to do that lately?
Well, yes, with my kids' school, they were really upset that they weren't going to be in the same class this year.
And they were both like, there's just some angst, even though they're not really old enough to have the angst.
I don't know. So there was a bit of a dumpster fire there that we had to put out.
I'm like, you know what?
This is for the best.
But not a literal dumpster fire, right, Jessica?
This is such a fun expression.
So guys, this phrase came up on a recent Apple Plus quiz that Aubrey and I were doing.
And I said the phrase dumpster fire, and both of us are like, this is such a great phrase to teach.
We use this all the time as natives.
And so this is the metaphorical sense of dumpster fire, right?
So a dumpster, guys, is that huge trash bin.
They're huge, huge trash bins.
And unfortunately, in Portland, there are literal dumpster fires because we have so many homeless people.
That sounds terrible, but it's true.
Well, and it can happen anywhere because if someone throws a cigarette in a dumpster with a lot of paper, it can light on fire.
So there are literal dumpster fires, but we use it, like you said, a metaphor, an idiom for just something that is a terrible situation.
It's pretty extreme, like something where emotions are heightened.
Someone's really upset.
Something went terribly wrong.
We'll be like, what a dumpster fire that was.
Exactly. But it's so much more fun to say, you know, it sort of improves a bad situation just a little bit because at least you can use fun words to connect with others about problems.
And we all have problems, guys.
So today's vocabulary will make talking about those problems even more fun.
Yes, we're sharing five fun phrases related to garbage and dumpsters, but that we use idiomatically.
We use as slang. You want to be using these, but first of all, if the quiz Jessica was talking about is not familiar to you, if you missed our fun conversation, you might not be subscribed on Apple Podcast.
So check it out. We do a quiz every episode, every All Ears English episode.
You can take a quiz after, so don't miss out.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to get those fun quizzes with me and Jessica.
They're so fun. Today's vocab guys is related to another All Ears English episode, 2110 trashy English vocabulary.
Yes, this was Lindsay and Michelle.
It was a fun when they talked about like what is the difference between trash and garbage, but they also shared some fun phrases like trashy and trash talk.
So yeah, check that one out.
If you missed it, episode 21 10 trashy English vocabulary those.
Oh my gosh. I want to go into that vocabulary, but Michelle and Lindsay already did.
So listen to that guys and then let's get into today's new trashy vocabulary.
Yes, first, we're going to give you a few more examples of when you might say dumpster fire.
This means like a disastrous situation.
It's pretty extreme.
Maybe for example, if you plan and run a fundraiser and it doesn't go well, you might say this fundraiser was a total dumpster fire.
We went over budget and then didn't even reach our goal.
Well, that would be really terrible.
Oh, that sounds awful.
Or for example, we could say maybe like a friend walks up to you where you get home from work, you know, and your partner says, hey, you know, what's going on?
How was your day? You could say this day has been a dumpster fire.
I mean, first of all, like I missed the bus and I had to walk all the way to the to work and then the the heel broke off my shoe and I slipped in the mud.
I rocked up to the office covered in dirt and I had the most important meeting of my life today.
It was terrible covered in mud.
That would be a dumpster fire.
Yes. This is definitely a phrase where if you just tell someone, you know, today was a dumpster fire, you're they're going to want more information.
Yeah, summer like it's extreme enough and you're sort of almost setting up the story, right?
You're introducing like the day was terrible and I'm gonna give you details.
Yeah, no exactly. Nobody stops at dumpster fire.
That's the thing, right?
You want to spill those details and vent to your friend.
All right, so let's move on to the next term.
This one is very easy.
Very common garbage.
It's a down. It's slang.
It's used for anything.
That's terrible. It could be a bad movie, a bad book, a bad day, a bad relationship, a bad person.
You could use this to describe literally anything that is terrible.
Exactly. You might say this show is absolute garbage.
I don't like it at all.
If you're talking about a TV show or that book was such garbage.
Why did I waste my time?
Yeah, totally. Now, let's be careful when we're describing people as garbage.
Maybe guys you shouldn't use this but you will hear this.
So for example, you might hear someone say, you know, I hate to say it, but she's kind of a garbage person.
I've heard this most often if you are asking a friend about someone they're dating and it went really terribly.
They got ghosted. They were mean and be like, honestly, she turned out to be a garbage person, right?
You'd say this because you feel still maybe hurt like it's very extreme.
You're not going to say this about just like your neighbor who's not being super friendly.
Yeah, no, it has to be like a really terrible person.
You know, the first thing that comes to mind for me is like this is great guys.
If you watch reality TV shows because they're they're like written and produced right?
It's not real real.
So those producers on those shows are making certain people into garbage people because it's entertaining.
And they're edited that way, right?
It's like the way they edit it made him look like a total garbage person.
Yeah, so if you enjoy those shows fantastic talk about them with your friends and be like, oh man, Sabrina, that's new person at this season is really a garbage person.
Yes, that leads really well into our next phrase here trash, which we use as slang to mean terrible.
It's very similar to garbage, but there's a specific phrase where we say trash TV, which is like reality TV talk shows that are really not educational.
They're, you know, they're focusing on controversy and confrontation and like you said, Jessica, they're produced to make people look worse than they really are in person.
Totally. I think of like Jerry Springer from the 90s, you know, that sort of thing.
Do you do you watch any trash TV every now and then I got peacock to watch the Olympics and Love Island is on there.
So I was like, I'm going to check out Love Island.
It is the definition of trash TV and you can really see how like I'm sure these people are good people, but it's edited to make it more interesting and crazy, but it's just such a waste of time.
Honestly, no offense to everyone who loves reality TV, but even if you love it, you have to admit it's such a waste of time.
I can't I can't even with reality TV.
I don't know. Like if I watch trash TV, like I kind of feel like a trash person, you know, like I'm like, oh, this makes me feel gross.
So some more examples guys with the word trash, you could say sorry.
The soup is absolute trash.
I think I used way too much salt.
So in that case, like I made the soup.
I can call it trash, right?
I wouldn't say that about someone else's soup though.
That would never mean to call something trash or garbage is so extreme.
If you use this to describe something someone did or made, it's very hurtful.
There's so many ways to say that that are more kind.
Yeah, totally. Okay, so here is here's an interesting phrase guys that you you might have heard because we do say this a lot.
Unfortunately white trash.
Okay. This is not a good term guys.
We don't want you to say this, but you might hear it and we want you to be ready.
Right. So Aubrey, how would you define that phrase white trash?
Yeah, it's very derogatory and it's very informal.
It means it refers to an underprivileged white social group, right?
So for whatever reason and you'll hear it a lot on TV on these reality shows we're talking about someone might call someone else this but like Jessica said we're not recommending it because it is such a harsh judgment and it's really a pretty inappropriate thing to of course to base something on someone's
race. Yeah, totally.
It has connotations of like this is what poor people do.
They are uneducated that like it's all it's just judgment.
That's all it is. It's like really horrible judgment on another person.
So I feel like it's going away, right?
It used to be in older shows 80s 90s.
You might hear it all the time and more and more as we're starting to be more sensitive recognizing stereotypes.
We're hearing it less.
Thank goodness, right?
This should this should be kind of phased out.
Yeah, totally. Alright, so the last term today before we get to the roleplay rubbish.
This is super fun because it's very Britishy, right?
It is British slang but a lot of people in the US also use it these days, right?
So it's the same as like trash or garbage.
It's just British slang for the same thing.
Yeah, it might be sort of being adopted in the States because we're hearing it on British TV shows and pop culture and it's just so fun.
It's such a fun word to say that I do hear it in the US a lot as well.
It means worthless or useless very similar to trash or garbage.
You might just say that's a bunch of rubbish.
I hear that often if I think someone's not telling the truth.
Yeah, like that's rubbish.
Exactly. If you feel like yeah, exactly.
Somebody is lying or you know has exaggerated somehow and it's just not true anymore what they're saying.
You're like, that's rubbish.
Just stop it or like what if you plug in your phone and it doesn't charge you be like, this battery is rubbish or this phone charger is rubbish.
Maybe you don't like your teacher.
He's a rubbish teacher.
I mean, these are all I feel like garbage and trash because they're more meaningful to us.
We use the more that rubbish is like slightly less harsh, you know rubbish because it sounds British so it sounds better somehow.
Yes, it sounds I agree with less harsh.
I don't think I would say like he's a trash teacher.
He's a garbage teacher.
That sounds so awful and mean but I would maybe say he's a rubbish teacher if he's given me a grade.
I don't feel I deserve it doesn't feel so cruel.
It's a little more playful.
Exactly. Exactly. All right.
So in this role play guys, Aubrey and I are just leaving the movie theater which if we lived in the same town would absolutely happen.
Absolutely. We would go to the movies together for sure.
So this feels appropriate.
All right, you start us out.
All right, here we go.
That movie was a dumpster fire.
Seriously first time I've left a film early in a long time rubbish acting trash plot garbage writing.
I'd rather watch trash TV and that's saying something.
You know, what else was garbage?
The popcorn was soggy was yours.
No, you must have added too much butter talk about adding insult to injury.
We need to go to the movies again soon to erase this night from existence.
It's so dramatic. I know I kind of love this though.
I feel like if I left a movie and it was that bad bad enough for me to leave early I would be dramatic like this.
I'd be so disappointed.
I've only left the movies once.
I've only left the theaters once I was in high school and my mom and I were watching Dances with Wolves and we both hated it so much and we left.
That's the only time I've left.
That's so funny. I watched that a bunch of times as a kid.
I don't know why I hated it.
So it's really funny.
Oh, like let's go through this.
So first of all, you said that movie was a dumpster fire automatically here.
You're sharing that you hated it.
You thought it was garbage and I'm agreeing clearly.
We've both left early.
So we agree and this is where I might say all of these, right?
I'm listing them off rubbish acting trash plot garbage writing meaning I hated everything about the movie and you could you could mix up any of those, right?
So so Aubrey said rubbish acting trash plot garbage writing I could easily say garbage acting rubbish plot like you could just mix and match those guys.
So rubbish trash garbage.
They all are they could all be used.
Yeah, they're all interchangeable interchangeable.
I couldn't think of that word.
And then you said I'd rather watch trash TV and that's saying something.
I love this phrase.
That's saying something because we know each other well enough that I know you don't like reality TV talk shows.
You don't usually watch trash TV.
So you're using this to exaggerate to like show how much you hated that movie.
I'd rather try to watch trash TV and that is saying something.
Right, right. And then you described your popcorn as soggy, right?
Because you're like, well, you know, what else was garbage?
The popcorn. So soggy is just like wet, right?
What popcorn? Oh, if you guys are watching this on YouTube, like I can't hide my emotions.
It's all on my face.
As soon as you said your popcorn was soggy.
I was like, oh god, that sounds so gross.
Yes, soggy definitely has a negative connotation, right?
Because there are things that should be wet or moist like a trace lee chase cake.
But soggy means like it shouldn't feel like it shouldn't be wet, right?
Yeah, exactly. It's yeah, too much.
It's gross wetness.
Alright, and then I said talk about adding insult to injury.
Another great phrase guys.
So you can use this to comment on someone's news.
If it was like this bad thing happened after another bad thing, right?
So it's like too many bad things happened.
You're like, oh talk about adding insult to injury.
So that is it's such a great like empathetic phrase, right?
Like, oh my gosh. I hear I hear all of these bad things that happened to you or that you went through today and you know, like Ophelia that's terrible.
Yes, right. We're saying sort of like to top it all off this happened which made it even worse.
I agree. I love that so many of these phrases are a great way to like bond over something terrible.
Totally, right? This is when we use the most often if someone watched something terrible or went through a terrible situation.
This is a great way to support them to be like, oh man, I can't believe that that's garbage.
Exactly because a lot of times that your friends are venting to you, you know, we're not looking for solutions.
They're not looking for you to fix things a lot of times.
They just want an empathetic ear, right?
So these phrases today guys, you can comment on a friend's bad day.
You can comment on a co -worker's difficulties by just backing him up and saying, yeah, no, like that that was garbage.
I agree. Like let's let's go get some coffee.
It's really nice to have a friend who will support and use this vocabulary to help show them that support that you understand you've been through it too.
Exactly. Exactly. All right, Aubrey.
I hope that none of your days this week are a dumpster fire.
Thanks for having me on all there's English awesome.
Thanks for coming Jessica.
See you next time. Thanks for listening to all ears English.
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