This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2554.
Don't dawdle with your English goals.
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What is your walking style and what does it say about your personality and how you live your life?
Today get four ways to say that you walk slowly and take in life around you.
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Hey there, Aubrey.
What's going on today?
I'm great.
How are you?
I'm really good.
Yeah, feeling good today.
But I'm curious.
I have a question.
You ready?
Okay.
Yes.
Aubrey, have you been known to dawdle?
Oh, I am not one to dawdle.
I am one that makes a beeline for where I'm going.
I think I'm a born New Yorker.
I really belong there still.
I love that.
I love that.
I've been known to dawdle.
I've been known to waddle as well, which is a combination of running and walking.
Yeah.
I always say like when I don't go to the gym, I'm just going to go for a jog around the park.
But it's kind of more of a waddle which is kind of like a jog and like it's a walk and a run, walk slash, run a run and walk.
You know it's lazy.
That's so funny.
So I have to let listeners know.
I feel like we should do a follow-up about the word waddle, because I feel like there's a real negative connotation there.
If someone told me, like, you look like you're waddling, I would be like, how dare you?
It's hilarious.
It's so funny.
We'll cover that another day, guys.
Hit the follow button if you want to hear more about this weird vocabulary.
But today, what are we getting into, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So we are talking about doddle and other ways that we say this, of kind of slowly meandering getting our way somewhere.
This came up in episode 2539, which was make a beeline for better English.
You and Michelle mentioned that the phrases you were teaching were the opposite of doddle.
Yes.
Like we're doing a follow up now with all of these opposite meanings.
I love it.
I love it.
Perfect.
So our listeners will have a very well-rounded vocabulary.
So yeah, these are also just weird words, right?
Especially the first one, doddle.
Very strange.
It is and it's spelled strangely.
D-A-W-D-L-E.
Yeah.
It is strange.
It kind of just means to move or act slowly and definitely without urgency.
I struggle going to a museum with someone who likes to dawdle, because I'm very much like making my way through.
I want to see everything and a lot of people will want to dawdle and really take more time at one painting, so i'll be like let's split up.
I'll meet you at the cafe in two years.
No, it's true, there are people that really um, we have a family member we've traveled with in the past internationally and she's a doddler.
She loves to go into souvenir shops and we don't like to do that and it's, But she's great.
She's fun.
She makes up for it in other ways, loves to just celebrate and enjoy life, but she's a dawdler.
So how do you deal with that personality clash sometimes?
It's so tricky.
You say, I'll meet you outside when you're done.
Take your dawdling time.
I'm going to go over to the brewery across the street, right?
Exactly.
So here's a couple examples.
We can't doddle if we want to catch the last train.
So that's me being like, we need to pick up the pace.
We can't just walk slowly.
Yep.
Or he doddled over his lunch instead of getting back to work.
So it's not just the way you're physically walking, although it often is.
It could also just be like...
You're eating slowly.
Oh, my gosh.
Just like on your phone.
Yeah.
Eating slowly.
You could also call that dawdling.
Sure.
Yeah.
I had an aunt that used to eat so slowly.
It drove me nuts when she would come and visit us. she would take an extra hour to eat her dinner.
And she was just so slow.
Oh my gosh, it drove us all crazy.
That's so interesting.
Maybe like enjoying the conversation or just eating slowly, whether anyone's there.
Literally, everything was in slow motion.
It was funny.
Okay, mosey is another good one.
And I use this and hear it much more for just like walking pace.
Right.
I wouldn't say someone's moseying about how they're eating.
It's really about how quickly someone's walking.
Right.
So this is, again, to walk or move slowly and casually in no particular hurry.
And you will see if you go to cities like you lived in New York.
Right.
And I did, too.
You go to a small town, especially if you're living in a place like New York.
You'll notice the difference right away.
Absolutely.
My grandpa only moseyed.
He was a farmer.
And I never saw him walk quickly in my life.
Sure.
He just would mosey, touch the grains of straw as he walked.
Sounds like a good lifestyle to me right now.
I don't know.
To not be hurried.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
So for example, we mosey down the street, stopping to look in shop windows.
Good example.
Is there another one?
And this, yeah, this can even happen in New York, right?
When they're the beautiful Christmas windows, you might just mosey around.
You're not always in a hurry wherever you are.
Another example, after dinner, they moseyed over to the cafe for dessert.
Yeah, so in no hurry.
So New Yorkers will mosey if they plan to mosey, right?
Maybe they'll get a hot chocolate and make it like a date or something.
Mosey through Central Park.
Sure, but they have to plan to mosey, to mosey.
Exactly.
And I will, I can mosey if I have nowhere to be.
Yeah.
And then amble is good.
This one's a little more rare.
So for our IELTS candidates, I mean, winning word, right?
What does this mean?
Absolutely.
All of these are band nine IELTS words means, again, to walk slowly and in a relaxed manner, right?
An easy, unhurried way.
You might say we ambled through the park, enjoying the spring weather.
Very much the same meaning as mosey.
Yep.
Or tourists ambled along the beach at sunset.
That's another scenario where you, yeah, you might amble, right?
You're not going to rush through your sunset walk, right?
You want to take your time and enjoy it.
That's a good time to amble.
And then take one sweet time.
This can be used as kind of a way to poke at someone too in a fun way, right?
This is how we do something slowly without concern for rushing.
It can frustrate other people, right?
For example, I was frustrated when she took her sweet time replying to my urgent email.
Yeah, so this is interesting.
Sometimes there's a little bit of vitriol here, right?
You're like, stop taking your sweet time, or she's taking her sweet time.
There's clear frustration, clear annoyance, but not always, right?
You might just say, when I really enjoy a book, I like to take my sweet time reading it.
And then I just mean, I like to take my time and enjoy it.
Exactly.
And yeah, I love this.
If our listeners guys, if you can add this into your daily vocabulary.
I mean, you're just adding color.
You're adding life.
Commentary on life.
Really powerful for connection.
Don't you think, Aubrey?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
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All right, let's go into the role play, Aubrey.
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Okay.
Yes.
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All right.
Definitely.
All right.
And this role play.
Lindsay and I are sisters.
We are getting ready to go meet up with friends.
And Lindsay's dawdling a bit.
Maybe I'm like the younger sister or something, right?
Yes, right.
Maybe.
Okay, I'll start us out.
Hey, don't dawdle, would you?
We're going to be late if we don't leave soon.
Relax.
It's a casual dinner, not a job interview.
We can mosey over there.
It's only a few blocks away.
That's what you said last time.
And we ended up stopping to look in every window along the way.
Well, it's a nice evening.
I like to amble when the weather's good.
No need to rush.
But Margaret texted that they're already seated, so you need to stop taking your sweet time.
Ooh, embarrassing.
You don't want to arrive late, right?
Oh, right.
They're seated.
We have to go.
This is so me.
I'm like the responsible sister that's like, I want to be on time.
Let's go.
Oh, no.
Yeah, for sure.
It is kind of awkward walking into a dinner late, right?
Especially if it's a dinner where everyone's seated, right?
Yeah.
And I just feel bad making people wait.
And often, I don't know how this is in other countries.
And let me know if it's the same in Denver.
But here in Arizona, most restaurants now won't seat you until your entire party is there.
Yeah.
Which makes sense, right?
But so then people are just waiting, standing in the entry because they won't let them be seated.
Yeah, it started happening here too.
I
Kind of makes sense, but I kind of disagree sometimes.
I mean, maybe someone's just running late from work.
They are coming.
They do need a seat.
I know.
I would like to sit and have a drink while I wait.
Yeah.
There's all sorts of things going on with restaurants and reservations now that are changing.
Yeah.
If they're busy, if they have a wait list, then they're often going to do that.
Like, yeah, have a drink at the bar and we'll see you when your party is here.
Yeah.
And I want to call out as we go back into this role play.
The first line is interesting.
The construction.
You said, hey, don't dawdle, would you?
Right.
So you're kind of like asking me not to dawdle, but in a very natural native way.
Yes.
Very sisterly, casual, informally.
Right.
Yeah.
And I use this a lot.
I'll say what it is I want.
And then the would you?
Would you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
I think I say that too sometimes.
Or will you?
That could be an episode.
I think that could be another episode for 2026 that we should go into.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Be on time.
Will you?
Or would you?
I
You have to make sure you're giving this to the right person, though, because I wouldn't say this.
It's really casual.
So I'd be careful.
Right.
Right.
Friends, close friends, sisters, not really co-workers, not formal at all.
And it also is there's this little bit of implication of annoyance usually when we're saying that.
Yeah.
Stop doing that, would you?
Right.
It's annoyance.
Yeah.
And then I said mosey.
So it's a casual dinner.
We can mosey over there.
It's only a few blocks away.
So you're in no hurry, right?
But you probably don't know that our friends have been seated.
So I let you know this.
And you're like, oh, it's a nice evening.
I like to amble when the weather is good.
And I do too, right?
If I have nowhere to be, I'm not in a hurry.
I don't mind just ambling when it's a nice night out.
But not if people are waiting for me.
No.
And in your opinion, that's not the situation we're in, right?
Right.
So you said Margaret texted, they're seated.
So you need to stop taking your sweet time.
This definitely is a tone you'd hear between sisters, right?
Absolutely.
And there's definitely that implication of frustration, annoyance.
You need to stop taking your sweet time.
I'm clearly annoyed.
Again, you wouldn't say that to a coworker.
Definitely not, but good stuff.
Guys, go and check out episode 2551, embrace both meanings of this useful English word.
Go check out what that one's all about.
Yes.
Embrace has a lot of meanings, actually.
Go check it out.
We're going to clear it up for you.
Aubrey, what's our final takeaway for today?
Yeah, this is really interesting to think about the aspects of your personality and what this says if you like to amble, if you like to dawdle.
And that's an interesting thing to talk to people about, right?
Just to ask them, you know, how do you experience a museum?
Do you like to amble on a nice evening?
That's, that's a good connection topic right, that's a great.
And it's also like a deeper question about how are we living our lives.
Not trying to get super deep here, but yeah, how are you living your life like?
Are you rushing through everything Or are you actually taking time, maybe once a week, to have more of a dawdling walk right?
It's true.
A lot of these examples, I read them and was like, that sounds lovely, actually.
Maybe I need to do that more often.
Kind of, right?
Like this morning.
I went to take my dog for a walk and there was a weird, really bright sun that was kind of caught behind the cloud.
So it lit up the neighborhood in a strange way for 7 am And I was like maybe I won't put my podcast in this morning.
Maybe I'll just kind of slow down and enjoy how beautiful the light looks right now.
Right?
Oh, I love that.
Yeah, that's true.
As much as I love listening to a podcast on a walk.
Yeah, you don't enjoy as much the sounds of nature, the what you're seeing.
So sometimes you do need to unplug and really appreciate where you are.
So true.
And then come back to All Ears English after that beautiful walk and All right.
Good stuff.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
We'll see you in the next one.
You have a good rest of your day.
All right.
You too.
Awesome.
See you guys next time.
All right.
Bye.
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