This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2523.
Your English is nothing to sneeze at.
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 Lindsay 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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Today get one of the most important connection skills in the English language.
Learn how to encourage your friends when they don't see the value of their accomplishments.
Listen in to gain a key skill for building your community today.
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We're all out of the ordinary.
Hello, Michelle.
How are you today?
I'm good, Lindsay.
How are you?
Feeling good.
Good, Michelle.
Do you get allergies where you sneeze a lot?
Are you someone with allergies like in the springtime?
I think as I've gotten older, I do have some, but I am allergic to cats.
You are?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, my friend recently got two cats and she was really worried about me.
And the first time I was over, we all had to go outside.
But then I seem to have, I don't know, maybe she vacuumed more.
I don't know.
But yeah.
Are you allergic to anything?
I'm not allergic to anything.
Not really.
Not really.
I met someone last week who's allergic to dogs.
And I was like, oh, no, I feel so bad for you.
That's bad.
Yeah, that's bad.
But I've heard an expression out in the native speaking world, nothing to sneeze at, Michelle.
Have you heard that one before?
Yeah, I actually heard somebody just say it recently.
Okay.
So...
Yeah, this is pretty, I wouldn't say it's like the most common, but you will hear it.
And yeah, Lindsay, what does this mean?
Well, basically means that it's something that's important or has value in some way.
Like you shouldn't ignore it, or you shouldn't think that it isn't worthwhile or that we shouldn't look at it.
Right.
It's nothing to sneeze at.
It's a little less common, but it is definitely out there for sure.
Right.
And what was the context that you heard it in, Michelle?
I wish I could remember, but that's when I jotted it down.
I wish I could.
I know.
I normally try and remember how I heard it, but I can't remember.
Maybe you were at like a Halloween party or something.
I don't know.
It could have been that.
Could have been that.
Could have been.
Before we go any deeper into this awesome episode where we're going to learn a clear native English phrase, I want to say a huge thank you to those who have reviewed our Android app, Michelle.
Are you ready for this?
Yes.
All right.
So big thank you to Bassie Bassie, who left us an amazing five-star review.
Thank you, Mohana Mozaffari, Lorianne Pereira, Thank you to Mehmet Demir, Yasemin Gunay, and JJ Kim.
All of these people left reviews in October and November.
And Michelle, why do we love to read our listeners' reviews?
I mean, it's obvious.
Oh my gosh, because you guys are the greatest and you know to see what you think of the show and how, what it means to you.
It really, it makes us real.
It real for us, right?
Because Lindsay and I are talking to each other on the computer right now and we're looking at, you know, but we're not, you know, currently talking to our listeners.
So it's great for them to hear what you guys think and how the show affects you.
Exactly.
So go and take the time to leave us a review wherever you listen Spotify, Apple podcast, iOS app, Android app.
And don't forget, guys, we do have an app where you can see the transcripts for the show.
You can tap on keywords, save them to your personal.
You can get that at allairsenglishcom slash app.
All right.
Good.
Perfect.
All right.
So let's get into nothing to sneeze at.
So here's an example.
Getting a 3.7 GPA is nothing to sneeze at.
I'm sure she will get into a great school.
Nice.
Yeah, nothing.
That's a great example, right?
You're basically saying this is a big deal that this person got a 3.7 GPA.
Don't ignore it.
Don't downplay it.
Right?
Right.
Don't downplay it.
I like that.
Yeah.
Here's another one.
An offer of $500,000 on your house is nothing to sneeze at.
It's still a little more than you were expecting.
So maybe the person's like, oh, we only got 500K.
It's not that big of a deal.
And their friend is trying to put things in perspective.
Right, right, exactly.
Or here we go.
I know you don't feel great about how your cake turned out, but the fact that everyone ate it and liked it is nothing to sneeze at.
So maybe somebody baked a cake.
They don't really love the design or they were kind of self-conscious.
And this person is saying, hey, like, look, everybody ate it.
Everybody liked it.
There's nothing to sneeze at.
Yeah.
I mean, what kinds of situations, Michelle, would we find ourselves using nothing to sneeze at?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's for accomplishments.
You know, it's something even with money, like, oh, 500k is nothing to sneeze at.
Saying something's at a certain caliber.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Amounts of something.
Scores, maybe.
Maybe scores.
I mean, I'm sure you knew people in school who are just perfectionists and they wanted to get 100 on every test, but that's nearly impossible.
So they got a 99 and then someone might say, come on, a 99. is nothing to sneeze at, right?
I wish.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
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Okay, Michelle, we are back.
So do we have any examples in our own life?
I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of them.
Yeah.
What about you, Michelle?
Yeah.
So I mean for me I would say you know last year, remember what did we have?
Michelle's Something summer.
Oh, you're a topsy turvy summer.
Topsy turvy summer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I would say I made a lot of moves in the past year and I could say all of the moves I made in the past year are nothing to sneeze at.
So, you know, it's almost, it's almost.
Like, for example, let's say I was talking to a friend and I was kind of saying oh no, I haven't accomplished anything, this or that I haven't.
I still have boxes, I still whatever.
And they might say, look at all you've done in the past year, that's nothing to sneeze at.
So it's almost a way of like somebody puts themselves down And you're kind of encouraging them, or maybe you're encouraging yourself.
Yeah.
I think the human mind tends to see our own shortcomings before we see what we've done.
Like that is normal.
That's that's the mind protecting itself from the tiger in the cave.
Right.
That's normal.
Like another example over here would be with Allers English.
I mean, you know, maybe I would be talking to someone and, oh, you know, we're a small company.
You've been around for 10 years and they say 10 years, 10 years is nothing to sneeze at. you know?
And it's true.
Like Allers, English has been thriving as a company for 10 years.
But I might not recognize that, or I might focus on what we haven't done yet.
Right?
Right.
It's like the expression, you're your own worst critic.
Sure.
Isn't that true?
Do you feel like you're a harsh self-critic, Michelle?
Yeah, I do think I've gotten better over the years.
I think, you know, as you get a little older, you get a little more secure.
Yeah, yeah.
Kind of get more comfortable even in your flaws and more accepting.
What do you think?
Yeah, I was having this conversation with someone.
In her 30s yesterday, and she was saying somewhere between 35 and 40.
You have this like you level with yourself and you're like, look, this is who I am.
Yeah, I'm gonna love myself as I am.
And I'm gonna embrace my weirdness, my quirks.
Maybe I have some things to improve, but it's just who I am.
And that's a nice freeing moment.
But yeah, I mean, the brain is wired to find shortcomings. it's true.
Yeah.
Yep, exactly.
So, all right, let's talk about a couple other expressions that are similar, not exactly the same necessarily.
But so the first one is not to be taken lightly.
Yeah.
So This one is pretty similar, but it can be used in a couple different ways.
I mean, we could do a whole episode on this one.
Yeah, yeah.
If you say not to be taken lightly, it's basically saying something is serious, but it can also be used in this kind of a, in a similar way to what we've been talking about nothing to sneeze at.
Yeah, I agree.
It could be used as a warning.
You know, like, for example, running a marathon is nothing to be taken lightly.
You need to start hydrating two days in advance, right?
That's kind of a warning.
But in this case, you ran a marathon.
Oh, my gosh, that's not to be taken lightly.
That's huge.
Congratulations.
Right.
Right, right, right.
So it's a little bit different, but similar ideas.
So, for example, starting a business is really hard.
Give yourself credit.
It's not to be taken lightly.
For sure.
And the next one I love, nothing to scoff at.
Yeah, that's good.
Scoff.
What a weird word, right?
I know.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, this again, I would say it's pretty much the same.
I did when I was looking up this expression, I just there's...
Very slight differences, but honestly, I would say they're negligible.
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it, guys.
So here's an example sentence.
Getting second place in the spelling bee is nothing to scoff at.
Or getting 99 on that exam is nothing to scoff at, right?
Seeing as the other example we had before, that one's probably the most similar to... Yes, exactly.
Nothing to sneeze at, nothing to scoff at.
Lindsay, are you a good speller?
I've actually always been a pretty good speller.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's one of my strengths.
I would say I didn't win any spelling bees or anything.
Not about not to that level, but usually I can spell things.
Okay.
Yeah.
I've always been.
Yeah.
I would say same.
Yeah.
All right Michelle, let's do a role play, because we know that all ears English listeners love role plays.
Who are we here in this scenario?
Who are we?
So we are friends and I'm a little disappointed because I was selling items at a craft fair.
Like I kind of set up my own little stand and it didn't go as well as I'd hoped.
Okay.
All right.
Let's see what we can do here.
Okay.
Okay.
It was my first one, but I thought it would go better than it did.
Michelle, give yourself credit.
Putting yourself out there at your first show is not to be taken lightly.
I know, but I only made $100.
$100 is nothing to sneeze at.
Again, it's your first time.
I know, but I'll need to up my social media.
I have 50 followers, which is nothing to scoff at, but I should get more.
I can help you think of ways to grow it.
Oh, thanks.
Nice, yeah.
I think this is hugely important for... encouraging our friends, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
We need those skills.
We'll talk about that more at the takeaway, but should we go through the role play Michelle a little bit?
Sure.
Okay, here we go.
So you said putting yourself out there at your first show is not to be taken lightly.
So you're saying it's serious, like you did a big thing.
Exactly.
And then you said, oh, I know, but I only made $100.
Right.
And then I said, hey, $100 is nothing to sneeze at.
You could say and you could add that $100 you didn't have before.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're encouraging me.
You're helping me. get out of my own head, right?
And then I said, I have 50 followers, which is nothing to scoff at.
So I'm encouraging myself a little bit.
But I said, but I should get more.
Yes.
Nice.
All right.
So yeah, it can go both ways, by the way.
That's a good example.
Like we can use these phrases to try to encourage ourselves too.
Right.
Exactly.
I know that's nothing to sneeze at.
I know that's nothing to scoff at.
Or someone else could use it to encourage us.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
So very, very useful.
Could be used in many different ways.
Guys, if you haven't already check out episode 2518, which was Fish and Company English phrases for overstaying your welcome.
Yeah.
So what are your thoughts?
That's Michelle here for our takeaway on encouraging people.
I mean, this is such a key part of life, don't you think?
Yeah, what a huge connection skill.
I mean, your friend is kind of down on him or herself and you're saying oh, but look at what you have done.
You're picking out the positives that maybe this person isn't realizing because they're their own worst critic, which is so common.
So I think this is a huge connection moment if your friend is saying oh, but I only did this, I only did that.
And, you know. you don't want to do this every single time.
You know, you want to hear your friend, right?
It's okay also to just listen, and you don't.
It might get a little irritating if Everything you say is oh, but look what this is and look what that is.
That's true.
Yeah.
And you want to, like any phrase, if you use it too much, it'll become, it'll have less meaning.
Right.
So save it for things that you actually think are great that they did.
Right.
Yeah.
It's a really good way to highlight these things and say, look, look at all you have done.
Exactly.
I love it.
You're right, Michelle.
It's a real connection skill.
So that's why we like feature these on All Ears English.
And guys, hit the follow button if you love our show.
All right.
All right, Lindsay, this was fun.
And guys, we'll talk to you next time.
All right.
Have a good day.
Bye.
Thanks.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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