Meaning of A FLY ON THE WALL and NOSY - A Short English Lesson with Subtitles

Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall?

A fly is a pretty common insect here in Canada

and around the world,

and sometimes they land on the walls.

And in English, if you say that you would like to be

a fly on the wall,

it means that you would like to spy on people

who are maybe having a meeting or a conversation.

Maybe your boss and your supervisor

are going to have a meeting to talk about

how much they should pay you next year.

You would probably love it if you could be

a fly on the wall during that meeting.

You would probably love it if you could just be

a little insect sitting on the wall during that meeting,

seeing and hearing everything that they are talking about.

I know when I was a kid,

sometimes I would do bad things,

and then my parents would go and have a conversation

about what my punishment would be,

and back then, I would have loved to have been

a fly on the wall, to hear what they were talking about.

We have another word in English

that is somewhat similar to this, and that's the word nosy.

There are two spellings of this word.

The top spelling is actually the most correct spelling,

and the bottom is somewhat incorrect,

but when you are nosy, it means that

you are always trying to figure out

what other people are talking about.

A nosy person is always curious about

what other people are doing,

and curious about what other people are saying.

So hopefully you are not a nosy person,

but I think people are generally curious,

and sometimes, it's fun to think about

what it would be like to be a fly on the wall

and to hear what other people are talking about.

So if you are nosy,

you just want to know what other people are saying,

and if you want to be a fly on the wall,

it means that you would love to be like a little insect

sitting on a wall, hearing what people are talking about.

Anyways, Bob the Canadian here

and you're learning English with me.

Have a great day.