Easy English expression rehashed.
Hello, everybody, my name is Coach Shane and welcome to Easy English Expressions.
Come on. Let's master English.
Hello, everybody. Coach Shane here.
Oh, my God. The Christmas holidays.
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I have missed several podcasts, including my Let's Master English podcast.
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Now, I'll be honest right now.
Tomorrow I leave my home.
It's Friday. Tomorrow's Friday.
TGIF I'm leaving my home and I'm in the process of going to China to a specific place in China.
I will arrive on Sunday.
This is crazy. It's been insane to get ready for this trip, but hopefully everything will settle down.
I'm coming back to the United States on January 20th.
So I have a scary feeling that from now until then my schedule might be crazy.
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I promise though, I seriously for you, I promise in 2025.
I am going to kick it up a notch and we need to check out today's expression.
Let's go back in time.
Today's expression is kick it up a notch.
Kick it up a notch.
Oh, this is a good expression to kick it up a notch.
K I C K kick, kick it up.
So kick up U P is a phrasal verb to kick it up a notch.
N O T C H. What is a notch?
Well, the easiest thing to think of would be the volume control on your stereo.
Now if you think about a stereo, it has a volume dial and maybe there are numbers.
So volume one is low volume to a little bit higher and the highest volume is volume 10.
Okay, so especially in an old stereo, when you turn the volume from one to two, you can feel a little click.
So if you go from one, two, three, four, you can feel click, click, click, click.
So it's easy to stop exactly at three because there's a click.
And that click is called a notch.
That is a notch. It's kind of like a little space that goes inside where you can stop for a dial.
Does that make any sense?
I hope that makes sense.
So to kick it up a notch actually means to turn it up a notch.
So if we're talking about volume, turn the volume from number four to number five.
Kick it up a notch.
Make it louder. Turn it up.
This is the idea. So if you are watching the World Cup right now, it's June 18th, 2014.
And if you're watching the World Cup, which is happening in Brazil, and your friends are a little bit quiet, you can tell your friends, hey, come on, guys, kick it up a notch.
Cheer louder, be louder.
That's the idea. Kick it up a notch, the opposite.
Turn it down a notch.
Kick it down a notch.
I guess that's possible, but usually we say kick it up a notch.
Turn it down a notch.
Make it a little bit louder.
Make it a little bit quieter.
Okay. All right. Let's check out a dialogue.
Oh, it's pretty cool in here.
The thermostat said 24.
Can we kick it up a notch?
That's my favorite song.
Me too. Let's kick that up a notch too.
Okay. So we heard another difficult word.
The room is cool. It's too cold.
The thermostat is at 24.
What is the thermostat?
That means the temperature.
So usually in a room, there is a control.
And that control keeps the temperature at a certain number.
24 degrees. 25 26. Maybe in the winter time, you want the temperature at 27 degrees.
But in the summertime, you want the temperature at 21 degrees.
So you adjust the thermostat.
But if it's too cold, you can kick it up a notch from 24 to 25.
If it's too hot, you can turn it down a notch.
Or maybe some people would say kick it down a notch.
And then we used volume as the example.
These guys have a favorite song.
And the song was Old MacDonald.
Do you know the song?
Yeah. Yeah, it's my favorite.
It is my favorite. All right.
Not too bad today. It's a very good expression.
Especially when talking about volume.
So the next time you hear your favorite song on the radio, I want you to think of the expression.
Hey, let's kick it up a notch.
And then enjoy the music.
Let's listen two more times.
It's pretty cool in here.
The thermostat said 24.
Can we kick it up a notch?
Okay. That's my favorite song.
Me too. Let's kick that up a notch too.
It's pretty cool in here.
The thermostat said 24.
Can we kick it up a notch?
Okay. That's my favorite song.
Me too. Let's kick that up a notch too.
Thanks so much for listening.
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I'm Coach Shane and together, Let's Master English.
