Free English Class! Topic: Unexpected Things! 🌩️🦨💵 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson where we're

going to talk about unexpected things. We're going to talk

about things that happen in life that you weren't planning

to have happened. We're going to talk about things that

happen out of the blue. I'm not sure if you're aware of the

English phrase out of the blue but when something happens out

of the blue or all of a sudden, it means that you weren't

expecting it to happen. When you thought about what your day

was going to be like, that was not one of the things you

thought was going to happen. So today, we're going to do a

little English class, a free English class about unexpected

things. A freak storm. So, one of the things in life that can

be unexpected is a freak storm. Now, you might know the word

freak to mean someone who's a little bit strange. Uh it's a

little bit of an insult to call someone a freak but we do use

this word to talk about a storm that appears suddenly. Let's

say the weather forecast said, beautiful day, all day today

and then all of a sudden in the afternoon, there there's a

storm. It just shows up out of the blue. Um we would say that

that's a freak storm. By the way, notice, I use the phrase

all of a sudden, as well as all of the sudden, I believe both

are correct in informal English. I'll have to look up

which one is the most correct. Maybe I'll post that in the

comments below but a freak storm can certainly be

unexpected. We had a freak storm a few days ago, it all of

the sudden got windy and rain started coming down. We were

afraid it might hail but it didn't. An inheritance. So this

might be an unexpected thing. An inheritance is when you get

money from uh your parents or an older relative when they

pass away when they die. Sometimes though you might get

an unexpected inheritance. I had a friend who had a great

uncle passed away in Holland and he got an he got an

unexpected inheritance. All of a sudden he got money from this

great uncle. So that was something that he was not

expecting. So he um was sad that his great uncle passed

away but also surprised at the unexpected money that he

received as an inheritance. Black ice. So this is something

specific to those of us that drive in northern countries or

southern countries where you get snow. Um all of my Russian

viewers will be aware what black ice is. It's when the

road looks normal. But there's actually a tiny layer of ice on

top. It's very very dangerous. In the winter here, sometimes

on the radio, they'll say, be careful on your drive-in to

work because there's black ice this morning. So, again, what

makes black ice dangerous is that if the road is already

black, and there's a small layer of ice on top, you can't

see it. So, all of a sudden, your car might start going like

this because you are on black ice. Certainly, something that

can be unexpected. Old age. So, this is something that uh

people say things like this, old age creeps up on you. So, 1

day you're young and then all of a sudden you're old uh and

believe me that is how it works. For me, it was around

age forty-four or forty-five where I started to feel old.

Old age is something that can be unexpected. You think you're

young and uh in good shape, you're twenty, you're

twenty-five, you're thirty, you're thirty-five, you're

forty, you're forty-five and then all of a sudden you feel

quite old. It's like old age has snuck up on you or it has

crept up on you. It's something that can be unexpected. Even

though we all expect to get old, it can certainly feel um

like it's something that happens um in an unexpected

way. A smile. Sometimes when you are out in public and you

walk by people, they might look really grouchy or crabby. Like

they might be walking like staring at the ground and they

just have a somber look on their face. But if you're

walking along maybe at the shopping mall or along a

sidewalk and someone smiles, all of a sudden smiles as they

walk by. It can be unexpected and it can be a nice feeling.

Um I wish people smiled more in the world. I think that uh

people who uh have kind of a grouchy look on their face. I

think it's you need to find something to be happy about so

you can smile. Because I think an unexpected smile from

someone can be uh kind of nice. An old song on the radio. So I

find That there's a lot of music that I listen to when I

was a teenager. There's a different sort of music I

listen to when I was in my twenties. And if I listen to

the radio, especially when I'm driving, sometimes uh

unexpectedly, a song will come on the radio that I knew when I

was sixteen or seventeen. And even though I wasn't planning

to listen to that song, even though it's unexpected. It's a

very cool surprise during the day. Um I actually spend quite

a bit of time on YouTube listening to songs from

different areas of my life especially if I've unexpectedly

heard one on the radio earlier that day. So, an old song on

the radio can be uh certainly something cool uh and

unexpected. A delayed or cancelled flight. So I have a

friend who I was supposed to talk to on Zoom this week. Uh

and they weren't able to make it because they needed to pick

a friend up at the airport uh and that friend's flight had

been delayed. So I got an email from my friend that morning

saying sorry can't chat. Um my uh my I have to pick my friend

up at the airport and their flight is delayed. So that can

be something that's unexpected. Something that you weren't

expecting to have happen that day. What's worse as if the

flight is cancelled. There was I think a friend of mine went

to the air. How did this work? My memory is fading. I brought

a friend of mine to the airport once when I was about twenty,

21 years old and when we got there, his flight had been

cancelled. That was unexpected and not a good not like it

wasn't a happy thing like hearing an old song on the

radio. It was definitely something that uh he was a

little bit annoyed about. So, a delayed or flight can be

something that's unexpected. A surprise visit. Now, this can

go one way or the other. A surprise visit can be something

cool. A surprise visit can also be a little bit awkward. So, a

surprise visit is when someone shows up at your house and

knocks on your door and they didn't tell you that they were

coming. I remember as a kid, my dad's cousin and his whole

family showed up 1 day in the summer and it was a surprise

visit and my dad wasn't very happy about it because we had a

lot of work to do on the farm. Luckily, he put them all to

work and they helped us do all the hay but a surprise visit

from a relative or a friend can be super cool but it can also

be something that might be a bit annoying if you had other

plans for that day. And then, of course, a surprise party. I

have to admit, I don't think ever, anyone has ever thrown a

surprise party for me. If you watch TV, a surprise party is

when someone walks into their house or apartment and everyone

yells, surprise and there's all kinds of people there for a

surprise birthday party or a surprise party of some kind. I

stand, I need to correct myself though. I think some friends

from work through a surprise party for me and Jen when we

were expect our first child. They yes, that did happen. A

friend invited us to a restaurant for a meal and when

we got there, about fifteen people from work were there and

they said, surprise, this is a surprise party. You would call

it a baby shower but it was a surprise party where they gave

us gifts because we were expecting a baby in a few

months. So, that was a lot of fun. And then this can be

something that's really cool. When your boss says that you

can go home early. Being done work early. I have had a number

of jobs in my life. I've only had two bosses out of the five

or six jobs I had where they would sometimes let us go home

early. With pay. I had a job once where I found this clock

that said four thirty. I had a job where we normally worked

till five. And about once every 2 weeks my boss would say you

know what? Let's knock off early today. Or let's just go

home early today. We're all done. They were summer jobs

that I did as a student but certainly being done work

early. Uh hearing your boss say, um hey, let's just go home

an hour early today or half an hour early can be unexpected

and it can be a super exciting thing. A thank you note.

Sometimes, you do something nice for someone and you do it

because you just want to help them. You're not doing it for

money. You're not doing it because you want them to thank

you um but a few days later, maybe in the mail, you'll get a

little thank you card and it's really nice. I've had this

happen a few times in my life where I think I stayed and I

helped clean up all the chairs and tables at an event. Uh

there was a family party for someone's fiftieth anniversary

and I stayed and I helped clean up all the chairs and tables at

the end of the evening and then a week later, they sent me a

little thank you card. I didn't expect it. I wasn't expecting a

thank you card but it was a nice feeling. It's really nice

to get a little thank you card in the mail after you help

someone do something. Briesen samples. So, sometimes you go

to the grocery store and they are giving away free samples of

food. They're giving away free samples because they want you

to try the food. Uh in this picture, they're giving away

free samples of crackers but for me, I don't expect this.

Sometimes, it's unexpected. You go to a grocery store and

they're giving away little chocolates for you to try or

they're giving away little um little bowls of cereal or some

other kind of food. It's a lot of fun when you go to the

grocery store and they give away free samples. I love free

samples. Sometimes, we go to one type of store called Costco

here in North America. They almost always have samples

before covid, of course, but I kind of expect them so I don't

eat lunch when I go there 'cuz there's little samples to try.

But free samples are always cool. Getting sprayed by a

skunk. So if you're wondering how I come up with lesson

ideas. Usually the seed of the idea comes from something that

happened in my life. So this week I had a friend who uh had

to pick someone up at the airport and their flight was

delayed. And this week Oscar our dog got sprayed by a skunk.

Jen came in late in the evening after working in the flower

field. And she said don't let Oscar in don't touch Oscar. He

smells. He got sprayed by his kung. So this was a few days

ago, obviously, we did not expect this. It was an

unexpected thing and Oscar has been a little bit smelly for a

few days. He, it's almost gone now, I think so. Um, but it

takes a few days. For those of you that don't know, a skunk is

an animal that when it feels threatened, it will spray a

very smelly um I guess cloud of of, yeah, I don't even know

what it is. It just smells and it attaches itself to whoever

they spray. So, Oscar smells really bad right now. A large

bill. Sometimes, you get work done on your car or you have

someone do some renovations on your house and then, when it's

all done, maybe you think it's going to cost a $1,000 and you

get unexpectedly. You get a large bill for two or 3,000

dollars. That is never fun. It's never fun to unexpectedly

get a large bill for something. I'm sure this has happened to

too many of you where you've paid someone to do something

and you thought it was going to cost $100 and it ended up

costing two or $300 or even more. Never fun to get a large

bill. This has happened to me a few times in my life. I usually

um do not appreciate when that happens. I like to know ahead

of time how much something will cost. And that leads us to

things like a breakdown. Um when you get in your car if you

are someone who has a car you do not expect your car to break

while you're driving you do not expect to have a flat tire you

don't expect it to suddenly stop working you don't want to

have a breakdown as some of you know my big tractor had a

breakdown a few weeks ago and so I couldn't use it for a few

days um it magically started working again though so I'm not

sure how that happened that was unexpected I thought I was

going to end up with a bill to repair my tractor after it had

a breakdown but it just started working by itself. So, and

then, as I mentioned, a flat tire is another thing that can

be quite unexpected. You get in your car, you start driving,

and all of a sudden, you hear or some other weird noise and

you get out and you see this. Never fun to have to change

your tire uh on the side of the road. A kind word, sometimes

when you are with people. They are grumpy but sometimes

they're happy and nice and they say something nice about you.

So a compliment or a kind word is always really nice. If

someone says um for me when people say I really like your

YouTube videos it's it makes me happy to hear someone say

something kind about something that I have done or about me.

So thank you when you guys do that. Finding money in your

pocket. This doesn't happen to me very much anymore but

because we live in a country where we have summer and

winter, I generally wear shorts in the summer and pants in the

winter, I generally wear short-sleeve shirts in the

summer and sometimes long-sleeve shirts in the

winter. Um but sometimes, you're wearing pants and maybe

there's $10 in the pocket and you're it's getting too warm

for pants and so you don't wear them for a whole season. And

then in the fall, you to put them on or you go to wash them

and you find that money. So, when you find money in your

pocket, that's an unexpected thing and this is a very, this

is one of my, this was one of my favorite things. It doesn't

happen very often anymore because we use bank cards to

pay for so many things. A cliffhanger. A cliffhanger is

when you're reading a book and the book ends but nothing has

been resolved or you're watching a TV show or a movie

and so, A typical ending would be they lived happily ever

after or the police catch the criminal. That would be a

normal ending. With a cliffhanger, the ending would

be um you know, two people are interested in each other

romantically and one moves to another city and you don't know

what happens next. Or the police don't catch the

criminal. Um the show ends or the book ends and the criminal

has not been caught. That would be a cliffhanger because the

story hasn't been resolved. It hasn't been um yeah there's

there was not a good conclusion to the story. I don't like

cliffhangers. I like it when things end and I know all the

details. So this is a sadder one. We have a phrase in

English uh to take a turn for the worse. When someone's in

the hospital or in this picture when a pet is being you know

checked over by the veterinarian. When someone is

sick sometimes they get better. Sometimes it's stays the same

and sometimes unexpectedly they can take a turn for the worse.

This means usually they're already in the hospital and

things get worse. I'm sure all of us know someone who has had

a serious illness and they weren't feeling well and they

went to the hospital and instead of getting better they

took a turn for the worse. Maybe for a little bit um but

maybe that eventually ended up in them passing away. Which is

very very sad. But it can be unexpected when a person we

know or even a pet who is sick takes a turn for the worse. Now

enjoyable to get a phone call saying, someone you know is in

the hospital and they're not doing well, they've taken a

turn for the worse. Never, never good news to hear. On the

flip side, we have what's called a miracle. So, we use

the word miracle in English to talk about anything that

happens that shouldn't necessarily have been possible.

Sometimes, um people will have, they'll have a baby and the

baby isn't very healthy when it's born, but within a week,

it's it's healthy and thriving and it's doing well. We would

say, oh, it's a miracle. Maybe someone has cancer and the

doctor says, it's terminal. When you have terminal cancer,

it means you're going to die from the cancer and then all of

the sudden you recover, we would say that that is a

miracle. It's always cool to hear about a miracle. Now, the

word miracle has religious connotations but in everyday

English, we, it doesn't necessarily mean a religious

miracle like um you can definitely use this word to

describe anything that happens and there's no good explanation

of why it was better and we use the word miraculous quite often

like and then miraculously, my tractor just started working

again. I wouldn't say it was a miracle but I might use the

word miraculously. Um something that happened in some way. Uh

this is similar to a large bill but you might get an income tax

bill. In Canada, a certain amount of the money you make

each year needs to be sent to the government. We have to pay

our taxes. And sometimes um maybe you make too much money

and the government says you owe a lot. It's never enjoyable to

get a large income tax bill I've never had this happen

before. I think because I have five kids who are all

dependent, I don't end up paying as much taxes but

someday, I'll probably get a large income tax bill when no

kids are living at home. A speeding ticket, sorry, I've

lost my trade of thought for a sec. Let me think about this

one. How many speeding tickets have I gotten in life? Not very

many. A speeding ticket can certainly be an unexpected

thing. Maybe you're late for work or you're trying to get

somewhere quickly and you have a heavy that means you push the

gas pedal too much and all of a sudden you hear the sound of a

siren and you see lights in your rear view mirror. I've

gotten one or two tickets. I know I've gotten one for sure,

maybe two. I know I was pulled over once and he just told me

to slow down and didn't give me a ticket. I was like, thank

you. But a speeding ticket is certainly an unexpected thing

to have happen. no1 leaves for work or goes to uh drive

somewhere expecting to get a ticket. So, it can be quite

unexpected. Missing the train or missing the bus or missing

anything can be unexpected. Um luckily for my kids, if they

miss the school bus, I can still give them a ride to

school because I leave slightly later and it's not really that

far out of my way to bring them to school. But certainly, if

you're going somewhere and you miss the train or you miss the

bus, um it's unexpected and it can certainly be something in

your day that is not enjoyable. One of the bad things that can

happen. One of the unexpected things that is bad. Hidden

fees. So let me explain this one. Sometimes you get you pay

someone to do something and they say it's going to be fifty

dollars. But you didn't read the fine print or the small

print at the bottom of the page. And even though they said

$50 in the fine print there were hidden fees. This happens

sometimes in Canada with uh when you do banking. Banks are

notorious in Canada for having hidden fees. You think that

something's going to cost a certain amount of money but

because you didn't read the fine print or the small print,

you didn't realize there were hidden fees. Um I've had this

happen a few times in my life where I thought something was

going to cost a certain amount of money and it ended up

costing more because I didn't read the fine prints and there

were hidden fees. Never an enjoyable experience to find

out later that you owe more money than you thought you were

going to. A lightning strike. So, sometimes there are storms.

Last night, we had a storm here. It didn't rain but there

was a lot of lightning but you don't expect the lightning to

hit close to you. You just like to see lightning in the

distance on the horizon but once when I was working as a

construction worker, I was about 18 years old. Um

lightning hit really close to me and another worker. We

didn't get hit by lightning. We weren't struck by lightning but

we certainly ran inside very very quickly because we were

not expecting lightning to hit. By the way, for any of you that

have seen lightning like have seen a lightning strike, it is

incredibly scary. When you see lightning hit, you know, fifty

meters away if you see it hit a tree or hit the ground. It's

very, very scary. Free stuff. Um sometimes, you're driving

around and someone will have something by the road there

will be a sign that says free. Maybe it'll be an old couch or

a table that they don't want anymore. I don't know if this

happens in your country but where I live, sometimes people

have things they don't want and they will put it beside the

road with a sign that says free. I don't always pick it up

but once in our lives, we got a table for free. We were driving

around and we saw a table with a sign that said free. So, we

put it in our car and I think Jen used it um in her uh

workshop where she puts bouquets together. So, free

stuff, always fun. Everyone loves free stuff, right? A

shout out. I don't know if Brent's still here but a shout

out can be unexpected. So, a shout out is when someone on a

social media platform like YouTube mentions another

YouTuber. So, Brent is not expecting this this morning. I

really hope he's still here but Brent is um doing a live stream

at my time. So, in twenty minutes, Brent is doing a live

stream about fall versus summer. So, I thought it would

be fun in this lesson to unexpectedly give Brent a shout

out. So, again, a shout out is when you mention another

YouTuber or another person on social media and you let people

know something that they are doing. So, I'm giving Brent a

shout out right now. He's doing a quiz on fall versus summer

over on his channel. It starts in about twenty minutes. Uh you

should head over there. This live stream is done if you want

to participate. There's your shout out Brent. Uh let's see

here. A compliment. So, I think I already did a kind word,

didn't I? Yes. So, a kind word is when you say something nice

to someone like you are smart or um I really like your

haircut or um that shirt looks really good on you. When you

give someone a compliment, it can be unexpected, okay? It's

nice when you go through your day especially like if you get

a new haircut and if someone says, oh, you're, did you get a

new haircut? It looks great on you. That would be something

that uh would be really nice uh to hear. So, here's one. It's

kind of a specific situation but your wallet or purse

returned with nothing missing. So, let's say you're walking

around in the park and you lose your wallet and let's say you

have money in your wallet and your credit cards and you

realize when you get home, you've lost your wallet. What

you're expecting to happen is that you'll never get it back

or if you do get it back, all the money and credit cards will

be gone, okay? Um but what would be unexpected is if you

got your wallet back and everything was still in it. So,

one time in my life, I was working in a restaurant in

Quebec City um and some patrons left and they forgot their, the

lady forgot her purse and so I gave the purse to the manager

and said, someone forgot their purse and then, my next shift,

there was an envelope and there was a thank you note from the

lady saying, thank you for returning my purse. Thank you

for not taking anything out of it. Here's $100 because I just

your honesty. So I was like super excited. It was a lot of

fun to um to have that happen. Finding something you thought

was lost for good. So sometimes in life you lose things. Okay.

I actually lost my wedding ring once. I'm not sure if this will

focus on the wedding ring. It's not focusing. I'll just hold it

back here a little bit. I lost my wedding ring once. And uh it

was I had lost it for almost I think half a year and then

found it outside in the lawn when she was doing some

gardening. So, we were super happy because she found

something that we thought was lost for good. When something

is lost for good, it means you don't ever expect to find it

back but Jen found it back. So, I thought that was really cool

but certainly, it can be unexpected when you find

something that you thought was lost and uh that you just

thought, well, I'm gonna have to buy a new one uh with a

wedding ring that would be kinda sad because there's

sentimental value. In English, when you something has

sentimental value. It means, you know, this ring is special

to me because Jen gave it to me over 20 years ago. So, New

shoes that are different sizes. This this has happened to me

twice in my life where I've bought new shoes and then when

I get home, one is size ten and one is size nine or one is size

eleven and one is size nine. So, now, I almost always check

before I leave the store to make sure the shoes are the

same size. Um and this almost happened the other day. This is

the third thing that um happened that made me want to

do a lesson on unexpected things but the checkout person

in the store caught it. The checkout person checked to make

sure the shoes were the same size and then she said, this is

a nine and a half and this is a ten. Which size did you want?

And I said, nine and a half. Now, you all know what shoe

size I wear. And then getting an upgrade to business class or

to first class, this has only happened to me once in my life.

I bought a ticket for a normal seat on an airplane. When I was

getting on the airplane, they said they they had oversold the

flight and so they asked if I wanted to be upgraded to

business class which is a little bit bigger seat and

better snacks than the normal section. So, when I fly, I

always buy the cheapest seat that I can find um but once in

my life, I was getting on a plane and they said, they had

sold too many tickets for the normal part of the plane and so

they we say too, they bumped me up to business class. They

upgraded me to business class. That was super cool. The the

the C on the plain was really big. Instead of just getting a

little bag of nuts and uh a can of pop. Um I got like a whole

fancy meal. It was really really nice.