Meaning of RACK MY BRAIN and MY MIND WENT BLANK - A Really Short English Lesson with Subtitles

So every once in a while, I'm in a situation

where I need to rack my brain.

In English, if I say that I needed to rack my brain,

it means that I had to try really, really hard

to remember something.

Usually this happens when I'm trying

to remember someone's name,

especially if I'm trying to remember a student's name

who I haven't taught for a very, very long time.

So sometimes I'm in a situation

where a student will come up to me

who I taught 10 or 20 years ago,

and I won't remember their name,

and I will need to rack my brain

to try and remember who they are.

This doesn't happen a lot.

I actually have a fairly good memory,

and usually remembering things like names

comes pretty easy to me.

But sometimes, again, it is a student

who I haven't taught for a very long time,

and I will need to rack my brain

to remember what their name is.

So we have another phrase in English as well,

and that is, "my mind went blank".

And if I was to say to you,

the other day I was trying to speak French

and I was trying to remember

how to conjugate a certain word,

but then my mind went blank.

It would mean that all of the sudden

I couldn't remember what I wanted to say.

I think a lot of you have this when you're speaking English.

I know some of you have told me before

that you have prepared for an English conversation,

and then when you got to the point

where you were speaking English with someone,

all of the sudden your mind went blank.

So anyways, when we say that you need to rack your brain,

it means that you're trying to remember something,

and when your mind goes blank,

it means that you can't remember

the thing that you were trying to remember.