Bob's Short English Lessons

Follow Bob's Short English Lessons
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

If you want to learn English with short easy-to-understand lessons then you've come to the right place. I'm Bob the Canadian and I make videos on Youtube (Just search for "Bob's Short English Lessons" on Youtube!) as well as podcasts right here to help you learn English. Four times each week I upload a short English lesson with a complete transcript in the description. During these lessons I teach one or two curious phrases from the English language and answer a listener question. Thanks for joining me and I hope your English learning is going well!

Bob the Canadian

Donate to Bob's Short English Lessons


    • May 30, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • weekdays NEW EPISODES
    • 4m AVG DURATION
    • 485 EPISODES


    Search for episodes from Bob's Short English Lessons with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from Bob's Short English Lessons

    Learn the English Phrases "scarred for life" and "That's going to leave a scar!"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2025 4:26 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SCARRED FOR LIFE and THAT'S GOING TO LEAVE A MARK / SCAR!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase scarred for life. Now, this is a more serious phrase, and we use it to talk about when something traumatic happens to someone and it's something that they will remember for the rest of their life. I guess the best example would be this. When I was a kid, we were sitting, waiting for a lift, bridge to come down, and a, person hit us from behind. And in some ways, in a very small way, I was scarred for life. I'm always afraid when I'm stopped somewhere now that someone's going to hit our car from behind. Luckily, when I was a kid, when that happened, no one was hurt. We had a really big car. The people who hit us, though, were injured quite badly. And I do remember I was probably 9 or 10 years old seeing the ambulance come to take those people out. So in a small way, I mean, other people have far more serious things happen to them. But in a small way, I was scarred for life.I don't teach serious phrases very often. But I think it's important.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe second phrase I wanted to teach you is that's going to leave a scar or that's going to leave a mark. This phrase is sometimes used in a humorous way. Here's an example. Let's say you're watching a soccer game or a football game. Someone kicks the ball and it hits another player in the face. You might react by going, ooh, that's going to leave a scar, or, oh, that's going to leave a mark. Basically what you're saying is, there's probably going to be a bruise or something after that happens. You can also use this figuratively when something happens to someone that isn't an actual action. Maybe at work you get fired and you can say, you know, that's going to leave a mark. That's going to, going to leave a mark for that guy or for you. Because, yeah, losing your job is not fun.To review when you are scarred for life. It means something traumatic happened when you were younger and you still at times think about that in a negative way. You have negative emotions, and then that's going to leave a scar or that's going to leave a mark simply means that something physical has happened or something, you know, an action has just occurred that will, you'll remember it for a long time.Let's, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I'm not in the right mood to teach serious phrases. It's a tough thing to do, you know, I want to do an English lesson about death at some point, but I don't know how to do it well. So I just never do it. But maybe someday. This is from Zerevan. That old car needs a lot of gas. It's tough to have an old car. And my response, for sure, I'm surprised how much better on gas our new car is, although I am comparing it to my minivans, which are older and bigger, so maybe not a fair comparison. Thanks, Zerevan, for that comment.But, yeah, yeah, there was a car, in a video the other day a couple days ago. Whoa. That was a fast turn, Bob. And it was huge. It was enormous. What surprised me is many of you commented about the car, which was cool, but no one commented about the huge family of kids that walked by. At the beginning, I didn't realize they were behind me. I was in the zone when I was making that English lesson. And then when I sat down to edit it, I was like, how many kids are in that family? There was, like, one kid, two, three kids, four kids, five kids. It was a big family. So I'm glad my camera blurs people in the background out a bit, because I don't want to inadvertently put people in Support the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to put a damper on something" and "a wet blanket"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2025 4:31 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUT A DAMPER ON SOMETHING and A WET BLANKETIn this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase to put a damper on something. When you put a damper on something, it means that you make it not fun. Or something can also put a damper on something else. Right now, the weather is putting a damper on Jen's ability to plant things. It's been raining for two days, and that has, certainly put a damper on progress on the farm. This can happen at work, too. Maybe your boss, decides that everybody has to work on Saturday, and that really puts a damper on your weekend plans.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a wet blanket. A wet blanket is a term we use to describe someone who makes something no fun. If your boss makes you work Saturday and that puts a damper on your weekend, we might say your boss is a wet blanket. A person who makes something, not fun. So they are someone who steals the joy from something. You might know someone who, if you invite them to a party, they're a wet blanket. And they don't add any fun or joy to the party. They just complain all the time.So, to review, to put a damper on something means to make something not fun, in the way that, you know, something or someone makes it not fun. And then a wet blanket would be a term used to describe someone who puts a damper on things. They're kind of related, aren't they?But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Sibelk. Thanks a lot. And your farm looks so peaceful. And my response, it is nice, but a bit rainy and cold the last few days. That's really putting a damper on things. Thanks, Sibelk, for that comment. And that was me using, the phrase in the comment. So I hope you enjoyed that. You do know that's where my phrases come from, right? I interact with people in the world and then I use what they say, to create English lessons for you.So what was I going to show you today? Well, we're walking out here in the rain. There are puddles along the driveway. I put these little French drains in. I think I showed you this last year. And they're kind of working to keep the puddles away. But I feel like I need to add, another one here. I took the shovel out this morning and I dug one temporarily. But you can see as it rains, the water is all flowing this way and creating these puddles, which, I don't enjoy having. I like it when, the driveway stays dry. I don't mind rain. I don't mind water. But I do really like it when the driveway stays dry.And then. Yes, this is putting a damper on things. Jen would love to be planting flowers and even harvesting some flowers. But in order for flowers to grow and bloom, you need sunlight and you also need warmth. Like, it has to be a somewhat warm day. Here you can see some water again, just trickling. I was going to show you that I wore mismatched shoes this morning. I just put my running shoes on because, I don't know why I should have put normal shoes on. I'm kind of on my way to work, so I do have to go back in the house and change my shoes, before I head out.So, Jen just said we're in a rainfall warning. We already got an inch of rain today and, since yesterday. And, yeah, hopefully it stops soon. I don't have crops out in my big field yet. My neighbor did come and work up the field, but, we're going to have to wait on that as well, for a week or more until everything dries up. So there you go. The trees love it. The grass loves it. Way out there, you can see Walter. Walter, come on. Pup. Walter Walter. He's not reaSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to put together" and "to pull yourself together"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2025 4:19 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUT TOGETHER and TO PULL YOURSELF TOGETHERIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to put together. When you put something together, it means there are pieces. And then you attach all the pieces together with glue or screws or nails or something like that.If you're wondering what the noise is, Jen's driving by in her gator, which kind of cracks me up because one of the last comments was that there was too much noise when I make these videos in town and some, someone wanted me to do them on the peaceful farm. And I thought I should do that. But, then there was still some traffic, wasn't there?WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianAnyways, when you go to Ikea and you buy a bed, it comes in a box and then you need to put it together. When you get home, you need to use the tools and the screws that they give you. Or maybe you need to get your own screwdriver and you take all the pieces. And when you're done, after you put the bed together, you have a, bed. So when you put something together, it's in pieces and then when it's done, it's whole.The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to pull yourself together. I might have taught this one before. All of a sudden I just thought, maybe I have, but I'll teach it again. Anyways, if you are emotional, if you are sad or upset or crying, you might need to pull yourself together. Let's say you're at a wedding and it's beautiful and maybe someone you know is getting married and you're, you're just crying a little bit, but they're tears of joy. And then you have to go up and give a speech. You need to pull yourself together before you go up and give the speech. You need to get control of your emotions. You need to calm down.So to review, to put together, to put something together means, oh, here's another good example. If you ever played with Lego, you get a Lego set. And then you need to put together all the pieces to build what you are building. And to pull yourself together simply means to calm yourself down when you're in an emotional state. When you're in a heightened emotional state. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from ksenom. I never get up on the wrong side of the bed. There's a concrete wall. What's the difference between make the bed and assemble the bed? Dandelions grow here in Finland too. However, this spring, the night temperatures have been unusually low, so the flowers haven't appeared. Yet. And my response, when you buy a bed from a store, you assemble it. You do this once, you put it together. When you make the bed, you tidy up the blankets.So thanks ksenom. for that comment. And hopefully you understood the difference. When you use the verb to make the bed, it's to put all the blankets flat. But if you were to get wood and cut the wood and like, not assemble it, like you are literally going to build it, we could use the verb make as well. But generally, 99% of the time when you make the bed, it means you're putting the blankets on nicely.Today I wanted to talk about shade. The shade has returned on my farm, on my property. One of the problems with making videos in town is that you don't get to see all of the changes here on the farm property. So you can see that hopefully I'm not rotating you too quickly. You can see that shade has returned. I'm standing in the shade of this tree and it is beautiful. And hopefully, cross my fingers, the weather is beautiful on the first Saturday of June. And I can sit here. You'll recognize the view in a moment. I can sit here and do my lSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "the wrong side of the bed" and "to make the bed"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2025 4:29 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED and TO MAKE THE BEDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get up on the wrong side of the bed or to wake up on the wrong side of the bed or to get out of the wrong side of the bed. There's a lot of different variations to this phrase, but basically it means that you're in a bad mood. If I was crabby and cranky, Jen might say, hey, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed? I wanted to make sure I said this version of the phrase, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? And that would simply mean, wow, did you not sleep good, did you have a bad sleep, and now you're in a bad mood.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is simply to make the bed. This is what you do after you get up. You put the pillows nice at the top of your bed and you put the blankets nice and flat. We have what's called a sheet, and then we have a comforter. And we just kind of make the bed every morning after we get up. So we put all the blankets nice and flat and tidy.So to review, to get up on the wrong side of the bed or to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or to get up out of the wrong side of the bed, however you say it, it means you're in a bad mood. And to make the bed simply means. Yeah, to put all of the blankets and sheets flat so they look nice.So let's look at a comment from a previous video. If you're wondering why I'm out of sorts, it's so bright out here, I have to find my sunglasses. You know, you'll notice I can hardly keep my one eye open. I'm not sure if the camera communicates that.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ismail. Hi, Bob. That sign that says more points, more ways on the gas pump, I think it's about a rewards program like getting points when you buy gas. But I wasn't sure how it works exactly in that place. Just curious, what's it all about? And my response, yes, you get points when you buy gas. This is from the video from a couple days ago at the gas station. You can then use the points to get 4 cents a liter off your purchase. I think you need about 4,000 points to do that.So thanks, Ismail, for that question. Yeah, at our gas station and at a lot of places, you get points if you buy certain things and then you can use Those points like money. I don't know how many points you get for a tank of gas, but I do know that every once in a while I have enough points that I can get 4 cents a liter off.So what am I doing here? I wanted to show you dandelions. So we are in prime dandelion season. Dandelions are, of course, these little yellow flowers that show up in lawns probably in a lot of different places in the world. I'm kind of curious whether you have dandelions where you live or not. For the next week or so, there will be a lot of dandelions around. Like, this is a local soccer field. They do a lot of work here to make sure the grass is nice and green. But the dandelions, they still come. They are pretty good at growing almost everywhere in Ontario, Canada.I don't want to go over there, but in the distance, there's actually some sort of school event. It's not my school. I wonder if it's a track and field meet. A track and field meet is where you run the 100 meter, the 800 meter. You do long jump and triple jump and all those other kinds of events. Because there's children involved. I don't want to walk over there. They want their privacy and just not a good idea. If I'm in a public place, like when I'm at the publSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to sugarcoat" and "a coat of paint"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2025 4:21 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SUGARCOAT and A COAT OF PAINTHi. I'll teach the phrase in a moment. I just got to get my gas pumping here. And then I will get started on the phrase to sugarcoat. Let me see here. Almost ready. There we go.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianWell, hi. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sugarcoat. When you sugarcoat something, it means you're giving someone serious news, but you're making it sound not serious. A great example would be if you go to the hospital, maybe you were in an accident and they do some X rays and the doctor comes out and says, well, I'm just gonna say it won't be very long before you're feeling a lot better. You might say to the doctor, please don't sugarcoat it. Just tell me exactly what's wrong. And then the doctor might say, well, you broke your leg and your arm and you're going to have a long recovery. Something super serious like that. So to sugarcoat means to make something serious sound not serious.The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a coat of paint. If you look here, this looks like it has a fresh coat of paint on it. My van could use a fresh coat of paint. When we talk about a coat of paint, it's as if when you put the paint on, it forms a coat. Sorry, there's a big, huge truck going by if you're wondering what the loud noise is. But anyways, a coat of paint is just the paint that you put on in one layer. Sometimes you put on two coats of paint, sometimes three.So to review, to sugarcoat something means to make it sound better than it is. And a coat of paint simply refers to a layer of paint that is on something like a van or this post here.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Let me check my gas for a sec. $70 already. Wow, it's expensive. This comment is from Meng. Daffodils in England were in full bloom a month or two ago, and now they are past their prime. Oh, I'm done pumping. I should hurry up. And then I responded by saying, I guess you're ahead of us then. Also, great use of the face... of the phrase past their prime. Yeah, it's a good phrase. When something's past its prime, it means it isn't. Isn't doing well anymore. It's getting old and not in its. Well, in its prime. I was gonna say in its heyday, which is another way of saying it.So how much is gas here? Let me have gas is $1.35.9 cents. Gas in Canada has gotten a little bit cheaper. But honestly, I have a bit of a dilemma because if I go to the city, gas is right now 10 cents a liter cheaper in the city for some reason. I don't know why, but it's 10 cents a liter cheaper. So the problem I have is do I drive to the city and use extra gas to fill up my van so that it's cheaper? Or do. Or do I just buy the more expensive gas?So hey, some of you might be wondering, I think in a previous video, I don't know on which channel, I talked about how this van had to go to the garage for some work. It smelled like gas. It ended up being something fairly simple. It was less than $200 to get it fixed. So I'm happy that my little blue van is still on the road and still doing well. Hopefully it lasts a long time because we need it to. So yeah, I tanked it up with gas and it's good for a little while yet. By the way, only I drive this van. My kids have decided they like the newer car better and the red van is, I think, more reliable. So it's just me now. Me and my blue van, which some people think is gray, but I think it's blue. Maybe let me know in the comments below what color you think this van is.Anyways, thanks for watching. I'll see you in aSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to cover your tracks" and "to cover all the bases"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2025 4:25 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO COVER YOUR TRACKS and TO COVER ALL THE BASESIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to cover your tracks. Now, if you do something and you don't want anyone to know you did it, you might want to cover your tracks. Let's say there are cookies in the kitchen and I'm not supposed to eat them. I might go to the tray of cookies and eat two and then I might move the other cookies so it looks like they're filling the plate. Still. I'm trying to cover my tracks. You also hear this phrase when you watch a show where there are criminals. After a criminal commits a crime, they might try to cover their tracks. They might put everything back the way it was. Let me see, let's say they were stealing money from a safe. They would probably close the safe and make everything in the place where they are stealing the money from look the same way as when they got there. They try to cover their tracks.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to cover all the bases. This means to make sure that you do everything in a situation. Let's say you're working on a project at work. You want to make sure that you cover all the bases. When you work on that project, you want to make sure that manufacturing goes well. You want to make sure that design goes well. You want to make sure that you have thought about and taken care of all of the aspects of the project. You want to cover all the bases.So to review to cover your tracks means to make it look like you haven't been there. I've actually done that after I've eaten cookies before. I rearranged them on the plate so it looks like the plate is still full. And then to cover all the bases means to make sure that you take care of all aspects of a project.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Minosmil. I can imagine Bob and Jen going on a trip, but I'm not able to picture Bob the Canadian without pizza. And my response it would be hard! Right now. We make homemade pizza for supper once a week. It's my favorite night. Yes. So thanks Minosmil for that comment. Yes, I can imagine going on a trip. If I go on a trip, I'm hoping wherever I go that there's pizza there because I still like it. What an amazing food. Crust, cheese, sauce, some meat on top of it's just amazing. Hey, what was I going to say? I was going to say something else. I can't remember Jen and I going on a trip. That should happen at some point in our lives, probably.So here's what I wanted to show you. We're a little behind right now in this part of Ontario, Canada. If you look here on the lilac tree, you'll see they're just starting to get their little flowers. And usually this has happened already. I should pause a little bit and stop moving so you can see. And then over here we have some purple ones. There's actually not a lot on this tree either. Hopefully I'm not too close. Hopefully you can see, if I go too close, it doesn't focus. So hopefully in the next little while things warm up a bit.Jen and I need to start our farmers market in four weeks and things aren't growing as fast as they normally grow. We had a burst of growth, like the daffodils started growing really well. If you look over here, you can see there are some daffodils there. These aren't ones that we grow and sell, but definitely it needs to warm up a bit around here. The trees are starting to get leaves, so that's cool. But, yeah, it's like, you can see I have my sweater on again today. So it's another cool day here. And yeah, we need the suSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to belt out" and "to tighten your belt"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2025 4:19 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BELT OUT and TO TIGHTEN YOUR BELTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to belt out. So a belt is something you wear on your pants so your pants don't fall down. But it's also a verb we use to talk about someone who's singing very, very loudly. You can belt out a song. Let's say you go to a karaoke evening somewhere and you choose your favourite song and then you get the microphone and as the words show up on the screen, you start to belt out the song. So kind of a unique verb, but it is a verb that you will hear quite often. Sometimes people will say, wow, the singer could really belt out the songs. It was very cool to listen to.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe second phrase I wanted to teach you today is to tighten your belt. When you tighten your belt, it means you're trying to save money. So let's say Jen and I wanted to go on a trip in six months, but in order to do that we would have to save up some money. We might need to tighten our belts. So we might need to tighten our belts. That means that we decide to not go out to eat. We're not going to order pizza, we're going to make all of our food at home. How else would you save money? Maybe we're going to cancel Netflix. We're going to decide to tighten our belts so that we can save some money.So to review, to belt out simply means to sing something loudly with lots of energy and enthusiasm. And to tighten your belt means to decide to not spend money on extra things for the next little while.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Freddy Wolf and the comment is. Here we go. Thanks, Bob. While your temperatures are currently quite low and a bit chilly, we are experiencing very high temperatures up to 30. This is in France, by the way, for the month of May. This is a record since weather forecasts have been taking measurements. Sand from the Sahara is even predicted to come up to us. Our cars will all be sand colored. Mandatory wash in sight. See you soon. And my response. Oh, wow, that's a long way for the sand to travel. I've never experienced something like that. I hope it doesn't last long.I think I forgot to put the T on last in that comment. There's a little, there's a little error there you'll have to correct if you see it. But yeah, thanks Freddy for that comment. Sand from the Sahara or the Sahara, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to pronounce it. Even English speakers sometimes don't know how to say the words properly, so. But that's interesting. That's a long way for the sand to travel. It reminds me of when we had the wildfires in northern Canada and the smoke traveled all the way to New York City in the United States. That was kind of incredible.But hey, where am I today? Well, I'm just out walking in a typical Canadian subdivision. If I show you, that is a very large dog. Yes. I'm not always a big fan of dogs. I'm just going to walk quickly. Now. This is a typical Canadian subdivision. Every once in a while I do come and make a lesson in a subdivision. I always hope that the people who live in the subdivision, if they see me, don't mind. I also have a sense that there might be a car coming up behind me. Oh, no, it's turning. So I'm safe. I have to be hyper aware of my surroundings when I come and make an English lesson in a place like this. But there you go. You can see that a lot of Canadians have more than one vehicle. One vehicle there. When you see a vehicle in the driveway, there's often another vehicle in the garage. And then someone even has a boat over there. I woSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "a real headache" and "a splitting headache"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 2, 2025 4:25 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A REAL HEADACHE and A SPLITTING HEADACHEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the phrase a real headache. Now this can have two meanings. The actual meaning is that your head hurts and maybe you need to go to a pharmacy to get some medicine so that you don't have a headache anymore. Maybe you have a real headache, an actual headache. But we also use this to talk about a situation that isn't easy. Right now I don't think I want to go to the United States because I think crossing the border would be a real headache. I think they might ask me too many questions. If you didn't know the US and Canada aren't getting along very well right now. So I'm not sure I want to cross the border because it might be a real headache. You might go for an interview for a job and you might say, oh, the job interview was, it was a real headache. Like they asked me questions for two and a half hours. So sometimes when it's not an actual headache, we still use the word real to describe a situation that is kind of annoying and kind of difficult.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a splitting headache. This is an actual headache. If you have a splitting headache, you will probably go to the pharmacy and get some acetaminophen or ibuprofen to help with your headache because you have a splitting headache. Sometimes people go out and they drink too much, they have too many alcoholic beverages and the next morning they wake up with a hangover and they have a splitting headache.So to review, a real headache can be an actual headache or it can be a difficult situation. And a splitting headache is when you have... your head just feels like it just feels awful. It's not very nice at all.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ünsal. I've noticed there usually aren't many people around in the videos you film in town. Is that because of the time and place you choose to shoot? Or are those calm, peaceful streets just part of the vibe where you live? Thanks for filming outside. Even with the strong wind, it's always such a joy hanging out with you. Thank you so much for this useful lesson. Have a great day. Bye. And my response? I'll try to find a place today in town with more people. A lot are still in their cars because it is early spring. The warmer weather will come soon.And you've probably thanks Ünsal for that comment. And you've probably noticed as I stood there, there were a lot of people driving by and there still are, but there aren't a lot of people walking by. That gentleman does have the window of his truck open. And I'll show you what Canadians do sometimes. Sometimes Canadians, at this time of year, we don't start spending time outside. We just stay in our cars. So this is the Tim Hortons. Drive through and you'll see that there are quite a few people lined up to buy some food, to buy some coffee, maybe some donuts and those kinds of things. If you look way over there, you'll see people going from their car into the Tim Hortons restaurant. But, yes, I would say that it's still maybe a little bit too chilly for people to actually be outside.Oh, there's someone over there. So I'm gonna guarantee you that that person. Oh, I thought she was maybe gonna go into the drugstore, into the pharmacy, because maybe she has a headache. But no, it's still a little. Oh, she did. She did go. I should have kept the camera there. Anyways, Ünsal, you wanted to see more people. I think I showed you three. But, yeah, I think it's mostly due to the weather. LiSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "That's the spirit!" and "a kindred spirit"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 4:24 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S THE SPIRIT and A KINDRED SPIRITIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase that's the spirit. When we say that's the spirit to someone, we are encouraging them or recognizing that they did something cool or that they're excited about something. I'm not sure I'm explaining this well. Let me explain. If I said to someone, I want to go for a hike tomorrow, but it's going to rain, if they said, I'll just wear a jacket and bring an umbrella, I would say to them, that's the spirit. They are showing a positive attitude towards something that might be hard. If I said to a student, the exam is going to take three hours, and if they responded by saying, well, then I'll just study for three weeks, I would say, that's the spirit. They are showing a positive attitude when something difficult is going to happen.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianIt's very windy out here today. I'll show you in a minute. Hopefully I don't blow away.The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is a kindred spirit. A kindred spirit is a person you meet who is very similar to you and has a lot of the same interests. I have a good friend, and that friend and I both read science fiction books when we were teenagers and we often talked about them. We were kindred spirits. When I was at university, I met people who I really enjoyed hanging out with. We were kindred spirits.So to review that's the spirit is used to basically recognize that someone is being positive in a situation that might be negative. And when you say a kindred spirit, you're talking about someone who thinks a lot like you, likes a lot of the same things as you.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Pedro. Talking in person is different. It brings back a kind of warmth you don't get through a screen. Have a great weekend, Bob. And my response? Yeah, I like in person better than online. So that was a reference. Thanks, Pedro. That was a reference to the last lesson where I talked about face to face and in person.Let's walk over here and see if we can see. Oh, I was going to say one more thing. I used to have to do parent teacher interviews online during the pandemic and I didn't like it at all.Okay, I'm not sure if you can see this tree. It was moving quite a bit more earlier. I'll just point like this for a bit. It's just really, really windy out here. I'm gonna walk this way so the wind is at my back. That's better for the microphone. Then the sound, the audio quality should be pretty good, but I'm just walking in what I would call a typical Canadian neighborhood in a small town. Notice some of the driveways are gravel, some of the driveways are concrete, and some of the driveways are pavement.Last time I did a video like this in town, a lady ran out of her house and wanted to know what I was doing. So I don't know if that will happen again, but people are quite protective when they see someone with a camera. Although the last time it happened, the person thought that it was some sort of sensor that I was looking for gas leaks or something like that. This person must be getting ready to go camping. It's a little early for camping in Ontario, Canada, but you can see they have their pickup truck hooked up to their camper and it looks like they're getting ready to hit the road and maybe find a campground that's open. I don't think a lot of them are yet. They usually don't open till the middle of May.Anyways. Again, a view of the trees moving in the wind. A nice view of a typical CanSupport the show

    Learn the English Terms "face-to-face" and "in person"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2025 4:19 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms FACE-TO-FACE and IN PERSONIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term face to face. When you meet someone face to face, it means that you're in the same room, you're in the same spot. It's not the same as meeting them online. If I was talking to my boss and I had a complaint, maybe I'm talking to my boss on the phone, I might say, hey, maybe this would be better if we do it face to face. Can you hear that loud bird? It's definitely spring here. Maybe it's better if we meet face to face. When you talk to someone face to face, you can read their facial expressions and you can read, you know, their body language and what they're actually thinking. But sometimes online it's a little hard. So face to face means that you are talking to the person in the same room like you're physically in the same spot.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other term I wanted to teach you is in person, which means exactly the same thing. If I was talking to my boss and I was was talking on the phone and said, hey, I really want a raise, I don't think I get paid enough. And my boss was like, I don't know, I might say, hey, can we talk about this in person? Can I come to your office later today? And can we talk in person? Because I would just be more comfortable doing that.So to review, when you meet someone face to face, when you talk to someone face to face, it means they're right in front of you. You can see their face. And when you meet someone in person or you talk to someone in person, it means you're not online, you're not on the phone, you're not just doing it via a messaging system. You're actually in the same place in the same room.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Sorry. The birds. It's beautiful, but it's a little bit annoying. It's not quite as loud now. This comment is from Tacagero. Mr. Bob told us that he is not going to read the full comment, but he did. Politicians often do what they do not mention to do. So a little. I'm getting called out a little bit here. This made me laugh, by the way. And I said, haha, you got me. I did do the opposite of what I said, politics here I come.So in the last lesson I said, oh, by the way, thanks Tacagero for that comment. In the last lesson I said the comment was too long. I'm not going to read the whole thing. And then I did read the whole thing. So, yes, maybe the world of politics is for me, maybe I am someone who can not tell the whole truth all the time. Sorry, I'm making it sound like all politicians are bad. They're not all bad. Some I think are very, very nice.Hey, I was gonna show you that there are daffodils. This has become a yearly routine, I think, on this channel. These are a little late this year. We're actually surprised because normally daffodils would be blooming already, like two weeks ago. Oh, and I think there's a little ladybug on there as well. I think I just put a shadow on it. But yeah, the daffodils are blooming. It's actually quite nice out here.But we... I would say the growing season is a little bit behind. Like it's April 24th today. The trees are just starting to bud out. And I think last year they were already quite... They were like leafed out quite a bit already. If you're wondering what this is, we're just killing off the weeds in this area so that we can plant some things. I think we might actually put some vegetables in this year. Some of you have asked before if we grow vegetables. I think my son might try to grow some vegetables. So we'll see how that goes. But I can't wait for the leaves tSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "mistaken identity" and "identity crisis"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2025 4:20


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY and IDENTITY CRISISIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a case of mistaken identity. When you say that something is a case of mistaken identity, it means it's a situation where someone thinks someone is someone else, but they're not. So maybe as you're walking along, you see someone from behind and they have hair just like mine and it's the same colour and I'm about the same size. And you run up and you say, Bob! And the person turns around and it's not me. That would be a case of mistaken identity. I used this phrase in a comment below the last video because someone said something like, you never answer my question. You just answer the questions like, how are you doing? Or you talk about what equipment you used. And I'm like, this must be a case of mistaken identity, because I answer almost every question.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase identity crisis. When someone has an identity crisis, it's like they don't know who they are. So here's a good example. Sometimes people who are 17 or 18 go to university. They don't know what they want to be. They kind of have a bit of an identity crisis. They don't know if they want to be a doctor or maybe they want to be a teacher or maybe they want to be an engineer. They're kind of lost and they don't even really know who they are. They're having an identity crisis, a crisis where they're not sure what they're supposed to be or even who they are right now.So to review, when there is a case of mistaken identity, it means that, let's say the police arrest someone and then they're like, oh, wrong person, sorry, it was a case of mistaken identity. You matched the description of the person we were looking for. And when someone has an identity crisis, it means they're, you know, they're just not sure who they are or what they're supposed to be in life. Sometimes people have this in the middle of their life as well, where they're just. They don't like their job and they're just sort of unhappy and they have a bit of an identity crisis.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I'm not going to read the whole comment, but you can pause and read some of it. It's from Alaa Ahmad. Hello, Mr. Bob. Yesterday I dreamt that you became the Prime Minister of Canada as a successor to the former Prime Minister. Justin. I was proud, pointed to you telling my family that you are one of my best Canadian teachers. But then I stopped doubting that you will recognize me as a follower after becoming the Prime Minister. I was surprised to see you using the word prime in my last lesson. What a coincidence. Be honest, Bob. Are you planning to be a politician? And my response? Maybe when I retire, I'll become Prime Minister. It looks like the job of leadership is going to quite old people if you look at the U.S. the United States. So thanks, Alaa Ahmad, for that comment.And actually, no, I don't have any plans to go into leadership or to be a politician. But yeah, I guess in the United States, if you're over the age of 75, you can be the president. That's how it works in that country. I guess I have a few years to go before I do that.Hey, I wanted to show you a sign of spring here. I think I showed you this last year and my videos are getting a little bit repetitive, but that's okay in my book. I think these are. I think even in the last video I didn't know what they were then. I think Jen said they were forsythia. Not 100% sure, but some beautiful yellow for your spSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "past their prime" and "prime time"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2025 4:23 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases PAST THEIR PRIME and PRIME TIMEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase past their prime. When you say someone is past their prime, it means they peaked at whatever they do well and now they aren't as good at it. We usually use this to talk about athletes, a professional athlete. Often when they are in their 30s, they start to not be as good at the sport as they used to be. And then we might say when they're 35 or 36, that they are past their prime. It's not a nice phrase, is it? I do not look forward to the day where I'm teaching a class and some parent says, Bob, that guy is past his prime, it's time for him to retire. I don't think I'm anywhere close yet, but that would not be a nice thing to hear. But often used to talk about professional athletes when they're in their 30s. It's common to read a news article or hear someone on TV say that they are past their prime. Again, not very flattering, not very kind.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is prime time. This is kind of an older phrase. This refers to TV shows that are on between 8 and 10 or 7 and 11. There's a bit of a... There's a... There's a couple different ideas as to what it means, but it means the time where people normally, I guess, used to watch TV. Now there's streaming and YouTube and all kinds of other things to do from 7 to 11. But prime time meant a TV show that was on between 7 and 11 at night. So for me it's usually game shows from 7 to 8. So there's Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And then at 8 o'clock I don't often sit down to watch a TV show anymore. I might watch a Blue Jays game, but those are on at prime time sometimes as well. They start at 7 or 7:30 at night. Anyways, prime time, the best time to get a lot of viewers to watch something.So to review. When someone is past their prime, it means that they were good at something and now they're not as good at it because they're getting older, they've peaked and now they're kind of going downhill. And then prime time would be any TV show that's on between 8 and 10 or 7 and 11, whatever you choose.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from. Know that as for your example of the shirt with the hole in it, Bob, if it were one of your favorite shirts, you could possibly wear a sweater over it in a pinch. Assuming of course that the weather is right for a sweater and how many holes it has, how big they are and where. I know that was just an example and as always, a really good one from you. Thank you so much, Bob. You're awesome in so many ways. Have a great day.And my response, yeah, I've done that from time to time. In fact, I'm doing it right now. Yeah, I went and found what is my favorite shirt. It's too bad that shirts get. The shirt is past its prime there. I could use the example as well. It's too bad when things get old. This doesn't have holes in it, but it's actually. It's just starting to wear out a little bit where you can't see. So I can't wear it unless I wear a sweater or a top like this over top of it.So anyways, the lawn chairs are back out. You might have noticed that in a previous video. We put them back out a week or two ago. This has just become a beautiful spot to sit in the spring, summer and fall. For Jen and I. It's shady in the morning right now. It's about 9am so it's nice. We put them away for the winter and now they're back. We've also removed one row, one row of the little markers from the driveway. We have to remove these at some point. The dogs were startiSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "a textbook example" and "to set a bad example"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2025 4:33 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE and TO SET A BAD EXAMPLEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a textbook example. When something is a textbook example, it's something in real life that could have been in a textbook, maybe. Let me explain a little bit better. A textbook is a book you use in school to learn new things. And a textbook example is something that happens in real life that maybe could have been taught in a textbook, but we sometimes use it in a funny way. Here's a good example. If you're watching a football game or what I call soccer, and there's a corner kick and the person kicks it and the ball bends nicely and goes right into the top far corner of the net, we would say, that's a textbook example of how to do a corner kick. That's how, if there was a textbook that taught you how to kick the ball, that's what they would teach you. To kick it in a way where it bends and hooks right above the goalie or goaltender and goes into the net. That would be a textbook example.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianSo the other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to set a bad example. Now, if I was to wear jeans to school or really old shirts with holes in them, that would be a bad example. I would be setting a bad example for the students. When we have students in school that don't behave, that sets a bad example for the other students. They might think because that one student is misbehaving, they can misbehave as well. So when you set a bad example, you do something that encourages other people to do the same, even though it's a bad thing. If I speed in my van, I would be setting a bad example for my own children.So to review a textbook example is like something that happens in real life that's done so well. You think, oh, they could. If they taught this. This is how they would teach it in a textbook. A textbook example. And to set a bad example simply means to do something that encourages other people to do that bad thing as well.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from the paper got all crumpled in my pocket. I've been a number of places between school and here. Here we go. From Bryce. It's nice to see you, Unc Bob, which is short for uncle. And my response, it's good to be back in action. So, Bryce, thank you for that. I picked that one because I always giggle a little bit because in some places in the world I'm apparently known as Uncle Bob. In some Asian countries, I think it is what we call an honorific. It's a term we use when we respect someone. We might call them uncle, even though they aren't technically our uncle. So I'll take it. If you guys want to call me Uncle Bob at some point, that's fine. I have the gray hair to be like an old wise uncle, so we'll go with that.Where am I today? I'm getting water. Some of you have been here before with me. This is the place where I come to fill my water jugs. I've already filled them. You can see here that it says small container fill station. Please push and pull handle slowly. Although they've replaced it with a switch now. And then you can read that if you want to take the time, hit pause. And then also, they don't like it when people hook a hose up directly to the tap. So that's where I am today. I just filled the jugs. And so we have a little bit of drinking water again for the rest of the week.We don't drink as much in the in the late winter, early spring as we do in the summer. But it is important. The water we have at home is not really good to drink. It's in the cistern. We do keep it clean enouSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "mutually beneficial" and "the feeling is mutual"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2025 4:18 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL and THE FEELING IS MUTUALIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you understand the English term mutually beneficial. When something is mutually beneficial, it benefits both people. The other day in my lesson I used the term win win. When something's a win win, it means it's good for both people who are involved in whatever is happening. You could say the same thing here. When something is mutually beneficial, then both people are... both countries benefit. I will say this, I don't like to get political, but tariffs don't seem to be mutually beneficial. The world's a little crazy right now. Again, I don't like to comment on too much of the political spectrum, but I'm not sure everything is mutually beneficial right now in the world.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the feeling is mutual. When someone tells you what they think about you or how they feel about you. And if you respond by saying the feeling is mutual, it means you feel the same way. If one of you didn't like me and said, Bob, you're not very nice and I thought the same about you, I would say, hey, the feeling is mutual. You can also use this to talk about, like if two people think the same way about something, you could say the feeling is mutual. Like if one of you said that you don't like tariffs, I could say, oh, the feeling's mutual. It means I don't really like them either. I hope I don't get too many comments from this lesson. But anyways, to review when something is mutually beneficial, it's good for both people or both parties or both countries. And when the feeling is mutual, it means that you and another person or a group of people and another group of people feel the same way about something.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Mohd Ags. It's so good to see you Mr. Bob. Thank you for the useful phrase sight unseen. And thanks to the student that used it naturally, they basically taught us the phrase too, eh? Correct use of "eh" by the way. And my response? Yep, the people around me are unaware that they are inadvertently teaching all of you. So thanks Mohd Ags for that comment.And yeah, I've explained this before, haven't I? That what I do in order to figure out what to teach you today is I just listen to people and someone actually used the phrase mutually beneficial today. And then usually the second phrase, I just look for something that's kind of related. It doesn't always mean the same thing, but it usually has the same word in it or some version of that word.So yeah, what was I going to talk about today? Not politics. I'm not going to talk about that at all. Or did I already do that? Maybe a little bit. I know someone else commented, and I didn't have this comment on the screen that in the last video I was probably talking faster than I did in previous lessons on this channel. And that could be true. I'm a little out of practice In English, when you say you're out of practice, it means you haven't done something for a while, so you're maybe not as good at it or not doing it in the same way that you used to do it.So maybe I'm a little bit out of practice. I just intentionally started speaking a little bit more slowly, 10% more slowly than normal, and pronouncing all my words correctly. So we'll see. Now I feel like I'm thinking about it too much and adjusting how I speak too much. So I'll try to go back to normal. The idea with this channel is that I do speak close to my normal speed for the last two minutes, so hopefully I'm gettinSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "sight unseen" and "out of sight, out of mind"

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2025 4:14 Transcription Available


    Preply is a great way to find an English conversation partner. Use this link http://preply.sjv.io/e1gM5D to get 50% off your first lesson or use code BOB50 at checkout. In my experience Preply is a great way to take your language learning to the next level.Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SIGHT UNSEEN and OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MINDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase sight unseen. Now we use this when we're talking about buying something that we haven't looked at. Here's an example. If I was to go online on Facebook Marketplace, it's a popular place to go when you're trying to buy something used. And if I saw a car and I called the person and I said, I'm going to send you $10,000 over the Internet for that car, I would be buying it sight unseen. What that means is I didn't go and look at the car before I bought it. If I saw a house online and the price was really good, and if I was a multimillionaire, which I'm not, I might call the realtor and say, I want to buy that house. And I would then buy it sight unseen. Meaning that I didn't even bother to go and look at the house to see what it looked like. I bought it sight unseen.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"✅If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase out of sight out of mind. When there are no cookies in the house, I don't eat cookies because when something is out of sight, it's not in your mind, it's out of sight, out of mind. If I see cookies, then I want to eat cookies. So it's best for me. Sorry, I'm trying to keep my back to the wind. Let me shift a little bit here. It's best for me if things are out of sight, out of mind. If I don't see cookies, if I don't see cake, if I don't see donuts, then I don't crave them and I don't eat them.So to review, when you buy something sight unseen, it means you buy it without going to look at it. It's always best to look at something before you buy it. But sometimes you might buy it sight unseen. And then when something is out of sight, out of mind, it means you can't see it. So then you don't think about it.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Duncan Kim. Thanks for watching. Thanks for teaching and my response. You're welcome.So what Duncan's saying there is I often at the end of my videos will say thanks for watching. But Duncan feels that I deserve thanks. And this goes back to when I taught the phrase. By the way, thanks Duncan for the comment when I taught the phrase when something's a win win. I've mentioned this before. I like making these videos. It's really nice to be outside making a video today. And you like watching them. It's a win, win. We both benefit. And just so you know, I do get a little bit of money from YouTube. There are ads and you watch the ads and I get a little bit of money. But it's, it's a win, win situation. So I do thank people for watching and people do thank me for making the videos. So it's a, it's a win, win. We both say thank you and we both say you're welcome.Anyways, what can I say? It is really nice to be out here making a video again. It is really nice to be feeling a lot better. I'm not going to go into any details, but yeah, I took a little bit of a break if you didn't notice. And it's good to be back. I was excited because today I heard a student use the phrase sight unseen and I was like, there's the phrase. It's time to get things going again on this second channel. So again, you shouldn't buy things sight unseen, but maybe you're the kind of person that likes doing that.So anyways, what else was I going toSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "My heart skipped a beat!" and "a hop, skip, and a jump"

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2025 4:22 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT and A HOP, SKIP, AND A JUMPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression my heart skipped a beat. Now this can be used in a couple of ways. It can be used in a romantic way. Like I could say, the first time I met Jen, my heart skipped a beat, meaning that I found her attractive and I was excited to see her. So my heart skipped a beat. Like ba bump, buh bump, buh bump, buh bump. It can also be used for something that's a little bit scary, though. As a parent, if the phone rings in the middle of the night, my heart skips a beat because it makes me think that maybe one of my children, maybe something bad has happened to them. If you are my age and if you have teenage children and if they are supposed to come home at midnight and it's one in the morning and the phone rings, usually my heart skips a beat. So when you say my heart skipped a beat, it's the past tense. It means that something exciting happened or something a little bit scary happened.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a hop, skip and a jump. I think this comes from triple jump in the... the Olympic sport where you hop, skip and jump, but we use this to refer to something being not far away. I could say my brother just lives a hop, skip and a jump from here. That's not true, actually. My sister lives a hop, skip and a jump from here. My brother lives a little bit further away. So it's used to talk about distance and it means not very far.So to review, if you say my heart skipped a beat, it could mean that something exciting happened or it could mean that something scary happened. And if you say something is a hop, skip and a jump from here or a hop, skip and a jump away, it means it's really, really close. If you hopped and then did a little skip and a jump, you would be there.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Judit. Let me get it open here. Or Aerosmith77 as she also goes by. Thanks for this short video, Bob. I hope it doesn't mean that you skip tomorrow's video though. I was happy to hear that you are getting ready to make a live stream on Friday. I am looking forward to it and my response I'm getting ready to go out and shoot the lesson now, so no skipping. I guess I'm in the middle of shooting the lesson. Thanks Judit for that comment. Yeah, I am definitely out here making a lesson and putting this lesson up for Wednesday morning. So this will be ready to go. I'll do a little bit of editing on it as when I go back in the house and it will be ready for all of you to watch.So a little update. I have switched from a winter coat to a spring jacket. I might have referred to this as my fall jacket last year. It's kind of funny how the same jacket, when worn in a different season, gets a different name. So I put my fall jacket away, wore my winter coat for the entire winter season, and now I have my spring jacket on, which looks exactly like my fall jacket. It's beautiful out here. Jen and I are really excited to get started on doing little things on the farm. Now, I do say it's beautiful, but it's very brown, isn't it? Like no leaves on the trees. The. I should really pick that gate up, shouldn't I? At some point. Yeah. I am looking forward to the return of green. But this is nice. It's 12 degrees right now, Celsius, so I'm really, really enjoying it.I have a list of little chores I have to do later today. It's spring break and I have a few things to do. I'll show you one of them. I don't know if I'll get to this Support the show

    Learn the English Expressions "That's the way it goes sometimes!" and "It is what it is!"

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2025 4:39 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S THE WAY IT GOES SOMETIMES and IT IS WHAT IT IS.In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression, that's the way it goes sometimes. This is an expression we use when you know life. Things just happen in life and there's nothing you can do about it. I picked this expression or phrase because this is exactly what I said when I lost my voice last week. I had just done a video saying that I'm bound and determined to put out videos somewhat on a regular schedule. And then literally the next day I lost my voice. And then I couldn't make a lesson for last Friday, but I'm bound and determined to put one out today. It's Monday today. So kind of this expression means, well, that's life. That's the way things go sometimes. That's the way it goes sometimes. I just said it subconsciously. I said the phrase even though I wasn't looking at the phrase. I don't know if you caught that, but it just came out automatically. So this is a really authentic English lesson.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase is it is what it is. This is another phrase that means, well, that's life. Or in French we would say c'est la vie, or that's the way it goes sometimes. Yeah, it is what it is. Do you like having a lesson on a Monday? Hey, it is what it is. It's better than no lesson. So to review, when you say that's the way it goes sometimes, or when you say it is what it is, it's just a comment on how life is going. If your car breaks down three times in a row, you might just say, hey, that's the way it goes sometimes, or, hey, it is what it is.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Vitor. Technical question. Bob, if you stop posting for one or two weeks, does your channel perform worse in terms of the YouTube algorithm? I mean, having a defined schedule is good not only for views, but also for the algorithm. Sometimes I feel like this platform treats its creators like machines. The great thing about your channel is that it has evergreen content. It doesn't matter the time. It's always useful. Thank you, Bob. And my response? The short answer is yes, if I stop making videos for a couple of weeks, then my graphs all start to go down. And that can be a little concerning.So you do realize that I love doing. Thanks, Vitor, for that comment. I love doing this, but I also work less in order to do YouTube. So therefore, I do need to earn some money from YouTube. Like, I don't have the luxury of just working three quarters of the week at my real job. And then YouTube is nothing. So I do notice it. When I take a break, my views go down and all of those things. And of course, the amount of money I earn goes down. Here's what I would say. What's really cool about English lessons and about youtubers like me is that the same things that benefit you benefit me as a creator.What I mean by that is this. If you watch the entire lesson, and then if you watch the entire lesson the next day, that is really beneficial for you as an English learner. Watching the video twice is just a good idea. But it's also good for me as a YouTube creator, if you watch my video twice. And if you watch the Entire video, then YouTube thinks, oh, this video is very helpful. I will show this video to other people who are learning English. So that's kind of the. The longer version of the answer. If you wanted to help me and inadvertently help yourself, the best thing you can do is watch the entire video. Like, don't watch half and then stop watching. And then the second thing would be watch it again later that week. LikeSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "bound and determined" and "to be bound to"

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2025 4:18 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BOUND AND DETERMINED and TO BE BOUND TOIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase bound and determined. When you are bound and determined to do something, it means you are going to do it. It means you are serious about doing it. It means that you are committed to doing it. The best example I could come up with today, even though I don't like to be political, is to say that President Trump is bound and determined to put tariffs on Mexico and China and Canada. He's... I'm pretty sure today he's going to do it. You're watching this on Wednesday so you'll know the results. But he seems bound and determined. He seems committed to doing it.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to be bound to. This means that you are most likely going to do something. If you're walking on ice, you're bound to fall. If you're not good at walking at ice, if it's something you've never done before, you're bound to fall. It means you are most likely to fall. If I go into a Tim Hortons restaurant, I'm bound to buy a cookie. That means I'm most likely going to buy a cookie. Sometimes I don't have any self control.So to review when you are bound and determined, it means you have decided you're going to do something and you are not going to change your mind. You are bound and determined to do it. And if you're bound to do something, it just means you are likely to do it. Most Tuesdays I'm bound to make a lesson. I usually go out and I do one, sometimes I do two.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video and it is in my coat pocket today and it is from Know that. And the comment is... Let me get this open. Although it is quite windy, the weather does not look too bad, Bob. Even the sun is out to play. Enjoy it while it lasts. Thanks again for making all your regular videos for us this week. It would have been easier and less stressful for you to just skip some of them and that would have been completely understandable. So thank you for that, Bob. You know it is much appreciated. Have a great day. And then my response using today's phrase, I'm still bound and determined to only skip lessons if I'm sick. So far so good. So thanks Know that for that comment.And yes, I'm not sure if you were aware of my... I guess you might be able to call it a New Year's resolution. But but I did make a decision at the beginning of this year 2025 that I am going to try and stick to putting out the same number of lessons every week on both channels. When I looked at 2024, I realized that there were many weeks where I just took a week off, and sometimes it was maybe because I was sick or because I was busy. So this year I decided, you know, I'm not going to do that.I'm going to, at the very least, put out the same number of videos every week. That might mean that a short lesson comes out on a Saturday or maybe even a Sunday. Some weeks it might mean that my Wednesdays with Bob Members Only video on my other channel might come out on a Thursday. I don't think that's happened yet. But yeah, I'm bound and determined to do that for a couple of reasons. One, when I looked at my stats from last year, when I looked at my my views and everything from 2024, I realized that it's probably disappointing when a video doesn't come out.And it also made me realize you don't actually care what day the video comes out. If I put a video out on a Saturday, one that normally comes out on a Friday, just as many people watch it. So I thought, you know what? There's seven days in a week, and if Support the show

    Learn the English Words "airhead" and "airball"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2025 4:22 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words AIRHEAD and AIRBALLIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English word airhead. Now, this is not a nice word. This is a word you use to talk about someone who isn't very smart, someone who makes a lot of mistakes. You might call them an airhead. Actually, it's more like someone who doesn't remember things. You might call them an airhead. Maybe at work, you have to work with someone and you teach them how to do something, and an hour later they can't remember how to do it. If you were being mean and if you wanted to insult them, you would say that they are an airhead. This happens in school sometimes, too. I just the other day had a student complain because they said the other people in their group that they were working with, they thought they were a bunch of airheads. So basically, that student was saying the other students weren't very smart.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other word I wanted to teach you today is airball. This is a very specific and unique word. This refers to the game of basketball. When you shoot the ball and if it misses the basket completely, it doesn't hit the rim. Like, it doesn't hit the edge of the basket. It doesn't go in the basket. It goes right past the basket. We would say that's an airball. We sometimes in English might use this to talk about an idea that didn't work out. You know, we might say swing and a miss, or we might say, oh, that was a real airball. But mostly, 99% of the time, this word is used to talk about someone in a basketball game shooting the ball at the basket and it misses it completely.So to review, an airhead is a person who isn't very smart. And an airball is a ball that you shoot towards a basket in the game of basketball, and it doesn't go in.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Let's... I don't think I have one. Where'd it go? I thought I printed it. Okay. I don't have it. Yeah, okay. Sorry. That was the grouchy... Did you see the grouchy Bob there for a minute? I'm... I'm a little bit annoyed with myself. I was at school. I printed this, and I thought I printed a comment from a previous video. Maybe I didn't. Okay, there's no comment today.And I didn't do... I didn't do that on purpose so I could say that I'm an airhead. That's... That's not why. I literally... Maybe it's in my van. Sorry. I know you don't watch these videos to see Bob wandering around. No, it's not okay. No comment from a previous video today.But hey, I'm here in town it's a beautiful February day and it feels like February is ending for sure. We've been in deep, deep cold for so long. Just walking around out here with no coat on. The parking lot... By the way, you can see there is snow piled up over there. We should go have a look at it. In countries that get lots of snow, you have to put the snow somewhere. So sometimes you lose parking spots because you have to put the snow somewhere. So these piles were probably a lot bigger a couple days ago.But yeah, it's definitely a lot warmer. It's probably not warm enough to just walk around outside with no coat on. But hey, I'm enjoying it. It's... It's been... It's been a long winter. I know I complained about it in another video on my other channel. I do still love winter, but this feels really nice. I'm looking forward to the weather getting a lot better.Anyways, thanks for watching. Sorry about the no comment thing. No comment, yes. I guess I'm a bit of an airhead today. Anyways, thanks for watching. See you in a couple days with another short English lesson. Bye.#englisSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "in the dark" and "a shot in the dark"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2025 4:24 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN THE DARK and A SHOT IN THE DARKIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in the dark. When you are in the dark, it means you don't know about something. I use this example a lot, but if someone was planning a surprise party for me, they would want to keep me in the dark. They would want to make sure that I don't know about the party. If they were planning like a surprise birthday party, they would all talk amongst themselves, but they would try to keep me in the dark. Sometimes governments do this as well. They do things that they know the citizens won't like, but they try to keep them in the dark. They don't let the press or the newspapers know, and they try to make sure people don't know what's going on. They keep them in the dark. Not a very good thing.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a shot in the dark. Now, a shot in the dark is simply a guess. If you were to say to me what's 10 times 11 and I didn't know the answer, I might say, it's shot in the dark. It's probably around 110 or something like that. Anyways, a shot in the dark, that's a bad example. A shot in the dark is a guess. If you were to ask me how many English lessons have I made, I would say, and it's just a shot in the dark. At least over a thousand. Maybe close to 2000 if you combine the two channels. But that's just a shot in the dark. That's just a guess because I don't know the actual answer.So to review, when you are in the dark, it means you don't know about something. It means other people know, but you don't know. And a shot in the dark is simply a guess about something.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Klopcyna. Dear Bob, do your students know you are a successful YouTuber? Do they watch your videos? This question's come up before my response. Most do know, but few watch them. I think when they find out, it's cool and unique. But after a while it's just a normal thing. Yeah, once. Thanks, Klopcyna, for that comment. Once I'm their teacher and I start assigning homework and I start checking their homework and doing all the things that teachers normally do, like telling them to stop running in the hallway. I think they forget that I'm a YouTuber and that I'm doing quite well on YouTube.So yes, most of them know I think most of them think it's pretty cool. But the other thing I would say is this YouTube isn't as big a deal for them as some of the other social media apps they use. I don't consider YouTube necessarily a pure social media app or platform. I mostly use YouTube to learn new things and obviously to teach things. But for my students, I think it's a little more of the like TikTok, Snapchat, BeReal. All of those kinds of things are more important in their lives. So yeah. Do they know? Yes. Do they care? Maybe a little bit. I don't know. It doesn't really matter to me. I just hope that they learn something from me in the classes that I teach.So hey. Yep, it continues. Once again, I was not going to talk about the weather, but yeah, it's a little warmer as you can see, I'm able to be outside without a winter hat or gloves, but it's still definitely winter. I haven't had to clean the driveway again. I think what I miss the most is the sun. Like you can kind of see it up there behind the clouds. But I'm looking forward to not necessarily warmer weather. I don't mind if it stays a little bit cold. I think I'm looking forward to just a little more sunshine. I've been taking my vitamin D pill every day because I'm nSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "wishful thinking" and "to think big"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2025 4:15 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WISHFUL THINKING and TO THINK BIGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is when you think positively about something, but it probably isn't going to go the way you think it will. Here's a great example. If you don't study and you have an English test in a few months and you just think, ah, I'll just watch YouTube videos and I'll pass that English test, that's probably wishful thinking. You probably aren't doing enough. You're thinking that you're going to pass the test by just watching YouTube videos, but you should really be practicing your speaking and your writing and your reading and all of that stuff as well. So it might be wishful thinking. So hopefully you understand. It means you think a positive thought about something, but you're probably wrong.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to think big. So sometimes at work someone will have an idea for a small change and then someone will say, why don't we think big? Instead of doing the small change, why don't we do something even bigger? So an example would be maybe a teacher says, my classroom isn't big enough so I'm going to remove a couple desks. And someone else might say, hey, why don't we think big? Why don't we instead spend millions of dollars and build you a bigger classroom? That's something that doesn't usually happen, but it could.Anyways to review. Wishful thinking is when you hope for something positive, but it probably won't happen. You're just being really, really optimistic. And to think big is to dream bigger than you would to solve maybe a small problem.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I wasn't going to talk about the weather today, but it's minus 15 right now, minus 21 with the wind chill. It's about, it's about as cold as it gets. This comment is from. Let's see here. Let me get my glove back on. Paper and gloves are a bit of a challenge. This comment is from Tolik. Thank you for the lesson, Bob. You have really nice boots. I like them. Have a nice day and I said I love my boots. I hope they last forever. But alas, I think that is wishful thinking.So yeah, I've had these boots for a while. I really, really like them. They are really, really nice boots. But to think that they might last forever I think would be wishful thinking. So a positive thought for something that most likely won't happen. So Tolik thank you for that comment, let me see If I can get this off here.Yeah, I wasn't going to talk about the weather, so I'll try... I'll try not to do that at all. So, anyways, I had a beautiful family day Monday. Yesterday for me. Two days ago for you. I think that is just the best holiday. My kids and I and Jen, we actually went and we played some badminton at the school. We went out to a little cafe afterwards and had a little treat. Uh, we spent some time as a family. We watched the TV show Jeopardy.I'm not sure if you know what that show is, but Jeopardy is a trivia show, a quiz show where they ask questions and then the contestants have to try and answer them. By the way, Jeopardy is probably a great way to learn English if you could find a way to watch that show. Uh, so we had supper together. Uh, we watched Jeopardy together. It was a fun evening, and it's fun just to have a day where you decide to spend the day with your family. So I really enjoyed it.Right now, though, I'm going to go back inside. It's a little too cold this morning for me, and I think I need to go warm up. ThanSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to work well with others" and "a team player"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2025 4:39 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO WORK WELL WITH OTHERS and A TEAM PLAYERIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to work well with others. When you are working and you are working with other people, either you work well with others or you don't work well with others. Some people work better by themselves. Some people enjoy working with others and they work well with others. I'll explain what I am in a bit. You might be surprised, but hopefully you are someone who works well with others. If you were applying for a job, they might say to you in the interview, do you work well with others? And hopefully you can say, yes, I work well with others. I enjoy working with other people.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a team player. If you work again with a lot of other people, hopefully you're a team player. You're someone who is easy to work with. You help other people. You are kind. Hopefully other people help you as well. Hopefully you are a team player. By the way, this doesn't mean you have to be on a sports team. You can be a team player at work. Like at work, I try to be a team player. I try to be helpful. I try to work well with others.So to review when you work well with others, I'm just laughing because you're going to. I'm going to read a comment in a sec that you might laugh at as well. When you work well with others, it means you are kind and nice and it's easy to work with you. And when you are a team player, it means essentially the same thing.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Tammy. Your English lessons are amazing and you don't need to have a heavy hitter to collaborate with you. And my response Thanks. I don't really work well with others anyways.So thanks Tammy for that comment. And let me now explain. I work well with others if it's the right people. I hope that makes sense. I hope that doesn't make me sound kind of like a jerk if I'm working with the right people. I think people also enjoy working with me, but my preference is to work by myself. I think that's one of the reasons why I became a teacher. So again, I do actually work well with others, but if I am given a choice, I prefer to work by myself. It's one of the reasons why I think YouTube works for me. I have an idea. I make a lesson, I edit the video, I put it online. I don't have to rely on anyone else.So I'm home again. It's a Thursday and it's a snow day. So it happened. I'm not sure if Brent had a snow day. I know he mentioned in his Members Only video that he had heard I might have a snow day. So I'm wondering if over there in Maine they had one. We got again quite a bit of ice. So a lot of freezing rain you can see here. Like I'm not sure if it shows up really well on camera, but there is a layer of ice on this tree. I'm gonna try and remember to go a bit slower when I show you stuff like this so you get a good chance to see it.And what that has done is it's made it... You can hear the snow as well. Like it's. There's a layer of ice on top of the snow. Not sure how well that shows up, but yes, a little bit slick out here. There's some icicles even on this tree here. You can see some tiny. Where's my hand? There's some tiny little icicles and you can see that. My driveway. You can see my footsteps from my walk this morning. But it's. Yeah, it's kind of like ice. Like it's. There's a layer of water underneath but there's this thin layer of ice on top.So another snow day. Woohoo. I love them. Anyways, I hope you work well withSupport the show

    Learn the English Terms "heavy hitter" and "heavy heart"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2025 4:25 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms HEAVY HITTER and HEAVY HEARTIn this English lesson, I'd like to help you learn the English term heavy hitter. When you say someone is a heavy hitter in a certain area, it means they are like the most famous or most powerful person in that area. If I was to have a guest on my YouTube channel, if I could convince Lucy from English with Lucy to come on my channel, she would be a heavy hitter. She would be one of the most successful and a pretty awesome English teacher to have on my channel. I should send her an email and ask her if she wants to do a collaboration again. But she would be a heavy hitter. If I needed to find a guest speaker for my class, someone to come and talk to students, if I got Matt Damon to come in, that would be a heavy hitter. That would be a pretty cool and impressive person to come and speak to my class. So a heavy hitter, a very important person or a very famous person or a combination of the two.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other term I wanted to teach you today is heavy heart. When you have a heavy heart, it means you are sad. We often use this phrase after someone passes away. After someone dies, you might say something like I have a heavy heart since my grandmother passed away, I am sad. I am feeling grief. I have a heavy heart.So to review a heavy hitter is someone important or famous or powerful. And when you have a heavy heart, it means that you're sad. Really sad. Because something in your life isn't... didn't go the way you thought it would.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Joy. The comment is. We also had a snow day a few days ago. Might as well stop all tasks and build a snowman like a kid. And my response? I wish we had the right kind of snow for that. Unfortunately it is too cold for snowman snow. So yeah, you need... Thanks Joy for that comment.You need a certain kind of snow. Oh you should have a look at this. This morning has been pretty cool. Everything's just a little bit. I don't know how to describe it but it's. It's like we had frost overnight a little bit and it has formed on the trees and branches. So pretty cool. Anyways, yeah, we don't have the right kind of snow to build a snowman. In order to build a snowman the snow has to be not melted but it has to be like 0 degrees or 1 degree or minus 1 somewhere in that range and then the snow will stick to itself. Right now the snow will not stick to itself. The snow is very, very cold.I'll give you a look at the snow in a moment. I'm just distracted by these trees.The snow is very, very cold. And so for some reason, when the snow is that cold, the snow will not stick to itself. When you make a snowman, you have to roll the snow. And as you roll the snowball, it gets bigger and bigger. And that's where comes from for something to snowball. If you start rolling a snowball when conditions are right, as you roll it, the snowball sticks to the snow you roll it onto, and then it slowly gets bigger and bigger. It's a pretty unique thing. The next time we have snow that is the right kind of snow for making a snowman. I should make a snowman for you so you can see how it works.By the way, when you make a snowman, when the weather's right for that, it's also a good day to make a snow fort. Snow forts are fun. I built a lot of snow forts when I was a kid. A snow fort's like a little mini house that you build outside out of snow. It's not an igloo. That's something different again. But, yeah, snow forts. And then we would have snowball fights. I miss those days.Support the show

    Learn the English Phrases "might as well" and "freezing rain"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 7, 2025 4:39 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MIGHT AS WELL and FREEZING RAINIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase might as well. We use this phrase when we're saying that we should do something. I think a good example is this. If you're driving in your car on the highway and you pull over to get gas, you might as well get something to eat as well. Since you're already getting gas, you should eat at the same time because you don't want to stop later. Let's say that I'm stuck at school waiting for one of my kids to be done, whatever they are involved in. Then I might as well grade some student work since I'm at school anyways. I should grade some student work because I'm waiting for my kids. So when you might as well do something, it means you should do it usually because it's just a good idea to do it.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase freezing rain. It's a snow day. I'm recording this on a Thursday because we had freezing rain last night. I talked about this in my lesson about weather a week ago. Freezing rain is when it's raining but it's still below zero. It's kind of a weird phenomenon, but you end up with things like this. I'll show you the ground here. You end up with all these little... You can't quite see them, but there's these little tiny. I can't pick them up. They're frozen. Basically. Yeah. You end up with this. Hopefully it's in focus and hopefully you can see you end up with a lot of ice on the ground. So it's a snow day, I get to stay home.So to review when you might as well do something, it's something you should just do. Let's say it's 4:00 and Jen and I are sitting down to have a snack and we have to go out later. We might as well just have a big meal and then we don't have to eat later. And then freezing rain is when it rains and it freezes when it hits the ground.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Ginny. Isn't it cold in the early morning? The dogs behind the screen seem very energetic, especially the black one was running like a horse. Yes, Walter tends to do that. And my response, it was cold, but not too bad. The dogs sleep in our garage and were just let out. They're usually quite energetic first thing in the morning. So yeah, the dogs, when they first get up are very, very energetic. Gonna show you a few. Thanks for the comment, Ginny.A few things that happen when there's freezing rain. You can see this is all frozen. So I do have to go somewhere later today. But the windshields on our vehicles all have a thin layer of ice on them. As well... Walter's not as energetic this morning. The ground, it's a little bit slippery. It's actually not too bad. But we have to be careful because the dogs can slip and fall and that's not good because they can hurt themselves. So we're trying to make sure they don't run around on the driveway and instead run around on the grass.You can see this car here, too, just has all these little ice pellets. Maybe I could actually pick one up this time. It's frozen to my finger. No, I dropped it. Yeah, all these little ice pellets, they all fell as rain and froze as they were coming down. And then now we have a situation where the car is just covered in a thin layer of ice. It's kind of beautiful, though. And I don't mind having a snow day today. Actually, I never mind having snow days, but it wasn't that important of a day, so it's kind of nice just to be home and relax. Jen made pancakes for the kids because they're home from school. So it's just a nice day, relaxing at home.Support the show

    Learn the English Word "one" and the phrase "a good one"

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 5, 2025 4:48 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words ONE and the phrase A GOOD ONEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn some interesting ways to use the word one. We can use the word one sometimes in sentences like this. You could say, that was one amazing movie, that was one awesome song. That was one amazing cool concert. So somehow the word one ends up in the sentence, if someone was in a car accident and they didn't get hurt at all, you might say, oh, that was one lucky man. He could have been hurt really badly, but man, he was one lucky guy. So it's kind of a strange use. I don't actually know the details of what's happening there. Obviously we're using the word one to emphasize something, but hopefully you think this is one amazing English lesson.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other word I wanted to teach you today or the other phrase is a good one. So this is similar where you can say, oh, that movie, that was a good one. Or that song, that was a good one. I went to a concert last summer and it was a good one. So simply using the word one to refer back to the thing that we were talking about.So to review, you can use the word one for a little bit of emphasis. You could say that is one gigantic airplane. There's no airplanes in the sky right now. You could say that is one enormous boat. And you can also use the phrase a good one. That car? Oh, that's a good one. What did you buy? I bought a... a Toyota RAV4. Oh, that's a good one. You bought a good car.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Eman. Thank you. The conversation after comments are important for me. It helps me learn more. And my response, I'm happy to help. I'm sure they work well for listening practice. So thanks, Eman  for that. Eman, for that comment. Yes. So some people really enjoy this part of the video where I just walk and talk. And I can understand why because I often say to Jen, if there was a French teacher on YouTube who did this, I would certainly watch these videos for this part right here because it's kind of random. I randomly talk about all kinds of stuff.Right now I'll just mention that I'm out here early in the morning. I don't know why I'm up and outside this early. I don't need to be. But I woke up and I couldn't sleep. So I thought, you know what, I might as well start to get some work done. If you're wondering what the sound is, that's the sound of crunchy, crunchy snow. Since My video that you might have watched on my larger channel yesterday, where it was frozen, the temperature has gone up and everything melted a little bit and now it's gone back down again.The nice thing, though, about early morning, I really enjoy the views like that is one beautiful view there, isn't it? The sun is probably up, but it's a little bit cloudy, so you can't see. But I just love how beautiful it is first thing in the morning. If you're wondering what time it is, it's not that early. It's like five to seven, I think right now. Five after seven, maybe. So, I mean, not abnormal for me to be out and about at this time.The other day I was going to show you. Let's walk this way. The other day I was sitting at my computer working and all of a sudden there was a knock at the door. Not sure if you can see the footsteps that go to the fence. Actually, I'll show you the footsteps over here. There's a set of footsteps in the snow because all of a sudden there was a knock at the door and someone said they needed some gas because their snowmobile had run out of gas on the river. So that's a big spin. That is one fast spin. So I actuallSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrase "to edge out" and "a double-edged sword"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2025 4:21 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EDGE OUT and A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to edge out. When you edge someone out, it means you pass them. Maybe at work you and a colleague are both trying to get a promotion, but there's only one spot. And maybe because you know a bit more, you can edge out your colleague because you're just the better choice. Sometimes when teams are playing towards the end of their season, they edge out someone who's kind of at the same spot as them they win a game and the other team, maybe in a different city, loses a game. And that helps them edge out the other team. It helps them surpass them.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other term I wanted to teach you today is a double edged sword. So of course a double edged sword would be a sword that is sharp on both sides. But in English we use this to describe a situation that both benefits the person but also is negative in some way. The classic example is always to say fame is a double edged sword. Being famous is a double edged sword. Sure you have lots of money and you can do whatever you want, but you can't just go to a normal grocery store because people all want your signature. So fame is a double edged sword. It has an advantage. It has a lot of advantages probably, but it also has a disadvantage in that you can't do what normal people do in life.So to review, to edge out means to surpass. I think that the best example is the sports team. You know, they can edge out the competition and then maybe finish in a better spot. And a double edged sword is any situation where there's both like a positive or many positives and negative and a negative or many negative aspects to it.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Cecilia. Good luck, Bob. And then a nice four leaf clover emoji. Thanks. It went extremely well. So Cecilia is referring to the fact that yesterday I'm going to stop trying to do this. Yesterday or two days ago for you was the first day of second semester for me and it went really well. In fact, it's Thursday morning right now as I record this and I'm realizing that it's very enjoyable to get up, to go for a walk and then to make an English lesson for all of you.I think I'm at my best in the morning. I think this time of day, right now it's about quarter to nine, I think. I think this time of day is just a better time of day for me. And for a full year I've been teaching in the morning. And then coming home to make YouTube videos and lessons for you in the afternoon. And now I'm realizing that I get to get up and when I'm fresh, when I have lots of energy, that's when I'll be making YouTube lessons. So I think that this is a win win for you guys. I think. I don't know for sure, but I think the English lessons will get better. I think I'll be a little more creative. I have plans to still make sure I do one of these short lessons in town once a week, but I just feel a bit more relaxed.In fact, I keep looking at the clock this morning and realizing it's way earlier still than I thought it was. For some reason I was getting ready to go to work and I had this kind of feeling like I was late for some reason, which I'm not at all. I think I'm actually going to get to work earlier today than I need to. I probably need to be at work around 10:30 every day. As many of you know, I'm 70%, so I don't work full time. So yeah, I'm gonna get up, work on YouTube. You might see me replying to comments at a different time of day on this channel, but either way I think it should be foSupport the show

    Learn the English Words "schemozzle" and "bamboozle"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2025 4:18 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words SCHEMOZZLE and BAMBOOZLEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the word schemozzle. When there is a schemozzle, it means that something is a mess. Let's say you're at work and you need four truckloads of, I don't know, flour in order to make bread that day. Maybe you work at a bread factory and only one truckload showed up. That would be a real schemozzle. Or maybe instead of four truckloads showing up, eight truckloads show up. That's a schemozzle. It's a funny word. I don't even know if I'm quite saying it correctly, but I heard a colleague say it today. They said, wow, there's just a real schemozzle. And I won't give you the specifics, but whenever you use this word, it means something is a mess. It means it's not going the way it's supposed to or it isn't the way it's supposed to be.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other word I wanted to teach you today is bamboozle. This means when you trick someone, usually for financial gain. By the way, I just. I like the funny words today. Schemozzle and bamboozle. When you bamboozle someone, it means that you trick them into buying something that isn't worth what you think it is. If Jen was to bamboozle people at market, eventually people would be annoyed with us because she would be tricking them, maybe selling them, you know, 10 flowers in a bouquet and saying there's 30 in there or something like that. She would be bamboozling them.So to review. Oh, I already put the words away. A schemozzle is a mess. And when you bamboozle someone, you trick them, usually because you want to get money from them somehow.Oh, it's getting a little cold out here. Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Sajonara. Hi, Bob. By the way, did you fasten the seat belt around the bottle? And my response? I did indeed. I learned my lesson a long time ago when a bottle fell over in my van and the lid came off. Yeah, that was a... That was a mess. I was going to say schemozzle, but that doesn't really describe it. But yes, I did have that. Thanks for the comment, by the way. I did have that once... By the way. I put a water bottle in my van in the last video. And after I put it. Or in my car, and then after I put it in there, I did put the seat belt through the handle and fasten the seat belt, because that's a good Way to prevent it from falling over.So. So anyways, how's everybody doing? I have to admit I'm a little bit nervous. It's the first day of school or first day of second semester tomorrow. That's probably why I'm talking so quickly. I'm just gonna go over here out of the wind a little bit. It's. It is quite a bit colder than I was expecting out here. Sorry. I was just looking at the ground here because it's a bit of a different color. And this is where my van was parked, so I better check the oil in that van. I don't think it's oil. I don't know. What do you think it is? You see how the. It's a little darker there than it is over here. I think, though, that might just be from yesterday. Things melted a bit and so the vehicles all have, like, salt and sand and stuff on the side from the roads. And maybe that just kind of slipped off.So can I venture out into the cold again? Yeah, probably. I'll do that. So. Or maybe not a little colder than I was expecting. I was gonna. Expecting. I was gonna show you this as well. We had a windstorm that was not there the other day. That actually came from. I think it came from over there. We have a bit of a junk pile over there. You've probably seen it in a few videos. I do really need to clean that up. Support the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to bottom out" and "from the bottom of my heart"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2025 4:26 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BOTTOM OUT and FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEARTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to bottom out. So whenever something is going down, like the price of a stock on the stock market, eventually it will bottom out and then it will start to go back up again. So to bottom out means kind of to hit the bottom. This can also happen with a car. If you drive an old car over some railroad tracks, tracks, or a really big bump, sometimes the shocks compress, but they compress all the way, and then it's just this really loud bang. And we usually say that's when a car bottoms out. I used to have a car where if I drove it too fast over a bump, it would bottom out. You would just hear it go bang. In fact, my blue van is starting to do that as well.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is from the bottom of my heart. This is usually a way to thank people. It usually goes with the phrase thank you. So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching my English lessons. Sometimes we associate the heart with gratefulness, thankfulness, love. I am just extremely grateful. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching my English lessons.So to review to bottom out means when the price of something or a graph is going down, eventually it hits the bottom and starts to go back up again. Well, hopefully. And then from. Oh, and a car can do it as well. Bang. That's what it sounds like when your car bottoms out. And then from the bottom of my heart is usually a phrase we say when we say thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Konstantin. Not only Canadian technique though. That's the pulling glove on with mouth. We all use it now and then. Well, teeth are for chewing after all. Sticking are not only for chewing after all. Stick and carrot policy is common at school. The challenge is to find a balance. Oh, you know the ropes. Sorry. Any chance of sharing your teaching of sticks? My response, my main stick is to put a zero in the grade book and then message the student and parents and say it's not too late. I can Always replace the 0 if you hand something in. So I'm not sure if the words matched what you saw on the screen because when I printed it didn't print everything. So there might be a little bit of a discrepancy. So, Konstantin, thank you, fellow teacher, for sending that comment.Yeah, what am I going to do next? Well, you see that big thing back there? That's a water tower. I'm actually here with my water jug because I need to go to this tap here, and I need to fill up this water jug. We fill our water jugs up in town. That didn't work so good. I think that's what this little. Whoa. That is frozen solid. There we go. Hopefully you were able to see that. Now I can do this, and then I can flip this tap here, and it will fill up my jug.We do not drink the water from our cistern. It's collected from the rain that falls on the roof of our house. So we get our drinking water from town here. There's a filling station. You can pause and read that if you want. If you want to read the fine print. There's also a camera on me right now somewhere. Oh, it's almost full. I need to stop it. Oh, it overflowed a little bit. That's probably why there's so much ice on the ground here. People haven't stopped it in time. But now I have in my pocket, if I didn't lose it, my little blue lid. This is really hard to do with one hand. And then I will put it in my car. There we go. TSupport the show

    Learn the English Sayings "the carrot and the stick" and "to stick your neck out"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2025 4:32 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CARROT AND THE STICK and TO STICK YOUR NECK OUTSorry, I had to put my glove on using my mouth. It's a Canadian technique. I think I showed you that before. But super cold out here today. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the carrot and the stick. So the carrot and the stick refers to a way to motivate people. I think it comes from the idea that a long time ago, if you wanted a donkey to move forward, you could hit the donkey on its butt with a stick, or you could use a carrot to make it want to walk forward. So the carrot is a reward method for getting people to do something, and the stick is a punishment method.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianHere's a good example. If your boss wanted you to work on Saturday, he could say, you have to work Saturday. And if you don't, I'm gonna make you work on that job that no one likes doing. So that's kind of like the stick. If you don't work Saturday, something bad will happen. Or your boss would say, I want you to work Saturday. And if you do, I'll give you double pay for every hour you work. That would be more like a carrot, something positive. So the carrot is like a nice way to motivate someone, and the stick is a not nice way to motivate someone.The other phrase I wanted to look at today. Wait, am I holding this up wrong? Yeah, sorry. The carrot and the stick. Here we go. And did I have it up right the first time? I'll have to check. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to stick your neck out. When you stick your neck out, it means you do something risky. Let's say your boss gets angry really easily, but your boss is doing something wrong. You might have to stick your neck out and tell your boss, but there's a risk that your boss might get mad at you. So when you stick your neck out, it means that you do something risky at work or in life.So to review, hopefully I held this up right the first time. If I didn't, this is just the lesson. I'm not doing this one twice. The carrot and the stick refers to a nice method to motivate someone. That's a carrot or a not nice way to motivate someone. That's the stick. And to stick your neck out means to. Yeah, to do something risky must be from.Yeah, I'm not sure where that phrase originates from, but hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video before my ears freeze off. This comment is from Vitor. A short lesson from Bob on Saturday. I can't complain. Thank you, Bob. You're the best. And then my response, Yeah, I got a little bit behind last week with the semester ending and all.Yeah. So the semester is ending. Let me get my glove back on here. We'll go for a walk. The semester is ending. The school year is half over and the semester is ending. So I have like kind of a nice week this week, but last week was a little bit busy. For those of you that have been around for a long time, you know that we have the semester system in my part of Canada. So students have class for about 90, 93 days and then they have exams and then we start brand new courses next week, Wednesday. For students, it's really, really stressful right now, but for teachers it's a little more relaxed. I only have to go to work three days this week out of five, so I have a little more time to get a few things done around the house. Jen and I are going to work on filing our taxes for last year and obviously I'll get some more YouTube work done as well.But, yeah, what was I saying? Oh, I can't remember. My ears are so cold. I can't remember what I was saying. Do you know what temperature it is rigSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "the calm before the storm" and "to storm off"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2025 4:22 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM and TO STORM OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the phrase the calm before the storm. Now, you can use this literally to talk about the fact that there's going to be a storm later today. But it's actually quite calm and peaceful out here right now. And that's actually true. It's really warm outside. I'm just wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap. It's like 5 degrees or something and raining a little bit. But this is the calm before the storm. Later today, it's supposed to drop to -9. And for the next week it's going to be like minus 8 or minus 10 every day. So it's going to be super cold. So this is kind of the calm before the storm. We use this in real life as well, though. Let's say you're a student and you have exams coming up in a week. Right now it's the calm before the storm. It's peaceful now, but it's going to be really, really busy in just a little while. Maybe you have this at work. You're working and it's just a nice day at work. But you know, it's just the calm before the storm because a big project is due soon.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to storm off. By the way, this is a repeat of a lesson from 2020. I think it's the first time I'm doing the same two phrases in the same lesson. I haven't done that before, but I really wanted to talk about to storm off. When you storm off, it means you're angry and you leave. So maybe you're in a store and you're like, you charged me too much for this. I'm annoyed. And then you leave. That's probably not exactly how you would say it, but when you're angry and you're so angry, you leave the situation. We say that you storm off. So he was so angry that he stormed off.So to review, the calm before the storm is any time of peace and calm before something bad happens or something more intense happens. And to storm off means to leave a situation because you are not happy.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Pedro. It looks like you guys are getting more snow than last year. Bob, Love to see it. My response. We have a bit. I hope we get more. So we'll see. Thanks for the comment, Pedro.We have had more snow than last year. I think at this time last year, it was... I think it was kind of warm out last year, but. But we'll have to see what actually happens the next few days. It's supposed to get really cold, like I said, but I don't know if we're going to get a lot of snow. I really hope we do. I don't enjoy this. I like seeing everything white in the winter. I don't like it when my... I can see my lens is getting raindrops on it. There should be snowflakes falling out of the sky, but hey, it's just the way it goes.You can see down here on the driveway, we have a little bit of ice underneath water, and that's actually quite slippery. But I think this will all probably melt today before the temperature starts to drop. We'll have to see. Who knows?The other thing I don't like about this is when it goes from wet to really cold, it can be quite dangerous to drive on the roads because the rain hits the road and then when it freezes, it forms a layer of ice. And that's just not nice. I'd rather drive in snow than in ice. I'm not sure if all of you are aware of the difference. When you drive in snow, you slip and slide a little bit. When you drive on ice, it's really, really slippery. Like, I'd rather drive on a road that's packed down with snow then drive on a road that is icy. Ice is just super, super dangerous.So we'll see hoSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to lay low", "to lie low", and "a low blow"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2025 4:25 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO LAY LOW, TO LIE LOW, and A LOW BLOWIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrases to lay low or to lie low. This is one of the situations where we use lie and lay in the same way, and it means to hide. Usually you will hear these phrases if you're watching a show where the police are chasing some criminals and the criminals might decide to lie low or to lay low. Sorry, lie low, lay low. I should say them in the right order. Lay low. Sounds kind of funny when you say it, though. It kind of rolls off the tongue in a funny way. Anyways, the criminals might decide to lay low or to lie low. That means they're going to hide somewhere where the police can't find them.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a low blow. So a low blow in boxing is if you punch below the waist. Like if you punch below the belt, it's considered a low blow. But we also use this phrase to talk about any behavior or action that's not really nice. So for instance, if I lent my brother $100 and told him, you can pay me back in a year, and then if I asked him for the $100 back tomorrow, that'd be a low blow. Like I'd be doing something that's not very nice and not very kind.So to review to lay low or lie low means to kind of hide out. Maybe you've stolen something and the police are after you, so you hide out at your cousin's place. You decide to lay low. You decide to lie low. And a low blow is anytime you do something to someone that's just not very nice and not something they were expecting.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I'm just going to read the beginning of this comment from Know that for the sake of time. It's a great comment, but I'll read the... we'll get the gist of it from Know that every now and then you squeeze the recording of your videos lessons for us into your lunch break. Bob, I was wondering if you plan these, let's say, trips or if you do them more spontaneously, depending on what's on your to do list for the day and then you can read the rest. But my response sometimes it is on a whim, sometimes it is intentional, sometimes it is just convenient. There isn't a rhyme or reason most of the time. Sometimes it just depends on the weather.So thanks Know that for that comment and that question. Yeah, sometimes it's just, you know, how I'm feeling that day. Or maybe I'm doing an errand. So I just jumped out of the van and do an English lesson as well. Today. I came out this way because it's just a nice area to do it. I know that some of you like seeing views of the farm and some of you like seeing little glimpses of Canadian life. You like seeing trucks drive by and you like seeing what's happening in my local town. So yeah, sometimes I do it intentionally.If you watch my Members Only video on my other channel today I did that intentionally. There's a new bakery in town, so I decided to walk past it. I didn't go in, but I do know that sometimes some of you like seeing just a little glimpse of Canadian life.There's a glimpse of Canadian life coming towards me right now. There's someone walking three dogs. So I think I might actually move into this driveway and let them go past. So I'm not afraid of dogs. But do you remember that one video where a dog almost bit me? That wasn't very enjoyable. Hi. How you doing? Good. There you can see the dogs going by. If I sounded extra cheerful with my hello, that's because I recognized that person. It's a former student of mine, so I didn't want to say her name, but she was a good student. VSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "You're seeing things!" and "Seeing is believing!"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 4:23 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases YOU'RE SEEING THINGS and SEEING IS BELIEVINGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase you're seeing things. We say this to someone when they describe something and you find it really hard to believe. If we were driving along and Jen said, I just saw 50 airplanes in the sky, I'd probably say, ah you're seeing things. It's all in your imagination. I don't believe what you are saying. If Jen phoned me and said, hey, come to Tim Hortons right now, donuts are free, I would say, oh, you're seeing things. Basically what I'm saying is, I don't believe you.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase seeing is believing. If I said to you that the A W is the best place to eat hamburgers and you said, no, I don't believe it, and you actually came there, you might say that you now believe me because seeing is believing. Sorry, that's a bad example. Because probably when you taste it that you will believe me. Let me think of a better example. Let's say if I said the A and W has the best window decorations in the entire town. By the way, I'm standing in front of the A W restaurant. If I said they have the best window decorations, you might say, nah. And then if you actually came there, I would say, seeing is believing. So when you actually see it, then you believe what I said.So to review, if you tell someone you're seeing things, it means you're telling them you don't believe what they say they are seeing. And if you say seeing is believing, it means that when you actually see something for yourself, then you believe that it is true.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Denis. Thanks a lot for the lesson, Bob. The Great Lakes region is an incredible place. Have you had a chance to visit them all? And my response, I have not visited Lake Superior, but I have visited the other four. Someday Jen and I will make a trip way up north to see it. So thanks, Denis, for that comment.Yeah, Lake Superior is pretty far away. I have not seen Lake Superior. Let me just move this camera a little bit so it's in the center. It's a little bit of a drive. I know that other teachers from my school have been that far north, either for a camping trip or if we have student athletes or if we have a team that does really, really well. Sometimes we have to go way up north to play other schools in the provincial championships. So I know some teachers have been that far north and they have experienced that.It is a busy day here in town. I'm not sure if you can tell. The other thing is it's extremely bright out today. I'm always surprised at how bright the winter sun can be. I think it has a little bit to do with the fact that the air is thinner in the winter. That would be my guess, that in the winter the air in the sky is thinner. And so you get this. I'll just put it in the camera for a sec. This extremely bright sunshine in the winter, but I'll take it. We went for weeks and weeks with hardly any sunshine at all. So it's quite nice to have a little bit of sunshine now. I'm moving into the shade again. See, it's nice to have evergreen trees in the winter because they allow for a little bit of shade for me to stand in. But, yeah, I'll take it.What was I saying? Yeah, we had days and days on end where it was just kind of gray, like cloudy every day and not very bright. Your ability to create vitamin D is related to being out in the sunshine. So I do enjoy being out here for a bit. I know I probably need to be out heSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to takes sides" and "from all sides"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2025 4:21 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TAKE SIDES and FROM ALL SIDESIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to take sides. Now I'll tell you this. It's actually better to not take sides. When you take sides, it means you agree with one person when two people are arguing. So let's say two of my kids are arguing, I usually try to not take sides. I don't try to say she's right and he's wrong. Instead, I try to resolve the situation without taking sides. So when you take sides, it means you agree with one person in a situation where two people are arguing or more people. Like there might be a hundred people that think one way and 100 people that think another way and you say, I'm going to take sides. I'm going to agree with these 100 people over here. But in my opinion, it's usually best not to take sides.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is from all sides. Sometimes you get in trouble from all sides. If we had leftover pizza in the house and I came home from work and no one was home and I ate all the pizza, I would get in trouble from all sides. Jen would be annoyed with me. My kids would be annoyed with me. Because in our house, leftover pizza is kind of considered super yummy. People usually like it when they come home and there's some pizza leftover in the fridge. But if I ate it, I would probably get in trouble from all sides. Everyone would be annoyed with me.So to review. To take sides means to agree with one side of an argument. At school, when I see students arguing, I don't take sides. I usually try to help resolve the situation without taking sides. And from all sides means that everyone is annoyed with you. Sometimes the government does something and then they get in trouble from all sides. Everyone is annoyed with them.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from... I printed this at school, so it's hard to get this completely open. From Yulia. Bob, good morning. Thank you for this lesson. Please tell me which province you are from and my response? I am from Ontario, Canada. I live north of Lake Erie and south of Lake Ontario, outside the city of Hamilton, Ontario. So thanks, Yulia, for that comment for that question.Hey, we're going to walk out for a bit but it's windy so I hope the audio stays okay. Yeah, I live north of Lake Erie. It's one of the Great Lakes. I've actually featured Lake Erie in some of my English lessons and I live south of Lake Ontario. So Lake Ontario is to the north of me, I live south of it. Lake Erie is to the south of me, I live north of it. I actually live almost exactly in the middle of the two. So it's about a 45 minute drive to Lake Erie and it's about a 45 minute drive To Lake Ontario.And I do like living between the two lakes. It's pretty cool. If you drive to Lake Erie, there are nice sandy beaches and you can go swimming. If you drive to Lake Ontario, there's usually a cool northern wind in the summer that kind of cools off as it comes across the lake and it makes for a really nice visit. It's a nice place to... There's a few nice restaurants along Lake Ontario. So yeah, that's where I live, right in the middle of what's called the Niagara Peninsula.Actually, If I drive 45 minutes east, I end up at the border, the border with New York State. The city of Buffalo is that way to the east of me. So it's a pretty cool place to live. I think I mentioned in another video that as I was growing up I could watch Canadian TV and I could watch American TV as well because the antenna that we had on oSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to sink in" and "sink or swim"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2025 4:21 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SINK IN and SINK OR SWIMIn this English lesson, I want to try and not freeze my butt off and also teach you the English phrase to sink in. When something is allowed to sink in, it means that you hear it and eventually you will understand it. Sometimes when you're in school, the teacher will teach a lesson and it might take a while for what the teacher taught you to sink in. Sometimes you hear the teacher say it, you go home and you do your homework, and then eventually you understand it. You've given it some time and it was able to sink in. I hope that when you watch my lessons, eventually what I'm teaching you will sink in. Eventually you will understand it.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase sink or swim. This means to either succeed or fail. So sometimes students are doing badly in a class and they have one more assignment to do and then it's a time where they will either sink or swim. So if you imagine this, when you sink, it means you go underwater. And when you swim you are above the water and you can still breathe. So we use this phrase to talk about somebody or something that will either succeed or fail. Sorry, I should say fail or succeed, shouldn't I? When you sink, you fail. When you succeed, you are swimming. So sink or swim.So to review, when you allow something to sink in, it means you allow yourself to think about it for a bit and then understand it. And if you say a situation is sink or swim, it means you are either going to sink, fail, or swim and succeed.But anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment I think is from Vino. Hey Bob, could you please teach me the meaning of the phrase let that sink in? And my reply, sure, and I kind of just did. The let that sink in phrase though is more. It means the same thing, but it's more of a saying you would say to someone. So you would say to them, let me think. Let's say I got stopped for speeding and the police officer said if you get one more ticket you're going to lose your license. Let that sink in. Basically what the police officer is saying is think about that for a bit and make sure you understand completely why you shouldn't speed anymore.But hey, I don't really speed a lot. I did get a ticket almost exactly a year ago, so I was bringing my son back to university and of all places, I got a ticket in my local town, which was a little bit disappointing. It was the beginning of a four hour trip and I got a ticket right at the beginning of the trip. That was rather disappointing. Needless to say, I was in a bad mood for the entire trip.You might be wondering why I'm sticking close to the shed. I'm gonna turn around here because it's quite windy today. I always think it's funny when there are no leaves on the trees. You really can't tell that it's a windy day, but it's a little bit cold. It's minus three and I don't know if you've watched Jen's videos on her channel, but she was just videotaping me videotaping this lesson. I'm not sure why. I think she wants to put a clip in her next video. You'll have to go check that out. Her channel is called @myflowerfarm. If you put an @ sign and then type myflowerfarm with no spaces in the search bar of YouTube, you'll find it.Anyways, I was just telling Jen when you go outside to make a video in the winter, it's always best to dress warmer than you need to because you might be out there for longer than you were expecting. And that's certainly the case today. I'm only wearing a T shirt under my winter coat. I probabSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrase "Happy New Year!" and the word "gingerly"

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 1, 2025 4:41


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase HAPPY NEW YEAR and the word GINGERLYWell, in this English lesson I just want to say Happy New Year. I do have another phrase or word here to teach you. There's a couple couple geese flying over. They're probably excited because of the water behind me, but Happy New Year. This is not what it normally looks like on January 1st in my part of the world. Normally there's snow everywhere. Right now it is 3 degrees outside and the river is flooded. I'll show you that in a moment. But anyways, Happy New Year. I hope that 2025 is a great year for you. 2025? Wow. That's incredible. It feels like time is really flying, but it's already 2025, so happy new Year.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"✅If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other word I wanted to teach you is the word gingerly, which I mentioned in my last non English lesson. Gingerly means to simply do something carefully. If you injure yourself, let's say you hurt your foot or your ankle. When you start to walk again, you're going to walk gingerly. You're going to walk kind of like very carefully because you don't want to re injure yourself. The other day I was on some ice and so I was walking quite gingerly. I was walking carefully because I didn't want to fall.So to review, Happy New Year. I hope you're having a great day. January 1st for me is usually quite a relaxing day. Nothing is open in my part of the world on January 1st, so you can't go anywhere. So you just stay home and play games and hang out with your family and do things that are fun. And gingerly, hopefully you aren't doing things gingerly. Hopefully you are healthy and excited for the day and able to do things well.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Ünsal. Ünsal says it may sound cliche, but since the next video will be on the first day of the year, I'll ask. I'll ask just for the sake of formality. How was 2024 and what are your expectations from 2025? Happy New Year to you and your family. And my response. I really enjoyed 2024. It was a busy year. But alas, that is my current era in life, the dad era. It's fun for Jen and I to see our kids growing up. I'm still enjoying work and YouTube and I'm still quite excited about archery, which I started in August. My plans for 2025 are quite boring, simply more of the same.So thanks for asking, Ünsal. Yes, those are my plans for 2025. I am not an exciting person. Year to year I'm pretty much doing the same things. So my plans for 2025 are to keep working. My plan for 2025 is to keep doing YouTube. So I'm going to keep teaching at the school where I'm at. I'm going to keep making YouTube English lessons. I think I'm going to try and be a little more consistent this year. When I looked back on 2024 and looked at my... my output, I was a little lacking, I think, in my own estimation. So I'm going to try and be a little more consistent. And we'll see, I think it'll be a fun year. I'm looking forward to already making the next video for my next for my bigger channel and doing a live stream.So anyways, if you look behind me, you can see this is not typical for this time of year. There are geese all over the place because the river is flooded. As I mentioned yesterday on my other channel, I did a live stream. The power was out yesterday because we had a wind storm. And that wind storm also brought with it a lot of rain. And right now the ground is actually a little bit frozen. Even though it's nice and warm out here, the ground is a little bit frozen, so the water can't penetrate into the ground. And so what it does is it just flows into ditches and creeks and streams and eventually into the river.Support the show

    Learn the English Term "no-show" and the phrase "to show up"

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2024 4:24 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English term NO-SHOW and the phrase TO SHOW UPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term no show. When you say someone is a no show, it means you planned to meet with them somewhere and they didn't come. Maybe you and a friend are going out for coffee and you go to the coffee shop at the time that you said you were going to meet at 7pm and then that person doesn't show up. You would say they are a no show. They decided not to go to the coffee shop and probably didn't tell you either because usually if someone tells you they're not coming, then you know why they're not. So if someone is a no show, it means that you planned to meet them somewhere and for some reason they never arrived.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to show up. If someone is a no show, it means that they didn't show up. When you show up somewhere, it means you arrive. I show up at work every day at around quarter to eight right now and some of my colleagues show up around 7:30. They get there earlier than me. But to show up means to arrive. So if you planned to meet with someone for coffee tonight at a coffee shop at 7pm, hopefully they would show up at 7pm and you would have a cup of coffee with them. Hopefully they wouldn't be a no show.So to review a no show is a person, a term we use for a person who doesn't arrive. If I flew somewhere on an airplane and someone was supposed to pick me up at the airport and they didn't come, I would say they were a no show. My ride was a no show, they didn't come to pick me up. And to show up means to arrive somewhere. So hopefully if I go somewhere on a plane someday my ride will show up and pick me up and not be a no show.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Axel. Black T shirt on Bob. Something new. And my response, yes, many of you noticed this. It's actually an official school shirt that I wear when I take students somewhere. Today we went on a walk to town to study local businesses. So I wear my black school shirt. I actually should have put so I wore my black school shirt. I kind of switched tenses on you there. That was a little bit of a mistake. So scratch that out. And instead it should say so I wore my black school shirt.Yes, we're encouraged as teachers when we go somewhere with students outside of the school day, that we wear school gear or school, it's not really a uniform. It's just a shirt with the school logo on it so that if people see us in town with a whole bunch of students, they know who we are.I'm just trying to stand with my back to the wind. You can see that winter has arrived. Should I pan around? Yeah, let's give you a good view of this. So, yeah, I was wearing a black shirt the other day. Not by choice. It's kind of required, I guess. It's not really required, but I think it is good when you take a whole bunch of teenagers out in public, especially if you're the teacher in charge that you wear something so it's easy to identify who is in charge of that, that trip and who's in charge of those students. Yeah, it's not actually that cold. My ear's a little bit cold right now, but it's definitely windy, so I'm trying to stand as much as I can with my back to the wind.You'll see there's a nice little bit of snow on the ground. It was almost a snow day today. Yesterday, there's a website called this called the Snow Day Predictor, and if you punch in your address, it tells you what they think the chance is of you having a snow day. And it said 99% yesterday. It said thSupport the show

    Untitled Episode

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2024 4:23 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESSIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it's none of your business. So I was walking out of class today, and there were two students in the hall. And the one student said, what did you get on your math test? And the other student said, it's none of your business. In English, when you say it's none of your business, it's very informal and it's a little bit rude, but you're basically telling the other person that they're asking a question you don't want to answer. They're asking for information that you don't think they need to know. A test is a great example. If I took a test and you said to me, if you were a friend of mine and said, hey, how did you do on your math test? I'd probably say, hey, it's none of your business. Basically, what I'm saying is, I don't want to tell you. Maybe I did really good. Maybe I didn't do very good at all. But in any case, it's none of your business. So remember, it is a. It's a little bit rude. It's very direct. It's not a kind way of answering someone.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase mind your own business. This means exactly the same thing. And I think I taught this already about four years ago. If someone said to me, hey, Bob, when are you going to buy a new car? I would say, mind your own business. Again, a little bit rude, very informal, and very direct. Like, it's not a happy way of saying it. If someone said, hey, Bob, when are you going to buy a new car? And I said, oh, I don't know. I haven't really thought about it, But I actually had. That's kind of a nicer way to do it.So anyways, to review, it's none of your business and mind your own business, they mean the same thing. It's a way of telling someone that the questions they are asking are too direct. They're asking for more information than you're willing to give them.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Denis Pizza ut. It's a product placement in Bob's short. And my response, they should sponsor me. Yeah, I think in the last video, there was... I was walking around town, right? So you saw probably Pizza Hut and Gino's Pizza and... No, not Gino's Nino's. There's a Gino's pizza and a Nino's pizza in my town. But yeah, lots of pizza places. In fact, Smithville, the town of Smithville, has five pizza places. A little bit strange.Anyways, you can see here it's this time of year. It's the time of year when we put the little markers along the driveway and we bought some extra ones this year and there's some on this side as well. We put these along the driveway because eventually it's going to snow. And then eventually it gets very, very difficult to see where the driveway is both when driving in and out, when there's a bit of snow on the ground, but also when using the snowblower. I need to know where the driveway is so that I don't go off the driveway and into the lawn. So not sure if you can see them very clearly. We bought some bright orange ones and then this type here we have a few of these. I think we have four of these now. This one is actually a reflector. So the light coming from your headlights or from your reverse lights lights that up.And by the way, if you didn't know what headlights were, the headlights are on the front here. We call those fog lights. I don't really always use them in the fog. And then on the back you have these, which are your reverse lights. So when you drive backwards or when you drive in reverse, you can see a litSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to hit the spot" and "in a tight spot"

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2024 4:21 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HIT THE SPOT and IN A TIGHT SPOTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to hit the spot. Sometimes you are craving something. Sometimes you really want something to eat or to drink. And then after you eat or drink it, you say, oh, that hit the spot. When something hits the spot, it means it satisfies you. For me, right now, this is kind of a bad thing. I've become a little bit addicted to diet soda. I know it's not good for me, and I know it has strange ingredients in it instead of soda or instead of sugar, but I find when I drink a diet ginger ale or a diet root beer, it tends to hit the spot. I feel very satisfied. Jen doesn't like it, though. She doesn't like artificial sweeteners. So I only have one a week. But right now it's really seeming to hit the spot for me. I really, really enjoy it.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a tight spot. When you are in a tight spot, I should have put the word in there because you're often in a tight spot. It means you're in a difficult situation. Let's say that I'm trying to think of an example here. You borrowed someone's car and you put a dent in it. You're kind of in a tight spot because now you have to tell them that you did something to their car. Let's say that you owe someone a thousand dollars and you also have to pay all of your bills and you're not going to have enough money. You are then in a tight spot. So you're in a difficult situation.So to review to hit the spot means something is very satisfying. When I have a chocolate bar, it really tends to hit the spot. And then when you are in a tight spot, you are in a very, very difficult situation.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Rosario and the comment is: Great Bob. Sometimes I like to push it too far and I eventually get in trouble. And my response, it happens to us all.I think we all, at some point in our lives, push it a little bit too far. We work a little too hard, we stay up a little bit too late. We maybe should rest and we don't. Maybe we work over the weekend. We push it too far and then you get into a little bit of trouble. Maybe you get sick, maybe you're just exhausted. For me, when I push it too far, it often results in me taking a sick day. So it's like, it's kind of counterproductive.But hey, someone asked, I think in a previous video whether my town had Christmas decorations up yet. There's some in this window. You can see there. That's not the town though. And if you look across the street. Let's walk this way. I think you'll get a better look if I go this way. I think they look much better at night. I think there are these really tiny, small snowflakes. If you look up on this pole up by the green light there. And then if you look at the other side of the road, I bet you you guys can hardly see them.Let me flip around. I bet you you guys can hardly see them. But I'll get as close as I can and then you'll be able to get a better sense. Again, I think they look much better at night. You can see right here there is a bit of a snowflake. There's a little chicken below it too. Because this town is known for having a of poultry farms around. In fact, we used to have... I'll walk backwards here. We used to have a festival called Poultry Fest in this town. We don't anymore. It used to happen every year in June. It was pretty fun, but I think they were having trouble getting organizers and so eventually we didn't have it anymore. So yes, there are some Christmas deSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to push through" and "to push it too hard"

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2024 4:36 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUSH THROUGH and TO PUSH IT TOO FARIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to push through. This past weekend, Jen was sick and I was a little bit sick, but I decided to push through. I took one day off work and I probably went back to work one day too early because I decided to push through. When you push through, it means you do something when you're not quite strong enough or have enough energy to do it. When you're training for a sport, when you're lifting weights the last 10 or 11 times you do the weight, you might have to push through. You have to give a little extra energy. And sometimes when you're sick, you just decide to go to work and push through. And sometimes that's a bad idea. It actually led to me not getting as much work done as I wanted to this week. So to push through simply means to kind of just dig deep, find the energy somewhere to do something maybe you don't have the energy for or you're just a little bit too sick to do.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to push it too far. This is what happens when you push through. Sometimes you push it too far. Let's say this past week, if I had done everything that I wanted to do, I probably would have lost my voice. I would have pushed it too far. When you push it too far, sometimes things go wrong or sometimes things break. Let's say your car is making a funny noise and you're like, I'll get that fixed in a week or two. Maybe you are going to push it too far and the whole car is just going to stop working.So to review, to push through means to find the energy somewhere to do something even though you don't have the energy for it. Or maybe you're a bit sick or you just don't have the enthusiasm. You just decide to push through. And to push it too far means to simply keep doing something or keep using something beyond when you should have stopped or gotten that thing fixed, or if it's like your throat looked at by a doctor. Anyways, I feel great now by the way. I took the hood off because can you hear the. I just thought it was probably making a funny sound with the microphone.But hey, let's look at a comment from from a previous video from Brent. From American English with this guy or with Brent. Oh, very cool. Your students are allowed to leave campus during lunch. Not true for my students. They are stuck bringing a lunch from home or eating school lunch. Thankfully, our school lunches are edible. And then Konstantin, who does the same job as Brent as I, as Brent and I. Same here, Brent. Our school students can leave school only if we have written or phone permission from their parents. And then my response, it's age related here. The lower grades must stay at school. The older grades, grade 11 and 12, are allowed to go to town. So my school is in a town, but it's on the edge of town and sometimes we refer to the center of town as the town. But thanks, Brent and Konstantin, for giving me a bit more insight into how your schools work.Yes, our older students are allowed to go. In Canada when you are in grade 11, or what the Americans would probably call junior year or the 11th grade, that's usually the year where you get your driver's license. At some point you get your learner's permit or beginners around grade 10 into grade 11. And some students in grade 11 right around now are starting to get their driver's license. So their age, I think age 16 and then 8 months. If you went to driver's education school at age 16 years and 8 months, you can get your driver's licenseSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "in a little bit" and "it's going to be a while"

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2024 4:21 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN A LITTLE BIT and IT'S GOING TO BE A WHILEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in a little bit. Now, when we say in a little bit, we mean a small amount. And we can be talking about time or an actual thing. Here's a good example. Let's say that my mom is coming over to visit and one of my kids says, when will Grandma be here? I could say, she'll be here in a little bit. If we're having a nice meal and someone says, oh, there's a really nice pie for dessert and I'm feeling really full, I could say, oh, I'll just have a little bit, meaning that I just want a small piece of it. So I don't know why we use this phrase. It is used quite commonly. I heard it a few times this week. But when we're referring to a small amount of time or a small amount of something, we sometimes just say a little bit.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianAnd then something that's kind of the opposite in terms of time would be the phrase it's going to be a while. If one of my kids said, when is Grandma coming? I could say, oh, it's going to be a while. And if I said it quickly, I would say, oh, it's gonna be a while, meaning that she's not coming in the next five or 10 minutes. It will probably be a bit longer. This is a common response that parents give to children when driving in a car going a long ways. If the kids say, are we there yet? We often say, oh, it's going to be a while. It's going to be another hour or two before we're there.So to review, if you say in a little bit, you mean a small amount of time or a small amount of something. And if you say it's going to be a while, it means that it's going to be probably like an hour or two hours.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from MRfisheri. MRfisheri, I'm not sure how to say it. And the comment is this hair wise and beard wise someone needs a bit of a trim and then a smiley face and just the word joke. So I think MRfisheri is joking. My response soon, although I might grow it out a bit more.So I'm assuming you're talking about the scruffy beard I have and the hair is getting a bit long for me. But thanks for that comment. Yeah, I think I'll get a haircut soon. I'm not 100% sure when. I was thinking about growing it out a bit more, I haven't done that for a long time, like letting my hair grow longer. And then I was wondering, do I need to start to part it in the middle or on the side? Because when you have longer hair, you have to start to comb the hair. And I don't actually comb my hair. I just get up, have a shower and dry my hair with a towel and off I go. So we'll see. The beard, though, I think I need to trim. There's some stray hairs sticking out here and there.But hey, anyways, I'm back where I was last Tuesday night. I thought it would be fun to come back here and shoot a video in the daytime. I did a lesson last week, Tuesday night, I think I did by day and by night, and I did that at night. And my camera was actually struggling to stay nice and crisp. The image was a little bit fuzzy because of the low light conditions. But today it's the opposite. I'm actually having trouble seeing because it's so bright. But the other thing I can show you, though is that Tim Hortons definitely has people going through the drive through.If you remember from the video from last week, it was quite empty. I think there were just some parents and kids selling things as a fundraiser at the front door. But other than that, it was pretty full. I bet you some of these cars have my students in them because it's lunchtiSupport the show

    Learn the English Ending "-wise" and Term "wise guy"

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2024 4:19 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English ending -WISE and the term WISE GUYIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn how to use the suffix wise. A suffix is something that comes at the end of a word and when we use wise it means in relation to something. So if I was to say this, temperature- wise, it's a really nice day today. If I look in my wallet though, money- wise, my wallet's a little bit empty. Or if my boss said, is that project on time? I might say, ooh, time-wise, that project isn't going very well. So it's a little word or suffix we put at the end of a word that means that you are talking about that thing or in relation to. In relation to. So once again, temperature-wise, it's really nice out here today. I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt. Time-wise, I have a lot of time today. I'm done work for the day and I'm just home making this English lesson.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today or term is wise guy. A wise guy is someone who makes a lot of jokes and a lot of sarcastic comments. You could say, ah, Uncle Joe is such a wise guy. He's always cracking jokes and making sarcastic or funny comments.So to review, when you put wise on the end of a word, it means you are talking about something in relation to that word. Again, time-wise, I'm having a nice day. I went to work on time, got all my work done, I got home on time. So time-wise, the day is going well. And a wise guy is someone who tells a lot of jokes. Also, a wise guy can be a criminal in a criminal organization. Sometimes we call them wise guys. If you watch a movie, you might see that.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Mohd. How come Mr. Bob never showed us the little area in front of the barn extension? I briefly saw it in a members video before. There's definitely some decoration going on there with all those rotary blades mounted on sticks. But he never talked about it. Which begs the question, is Bob trying to hide something from us? My response? Hmm, it's our secret art installation. Maybe I'll talk about it in the next video. We'll see.So here's the plan. We got some of these things from Jen's dad, actually. Actually, I'll turn you around. That's maybe a better way to see this. Hold on, I'm going to spin you. Okay, so these are parts from a cultivation machine. Cultivation machine called a rotary hoe. So this is actually something that normally you would see a whole bunch of these on a machine in a row, and they would spin and they would weed the soil. That's kind of the idea. It's called a rotary cultivator or a rotary hoe.But we thought they kind of look like flowers. And because we live on a flower farm, we thought we would put some in front of the barn as decoration. So we put them there. We're not done yet. We have to get a little piece of steel for that one as well. And there's one over there. And this whole area, just in general, is going to be a flower bed. But if you watch Jen's videos on her channel, the goats got out once and they kind of chewed and ate the leaves. So those plants aren't dead, but they certainly will grow back. But overall, though, this is just an area in front of where we have the floral coolers and stuff.We might actually turn that window into a door someday and make it maybe into a small shop. We've talked about that from time to time. Whether that actually happens or not, we'll see. I mean, there's always plans for the future, and sometimes they get done and sometimes they don't. If you look behind me, there's still a big pile of stone that I have to diSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "by day", "by night", and "night owl"

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2024 4:41 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BY DAY, BY NIGHT, and NIGHT OWLIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrases by day and by night. I'm a teacher by day and a YouTuber by night. So when you use by day and by night, you're describing when something happens. You often hear this in a superhero movie, Superman is Clark Kent by day and Superman by night. Or is that Batman? Batman is Bruce Wayne by day and Batman by night. Yeah, that makes more sense. Batman does more work at night than Superman. But when you say by day and by night, you're talking about when it happens.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianI hope you can see this. I'm testing out the low light capabilities of my camera.The other phrase or term I wanted to teach you is night owl. A night owl is a person who enjoys being out at night or working at night. I'm not a night owl, by the way.So to review, when you do something by day and by night, it means that's when you do it. Maybe you're. You're a hard worker by day and a party animal by night. I don't know what you're like, but maybe that's you. Or to review as well, night owl would be a person who enjoys doing things at night.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Lidepla. I've noticed two more interesting expressions in this lesson. I felt a little bit off and on top of things. Thanks. And my response? Yes, I'm glad you picked up on those. There are often extra phrases that just come out naturally. So sorry if I'm not speaking smoothly and fluently tonight. Maybe because it's late in the day, but thanks. Lidepla. I think I said that right for that comment. Yes. Quite often in my videos there's a couple extra little phrases that are kind of a bonus that you can learn.Yeah, I'm here in front of the grocery store. It's nighttime. There's definitely people out who are night owls and I'm not. By the way, if you're wondering why I'm out here making a video, it's not because I'm a super dedicated YouTuber. It's because I'm on my way back to work for parent teacher interviews. So it's actually only like quarter to six. But it's dark here already. Or wait, let me check my watch. Sorry, it's quarter to seven and it's dark here already.So yeah, I'm not a night owl. I enjoy doing things by day. I enjoy. Like I would rather get up early and go do things than stay up late to do things. That's just my personality. There's no way you'll catch me joining volunteer activities or committees that meet at night. That just does not interest me at all. I would rather go to a meeting at 7 in the morning than at 7 at night. So things like parent teacher interviews are a little bit not annoying for me. Like, I don't mind them. I think they're good and they're practical and they help parents and students know what they can choose to do to do better. But certainly it's not my favorite thing. In fact, I'll probably. I'll probably not sleep very well tonight because when I go home, I'll still be kind of heightened. Like I'll have some adrenaline going and I'll still have lots of energy.Normally by this time of night, I'm just watching some YouTube videos or possibly reading a book or doing something that's just a little bit more relaxing. So anyways, let me check my time here. Oh, we're good. I'm trying to walk far enough so that you can see the Tim Hortons. Sometimes people enjoy seeing the Tim Hortons. There's definitely a Tim Hortons over here. There's a bunch of people in front of it. Not sure what they're doing. I think it might be like Girl Guides selling cookies or something lSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "I beg to differ" and "It begs the question"

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2024 4:30 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I BEG TO DIFFER and IT BEGS THE QUESTIONIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase I beg to differ. This is a phrase when someone says something and we don't agree with them, we might start by saying, I beg to differ. If someone was to say, I think that, let's see, France has the best football players in the world, I might say, I beg to differ. I think Canada has the best football players in the world. So it's a way to introduce kind of the opposite thought. If someone said that Ford makes the best cars in the world, I might say, I beg to differ. I think that Toyota makes the best cars in the world. So it's a way to nicely tell someone that you disagree with them.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is it begs the question. This is how we introduce a thought after making a couple statements. Here's an example. If I said, taxes keep going up, taxes have gone up three times in the past year. So it begs the question, what is the government doing with all the money? Or you might say this. You might say, oh, Bob hasn't made a video for six weeks. So it begs the question, where is Bob? I don't think that will ever happen. But if it did happen, it would certainly beg the question, where is Bob?So to review, if you say I beg to differ, it simply means that you are going to disagree with someone. If you say cats are the best pets in the world, I might say, I beg to differ. I think dogs are the best pet. And when you say it begs the question, it usually means you're asking something after a while. If you say something like this, all of the milk is gone and I didn't drink it. So it begs the question, who drank all the milk?But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ozdeniz and the question is, or, sorry. And the comment is the best teacher. And my response: Am I though? I would beg to differ. I think the best teacher is always yourself. You know yourself and how you learn. And I agree with that. And I do like the compliment, by the way, that I'm the best teacher.By the way, you can read that compliment two ways in English. If it had a comma in it. If it said the best teacher, it would mean that the lesson I did was the best. But if there's no comma and it says the best teacher, it means that you think I'm the best teacher, which I don't think I am, I'll have to say, I have to say I think I do an okay job. I'm not going to stand here and say I'm the best teacher. I think I do the best job I can do and people seem to like the lesson, so I'll accept the compliment. But I am not going to claim I am the best teacher. But thank you for the comment anyways. And did you see how I used the phrase? I beg to differ. I like to try every once in a while to actually use the phrase in the comment that I'm leaving.Well, this week it's Friday. Sorry, you're watching this on a Friday. It's Thursday. This is one of those weeks. I think I've taught you that phrase before when you say ah, it's one of those days. Or this is one of those weeks. I just can't get all my work done for some reason. I had a day where I felt a bit off and I didn't get as much done as normal. But wow, it's starting to feel like one of those weeks.In particular, I have a whole lot of photos to take from emails to get ready for a live stream on Saturday on my bigger channel. I requested people to send photos and I've gotten hundreds of photos. Well, at least a couple hundred. And they're great. I love them. But it's going to take me a little while to get all of tSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to rub off on" and "to rub someone's nose in it"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2024 4:36 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RUB OFF ON and TO RUB SOMEONE'S NOSE IN ITIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase To rub off on. Now we use this phrase to describe when the behavior of one person starts to be mimicked or copied by another person. Sometimes one person can rub off on another person. So here's a good example. If your boss is mean to everyone, that can rub off on you. And you might start to be mean to other people. Maybe one of your kids or a nephew or niece is hanging out with a bad kid and the bad kid's behavior is starting to rub off on the kid that you know that's not a good thing. You don't want bad behavior to rub off on the other kid. You don't want that kid to copy what the bad kid is doing. So when we describe someone's behavior, it can rub off on someone else. This can be a good thing too. When new teachers work with excellent, veteran, well qualified teachers, you hope that the older teacher's knowledge and wisdom will rub off on the younger teacher.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to rub someone's nose in it. So this means to mention someone's failures or mistakes over and over again so they feel bad about it. Let's think of an example here. Let's say that I accidentally drove my van, it's sitting over there, Let's say I drove my van into the barn wall and every day Jen mentioned it, day after day she would be rubbing my nose in it. When you rub someone's nose in something, it means they did something embarrassing or something that was a mistake and you just continually mention it. Not a very nice thing to do. To review. To rub off on means when someone's behavior starts to be copied or mimicked by someone else's. And to rub someone's nose in it means, you know, we all make mistakes, but you don't need someone to constantly rub your nose in it. You don't need them to constantly mention the fact that you made a mistake over and over again. Once is enough.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Padma. Colorful trees behind you are so beautiful. Amazing nature. And I said yes, it was a beautiful fall day.And it still is. You can see a little bit of color here. I'll give you a little bit of a color tour if you look here. Oh, where is that? There it is. This tree. Let me walk this way so you can see the whole thing. These trees look amazing right now. These are the trees in front of my house. Let me pivot slowly and walk forward again. If we walk far enough. I'm walking backwards now. You'll be able to see them nicely in front of my house. They look beautiful. But if we turn all of the leaves from these trees are pretty much on the ground.If you look in the distance where I was in a previous video, most of those leaves are on the ground. This tree, a lot of the leaves are on the ground. This tree here, a lot of the leaves have fallen on the ground and created a carpet. I think by my house it's a bit of a micro climate. I think what that means is it's a little warmer in front of my house. Maybe it's a little less windy and a little warmer and I think those trees just turn color a bit later. Or Jen was mentioning this the other day. They might just be a different variety. It's.Can you hear the crunching? I'll show you the ground again. They might just be a different variety. So here you're going to see my crocs. If I do this, I'm wearing my old. We actually call those the barn crocs. I don't know if you know what crocs are but those are the slip on shoes that are just made out of plastic that are really. You donSupport the show

    Learn the English Terms "bad attitude" and "positive attitude"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2024 4:22 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BAD ATTITUDE and POSITIVE ATTITUDEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term bad attitude. If someone has a bad attitude, it means they think something's going to go badly before it even starts or even while it's happening. Here's a good example. Maybe you go to watch your favorite sports team, and as the game is starting, you say, ah, they're going to lose tonight because the best player is injured and the other team's too good. That's just a bad attitude. It's not a very positive way of thinking to just say, oh, we're going to lose because of that. It's best to wait and see. Sometimes students have a bad attitude. They might say, oh, I'm going to fail this class because the teacher doesn't like me and there's too much homework, and I don't feel like doing what I'm supposed to be doing. That's just a bad attitude. As you can tell, I don't like it when people have a bad attitude.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianI like it when people are a little more positive when they have a positive attitude. Now, you might have thought, as I teach this phrase, as I teach the opposite, that I would say good attitude. And we do sometimes say that, that, oh, you should have a good attitude. But often, more often, we say a positive attitude. I'm not sure why we don't say negative attitude, but we usually encourage people to have a positive attitude. Even though the best player is injured, I still think my team is going to win tonight. I'm going to have a positive attitude. I'm going to think happy thoughts and good thoughts about my team. I was going to say something else about this good attitude. Positive attitude. There's another term. It's not coming to my mind right now. Maybe I'll think of it later.Anyways, to review a bad attitude would be to say something like this, oh, I don't know if I'm going to make an English lesson today. Hardly anyone's going to watch it. Maybe I'll just not do it. Bad attitude. But a positive attitude would be to think, you know, I'm going to make an English lesson today, and some people will watch it, and those people will hopefully learn a little bit of English.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. It's in my back pocket here. Let me see if I can find it. The comment is from Emerson. Oh, it's from the last lesson isn't more or less outdated. So I taught the phrase more or less in the last lesson. And my response, not at all. Almost every phrase I choose for these lessons is from real life, and I heard someone use it just four days ago.So, no, not at all. In fact, I did a little bit of research. I'm not sure if you know what Google trends is, but Google trends kind of identifies the things people search for. And if you look in a moment, probably right now, there should be a graph on the screen for the phrase more or less, and you can see it's actually going up. Now, this doesn't mean people are actually using it when they talk. It simply means people do still search for that phrase, more or less. So, to me, that graph probably means that people are still using that term.And then Emerson as well, just so you know. Yes, I do. Listen as I go through my day and I try to hear people using phrases and or sometimes I observe behavior, and that helps me decide what I'm going to say or what I'm going to teach in the next lesson.So you might wonder, where did bad attitude and positive attitude come from? Well, I want to keep that a secret, but as you know, I'm a teacher. Sometimes I see students in my classroom, and sometimes they have a bad attitude, and sSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "more or less" and "less is more"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2024 4:47 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MORE OR LESS and LESS IS MOREIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase more or less. In English, when we say more or less, it means almost or sort of. If you asked me if I was done cleaning my house, I might say more or less. That means I have most of the work done. Maybe there's a couple little things here and there that I still need to clean up, but I'm kind of done cleaning the house, more or less. Another example would be, if I was packing for a trip, you could say, hey, are you done packing? And I could say more or less. This means that I got out my suitcases, and I packed my clothes and some soap and a toothbrush, and I'm pretty much done packing. I'm close to being done packing. I'm more or less done packing, but I probably still want to check things. So when you say more or less, it means something is kind of done or sort of done. I was going to say more or less done, but I don't want to use the term to define the term.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase less is more. In English, when we say less is more, it means that sometimes doing a few simple things is better than doing a whole bunch of complex things. A good example would be to wash your vehicle. Sometimes just a little bit of water with some soap in it is all you need. You don't need a whole bunch of expensive products. Sometimes less is more. You can use this to describe a job as well. Sometimes in teaching, if I try to do 20 or 30 things with a class, they might not remember all of it. So sometimes less is more. Sometimes it's better to do about two or three things well, and then everyone remembers what you did. So sometimes less is more.So to review, more or less means almost or sort of. So, are you almost done this video, Bob? More or less? Actually, less than more on that one, that was probably a bad example. If it was close to the end of the video, I could say more or less. And if you say less is more, it simply means that sometimes doing two or three parts of a process well is better than doing ten or 15 things badly. Sometimes less is more. Did I say more is less? Less is more.It's a little distracting out here, but, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is all crumpled up in my pocket. Let me find it here. This comment is from can't get the paper open. See, I'm struggling here. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. How do I get to Service Ontario. I think I've driven past it. How do you get to service Ontario? It's actually right over there, just on the other side of the pharmacy. So I can park here? You can actually, if you go out the back of this parking lot and go around, there's a little parking lot right there. And then walk back to this road and it's right on the corner. Thanks very much. Yep. You're welcome.Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Sometimes you have to help someone find Service Ontario. That's where you renew your license. This is from the.user-kun. As always, the optimistic Bob, wonderful lesson. Thumbs up for you. And my response, you're welcome.So, yes, optimism. I am a fairly optimistic person. I think I've mentioned this a lot on my live streams. Sometimes people will say, Bob, you seem very positive. You seem like a very optimistic person. And my response is always this, as long as I'm eating healthy food, as long as I'm getting eight or 9 hours of sleep every night, and as long as I'm getting some exercise, either walking or shooting my bow and arrow, that's good exercise, by the waySupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "fall colours" and "black and white"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2024 4:20 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FALL COLOURS and BLACK AND WHITEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase fall colors. If you live in a country where the leaves on the trees turn a different color in the fall, in the autumn, we call those the fall colors. I'm not sure if you can see behind me, this tree is still green, but way in the distance, we'll walk over there later. You can see that there are some fall colors. Those trees are starting to turn orange and brown and yellow. So we call those fall colors. So when you see trees that have brown leaves and orange leaves and red leaves and yellow leaves in the fall, in the autumn, we say, those are the fall colors.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is black and white. And I'm pretty sure you know what this means. A long time ago, TV used to only be black and white. When you took a picture, it was black and white. I think, in the... Well, I'm not going to say the date, but when I was a kid, we had a black and white TV for a little bit, and then our other TV was color. We had two TVs. One was on the computer, I think, and it was black and white, and then the other one was color. But black and white simply means there is no color.So to review, fall colors refer to the beautiful fall colors. If I move way out of the way, maybe you can see them. Maybe they'll come into focus. And when something is in black and white, it has no color. So old photos are sometimes black and white, and old movies are sometimes black and white, and they're really nice to go and watch.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video about this. Let me find the comment, and maybe we can get Oscar. Oscar, can you come over here? Oscar, come here pup. Hey, Oscar. Oscar, come. Come here. No, not you. I don't think it's going to work. But, hey, this is from Mohd. I kept looking at the chair in the back over and over, and I couldn't make out whether that was a pumpkin or a basketball. Wait, maybe it was just Oscar all curled up in there. Oh, no, you didn't dye his fur orange, did you, Bob? Poor are Oscar like, I know you're crazy about that color and all, but that'd be some next level madness. And my response, it's a pumpkin.Yeah, it's a pumpkin. I think my son got it. I think when he was walking out of the grocery store, if you gave a donation, a food item for the food bank, they gave you a pumpkin. So very cool. So thanks, Mohd, for that comment. And by the way, Oscar is kind of a brownish orange. I didn't dye him. And Walter is black and white. He's a black dog with some white spots.We're getting some nice fall wind out here. So anyways, I said I would walk this way. Let's have a look over here across the river. You can see some orange. It's actually nicer when it's a sunny out. Right now it's starting to rain, so it's harder to see the fall colors. If I do this, maybe you can see them a bit better. Take that lens off. Way in the distance, I can see some really nice fall colors. I'll zoom in when I go back inside and edit this. Put my wide angle lens back on, but I'm not sure how well you're going to be able to see it.Maybe we'll walk over here and have a look as well. Fall colors. Jen and I have not gone for a hike yet to see the fall colors. We might do that this coming weekend. I'm also going on a school trip this week, so with my students, maybe we'll go and see some of the fall colors. Here's some trees that have some yellow leaves. There are some leaves in the air as well, just slowly starting to fall. If you're wondering whySupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to breeze through" and "to shoot the breeze"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2024 4:18 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases TO BREEZE THROUGH and TO SHOOT THE BREEZEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to breeze through. When you breeze through something, it means you do it quickly and easily. At school, I had a whole stack of student work that I needed to look at. Well, that truck's pretty loud. I'm not sure if you can hear it. I had a whole stack of student work that I needed to look at and I thought it was going to be hard, but I was able to breeze through it. It actually was really easy to look at all the work and give them each a grade out of ten. So when you breeze through something, it means you do it quickly and easily and it's not very difficult at all.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to shoot the breeze. So when you shoot the breeze, it means you talk with someone. Sometimes after work, as I'm walking out, another teacher will be walking out and we might shoot the breeze for a few minutes. We might just stand and talk about our day. We might stand and talk about a student who wasn't behaving. I don't know. Do we? Do teachers do that? Sometimes, but we sometimes just shoot the breeze. We also sometimes say shoot the bull. It means to just talk about everyday things.So to review to breeze through something means to do it easily or to do it without difficulty. That would maybe be a better description. To do it quickly and with very little difficulty. And to shoot the breeze or to shoot the bull means simply to talk to someone. So even though it has the verb to shoot in it, it doesn't mean that at all. It means to just have a conversation.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from keen student. I am the first to leave a comment. You were actually, I've almost got my teacher's degree, but I am still learning. Thank you for the lessons. They are very helpful and needed. And my response, that's awesome that you almost have your degree. I hope the rest of your studies go well. So thank you keen student. I do hope things go well for you. It's cool. When I hear about people who are becoming teachers, I just think it is awesome.By the way, it's really windy out here. I'm not sure if you can see that with my paper flapping around a little bit or if you can see it in the trees above me, but it's definitely a windier day than I was expecting. But that's okay. Got my jacket on, I'm dressed for the weather and like I mentioned earlier this week, it feels like we are shifting into fall 100% sure that's what is happening.I'm not sure if you can see Walter behind me here. He's feeling a lot better. I don't know if you watch Jen's videos. Hi, Walter. Hey, Pup. Oh, he's very interested in something. I'm not sure if you watch Jen's videos, but Walter had a sore paw, and we ended up taking him to the vet, and he was on antibiotics for two weeks. He hurt like, the little nail on his paw, and he's definitely doing a lot better now. As you can see. He must have gotten a scent of something. He must smell a squirrel or maybe some other small rodent or animal, and he's off hunting away, so.But anyways, the bad part about that is it's really expensive to go to the vet. For us to go to the vet for a 20 minute visit was $375. That was a little shocking. When Jen came out, I stayed in the van. Jen went in, and it was like, oh, that's a lot of money. But, hey, when you have a dog and you love your dog, you pay whatever you have to pay to keep your dog healthy. And by the way, Oscar, you probably can't see him. He's just having a nap over there.Support the show

    Learn the English Terms "double whammy" and "double double"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 2, 2024 4:08 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms DOUBLE WHAMMY and DOUBLE DOUBLEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term double whammy. When we say something is a double whammy, it means two bad things happened right in a row. And I have a good example for you. I was really busy at work, and then when I was done being busy at work, I got sick. I got a stuffed up nose and a sore throat. It was a double whammy. If you haven't noticed, there hasn't been any English lessons on this channel for a couple of weeks because of that double whammy. Because I was really busy at work and then I got a little bit sick. And it's kind of hard to make English lessons when you have a sore throat. I tend to get sore throats quite a bit, I think, because I talk for a living. But anyways, a double whammy. Two bad things that happen in a row.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianAnd then the second term, which I think I've taught before, is double double. This is a Canadian term. This is a way to order coffee if you want two scoops of sugar and two creams in it. So I guess two shots of cream. I'm not sure how they put the cream in, but if you drive through a Canadian coffee shop, drive thru and say, I'll have a large double double, it means you want a large coffee and you want two sugars and two creams in it. I don't actually like double doubles. They're too sweet.So to review, a double whammy is when two bad things happen in a row. Like the example I gave. I was busy and then I was sick. A double whammy and a double double. By the way, you can use it as a noun. You can just say, can I have a double double? It means you want a coffee with two creams and two sugars. Very sweet, very rich.Hey, I don't actually have a comment from a previous video ready to go. I'm a little behind and I'm slowly getting back into this YouTube thing. I wasn't super sick, but sick enough that I couldn't get anything done. It was a little bit annoying, but hey, that's the way life goes sometimes. As Jen always says, when you're sick, you're sick. There's nothing you can do about it. It's not your fault. It's just something that happens to us all.I think, though, it's pretty normal for teachers to get sick at the beginning of October. We spend most of our summer by ourselves. We spend most of our summer with family and friends a little bit, but then we go back to school and there's, like, all kinds of people around us. I see over 100 people every day. There's almost 350 people in our building. So it's not surprising that teachers get sick at the beginning of October. And then the second reason is because we use our voices so much, you naturally get a bit of a sore throat just because, just from use, because you're talking so much. And then I think what happens is it... it's easier to get sick when that happens.So anyways, what was I going to talk about today? It is starting to feel like fall. You can actually see, I'm not sure if Jen wants to be in the video, but in the distance you can see that things are a little more brown than they are green. By the way, you have to look in the distance to see the brown. Everything here is actually quite luscious. Is that the word? Luscious? I'll have to look that up. Lush. That's the word I was looking for, quite lush. Lush just has a slightly different meaning. It's quite lush. Everything's still quite green, but you can tell it's almost time to start wearing a jacket. It's that time of year where it's like, oh, what do I wear in the morning? Do I step outside and see what it's like?Anyways, thanks for watching. Sorry that I haven't beenSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "to plug away" and "to pull the plug"

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2024 5:22 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases TO PLUG AWAY and TO PULL THE PLUGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to plug away. When you plug away at something, it means you work out it slowly and methodically until it's done. It doesn't necessarily mean it's something exciting, either. Sometimes you plug away at things that you don't actually want to do because you just want to get them done. A great example would be this. Sometimes I give my students a test, and then I have 25 tests to grade, and I don't really enjoy grading tests. But if I plug away, if I work at it slowly and methodically, eventually I will be done. I don't have to work at it quickly. I just have to plug away so that I can finish the task that I don't find that enjoyable.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to pull the plug. When you pull the plug on something, it stops working because it doesn't have electricity. But we use this to talk about other things as well. If I'm working on a project at school and it's not going well, me and the other teachers, we might decide to pull the plug, or should I say, the other teachers and I might decide to pull the plug. Sorry to use informal English there. When you pull the plug on something, it means you stop working on it. I'm really enjoying making lessons on this channel and on my other channel. So I'm not going to pull the plug on either channel anytime soon. As I've said before, at least three or four more years, maybe longer.So to review, to plug away means to work at something so that you get it done, sometimes slowly and methodically, and without taking breaks. And to pull the plug on something means to quit doing it.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I have the comment right here. I'm kind of laughing because I've been talking for two minutes, hoping a truck would go by related to this comment. I think there's one coming now, but actually, it looks like he's turning. Anyways, from Béla. Hello, Bob. I have always wondered why the trucks are different in Europe and in North America. Do you know anything about it? And my response, I think it has to do with length. Here, there is less of a limit on length, so the cab can be longer.So, yeah, we still don't have any trucks going by. But, Béla, my understanding is this. In Europe, many of the trucks have a flat front. Maybe I should put a picture up here. Whereas in North America, many trucks have a long snout or nose on the front. And my understanding is that the basic reason is the laws are different. Here in North America you can have really long trucks. I think the trailer can be 54ft long. And I don't know if there's a limit on the tractor. That's the front part of the truck. But I think in Europe they have laws governing the total length of the truck.By the way, I'm still laughing that no trucks have gone by because honestly, I've been making videos in town for the last couple of weeks and I usually find it a little disturbing because there are so many trucks. But that's my understanding that I guess in North America we just have laws that are a little more forgiving in terms of length of truck.Now there's a truck coming here. It's not the type of truck I normally talk about. And I think he's turning as well. Way in the distance there, you can see that truck. It's a garbage truck. Yeah. I'm not sure if it's too far in the distance for you to see. When I'm done with this English lesson, I might have to wait for a bit and try to get some footage of the different kinds of tSupport the show

    Learn the English Phrases "on good terms" and "on bad terms"

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2024 4:30 Transcription Available


    Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms ON GOOD TERMS and ON BAD TERMSIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase on good terms. When you're on good terms with someone, it means that when you talk to them, they're happy to see you. It means that if you see them in the street and they see you, they'll wave or they'll come and talk to you instead of walking the other way. When you're on good terms with someone, it means you have a good relationship. Sometimes people are married and then they get divorced, but they are still on good terms with their spouse or their ex spouse, I guess ex wife. Ex husband. I don't think we say ex spouse, but they might still be on good terms. This means that maybe they have children and the husband has the children on the weekends and the wife has them during the week, and they talk amicably to each other. They're nice to each other. When they talk, they're on good terms.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is on bad terms. Sometimes when a marriage splits up, they can then be on bad terms. They can leave on bad terms. This is the opposite. This means that they don't like each other, they don't talk to each other, they are not nice to each other. It's just kind of a mess. Maybe if you are on bad terms with someone and they see you from across the street, they just kind of pretend that they don't see you because they don't want to talk to you because you're on bad terms.So when you're on good terms with someone, it means you're able to talk to them and have a nice conversation. And when you're on bad terms, it means that you just don't really talk to each other. There's probably something bigger wrong than we actually realize if people are on bad terms.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Meng. I wonder what time you get off work. The sun is still so bright by the time you get home. And my response right now, I work about 70% of full time. I work from about. I work from about 7:30 until about 2:30. But sometimes I pop out and make a video while I'm at work just to get it done. That's what I'm doing right now. And that's okay. I'm allowed to do that. Also on Thursdays, I'm allowed to leave a bit earlier during the market season.So, yeah, it's kind of hard to describe. Thanks, Meng, for that comment. It's kind of hard to describe all the ins and outs of how my job works as a teacher. I'm a salaried employee. I'm not paid by the hour. I am allowed to come and go as I please as long as I'm getting my work done and doing things properly and spending a good amount of time at school. About 70% of a normal workday. So yes, and on Thursday, when I made that video last week, I was home a bit earlier, so it was nice and bright.But I did want to show you these. This, us, Know That asked about these in a previous video and a few of you have commented on them. These are hanging baskets. So my town has hanging baskets. They look better from far away. Actually, if you get close up, they're kind of starting to look a bit brown inside. But if you walk through my town, you will see hanging baskets. There's one there, obviously, and then way over there, there's one as well. You will see these hanging baskets. The town puts them up and then someone comes and waters them, probably every other day or something like that.In Canada and in most parts of the world, we want our town to look kind of nice. So we have things like hanging baskets. We have things like this flower bed here. Now this doesn't look amazing, but there is some wooSupport the show

    Claim Bob's Short English Lessons

    In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

    Claim Cancel