Learn the English Phrases BACKHANDED COMPLIMENT and TO FISH FOR COMPLIMENTS

4,429 views ・ 2022-02-09

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
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to help you learn the English term backhanded compliment.
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A compliment is something you say
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to someone that's kind of nice.
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Like if you said, "Your haircut looks good.
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Your new haircut looks good."
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Or, "Wow, you look really good in that shirt."
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But a backhanded compliment is when you give a compliment,
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but it's actually an insult.
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Here's a really good example.
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I use a lot of technology when I make these videos,
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but I'm also old.
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So a younger person could give me a backhanded compliment
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if they said, "Wow, you make really good videos
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for an old man."
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So basically they're saying something that sounds nice.
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"You make really good videos,"
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but then they add the little phrase, "for an old man,"
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which is kind of a little bit of an insult.
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By the way, no one's ever given me
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that backhanded compliment,
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but that would be a good example
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of what one would sound like.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase to fish for compliments.
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When you fish for compliments,
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it means you're trying to get someone else
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to compliment you.
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You might say something like, "How's my hair look?"
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Or, "Hey, do you notice anything different about me today?"
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Both of those phrases would be considered
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someone fishing for compliments.
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So when you fish, you go to a river or lake
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and you try to catch a fish.
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When you fish for compliments, you say things to try
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and encourage the other person to say something nice to you.
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So you could say something like, I could say,
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"Hey, this is a pretty good video today, isn't it?
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Let me know in the comments."
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But you don't have to do that.
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That would just be me fishing for compliments.
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Anyways, to review, a backhanded compliment is a compliment
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that sounds nice, but is actually an insult
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or kind of a little bit of an insult.
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And when you fish for of compliments,
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it means that you try to get someone else
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to give you compliments.
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Yeah, I do it sometimes.
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Sometimes when I get my haircut, I'll do it.
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Hey, I'm just putting my gloves on for a sec.
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It's a little colder than I thought out here.
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Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Noriko.
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"Wow. Those phrases are really funny.
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Your camera decided to just go upside down,
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but the wheels didn't fall off.
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It kept recording the nice view.
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Keep yourself warm, sir."
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In my response I said, "A long time ago,
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I used to cut out segments like that,
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but now I feel like it makes the video more authentic."
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Yeah, when I first started doing these short videos,
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I would actually, if I made a little mistake like that
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or if the camera did something weird,
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I would edit that out because I thought,
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"Oh, I want my videos to be really, really good."
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Here, just a sec here.
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Oscar, (whistles) hey, puppy. How you doing? (whistles)
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There a little bit of a look at Oscar.
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Anyways, I used to cut those segments out,
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but now when something goes wrong
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while I'm videotaping these little lessons,
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I just keep the camera running
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because I feel like it's more authentic.
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I'm more likely to say something
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just without thinking about it,
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which I think is a more authentic English lesson for you.
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Hey, the reason I showed you Oscar
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is because many of you asked questions about Oscar,
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in particular about how long he's outside
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when it's really cold out.
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So the answer I gave, I think, was if it's like today
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where it's -3, anything above -5,
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Oscar will play outside for a couple hours.
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He does not mind at all.
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He actually, I think quite enjoys it.
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Let's have another look at him.
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Here we go. He actually enjoys it quite a bit.
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But if it's below -5,
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now he wants to look at my tripod.
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If it's below -5. Hi, Oscar.
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If it's below -5,
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usually he goes out for about 10 minutes or so,
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and then we let him back into the warm, cozy house.
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Anyways, see you in a couple days
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with another short English lesson, bye.
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