Hello, everybody. My name is Coach Shane.
And welcome to Easy English Expressions.
You and me every day.
Come on! Let's master English!
English. Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to Daily Easy English Expression, the podcast. Today I need to say hi to Viren and to all his fellow country mates, people in India.
Hi, everybody. You know what?
I have very few Indian students.
I have a new student.
His name is Prashant.
Hey, are you listening to this podcast, Prashant?
Well anyway, a special hi to everybody over there and of course to everybody else, hello today.
We have a great phrasal verb, it is to dabble in, to dabble in, D -A -B -B -L -E, to dabble in.
Do you dabble in anything?
Me? I dabble in cooking.
I dabble in triathlons.
I dabble in history.
What does it mean to dabble in something?
That means to have a strong interest in something, and to make an effort to learn it.
You're not a master, but you're learning and you're interested, and you respect whatever it is that you're doing.
So for example, I like to dabble in history.
I like to read a lot of history.
And not only reading, I like to talk about it with people.
I like to debate with people.
I like to leave comments and send emails to people about history.
I like to dabble in history.
I like to teach people about history.
I like to dabble in cooking by no means am I a good cook I'm not a chef ,a chef c -h -e -f that's a professional cook I'm just a regular guy at home cooking but I do like it and I do like cooking different types of things.
My specialty if I can say a specialty would be healthy stuff and I do cook but I like Mixing it with raw food too.
Strange combinations, but things that I like.
I dabble in cooking.
I know a little bit about cooking.
Not too much but maybe more than the average guy.
That's for sure. I also dabble in triathlons.
I do a little bit of swimming, a little bit of running, a little bit of cycling.
Oh, by no means am I a professional triathlete.
Oh, goodness, no. But I like it.
I do enjoy it. Actually, I haven�t dabbled in triathlons for a long time, but I want to go back.
So what about you? Do you dabble in anything?
Do you have a particular interest that you do spend some time in, maybe time and money, you invest your time and money into something, a hobby, maybe something you want to develop into a job in the future?
Let's check out the dialogue.
Would you help me write this sales letter?
Me? Why me? Ah, I know you've dabbled in writing in the past. Hoh, yeah, but that was poetry, not business stuff.
Yeah, this is my weakness.
Sales, letters, marketing things, advertising...
Yeah, I like writing.
I do enjoy writing even poetry little comments, you know for the podcast. I write a little paragraph all the time I like that short stories short dialogues.
I like that but writing for business, you know Copyright or advertising marketing letters yeah, I don't like it It's not easy for me.
If you know of somebody who's really good In English of course, then please introduce me.
What about you? What do you dabble in?
Do you dabble in writing?
Do you have kind of a dream maybe to write a novel or maybe some nonfiction book, maybe a memoir, a story about your life?
Yeah? If you're interested in that and you buy some books on writing, maybe take some classes in writing, maybe you write a little bit, you know, privately, well, then you dabble in writing.
me? I guess we could say I dabble in riding but not too much. I dabble in fishing.
I'm terrible. Well at least I'm unlucky but I do enjoy it.
I have two fishing poles and I'm not good but I enjoy it.
I go out. I try to go up but these days it's just too hot but yeah I like dabbling in fishing, dabbling in cooking dabbling in exercise dabbling in computers is cool, but I'm so I'm pretty stupid when it comes to computing So once again, I want to know about you, please don't be shy Tell me what you dabble in I dabble in you can use a gerund writing cooking You can use a noun I dabble in cars.
I dabble in Fixing cars.
I dabble in sports I dabble in triathlons.
I dabble in coaching.
I dabble in coaching soccer.
I dabble in writing.
I dabble in whatever.
I want to know something that you dabble in.
Of course I know you dabble in language.
You dabble in English.
Perhaps you're a professional.
What about other languages?
Are you kind of studying some other languages?
Well, tell me. It's a great expression.
Once again, to check how other Americans use this expression, just go to Google and search quotation mark I dabble in quotation and you'll find many many examples so go see how other people use it and then make your own sentence and then send it to me on Twitter at CoachShane or leave a message on Facebook ESL coach Shane check out that dialog two more times and together let's master English would you help me write this sales letter me war me I know you've dabbled in writing in the past oh yeah but that was poetry not business stuff would you help me write this sales letter me why me I know you've dabbled and writing in the past oh yeah but that That was poetry,
not business stuff.
