This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 121.
Excited for today's episode? That makes two of us.
Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Lindsay, I'm so excited to be recording with you today.
Well, that makes two of us, Aubrey. Nice.
Way to use today's expression. That was perfect.
I know. So natural and spontaneous of me.
Oh my gosh. But it actually is true. I am excited to be here.
We are so lucky we get to podcast. Yes, I love it.
And I love this expression that makes two of us.
And we're also going to teach when to use that makes one of us.
I use these a lot. I think they're so fun.
It's really fun. It's timeless. You know what I mean?
It's been around forever. And it lives on these expressions, these two expressions.
But there are lots of other expressions that our listeners will want to solidify in their minds to be able to use.
And how could they do that, Aubrey? Speaking of things that have existed for a long time and will live forever, right?
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So you can go to allearsenglish.com app to download it today. all right great stuff so today's episode comes from a question from ben from china should i go ahead and read ben's question should i dive into it okay yeah you ready all right he says hi lindsay thanks for the amazing podcast they are really interesting and helpful awesome love to hear that aubry love to hear that I learned some useful expressions to use beyond just the business context.
But as a non-native speaker, I always find it ambiguous when people use some expressions that are not that straightforward.
For example, that makes two of us or justice has no arms.
Okay. Can you share some practical examples so I can understand the use in daily life?
Thanks, Ben from China. Nice. Yes. Awesome.
I love this question. I am not familiar with justice has no arms and I Googled it and could not find anything.
So Ben may have misheard or it's possible this exists in other English speaking countries.
I have I did see online justice has no color.
Justice has no sword and justice has no timetable.
And we will cover those in an upcoming episode because those are all pretty interesting.
So be sure to follow download the app so that you don't miss that episode when we do it.
Yeah, that's really interesting. Let's revisit those.
I love it. But today, let's get into something a little more commonplace.
And this is everywhere, right? This expression is everywhere.
Let's get into it. Exactly right. This that makes two of us is so fun.
And we're going to share a similar expression that has an opposite meaning that makes one of us.
So you do want to be careful with these two phrases because in certain contexts, they could come across as rude or impolite.
We are going to give you tips today with example sentences so you know when to use them and how they're going to be received.
Yeah, another word that comes to mind is a little snarky, especially that second one that makes one of us, right?
But it's clever, too. I kind of like it.
I do, too. Okay, let's dive in with the first one that makes two of us.
When do we use this, Lindsay? Well, this is kind of the original phrase.
I feel like this one became common first, I'm guessing.
Probably, yeah. And then the other one is a riff on this.
That makes one of us. So it's a good phrase for sharing that you hold the same opinion or position as the person who just said something, okay?
Exactly, right? And we use it a lot in business English as well as daily conversations.
So we're going to give examples for both.
So you'll see how you can use it at work, but elsewhere as well.
All right, let's just break right into it, Aubrey.
All right, we're gonna do a couple of, we'll do a little mini role play here.
Wanna join me for lunch this afternoon? Yeah, and let's go to 1130.
I'm already starving. Oh, that makes two of us.
I didn't get breakfast today. Yeah, so you can see we have a similar opinion.
We're both hungry. We have some solidarity here, right?
Right, right, exactly. That's nice. It's good to have new resources, new ways our listeners can show solidarity.
That's connection right there. Absolutely.
This is a great connection phrase. Oh, for sure.
Here's the next one. Right. I didn't understand those instructions.
That makes two of us. Right. So imagine you're at work.
There's instructions for something you don't understand at all or someone tells you they don't understand.
This is a great way instead of just being like me neither.
Right. This is so native and natural to say that makes two of us.
Yeah, exactly. And with a good expression, eye contact, it does build connection.
And in a daily life situation, I could imagine saying this to a friend.
If you've just gone and purchased like Ikea furniture, no one can figure out those instructions ever.
Right. Or really any kind of furniture. I'm not going to pick on Ikea here, but any furniture, it's very hard.
Often, you know, manuals are tough to follow.
And that's another connection moment right there.
Yes, absolutely. If you're like, these instructions are the worst, I can't do this.
You're like, that makes two of us. We can't put these together either.
But we do want to point out this phrase, it can't be used for every time you say me too.
We're going to give a couple of examples so you can see why.
It's more about when you share the same opinion about something.
So, for example, if you and another teammate are being assigned to projects and you are assigned to marketing and your teammate says, I got marketing.
It would sound strange to say that makes two of us because it's not an opinion or position.
Instead, you just say either me too or same here.
Oh, that's a really important nuanced point here, Aubrey.
I like that. Interesting. Give us another one, Lindsay.
A couple more examples just so we can see why we wouldn't use it just to say me too.
All right, so talking about our opinions in restaurants, right?
If you love a particular restaurant and a friend says, Isabelle's is my favorite restaurant, you wouldn't necessarily respond, that makes two of us, right?
So it's not so much about opinions or positions, right?
So we would just say, oh, me too, or same here, or I love that too.
Right? Yes. And yeah, it's a little tricky because your IKEA example was a really great example where you could say me too.
Oh, these IKEA instructions, I can't do it.
You could be like me too. So it's often used that makes two of us is often used to express solidarity where you have something in common.
Yeah. About something bad. Right. Something frustrating.
You share this opinion that these instructions are frustrating or don't make sense.
You share the position. You share the opinion that these instructions don't make sense.
Yeah. I hadn't thought about it before. But now.
So that's what you're saying here with these sub examples is that it really has to be a negative shared situation.
Yeah. And I guess I mean, it could be positive, but it has to be you have to think about is what we have in common our opinion about something.
And and so let's see if it's something positive.
Oh, that makes to us. No, you're right. It is.
I hadn't I hadn't separated it out as negative positive.
But for example, that restaurant opinion for just saying like, that's my favorite, too.
I wouldn't be like that makes two of us.
It sounds kind of cheesy. I would just be like me, too.
I mean, I think you could say it. I think you could get away with it.
It wouldn't be like, oh my God, that's glaringly incorrect.
No one's going to be shaking their head at you.
This is just better when you're both kind of in a tricky, challenging situation.
Yeah, I think so. And as a little note, we do also adjust it just kind of for fun to say like, that makes three of us if there are two people expressing an opinion you agree with, or that makes four of us if it's three people that have said something, right?
And that's just sort of almost a play on words, a play on this expression.
I love it when we go one level deeper and we really go into the nuance behind something, not just what it means, but when do we actually use this?
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Exclusions apply. See details online. OK, let's get into number two, the second situation or the second expression.
This is the second expression where I say this a lot just to be funny.
I think I'll say that makes one of us, but it has the opposite meaning.
It's used to disagree, but in a playful way.
And so you do have to be careful because it could seem rude depending on the context.
Yeah. So let's give an example. So here we go.
I'm excited for today's meeting. Well, that makes one of us.
My tone of voice there is kind of fun, which is fine.
If we're coworkers, I would probably just chuckle at that.
But if I'm the one leading the meeting, don't say that.
No, right. For sure. Yeah, exactly. Or let's do another little role play.
Yeah. Oh, gosh. I'm signing up for a mud run.
I think that sounds so fun to get really muddy.
Well, that makes one of us. This one would be good.
This one would be really good. It is fun, right?
It's basically a way of saying like, not me.
Like, no, thanks. Hard pass. That is not my style or my personality.
Did you? This is like the Tough Mudder, right?
Have you done a Tough Mudder? Yes, I did a mud run.
It wasn't the Tough Mudder, right? But I did a mud run.
And I didn't mind getting, but there were a lot of, there were a lot of sort of mud pits where you could jump in it and get super muddy if you wanted, or you could go around it.
And you better believe I was going around it.
I was like not intentionally trying to get super extra muddy and wet.
And what were most people doing? Were most people going right into the market?
A lot of people were diving in, getting muddy, especially because it was a kid-friendly one.
A lot of the kids were throwing mud at each other.
And I'm like, I'm just going to go. What's even the point in avoiding it at that point?
You know, you're going to need a shower anyway.
Why are you signing up if you're getting it?
My problem was I was trying to keep my shoes and socks dry.
And so I'm like, I'm not jumping in that giant pool of water.
And I was, I was able to keep my shoes and socks dry and that was much more comfortable.
Impressive. Comfort before fun. Usually not with me, but in that case, yeah.
Very practical. Okay. Good to know. You guys got to watch this on YouTube if you're not, because I did like a really funny pantomiming of me, like running around the pit.
This episode is on YouTube if you want to see all my funny gestures.
I love it. So good. So good. All right. What else do we need to know here, Aubrey?
Yeah. So there is a little sort of caveat for this one as well, that we wouldn't use it every time we're disagreeing, right?
Sometimes we need to be more polite and respectful with disagreement.
So like I said, this can come off as rude or critical.
Let me give an example. If someone says they like a restaurant and you don't, you would not say that makes one of us This is so rude, right?
We would just say something polite, like, oh, maybe I haven't ordered the right thing.
What do you get there? Or it's not my favorite place, but maybe I just haven't tried the right thing, right?
We're going to be polite and respectful.
So be careful with this phrase because you're not going to use it just every time you want to disagree.
Right. What stands out to me here is your example about the mud run.
Right. So here, when I when you said I said, oh, I'm signing up for a mud run, said, well, that makes one of us.
You're just using that. That makes one of us to show how you're different.
And I feel like it works especially for something that most people would also just, you know what I mean?
Like getting muddy is not something everyone likes.
So you're not going to feel criticized if I'm like, that means one of us.
No, thanks. Right. So this is when it's perfect.
Let's say you have a friend who shares that they don't mind heavy traffic for whatever reason, like they find it relaxing to be stuck in heavy traffic.
Right. That's something that a lot of people would find surprising or disagree with.
So you could absolutely say, well, that makes one of us.
Yeah. I hate traffic. Right. Or even just in line with like crazy things that people do.
Like out here in Colorado, you have a lot of ultra marathon runners.
People are crazy out here. They do. They're just so into fitness and they're always like sprinting up 14,000 foot mountains and running for two days straight.
Right. Doing hundred mile runs. Right. I love a hundred mile run.
Yeah, well, that makes one of us. That's a great example of when you're around someone who has kind of a quirky thing that's kind of out of the mainstream.
You are saying I'm not that person. Right.
But you're not disrespecting what they're saying.
You're just saying I'm a little different.
Right. I don't want to run 100 miles. Yes, absolutely.
It's fun and playful. This I feel like today's expressions are so native and natural.
I do use them a lot for agreeing or disagreeing.
But again, I'm really glad that we highlighted these as something to sort of be a little careful with, because you can break that connection if you accidentally are rude or offensive.
So you want to make sure to build the connection instead of hurting it.
Yeah. You also want people to see you as a positive person.
You want to be a positive person. If you kind of slam on the restaurant, people might start to anticipate a negative comment from you more often, which is kind of toxic.
Good point. Yes. A lot of people just don't really love negativity.
They don't want to be around someone who's negative all the time.
So just use it. How would you say it? Like, yes, exactly.
Proceed with caution. Yeah. Don't use it very often in those special circumstances where it'll be funny.
Right. Yeah. We want to avoid being negative all the time.
For sure. So good. Very interesting stuff, Aubrey.
Thanks for hanging out on the show today.
And guys, don't forget to check out the All Ears English app, iOS or Android.
You can get it at allearsenglish.com slash app.
Good stuff. Awesome. I'll see you next time, Lindsay.
All right. Talk soon. Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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