Learn the English Phrases "in hindsight" and "Hindsight is 20/20!"

3,154 views ・ 2023-08-30

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase
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“with hindsight”, or sometimes we say “in hindsight”.
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And this simply means when looking back in time.
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So I could say this, “With hindsight we know that dumping garbage into
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the ocean is a bad idea.” If we look back 50 or 100 years,
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we know that some of the things we did were bad.
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So with hindsight, when we look back in time,
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we realize that those are bad things.
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You can use the phrase, too, to talk about your own personal life.
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You could say, in hindsight, I should have taken the job at the factory.
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Maybe everyone at the factory just got a $50 a day raise
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and you're still at your old job because you decided not to work there.
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But you could say, “In hindsight, I should have taken the job.”
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So when you look back in time, you think, Oh, I should have made
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a different decision.
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And then we also have this phrase in English.
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Hindsight is 20/20.
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So this is interesting because hindsight refers to looking back
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in time and 20/20 refers to how good your eyesight is.
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If you have 20/20 vision, it means that you don't need
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to wear glasses to read or just to see things.
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So when you say, “Hindsight is 2020.”, you're basically saying that
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when you look at a situation in the past from the future,
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it's pretty easy to see clearly if you made a good or bad decision.
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So to review “with hindsight” or “in hindsight” simply refers
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to looking back in time from your current place in time
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and realizing that something was a good or bad decision, and saying that hindsight
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is 20/20 simply refers to the fact that it's much easier to see now
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if a decision you made a long time ago was good or bad.
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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Sorry these shorts of weird pockets, it's hard to get things in and out, it’s
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all crumpled.
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Sorry, This comment is from DimbikeY.
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Such a poor little tree behind you. R.I.P.
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Mr. Tree. That means rest in peace. And my response?
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I'm sure it will come back strong next year.
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So yeah, in the last video I showed you all of the beautiful trees,
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but one tree was kind of sad looking and I do think it will come back.
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I'm not too worried about that tree.
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I'm sure that it will look beautiful in the future.
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We just have to wait a year.
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Anyways, I'm out here.
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Thanks for the comment, by the way, I’m
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out here walking along, the flowerbeds are in full bloom.
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Sorry. My battery went dead there.
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That's never happened before.
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I'm using my old trusty camera, but I haven't used it for a few weeks
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because I've been using my new gimbal and my phone.
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So sorry I've charged it up.
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I'm kind of holding a battery pack here while I use it.
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I'm sure it will last for another minute or so.
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So I'm just out here by the flowerbeds.
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They look beautiful.
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Jen has done a wonderful job this year.
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We have been harvesting flowers like crazy.
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We have been selling a lot.
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And I thought it was time for me to kind of give you a little bit of a look
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at what they look like.
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These are the zinnias.
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These are a very, very popular flower.
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People are always wanting zinnias.
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Oh, What do we have here?
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Oh, Did it fly away?
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Oh, it's coming back. There is a butterfly.
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Oh, this is a rare treat.
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I hope that it's in focus and you guys can see.
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Oh, there it goes.
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Oh, this is kind of fun.
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Sorry if I'm getting distracted by this butterfly.
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It's not often that we have things come and join us
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when we're doing an English lesson, so that's pretty cool.
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Anyways, flowers are doing well.
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We have about six
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or seven weeks left here to harvest and sell flowers before frost comes.
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So we really hope things go well.
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The rains that I've been complaining about have certainly helped them grow.
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So we're happy about that.
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Anyways, thanks for watching this lesson.
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I don't know if I've gone over time or if it's too short,
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but I'll see you in a couple of days with another short English lesson. Bye.
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