Learn the English Phrases CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE and MIDDLE-AGED - An English Lesson with Subtitles

4,711 views ・ 2021-02-09

Bob's Short English Lessons


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In this English lesson,
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I wanted to help you learn the English phrase
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"caught in the middle."
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When you are caught in the middle, it means that two people
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aren't getting along and you're not one of them.
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Let me give you a better example.
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Let's say that your sister and your brother are fighting.
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Your sister and your brother are arguing.
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And you really like your sister,
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and you really like your brother.
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And they keep telling you
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to tell the other one something for them.
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So you're caught in the middle.
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Maybe your sister says, "Hey, you need to call our brother
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"and tell him that he's not being nice to me."
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And then you call your brother, and your brother says,
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"Well, tell her that she's not being nice to me either."
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So you would definitely, in that situation,
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be caught in the middle.
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Sometimes you're caught in the middle at work.
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Maybe two coworkers don't get along,
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but certainly being caught in the middle
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is not an enjoyable place to be.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today
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also has the word "middle" in it,
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and it's the phrase "middle-aged" or the term "middle aged."
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Now, I am a middle-aged man.
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When you are middle-aged, you are over the age of 40 or 45
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and you're probably younger than 60 or 65.
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You're somewhere in that area.
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I would be described as a middle-aged man because I'm older.
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I'm almost 50.
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My hair is a little bit gray.
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Maybe it's more gray than I think,
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but I would definitely describe myself
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as being a middle-aged man.
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So I am in my late 40s.
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That makes me middle-aged.
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I'm still trying to believe it because I still think,
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in my mind, I still feel like I'm 25.
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So to review, when you are caught in the middle,
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it means that two people aren't getting along
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or two groups of people aren't getting along
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and you're kind of the person that acts as a go-between.
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There's another English phrase for you.
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You're the one who tries to make peace
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or help those two people communicate.
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And if you are middle-aged, it simply means
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that you're older than the age of 40 or 45
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and you're younger than 60 or 65.
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It's kind of a vague age range.
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It's not an exact age range.
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Let me get my comment out here.
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You'll notice that I'm not complaining
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that it's cold today, but it's cold.
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It's just not windy.
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That makes it a lot nicer.
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The windier it is when it's cold,
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the harder it is to be outside.
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This comment is from Julia.
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Julia says, "Hi, dear teacher.
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"Two months ago or so, I made it a resolution not to eat
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"and drink after six in the evening,
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"and I'm still kicking butt,
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"but there were several times when I quit,
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"so I had a good reason to kick myself, as well."
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And my response was, "That's a good thing to do.
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"I try not to eat after supper, but it doesn't always work".
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Well, thanks, Julia, for that comment.
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Nice use of the phrase "kicking butt"
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and the phrase "to kick yourself" or "to kick oneself."
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Yes, I do the same thing.
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I try not to eat after supper.
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They say that it's not good to eat
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after your last meal of the day,
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but it really depends for me on what day of the week it is.
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A lotta times on Friday and Saturday evenings,
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we have supper and then the kids and I will watch a movie.
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Right now, we're rewatching all of the Marvel movies
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like, let me see, "Ant-Man".
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The last one we watched
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was "Captain America: Winter Soldier."
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And then we usually have chips.
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Sometimes we have ice cream.
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So I try not to eat after supper during the week,
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but it doesn't always work on the weekends.
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But I give you a lotta credit for trying to do that.
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It's supposed to be a very healthy thing to do.
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So I'm gonna make a lesson later today
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for my bigger channel, and I think I'm gonna talk
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a little bit about phrases to talk about being busy
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and phrases to talk about when you're not busy
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because I'm really busy right now.
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I had an incredible, busy weekend.
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Today is actually, actually yesterday for you
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is the first day of semester two, so I'm super busy.
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That's the way life is sometimes, though.
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