Have you ever felt so frustrated that you wanted to throw your phone or your laptop out the window?
If you have, you're not alone.
In today's lesson, we're going to help you put that feeling into words in English.
Hey guys, it's Andrew here.
Welcome to Chatterbox from Q-Lips.
Chatterbox is our series for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to go beyond textbooks, listen to real, natural conversations and sound more confident when they speak English.
So if that's you, you're in the right place.
Today, Anna, my co-host, and I are going to talk all about frustration.
We look at what frustration actually is, the difference between two different kinds of frustration internal and external and how it connects with other emotions like anger, disappointment and regret.
And we'll talk about how we deal with frustrating situations in our own lives.
And towards the end, we'll also teach you several useful expressions that you can use in your English speaking next time you feel frustrated.
If you're a Q-Lips member, you can really level up your English by using the study materials for this episode.
First, listen to the episode once without reading.
Then listen again with the interactive transcript and check any parts that you missed.
After that you can review the vocabulary explanations, do the quiz and then try the speaking and writing practice activities.
Following these steps will help you remember everything really well and actually use it in your own life.
You can also join the live speaking classes to talk about this episode with one of our awesome QLips teachers and other members who are really motivated and want to level up their English, just like yourself.
So it's a great chance to share your own frustrating stories, practice the new expressions and get some feedback on your speaking in a supportive environment.
So if you're not a member yet and you want to study more seriously, sign up and become a member today by visiting QLipscom.
Okay, it's time to get started.
Here's my conversation with Anna all about frustration.
Enjoy.
Hey there, Anna.
How's it going?
It's going really well.
Thank you, Andrew.
And yourself?
I'm doing very well, Anna.
I'm not feeling frustrated at all.
So I think I'm in a good mindset to talk about our topic today.
And we're going to get into the nitty gritty details of what frustration is.
And we'll talk about when we feel frustrated, how we deal with frustration, all of these different things.
But we'll begin with a definition.
And Anna, maybe you could do the honors.
Could you let everybody know what this emotion is, frustration?
Of course.
Let me lay it out for you guys.
And I have to admit that I didn't really know this before I had researched it.
So this is really interesting.
But the definition for frustration and in psychology frustration is a common emotional response to opposition.
So you get frustration from perceiving resistance to the fulfillment of your will or goal.
And you're likely to be even more frustrated when your will or goal is denied to you or blocked.
A really interesting thing as well to take away here is there's two types of frustration.
Internal, that feeling we have inside ourselves that, and also external as well.
So internal frustration would be from challenges in fulfilling your personal goals, your desires, your drives, your needs, or maybe dealing with a deficiency that you think you have, like a lack of confidence or fear of social situations.
Whereas external causes of frustration involve conditions outside your control.
Like maybe it's a physical roadblock, a difficult task, or maybe just the perception of wasting time.
Okay, very good, Anna.
Let me put that into layman's terms for everyone, because that was a little bit of a high level definition.
And I will say, guys, that we did our research on Wikipedia.
So if you want to go and read all about frustration in a more official, scientific way, then Wikipedia is a great way to get some info about this.
But yeah, essentially frustration is just that feeling, that emotion that you get when what you want to do is blocked.
So you have a goal or you have something that you want to do, you want to accomplish, and you can't do it for some reason.
And that makes you feel... not so good, right?
You like you want to do something and you can't do it.
So you don't feel very good.
That is the emotion of frustration.
And as Anna explained, there are two different types, there is internal frustration.
And that occurs when there's something deficient in you that prevents you from achieving your goals, like Maybe you want to ace a test, ace an exam, but you didn't study enough and you don't know the answers.
And that's your fault, right?
That's your fault for not achieving a high grade on that test.
And you'd feel frustrated for failing the test.
That's internal frustration.
And then there's external frustration.
And that's when something outside of your control happens, affects you and blocks you from achieving your goal.
So, to take that exam example again, maybe you studied hard for the exam, you were prepared for the exam, but then there was a huge traffic jam and you were stuck in traffic and you couldn't make it to the school on time and you weren't able to write your exam and you failed.
You would also feel terrible, right?
Maybe in a slightly different way.
But that emotion would also be frustration, but a slightly different kind.
And I thought this was interesting because I didn't really know.
I mean, I guess I would have known about these two different types of frustration, but...
I had never really thought about it in this way before.
So it was cool to read this article and find out about those two different kinds.
And I was wondering if we could compare frustration with some different emotions, because I think it's really hard.
This is almost like...
To me.
Talking about emotions, it almost reminds me of when people ask native speakers grammar questions, right?
It's like something that you know intrinsically, but when you try to explain it, it's very, very difficult to pinpoint.
And so I'm sure everybody's had that experience of maybe some.
Well, I know Anna, sometimes as English teachers somebody asks us an obscure English grammar question and we're like oh, I don't know how to explain it.
I know what the right answer is, but I don't know how to explain it to you.
And I think with emotions too, when we're trying to define emotions, we know what it is.
We know what the feeling is.
But to put it into words, at least for me, is difficult.
I don't know.
Do you feel the same way, Anna?
Oh, absolutely.
I think it's just one of these things you never really think about until you have to think about it.
So if you like, Andrew, should I go through three here?
Similar emotions, but different and explain the difference?
That would be awesome.
Yeah, because I think it could be really confusing about like, where does frustration end and anger begin?
Like where is the spectrum of these negative emotions that we get when we feel like frustrated?
Essentially,
So yeah, could you break it down for us, Anna?
I will do.
And this is really going to help you guys as well.
If somebody ever asks you how you're doing, you can answer more accurately if you know exactly what the emotion is that you're trying to express right.
So this is trying to help you as well understand these emotions better.
So let me just refresh again.
Frustration is when something blocks your goal.
And for me, it's that feeling of like...
I don't know how else to describe it.
It's like the internal or external, I don't know.
It's just that something is blocking you from doing what you want.
Then if we take anger, you could say, well, frustration and anger are kind of the same.
And well, I guess maybe you might still have that feeling, but anger is like a pressure cooker.
So it builds up, it builds up, it builds up, it builds up and then it bursts and turns outward and you project that anger on onto other people sometimes.
But generally frustration, I would say, isn't that way inclined.
Frustration tends to be something that you keep to yourself, if that makes sense, perhaps.
And then disappointment.
So maybe if you fail an exam and you feel really disappointed, that's a bit of a quieter emotion.
So it happens when something doesn't meet your hopes or expectations.
You don't get that job or that promotion that you really wanted.
But you're more sad than angry.
So it's a different type of feeling.
So maybe we could say frustration and anger tend to be something where there's a bit more energy.
I would say
And disappointment is a little bit quieter.
It's something a little bit more introverted, maybe I would say as well.
But that's how I would split them up.
Would you add anything, Andrew, to that?
Yeah, I wonder if you would agree with me, Anna, that maybe frustration is step one.
So the first thing you feel is frustration, and that is like an internal feeling, like your goal is blocked, you can't achieve your goal for some reason, and then you feel frustrated.
But then if you act on that feeling of frustration, if you externalize it, then that's anger.
So I have a good example, and I'll pick on my little brother here, because we used to play video games when we were younger and I was really good and I would always beat him and he would feel very frustrated.
And when he would lose the video game and couldn't beat me, when I would just win time after time after time right,
That's super frustrating.
I can just imagine that situation as being really frustrating.
And in response to that, sometimes he would throw the video game controller like against the wall or something right.
So that's anger.
So he took that frustration and then externalized it by actually, you know, doing somewhat violent action, right?
Throwing the controller against the wall.
And then I would get angry, like, that's our precious Nintendo.
Don't break it, right?
It would cause lots of fights.
The Nintendo was bad for our sibling relationship when we were younger.
But I mean, that would be an example, right?
Externalizing that frustration.
However, disappointment, maybe at first you feel frustrated, but then that frustration, that tension, dissipates more into sadness.
So, instead of like a volcano exploding, it's like the pressure dies, but then it turns to the sad quieter, more introverted feeling like you mentioned, Anna.
So I think frustration is step one.
And then depending on where that goes, it could either be anger or disappointment.
And also as well, I think for me, frustration can also be kind of temporary.
So you can be frustrated with something like in the moment.
Like I remember, the other day I was trying to complete a form online which I had to complete and it kept refreshing and refreshing.
And I was like, oh my goodness, I'm going to throw my laptop out the window.
But then, of course, after it worked, all the frustration disappeared.
I wasn't then angry and it didn't ruin my day or anything like that.
So I also think frustration can be very specific in very short windows of time and then it's over.
Yeah, that's actually a very good point.
It can be very temporary.
As soon as that roadblock is removed from the goal that we want to achieve, then we say that feeling dissipates dissipates, and that means to disappear, right.
So frustration kind of builds up, and then it just poof, it's gone in a matter of seconds.
So That's one good thing.
It feels good, too.
It's very satisfying when that frustration disappears, right?
Absolutely, definitely.
But there's loads of examples.
I wonder if we should move on and tell people some specific things for us about what makes us feel frustrated, and maybe people can listen to it and relate to us too.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
And guys, we would love to hear what frustrates you.
The best way to get in touch with us and to leave your feedback is on our Discord community.
It's free to join.
You can find the link in the description for this episode.
Let us know there what frustrates you.
But Anna, we'll get into a couple of things here.
I made a list.
I have three things on my list.
And there are probably like a million things, but this is just what popped into my mind in the moment.
So the first one, this is an external frustration.
It is a lack of time to do the things I want to do.
So I always feel frustrated that there are so many things I want to do, so many goals I want to achieve, so many skills I want to improve, so many things I want to get better at in life.
And there's just not enough hours in the day to do all of those things.
And to me, that feels really frustrating.
I wish I had more time to do the things I love, but just like everyone there, I only have 24 hours in a day and it's just not enough time for me.
So that is frustrating.
How about you, Anna?
Do you ever feel that way?
Do you get frustrated with not having enough time?
Yeah, definitely.
I think that must be a really common one for everyone, really.
I get frustrated as well.
External things like, for example, this week there was some news that they're going to increase the prices of the bin collection and also they're going to increase the prices of taxes for self-employed people.
And that was really frustrating because... in a way that goal is like a financial goal, right?
So you feel like oh, another obstacle in my way of achieving my financial goals more taxes, more payments, more increase in prices.
So that was really frustrating in the moment.
And I was like, oh, and it's outside my control.
There's really nothing that I can do about it.
I have to pay regardless.
But that type of thing I find quite frustrating because it is blocking you in some way from achieving yeah, like a financial goal, or maybe that financial goal might help you buy something or get something.
So those types of things.
And then other things, like I said before, things with like administration or any type of bureaucracy, and it doesn't work properly, or the form doesn't work online, or it's a really laborious process, or you have to go to some random office 50 miles away just to hand in one specific form.
Yeah, I find that really frustrating.
And just to clarify, that's external frustration.
Yeah, yeah.
Those things are really, really frustrating.
I agree.
Especially when it feels like you're making some progress in your life, some steps forward.
And then, yeah, there's a new law that gets passed or some new regulation passed.
Or even things like inflation, right?
It's like our salaries are not going up, but the money that we make is worth less.
And it's like, how can we get ahead in life?
We're trying to reach our financial goals and there are all these roadblocks.
And...
For those situations, at least sometimes, and even for my example of lack of time, I can deal with it, even though I feel frustrated.
It's like, okay, but it's fair for everyone.
Everyone only has 24 hours a day.
All of the small businesses in Spain, hopefully, are going to be taxed evenly, right?
Like, hopefully this is a law that applies to everyone.
And so it sucks.
It's frustrating, but I can feel at least some comfort in knowing that it's equally applied to everyone.
However, if it were to just like some people and some people got an unfair advantage because of that then that would be extra, extra frustrating.
But I can find some comfort in knowing that it's equally applied to everyone.
Definitely.
And then on a personal level, something similar to what you said.
And for me it's less about there being not enough time during the day, although that is also frustrating, but also if I don't have a productive day or if I don't do everything on my list that I had planned, that can be very frustrating.
I get frustrated with myself because I think, oh, Anna, you wasted time.
Did you really need to have a break there?
You could have just worked longer.
So sometimes that kind of internal frustration of not working hard enough or not being productive enough, that's probably my most common internal frustration.
Or just when I do stupid things like losing stuff or misplacing everything.
And I'm like, are you joking?
What is wrong with you?
I mean, the other day I found my phone in the fridge.
I'm like, what's wrong with you?
You're an adult.
Why is this happening?
Yeah.
Yeah, I was really frustrated with myself not too long ago.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this on Q-Lips or not.
I don't think I have but my AirPods.
I was out running and I had my AirPods in my ears and I came home and I greeted my wife when i came home and she was in the yard.
I took my airpods out.
I just had them in my hand and i must have put them in my shorts pocket and i didn't remember to take them out of my shorts pocket, so then i just threw them in the laundry, you know, got showered and went on with my day And then later I did my laundry and I took my laundry out and my AirPods went through the wash cycle.
They went through the dry cycle and then I took them out and one was working and the other one wasn't.
And it was just that same feeling.
It's like, come on, Andrew, you're in your 40s.
You should be more responsible.
And I felt frustrated with myself.
Like that was totally on me.
I should have been more responsible.
And yeah, now I'm out there running with just one ear's worth of music.
So.
Yeah, that's a little frustrating.
Some other things that I get frustrated about, which are internal, this is like a me problem.
I wrote on my list here self control.
So I get frustrated with myself often after I do something that I kind of regret.
And this is maybe another like where's the line between frustration and regret, because sometimes I'll stay up too late at night right,
I think I'm really trying to work on being better with my phone usage at night, but sometimes It still happens.
I'll get onto a YouTube kick and go down the rabbit hole and stay up an hour later than I should watching YouTube videos.
And then the next morning I feel frustrated with myself because I'm a little tired or just not at my best.
And that ties into my other points about lack of time to do the things I want.
Like, why did I waste that hour last night?
Now I can't use it to do the thing I want to do today and achieve my goal.
So it's like this cycle of frustration.
So if I...
Don't have self-control.
It also comes sometimes with eating.
Sometimes I'll eat an extra piece of cake or, I don't know, pig out on pasta or something.
And I'm like...
My ultimate goal is I want to be a fast runner.
I want to do a great marathon.
And so I have to control my weight a little bit.
And sometimes I pick out too much and I am not good at controlling what I eat.
And then I feel frustrated about that because I'm just doing it to myself and I'm blocking my ultimate goal from happening.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Sometimes self-control also frustrating for me.
But yeah again, where's that line between frustration and regret?
That's a good question.
I'm not really sure.
And I think it's a really good point which leads us on to the next bit, which is about how we deal with frustration.
Because I think actually frustration and anger can be really useful, because if you are frustrated, it's giving you a sign right.
It's telling you, okay, you shouldn't have done that.
And okay, there's levels to that, right?
There's levels where that can be really destructive, but there's also a level where that can be really useful.
It's like, okay, I probably shouldn't do that again because I know that I can do better than that.
So it can actually be a really useful emotion to push you to make positive changes.
So I think that frustration is telling you something as well about how you're living your day-to-day life, right?
Or maybe from an external frustration.
Let's imagine you've got a really awful boss who is always blocking.
They're always in the way.
They're not helping you to move forward.
And that frustration, I guess you could say it probably tips over into anger, is a sign.
It's telling you OK, maybe I should try and change this, or maybe I need to look at other ways to deal with this situation.
So I think frustration and anger, I would say together they're like an energy and they can actually be really useful to help you make a change in your life.
Yeah, totally.
It's like a kick in the pants, right?
Right.
I've felt that way before with my Korean studies and my Korean speaking.
I know I've had some frustrating encounters before trying to just do little things in my life.
You know, maybe at the bank or at the hospital or something like that, where I felt like my Korean wasn't so great in that moment.
And it felt frustrating because it's like come on, I've been studying this language for like a decade now.
I should be really, really good at it.
But I feel like I'm not really, really good at it yet.
So like what's going on?
It's frustrating.
I've invested a lot of time and effort into the Korean language.
And then still, sometimes I have like just off days or terrible days where I'm not speaking so well and I can't express myself clearly.
But then I can use that frustration sometimes for motivation.
It can go either way, right?
It depends, I think, on your outlook and your personality.
Some people might crumble and give up in those kinds of situations.
Thankfully my personality is.
It makes me feel frustrated and I use that as motivation and I'm able to channel that emotion usually into, you know, studying hard.
And I think I almost feel embarrassed.
I'm like, wow, I really embarrassed myself.
Or maybe I shouldn't say embarrassed.
Maybe it's like I let myself down.
You know, I disappointed myself.
And I don't want to do that again.
So I'm going to work harder to prevent that from happening in the future.
So yeah, I think you're absolutely right there that we can channel it and use it for motivation.
And I tried to do that.
Yeah.
And I mean, of course there is a level, like I said before, where you know if you're being too frustrated with things, then it can be destructive, right?
So there's obviously a spectrum okay, but we're talking about something where normal levels of.
I think the really important thing to emphasize here is that feeling frustrated is a totally normal feeling emotion.
It's part of life to have things that block your way.
Frustration is totally normal and it's something that happens to everybody, but it's how you manage it that could really make a difference.
So I wonder, Andrew, you're telling us a lot about some things that make you frustrated.
How do you deal with that if you are frustrated?
What do you do?
Yeah, I think like I was just talking about a second ago, I like to try and channel.
And when I say channel guys, what I mean is take that energy, that negative energy, and put it towards improving what I feel like is blocking my way.
So, for example, if I were to pig out one day like maybe I ate too much cake or something at a cafe and I felt like I'm not sticking to my marathon diet here,
I'm not.
I'm destroying my diet plan, then I do what I call a revenge run.
So the next day I'll run extra hard or extra far to try and make up for that.
Like I gotta, I gotta account for me not being disciplined.
So Yeah, I'll do a revenge run and run extra hard or extra far the next day, which I don't think is great.
I think this is probably like not a good strategy, but it's what I do.
And then yeah, with Korean as well.
I'm sure listeners, you guys can probably relate, studying English yourself.
Like learning a foreign language is hard.
Speaking a foreign language is hard.
And There are lots of roadblocks and lots of things that prevent us from being perfect.
And I think a lot of us have this perfection mindset where we want to be perfect.
And it can feel frustrating when we don't express ourselves the way that we want to.
Or, yeah, we're not understood the way that we want to be understood.
And so I usually am able to take that feeling of frustration if I have a conversation that didn't go the way that I wanted to, or I wasn't able to understand something the way that I wanted to.
That really fires me up and makes me spend more time with the language, to be honest with you.
And I think that's why I haven't quit yet is because I can feel that frustration and use it to help me keep moving forward.
So I think that's how I deal with it.
Usually.
How about you, Anna?
What's your strategy for dealing with frustration?
Well, I mean, sometimes I have to say it's not very elegant.
Sometimes I might sort of shout or make sort of a frustrated noise or say something which is not very nice, to be honest.
Just being completely transparent,
And then other times I think, especially for things like imagine you're at an airport and your flight's delayed and you really need to get somewhere.
Or I'm thinking about a time when me and my partner were trying to get somewhere and there was this huge queue.
And I think for me it's about coming back to the mindset of, which is kind of a stoic mindset really, which is it's totally out of my control.
There's absolutely nothing I can do about this.
So I can choose.
I can choose to sit here and be in a bad mood and be frustrated and and get really angry.
I could do that.
That's absolutely one option.
Or I could just say, okay, it is what it is.
So imagine you're at the airport and it's delayed.
So you could say, okay, well, I'm going to, you know, go for a walk, get some steps in.
This is what I like to do if I'm ever delayed at the airport.
I just walk around and get lots of steps on my watch.
Laps around the airport.
Exactly.
Labs around the airport.
Or, for example, when we were in that queue, I was like, okay, we're in the queue.
There's nothing we can do about it.
It's really frustrating.
But let's listen to some music.
Let's sing.
Let's have a fun time.
My partner at the beginning wasn't really on board with that.
But eventually...
Eventually he came round.
So I think it's also about having a mindset of there's things that you can control and things that you can't.
But also, at the same time, sometimes it's just really frustrating and you just I don't know you might say something or make a sound or do something angry.
Sometimes I take a breath, for example, deep breathing can help.
And just sort of thinking.
You know, at the end of the day we're all just spinning on a rock in the middle of a universe that we basically know nothing about.
It's probably not that big a deal.
Yeah, I think for me, like external frustration is easier to deal with.
Yes, true.
It's like we can't really do anything about it.
Like if you have this stoic mindset like you mentioned, and it's like okay well, it's out of my control.
I can't do anything about it.
I just have to accept it.
That's really all you can do.
There's nothing else that you can do.
I mean, you could get angry, you could swear, you could punch a wall or something or whatever.
You know, take it out on somebody else, but that's not going to help it.
Right.
So, yeah, I think in those situations of external frustration, I feel better.
But I wanted to circle back and just come back to what I was saying Anna, because I think I made myself sound like a really good person a second ago.
Yeah.
But I think I'm not because I'm only good.
I just wanted to clarify this point because I think I'm only good at channeling frustration to motivate me for the things that I'm really interested in.
I'm already really interested in running and I'm already really interested in Korean.
So that's why I'm able to keep going.
I think there have been plenty of times like there's this game here in Korean called Badoo or I guess it's called maybe Go in English.
It's like, you know, kind of like a similar strategy board game where you have these black and white stones on a big board and It's played in Asia.
And I was like trying to learn how to play that game.
And the app that I was using wasn't very good.
I got frustrated with it.
And I just quit.
So I gave up.
So I'm not perfect by any means.
It's just I'm able to use frustration as a tool for the things I'm already interested in.
But if I'm not super interested in it, then yeah, there's been plenty of times that I've quit, guys.
I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
Anna.
Let's move into our next segment for this episode, where we are going to take a look at three idiomatic expressions that we can use when we're talking about frustration.
I don't think they've come up in this episode yet, so this is perfect.
We can introduce them now.
And the first one we're going to talk about is at the end of your rope.
And sometimes we'd say something like, I'm just at the end of my rope.
I can't keep doing this.
Something like that.
What does it mean, Anna, if you're at the end of your rope?
Well, interestingly, I would actually say at the end of your tether rope.
Ah, okay.
Okay.
So I think there's also a little difference here.
So tether, T-E-T-H-E-R, it has exactly the same meaning, which is you're just out of patience.
It's like you cannot take any more.
It's similar to like the last straw.
It's in the same family, I would say.
But it's often to do also with behavior, I think, as well.
So the classic example that I think of is somebody is just doing something that is really frustrating.
That's stopping you moving forward.
And you're like, I'm just I'm at the end of my tether.
Like, I just can't do it anymore.
You're out of patience.
You don't know what to do.
Or maybe it's a situation where somebody or something is just stopping you moving forward and you're just like I'm just at the end of my tether.
I've got nothing left.
I don't know what else to do here.
That's how I would sum it up.
Yeah, I'm thinking, for example, of maybe like a couple and the relationship is pretty rocky.
Yes.
Good example.
Maybe the girlfriend is like, I just can't do it anymore.
I need to break up with this guy.
He's driving me crazy.
I'm at the end of my rope.
Like she's tried everything to try and repair the relationship, but nothing is working.
And so the last solution that she has left is just to break up.
Mm hmm.
That's a good example.
Yeah.
Okay, so that is for extreme frustration, right?
You're at the end of your rope, the end of your tether.
You're extremely frustrated and there's nothing that you can do to fix the problem anymore.
The next one is also about extreme frustration.
And maybe this is like moving into anger a little bit, but we use it to talk about frustration and anger.
And it is bang your head against a wall.
And I think you guys can imagine this pretty easily.
It's pretty visual, this one, bang your head against a wall.
Anna, maybe when you were dealing with that online form the other day and you were trying to submit it and it just kept not working and giving you an error, were you banging your head against the wall in that situation?
Oh, absolutely.
I love this phrase.
This is actually one that I use quite a lot, to be honest, when I come across a frustrating situation.
But yeah, you know, you feel like you're just especially also maybe with a situation that's ongoing.
You're like I just feel like I'm banging my head against a wall.
And not only that.
Also, if you're having a frustrating conversation with somebody where you feel like they're not listening to you and by not listening to you, you're not achieving your goal of talking about what you want to talk about
You're like, it's like talking to a brick wall.
So we use wall in other contexts to talk about frustration, you know and, like you said, it's very visual, right?
Nobody wants to bang their head against a wall, but that is exactly the emotion of frustration, when you just feel like you're not getting anywhere, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, so it's when you keep trying to do something and it never works, right?
No matter how hard you try, you keep failing or there's something that's blocking you.
And it's this repetition feeling, right?
It's like you're just banging your head against the wall.
Yeah, this is not literal, guys.
We're not actually physically knocking our head against a wall.
It's just an expression that is trying to communicate how frustrating it feels to do something and not succeed.
And then the last one anna, is it's an expression here, a longer phrase.
It's been one of those days.
It's been one of those days so i don't know, maybe you had a long day at the office and just everything went wrong.
You know, maybe you were late, and then your boss was angry at you.
And then you realized you forgot your lunch.
And then, I don't know, you had a bad presentation during your afternoon meeting.
And then you had a difficult commute home.
And you come home and your husband or wife was like Hey honey, how was your day?
And you just be like, oh, it was one of those days.
It's been one of those days.
It just means like I had a bad, frustrating day, right?
Yeah, everything's gone wrong.
It's been really unlucky, really bad, really frustrating.
I also associate it with you know, when I've said things like that.
Like you said, you know, in the morning you had a huge traffic jam.
Then you got into work.
And you forgot your laptop at home, so you couldn't connect to the meeting.
Then your boss gives you some negative feedback.
Then you know and that's just before lunch, you know, you sort of go back and you say it's just been, it's just been one of those days.
And I'm also really likely to say just it's just been one of those days.
Let's not talk about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wanted to add that.
So guys, I think we use this expression when somebody is asking us, how's it going?
Right.
Yes.
Usually we use it in response to how are you or how's it going or are you doing okay?
When somebody asks us that question and we answer, it's just been one of those days.
That means you've had a really frustrating morning, but you don't really want to talk about it.
It's like, my day up until now has been terrible and frustrating, but let's move on.
I don't want to talk about it.
Let's just go forward.
So it can be a very useful phrase for that situation.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's not like ask me more about it.
It's like it's just been one of those days.
Let's not go into details.
Let's move on.
That's a really good cue to pick up on if you're having a conversation with someone.
Yeah.
So if somebody tells you it's been one of those days, then try and be a little bit understanding, but don't ask them for details.
Just move forward.
And that would be the best way to do it.
Well, Anna, I think this will probably bring us to the end of this episode.
Guys, I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope you were able to improve your English with it.
We learned lots of great vocabulary and we learned all about this feeling of frustration.
Now, going forward, we are going to keep talking about different emotions here on Chatterbox.
I think this will be our next series, Anna.
After the five senses series that we did earlier this year, we're going to move on now to talk about different emotions.
And listeners, we want to throw this out to you.
We want your help to guide us on our next set of episodes.
So we are going to let you guys choose. what the topic will be next.
And we're going to have a vote that will happen on our Discord server.
But here's the thing it's only going to be open to Qloops members as a special thank you to the Qloops members who support us and support the work that we do here.
So we're going to have this vote in the member-only chat room on our Discord server and our members will be the bosses and they will decide which emotion we will talk about next.
So if you'd like to join in on the vote and help us pick the next topic, then make sure to become a member at QLipscom and you can do that.
But for now, guys, we're going to wrap things up here for today.
So Anna, thank you so much.
And we'll catch you in the next episode, everyone.
Take care and bye-bye.
Bye, everyone.
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