This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 1485, how to be a well-rounded English learner.
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Is it better to be well-rounded or to focus on specific things in your personal and professional life?
Today, a listener asks us about the meaning of this word.
Listen in for our opinion today.
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Hey, Michelle, how you doing today?
How's it going?
Hey, Lindsay, I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm excited to be recording today.
How are you?
I'm feeling good.
We actually got snow here in Colorado.
It's October.
Guys, we are recording this in October.
I know this is coming out in December, but it's October and I just can't believe that we get snowstorms here in October.
It's a lot.
Yeah, I remember once in New York, there was a snowstorm on Halloween.
And it was crazy.
So it's not something so like, that would be the earliest.
Yeah, you expect something.
And that's a shock.
Right?
Exactly.
That's what I mean.
That's what I mean.
We're talking mid October here, late October.
So crazy stuff.
So what about you, Michelle?
What's going on in your world in New York?
What's happening?
Yeah well, I'm actually I'm still.
I'm with my parents, so I'm enjoying being with them, but I'm heading home soon, back to New York.
And yeah, everything's been good, been spending time.
We had my dad's birthday.
Lots of things going on.
So yeah, everything's fine over here.
And yeah, glad to talk to you.
Love it.
Love it.
So Michelle, what are we getting into today?
Do we have a listener question?
We do.
I'm excited for today's episode, as I am excited for every episode.
But I love this question.
This is going to be super fun.
Lots to talk about here.
So yes, we have a listener question about the word well-rounded.
So Lindsay, would you like to read the question for us?
Of course, Michelle, I'd be happy to read it.
Here we go.
Hello, guys.
Thank you very much for all your help.
I've been listening for more than a year and I'm so happy that now I have a conversation with native speakers without being afraid to open my mouth.
That is awesome.
This is from Danu.
I'll just call him Danu.
You are the best.
Still, I have a lot to improve.
Therefore, can you help me?
Because I can't understand the meaning of well-rounded.
Thank you again.
I appreciate it.
Yes, can you hear me?
I'm sorry.
I don't know if you want me to stop you, but I think we're in the speaker view.
No, I think we're actually in the right view.
Oh, shoot.
Yeah, that's okay.
That's okay.
No problem.
Our listeners can know our little hiccups here and there.
Guys, a hiccup.
Okay, I'm so sorry.
We'll get a bonus here, guys, by the way.
This particular episode is being recorded and put on YouTube.
So now you know that.
You can come over to our YouTube channel.
And a hiccup.
What is a hiccup, Michelle?
What is a hiccup?
Hiccup is like a small mistake.
So yeah, in my view guys, i see like things being highlighted and it looks like it's in the view that we didn't want it yes, yes.
So i thought oh, you know what we're at the beginning of the episode, maybe we should start over, but of course nope, i think you're wrong.
So here we are.
I'm glad you reminded me.
So guys, Zoom is kind of funky, right?
It's kind of weird, kind of messes with your mind.
But what I can see is Michelle and myself side by side.
That's what we need to see from the person recording.
So we are good to go.
Sorry about that, Lindsay.
No worries.
So this question is from Danu.
Danuta Militaru.
Okay.
Good question, right, Michelle?
Yes.
Definitely a good question.
We appreciate all...
Questions from our listeners.
It's always good to know what you guys are looking for, what you want to learn.
So that's why we try to answer as many as we can.
So definitely send your questions to lindsayatallearsenglish.com.
And we also wanted to thank our listeners, thank those who have reviewed our podcast.
So, Lindsay, who do we want to thank today?
Yes guys, we haven't read these thank you notes in a while, but I want you to know that every week we do review these reviews.
We review the reviews.
And we appreciate them so much.
So big thank you to the people that reviewed us in October.
Starting with, let's see El Monco from Ecuador, Ailey Howyou from Canada.
Trung Nguyen from the United States Nguyen.
Sorry, that's how you pronounce that Vietnamese name.
Someone from China Zara from Iran, Rasul from Iran, Mitra from the US, Paula Paula, MR from Colombia, who launched from China.
Wow.
Another name from Iran.
Another person from China, Torin T. from China.
Michelle, there are so many, I can't read them all.
It's crazy, and a lot of these are five star reviews.
Guys, thank you so much, thank you so much, Thank you.
Definitely.
We appreciate it so much.
And definitely, guys, if you haven't reviewed us yet, definitely rate and review us.
Yes, definitely.
Go ahead and do it, guys.
And we will try to read your name on the show.
All right, Michelle.
So let's get into this for our listeners.
Well-rounded.
Yes, yes.
So, I mean, what does it mean to be well-rounded?
So it means that you kind of are like a jack of all trades in a sense, right?
So I love that expression.
So it means you have knowledge, skills, and talents in a lot of different places, right?
So you're not just focused in one area, especially – I would also say interests, right?
Hobbies, things that you like to do.
You're not just one note, right?
Right, right, right.
And I think that is a very, very important to be well-rounded.
I mean, yeah, it's not just about being good at something.
It just means, you know, being good at, you know, many different things.
I think of it as being in tune with or good at a variety of things.
Right.
So it's about variety.
Yeah.
Do you agree with that, Lindsay?
Yeah, this is really interesting.
I feel like we could do multiple episodes on this today.
And I mean, we could also talk about in your professional life.
Is it better to be well-rounded or be a specialist?
You know what I mean?
That's also really interesting, but maybe we do that another day.
And today we just talk about our lives outside of work.
Yeah.
I think it's a balance.
I mean, with this word, I literally think of a circle, right?
So, yeah, like you said, you're kind of one note if you're not well-rounded.
But if you're well-rounded, you're a circle.
You have many different, you know... places you can go.
You're not just all the same.
You're not a square, right?
You're a circle.
So I think that I mean this makes me think of core requirements in college, which I think we've touched on a little bit.
Right, guys.
So when you enter the college level in the US, you usually some people don't know their major yet.
Some people are, you know, some people know what they want to do.
And but you still have to kind of take these questions core classes and usually you have to do like a math or a science or language requirement um, and they have these requirements that you have to fulfill and when i was in college i was so angry that i had to do them.
I was so frustrated because i felt like okay well i, i'm not questioning my major, why do i have to take?
I know, i took a biology of the chesapeake bay class and i was like what good is this doing?
And that's kind of a deeper discussion as to if those things are valuable and i think different countries might do it differently.
But yeah, i can appreciate this idea of wanting students to be well-rounded and not just focusing on their major.
Yeah for sure.
You're bringing back nightmares from my freshman year in college, bio 101.
Okay.
But it was hard as heck.
And my roommate, Wendy Kilby from Western Virginia, this really nice girl, so smart.
She could just break open her textbook the night before.
And I would spend weeks studying for this test to get a B minus.
She would break open her textbook the night before and get an A. I was like, are you kidding me?
You didn't go to any of the classes.
You slept in.
That sucks.
I know there are people like that.
I am not that kind of a student.
I don't know.
I don't know what it is.
Some people, they could just do that.
I remember that in college and you're frustrated.
You're like, why can you do that?
It's true.
I think the mission – and I wonder though, if this is going to change, because I actually kind of think in the professional world it's better to be a specialist right instead of a generalist.
But I think that what colleges up until now, and maybe in the future, have been trying to do is make us – more articulate and able to – so writing reading, public speaking, able to articulate an idea, flesh out an argument, challenge an argument, be constructive consumers of news, things like that.
But bio, I don't know if that's part of that.
I guess it's good to touch base on every topic a little bit.
Right.
But it seems like education, higher ed, yeah.
I think part of the thing is maybe part of the thinking is that you never know what might appeal to you.
Like, if you're like, maybe you go in thinking you're one thing and then you take that biology class and you're like, oh my gosh, I had no idea that this was available to me.
I didn't think in high school.
I didn't like it.
Maybe you had a bad teacher.
Maybe you maybe you...
Failed and you had this bad attitude.
But maybe you go into your bio classroom and your core college requirement and you have this amazing teacher who you're really in touch with it, and they apply things in different ways.
I wonder how often that happens.
It happened to my dad.
Actually, that's exactly how my dad ended up being an optometrist, which is an eye doctor.
So he was taking, he went to University of Delaware, Psych 101 freshman year, right?
Your basic, psych is on every requirement, every gen ed program in every university, Psych 101.
When they got to the section about optometrism, eyes and neurology the neuroscience and the way the eye works with the brain.
He was like, I love this.
And he fell in love.
And then he went and became an OD.
So it does happen sometimes.
But you're right.
You have to get the spread of everything.
I wonder how...
Yeah, I wonder how frequently it happens.
But it also meant like what you said, Lindsay, and again, we can save this for another time.
We'll touch on it a little bit.
It kind of makes me think of our strengths finder.
Yes.
What about that?
Because...
Then you know, with the StrengthsFinder guys, Lindsay had us do this really cool thing where you take, like this, quiz and it really analyzes what are your strengths.
And the idea behind it.
And this is also, I think, the StrengthsFinder.
You talk a little bit about it, maybe in the business course.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
We've talked about it.
Exactly.
We do a whole lesson on it in the business course, guys.
Go to allersenglish.com slash business to check that out.
But yeah, go ahead, Michelle.
Hey guys, don't forget to rate and review All Ears English in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to the show.
Let us know what you think about the show and we will do our best to read reviewers' names out loud on the show.
Thanks for listening.
So this idea that you want to focus on the things that you are good at, right?
Instead of kind of being, you know, working on everything, or trying to get a lot better at something that you're not.
That's not your innate strength.
You know, you really, it's a different strategy.
Guys, this is all about strategy.
And so the strategy could be in business to actually just focus on what you know you're good at and keep going with it.
That's your strengths and focus on that.
So that's a completely different idea.
So is somebody who's focused on their strengths not well-rounded?
I think it goes back to, Lindsay, what you said about being well-rounded about different things.
So maybe in business...
You're laser focused, but maybe in your social life, like you said, where you consume news, where you do different things, how you learn about things, maybe that could be the well-rounded.
I like that.
Meeting different people, having you know different friends from different places.
You know instead of just you know.
Right.
Being well-rounded.
Yeah, I agree with that, Michelle.
It's good in your life.
But I think in your professional world, it's really good if you can figure out what you do well.
And StrengthsFinder ties into that.
Also exposure to certain fields, certain areas. sub fields within fields, right?
If you are the one person who can do that thing and no one else around you can do it, you can make a lot more money, right?
And you can have a lot more leverage in your workplace.
And so I think that that's good.
I just think our education system in the US works against, it's antithetical, like it works against what actually creates success in the working world right.
So, for example, if you have all As and then you get a D in, like I don't know, it's in some, maybe literature or even math or something, then your parents, they focus on the D or the C Right.
They're like, oh my God, but they ignore the A's.
What if we spent more time encouraging kids?
Oh, you're good at these other things.
Let's hone, let's deepen these skills that you're already good at, because in the future we don't spend a lot of time outside of our fields.
I don't have to be that great at math, just certain things around... around business, right?
But I'm not running calculations.
I'm not running computer simulations.
So why does it matter in school?
I think one of the things that the education system could improve on... And again...
Please let me know if this is how it is in your country, because I've heard a little bit about this in other places.
Is that first of all, I think we're a little bit too young when we have to choose something.
I mean, if I had to, if I had to now all like make decisions, maybe I would have made slightly different decisions.
But I can't know that.
Until you know, you you learn from trying things in life.
I mean, maybe I would have had a different major.
Maybe I you know, but you're so.
I mean, when I started college and I think you too, Lindsay I mean I was 17 years old.
That's Yeah, I mean, that's a baby.
Like, how are you supposed to know?
So I think that's In a way, you almost wish that there was like an extra year or some extra time where you're in college, you're focusing on the social aspect, you're taking some different core courses.
And then, you know, like, I just feel...
Something's like a little bit off.
Something's off.
I mean, I bet our listeners from places like Spain and France.
I think they actually have to choose a lot earlier than we do.
Oh, really?
I didn't choose until my third year in college when I was a junior.
So I would have been about 20 my junior year.
And then you start getting into your majors.
In my college, you could do a gen ed the first two years.
And maybe think about your major.
Most people are that way.
But I think in Europe, I'm pretty sure that you guys you can let us know in the comments if you're on YouTube or let us know if you send us a review on the podcast.
But I'm pretty sure you guys are choosing way earlier.
When did you declare your major?
Michelle, how old were you?
I think right from the start.
Really?
Okay, that's interesting.
So, okay, so that's more like a lot of our listeners, probably.
I wonder if it's because you went to a huge college, university.
But you didn't have to declare it.
I don't know if you could do the gen ed thing for two years.
You probably could, but I, at the time...
I mean, this goes into so many things.
I mean, like, I thought I knew what I wanted.
Yeah.
In hindsight, I wish I would have like experimented a little bit more with different things.
But maybe that's just me as a like, not completely different things.
But maybe I would have made slightly different decisions with my strengths that I think are the same, but maybe it would have taken me in a different direction.
However, I'm also a big believer in if I had made one different decision, I wouldn't be where I am now.
And I want to change where I am now.
So it's like, I know life is scary like that.
When you start to think about all the little decisions that led to something else.
It's terrifying.
But yeah, about this word well rounded.
So we're talking about like a person being well rounded.
Can things be well rounded?
Do we only use this to talk about people?
Yeah.
I mean, you could say, you know, that was a well-rounded argument.
Right.
When you, if you are on the debate team or something and you're debating, you want to hit it from multiple perspectives and counter arguments.
A well-rounded presentation.
There's a lot of ways, guys, that we use this not just to talk about the person.
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
And Lindsay, you touched on this expression, I think earlier, the expression a jack of all trades right.
Yes, I love that.
And we've actually talked about this on the show way back in the day.
All years English episode 244.
Oh, my gosh.
Which was to do or to don't.
That is the question.
So, guys, if you want to hear a little bit more about that expression, that's where you can hear it.
A jag of all trades.
That's a great expression, a great expression.
Are there any other?
Maybe one or two Michelle, because we're running up on time here other ways to say that you are well-rounded.
Anything else we can leave our listeners with today, Michelle?
Okay, I will give, so one is versatile, which is a beautiful word.
That is versatile.
Versatile.
And then I'll give one more.
Okay, I'll say multi-talented.
Right.
That's a little bit different.
That's just somebody who's good at a lot of things.
But, you know, this idea of having multiple things that you're working on going for.
Yeah.
It also makes me think of the expression a renaissance person.
Right. right?
Renaissance.
I'm pretty sure that's how that's used.
I've heard it being used, the idea that you're well-rounded, you can do a lot of things.
Really good stuff.
So this is a deep topic that I feel like we could go into a lot more, Michelle.
But I'm glad our listener asked the question because guys, now at least you have the vocabulary word to use.
What's the takeaway today, Michelle, for our listeners?
Well, guys, today we went into, we really, really went into this word, well-rounded.
We talked about our thoughts.
We talked about the education system in the U.S. a lot.
And we talked about business and what does it mean and when is it good to be well-rounded and when do you want to stay focused?
So definitely try out that word today and think to yourself, are you well-rounded?
Maybe there are areas in your life where you think you know what I should be more well-rounded in this area, or maybe I should be more focused in that area.
So it's a good thing to kind of think about in your own life, how it applies to you.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean for me.
In the last couple of years I've become friends with people who I thought I was well-rounded, but they're way more well-rounded right.
Even in terms of things like diet.
Right.
Having a well-rounded diet, not just eating like vegetables all the time, but adding meat and adding different varieties of foods to get a healthier balance.
I mean, there's so many ways.
So guys, look at your life and think about how can you make your life more well-rounded?
Like Michelle said, I love that idea, Michelle.
Yeah.
And guys, Michelle.
Oh, this was fun.
And, oh my gosh, when you brought up the diet stuff.
One day I'll talk to you about what it's like to try and make a toddler have a well-rounded diet.
Oh, I can't imagine.
I think we could do a lot more episodes on this.
But for now, we'll cut it short.
Exactly.
We will cut it short.
But guys, this has been fun.
Thank you to our listener for that question.
And guys, remember, send us your questions and definitely review us.
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Let us know what you think about the show and ask your question right inside that review.
All right, guys.
Awesome.
Michelle, this has been fun.
Have a good one.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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