This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2544.
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Do you ever do things on a whim?
Today, Aubrey and Michelle talk about spontaneity and why it is a good connection topic.
Hear all about it and learn many phrases to describe it today.
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Hello, Michelle.
How are you today?
I'm good.
Aubrey, how are you?
I'm excited to record with you.
Yes, this is going to be so fun.
And I have a question to start out.
I'm very curious about your answer here.
Have you ever up and quit a job without giving notice?
Oh, no.
I have never done that.
I mean, I have left jobs, but it's always with like a two week notice.
What about you?
I did this once.
I was very young.
I was working in a spook alley in my hometown.
And I don't remember details, but I remember feeling like the person, sort of the manager was being inappropriate.
Whatever, they were either saying things or whatever it was, and I complained to my parents.
And I was uncomfortable saying something to them, so I just never went back.
I just up and quit, never went in again, didn't want to see them ever again.
What is a spook alley?
Okay.
Oh, like a haunted house.
Oh, that's funny.
We call it a spook alley in Idaho, but like a haunted house.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah, I never heard it called that.
Very interesting.
Well, it's kind of a small local one.
There are like those big expensive ones.
This wasn't that.
This was a very small town.
I'm imagining an actual alley.
Is that how it's?
No, it's the same as a haunted house where it's some kind of building and it's all you go through.
And I was one of the scarers, like people come through and I would jump out and scare them.
But it wasn't in an alley.
I don't know why they call it a spook alley.
That's always what we call it.
All right.
Well, good to know.
But yeah, it's good that you left, especially under those circumstances.
Yes, I agree.
But the reason I asked We're talking about this interesting phrase to say you up and did something.
This was inspired by in a recent role play, Lindsay said I up and moved to Japan without even considering, and she didn't really do that.
She considered first, but it was something in the role play.
And it made me realize, oh, this is an interesting phrase.
And there are quite a few ways that we say this.
So we're going to cover those today.
Awesome.
Yeah, absolutely.
This is very common.
Yes.
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Yeah, it just means to do something pretty suddenly, right?
Exactly right.
Spontaneously, without notice, without thinking about it ahead of time.
Usually, for example, he up and moved to Chicago because he felt like he needed a change.
That would mean he was not thinking about it a long time and making this decision.
He sort of did it out of the blue.
Or she up and decided to adopt a puppy and came home with one that same day.
Well, that sounds delightful.
I know, right?
My kids would love that if I up and decided to adopt a puppy and came home with one.
I'm not that spontaneous.
Are you, Michelle?
Is this something you would up and do?
I don't think so.
Not at this stage in my life.
You're more of a planner.
It is possible that if, If all the circumstances were lined up and I was out and there was one and I knew my kids wanted it and I just thought it was so cute and I thought okay, this is the right time anyway, then I would do it.
But not like it could happen.
Maybe.
I mean, yeah, I don't know.
It depends how cute the puppy is.
Right.
It'd have to be really cute.
Unlikely.
All right.
Our second one is all of a sudden.
This is more common.
Up and like that is a little less common.
It is interesting.
People will know what you mean, but I don't hear it quite as often.
Whereas some of these others we hear a lot, like all of a sudden she jumped out of the car.
You could say she up and jumped out of the car.
It means the same thing.
Did it without thinking about it spontaneously, but all of a sudden is more common.
Right.
Or here's another one.
It felt like they just met and they were engaged all of a sudden.
Do you know anyone who got engaged very quickly after meeting?
Yeah, me.
I thought you, but I couldn't remember quite.
Yes yeah, we had only known each other three months and I did have quite a few friends that same like met, didn't know each other that long and then all of a sudden engaged.
All of a sudden.
You never know.
All right, our next one is out of nowhere.
This is similar to that idiom I used out of the blue.
You might say.
He seemed to decide out of nowhere to leave the party.
So it was like unexpected right, seems like he's having a great time and then, out of nowhere, leaves.
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
Or we thought she'd go to a local university, but out of nowhere, she got a scholarship to UCLA.
Yeah.
I guess that could happen when your kids are deciding where to go to school.
Maybe you think, oh, they're going to stay close to home and then something happens.
Yeah.
If they get a scholarship to a good school out of state, out of nowhere, they could end up going kind of far.
Yeah.
It happens.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then here's the next one.
The next one is just like that, which makes me think of isn't that sex in the city reboot called?
And yeah, I think it is called and just like that.
And this is sort of trendy to be like and just like that, just like that.
This happened.
You'll hear this one a lot.
Mm hmm.
So just like that, he decided not to go out.
So maybe he was planning to and then he just kind of changed his mind just like that.
Exactly.
Out of nowhere, right?
These all are very similar or she quit her job and moved to Washington just like that.
It was unexpected.
You didn't know it was happening.
And sometimes someone is planning, but they're not sharing their plans with you.
So to you, it seems like it happened just like that.
That's true.
It could be that.
And we're going to do one more, guys.
So this one is on a whim.
So Also, this one is very spontaneous.
So she booked a flight to Mexico on a whim after seeing a photo of the beach.
So yeah, she saw a photo of the beach and she's like, you know what?
I'm ready to go.
I'm booking it right now.
Yeah.
Have you ever done something like that with a trip?
Yeah, I have gone on trips pretty spontaneously.
I remember when we did a cruise, we were at a friend's home and we were like, wouldn't it be fun if we did a cruise over New Year's Eve?
And just on a whim, we looked up availability and pricing and booked it right then to go both of our families together.
So yeah, it's kind of fun to do something on a whim like that.
Yeah, I've done it.
I haven't done like a larger trip like that, but...
We'll sometimes, with the kids, just be like oh, we're just going to do a night in the city, or we went to Atlantic City and we found a cheap hotel.
A quick weekend, a road trip, a lot of those things you can do on a whim because it's not as much planning.
Right.
And yeah, that stuff we'll do every once in a while.
Or we always want to and then we're like, should we spend the money on this?
Probably not.
That happens too, right?
You decide on a whim to do something and then talk yourselves out of it.
The reason.
Yes.
The idea is very good.
Or what's another example?
We decided to adopt the cat on a whim, even though we only went to the shelter to volunteer.
So similar to the other one.
Lots of examples about getting pets, Aubrey.
I know my kids would love a pet, but there are a lot of allergies to animals in our home.
So probably not going to do it, but my kids would love this if I on a whim came home with a pet.
Are you allergic to any animals?
I'm not.
I'm not.
My husband and my daughter are allergic to cats.
I'm allergic to cats.
Yeah, unfortunately.
But we do have a lot of neighbors that have cats and dogs that we can go and snuggle them whenever we want.
That's good.
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All right, Michelle, let's do a role play to show all of these in a conversation.
I am telling you about my weekend here.
I'll start us out.
All right.
We were planning on a quiet weekend at home, but then up and bought concert tickets Saturday night.
Oh, wow.
Super last minute.
Yeah, we were at dinner and all of a sudden my husband goes let's see if the glass animal show isn't sold out.
And there were tickets.
That's crazy.
I know we had thought about going, but never got tickets.
Then, out of nowhere, he pulls out his phone and checks two tickets, decent seats, and he bought them just like that.
Wow, totally unplanned?
Yeah, we never do stuff on a whim like that, but it was really fun.
I'm sad this isn't true life because I love the glass animals.
I would love to, I'm not really a huge concert person, but I'd like to.
I don't know the glass animals.
Oh, look it up after this episode.
Everyone out there listening, look up the glass animals.
It's such a vibe.
It's really good music.
Cool.
Okay, I will.
Nice.
All right, so let's go through this.
Which did we use first?
So you said we were planning on a quiet weekend at home, but then up and bought concert tickets Saturday night.
And so suddenly we did it without planning.
So I just want to point out something about this because the pronunciation.
So it's actually it's it might sound like up end.
Right.
But it's actually up and up and.
Right.
Two words.
U-P space A-N-D.
That's true, because upend one word, U-P-E-N-D is a verb, and they do sound a lot alike in conversation.
Right.
Exactly.
So you have to listen for the context.
And yeah, because we're speaking kind of fast and the way it might come out would just it sounds like upend.
And you do have to say this pretty quickly.
It would sound strange to say, but then up and bought concert tickets.
We kind of run it all together.
But then up and bought concert tickets.
Yeah.
Sounds like one word.
Yeah, it would.
So I said, oh, wow, super last minute.
And then you told me more.
What did you say?
I said we were at dinner and all of a sudden my husband goes.
Let's see if this concert isn't sold out.
So, yeah, again.
Just means like out of the blue, unexpectedly.
And then you said, we had thought about going, but never got tickets.
Then out of nowhere, he pulls out his phone and checks.
I'm going to continue because then I'm going to say something in a second.
Two tickets, decent seats, and he bought them just like that.
So Aubrey this made me think of what word is.
Let's see, if you know what I'm thinking of, what got like kind of ooh.
This word I remember because of Aubrey.
No, I'm not sure what you mean.
Decent.
We did an episode on the word decent.
Remember?
That's right.
That was a great episode.
We got decent seats.
Yep.
I should have thought of that.
That's true.
I was like, oh, the word decent.
We talked about that.
Yeah.
So, anyway, out of nowhere and just like that.
Same idea, unplanned.
Yep, and then I say, we never do stuff on a whim like that, but it was really fun.
It just means we're usually not that spontaneous to do something without planning it.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, these are all really useful, guys.
If you haven't already check out and if you're studying for IELTS, we have episode 1532 of the IELTS Energy Podcast.
That is, Use IELTS Vocabulary at the Drop of a Hat.
Yes.
And this was related vocabulary in a heartbeat, in the blink of an eye, without a second thought, some interesting idioms that have a similar meaning.
So if you're not following IELTS Energy amazing vocabulary over there as well whether or not you're studying for the IELTS exam.
So definitely check it out.
Okay.
Awesome.
All right, Aubrey.
Well, I guess I'm, no, that doesn't work.
I was trying to use one of the expressions, but I couldn't.
I was trying to use one of them on a whim, but I couldn't do it anyway.
We are kind of recording today on a whim.
We weren't planning on recording and then it turned out our schedules matched up.
So out of nowhere, all of a sudden we get to record together.
All of a sudden, all of a sudden.
And so we up and got our recording equipment out and here we are.
Exactly.
This is such a great vocab for connecting because it's interesting when something happens spontaneously, like this.
You want to share that with friends, right?
And if they do something out of the blue, out of nowhere, then it would be fun to respond like wow on a whim right.
Asking like if they're usually that spontaneous.
Yep.
All right, Aubrey.
Well, this was fun and I will see you on the next episode.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Bye.
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