This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2494.
Avoid making rash decisions with your English vocabulary.
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 host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglishcom.
Forward slash subscribe.
Have you ever made a rash decision that you didn't think through?
We all have today.
Build the connection skill of sharing your mistakes and decisions that you would do differently if you could do them again.
Listen in today.
Do you feel frustrated when you're not sure if people understand your English?
Do they look at you with a blank face sometimes?
You can get on the right path to end this confusion when you know your English level.
Is it B1, B2 or C1?
Find out at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.
Take our free quiz.
That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E.
Hey there, Aubrey.
How's it going today?
How are you doing?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good.
Happy to be on the mic, but I do have a question so our listeners can get to know you here.
All right.
So would you say that you are an impulsive person or not so much?
Sometimes.
I can be impulsive.
Sometimes I like to do things last minute.
I'll have a fun idea and just go with it.
But not always.
Sometimes I really like to plan in advance.
So I'm a mix of both.
What about you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
For me, like when I travel, I like to have a mix, you know, it's good to have some sponsor.
It's like you have a base activity of the day but then you fill in the white space.
You know you want to be flexible.
Whatever comes up, you want to go for it.
What I would say in turn for me, like in terms of, like my big decisions in life, like you know, big things, I am not impulsive.
Like I think through things very, very clearly.
I take time.
I take it seriously.
For sure.
Yeah.
Which I think is, Wise.
Yes.
We've all done that as well, where we make an impulsive decision and then regret it.
Especially like when we're in our 20s or something, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
No, that's not good.
So what is this episode inspired by today, Aubrey?
Yes.
We were recording a quiz for one of the episodes and this came up.
So this was inspired by a quick conversation we had during one of these quizzes.
And we're excited to share with you this really interesting vocabulary about impulsive decisions.
This really is a great way to connect.
Just like the conversation we just had.
I want to know this about everyone I know.
It's interesting.
It is really interesting for sure.
And guys, so sign up for the Apple subscription that we call this Apple Plus.
You do need to be listening in iOS to the Apple podcast app, but you can sign up and you will get a quiz after all four episodes of the week, right?
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
If you haven't subscribed, these are so fun.
This is one of the things I enjoy the most, writing and recording these quizzes.
There's a host question, which is kind of fun.
Host trivia.
Host trivia, exactly.
And just fun questions about the episode to test how well you understood, but also sometimes we're able to dive deeper into the interesting vocabulary that came up in the episode.
Yeah.
So it's an easy, quick sign up to get into it.
And you will.
This is a great time to do it because we're in the fall now.
And this is the time to get a new learning habit going.
So check it out.
Check it out.
All right.
OK, Aubrey.
So what are some other ways to say.
You know, what would we say?
What would be the first one?
We're going to give you five different ways that we say this today.
And then also stay to the end of the episode, because we're going to share the episode that quiz was about, because it was about indecision.
So it's sort of the vocabulary that's the opposite of today's.
You can definitely listen to these out of order.
So we'll share that episode at the end.
But our first phrase is snap decision, which means a quick choice made when time is really limited.
You often don't have time to think something out.
You have to make a snap decision.
Sometimes when I say this, I snap my fingers.
You know what I mean?
Totally.
It's like when you say snappy, I can't snap my fingers.
Actually, I know I've never been able to.
It's crazy.
Can you like blow a whistle with your fingers?
You know, gym teachers could always do that.
Oh, I can't do that either.
I can whistle pretty loudly just with my mouth, but not with my fingers.
Some people have these skills, others don't, but maybe one day.
Maybe if I worked at it hard enough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So again, a quick choice when time is limited.
Any examples here?
Yeah.
And this actually happened to me when my twins ran in opposite directions.
I had to make a snap decision about which one to chase first.
No way.
I can't imagine.
It's always like, which one is closer to traffic?
Like, where's the closest road?
Grab them first, then go for the other one.
Yeah, because there's literally no way to be in both directions, right?
Oh, of course.
Wow.
I bet a lot of our listeners have twins or kids very similar ages.
Right.
Two young children.
I'm sure you feel my pain.
Oh, my gosh.
All right.
How about this one?
With 30 seconds left, I had to make a snap decision about my answer.
So maybe there are some games that are designed around this, right?
Absolutely.
When we do our fluency parties and there are these fun English learning games we do you often have to make a snap decision.
Give an answer quickly, because there's a time limit.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Or maybe you're like on the scene of an accident and you have to make a snap decision of you know, are you going to help?
What are you going to do?
What can be done?
Yes, we're often in these kinds of situations, right?
For sure.
And quick note here don't assume that snap judgment means the same, even though the word snap is there.
It actually has a very different meaning of, like a quick opinion or conclusion that we form without really thinking it through or having all of the information.
So we're actually going to do a follow up about that and some related vocabulary.
So be sure to hit follow for part two about snap judgments and related phrases.
All right.
Sounds good.
So the next phrase, it's very similar, is spur of the moment.
And this one has a bunch of dashes in it.
Exactly.
It's all hyphenated, right?
These multi-word adjectives are usually hyphenated, because they usually do come before a noun right.
A spur of the moment decision, for example.
It's impulsive.
We make it without really thinking about it.
Yes, I love it.
So, for example, we took a spur of the moment road trip last weekend and ended up discovering a great little beach.
Yeah, it's like you weren't really planning on it.
You're like, hey, let's go on a road trip.
It's spur of the moment.
Yes, impulsive without planning or baking cookies at midnight was a spur of the moment idea.
Yeah, I do this.
My kids really like to do this.
The teenagers are like, I'm going to make cookies at like 2 a.m.
Yeah, it sounds like a teenager thing to do for sure.
Wake up to a big mess in the kitchen.
They've gotten better about cleaning up after themselves.
At first, it would be a huge mess.
We're like, we got to nip this in the bud.
That's funny.
What about a rash decision?
Is that another one we could use?
Yeah.
So a rash decision is also an impulsive choice, but there's definitely a negative connotation here.
It's like you didn't fully consider the consequences or all the facts.
There usually is some kind of negative consequence if we made a rash decision.
Yeah.
So the difference between a snap decision and a rash decision is usually it's kind of a bad decision, right?
Exactly.
It's like we didn't think it through and we probably should have.
Yeah.
And the goal is to make fewer of these decisions the older we get, right?
Exactly.
Right.
An example would be quitting school without a plan was a rash decision he later regretted.
Or she made a rash decision to buy a car without even test driving it first.
Oh, not good.
Yeah.
And it is interesting, like a quick decision that has positive consequences.
We wouldn't say this, right?
We wouldn't say she made a rash decision to buy a car and it ended up being the best car of her life.
No, there's definitely this connotation of like, it was a mistake.
For sure.
And hasty decision also kind of borders on that rash, that impulsive choice that was made, maybe dangerously, without fully considering consequences.
Right.
Exactly.
I agree.
Hasty is similar to rash, right?
It feels like we should have thought about this a little more.
So, for example, he made a hasty choice about where to live, without visiting the neighborhood first, or what else.
Or don't make a hasty decision about which job to accept.
Take your time.
Consider the pros and cons.
Right.
We're saying don't be hasty, meaning like don't just decide without considering all the facts.
Yes.
And I love the last one.
It is not thinking something through.
But usually we put this in.
You know, maybe the first person like I didn't really think that through.
Right.
Exactly.
I didn't think it through.
Yeah, yeah.
So, for example, I didn't really think it through when I invited all my friends for a Labor Day barbecue.
It ended up being a lot of work.
That was true for me just earlier this week.
It was fun, but it was a lot.
I did.
I hosted one and it ended up getting bigger and bigger, because we're like oh, we should have invited them and them, and them.
It was fun though.
But it was really fun, but it is a lot of work.
Oh, yeah.
I enjoy hosting, but it's true.
It does blow up in front of you, especially when you're like cleaning in the last 10 minutes before anyone comes and you're like oh, now I haven't started cooking yet.
There's a lot.
There's a lot.
Exactly.
More you realize like, oh, yeah, I didn't think about all this other stuff.
And then now we have to clean the backyard and there had been a huge dust storm.
So we really had to clean a lot more than we usually do.
Oh, my gosh.
Or I could see this being common when you do something physical that you don't think through.
Like, cliff jumping or something.
I know you love to do that, Aubrey, right?
I mean, yes.
And, if you like, go down and check the water and make sure other people have done it before.
Like you're thinking it through, you're checking everything out.
If you just jump without thinking it through, you could be severely injured.
Yeah, you could.
I mean, some people still do it, but yeah, for sure.
And so that's where you might quote yourself and say, oh, I didn't think that through.
Maybe I should have checked.
Right.
Or maybe getting a dog.
Right.
You might say we were so excited to adopt a new puppy, but we didn't really think it through.
Maybe you're about to leave on a three week trip.
Like and then we had to pay to kennel the dog.
Right.
There are things like we got to think all of this through.
Or for us we adopted our puppy Kiefer right at pandemic time, like right in mid-April of the pandemic.
And we didn't think it through that.
He wasn't going to get any socialization.
He was going to become under socialized because people weren't out.
People weren't socializing and we weren't even like people wearing masks outside.
So I'd walk him and he couldn't like stop and meet other dogs.
So he's kind of crazy now, but that's OK.
We blame COVID.
Yeah, we blame COVID.
So didn't think that one through.
Yeah right, hiring is not just about filling a position in your company.
It's about finding someone who will actually drive revenue or improve your business.
If you're in charge of hiring at your company, stop struggling to get your job seen on other sites.
Give your job the best chance to be seen with indeed, sponsored jobs, It makes a big difference.
According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 90 more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs, because you reach a bigger pool of quality candidates.
If I needed to hire a new blog writer to join our team here at All Ears English, I'd be super specific.
I would look for someone with two years of experience and WordPress expertise.
Indeed can deliver on these specifications.
Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.
Less stress, less time, more results.
Now with Indeed sponsored jobs.
And listeners of this show will get a 75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeedcom.
Slash AEE.
Just go to Indeedcom.
Slash AEE right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.
I-N-D-E-E-D dot com slash A-E-E.
Terms and conditions apply.
Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed.
All right, Aubrey, let's put it into a role play here.
So we just went kayaking and we're talking about our trip.
All right.
OK, I'll start us out.
In hindsight that was a pretty rash decision to kayak that river when we didn't know what was up ahead.
I know.
I love a spur-of-the-moment trip, but we really weren't thinking that through.
If we'd known the rapids were that intense, we'd have picked a different spot for sure.
But hey, we survived.
I think we made a good snap decision to go off to the left side and avoid the worst of it.
Next time, we won't be so hasty and we'll scout out the river better before we jump in.
I could totally see me doing this, right?
I'm like, let's just go tubing here.
And I don't know what's up ahead in the river.
Yeah, this is what we did to our wedding guests on our wedding day.
We organized this, you know, tubing thing down the river.
And when you hear that, you think, okay, we'll have a beer in the river.
It'll be a lazy river.
Super chill.
Not in Boulder, Colorado.
Yeah.
Like rapids.
There's way water rapids everywhere.
Rapids.
People got injured.
There were bruises.
It was dangerous, actually.
It's like the stretch of river that you actually need a guide and maybe shouldn't be in at all.
Probably was just a little too maybe early in the season or something.
Maybe.
Just high fast water.
Well, let's go through this.
We used a lot of them here.
I first said in hindsight that was a pretty rash decision to kayak the river when we didn't know what was up ahead.
So you there's some foreshadowing here because I'm using the word rash.
You know, something went wrong.
It didn't go as well as we had hoped.
That's a really good actually English skill for our listeners to develop here.
Kind of the foreshadowing skill of what are some key words we can see just across the whole language.
That will foreshadow what you're about to say.
Maybe we could do another episode on that, Aubrey.
That would be really interesting.
And these are big ones rash and hasty because we don't use those for positive experiences.
That went great.
You know, if someone says they made a rash decision, oh, something went wrong.
No, it's coming.
Yeah.
So guys hit the follow button to make sure you don't miss that episode.
Um then I said I know I love a spur of the moment trip, but we weren't thinking that through right.
Very common way to say that.
Absolutely.
So that spur of the moment trip, something that you do without a ton of planning.
But then we say we weren't really thinking that through.
This is a really common way to say that, like we didn't consider all of the possible.
We didn't think we didn't check out the river like we should have.
Exactly.
And then I'm saying you're saying, oh, but hey, we survived.
I think we made a good snap decision to go off to the left side for the worst of it.
So we made a decision in the river and we're seeing the rapids are more on the right.
That's where we had to make a snap decision.
Just really quick.
Go to the left.
Right.
That's what we're trying to move to the left to avoid it.
Yeah, for sure.
All right.
And then what did I say last?
You said next time we won't be so hasty and we'll scout out the river better.
Right.
So we're just saying like next time, we won't do it without thinking, do it without the planning and prep that's needed.
Yes, for sure.
This is a good one today.
Another episode that our listeners could check out, guys, you could go over right now to 2475.
Are you indecisive how to say it in English?
And was that you and me, Aubrey, or was that me and Michelle that did that one?
Yeah, this is you and I. And it might have been you and Michelle.
I can't remember now because I listened to it to do the quiz.
So sometimes I can't keep track.
But this was the opposite vocab, vocabulary about being indecisive.
So with that episode and this episode, you have all the things you need to to have a really interesting conversation about how hasty you are with your decisions and how indecisive you are.
Love it.
Any final takeaway on today's topic, Aubrey?
Yeah, well, it's a very human experience to make these hasty rash decisions.
We've all done it.
So it's a great connection topic to share about yourself, admit some weaknesses and some rash decisions you've made, and ask others about their experiences as well.
Yeah, it also makes for fun stories.
You know the things we did in college or in our 20s, or maybe throughout life.
I don't know that maybe we didn't think through so much.
And that's actually kind of a cool way of showing who we were, who we are, our perspective on life.
It's so true, right?
Our mistakes, our poor judgments often make for the best stories.
Absolutely.
That's what it's for.
So this is connection right here, guys.
Write these down and use them in the real world.
Good stuff.
Awesome.
So fun.
Thanks for joining me today, Lindsay.
Thank you, Aubrey.
I'll talk to you soon.
Have a good day.
You too.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
