This is an All -Ears English Podcast episode 2275, how to talk about man versus bear meme.
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Get the vocabulary and pop culture knowledge you need to discuss this very weird but popular meme.
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Hey, Aubrey, you spend time on Instagram, right?
Yeah, a little bit.
A little bit, okay.
Have you seen any of these videos asking women who they would want to be alone in the woods with?
A man or a bear? Have you seen that meme anywhere?
Yes, I've seen a bunch of those and it's come up in conversations.
I've had friends mention it, ask me about it, and it always sparks a really interesting conversation.
I know, right? So guys, we are going to talk about this today, this meme, and we're going to teach you some vocabulary that you can use to talk about this issue and other memes that we see.
Because like Aubrey said, we do connect over these things.
We talk about this stuff with our friends.
Yes, absolutely. We want you to be able to have these conversations as well.
Ideally, you know, you're also on Instagram, some at least familiar with these memes, but even if you're not and someone brings it up, you need those conversation skills, the vocabulary and the confidence to dive into the conversation and help make it interesting.
Exactly, exactly. So what is the issue?
Why has this become a popular meme?
Because it sounds weird.
What is this question even?
You know what I mean?
Like there are so many videos of a woman explaining her reason for choosing a bear over a man.
That's really what it's come down to, right?
As a lot of women say that they would choose to be alone in the woods with a bear instead of a human man.
Exactly. What is that about?
Right. That's why it's so fascinating.
You would think, oh, I would definitely would not choose bear, right?
I saw the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.
What was that called?
Revenant. Revenant, oh, it's so good.
And Tom Hardy, such a good movie.
Such a good movie, but I get it.
It highlights this fear that a lot of women have of men, of being alone with a man and not knowing if they can trust them.
I've heard this recently with people talking about dating apps online where you're meeting strangers a lot more and there is a lot of fear.
There are a lot of, you know, possibilities running through your mind of everything that could go wrong.
Yeah, exactly. The reactions to this are what I find most interesting.
There's two extremes of these reactions.
So one, people are not surprised about this choice, right?
That's the one reaction.
Women are like, well, we've been hurt by more men than bears.
So it's really just highlighting the inherent fear that women have of men, right?
How much, you know, difficulties, violence, whatever has occurred.
But then we have the other reaction.
People are like, well, that's ridiculous.
Why would you choose a bear?
But that's the thing, guys, like this isn't about just bears and men.
This is highlighting a social issue.
So it's really it's a lot bigger than just this little mean question, right?
That's what makes it such an interesting conversation.
It's going to be divisive.
A lot of people will disagree.
People will have strong opinions either way and it's an interesting thing to back up your opinion, whichever side you fall on.
Yeah, totally, totally.
Guys, this was actually a question in our recent pop culture quiz.
I don't know if you guys know about this, but we have a new pop culture IQ quiz.
It's just for questions.
There's a new one every month.
So it's very current as far as pop culture goes.
It's super fun. So if you take this quiz guys, you get your pop culture IQ and you get a free course.
I'm not even joking, like a whole free little course.
The free course is three ways to be interesting in English and one of those ways is you learn how to talk about pop culture.
It's such a cool course guys.
So take the quiz get the course go to all ears English .com slash pop quiz.
All right. Let's get into some vocabulary we can use to discuss this meme.
Aubrey, what is the first word?
Yeah. So first is hypothetical because a lot of the most interesting conversations are a hypothetical like this.
Would you rather what do you think possibly could happen?
This means it's not a real question.
It's imagining a situation that probably would never happen or is very unlikely just to find out what people would think or do in that situation.
Yeah, exactly. So hypotheticals the adjective hypothetically is the adverb.
We use that a lot to introduce a question that is not based in reality, right so I could be like hypothetically Aubrey if you lived in Portland.
Do you think we'd hang out a lot?
Exactly. Yes. And I often will start these with this is just a hypothetical but and then I'll share but Jessica.
Would you ever live in Arizona in the summer?
No, no, I know you're not.
So yeah, that is it's a high -level word right but we use it quite often.
I would say like it's really it's really a great way to introduce new topics creative topics into a conversation.
Yes, and it takes off a lot of the pressure because we're not talking about reality.
We're not asking you about something that actually happened to you.
We're like just hypothetical no stress.
No pressure. It's just going to spark an interesting conversation and you know what honestly James uses this a lot when he's asking me like he really does want to ask me a question but he thinks I'll say no.
So he's like hypothetically what if I wanted to eat ice cream right now, my kids do this too as a hypothetical what about pizza for dinner and they're just doing it to be funny.
I love that used to.
Alright, so the next word is a highlight and of course, you know highlight is to use like a yellow marker to highlight a word and a text or whatever but we use this metaphorically right this really levels up our usage of this word.
So it just means it to point out something strongly to metaphorically underline something in a conversation right.
Yeah, if I were talking about this man versus bear situation, this would be perfect to be like this whole meme really highlights fears that people have right.
It's an interesting way to go deeper like to talk about okay man versus bear, but then why why is this even a thing?
Exactly exactly. And push back is the next phrase.
So this is awesome when you're in a deep conversation with someone you're exploring different opinions and you want to push back you want to mention an opposing view or reason and we also use in the situation.
I'm just gonna play devil's advocate here.
So if you say that or I'm gonna push back with this idea, if you say that guys it doesn't necessarily mean that you disagree or that this is your strong opinion, you just want to further the conversation by mentioning an opposing view right, which just lengthens this interesting conversation, right?
I might say just to push back.
You know, have you ever been in the woods with a bear?
I'm just sort of like wanting someone to think a little more about the repercussions maybe for then it's just making it more interesting.
We're both talking about both sides now when someone pushes back.
Yeah, I saw someone use this in a really funny reaction video.
The lady was like, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna push back a little bit here and ask some questions.
Is the man carrying some binoculars?
What is his facial expression?
Like does he look menacing?
Yeah, does he carry a guy like totally?
Is he tall? Is he handsome?
Yeah, so awesome phrase and I literally saw it used in a reaction video.
Okay, last vocab phrase before we get to the fun roleplay just to comment on what another person is saying.
You want to say yeah, that makes sense or I see that I understand.
You could say fair enough.
I say this a lot. I do too, right?
Fair enough. Or you're just acknowledging that there's sense in what they're saying.
You might disagree, right?
If they're very adamant that they would choose the man over the bear and you disagree, you can still be like fair enough and then you can still use these others to get deeper.
Yeah, totally. I use this way.
I use this a lot because I feel like I can always see both sides of something, right?
So even if I don't fully agree with the other person, I can understand why they think that way.
Yeah, I try to be so I'm not going to say they're wrong.
They just think differently.
Right. So I'm gonna say oh fair enough.
It's just like a really easy way to be like, I get it.
I understand. Yes, and it's a great way to transition into bringing up another point or maybe another way to defend your side if you say fair enough, but have you thought about this and then you're giving them the courtesy the respect of seeing their side before you just throw another reason for your
opinion at them. I mean, we could use all of these phrases like this, right?
We could be like fair enough, but just as a hypothetical, I'm gonna push back a little bit here.
They're all suitable to this conversation.
All right, let's get into a role play so we could hear these phrases in a conversation Aubrey.
What do you say? All right, we are two friends talking about this meme here.
I'll start us out. So what do you think about all these man or bear in the Woods videos?
You mean like which would a woman choose to be alone with in the Woods?
Yeah, I know. It's a total hypothetical.
I mean, how many times have you been alone in the Woods with a bear?
I know not many I get it.
Let's see. I would choose bear.
Honestly, I knew you'd say that.
Okay, I'm gonna push back a little.
I mean, come on a bear could kill you super easily.
It's a wild animal.
Fair enough. Fair enough.
But listen the whole meme is just a way to highlight the fear many women have for men in general.
And that's just the beginning of the conversation.
Right? Imagine where that conversation goes after that.
Yes, I want to have these conversations.
It would get really interesting for sure.
So let's go through the way we use these.
I first said, I know it's a total hypothetical, which is a great way to take the pressure off the conversation.
I'm not asking you and making it all serious and intense.
I'm lightening it up by starting it this way.
Yeah, you're just saying like this is this is just a thought exercise.
You know, we're just we're just two friends chatting here.
Let's see where this goes as a hypothetical.
I love it. And then later on you say I'm going to push back a little.
I love following that with a little because again, that furthers the point that like I'm gonna say something that is opposing to what you say, but we're just we're just talking here.
This isn't a strong argument.
Right. It's amazing how much that softens it to say I'm going to push back a bit or a little.
It's crazy if you just say I'm going to push back suddenly, I'm kind of aggressive.
I'm like really these just little words.
We can add keep it light.
We do have to follow that phrase with a bit or a little.
I'm realizing that now if you just say I'm going to push back that does sound aggressive.
So funny. All right.
And then the last part of that roleplay fair enough.
But listen, this whole meme is just a way to highlight blah blah blah.
So fair enough. Great transition phrase, right?
I'm saying I agree with what you're saying, right?
But I feel like it's often followed with a contrast.
Absolutely. And you don't even have to agree.
You can say fair enough if you disagree, right?
Fair enough. But this will and you're saying what I really want to talk about is what's being highlighted that the reason this is a thing at all and that's where the conversation would get really interesting.
Oh, I love it. This is so fun.
All right guys. So the takeaway today is it doesn't matter if you think it's a weird question or not, right to this being in the woods with a man or a bear.
It doesn't matter what you think about it.
If it's weird, if you think it's a silly question, it doesn't even matter what answer you would give, right?
It's the conversation that results from this meme that matters, right?
It's the con. It's the connection we can have with other people over this thing.
Everybody's looking at.
Yes. Often the more controversial or the sillier you think something is that's going to make a better conversation because you're interested.
That's not going to be a boring connection, right?
And even if you don't have a strong opinion, maybe other people do ask them.
This is a fun conversation.
Yes, for sure. We're excited for you guys to test your pop culture knowledge you want to be on the, you know, in the know, rather of what's happening with pop culture.
So you can participate in these conversations.
So be sure to check out our quiz allersenglish .com slash pop quiz for this month's quiz.
It's so fun. I can't wait for you guys to do that.
And remember you get a free course.
There's no reason not to do this.
It's super fun. So one last time guys allersenglish .com slash pop quiz.
And that's it. Thanks for talking to me today, Aubrey.
See you next time. Jess.
Bye guys. Thanks for listening to all ears English.
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