Hi everybody, my name is Shawna and this is the American English Podcast.
My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States.
Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting.
Let's do it!
Hi everyone, welcome back.
I'm excited for another expression episode.
Today we're going to be going over a very common one, to keep someone on their toes.
We'll dive into the meaning, of course.
You'll hear a bunch of stories where this expression can be used.
For example, stories about work, about school, and sports.
It can be used all the time in any situation where there's an element of unpredictability.
So I love a useful expression, and this is definitely one of them.
By the end, you should feel comfortable using this expression in conversation and other expressions related to it.
Stay tuned until the very end.
We'll work on your American English pronunciation.
Before we begin, though, you should know that this is part one of a two-part episode.
In part two, you'll learn all about dance marathons.
And this is not a modern...
Activity.
It's a tradition or event that happened in the 1930s, and it literally had participants on their toes.
Or on their feet, for hours, and sometimes days at a time.
It's absurd, if I'm being honest.
You have to watch a movie about this so you can get the visuals.
But yeah, the story itself is very entertaining.
And it'll give you a snapshot of what life was like during the Great Depression.
It'll also have 10 irregular verbs in it, so it's a fantastic way to practice your grammar.
That'll be posted next week.
Language and culture, as always, go hand in hand, and I hope you enjoy this two-part episode.
As usual, let's begin with a joke.
Did you hear about the janitor who fell in love with a ballerina?
Yeah, he swept her off her feet.
Did you catch that one?
Swept is irregular.
It's the past tense of to sweep.
When you have a broom, you might sweep the floor to clean it.
By sweeping, we push dust or pieces of debris into a pile.
And then, of course, get a dustpan to sweep it up.
And janitors often sweep, right?
It's a task.
Typically included in a janitor's job, which is cleaning buildings, cleaning office spaces, right?
So you can picture this janitor showing up after the ballerina's practice and sweeping the dance floor.
But to sweep someone off their feet is also a common English idiom.
It means to completely charm someone, usually in a romantic way.
He was so funny and charming, he swept me off my feet.
So in the joke, the janitor literally sweeps with his broom, but he also figuratively sweeps the ballerina off her feet by winning her heart.
Once again, did you hear about the janitor who fell in love with the ballerina?
Yep, he swept her off her feet.
Let's move on to the expression of the day.
We're going to talk some more about feet.
On our feet, we've got the heel, which is the back part of the foot.
We have the sole, S-O-L-E, which is the bottom part of the foot, right?
It's not the top of the foot.
It's the bottom, the sole.
You can also have the sole of the shoe, which is the bottom of the shoe.
And then, of course, we've got our toes, which are at the front of our feet.
And toes are what I want to focus on today because our expression of the day is to keep someone on their toes.
We'll go through the individual words first.
To keep means to maintain or continue a state of something.
Every winter I keep a fire going in the fireplace so the house stays warm.
Someone simply refers to a person, any person, unspecified.
Someone ate the last cookie.
I don't know who it was, but someone did it.
Um on on means physically on top of something my coffee is on the table in front of me
And then there is a possessive word.
It tells us that something belongs to somebody.
In this case, we're talking about someone's toes.
So we say their toes to keep someone on their toes.
And once again, we have toes.
People typically have five toes on each foot.
The big toe helps us balance.
And then there's that pinky toe, the little one, which really hurts if you stub it.
In other words, if you walk into something and hit it.
So when we say someone keeps us on our toes, we mean that they keep us alert, engaged, and ready for something unexpected.
And it's important to recognize that it's not necessarily a bad thing when somebody does this.
Oftentimes, it's a compliment.
A good boss, a good coach or a good teacher keeps their employees, athletes or students on their toes so that nobody gets lazy and everybody remains sharp.
If you think about the expression, it actually makes a lot of sense.
Imagine a boxer.
A good boxer is not just standing there with all of his weight planted comfortably on his heels.
He's on his toes.
He's probably bouncing around a little bit, ready to move forward, backward, sideways.
And yeah, ready to move so that he can react to his opponent, right?
A boxer is on his toes.
And I'm not talking like a ballerina on their toes.
I just mean they're, yeah, the weight is at the front of the foot.
Just the way we express it in English is that they are on their toes.
So the weight is at the front of the foot.
The point is the body is ready to react.
And that gives us a really good idea of the figurative meaning.
If something keeps you on your toes, it keeps your mind in that ready position.
You have to pay attention.
You have to be ready to act.
You can't just switch off because if something unexpected happens, you won't be ready.
So you'll hear similar expressions in English, right?
Something or somebody keeps us sharp.
My grandpa read a lot of books in Spanish to keep his brain sharp.
Or something or someone keeps us alert.
But I really like this image of to keep someone on their toes, balanced and ready.
Now we're going to move on to some stories of different situations where we can use this expression.
And this first example is personal.
I went to college at the University of California, Santa Barbara and that's where I got my degrees and my TESOL certification.
One of my degrees, or I could say one of my majors in college, was global studies.
And one of my professors was very well known in the field.
His name was Professor Juergensmeyer.
And I liked him a lot.
But I'll be honest, he kept me on my toes.
Every day, he'd walk up to random students and ask questions about political events in the world.
What's the state of affairs in Israel?
What happened in the Middle East this morning?
There were hundreds of kids in his lecture, and I was scared out of my mind that he would call on me and that I wouldn't know the answer.
I didn't want to look like a big dummy in front of everyone.
And so every morning before class, I read the news.
I knew what was happening.
He kept me on my toes.
He kept other students on their toes.
He kept us sharp.
He kept us alert.
And yeah, we were ready to answer his intense questions.
Have you ever had a teacher that kept you on your toes?
Example number two.
Many major U.S. retail and restaurant chains use something called a mystery shopper program.
A mystery shopper is a regular old person, a regular customer, who is actually being paid to secretly evaluate a store or restaurant.
So they order food, they ask questions, they shop around like everybody else, and then they report back on things like cleanliness, how well they were treated, how quick the food came to the table.
And this is actually common practice in many types of US companies.
And the thing is, as an employee in one of these locations, you know that these evaluations might happen.
But you don't know exactly when or where or who the mystery shopper is.
And that uncertainty is intentional.
It keeps employees on their toes.
Nobody wants to be slacking off, taking an extra long lunch break, or messing around when there's a mystery shopper inside ready to report on your behavior.
You have to have a high standard of service all the time because inspection day is unpredictable.
The Mystery Shopper program keeps employees on their toes.
It keeps them alert.
So does this exist in your country?
Do you think that having a program like this would change the shopping experience where you currently live?
That brings me to our last example.
Now, if you follow the NFL,
I think it's the National Football League.
You've probably heard commentators talk about coaches' plays.
One coach who built an entire career on unpredictable plays is a guy named Bill Belichick.
And I think I'm pronouncing that right.
Bill Belichick.
All right, that is his name.
He formerly worked for the New England Patriots.
He liked to change his strategy often so the other team had no idea what he was planning.
They could never get comfortable.
For example, the opposing quarterback might think he knew what the defense was going to do, and then suddenly they would do something completely different.
The coach kept the other team guessing.
He kept them on their toes.
And yeah, of course, in sports, being unpredictable is a huge advantage.
I'm sure this can be used in any game, in fact.
All right, so a challenging job or boss might keep you on your toes.
Kids can definitely keep you on your toes.
Being kept on one's toes can make things interesting.
And if you would like a teacher to keep you on your toes, come join the Academy.
In the Academy, I run live speaking calls with students every week, and it's a great way to practice speaking in English, reacting to questions, pulling out the right vocabulary and grammar when you need it.
I like to keep my students on their toes.
But don't worry, it's a very friendly kind of pressure.
So join us.
You can find the link in the episode notes
Let's move on to the pronunciation exercise.
We'll start with a statement.
A good coach has to keep the team on their toes.
Repeat after me.
A good coach.
A good coach has to keep.
A good coach has to keep the team on their toes.
Has to, when spoken quickly in natural conversation, sounds like hasta, hasta.
To, in general, usually turns to ta.
And so, yeah, in this phrase, it sounds like a good coach has to keep the team on their toes.
Has to.
And
If you're saying have to, it would turn to have to.
Good coaches have to keep their teams on their toes.
Have to.
We have to drive to the airport after I record, which is true.
Now the conjugation, repeat after me.
I have to keep my students on their toes.
You have to keep your students on their toes.
She has to keep her students on their toes.
He has to keep his students on their toes.
We have to keep our students on their toes.
They have to keep their students on their toes.
Once again, have to sounds like hafta when spoken quickly, and has to is shortened to hasta.
You'll hear that in movies, podcasts, everyday conversations, so it's worth training your ears so that you can understand fast-spoken English.
And also good to practice if you want to sound more like a native speaker.
That's optional.
However you feel confident speaking is how you should speak, in my opinion.
So tell me, who or what keeps you on your toes?
Is it a boss?
Is it a teacher?
A coach?
A friend?
Write to me on Instagram at American English Podcast.
I'd love to hear from you.
Once again, if you would like to practice your spoken English, join the Academy.
We talk about podcast episodes in them, like this one.
So you'll share about your life and your experiences, and I'll make sure to keep you on your toes.
You'll find the link in the episode notes or by visiting the website at AmericanEnglishPodcast.com.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Bye.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast.
Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension but to show you how to speak like someone from the States.
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Thanks and hope to see you soon.
