This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2151.
By the way, are you making this English mistake?
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Lindsay's tour guide in Portugal kept making one mistake when he used the term, by the way.
Find out what the mistake was and what to say instead in today's episode.
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Hello, Michelle.
How's it going today?
Hey, Lindsay.
Good, good, good.
I'm feeling getting back to myself.
I was sick.
I hope I don't know.
Can you actually can you hear it in my voice?
A little bit, but you're not too bad.
You're not too bad.
Not too bad.
Good.
Good.
Anyway, how are you?
I'm good.
I just came off a trip to Florida, South Florida, which is an interesting place.
I will say that.
But my favorite part is there were gators, lots of gators, alligators everywhere, Michelle.
Yeah.
Oh, I know.
I've seen sometimes in Florida.
There are some places that I've been in Florida actually, that I'll have to give you the names if you ever make it down to, if you make it down there again, where you can see a lot of great nature, a lot of great wildlife.
Oh, my gosh.
The Everglades.
It's just it really is a truly fertile environment down there.
It's just incredible.
All the different kinds of snakes and spiders and gators and and birds.
It's amazing.
Oh my gosh yeah, oh my, i recommend for our listeners to go.
But let's move on to something really interesting.
We learned something really key about our audience.
What is it okay?
Well, you guys are like me and lindsay.
Um so guys, we recently did we've been doing these really fun spotify polls um, where you can interact with us.
We give you a question so we have some results.
Um, on episode 21, that was how to use a strong idiom to share your identity in English.
Okay, so guys, if you haven't listened to that one, go back and listen to it.
But the question we asked was, what would you rather do on a Saturday night?
And the options were watch movies in your pajamas or dance until 3 a.m.
So Lindsay, what did our listeners say?
Well, I feel like we, you and me, are really in solidarity with our listeners here.
I've learned a lot about our listeners.
So it turns out that 90% of you would rather watch movies in our pajamas.
And 10% would rather dance until 3 a.m.
So that is fascinating.
That is fascinating.
I feel validated now, Michelle.
I feel like we have to have an all ears English slumber party now.
Maybe at our fluency parties, we'll all have to show up in our pajamas, right?
Oh, that's a fun idea.
Yeah.
Fluency parties are for our students and our courses.
That would be fun.
Maybe in February or March, we'll make it a slumber party.
Yeah.
And with a stuffed animal.
Yes.
Bring a stuffed animal.
Pillified.
Virtual pillified.
So fun.
So guys, thank you for participating in that poll.
If you missed that episode, Go back.
You can always add your voice to that poll.
It's still live.
Go back to 2114, how to use a strong idiom to share your identity in English.
And Michelle, what else should our listeners do before we start today?
All right.
Yes.
Be sure to hit follow wherever you are listening to the All Ears English podcast.
Hit that follow button.
Have the episodes come to you.
All right.
I love it.
So where are we starting today?
Today's episode is truly based on a real experience I had about a month ago.
Yeah well, so you were recently in portugal right, did you take any?
Did you take any tours?
I know you mostly like like, we're very much um, you and i don't like uh, necessarily the typical tourist things right, but do you still take tours when you travel?
Yeah, we do fun tours.
We do like food tours where there's only five local and you're taking all over the city.
We also love, of course, wine tours.
I mean, portugal is pretty known for its wine.
And so we wanted to do a tour of the Douro Valley.
And so it was a small group.
I think there were about eight of us.
It included lunch and all these things.
And we went to two or three wineries in the Douro Valley in Portugal.
Wow, that's amazing.
So what were what was your experience like?
Because you you shared something with me that was a little bit interesting.
Well, I was really impressed with the English of my guide.
Our guide was fantastic.
His English was very, very high level.
Sounded like he had a little bit of an Irish accent or a British accent.
I think he maybe learned English there.
And so, of course, I always pay attention to language, right?
But one pattern that I noticed right away that I want to help our listeners we today, are going to help our listeners to understand why this he was making this mistake and how to avoid it was that he was actually using the phrase by the way.
He was overusing the phrase, by the way Michelle, and using it in the wrong context.
Okay.
Okay.
So yeah.
Tell me more.
Like how was he using it?
Yeah.
So he pretty much.
You know, on a wine tour, there are a lot of moments in which you're tasting, maybe you're eating some olive oil and bread which, by the way, the olive oil in Portugal is awesome too.
You're eating, you're tasting, you're wandering the vines and things like that.
And then there's a time when the guide has to bring you back together.
And almost every single time we're making an announcement, he would say and by the way guys, and by the way guys, and by the way guys I felt like this was an overuse of the term, by the way.
Okay.
So was he using it in the wrong way also, or was it just kind of his thing that he yeah, this is really nuanced right.
So this today's episode is for our super high level listeners yeah, for anyone, but eventually everyone will get there.
The problem with that was that, by the way, is meant to be more of a transition.
It's not meant to be a way to gather people to gather and start an announcement.
OK, to get people's attention.
He was using it as a way to get people's attention and bring the group together and say to listen to him.
That was the problem.
So I started to hear it so much.
I'm thinking the use is not exactly correct.
Interesting.
So so, like if the group was busy or not paying attention, or something.
He would just say like by the way.
Yeah, kind of.
By the way, guys.
Yeah.
Busy, not paying attention or kind of more, so to bring us together to transition the tour into the next moment of the tour.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
And, by the way, is more of like kind of an aside to it's just it's, that's what that's.
That was the problem.
That's why it felt kind of glaring to me.
It's more of an aside.
It's something you add on in addition.
And by the way, exactly.
Yeah.
Oh, and by the way.
Yeah.
So it seems subtle, but it's actually kind of a big mistake.
It worked, though.
Obviously, we understood him.
So guys, connection, not perfection.
He got a great review from us and a nice tip, and we love the tour.
So this is not about any problem, but we want you guys to go higher and higher, closer to that native fluency level, right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
So Guys, you might find yourself in a situation where you want to address a group.
It doesn't have to be that you're a tour guide, but this could be anything, really for anything.
I mean for teachers guides parents, even just in your social life.
You need to get people's attention.
So at work, this could also be good.
So we are going to give you some ways to do this today.
And we can also do a follow-up on different ways to use by the way.
But today we're going to teach you what could this guide have said and what could you guys say in a similar situation.
Exactly, Michelle.
So this is what we're going to get into today.
Okay Michelle, I am excited to get right into this to give our listeners some other options, because it's not just the incorrect use of by the way, it's also the repetitive use of by the way, right.
So we wanna give you guys three or four options to how you would gather together a group to get people's attention.
That won't be so repetitive.
Anytime we're repeating something over and over and over, it's gonna bore people a little bit right.
Yeah, and we all have our quirks and we've talked about that on the show before.
So it's always good to kind of if somebody tells you oh, you say this all the time, or I hear this all the time, you know, maybe you just want to think about that and think OK, what are some other things I could throw in?
Because it happens to all of us.
Right, right, right.
And there's a difference.
Sometimes there's some personality markers.
I always say, what's shaken?
What's shaken?
At the top of the show, it's kind of my personality.
It's kind of fun.
I think I say, I'm good.
I'm good.
But I'm good.
And that's fine.
But this is just another thing to add to your English here, guys.
Another way to connect.
So let's get into it, Michelle.
Where do we start today?
Okay.
So the first one is, listen up.
Okay.
So, for example, listen up.
The bathrooms are over there.
Meet back at the bus in 15 minutes.
Yeah, I like that.
So sometimes, especially if you're like a guide for like a teenage group, this kind of has a note of a bit more authority or that you have to really wrangle people a little bit more.
Wouldn't you say like when you're guiding children or teenagers, you could do it for adults, too.
Right.
But it feels a little more what forward.
Right.
Yeah, it does.
It does feel more like, okay, I'm the authority.
I'm, you know, like, let's get going.
So listen up.
That would be for more of that kind of a situation.
So, or you could say something like, listen up.
This is a wait, hold on.
No, no, no, no.
That's the next one.
No, you could say, listen up.
The bathrooms are over there.
Meet back at the boss in 15 minutes, as we said, right?
So I like that. one.
So that's good.
When maybe there's a clear age gap between you and who you're speaking with, I would say
And I know in some cultures, those age gaps are more important than others.
But anytime you're wrangling teenagers or kids, you're going to want to use a little more authoritative right.
Right.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
So what's the next one, Lindsay?
This is a little longer.
You could say this is really important.
So you're going to want to pay attention.
I like this because this sounds smart.
It sounds like you're flagging something and it's delivering a lot of information, instead of just saying you know, listen to me, listen to me.
Right.
Why they should listen to you.
So it's smart.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You might catch some more ears this way because you're signaling to them.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's not just about me.
I want to hear myself talk or I'm going to, you know, yell at you for something more explaining.
Okay.
This is key.
Okay.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
So what would be an example of that one, Michelle?
You could say something like, this is really important.
So you're going to want to pay attention.
We all have to be on the train by 10.
So start packing up your things.
Yeah.
And, of course again, if you're you know, if you're doing a wine tour, you're talking to adults.
You might say so please start packing up your things.
Or so you may want to begin packing up your things.
We can dress this up or dress it down.
Yes.
Depending on the power difference in terms of really age and authority, I would say.
Right.
Right.
Yes.
Exactly.
And what's the next one, Lindsay?
Okay.
I have an announcement, right?
This is different still, right?
So I have an announcement.
The test will be four pages long.
Okay.
Good.
But this could be good for the tour guide too, you know?
I have an announcement.
I just heard from the restaurant where the group has reservations and they are running a Enjoy the scenery for another 15 minutes.
Totally.
The key here is variety.
Yeah, what would have been really good.
And again, I love the tour is fantastic.
No complaints, but just to make the English even better, variety would have been the key, because I think the number of times that I heard, by the way, by the way guys and by the way guys was a number of times where it just started to lose its meaning.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Speaking of interesting, what's the next one?
Okay.
This is good because so you could say this is extremely interesting and I could have seen him.
There was a moment in the tour where he pulled this aside and taught us about the cork tree.
So you would think it's happening in cork England, but it's happening in Portugal is that cork is a big export in Portugal and there's a cork tree um and, like they're you know, it's in high demand right now.
A lot of crafts are being made from it.
That would be a good place to do that.
This is extremely interesting.
Let me tell you about the cork tree and how portuguese have used it over the centuries.
Right right right right, exactly.
So even at work, you could say something like this is extremely interesting.
Our team actually has a chance to win first place.
So yeah, Just note the differences between all of these ones we've done.
Some of them, like Listen Up and I Have an Announcement, they're more glaring, okay?
More logistical, right?
Right, exactly.
The other ones are also good for grabbing attention, but in a different kind of way.
It's not as obvious.
It's not as straightforward.
It's just... you know, like if you are a tour guide, that is a way to get attention.
This is extremely interesting.
The trees here are, you know, so your guide could have said that as well.
So yeah, very useful.
That's a good point, Michelle.
So for our listeners who actually do do tour guiding or any kind of situation where you need to make announcements to groups and get your attention, make a column as your homework for today's episode.
Make two columns.
One is logistical announcements where I listen up the ones that are more logistical.
I have an announcement and then make a column where the ones are more informational, where you want people, you just want them to listen because it's going to be good for them.
You have something interesting to share.
So make two columns and write out these plus a few more, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Perfect.
I think that that's a really good distinction.
I mean, the idea is to get attention in an interesting way.
They have to know that something important is about to be said.
And, you know, in general, try and avoid the repetition.
But, Lindsay, I mean, have you ever had any really memorable tour guides on trips?
Oh, yeah.
We've had a lot of characters, a lot of interesting interactions and tour guides.
I love international tours because...
Things collide, cultures collide, values collide.
Food is everywhere.
I mean, especially the food tours.
It's just.
Yes, we've had some interesting situations with like differences in the amount of eye contact.
That's kind of expected.
We've had, yeah, we've done food tours in Paris, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Egypt.
We do them every time we travel.
So, yes, I've got those for sure.
Yeah.
I like food tours too.
And just, you know, I always do – I like to do like a free walking tour.
Yeah, we did.
Let's see.
Yes, we did do one in Paris.
We did do one in London.
Those are really fun.
I really do like tours.
It's funny.
As a kid, I hated them.
Me too.
You know, as a kid, you can't appreciate them.
Me too.
Yeah yeah right, it's like, oh my gosh, why would i?
And now i'm like oh, the tour yeah, the chance to learn the history, and especially when i also love ghost tours because you learn a lot of history.
I think we've talked about that on the show.
So ghost tours, food tours or free walking tours, all great.
I mean, that's what i want to do when i travel.
I want to learn about history, i want to learn about food and culture.
So yes 100, definitely.
I remember when so, when i was a kid um, we did a trip to actually London and Paris with my family.
And I still remember the name of the tour guide.
His name was Tony.
Tony the tour guide.
And my family and I.
We still joke about it, because he would always say something like oh, this is how you get to the bathroom.
And then he would give the most complicated directions turn left here, turn right here, go up the stairs, go down.
And it was so like, everybody would just have this face of like, what did you just say?
I don't, that's so many directions.
And then he would always say, it's, it's really quite simple.
It's actually quite simple.
Oh, that's funny.
So we still say that sometimes just about things.
We'll say it's actually quite simple.
And it's, do you ever think about that?
Like You know, there's this guy, this tour guide, and he doesn't know that.
You know he's still in my like how people can stick with you in your life or how you can talk about it.
And yeah, for sure.
People make an impression on us.
That's totally for sure.
And to be at the level in English you know, for example, our guide, any of our guides in these countries.
To be able to give an entire tour in English is pretty incredible.
You know, I want to acknowledge that.
You know, that's amazing.
And so guys, this is really just about refining our English and moving to connection, moving to fluency.
There is connection to be had here.
But when we start kind of repeating words that also don't really make sense in that context, it kind of it doesn't sever the connection, but it works in the opposite direction.
That's what I would say, Michelle.
Right.
Right, right.
Exactly.
Oh, this was good.
This is a lot of fun.
I felt like I was on vacation.
Yeah, so fun.
So fun.
Well, I know you're going to do a little traveling coming up soon, Michelle.
So maybe you'll have some stories for us when you come back.
I'm excited to hear those.
Yes.
So, Lindsay, what's the takeaway for today?
I mean, that is it.
Like I said, make sure that the words you're using, especially transitions, make sense where they're being used and then have variety in what you're saying, you know.
Yeah, good words, good expressions to share logistics and make sure people hear you, and good words expressions to share interesting information where it's more hey, you should really listen to me because this is going to be cool.
Yeah.
Right.
So have phrases that serve slightly different purposes.
OK.
Yeah, I think I think that was really good.
I'm glad that you drew that distinction for our listeners, because that is that is huge.
And it's a really good way to think about it and give some variety rather than saying the same thing over and over.
I love it.
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Good stuff.
All right.
Okay, Lindsay, have a great day.
Good stuff, Michelle.
Talk soon.
Bye.
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