This is an all ears English podcast. Episode 2 ,403 don't let your English go downhill.
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Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City USA to get real -time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list try the all ears English app for iOS and Android start your 7 -day free trial at all ears English calm forward slash app A common conversation topic is the quality of our favorite restaurant, movie theater, or coffee shop and more.
Today, learn what to say when the quality of something is declining in English.
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Hello, Lindsey, how are you?
Excellent, Michelle.
What's going on in your world today?
Everything is good.
Everything is good.
Lindsay, has any thing or any place that you have that you've really liked gone downhill recently?
I would actually say my hometown's gone downhill a little bit.
Well, I haven't been back in a couple years.
But it did. But yeah, a little town in Southern or Southwestern New Hampshire, kind of with some industry left the town and I did notice a difference, Michelle, when I went back there around the pandemic.
Yeah, yeah. Sort of downtown stores boarded up, you know, places out of business, not a total destruction, but just I've seen the changes.
It used to be a more bustling, cute little small city, small town in New England.
That's too bad. Yeah, it is kind of too bad.
What about you? Have you seen anything go downhill?
I I'm just thinking just based on kind of your example.
It just made me think of some of the shopping malls so we you know the you can always kind of see when stores clothes start to close and you're thinking oh things have gone downhill at that Mall and Like the mall where I grew up.
I mean, I didn't grow up in the mall, but at the mall near where I grew up.
It started to go downhill and eventually it closed down.
So that was just what made me, what you said made me think of that.
Yeah. This is an interesting expression, go downhill because it's an important conversation.
There are, you know and it's not always just about cities and towns being in decline.
It could even be, honestly well, one thing that comes to mind is the recipe of Girl Scout cookies has gone downhill to me.
Have you, did you buy girl scout cookies this year?
I don't know if you bought the cookies.
I didn't personally buy them, but my husband did buy them for his office for something.
But I didn't eat them.
Have you heard like the talk on the street about the Thin Mints?
I don't know if you've heard it, but it feels like they're not as, I don't know, there's something different in them that I want more of them than when I was a kid.
And now just the taste is not as satisfying anymore.
And I've had this conversation, it's not just in my head.
Girl Scout Cookies.
So we're not just talking about cities and towns in decline, we can talk about a lot of things to express your opinion.
You are a consumer, you have buying power.
What are the choices you're making and why?
Right? Yeah, exactly.
So today we're going to talk about how to say something doesn't have, isn't as good quality as it used to be.
Yes. So we're going to get into that in just a second but first we want to say thank you so much Those who have left us a review, Lindsay, what do we want to say?
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Go. Thank you so much. It really means a lot.
It does. Absolutely All right, Michelle, let's get deeper into this.
I love that today, you know, we're honing in on this phrase go downhill Yeah, and this came up because a friend of mine said I used to love this coffee shop, but I don't know what happened.
It went downhill, yes, yes, Lindsay.
Is this something you say?
Would you describe something as having gone downhill?
Yeah, I think it is more commonly used when you talk about maybe restaurants, locations, neighborhoods, towns, cities, but products too.
The quality of the coffee is gone downhill.
the service has gone downhill, the ice cream, the taste of the ice cream has gone, yeah, absolutely I do, Michelle.
Yes. Yeah, I mean this, it makes me think of a lot when a place gets new management.
You ever go to a new restaurant and something is a little bit different and then you find out that they have new owners and you're like, ah, that's what.
Well actually, yeah.
And actually, yeah.
So there's something, a phenomenon that's going on right now in corporate America, or in everyday America, is that private equity companies are buying a lot of like mom and pop businesses, like family -owned businesses, right?
And so, for example, my vet's office was bought, I think it was bought by a private equity company.
And sometimes these companies make it better, but often it's looking to save money around the margins, reduce labor.
So that's where we might see that.
This is coming now in carwashes, vet offices, and a number of other sort of service -based businesses that can be systematized.
So it's something that I always have my radar out for and I look to change my provider or I try to think about that, but then you're always like, oh, my vet's office is right down the street.
So, I better keep going.
You know, sometimes you just do it for the convenience.
I know, yeah, I mean, so this is a lot of times is what happens and this is, so to say that something has gone downhill, it means the quality has diminished as you guys can tell by, based on what we're talking about.
But it's disappointing when that happens.
For me, there was a certain, I'm not a huge shopper, but there was a certain clothing store that I used to like and they always had really bright colors and I just, I loved, I like to wear bright colors and then I feel like it went downhill like the colors, it's drab and boring whenever I look in there.
It's not for me anymore.
But could that just be the changing colors of the season or the style, because I know in the pandemic there were a lot of bright colors.
Like a lot of bright yellows, pinks, my shirt that I...
I bought a lot of bright colors then and now I feel like a lot of stores do show those more muted tones.
Do you think that's just the styles or do you think that's the store?
Yeah, I don't know.
It seems to me that the store has like made a particular decision to kind of change.
Interesting. I don't know.
It just feels very different to me, not even – I mean I'm not like out there serving different stores and I'm not such a – I don't know the styles.
I don't know anything about that.
It just seemed to me like to be a very stark shift. Okay.
Yeah. But I mean it could just be the style.
But to me, it went downhill.
It's not somewhere that I am excited.
I used to see this place and I would say, oh, I can't wait to go in and look at stuff and now I see it, and I just kind of walk by.
So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love that. Yeah, I mean, so clothing is a good example, service businesses, food quality, drink quality, coffee, towns and cities.
Those are all things we talk about when we talk about going downhill, right?
Right, and at all ears English, we always work so hard to make sure that the quality of this podcast doesn't go downhill, right?
It's so important. experience very consistent right we know what it feels like to listen to an episode of ollars english and we try to hold that as steady as we can for you guys that's right so let's give some more examples of how this would be used in sentences okay that restaurant has really gone downhill since the management changed yeah legitimate yeah for sure what else yep i think that tv show started going downhill after the two main characters started dating yeah or if you you could say for a franchise or a series you know you have a first movie and then there's a sequel and what do they
call the third like a what is trifle I know what's the word for like a third in a series I don't know usually I'm not sure right I don't know either but usually the first is the best and then there might be a few exceptions but then it starts to kind of like oh it's the same story recycled right right it goes downhill yeah or you could say we don't want our service to go downhill so we should make a new hire.
Excellent these are great examples right and this is a common connection skill as you're sitting in a restaurant or you're buying a coffee it's okay to make comments like this right this is a it's it's a you know it's a open market world where we make choices with our money and it's okay to comment like this okay.
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All right, Michelle, so why do things go downhill?
I mean, we hinted at this idea of what's happening in the United States is private equity is is buying out smaller mom and pop businesses, right?
That potentially have good margin, but what else?
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, maybe a store gets a little, or maybe someplace gets a little too overconfident, right?
And they don't focus on quality anymore and they just think, oh, they have their people already, they're good, and then they don't realize it, but things are slowly going downhill and eventually people are gonna notice, right?
Yeah, and that brings up the word in my mind complacency, right?
So this is a very high -level c -1 word that we should that this will be in the iOS Android app for sure So when a business becomes complacent, they just rest on their laurels and they say okay, we've been successful We built a name for ourselves and now we can kind of sit back Maybe we can save a little money around the margins.
Yep cut corners Exactly.
It's not just private equity, right?
It's yeah, if you've been in business for a while you get tired maybe you get a little tired, so and then you can be disrupted and that's what I love about kind of our economy.
There's always gonna be someone nipping at your heels.
Right, and that's a good thing for businesses.
Yeah, keep you on your toes, you gotta, you have to always keep with the quality and yes, you know, the more you try and cut corners you become I think more at risk for.
Yeah, eventually they know, the customers will notice it right?
So Michelle, what are some other ways of saying this?
Well you can say that something is not what it used to be or not what it was.
Like her music isn't what it used to be.
I think her heart isn't in it anymore.
Yes, exactly. I mean, sometimes it's just someone who's feeling nostalgic and it's not that the quality's gone down.
But people maybe like how it was done 20 years ago.
Maybe if technology's you know… If AI is being used instead of I don't know, something else.
Maybe people just liked it before.
air. Yeah. Like, like checkouts in there in a, in a grocery store.
I could see someone saying like, Oh, it's not what it used to be.
But maybe other people would say that's actually better now.
You mean the self checkout self checkout?
Yeah. What are your thoughts on the self checkout?
It's good. I don't have any issues with self checkout.
Sometimes like my groceries fall over when I'm there's no space for your bag.
And then like also when you, there's some sort of error and then you have to wait for somebody to come over.
Yeah. Yeah, honestly like I'm old school.
I feel like I would rather just go to stand in line and have somebody do it unless Unless okay.
Well if I'm with my kids like oh I can't it's very hard in any case.
So like it's easier for me to have somebody else.
Help me. Yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, I love that Oh, it's a sight it's a sight what like the my girl she has the grocery store that we've been going to has little shopping carts and she and she likes to take us around and then she and then she finds all the candy on all those and yeah, so and then oh and then my favorite thing is she has a full tiny shopping cart and I have a full cart and Then she decides she doesn't want to push her cart anymore.
Oh, yeah, then you're pushing a baby shopping cart of candy I love it, and then a big shopping cart and I'm sure and then she'll go up B and then everything Oh Michelle, wow okay, all right yeah that sounds like a challenge well I mean in terms of the checkout I just go for what's fastest where the line is not gathering you know so it's so I just want to put in that caveat sometimes it's more people are saying this in nostalgia out of nostalgia and maybe it doesn't mean the quality's gone down it just means things are being done differently, right?
Right, yep exactly so another thing that people say is something goes south or went south so even you can use this about people you can say their friendship went south after the one big fight mmm yes very interesting right so now we're talking about relationships so this is a whole other realm other aspect that does apply but do we say our friendship went downhill I guess you could say that right um I'm chip went downhill hmm I could say I might not say like our friendship went on downhill I might say something like oh everything went downhill after blah, blah, blah, right?
I don't know, but there's no reason you can't use that.
Yeah, I don't think it's incorrect.
So, these do apply to a lot of different aspects of our life which matter, which are the substance of our connections and our conversations.
Declined or deteriorated, if we want to use some high level B2C1 vocab, this can be used to talk about health, right?
Her health declined after she broke her hip.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Or, hold on, I was writing down some vocabulary words for the quality of this restaurant deteriorated, but their prices went up.
Yeah, let's pronounce that one again to make sure it's super clear.
So, the quality of this restaurant deteriorated.
Deteriorated, that's a tough one.
I need to work out, Michelle, for my job.
Oh my gosh, I feel like I need to figure that out after I pronounce that word. The quality of this restaurant deteriorated.
How many syllables is that?
it's a lot yeah so yeah but those are good ones as well so should we do a role -play Lindsey yeah Michele let's do it so here you and I are friends having lunch okay very common scenario right okay yes try this okay oh that's not very good yeah hey do you feel like this place has gone downhill kind of I mean they did get a new chef their other location is definitely not what it used to be.
Right, it's too bad, I loved this place.
Even the quality of the coffee has declined.
I guess we shouldn't come anymore.
Yeah, it's definitely gone south.
Let's go somewhere else next time.
Sounds good. Oh, yeah.
They just lost customers, didn't they?
Oh, not good, really hard, really hard. So here we used a few of our expressions, so you said, yeah, you gave me something to taste, right?
So we're doing the taste test, right, the taste test. can't fight with the taste test. And then you said, hey, do you feel like this place has gone downhill?
And then you said their other location is definitely, their other location is definitely not what it used to be.
Yes. And then I said, even the quality of the coffee has declined.
And then I said, it's definitely gone south.
Yes. Now this is a common, and it doesn't have to be all negative, because it actually could be the genesis of finding something new, finding something better, and we do this.
We have our regular, you know the expression, to have a haunt, your haunts, your regular haunt.
I love that one, also a really high level vocab.
The places you like to go, your haunts.
We have our haunts, the places we visit, but maybe we change those to keep life vibrant and interesting, and maybe we do it based on what tastes good, or what's good, Whereas good is service good?
It's normal, all right?
Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, this has been fun, Lindsay.
I also wanna direct our listeners to episode 2398.
That was how to choose your words for connection with Marcy Axelrod.
That's a great episode.
I love when we have guest episodes on the show because our guests really open our eyes to how we could change certain words that we're using on a daily basis and how our words have such impact on the message we're conveying.
Guys, so go listen to that episode and Michelle, what's our takeaway for today?
Oh, man, guys, if you are a business owner or anybody who produces something, try to always make sure that you pay attention to the quality and don't get too complacent, right?
But yeah, these words are really good.
I mean, it's sad to talk about things that aren't good anymore, right?
But it's a fact of life that we do discuss And so these are now you know how to do it.
I think it's normal.
I mean, a big portion of our conversations are often about our choices in the market.
What kind of food do we buy?
Where do we go to eat?
What what movie theater do we go to?
how comfy are the seats in the movie theater.
So this is going to be a huge, huge portion of your connection conversations.
I love it. So good.
Absolutely. All right.
Good stuff, Michelle.
I'll see you back here in the show very soon, guys.
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