This is an all ears English podcast episode 24 17 are your feet cold how to talk about nerves in English Welcome to the all ears English podcast Downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not perfection with your American hosts, Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
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One amazing way to connect is to share details of big moments in life when you got nervous before the event.
Things like your wedding, moving abroad or taking a new job.
Today find out how to articulate this universal feeling in English.
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Either Michelle, how are you today?
I'm good, Lindsey. see, I have a question for you.
Okay, all right. I'm ready.
Do you wear socks to sleep?
Oh no. Unless I'm camping and it's freezing, I do not like to wear socks in my bed.
What about you? Are you a socks to bed person?
I am. They have to be the fuzzy like they have to be comfy, fuzzy socks.
I think it, and it doesn't matter how hot it is.
Um, I, and that's all I think I like to sleep very encased in things.
Like, I like the, I like the socks.
I like an eye mask.
I like, do you like sleeping bags?
Do you like sleeping bags being in a sleeping bag?
Um, I haven't been in a sleeping bag in, I don't know the last time I was okay.
I think that, but I'm okay with a sleeping bag.
Yeah. But so, um, yeah, I do like that feeling.
Um, so I think that's part of the reason I wear socks to sleep, but I know that probably most people don't know.
I'm more, I like to be kind of more loose.
I like, I don't like to have my, I don't like to be constrained or constricted.
Uh, I hate being in a sleeping bag and I like to have my feet kind of out on top of the blanket.
So my feet don't get cold, but it sounds like maybe your feet get cold when you sleep.
My feet do get cold when I sleep.
And guys, I just want to let you know that we are going to find out more about you guys Through a Spotify poll that we'll do at the end of the episode.
So as we like to interact with you on Spotify So at the end of the episode, we will share the poll question and yeah Then then we'll get to hear from you and interact with you All right So if you're not listening on Spotify, you might want to consider that so that you can participate in these polls All right.
So cold feet is something I mentioned I asked you if your feet get cold, right?
so you need to wrap them up.
And this is what we're talking about today, a very useful idiom for our listeners, but are we talking, is this related to sleeping at all, Michelle?
No, not related, and we're not even, we're talking about this more metaphorically.
I do get cold feet, actually, literally, my feet get cold, but we're not talking about that today.
What does it mean to get cold feet?
Well, this means to get nervous about something or to second -guess a choice before you have to do the thing or make the decision?
This is used a lot of times at weddings, right?
What do you talk about, the bride or the groom getting cold feet, having second thoughts on the day of or the day before?
There's so many weddings.
So many movies, Michelle Rom com is based on this idea.
Well, there's a runaway bride, the classic.
Oh, yes, exactly. Yeah.
So that that's to me when I hear to get cold feet.
I think most people just immediately think of, of a wedding.
Yeah, runaway has any wedding.
But yeah. So for example, he doesn't know if he wants to go through with the wedding, but I know he just has cold feet.
Mm hmm. Yes. Or Oh no, I'm getting cold feet.
This is, this is the right guy for me, right?
Yeah, these are, I think we often do, we do think about, about weddings for sure.
And Michelle, before we go any further in the episode, I do wanna remind our listeners to hit the follow button right here on the podcast, guys.
Hit follow on the podcast, to make sure you get every episode of All Ears English, all right?
Yes, good. All right, so, but if we're not using it for weddings, I mean, do we use it in other contexts?
Yeah, we can. It's really about any big change that you're going to be making, or any big step you're taking.
Now, the first thing that comes to mind for me, Michelle, is maybe going to college.
We've talked a lot on this show about the transition from high school into college for 18, if you're 18, maybe usually 18, 19, leaving home.
Did you get cold feet before you moved into your freshman dorm?
Yeah. I mean, I got cold feet before, during the whole thing.
It was a rough transition for me.
I think I've talked about it.
How about you? I mean, because you were going farther from home.
How did you feel? I went really far from home.
I was 500 miles from home, so it's not like I could just drive home in an hour or two.
Right. Yeah, I also had a hard time transitioning.
I had a hard time saying goodbye to my parents.
You're just 18, 19 years old and you've never really lived away from home at that time.
So, yeah, I'll admit in freshman year, first semester was pretty rough.
It was hard. But I had tennis.
I was busy with tennis all the time.
So that helped. It kept me distracted.
Yeah. The key was to stay busy.
I remember I would always wake up in the morning and I would have like a racing heart because I realized like I wasn't in my bed.
So I would call my mom and I remember she would say, just get out and take a walk.
Once you start getting out and moving, then you start to feel better.
That's good advice from your mind.
It's a profound life change.
So it's really cold feet happens during these life transitions.
A new job, a new class, maybe you've chosen to learn something new or in college, you're taking a harder class and you're worried about it.
A promotion, right?
That first day in your new position or getting together with a new friend maybe.
What would this look like, Michelle?
Maybe you met someone and ...
You met – maybe you met someone you seemed to get along with them, but this is the first time you're going to be getting coffee together and you are not sure if the conversation is going to flow or you're just a little nervous and… Yeah.
I mean, for our listeners, they know this.
As an adult, it's not easy always to make new friends, right?
We're busy. We have families.
We have work. We have life.
And so, when you take that risk of making a new friend and meeting them for coffee, yeah, you might get a little nervous even if you're 40 years old, right?
totally normal. Sure.
Yeah, I mean, Lindsay, are there any recent times that you can think of getting cold feet?
Yeah, well I mean, even last night, I feel like every time I go back to my tango class, I get cold feet because I always think, oh what if I mess up the steps today and I feel silly and I second -guess myself sometimes, you know.
I get a little nervous for my tango class, to be honest. And your feet, by the end I hope they're warm from all the dance moves.
Yeah. They owe her.
I had a great time last night.
There you go. For me, I would say I'm moving.
I had a big move this year, and I was definitely getting cold feet right beforehand.
I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it, so I was getting cold feet for sure.
That makes total sense, and again, life transitions.
The example of the tango class is a very mild cold feet, but usually this happens around big life transitions.
A move is a, is a good one.
Good example. Right.
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Alright, Michelle, let's see, are there other ways to say this?
We might say something different, right?
Yeah, there's some really good ones.
So one is to have second thoughts.
It's a great one. It's a great one.
For example, I'm having second thoughts about starting school again.
It is a huge undertaking.
Oh my gosh, yes. If you were out in the working world, you decided to go back to graduate school, you definitely might have second thoughts.
That's right. I know that I had second thoughts when I landed in Japan for when I moved there in my 20s to go teach English.
You show up in the airport in Narita and you're just exhausted and you're like, where am I?
What am I even doing?
I'm going to move to Japan for a year and a half?
What was I thinking?
right? These are tiny feet.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Exactly. Or to chicken out.
So this one's a little bit different.
It's a little more casual and funny, but you could say, I know you're scared, but don't chicken out.
We need you on the team.
And we could do a whole episode on to chicken out so.
Well, yeah. And we could also explain the phrase, like a game of chicken, You know what?
I mean people I think right now things are happening There's a game of chicken going on with the world economy, which is crazy Now stay tuned for an episode about chicken no really I know because it is true that these are good those are good Okay, so chicken out good one to have doubts a little more serious expression, right but it's not exactly even an expression it's just I'm having doubts or I've been having doubts as to whether this is the right move for me professionally, right?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, Lindsey what do you do when you feel like you might be having second thoughts, do you go with your intuition, do you just try to ignore your cold feet?
Yeah, I think that second thoughts can be dangerous because usually I think through my decisions.
I made the decision to move to Japan because I know it was the right decision to me.
For me, I wanted to live abroad.
I wanted to get experience working abroad.
So I try not to listen to my cold feet.
I try to just move forward. If I, imagine if I had canceled that I would have lost a huge part of my life due to cold feet.
So I usually don't listen to my cold feet.
I keep moving forward. Deanna That's good and you know what?
I was thinking about this with our listeners.
I'm sure that they can identify this, this feeling of having cold feet with English, right?
Being nervous about going up to someone, enrolling in a class, you know, just doing something, taking some risk with their English for sure.
Yeah. I think we should ask a poll question about when people, if this one would be for our listeners who are, who are married because I mean, I'm curious about if people experienced this and your spouse doesn't need to know, right?
You could just go ahead and vote.
Let's ask this question, Michelle.
So this is our poll for today.
If you are married, right.
Did you get cold feet before your wedding?
Yes or no. So that will be our poll question for today.
I feel like that kind of speaks to the depth of this, of this phrase.
Okay. That's going to be fun to say the answer.
I'll say I did not get cold feet.
I knew that the person I was marrying was the right person for me, but you know, sometimes we do.
It happens and I'm curious what percentage of our listeners did.
Yes. I didn't get cold feet either.
That was right. I was fine.
Um, alright, let's do a roleplay.
Here we go. Uh, we are friends and you are supposed to go bungee jumping tomorrow.
Oh my god. Would you go bungee jumping, Lindsey?
I really don't think I would, to be honest. I just don't need it.
I don't need it. Yeah.
Alright. Here we go.
Alright. Are you excited?
Ah, I think I'm getting cold feet.
But you've been wanting to do this for forever.
I know, but I'm having doubts, it's so scary.
when I did that I was scared I thought it'd chicken out but I went for it and I'm glad I did maybe you're right it's normal to have second thoughts you can do it you're right I'm gonna just go for it nice yeah when I was in Slovenia I shared I was up at the top of a mountain where they were doing parasailing and I saw a lady take off and I saw her freak out and almost messed up the jump because she got so scared as they were coming off the cliff so I was like I I don't need to do this.
Nope, don't need to do it.
Nothing like this. Yeah, I don't know.
Those things freak me out.
But definitely something like getting cold feet, that can for sure happen if you're about to do skydiving, bungee jumping, even getting on a big roller coaster, cause somebody cold feet.
Yes, exactly. So this is a very typical role play, sorry, typical conversation.
Let's go through what we said here, Michelle.
So again I was supposed to go bungee jumping tomorrow and you asked me if I was excited and I said I think I'm getting cold feet right yes and then I'm kind of saying really?
But you've wanted to do this for forever and you said I know but I'm having doubts it's so scary and I think this is kind of a normal thing to get cold feet before before you do it right if you don't I think maybe I don't know you're just not thinking or something.
Who wouldn't get cold feet?
That would be crazy not to, kind of.
You'd be flying through the air and then you said when I did it I was scared I thought I'd chicken out but I went for it.
So you thought that you would back out, you would cancel your adventure.
Yeah and then I said it's normal to have second thoughts you can do it.
Nice great episode today.
Very important phrase when we talk I mean that's the connection skill for today is when you have conversations about the big moments in your life many of these moments are going to include a slight second of maybe or maybe many minutes or hours of oh my gosh I'm doing the wrong thing should I really move forward. I think this is great to connect with people to share your stories of your wedding day of when you went to college You moved abroad These are big moments of life.
Yeah, and it's a very human feeling and everybody can relate to it and you know Share share how they felt in a time when they were a little bit freaked out to do something.
It's so true Michelle I love when on the show we find these very Universal human feelings and emotions and then we can articulate them in English to build this connection with someone so good.
Yeah Yeah, love it.
All right guys check out episode 23 92 for another episode English vocabulary that will help you speak your mind.
Very nice. That's it for today, Michelle.
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All right, Michelle, you have a good week.
Talk to you soon. Alright.
Alright. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye, guys. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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