Today, I am going to teach you some very
American expressions that's coming up. What's up everyone? Welcome
to interactive English, which is the place you want to be to
practice and improve your English skills. And the way we're going to do that
today is I am going to teach you some expressions that are very common in the
US and these expressions may be used in other English speaking countries as well, but some of them are very specific
to the US and as we go through them, I will let you know which ones those are. So let's begin with our first expression. And that is it's, it's one of my
favorite expressions. It's very easy. It's just one word. And that
is whatever. Now, as a pronoun, we can use this word to mean well, a lack of restriction or limitations. And people might say something like,
well, you can do whatever you want. You can say whatever you want
in those comments down below, you can write whatever you want. No, I mean you're in good shape and
you can eat whatever you want. Take whatever you want. Tell you what. You play whatever you want. But we can also use this word as an informal
exclamation to show a reluctance to continue talking or to, to
continue having a discussion. And it kind of just shows a
bit of indifference. Like, you know, I don't
care. It doesn't matter to me. So when I think about the
word being used like this, I think about people having
an emotional conversation, maybe even an argument and one person
just doesn't want to talk about it anymore. They may just say, you know
what, whatever I'm done talking, whatever, Believe what would you want to
believe? I don't even care. Whatever. You want to mount it
on the left or the right or the middle? Whatever. The next expression is
one that I use a lot. I like using this expression and it
is informal and it's just my bad. And when somebody says my bad, they are acknowledging that
that they made a mistake, they did something wrong and
it's not really a really, really horrible mistake because then
I think you want to be a little more apologetic. But if it's just something
small and you're know, oh, okay, I did something wrong. My bad. Often I think it's used
quite frequently in sports. When you're having a competition and
you play on a team and somebody makes a mistake and they'll just say, oh, okay,
my bad. You will see this in basketball, soccer, football, and any team sport,
somebody makes a mistake. They may, they may point to themselves and
say, you know, Oh yeah, my bad. Sorry. My bad. Then we have an expression which, which is more of an idiom and that is
to lose touch with someone and when you lose touch with somebody,
it means that you just, you stop communicating with
them. And I think common, it happens especially over a
long period of time that we, we have friends, but then we lose touch as the years
go on and on and on and you just, you're just not communicating with people. I hope that we never lose touch and that
you are constantly writing to me and communicating with me and,
and we always stay in touch, which would be the opposite. That
means you keep communicating. There's an extra one there for you, but if you don't want to stay in touch
with me, whatever, I'm just kidding. My bad. I, I really, I don't want to
lose touch with all of you. You know, after high school you
just kind of lose touch Then we have an expression, which is, is definitely very American. It's part of the United States
and that is to plead the fifth. Now when somebody says, you
know, Oh, I plead the fifth, then they may say it informally and
you might hear this on TV and movies, but what it really means is that it's
talking about the Fifth Amendment and in the u s constitution, the
Fifth Amendment means that you, you don't have to talk about something
because you don't want to incriminate yourself. Let me explain that in case it doesn't
make sense that say that you are witness to something wrong, but you yourself also did something a
bit wrong and they call you to testify against this other person.
They say, oh, can I, I want you to tell us what happened, but you don't want to talk about it
because you also did something a little wrong. You might say, you
know, I plead the fifth. I don't want to talk about this situation
because basically I'm going to be admitting to a crime as well
that I committed, so I'm
going to plead the fifth. That's a little civics lesson
for you, but this expression, it can also be used in situations
outside of that context said, even if you're talking to your husband
or wife about something and you, you don't want to be completely honest
about a situation because maybe you did something wrong. You can say, ah,
you know, I, I plead the fifth. Could I plead the fifth? The fifth is just used to protect
yourself. I'm pleading the fifth. Just try to keep your secrets. I dare you. Please tell me that you haven't
planned anything big tonight. On your birthday. Sorry, but I plead
the fifth. Then we have an expression
which is commonly confused. And that expression is, I couldn't care
less. So if somebody says, you know, I, I couldn't care less.
It just means that the, the amount of concern that they have
about something could not be less. This is the least thing that they
could possibly be concerned about. I couldn't care less. Now often, I think this is used in kind of
the heat of the moment when you're, you're talking about uh, something and
you want to tell this person, look, I don't care. I couldn't care less, but
people will confuse it and they say, well, I could care less. And
that means kind of, you know, the opposite that you're, there are many other things that you
could care less about and that's not what you want to say. So keep that in mind.
Don't confuse it with, I could care less. I couldn't care less. That's the
one you want. Stick with that. You just want more money for
yourself. Don't you? Couldn't care less. I couldn't care less about
the commendation. Amy, thank you for sticking up for
me. Oh, I honestly couldn't care less. Then we have another, I guess it's just one
word and that is like, now I want to, I'm putting
this in there just for your, your comprehension. Not for
you to go out and use it. This is something that you might hear
young teenagers use and they use it as a meaningless interjection when they're
having a conversation just during their, their informal speech. It just may
be riddled with like, like, like, like life and people get into these bad
habits and it just takes time to grow out of them. So if you're watching a a TV show
or movie that is about high school, then you might hear it a bit more
so it's more for your comprehension, not for you to try and just go
out and use and start using this. It's just for you to be aware of it.
So let me try to give you an example. So I like wanted to go to the
movies this weekend with my friend, but she was like, I can't because I have to do my homework
and we can like hang out that night, which meant I didn't do anything,
which was like totally boring. Okay. All right. That, that sounded ridiculous,
especially hearing me say that. But I'm going to say it again and now
I'm just going to take out all of those likes and you tell me if you
think it makes more sense. So I wanted to go to the movies
this weekend with my friend, but she said she can't because she had
to do homework and we couldn't hang out that night, which meant that I didn't
do anything, which was very boring. So as you can see, I think it's
much easier to understand when we, when we take those likes out. But again, if you are listening to a teenager
talk in the United States, especially, I think if you're
in places like California, then you may hear this word used
quite often in China on this deck. Chandler let it slip that process in
love with Rachel. He was like, oh my God, The next expression is
to give someone props. And this is actually a bit of slang. It may be more regional and it depends
on your age that that you might say this or maybe you might hear this expression, but to give someone props means
that you are recognizing them. You are acknowledging them for for some
reason something that they did. Again, it's very informal so think of it maybe
in the [inaudible] just to give you an example at at work you're like, yeah my, my boss really gave me props
for all the hard work I did. I want to give all of you guys props
for watching our video lessons. You guys are like the best. It's just, it just sounds awkward and unnatural.
When I say like, like, like, like, like, Some people give you props for challenging
the ghoulies to a race and beating them. I had to pop a cop because he wasn't
giving me my props in Oaktown. You and your friends have
accomplished the impossible. For that. I give you mad props. Then we have John Hancock.
This is another one. It's very American. It's really
just used in the United States. And you would talk about
it in the context of, well, I need to get your John Hancock, or I need you to give
me your John Hancock. And when they're talking
about your John Hancock, they're talking about your signature. So
if somebody were to say, hey, you know, I just need to get your John Hancock
right here. They're telling you, well, you need to sign right there. So
where does this come from? Well, John Hancock supposedly was the first
person to sign the declaration of independence, and when he signed his name, he signed it abnormally large. It's the largest signature on
the Declaration of Independence. And people say that the reason that he
did this is because the king didn't have very good eyesight and he
wanted to make sure that, that he could see John
Hancock's signature. So now that name has now become a
reference to somebody's signature. I need to get your John
Hancock. Mr. Callahan, I need your John Hancock on these reports. If I could just get your
John Hancock. Oh sergeant. So we'll just need your
John Hancock right here. And now the old John Hancock. The next expression is, is it's also an idiom and that
is to get ahead of oneself. And this just means that you are planning
prematurely or maybe you're being a bit overconfident. So for example,
if you are going to take a trip, but that trip is a long ways off. You don't really need to start
planning now, but if you do plan now, somebody might say, look, okay, wait,
you're getting ahead of yourself. We don't need to start
planning for this now. Or as far as overconfidence goes, perhaps you have an idea and you start
thinking of this idea and all of the amazing things that can come
out of it and you're like, oh, I'm going to do this
and then we can do this. And then you start thinking
about it and you're like, oh, maybe I'm starting to get ahead of myself
and I just need to take it one step at a time. So if you're planning prematurely,
if you're a bit over confident, then you might be getting
ahead of yourself. Well, I told you that would learn
better if I had a study buddy. Don't get ahead of yourself. Maybe I'll call him pappy. Look at
me. I'm getting ahead of myself. Might be a cause for celebration.
Wow. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The next expression
is another one of my favorites. It's a very short, very simple
three words. It's all good. And if somebody says, hey, it's all good, it just means that everything is fine. Often I think people might say
it kind of in the context of, of telling somebody else to relax. All
right, don't worry about this. Relax. It's all good. Perhaps somebody who's trying to plan
prematurely and they're really getting ahead of themselves and they're like,
oh, well, well you need to do this, you need to do that. And you would
just tell him, hey, it's all good. Don't worry about it. I got it
taken care of. It's all good. It's all good baby. So what I want you to do now
because I don't want to lose touch, is I want you to join our community and
subscribe to our email list because we will send you some useful
and free resources. We will give you access to
the secret fluency lesson. All you've got to do is write your
email and give us your John Hancock. So check out the link in the description.
If you don't want to, it's all good, don't worry about it. You can
just write to me in the comments, we can communicate there and I will give
you some prompts. I will recognize you, I will acknowledge you and I will just
keep using as many of these expressions as I can. So the, so that you have a better understanding
of them and that you are more likely to remember. Thank you guys
so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this lesson.
If you did hit that like button, like, like really hit it, hit,
hit it like hit it really hard. All right and okay, enough of
that. I will see you next time. So I like one [inaudible] so I
like wanting to go to the front. So I like wanting to go to the movies
with my friend, and he was like, well, I have to do my homework. So I had to like stay home and it
was like so boring and I can't even, I can't even get through this.
