This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1803.
Call me if it turns up.
How to get back what you have lost.
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Confidence begets confidence.
When it comes to asking people to help you, especially when you lose an item.
In this episode, find out what you can say when you lose something and how to open up the process of locating it.
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going today?
Hey, Lindsay.
Good.
How are you?
I am great.
Are you someone that tends to lose things a lot?
It happens.
It happens.
I mean, I have a few, you know, stories, you know, losing things and stuff like that.
But did you lose something recently?
Yeah.
Oh my gosh lately I feel like I'm losing my mind.
Me too.
We're all losing our minds.
No yeah I was at the gym on Sunday and I had a water bottle that I that was important and I I I
Thought I couldn't find it in the kitchen that I hadn't brought it back from the day before.
So I went back to the gym and I said, do you have a lost and found?
Can I look?
They had a huge lost and found with lots of water bottles.
It wasn't in there.
And then I get back.
I look all over.
I look all over the car, all over the house.
Guess where it is?
Where?
Right where it should have been in the drying rack of my kitchen.
So you had gone back and everything to look for?
All this stuff, Michelle.
Honestly, it was never lost.
And that's another level of crazy, right?
It was never actually lost.
This is what happens to me most of the time.
And then I do lose things too, actually lose them.
Yeah.
So you just never brought it.
I just didn't.
I was a little I too quickly jumped to the conclusion that it was lost.
Uh huh.
And that it was under a bunch of things in the drying rack.
And I was lazy in that sense.
I was like, oh, I must have lost it.
Like assuming that I'm absent minded.
Oh, no.
Okay.
Well, I'm glad you didn't lose it.
Thank you.
So that's good.
But today we are going to be talking about losing things, which is somewhat of an uncomfortable subject, but it's important.
So we're going to be talking to our listeners about what they can do if they lose something, how they can talk to someone about it, ask someone about it, things like that.
Oh, this is a great topic for any of our listeners who are living in an English speaking country.
You guys are preparing to move abroad, or even if you know, maybe you live in a community that speaks English in your home country.
This is fantastic.
Mm hmm.
Very important, especially like you don't it.
Gosh, if you're in a situation abroad where you lose something, I mean I've.
I mean I not that I lost it, but I've told the story about getting pickpocketed.
Right.
And so you know being able to communicate with people about what's happened or something you lost or something.
So very, very important, especially for traveling, but also, of course. course in your daily life.
Oh my gosh, absolutely.
This is great.
I love it.
It's such a good skill and I can't wait to get into it.
First though, Michelle, I'm going to say thank you to our awesome reviewers.
These are people who have reviewed us wherever they listen to the show, whether it's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, whatever you're using wherever, Even on Amazon.
Now, Amazon actually has a podcast player, I guess.
So we're over there too.
It's pretty amazing.
So thank you to Pokaha from Russia, Elia from Iran, Nabe S Aziz, Jonathan from the United States, Ali Hosseini from Iran, Ali Mango from Saudi Arabia, Karim Guys.
Thank you.
These are fantastic reviews, Michelle.
They are five stars.
We have, let's see, people have said good things.
This person says they make an effort to listen to the podcast every day and they love it.
They fell in love with the podcast, right?
They listen to the episode while they're driving to work.
So, so many people are listening, guys.
Make sure you hit follow and rate and review the show.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much to everyone, really.
Totally, totally.
Well, Michelle, all right, let's build some skills today.
All right, let's do it.
So Lindsay, so what do you do when I mean you told us, like When you are out somewhere, it could be with the water bottle or something else, and you can't find something?
For me, and I think this is for a lot of people, things I often lose are hats, gloves.
Oh, yeah.
Umbrellas.
Oh, my God.
Those things like a scarf you know like, especially in the winter.
You know it's always easy to just lose those extra clothing items.
And you know, often you'll find me walking around with two different color gloves because I've lost one.
And, you know, that's just that's just the truth.
So, I mean, what do you do, Lindsay?
Yeah, Michelle, I think we're a lot alike in that sense.
Well, first thing I do is I panic.
Yeah, I do the same thing.
I lose a lot of things, gloves, hats.
At this point in my life, I feel like umbrellas are just community possessions.
Aww.
They don't even belong to anyone.
They don't belong to anyone.
You just pick one up.
I don't do that.
I don't pick up other people's umbrellas.
Don't worry.
But I feel like, you know, it's so easy to just leave your umbrella behind.
You might as well just they come and go.
Right.
It's not like I have a special umbrella or an important umbrella.
It just comes and goes.
I know.
And like I have – I know with the gloves, like recently I've been looking online.
Oh, I should get like myself like a really warm pair of gloves.
Oh, God.
Be careful.
It's just one of those things that you don't want to spend a lot of money on if it's something that you know you're going to lose.
So you might get a lower quality of something, but –
You just know that you're going to lose it.
And now I have the problem of having like a three-year-old with like little mittens.
Oh my gosh.
Sometimes don't kids have their mittens tied together with a piece of yarn or something?
Yeah.
That was a thing.
I actually I need to to do something like that.
I don't have it done yet.
And so, yeah, like a lot of times my son will have like a red glove and a black glove.
That's OK.
That's OK.
It doesn't matter.
It's cute.
Do you feel like, when you lose something, that's been a gift, like I did get a nicer-ish pair of gloves for my mom, I think winter of 2020.
And I did lose one of them, of course.
And I just felt like when I lose something that's been a gift, I just I immediately think of that person and I feel sad for that person.
Like I miss them.
It's a weird thing I get in my heart.
Like I feel sad.
I miss them.
And I... feel sad that I've lost the thing that they gave me.
It's like some weird emotional thing I get.
Oh, that's kind of sweet lindsay yeah yeah, i always.
It's always worse when you lose something that somebody got for you.
So it really is well, one of the uh, one of a good phrase that you know is often used when you lose something is retrace your steps.
Do you hear that a lot?
Absolutely.
This would be the first thing that someone might say to you guys in English as their advice of what to do.
Okay, let's retrace your steps or retrace your steps.
Where did you go first?
Where were you?
Where did you know?
Where could you have left it?
Yeah, it's kind of trying to get you back into that, like, logical place.
Because, like you said, you feel kind of panicked at first, and so do I, And you're kind of like ah.
And so when somebody says, retrace your steps, you're like, okay, let's just go one by one.
Yeah.
Yeah, does that work for you?
That almost never works for me.
It's never there.
It's always kind of a hopeful like but um yeah, it's usually somewhere else.
It's usually not on that path yeah, so so what?
What can you say if you're out somewhere and you want to ask someone if they've seen something, you've misplaced something?
So this could be some, maybe somebody working at a coat check, or it could be a random person.
Or let's say, you're out at a like at a gym and somebody is working there, or somebody working at a lost and found, and
Like recently I had to ask my son's school about some hats that were missing.
You know, so you have to.
You know have, have those skills.
So Lindsay, what is something that you could say to start off?
Okay, Michelle.
And you could also say this, you go back into a restaurant.
It's very common to leave something in a restaurant, right?
Okay.
So you could say, hi, I'm missing a scarf or I'm missing a hat, right?
I'm missing a bag.
Maybe you left a... Ooh, that's why it's dangerous to go shopping and then eat lunch if you...
Buy something, you have a big bag or you've been Christmas shopping and you leave your bags there.
That's not good.
So I'm missing a X, right?
For example, hi, I'm missing a scarf again.
Really good.
Right, right, right.
Or another thing you could say is, have you seen a, or have you seen something, right?
So have you seen a pair of gloves, for example?
By the way, guys, we can use this for a person too.
I remember when I used to teach tennis at a little tennis club, a little lake club, when I was in college.
In the summers kids were always chasing each other around the place and they'd come back and they'd ask me and the other coaches oh, have you seen this kid?
Have you seen this kid?
Have you seen John?
It's common for people too.
When you're looking for a person right, that's true, that's true yeah, so useful in that situation.
Or you know, you can sometimes like, let's say that the person says no Like oh no sorry, I haven't seen it.
You could always say to them, especially if they're work.
I mean, if I'm really, only if they're working somewhere, you could say is there a lost and found?
I can that, I can check.
Right.
So sometimes people just say, oh, no, I haven't seen it.
Oh, maybe.
And then you take it one step further.
I feel like places have lost and found banks that you would never imagine would.
And they're really piling up.
Like I said, at Orange Theory they had a huge box of water bottles and all these things, Fitbits and stuff like that.
I never would have thought that, but they do.
They just accumulate stuff.
Yeah.
It's funny.
Lindsay, I'm curious because you labeled your water bottle as important.
Yeah.
And I'm curious, what's important about the water bottle?
Well, it's not.
That's the problem.
So it was important because it belongs to someone else that thinks it's important.
Oh.
And what's important to that person about is that it has stickers on it from places that she's been.
So that's why it's not actually, that's why I don't actually want to do that with my water bottles.
I want to make them more like umbrellas.
Right, right.
There are certain things.
Yeah, exactly.
But for her stickers signify places she's been or hiked or all these things.
So I didn't want to lose that.
Okay, good.
So then that must have been an extra relief when you found it.
It was for sure.
Yeah, good.
Okay.
So I was just curious.
Yeah.
So good question.
Thanks.
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So, and you could also say, are you sure it's not blank, right?
Like there behind the something, you know, like, so... Right.
Are you sure it's not in?
Uh, that in a court, a corner of the shop there behind that?
You know, like just giving them some more direction sure right, exactly.
Or the gym.
I could say oh, can i check to make sure it's not behind the treadmill or something?
Are you sure it's not over there behind the weight?
Uh rack OK right, right.
Exactly.
So so what about what's something else that you can do to help somebody along when they're trying to help you find something?
Yeah, well, let's see, Michelle.
I mean, you can certainly leave your phone number in case it turns up.
And by the way, that's a great expression.
But I'm skipping ahead a little bit.
Let me go back, Michelle.
No, that's okay.
We can do that one and then go back to the other one at the end.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And this is a great phrasal verb, by the way, for you guys today.
So, you know, you can say something again.
Can I leave you my phone number in case it turns up?
What does turns up mean?
It means that it's found like you find it somewhere.
Yeah, but phrasal verbs are so tricky for our listeners.
I know they are, guys, but try to integrate this into this scenario.
Think about this scenario in itself, and you know to use this phrasal verb in that case, right?
Exactly, exactly.
And also, you can be helpful by describing things.
What the thing looks like.
Right.
I feel like this happens a lot with like keys.
Like you might want to describe a key chain that you have on your keys or something.
But you could say something like it's blank with blank.
Right.
Like.
It's X with XYZ.
So it's gold with three little blue charms or something like that.
Little blue charms.
I love it.
Yeah, perfect.
So describe it a little bit.
Be as specific as you can, like we said.
Yeah, so leaving your phone number.
I mean, anything else you can think of that you might try to do?
I guess, just yeah, I think the steps are leaving asking, being descriptive, leaving your phone number and giving a couple options like oh, is there a lost and found?
What about over this?
You could also say where you were.
So you could say like, if it's a restaurant oh, I was sitting in that table in the corner like, maybe it fell underneath.
Like Like oh, have you ever had it happen where you left something and then somebody is already sitting at that table when you come back?
Yeah, for sure.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Or even if it's the next day, you say when you were there, right?
I was here on Friday.
Today's Sunday.
It's a few days later.
Oh, man.
Losing things is the worst, Michelle.
It's the worst.
Yeah.
It's the worst.
And I just like, but that feel, that relief when you do find something, it's like, oh my gosh.
It's the best.
It is the best that immediate, because it's a physical feeling.
It's not like...
You actually can feel it in your body that you, like, relax and you let that go.
It's so nice.
I know.
That's true, actually.
Yeah, it is a great feeling when you find something you've lost.
And it's a relief too, especially if the thing again belonged to someone else or was expensive or was important to them.
You know, I mean, you don't want people to think you don't care about their stuff.
Right.
But I'm just a little absent minded.
That's my problem.
So I need to be more present.
No, I know.
Me too.
Should we do a role play of how this might all fit together?
Okay, let's do it, Michelle.
Here we go.
So in this case, I can't find my green earmuffs.
I would never wear green earmuffs, but it's not my style.
I used to have red earmuffs.
You know what?
I'm an earmuff.
I can imagine you in earmuffs, Michelle.
I'm an earmuff girl.
Like I am.
I don't.
I don't have any, well, now I have like a little headband that's really not warm enough.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
But I do, I do like earmuffs.
I have to say.
Yeah.
I think you would rock that.
I think you could totally pull that off.
Me, I would look weird.
I just wouldn't work with my hair, I think.
I disagree.
I think you could.
All right.
I can't find my green.
Yeah, you should.
Yeah, it's a good style for you for sure.
Guys, in this role play here, I can't find these green ear muffs, and I'm working in a store where I had just visited.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I keep on doing this when I'm working.
You're working.
Who's working, Michelle?
I'm working at the store.
I did this just in a recent one where I'm writing I, but I should write Michelle.
Because yeah, okay.
Yes, you can't find your earmuffs.
I work at the store where you were just at the store.
All right, here we go.
Can I help you?
Yeah, I'm missing some earmuffs.
Have you seen any earmuffs around here?
Hmm, what section were you looking in?
I was mostly in the fiction section.
Yeah, I haven't seen anything.
Are you sure they're not under the desk?
Maybe someone returned them.
Sorry, nothing's here.
Is there a lost and found I can check?
No, you know, everything just comes directly to this desk.
What do your earmuffs look like?
Well, they're green with black stripes.
I haven't seen them.
I'm sorry.
Can I leave you my phone number in case they turn up?
Sure.
Nice.
Very typical conversation.
And I'm surprised there's not a lost and found.
What do they do with the things that come across their desk, right?
Yeah, it sounds like they just go to the desk and that's the lost and found.
Maybe they don't have a specific box or anything.
Exactly.
But yeah, so it started off and you said, I'm missing some, right?
So we said you could say I'm missing a or missing some earmuffs, and then asking have you seen any earmuffs around here?
Exactly.
Exactly.
And then I said, are you sure they're not under the desk?
Right.
Asking about the location, which is another strategy.
You push them a little bit more to try a little harder.
Right.
Yeah.
What do you think, Michelle?
No, because, yeah, sometimes the person might be busy.
It's always...
I mean honestly, like even when somebody asks you for help looking for something, it's a little distracting.
It's a little like you know, unless it's right there, it's kind of you feel like I don't know where they are.
Like, you know.
You're such a New Yorker.
Yeah.
I don't know, lady.
Just leave me alone.
No, I...
No, I mean, you want to be helpful, of course, but if you, I guess if the person is working, you know, sometimes it can just be like okay, I don't really have time to like look all around.
So you, like Lindsay said, like you might have to push them a little bit.
Yes.
Yeah, totally.
I agree.
You need to push them a little bit more and just, you know, that it's worth it.
Or maybe ask if you can come back later when they have a little when it's a little less busy.
Maybe don't go in at the height of lunchtime in Midtown when everyone's at work.
Right.
That's going to be a really busy time for the people working at a restaurant, for example.
Right.
Or a bookstore.
True, true, true.
So yeah, are you sure they're not on the desk and then under the desk?
And then you said, is there a lost and found I can check?
Okay, so you're asking if there's like a specific place?
Yeah.
And then I said, you asked, what do they look like?
And I said, they're green with black stripes.
So get pretty detailed here, guys.
Give those details.
And we can do other episodes, Michelle, in the future about how to describe clothing more.
That would be good.
Or how to describe items, right?
Shapes.
Oh, yeah.
That would be good.
That would be cool.
So then you said, can I leave you my phone number in case they turn up?
And there's that phrasal verb again.
That's that winning phrasal verb.
And guys remember, if you're using the iOS or Android app, that's probably going to be highlighted right Michelle, as a key word in the transcripts, which you will be able to see if you're a member.
And you'll be able to save that turn up word into your personal list so you'll never forget it.
You'll always remember that it's there as an option for you.
Michelle, what's the takeaway for our listeners?
All right, guys, when you lose something, try and retrace your steps.
When you have to ask, be specific.
And it's okay to ask in a couple different ways, or you know, you might have to push your way through a little bit to really get some good help.
Yeah.
And then the other thing is you can always leave and give your contact info just in case.
Yeah.
I mean, the point here, guys, this is a moment.
I think this reminds me a little bit Michelle, of the episode we did where, if you get to the grocery store and your discount doesn't run up, what do you do?
Do you walk away?
Do you not even bring it up?
Or do you stand up for yourself and try to get what you deserve, right?
And it's a similar situation here because this item might be important to you or someone else.
So have the confidence to walk up and ask about it, right?
That's the key.
And that's how we feel better about ourselves.
Confidence begets more confidence, right?
And that will be good.
Yeah, I love it.
That's true.
And you know, then also, I mean, we can do another episode about this later.
Then if they if you don't receive a call about something, you can always call and follow up.
So maybe we could do an episode on like, okay, what would that phone call look like?
Because you might not hear from them, they might have lost your number or whatever.
So that's an important step as well.
I love it.
I love it.
It's all about confidence, Michelle.
Thanks for hanging out today.
This has been great.
All right, Lindsay.
Good luck with those water bottles.
Thank you.
I'll try and keep track of them.
Take care.
Bye.
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