Free English Class! Topic: Fruit and Fruit Idioms! 🍇🍌🍎🍊🍉 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson that isn't just

about fruit. It's about fruit and some little phrases, some

idioms that we have in English that have fruit in them. Um I

think you'll probably know some of these but we'll see as the

lesson goes along. This lesson was requested and I think a lot

of people will appreciate it. I do have to say though most of

the fruit I will talk about will be the fruit that's common

here in Canada. There may be fruits on this list that that

you don't recognize. I think you'll recognize most of them

but there might be some that you think are missing but

anyways, let's do a lesson about fruit. And let's learn

some idioms about fruit along the way. So, the first fruit I

picked is the apple. I think you all know what an apple is.

I did wanna talk a little bit though about where we get

apples. We buy our apples at the farmers market. Apples are

grown on apple trees in an apple orchard. I'm not sure if

you are familiar with the word orchard. An orchard is a large

field, I guess, filled with apple trees. Apples are

delicious. Jen eats an apple every day. I don't. I should

probably eat more apples. Um but that does remind me of an

idiom that I didn't put in this lesson and that's an apple a

day keeps the doctor away. So there's this saying that if you

eat an apple every day, you'll be healthy and you won't ever

need to see a doctor. When you eat an apple, you eventually

have an apple core. When you're done eating, So, after you've

eaten all of the good parts of the apple, what's left is

called an apple cord. We have a phrase in English, a bad apple

or a rotten apple. I use the phrase bad apple quite often.

Uh I'm not sure who this person is. This is just a picture from

a free picture website but he looks like he's in trouble.

When you have a person who is constantly getting in trouble

in school, you might say they're a bad apple. Instead of

studying, maybe they're doing things that are illegal during

the school day or at night. Um and it doesn't need to be a

student. You might have a cousin who's kind of a bad

apple. No matter where they go, they get in trouble. So, bad

apple is one idiom that we have with the word apple in it. And

then there's the city of New York which is referred to as

the Big Apple. I tried to figure out why it was called

this but I didn't have enough time to do all my research. So,

maybe somebody who's watching can figure out why New York

City, the big city in the state of New York, why it's called

the Big Apple. Um I have been to Big Apple once. I went there

once with some friends a very very very long time ago. We

visited Times Square and we did some other fun things in New

York City in the Big Apple. We also have a a fruit called a

cherry. Um I like cherry pie but I don't actually like

cherries. Cherry pie is a dessert that you make. You're

probably familiar with apple pie, cherry pie. Um we have a

number of different kinds of pie in North America. I really

like cherry pie. I think because cherry pie has a lot of

sugar in it. That's probably why I like it. Hey, when you

eat cherries, you have to spit out the pits. So, in the center

of a cherry, there is a cherry pit. So, people will often eat

cherries outside and then, they'll try to shoot the pit

out of their mouth as far as they can. That's that's an

interesting game to play. Sometimes, Jen and I and the

kids will eat cherries outside and try to spit the pits far

away. We have a phrase in English called to cherry pick.

And it's a phrase you use in sports. When someone instead of

playing defense they hang out by the goal or the net. It's

something that happens quite a bit in hockey. It happens quite

a bit in basketball. Less so in football or soccer because

you're often offsides if you're too far ahead. But in hockey or

basketball if you're cherry picking it means instead of

trying to get the puck from the other team you're kind of

waiting for some to give you the puck so you can score right

by the net. You can sort of see it in this picture here. The

red dot would represent someone who's cherry picking. The rest

of his team or her team is trying really hard to get the

ball but that person is just waiting for someone to pass it

to them so they can get an easy basket. Pear. So, I don't

actually like pears very much. I will eat them. I actually

like pears from a can or from a jar. So, sometimes, we'll at

the store, we'll buy a can of pears and I like those better

probably because there's a lot of sugar in that too. Um but

pears look kind of like an apple but with an extra piece

on the top and they certainly taste different. Um we used to

have a pear tree on the farm many many years ago but we no

longer have one. I think eventually it I think it might

have died. I should go look sometime. It's down the hill.

And we have a phrase in English to go pear shaped. This is when

something goes wrong. Um when I was starting before the live

stream mode said I hope the lesson doesn't go pear shaped

today. So if this lesson went pear shaped that would mean

that I forgot how to explain things or people were having

trouble connecting or the connection was bad. That would

be something going pear shaped. I put this up because sometimes

you go on a nice trip in the winter in Canada. And then the

trip kinda goes pear shaped because you run into a lot of

snow and maybe you get stuck somewhere. So, when you say

that something goes pear shaped in English, it means that it

doesn't, it goes wrong. It doesn't go the way you are

hoping for it to go. And now my favorite fruit. Some of you I

think mentioned this already in the chat. Bananas are my

favorite fruit. At this point in the lesson, I will thank

everyone who lives in a country that grows bananas. I really

like bananas. I eat. I would say I eat one every day but

it's probably more like I eat 25 to 30 bananas a month. I eat

about five or six bananas a week. I try to eat one every

day but sometimes we run out of bananas. In our stores, the

bananas are yellow but sometimes the bananas are green

and then when you buy green bananas you have to wait a

couple of days for them to turn yellow before they are ripe

enough to eat when you eat a banana you peel the banana and

then you eat what's on the inside. Um I do really really

like bananas. And they are one of the cheapest fruits to buy

in Canada. Which seems strange to me because they all come in

on a boat from really far away. Um I think I'm not sure where

the bananas are from that I'm eating right now but they're

usually from somewhere in Central America usually. And

then we have the phrase to go bananas. So, this phrase has a

couple of meanings. It means to be really excited. If I walked

into my classroom and started throwing candy, my students

would go bananas. That means that they would be really

excited. They would jump out of their desks and try to grab the

candy that's on the floor. They would be really excited. It can

also mean though to get angry. Like you could say, oh, he was

in a car accident and then he just went bananas like he was

yelling, he was screaming. It's probably more often used as

something to to describe people who are excited in a positive

way but it can be used the other way as well. And then top

banana. Second banana. I think I taught this phrase on my

other channel. So when you work somewhere you could say your

boss is the top banana. Um I would probably say top dog but

some people say top banana. And then maybe the boss there's

someone just under the boss. We would call that person the

second banana. So some people like being second banana. Some

people like being the top banana. I like just being a

worker. I don't wanna be. I don't want to have too much

responsibility. I And then we have grapes. We actually grow

grapes close to our farm. There's an area where grapes

can grow. The climate on our farm isn't warm enough but when

you're close to the great lakes there's a micro climate where

people can grow grapes. But grapes are yummy to eat. Grapes

are of course used to make grape juice and grape and wine.

Uh there are a lot of wineries actually close to where I live

as well. Because they can grow grapes when you have an area

where you can grow grapes, you naturally have wineries, places

where wine is made and grapes grow in a vineyard by the way.

Um I forgot to mention that with some of the other fruits

but that's okay. Grapes grow in a vineyard and they grow on a

vine. So the phrase sour grapes refers to anyone who you know

they're just annoyed and upset about something and usually it

reminds me of sports fans when their team loses. They can

really be sour grapes. They can really be annoyed and they

blame it on the referee and they find all kinds of reasons

or excuses why their team should have won. So they're

sour grapes. It means to be upset about something but maybe

not Have a good reason to be upset. So, definitely this

reminds me of sporting events. An orange. So, this is what's

known as citrus fruit. Oranges, grapefruits, lemons,

tangerines, all of those are considered citrus fruit. Um our

oranges in Canada, when you buy an orange, it is almost always

from Florida. Almost all of the oranges in Canada come from

Florida. Um it's very nice to live close to the United

States. It's nice to live close to a country that produces all

different kinds of citrus fruit. So, I'm sure there are

big trucks that regularly drive from Florida to Canada and

bring oranges here. Probably, I probably drink more orange

juice. Yeah I I prefer orange juice over eating an orange. I

actually like orange juice quite a bit. Uh an orange is

again something you need to peel to eat. You don't eat the

you don't eat the orange peel. Um but you do eat the inside.

And sometimes the orange is seedless. And sometimes it has

seeds in it. So depends on what kind of orange you buy. I like

the seedless kind. And we have a phrase in English comparing

apples to oranges. When you compare apples to oranges. It

means you're talking about two things that really can't be

compared. If you were to talk about the economy in Canada, or

yeah, how would I describe this? Let me think of a good

way to describe this. I think it's like, if you talk about

how farming is done in Canada versus farming in let's say,

Japan, it's like comparing apples to oranges. It's done

differently, okay? There might be some similarities but

sometimes you, that might have been a bad example but

sometimes you can't things and it's like comparing apples to

oranges. The peach, there are a lot of peaches growing around

here. Peaches are very, very yummy. Peaches are quite juicy

when you eat a peach. You often get peach juice on your face

when you're eating it, especially if it's really,

really ripe but this is one of my favorite summer fruits. It's

really nice in the summer because we get fresh peaches

from our neighbor at the farmer's market and a peach has

fuzz on it. So, just like when you have a little bit of hair

on your face, you have a little bit of fuzz, a peach has really

small hairs on it. We call it peach fuzz. We actually here's

another, here's a phrase I don't have in here but when a

young man around age 12 or 13 or 15 or 16, when they start to

grow hair on their face, it's very very fine hair and we call

it peach fudge, fuzz, sorry, not fudge, peach fuzz. We say,

oh he has a little bit of peach fuzz on his face. He's starting

to become a man. We describe things that are cool as peachy,

okay? Like if someone says to Jen, I need 10 bouquets today.

Can I pick them up at ten? Jen could say, oh yeah, that's

peachy. That means it's great. That's okay. Um if someone

says, I want to give you $1$, 000. You can say that's peachy.

That's just peachy. It means really cool. It means really

exciting. It means something that you like. Kiwi. So, kiwi

is an interesting fruit. Apparently, you can eat the

skin but I don't like the skin. When we buy kiwis, I often peel

them. I actually peel the the kiwi. Did I say peaches? Kiwi.

When we get kiwi, I peel the kiwi. Um I find kiwis taste a

little bit like strawberries. I really, really like kiwis. Now,

kiwi is also a word we use to talk about people from New

Zealand. People from New Zealand often refer to

themselves as kiwis. This is a guy named his YouTube channel

is called How to Dad and he makes really really funny

videos about being a parent. He's a Kiwi. He's someone who's

from the country of New Zealand. And then here we have

the lemon. So the lemon is an interesting citrus fruit. Not

only is it used well not a lot of people eat lemons. Maybe I

should start by saying that. Not a lot of people eat lemons

but people use lemons in a lot of recipes. People make a lot

of things out of lemonade. Lemons. They make lemonade.

They make iced tea with lemon flavoring. Um if you go to a

bar, a lot of alcoholic drinks will have lemon slice of lemon

in it. Um in restaurant in Canada. When you ask for water,

it might have a slice of lemon in it. Um there are a lot of

things that you can make with lemon. But not a lot of people

eat lemons. They usually use the lemon to make something

else. And here you have a man looking at his car. In English

when you say something is a lemon. Usually you're talking

about a used car that doesn't work right. Okay? So if I

bought a used car and it just kept breaking all the time I

would say I bought a lemon. I think you could say this about

a new car too. But it's when you buy something and it

regularly breaks all the time. Like oh Joe bought a new car.

Oh does he like it? No it's a lemon. It just he's taking it

to the garage three times. So far. And then we have this

phrase in English. When life gives you lemons, make

lemonade. This is a phrase because lemons are sour. And so

if life is giving you lemons, it's like life is giving you

experiences that aren't enjoyable. And your job then is

to make lemonade. So, hopefully you understand this. It

basically means if life's kinda crappy right now, if life isn't

going well, you have to find a way to make it exciting and

joyful and happy. Um so, when life Gives you lemons. Make

lemonade. It sounds really simple though, doesn't it? It's

not always that easy to make your life better. And then we

have melons. So, this is a cantaloupe. There are several

different kinds of melons. Uh melons are very very tasty. You

usually cut a melon up in order to eat it. You usually cut it

into slices. You usually remove all the seeds from the center

if it's a if it's a melon like this one. Um but we also use

the word melon to talk about someone's head. So, this is a

slang word for someone's head. You know, oh, he got hit in the

melon. Someone threw a ball at him in the gymnasium and he got

hit in the melon. So, melon is another word for your head. And

then we have the grapefruit. I think yes, okay. I'm just

checking here. A grapefruit is an interesting fruit. It's a

citrus fruit. It's bigger than an orange. It's definitely a

more sour. People often eat them for breakfast in North

America. They cut them in half and they might actually put

sugar on top of it. My mom when I was younger would eat a

grapefruit every morning. She would cut it in half and she

would sprinkle sugar on the grapefruit and then she would

eat it with a special spoon. That was kinda like a knife on

one side so she could cut the sections out. I don't know. I

should eat more grapefruit so I know what I'm talking about. We

do have something called the Grapefruit League in North

America. So, the baseball team in Toronto is called the

Toronto Blue Jays but before they play for the regular

season in Toronto, they actually play in what's called

the Grapefruit League in Florida. This is called

preseason training or training camp or spring training. So,

the Blue Jays, the whole team lives in Florida for a few

weeks and they play in a league called the Grapefruit League

with all the other national league teams or American League

teams. Sorry, I should get my baseball facts straight. So,

the Grapefruit League is just how we talk about spring

training for professional baseball in North America. I

think there's also a Cactus League out in Arizona or one of

the western states but because it's winter in the early

spring, it's still too cold to play baseball. Many teams will

go to the south to practice and get ready for the regular

season and the one that takes place in Florida is called the

Grapefruit League. I'm going to go over a few different fruits

and this lesson has no more idioms. Sorry about that. But

we're going to talk about things like the strawberry. As

I said in Canada in my part of Canada strawberries are in

season during the month of June. There are other

strawberries available but the normal regular strawberries are

available usually in the month of June. Um and we usually buy

a lot of them. We have a lot of ice cream or sorry strawberry

sandwiches. Jen likes eating strawberries on bread and we

have a lot of strawberries and ice cream during that time. So,

we cut the strawberries up and put them on vanilla ice cream.

Very, very yummy. We also have raspberries in this area. Um we

don't buy a lot of raspberries. They're quite expensive. A lot

of people buy raspberries to make jam. Raspberry makes

really, really good jam that you can preserve and eat during

the rest of the year. And as was just mentioned, blueberries

are very very popular. We buy frozen blueberries year round.

Uh we use blueberries. Jen eats blueberries with her yogurt.

Sometimes if we blend a lot of fruit together to make a fruit

smoothie. We'll put blueberries in as well. They are very very

yummy. Sometimes I put blueberries on my pancakes as

well. We have plums. We usually have plums mid summer. So,

around the middle of the summer, Jen will come home from

market with plums. It's not the most popular fruit in our

house. Um our kids and myself included. I don't I like plums

if they're really ripe but they're not my favorite fruit

but a plum is a small purple fruit. This one's a little bit

more blue but they're blue or purple. Um and definitely grown

in this area as well. And then we have apricots. An apricot

looks like a small peach but it doesn't taste like a peach. It

has its own unique flavor. It's very sweet. I really really

love apricots but we don't have them very often. Only for about

a couple weeks in the middle of the summer can we buy apricots.

And then we have the nectarine. So the nectarine is a peach

without hair. It doesn't have peach fuzz on it. And it has a

slightly different taste. It looks like a peach. It tastes

kind of like a peach but I would say it tastes more like a

nectarine. It has its own flavour. Um and it would be I

think I like if I could choose between a peach and a

nectarine. If they were both really really ripe. I think I

prefer the nectarine. The the slightly different taste. And

then we have the avocado. So avocados are not grown in

Canada. They are imported. Um avocados are really really

yummy. We buy avocados frozen and we put them in smoothies.

Um but we also sometimes buy something called guacamole. Or

we make guacamole. Those of you who are from countries where

you have avocados are probably familiar with that. Uh some

avocado, little bit of lemon juice, a little bit of salt,

mushed all up. Very very very tasty to eat with chips or corn

chips or on tortillas. I really, really like avocados

that way. We have started to bake using dates. Dates are

very, very high in sugar. They are imported. So, when we want

dates, we do have to buy them. They do come from other

countries but we have started to make cookies with dates in

them and brownies with dates in them. Instead of using sugar in

the recipe, we will use dates and it's very, very tasty. And

then there's the fig. I have not eaten very many figs in my

life. We do not grow figs in Canada. It is definitely a very

popular fruit around the world though. In many countries, figs

are very very popular, readily available if you want to buy

something to eat. But unfortunately not in Canada. I

will try to buy some this week though. We also have raisins

which are dried grapes. Uh raisins are very popular in

Canada but all of our raisins come from the United States

Almost all of our raisins come from California. Uh and maybe

you've heard about the California raisins. There's a

TV commercial that advertises raisins and they have little

like cartoon raisins that sing. We use raisins to make things

like raisin bread. We make things like butter tarts with

raisins in them. Um I like to just eat raisins by themselves.

They're very very very tasty. Very sweet though raisins. And

then, not only do you have lemons but you also have limes.

So, a lime is very similar to a lemon but it's very green. It's

another type of citrus fruit. Um a lot of things are flavored

with lemon and flavored with lime or limes are used in

drinks at a bar or something like that but it's not common

for people to buy limes to eat. They're very very sour. But

some things are even like lemon lime flavor. I think the

popular soda sprite is lemon lime flavored. I think that's

what it is. And then watermelon. So in Canada we do

grow watermelons and when watermelons are in season

throughout the summer we often will buy one. Jen will cut it

up into pieces. Uh and then the kids will eat it. I don't I do

like it but I don't eat a lot of it. Um we try to buy

seedless watermelons. But sometimes we buy watermelons

that have seeds in them. Um and sometimes I think people call

them pips as well. Not pips. Pips. But there's small black

seeds in the watermelon. And then cantaloupe is also do we

look at this? Oh we looked at melon earlier didn't we? Yeah

so a cantaloupe is a very very yummy kind of watermelon. We

also call it musk melon. There's a green version that's

called the honeydew melon. But melons like cantaloupe when

they're ripe are very very yummy and tasty. I really do

like eating them. Um as well. Especially when they're grown

in Canada. And we're and if we get them from market and

they're really ripe. Tangerines are these smaller citrus

fruits, smaller than an orange. Um sometimes they're called

tangerines and there's a couple different varieties of them and

they're just a slightly different version of an orange

for me. Um I do like them. We do buy citrus fruit in the

winter and try to eat as much as we can. We have small

oranges called mandarin oranges as well. Those are very yummy

too. And then the pineapple So the pineapple is a very popular

fruit for a variety of reasons. It's used in a number of

different recipes. Um it's used to make things seem tropical.

People will eat pineapple. People will put pineapple on

pizza. I think you're familiar with the pineapple. Um it's

usually though when we buy pineapple we buy it in a jar.

We don't buy it and cut it up ourselves. So probably that's

the lazy way to buy pineapple. Um but pineapple is certainly

tasty. It's kind of a mix between like it's sweet but

it's a little bit sour at the same time. I really like that

mix with pineapple. Um and really yummy in smoothies as

well if you put it in a blender. And then some people

there's an argument that you should never put pineapple on

pizza. But again we have if you go to a pizza place in North

America and say I'll have an extra large Hawaiian pizza.

That means you want a pizza with pineapple and ham on it. I

actually like it. I don't have a problem with it. It's it's

quite yummy.