This is an All-Ears English episode. Do you have a spicy personality?
Flavor slang to connect in English.
Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast.
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Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on
connection, not perfection with your American host,
Aubrey Carter, the Isles Wiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English
Adventurer. Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado
USA.
Do you like spicy food? Did you know that the word spicy can actually mean
multiple things? Today, learn different ways to use this word
plus find out about a special offer available only this week.
Hey Aubrey, I got a question for you today.
Okay. All right, so do you ever watch the show Hot Ones?
Yes, I love the show. It's so funny. I wonder if you guys out there have heard of
this. I think they're mostly on YouTube. It's like
celebrities eating hot wings with hot sauces and it gets
progressively more and more hot and they're like sweating and crying and
it's really entertaining. That's interesting. I love you Lindsay.
I like spicy food, but I can't eat those really hot
sauces. That's not fun for me to have my nose and my eyes running while I'm
eating. We'll go with medium. We'll go with medium
spice for me. And the part of the country where you live, there's probably a fair amount
of spicy food. Right? Absolutely. I know I was when I was watching one of your
videos for Connected Communicator. You were in California talking about spicy tacos.
Yeah, I loved it so much. I was like, yep, that's where I live. We have all of the
spicy tacos, the best Mexican food, but it can be. There's
sometimes lots of peppers and it's a lot. I like it spicy though. I think it's yummy.
Yeah, and it's super interesting. What kind of spice
ends up in different places? Like here, we have the New Mexico influence. I think
Aubrey and I have talked about this green chilies. Green chili.
It's like a soup or a hot sauce. Very common here, but not as common maybe in L.A.
where we were in the course, which would have a different kind of spice.
Right? Exactly. Right? You never know. It could be chili, habanero, different peppers,
hot manios, but yeah, a lot of green chilies here in Arizona as well, especially in sauces.
Like an angel lot of sauces, usually like a green chili base. Delicious. I love it.
Oh, gosh. So a spice is just one topic in this amazing course, guys, that we are making
available for a special deal this month. And we are super excited about this offer. I mean,
Aubrey, broadly, how do you see the Connected Communicator course? What is it? It's a journey,
right? It is a journey and it's unlike any language course you're ever going to find because
you're going with Lindsay as she goes across the country. And she's hitting all of the most
interesting parts of the United States, the rust belt, right? This down south, the California,
the redwoods. It's so awesome to sort of follow her as she meets. She's meeting all of these
very interesting people having native natural conversations about lots of different interesting
topics that you know, you're going to want to talk about. So just to hear these unscripted
conversations is so useful. It's unique. And the key there is the method, right? The Bridgetick
Connection method creates a bridge between where you guys are right now, which is you've learned
English your whole live with textbooks. You have the vocab, the grammar, but there's still a big gap
between where you want to be, which is having vibrant connections and conversations with native
speakers. It bridges that gap. That is what the method does. And you get to go on a journey with me.
And Jessica is well, right? Jessica's in there too. So Aubrey, we have a special deal this week.
And I want to let our listeners know and then we're going to go into today's episode. But what is
the deal? By the way, yes, this is exciting. You guys can save up to 20% off on our Connected Communicor
Communicator course when you join before May 5th at midnight. So to get that deal, go to
allersenglish.com slash plan, PLAN. I love it. So good. So let's get into talking about spice.
I am excited to know how this shows up in the English language. Let's get out because we don't
just use the word spicy to talk about flavorful food. We use it sort of idiomatically as well.
We use it to describe people too. So we're going to share both ways that we use spicy in English
today. It's different depending on the context. Yeah, I'm so excited. So what's the first one?
What's the first one that we need to know? Yeah, the first one is the one that came up when you
were in California, spicy tacos. This means very flavorful. Lots of spices, especially spices that
cause that burning feeling in your mouth, peppers that give you that burning feeling. But here's what's
tricky. Lindsay, when I was looking into this, a lot of dictionary definitions are misleading.
They just say like flavored with spice. So you could come to the states and accidentally ask for
something spicy. If you've just read that dictionary definition and you're like, yeah, I want it to
be flavorful, want it to be delicious. And you say, make it spicy. Then it's going to have this
burning sensation in your mouth. It might be too much. Oh my gosh. Yes. Be careful with that. Although
I do think most of the countries around the world probably cook with more spice than we do at
least in the Midwest, I could say in the US and the Midwest in the Northeast, not a lot of spice
going on. Most of the spice in our country is happening in the West. Wouldn't you say? Right.
Well, and ethnic restaurants, right? I'll go to like a Thai restaurant or an Indian restaurant.
And that's when they're asking you like how spicy, right? From one to five, what do you
want? Because they it could come out very spicy and oh, so flavorful and delicious.
Yeah, I would say the more if you read the reviews of a restaurant, let's say a Thai restaurant,
if the reviews are good, you should they'll give you a choice of medium mild or hot, right?
Or extra spicy, whatever it is, their scale. You should assume very the high the top of the
scale is going to be very, very spicy in an authentic place. Exactly. Right. They might give you a one
to five range. Five is very spicy. Three is medium and one's mild. Oh, interesting. I haven't seen
those ranges. I've just seen like medium, you know, mild medium hot or something like that.
It depends on the restaurant. Yeah, the Thai place we go to, they want us to give them a one through
five. Oh, that's a lot of that's a lot of choice actually. Yeah. True. Right.
Maybe it's a number of mean mild and medium. Yeah. Yeah. A number of times they put in a powder
or something. Yeah. Maybe. Great. So what are some of the things that we can say here if we're
experiencing spice in our dish? Oh, yeah. You could say like, oh, that's a little too spicy,
but there are interesting synonyms here that we use as well, right? Instead of spicy, a direct
synonym is just hot. Oh, this is too hot. And we don't mean temperature hot. We mean too spicy,
right? It's burning my mouth with the the amount of peppers, the amount of spice. Yeah. So,
so heat or so for example, these have a lot of heat is one thing we could say. We say hot
and heat. These have heat. These are hot. And we also say kick. That's got a serious kick. That
means it's really spicy. And so now that is so natural that I like it sounds kind of cool when
you say that it has a real kick to it. Right. Oh, this has got to. And that's kind of a more
polite way of saying this is too spicy for me. If you're like, oh, goodness, that's got,
that's got to kick. I feel like there's a theory out there. And I think I agree with this,
but I'm curious what you think, Aubrey, when you eat spicy food, do you find it more satisfying
and therefore maybe eat smaller portions or smaller amounts versus kind of more bland foods?
Do you find any difference in how much you consume when you're eating spicier foods?
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think yes, especially when it's just flavorful, lots of
spices, meaning like more flavorful. I do, I can eat less and be satisfied, but I think I still
do have a problem. The more delicious it is, the more I want to keep eating even when I'm full.
Like I often leave an Indian restaurant. I'm like, I should not have eaten as much as I could.
We just finished watching tournament of champions. You know, that show on the
network. It's the ultimate cooking show. I like cooking shows and this one is the best. It finds
out who is the best cook in the US essentially. And they, they, in the bracket, they pit East Coast
versus West Coast. So eventually in the semi finals, they have a West Coast chef and an East Coast
chef. And this year, second year in a row, it was a Manit Shohan from Nashville, actually,
but she's Indian. And from what I obviously haven't tasted her food, but from what I understand,
just the flavor of her food is incredible, just absolutely incredible. And I think part of that
might come from her Indian background of the cooking. Flavors in India, right? Incredible.
Right. She's using that garam masala and all of the delicious spices that make everything so
yummy. She's so good. Yeah. Well, let's dive into the second way we use it. Because if you hear
the word spicy, you're not guaranteed that we're talking about flavorful foods that might make
your mouth burn because we also use this to describe people. And the depending on the
dictionary, you might see a little bit different definition here. Websters dictionary says lively
or spirited. This is how I use it the most often. But I also saw that it's used a little more like
slang informally. Urban dictionary says rude, feisty, mean, or sarcastic, apparently for no reason.
And I have seen it use this way as well. There's also the word sassy, which is a good one. And salty.
I feel like we should do an episode one day between the difference of spicy, sassy, salty.
Yeah. Just describing someone. Right. Let's do it. Hit follows. You don't miss that episode.
Guys, because there's lots of ways that we just write both food and people. That would be a really
fun one. So we have to say this about one of our daughters who she's spicy. We're like,
oh, my daughter is spicy. And she just tells it like it is. She's not trying to soften what she says.
She can sometimes be, we say she's going to be a good leader. She couldn't tell you to be sassy
and bossy, right? She has a spicy personality. It's refreshing sometimes, right? Especially what do
you see kids kind of not having any inhibitions around coding something or just holding bag. It is
refreshing. I like that. And there's some good synonyms, cheeky, which you'll especially hear in
England, but I hear it in the States as well. And then precocious, which sounds a little more
formal, but sort of means the same thing to say that child is precocious. Oh, and what about spit
fire and fireball? Okay. These are nouns that sort of mean the same thing. I could call my daughter
both of these like she's a real spitfire or she's a fireball. And it means the same thing you're
saying. She's spicy. She's got a big personality. She's not afraid to say what she's thinking.
I love it. So now you guys know that the concept of spice doesn't just apply to food, right? It's
very commonly used when you talk about personalities. Absolutely. Really good to know. Let's do a roleplay
to show how these could come up in a conversation. We're at a restaurant in this roleplay, Lindsay.
All right. Here we go. The server came and asked how spicy we want the wings while you're in the
restaurant. Oh, nice. What did you say? I said medium, but she seemed to think that was going to
be too much heat. I like them with a kick. Me too, but she made me nervous. So I changed it to mild.
She sounds spicy. Cute. Cute. I love it. All right. So what do we do here? So you started with me
saying, you know, the server asked how spicy do we want the wings? This is very common if you're in
a restaurant. The server is going to ask you, okay, you know, what's the spice level you want?
And they're usually asking for mild medium or hot, especially hot wings like this, right? Like
that show hot wings. They can be extremely spicy, habanero, like too hot or really mild.
Right. Exactly. Okay. So medium mild or hot. So I had asked for medium, but she thought it would be
too much heat. And that's one of the key terms that we learned. Too much heat. It's a noun there,
right? Too much heat. Yeah. So that means the same. You could say, she thought it was going to be too
spicy. You can say this so many different ways. I'd be too hot, too much heat, too much of a kick.
Right. And this is this way we're having this conversation. We wouldn't want to say spicy over
and over and over. There's so many other ways to say that. Yeah. We got a lot in here with this
role play. And then you said, I like them with a kick. Yeah. I like them spicy, but I'm not going
to say spicy again, right? I like them with a kick. Right. And then I changed it to mild because
you kind of gave me the impression that was too much. Right. And then you said something about
her personality, not about the food. Exactly. I said, she sounds spicy. And this is actually really
kind of clever word, wordplay where we're talking about spicy food. And I've sort of done this
clever intentionally kind of being cheeky. Like maybe elbow you in the ribs like, well, she sounds
spicy. And it is where she's willing to kind of look at us and be like, I don't know if you can
handle medium. Yeah. Spicy. I think we could do a fun episode on those kind of quick responses.
That are fun. I don't know if that's considered a pun. Not exactly. Right. It's not a pun.
I would just know wordplay. Yeah. It's not every fun is a wordplay, but it's like I'm clearly like
because we've been talking about spicy food. I'm essentially using the word spicy to to refer to
her personality. Maybe we could do a whole little series on that. That'd be really cool for all
our English to up level our games around just being a little more lighthearted around the language
guys. Yeah. I do this a lot in real life. I'm going to have to start taking note of every
tip I do because I love wordplay. I think it's so clever and fun. Oh, I love it. Okay. Very
cool. Great idea. Love it. What's our takeaway for our listeners today? Yeah. So guys, spicy means
a few different things in English, depending on the context. Today's tips are tips are going to
help you use it competently. And of course, for a super fun course with natural unscripted
conversations, you want to sign up for connected communicator. Yeah. It is a one of one of one
once in a lifetime course, once in a lifetime journey and a one of a kind course. There's nothing
like it guys online. Absolutely nothing like it. So go over and sign up now. Go to all your
English.com slash plan and remember when you sign up before May 5th at midnight, you save 20%
but that deadline does expire May 5th at midnight. So all your English. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.
Yes. All there's English.com slash plan. And I just realized we haven't shared a lot of you
out there listening might not realize when you're in any of our courses, you're also part of our
community. So you can come to weekly open conversation club meetups with us. Fluency parties every
month. It's so fun. So get into the course. So you can join us. That's such an important key thing
that we've added lately and attendance has been great guys. You get to talk with each other. You
get to meet us as hosts. I mean, it's a lot of fun. So all yeah. All there's English.com slash plan.
We'll see you guys there. All right. Good stuff. I'm great. Thank you. Take care. Bye.
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