Welcome to a new episode of English Vocabulary Booster.
My name is Lara and I'm a SALSA-certified English teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new English words or expressions, so that you too can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning! guys.
How are you?
Welcome to a new episode.
I am pretty excited because I'm recording this episode a few days before it's supposed to come out and not right on the day it's supposed to come out.
So we're making progress.
And today we're going to talk about fear.
So get ready.
Hey Matt, I'm over here at the entrance waiting for you.
Where are you?
We were supposed to meet 15 minutes ago.
Matt, you scared the living shit out of me.
I know, sorry.
I couldn't resist.
So, ready?
Yeah, I think so.
Okay, where do you want to go first?
There's just so many cool rides here.
I don't know, but remember I told you on the phone I have a crippling fear of roller coasters.
Okay,
So I'm not riding one.
Yeah, well, we'll see.
We can talk about that later.
No, I'm not doing it.
I'm telling you.
You can't convince me.
Wait a second.
Hear me out.
No, I don't want to do that.
What about this one?
This one doesn't look too scary, right?
I don't care.
I'm not getting on it.
Oh my gosh, look.
Isn't that Mary?
The girl you like?
Oh my gosh, yeah.
Wait, she's...
She's coming this way.
What's up, guys?
I didn't know you guys liked roller coasters.
Hey, Steve.
Hey, Mary.
Are you in line?
You're getting on this?
No, we're... Yeah.
Yeah, we are.
Oh, wow.
It looks a little scary for me.
I'll just look at you guys from down here.
Have fun.
Wait, what's happening?
I thought you didn't want to get on it.
Shut up.
Mary's looking.
Okay, all right, pull this down.
There you go.
Oh my gosh, dude, you're shaking like a leaf.
Are you sure you wanna do this?
I'm fine.
Okay, brace yourself.
Here we go.
Wow, that was amazing.
I can't believe I didn't want to get on it.
I mean, I was holding on for dear life the entire time.
In fact, I was holding on to this thing so tight, my hands hurt now.
But like, oh my gosh, how cool was that?
Do you want to go again?
I think we should go again.
Matt, are you okay?
You don't look too well.
That was a little much for me.
I think I'll wait for you down here.
Okay, so somebody conquered their fear of roller coasters apparently.
Good for him.
I would definitely not ever do that.
I don't care how much I like a guy.
I don't care how much I want to impress a guy.
There's no way I'm getting on any roller coasters.
But yeah, like I said, good for him.
Let's talk about today's expressions.
Let's begin with expression number one.
Scare the living shit out of someone.
Matt, you scare the living shit out of me.
If you scare the living shit out of someone, you scare them a lot or just a bit?
You scare them a lot.
If you scare the living shit out of someone, that means that they're about to have a heart attack, basically.
Well, not really, but like you scare them a lot.
When was the last time someone scared the living shit out of you?
Um...
I don't, I can't really remember, because we kind of have a no scaring the shit out of anyone policy at home, because my boyfriend hates to be scared, or you know.
When somebody like jumps out of nowhere and scares him, he gets really offended when that happens.
Like he literally like.
He's such a sweet guy, but if you scare him he's gonna be mad at you for a while before he forgives you.
So I learned that the hard way at the beginning of our relationship.
And so now we don't scare each other around the house.
Expression number two, have a crippling fear of something.
I have a crippling fear of roller coasters.
Is a crippling fear a mild fear or a very big fear?
A crippling fear is a very big fear.
So something that will in a way prevent you from living your life in a normal way.
That's how powerful this fear is.
If you have a crippling fear of something, that means that this is preventing you from leading a normal life.
Do you have a crippling fear of something?
I have a crippling fear of heights.
I think I've talked about this on the podcast before.
I think it has gotten slightly better, but I'm definitely not at a point in my life where I can stand on a balcony by myself without freaking out.
So I can still definitely call it a crippling fear of mine.
And it's something that honestly, I don't think I'll ever overcome, but I'm okay with it.
I don't live. in the mountains.
So I don't, I don't care as long, you know, I take the elevator.
I don't really see, I have a small balcony.
I try not to look down and that's pretty much it.
And then I can lead a normal life without worrying too much about heights.
Expression number three, shake like a leaf.
Oh my gosh, dude, you're shaking like a leaf.
If you're shaking like a leaf, how much are you shaking?
A little or a lot?
If you're shaking like a leaf, that means that you're shaking a lot.
What might be the reasons why someone's shaking like a leaf?
I think there might be a couple reasons.
One of them is fear.
So like, you know, just like in the story, this guy was terrified of getting on a roller coaster.
So he was shaking uncontrollably.
He just like, he was shaking so much, he was shaking like a leaf.
So that's one reason.
But you could also shake like a leaf when you're cold.
So anytime that you're trembling, that you're shaking, that you got shivers, that's when you can say that someone is shaking like a leaf.
Just like a lot.
Like you can visibly see someone shaking.
When was the last time you were shaking like a leaf?
I know this one.
So it wasn't from fear because I haven't been that afraid in a while.
Thank goodness.
I don't actually, I've never been that afraid, thankfully.
But I remember, so a year, what was it?
Like a year, year and a half ago, maybe less than that actually my boyfriend and I started our trip on the Vespa, so we were in the north of Italy and we were going from Milan to Genoa, and so it was the beginning of March, which You know it's not the warmest time of year in the north of Italy, but we had to start our trip.
And I'm talking about this was a three to four hour ride.
Because if you take the highway, it's going to take you like an hour and a half to go from Milan to Genoa.
But in our case, because the Vespa that we had wasn't powerful enough, we couldn't take the highway.
So we had to take all these country roads.
And when you're considering that we were on a Vespa the whole time, riding this thing at 80, 100 kilometers per hour for three to four hours straight.
I mean, I remember I was shaking like a leaf the whole time I was on the Vespa.
And then, even when we got to Genoa and we immediately parked the scooter, we got into a cafe, ordered something hot.
You know, even after sitting there for an hour, I was still shaking like a leaf because it was just So cold.
I was the cold, basically.
What a terrible, awful experience.
I'll never, ever forget that.
Expression number four, brace yourself.
Okay, brace yourself.
Here we go.
When do you tell someone to brace themselves?
Before something happens or after something has happened?
You tell someone to brace themselves before something happens.
Why would you tell someone brace yourself?
So you would tell someone brace yourself when you want to prepare them for what's about to happen.
Literally, it means something like prepare yourself for a disaster.
But you would say it like before a bumpy ride, for example, or before a very heated argument.
Anytime that you know that something bad or dangerous or scary is about to happen and you want to warn the person that's with you, you can tell them brace yourself, okay.
Prepare yourself because this is not going to be good.
This is not going to be easy.
What are some instances in which you would tell someone brace yourself?
So I think this happened a lot.
We're going to go back to our Vespa trip in the south of Italy.
So the roads in the south of Italy are not the best, especially those country roads are not the best.
There's a ton, a ton of potholes.
These, you know, holes that you find in the concrete when driving around.
Well, there's a ton of those because, I don't know, because they don't do enough maintenance, or maybe the quality of the concrete is not good enough.
I don't know why.
I just know that we were riding this freaking Vespa around the south of Italy the whole time, pretty much every day, and I remember every time we had to go somewhere I was saying to myself and also sometimes to my boyfriend okay, brace yourself.
And he was saying that to me a lot because he was the one writing and I was sitting behind him.
So a lot of times he was like okay, brace yourself.
When he would see like a lot of these potholes um, and it was scary.
There were a couple of times when I thought okay, this is it, we're gonna fall.
Um Thankfully, I don't know how, but we never fell.
So we, I guess we got lucky.
Expression number five, hold on for dear life.
I was holding on for dear life the entire time.
If you are holding on for dear life, are you holding on to something tightly or loosely?
If you are holding on for dear life, you're holding on to something very, very tightly.
You're holding on to that thing as if your life depended on it.
That's why you say you're holding on for dear life.
Because it's like you feel like if you let go, you're going to die.
What was the last time you were holding on for dear life?
So I think the last time that I was holding on for dear life, it was when we were in Thailand.
So in Thailand, we used to go places by tuk tuk, which is like a How should I describe a tuk-tuk?
It's like a small, it's like a combination between a car and a scooter, I guess.
Like if a scooter and a car had a baby, that's what a tuk-tuk would look like.
Maybe, I don't know.
Anyway, there are these small motorized things that you can take to get from one point to another.
But the way in which they drive in Thailand, I would say it's pretty similar to the way in which they drive in the south of Italy, meaning it's crazy.
It feels like there are no laws and everybody does what they want.
So it's really scary.
Plus, you know, sometimes the roads aren't super even.
There's a lot of potholes.
There's a lot of braking, stopping, very sudden stops and all of that.
And I remember just me holding on for dear life to the tuk-tuk structure to make sure that You know we wouldn't get thrown off the tuk-tuk at every curve, which was a fun experience.
We have a couple of videos of us just like bouncing around the tuk-tuk.
But yes, always, always holding on for dear life because we didn't want to fall off.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enbucom.
That is E-N-B dot com.
Have a great day.
