Learn the English Phrases PICK YOUR BATTLES and HALF THE BATTLE

In this English lesson,

I wanted to help you learn

the English phrase pick your battles.

We also sometimes say choose your battles.

So a battle is a big fight.

I think you know that when there's a war, there's a battle,

but in your life as well,

you might have a lot of little battles.

And we say to people

sometimes you need to pick your battles.

What this means is you can't be upset about everything.

You can't be angry about everything.

Sometimes it's important to pick your battles.

It's important to decide

when you are going to be upset about something,

and when you are just going to let it go.

One of the things that I've noticed as a parent

is oftentimes I'm saying to my children,

"Hey, I understand you're upset

about your bedtime being so early,

but you need to pick your battles.

This may be isn't one of the things

you want to argue with me about.

There are probably more important things in life

that you will need to argue with me about than your bedtime.

So you need to learn to pick your battles."

And the other phrase I wanted to teach you today

is the phrase half the battle.

When we talk about doing something big,

like learning the English language,

you would say something like

finding time every day to study English is half the battle.

So what that means is that if you can find some time

to study English,

you've done most of the work.

That's one of the hardest parts of this.

Another way to use it would be this.

Maybe you're looking for a job,

and maybe you don't actually like driving around

and dropping off resumes,

or you might call it a CV in your language.

So what I would say is just getting out there

and dropping off a few resumes is half the battle.

So again, in English,

if you have things in life that you don't enjoy,

you should pick your battles.

You should decide what you want to be upset about,

what you want to be angry about,

and what you're just going to be

a little bit more relaxed about.

And then many times when you are doing something,

what I would say difficult,

sometimes you just have to figure out

what would half the battle be?

For me, getting out of bed in the morning

and going for a walk is half the battle for the day.

If I can get up and get out of bed,

the rest of my day goes really, really well,

because I've already fought half the battle.

I have a comment from yesterday's video.

Actually, I had several comments.

Yesterday's lesson was on the phrase throw in the towel,

and I forgot to mention

that it came from the world of boxing.

You know, boxing.

So when a boxer decides that the match is over,

I think usually when the trainer decides,

they throw in the towel,

and Counter Tenor pointed out in the comments,

"Throw in the towel comes from boxing."

And I responded with the word correct.

In fact, it wasn't just Counter Tenor that mentioned this.

Qiu Park mentioned it as well,

Francisco Vietnam mentioned it,

and I think a couple other people did as well.

So sorry about that.

I forgot to mention where the phrase came from.

Every English phrase has some kind of origin.

Yesterday's phrase to throw in the towel, remember,

means to quit or to stop doing something,

and it originally comes from the world of boxing.

So if I was a trainer and my boxer who I trained

was fighting in the ring,

and let's say he was having trouble getting back up,

I guess I would throw in the towel.

I think in French you say something about l'eponge.

I forget what Francisco Vietnam mentioned.

But anyways, hey,

you might've noticed that yesterday,

the video was really, really crisp,

and today, it's just normal-looking again.

I was trying out a new camera, but I had to return it

because it wasn't quite working well.

I was kind of disappointed actually,

because I'm looking to

upgrade my camera equipment a little bit,

and I bought a camera.

I won't say what brand I bought,

and it didn't work as well as I wanted it to.

It was actually a little bit glitchy in the corners.

It would actually shake when I was making a video.

So that wasn't very good.

So anyways, I'm still on the lookout for a new camera.

Bob the Canadian here. You're learning English with me.

Hope you're having a good day.