Learn the English Phrases TO SECOND-GUESS YOURSELF and GUESS WHAT?

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn the English phrase

to second-guess yourself.

When you second-guess yourself,

it means you've made a decision,

but now you're doubting whether that was a good decision.

Right now, I'm wearing a jacket,

and it's a little colder than I expected.

So I'm starting to second-guess myself.

I'm starting to think about the decision I made

to put on a jacket, and wonder if that was a good decision.

It would have been a better decision,

I think, to put on a winter coat.

It's a little chillier than I thought.

So when you second-guess yourself,

it means you made a decision to do something in life,

and now you're kind of wondering

if that was a good decision,

if it was a good idea that you made.

The second phrase I want to teach you today

is the phrase guess what?

This is a phrase we use when we're talking to someone

when we have news to share,

but we want the person to try and guess what that news is.

I could walk into my sister's house, and say, guess what?

And she could say, I don't know, you're going on a vacation?

And I would say, nope.

And she might say, ah, you're buying a new van?

And I would say, nope.

And she might say, ah, let me see.

I'm trying to think of something that I am doing.

She might say, oh, you're going to go visit mom today?

And I would say, yes, that's exactly what I'm doing.

So when you say guess what,

you're being kind of playful with someone.

You want to tell them about something you're going to do,

but you don't want to tell them right away.

You want them to try and guess,

to try and maybe take a few guesses

at what you're going to do.

Hopefully that made some sense.

I was having trouble explaining it there at the end,

but let's review.

When you second-guess yourself,

it means that you've made a decision,

and now you're having doubts.

You're wondering if it was a good decision that you made.

And when you say guess what to someone,

you're basically saying to them, I have news to share,

but I don't want to tell you exactly what it is.

So I want you to try and guess.

So let me know what you think the news is.

And then I'll tell you if you're right or wrong,

but hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.

This comment is from Mohsen.

Hey, Bob, thanks for the lesson.

Why don't you make a video while driving to school,

or central city for a change?

And my response, it's a little long.

I'm hoping to get out more once the pandemic slows down,

cases were dropping in my area,

but now they are on the rise again.

Our school was in outbreak for two weeks,

because we had four cases.

But now, thankfully there are no more.

Once the cases are much lower in my area,

I'll start to do more videos in other places.

So if you go way back in time,

you'll realize that I've made a lot of English lessons

before the pandemic in a lot of different places.

I went to a grocery store.

I went to a bunch of different restaurants,

and I have plans.

I have ideas for videos where I go to more places,

but then this, I was gonna say this stupid pandemic.

It's not nice to say it that way,

but then this pandemic happened,

and now it's not easy to go places.

So I've been doing a lot of videos here on the farm.

By the way, I probably, Mohsen,

won't do a video driving to school,

because you can get a ticket for distracted driving

if you're videotaping yourself.

But I guess I could have one of my kids holding the camera,

that might be allowed, I'll see.

But yes, it's a little bit frustrating,

because I always, I mean, I do like this farm.

I do like making videos for all of you on the farm.

I think it's beautiful.

But my original plan was to do videos,

I did a video, let's learn English at the gas station.

I did a video, oh, I do have an idea for a video

I might do in a couple weeks that might still work.

So we'll have to see.

Just gonna go over here, and get out of the wind.

I know there's some nice sunshine over there,

but the wind is a little bit cold.

I'm second-guessing my decision to wear a jacket,

as I said earlier.

Anyways, that's the end of the video.

Thanks for watching.

I'll see you in a couple days

with another short English lesson, bye.