Meaning of DON'T BURN ANY BRIDGES - A Short English Lesson with Subtitles

We have this saying in English,

"Don't burn any bridges," and it has nothing to do

with bridges, you know those things you drive over

with your car when you need to get across

a river or stream.

And it doesn't have anything to do

with lighting fires, either.

What it means is that you shouldn't ruin a relationship

because you are angry or because you are upset.

A good example of this would be

if you applied for a job and the boss of the place

where you want to work at calls

and tells you that you didn't get the job.

This would be a great time for me to say to you,

just stay calm and don't burn any bridges

while you are talking to this person on the phone.

Because you never know if you might get a job there later.

So you don't want to get angry,

you don't want to react badly,

you don't want to get upset on the phone

when the person tells you that you didn't get the job.

You don't want to burn any bridges.

You want to be nice, you want to just say,

"Okay, I understand," and then maybe

you'll get a job there in the future.

Speaking of bridges, we have another English phrase

that we often say, and that's "We'll cross that bridge

"when we get there."

And what this means is that if you are planning

to do something in the future, you should only plan

one step at a time.

Let's say you're planning on going on a trip in six months.

You shouldn't worry now about who is bringing you

to the airport.

You can cross that bridge when you get there.

So if you said to someone, "Oh, I'm going on a trip

"in six months and I'm all worried

"because I'm not sure who's going to take me

"to the airport."

That person could say, "Hey, calm down,

"we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

And what they mean by that is,

we will solve that problem when we are closer

to the date when you are leaving on your trip.

Anyways, Bob the Canadian here.

Hopefully, those explanations made some sense for you

and I hope you're having a great day.