This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2499, English vocabulary for your most jarring moments.
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Do you sometimes feel startled or surprised?
Today get a new word that describes a sense of surprise and discomfort, just in time for the spooky season.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How's it going today?
Hey, Lindsay, I'm good.
Lindsay, have you had any jarring experiences recently?
Oh, my God, it feels jarring.
Every time I open the news, I would say that much.
Other than that, nothing major, like scary or surprising has happened.
What about you?
Anything?
Yeah, well, I think I was telling you last week that I almost got into a car accident.
That was a pretty scary one.
That's a good example.
Yeah, so it was pretty jarring.
Luckily everything for my car was okay.
Some somebody was trying to pass us and wow, um they.
They ended up having some getting into an accident and so we saw it and they yeah, so we were.
That was pretty jarring, or hoping that person is okay.
And of course, we followed proper protocol of what to do and contacted the police.
But yeah, it was very jarring for sure.
And I realized that I must still be affected by it, because I was telling you that I had some deep dreams last night.
It wasn't about that, but like I dreamt of like other car accidents.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
You're okay.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Like, like I didn't realize it was still impacting me, but obviously it has to be.
So it's crazy how that can enter your subconscious.
And then I'm still kind of affected by you know, I have those dreams where they're so jarring, where you're still affected by it the next day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've had those for sure.
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I woke up, it took me some time.
I'm still kind of like, ah, it feels real.
Right.
Do you ever have a dream where you wake up and you feel, you're like, did that really happen?
You know, you think that has been real, whatever you've dreamt.
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, especially with the jarring one.
So, um, But yeah, I mean, another thing is Halloween is coming up very soon.
So you might have jarring experiences and haunted houses or watching scary movies, right?
That could be.
Do you watch scary movies, michelle?
Remind me, i know not, do not.
Okay, you refuse yeah, and you do, i will, i will watch them.
I think it's fun for a thrill sometimes, but then of course i never sleep.
You know, issue i just.
I just started reading a couple, a series of books.
That is scary and i can't, I really shouldn't do that at night.
Read it in the middle of the afternoon, you know, like one o'clock in the afternoon.
Oh yeah, that's the easy time.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's, so anyway.
But today we're talking about this word jarring.
We've said it already a hundred times, but it's a really good word.
Very useful.
And we have a listener question about this from YouTube.
Lindsay, would you read the question for us?
This is from our listener Anani.
And the student says, can you make an explanation about the word jarring and presumption?
Uh, Lindsay did mention them in the episode.
Thank you.
Okay.
It's a good question, Michelle.
Two very different words though.
Two very different words.
Yeah.
But both of them really good.
So guys hit follow, because we're going to focus on jarring today and then we can do presumption another time.
So hit follow.
We can get to that.
Um, yeah.
So Lindsay, let's talk about jarring.
Okay.
Uh, what does it mean?
I think.
I think it's another.
I think we got it.
Some good examples there and a variety of examples the horror movies, even watching the news nowadays or getting into a car accident.
Jarring is another word for shocking.
Right.
But not really just shocking in any way.
It's usually the kind of shocking that makes you feel uncomfortable, that sticks with you, that really, like it, deeply impacts you.
It's usually negative in some way.
It's not a surprise party.
Right.
Everyone jumps out.
No, it's not that.
Would you say it's only negative, Michelle, for the most part?
I think mostly negative.
Yeah.
Like you said, it wouldn't be like, oh, it was like jarring when my when my fiance proposed to me.
Right.
I mean, I guess it would be if you didn't want to get married to that.
I mean, sorry, boyfriend or girlfriend proposed to me, not fiance.
That doesn't make any sense.
That's true.
But yeah, unless you really don't want to be proposed to, then I guess you could say it's jarring.
But yeah, so this is it's generally negative.
And again, this can be about something you actually feel, you hear, you see, you experience.
Whatever it is.
It may be right.
In what context do you think you would say jarring?
We've already really a lot of the things that we talked about earlier, so dreams can be really jarring, where you've had a very vivid dream and that it's very like maybe you think it's real or it's very scary what's happening, the dream.
Or movies can be jarring and keep you on the edge of your seat.
Some kind of horror suspense movie or even action movies.
Conversations can be jarring if someone reveals something you had no idea about.
It's shocking.
It changes things for you and that person.
Maybe um, or a car accident, or even if someone like sneaks up on you, i don't know, it scares you.
Oh yeah, in the house or something.
They hide behind a corner and they go right.
Yeah, you know, sometimes my family members do that to me.
Yeah, my family members, i mean my husband.
Yeah um, that's funny, Playful.
Dad's playful, it sounds like.
Yes, very playful.
But yeah, so let's give some examples of how you might hear it in a sentence.
Okay.
Here we go.
I wouldn't say the book is completely terrifying, but some chapters are pretty jarring.
Yeah.
So again, a combination of surprising and scary, probably, right?
Yes.
Well, here's another one.
She's always so calm and collected.
So it was a little jarring to see her explode.
Yeah, this is another example of jarring when you see someone in a completely different character than what you think they have in terms of who they are.
Right?
Right.
It's very surprising.
Yeah.
Or this is kind of a different example, but in my research I also saw that it can be used in this kind of way.
I like the couch, but the color may be kind of jarring compared to the neutrals of the rest of your room.
Hmm.
That's a good one.
So do you ever hear it like that?
It could be used kind of about just how something looks or something sounds, or you know, it doesn't have to be that serious, just something that kind of pops out in a way.
That isn't good.
And so it all goes into the same idea of this definition that we're talking about.
In a way that just kind of doesn't fit.
That's why the neutrals thing, your house is neutral.
And then there's this one like Orange couch.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Like bright psychedelic orange couch.
Right.
Just doesn't work.
Exactly.
That's a good example, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
So did.
So you talked about the car accident.
I mean, I think I'm trying to think.
I guess when I first moved to Japan, there were some jarring experiences.
You know, when you move abroad, they weren't necessarily bad, but culture shock, I guess, can be a little jarring at times, wouldn't you say?
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
I remember having a horrible time trying to set up internet in my apartment in Japanese.
And they had like a little translator there trying to translate between Japanese and English.
And I went home in tears.
And I was like, I can't do this.
I can't live in Japan.
I can't understand it.
But, you know, sometimes when we're in culture shock, we'll just get upset over the smallest things.
Right.
How old were you again?
In Japan?
I think it was 24, 25, something like that.
Yeah.
Just a little out of college, a few years out of college.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, but those experiences can be jarring.
It doesn't have to be only just really big things.
It can like it can even be.
Yeah.
Like we said, a conversation was jarring.
Maybe your friend told you something you know going on in her life and it kind of disturbed you a little bit.
Or what about for you, Michelle?
Because I know you've traveled to India.
I've heard India is just very intense.
Um, maybe not in a negative way, but maybe still in a way that's, I don't know.
Did you feel like being on the street?
Was it just really intense?
Just a lot going on hot.
Tell us.
Yeah.
I mean.
Yes.
So that that was that was jarring at times as well.
I remember one time walking through a market at night and you know we were with a guide but we were all kind of rushing through.
It didn't we weren't sure.
Yeah.
If we should be there or it was just a little uncomfortable.
So I could say that that experience was a little bit jarring.
But.
But I mean all that to say.
I loved my trip to India and there were amazing things that I saw as well.
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
So these are just.
Actually, it's a pretty diverse word.
If you think about all the scenarios we've talked about, I'm sure our listeners can find a way to sneak this word in.
Yeah, it's really great for expressing yourself to someone, for sharing experiences, telling stories.
Just a really good, yeah, very versatile word.
Because jarring can be about something kind of small or a big, a big thing.
So yeah, 100%.
What are some other things we might say, Michelle?
So something like disturbing?
Similar.
Yeah.
Similar.
Pretty similar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, so for example, that movie was completely disturbing.
I couldn't sleep after I saw it.
Or unsettling.
This is another good one.
It was really unsettling to come home to my door being unlocked.
But it turns out my husband was already home.
Yeah.
Ooh.
Yeah, or startling.
That's a good one.
Startling.
Yeah, it was so startling when the dog jumped on me.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, the...
The differences are very slight here.
They all kind of gave me a little bit of a creepy feeling.
But I would say, like, for example, the word shocking we threw out earlier.
So that can be some of these can be like startling could be.
Yeah, it was.
I wouldn't say it was jarring.
Well, would you say would you replace startling with jarring?
Yeah, it was jarring when the dog jumped on me.
Yeah, I guess you could.
Yeah, I think most of the time that would be.
I guess, with a dream that sticks with you mentally, the things that like jar you mentally are maybe not startling, because startling has a physical aspect to it, doesn't it?
Like physically you're like, oh, my gosh.
Right.
Right.
And it's kind of, when I hear startling, it sounds like it's just over right away, whereas jarring, and I would say also unsettling and disturbing, can stick with you.
I think startling is like you're startled and then you moved on right.
The dog jumped on you and then you're like, okay.
And then you're fine.
Yeah.
But jarring can kind of be a little more insidious, can kind of hang to your mind, maybe stick with you for a few days or something.
Well, hopefully you can get that nightmare out of your head, Michelle.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
Yeah, and Jarring also has that... visual aspect to it.
We mentioned like the couch example.
So good to think about.
So should we do a role play?
Let's do it.
I know our listeners love our role play.
So here we are in a Halloween party, at a Halloween party, Halloween display.
We're setting up.
Well, yeah, we're setting up for a Halloween display.
So here we go.
Here we go.
So I want to scare everyone.
Yes, it's going to be shocking.
Love it.
I want to startle people as they walk by, maybe with a scary costume.
That's good.
We don't want to be too disturbing, though.
These are little kids who go by.
True.
It could be really jarring for them.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
I'm sure you have to like tone that down a little bit.
Yeah.
Think about like what haunted houses you can go into with little kids.
You know what I mean? how scary is it going to be?
Cause or even certain movies, like you definitely, yeah, obviously.
Yeah.
I'm the, I'm the scared one in my family.
Okay.
Okay.
Got it.
Um, Yeah.
So I said, so I want to scare everyone.
And you said, yes, it's going to be shocking.
So again, shocking could be positive or negative here.
It's just a little bit more neutral than jarring.
And then you said, I want to startle people as they walk by.
And that is more the...
Like the physical scaring people.
Like when you jump and you're like, oh, I'm so surprised that someone just jumped in front of me.
Right.
And then it's over.
Right.
It's over.
That's the difference, as we said, guys, between jarring and startling.
Yeah.
I know.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think I watched some horror movies too young when I was a kid.
So I still have images in my head of some really scary horror movies like The Exorcist.
That's a scary one.
Oh, my gosh.
Anyways, the last thing you said was true.
It could be really jarring for them.
So yeah, so for a kid...
So that's interesting, right?
So we're saying now like just getting startled could be jarring for a kid because they might remember it for a while.
Ah, interesting.
Yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah. getting into it here, Michelle.
So good point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So these are all good.
And guys, especially with Halloween coming up, these are good words to use, right?
We're We're heading in the Halloween direction.
Yeah, good timing for this episode.
Great question.
Guys, check out episode 2488.
That was Lady or Miss?
How to refer to strangers in English.
So that's another good one.
This is a great episode to check out because Aubrey brought her experience in Mexico.
She told a story about an interaction she had in Mexico and some common mistakes she was hearing that we correct right there, right away in that episode.
So guys, go check that out.
And I think for today's poll we'll have to go ahead and ask some question about Halloween or spooky things, Michelle.
So guys, make sure you get over to Spotify to participate in today's poll.
Michelle, what's our takeaway?
Yeah, I think we laid out some pretty important distinctions between these words.
And, you know, jarring is the main one we want you to walk away with.
And that's, again, the one that sticks with you, that's hard to get out of your head.
So we hope that you don't have any... jarring experiences.
But always, you know, definitely a good word to use when you're connecting with people.
So give it a try.
Yeah, for sure.
To describe the nuance of the moments that you were startled, scared, jarred.
It does show like your tolerance for things or what affects you.
So it shows it gives you a way to show who you are to other people.
Right.
So that's the key connection skill right there.
There you go.
All right.
All right.
Good stuff, Michelle.
I'll see you very soon.
All right.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye, guys.
Bye.
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