Free English Class! Topic: Describing Situations and Experiences! 🏕️🛒🛍️ (Lesson Only)

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

going to learn how to describe situations and experiences that

we have had. So you may have had different experiences in

your life and you might describe them in this way right

now. It was fun or it wasn't fun. Or I liked doing that or I

didn't like doing that. In this English lesson we're going to

look at a whole bunch of other ways to describe experiences

and situations that you've been in Let me just repeat that for

a sec. We usually say experiences that you had or

situations that you've been in. So we kind of use each word a

bit differently but they both refer to the things that happen

in life or the things that you do in life. So once again

welcome to this English lesson where we're going to talk about

how to describe situations and experiences. One way to

describe something is to say that it was confusing but often

we use the little phrase hard understand. This is a huge

classroom probably at a university. And maybe the

professor isn't very easy to understand. The professor is

hard to understand. If someone said to you how was the class

that you went to today? You could say oh it was really

confusing. The professor is hard to understand or the class

was hard to understand. Uh this happened to me in university

when I took my second calculus class. I think I mentioned that

before. When I took kelp one it was easy to understand. When I

took kelp two calculus two it was hard to understand. I

passed but my grade wasn't very good at all. You can also in

English in a very informal way say that it was something else

when you're describing something. So let me use this

in a few example sentences because it's kind of a weird

little little phrase. If I went kayaking on this beautiful

lake. If someone said what was that like? What was that

experience like? I might say it was somewhere Something else.

So what this means is that it was amazing. It was wonderful.

Uh it was just awesome. It was really really fun. Uh when you

say an experience or a situation was something else.

It just means you really really enjoyed it. Uh maybe you went

to a concert and it was just amazing. You saw Ed Sheeran.

You might say oh it was something else. It was amazing.

So kind of an informal way to describe something that is

really cool, really fun, really amazing. And then we have a

simpler way to describe something here and it's just to

say that something is enjoyable. We often use this

when we talk about having a meal with others. So if you

have the experience of having a meal with friends or family you

might say oh it was a very enjoyable meal. Um it was just

an enjoyable time. We went to a restaurant. The the food was

delicious. Uh we had really good conversation. It was a

very enjoyable time. Or it was a very enjoy enjoyable thing to

do. Sorry I'll Try to pronounce the English words correctly as

I do this lesson. Um by the way when I do these lessons it's

very enjoyable for me. I hope it's enjoyable for you. Eerie.

So when I think of the word eerie I usually think of being

alone usually not somewhere like not in a city. Usually

like out in a country. If I walked down this path at night

and there was just a little bit of moonlight coming through the

tree branches I would describe that walk as an eerie

experience. I if someone said how was your through the forest

at night. I I would say oh it was eerie. There were little

sounds I could hear and the wind was blowing a little bit

and making this funny noise or I couldn't quite see it was a

little bit dark. It was just very eerie. I thought I was

hearing things all around me. So when something is eerie it

means a little bit scary a little bit spooky might be

another word that we would use. Uh but certainly a walk through

the forest at night would be eerie. Uh so this is a very

informal word. I had to look it up to make sure that it's

actually a word in English but when something is really boring

sometimes we call it a snooze fest. So I'll use the example

again of a classroom but it this time a teacher who's

really boring where as you're as you're listening you might

actually be starting to fall asleep or you might just use

the word snooze fest to describe something that was

really boring and you didn't actually fall asleep sometimes

when sitting and listening to someone talk for a long time.

Uh you could describe it as saying oh that lecture was

really boring or that talk was was just a snooze fest. Um

which means it was so boring you could have fallen asleep.

Or it might even mean you did fall asleep. That can happen as

well. Again a very informal word snooze fest. Um but I

thought it was just a word I made up but it if you look it

up on Google you'll actually find a definition for the word.

Outstanding. So when you describe something as

outstanding it means that it was done at a very high level.

It means that if you're watching a performance the

dancers or actors or singers were perfect. They just you

were just amazed at how good of a job they did. So if I went to

see a show maybe some kind of stage show. If someone said oh

what was what was the play like? I can say oh it's

outstanding. It was just amazing. It was one of the best

plays I've ever seen. So when you something as outstanding.

You just mean that it's really really well done. I would use

this to describe I don't know if you know English with Lucy.

English with Lucy is another YouTube channel and she teaches

English and her lessons are outstanding. That's how I would

describe them. They are really well put together. She's very

well spoken. Very logical. That's always important to me.

I like people who are logical. So I would say her lessons are

outstanding. Now the opposite would be what we call a

letdown. Maybe you've wanted to go to a concert for a long time

and you bought tickets and you went to the concert and it

wasn't very good. Maybe the musicians sound really good

when you listen to a recording but when they play live they

just don't do a good job. You would say oh it was a let down.

How was the concert? It was it was a let down. It was kind of

a let down. They they weren't as good as I thought they were

going to be. Another example would be If you were going to

see a play and there was a famous actor in the play and

then the day you go that actor is sick and they have someone

fill in the understudy performs instead you would say the play

was really good but it was a bit of a let down because the

main actor wasn't there. So a let down. Hope my lessons

aren't a let down for you. I hope they're outstanding. Now I

wouldn't describe my own lessons that way. Hey when you

have a lot of fun when you go out with friends or maybe go

out with family and you really enjoy yourself. We sometimes

say that it's a blast. Uh How was your day at the beach? It

was a blast. We had so much fun. We played volleyball. We

laughed. At night we had a campfire on the beach. I had a

blast or it was a blast. You can use either way to describe

it. Um so definitely when you really enjoy something when it

is a lot of fun we would say that it's a blast. Mesmerizing.

When you describe an experience as mesmerizing you're basically

saying you couldn't look away because it was so interesting.

It was so cool. It was so fun to watch. When I think of the

word mesmerizing I usually think of musicians who are

really good at playing their instrument. When I watch

someone who's a really good guitar player and I watch their

fingers on the guitar and I hear the sounds it's

mesmerizing. I can't I can't help but just watch them play.

Um I'm not how would I say this? It's not hypnotizing.

That's a little bit different but mesmerizing just is a time

when you're in a situation or experience where you just watch

what's happening and you just really really enjoy it. And

then out of this world. I think I talked about this phrase in

another lesson a few weeks ago. I think I described a trip as

being out of this world. When you say something is out of

this world it just means it was like so fun, so enjoyable, so

awesome. It was one of the most amazing things you've ever done

in your life. So if you ever went on a trip and you stayed

on a lake like this. And if someone said whoa whoa what was

that like? You probably would say oh it's out of this world.

Like at night we could see the northern lights. Uh at night we

could see lightning bugs flying around. You might describe it

as out of this world. Something that was just really really fun

enjoyable and beautiful I think. All of those things.

Captivating. So I would say captivating fits in the same

category for me as mesmerizing. When I think of something

that's captivating it's again when you're appreciating

something so much you you just you just can't stop watching.

When you go to a concert when you go to a show if something

just you know you visually it's amazing. When you hear things

it's amazing. Um we would just say it's captivating. When

people dance it can be captivating. When people play

an instrument it can be captivating. It just means that

They do it well to the point where you just really enjoy

watching them do it. Worth it. So this is a phrase that people

have asked me about people who are learning English. What does

worth it mean? Well worth it means that something you did

something and you're glad that you did it. Hey have you ever

gone to Disneyland? Yeah I went last year. Was it worth it? Oh

it was totally worth it. We had so much fun. And the flip side

would be no it wasn't worth it. We didn't have any fun and it

was really expensive. So when you describe something as being

worth it. We're not Always talking about money but a

little bit. You know. Was the concert worth it? Oh yeah. I

totally would go again. It was totally worth it. I don't mind

that I spent $100 to see Ed Sheeran it was worth it. So

you're what you're saying is the amount of money you spent

or the time you spent was valuable to you. You were like

yes this was a good decision. Uh I was happy that I did this.

Over the top. When we say something is over the top. We

mean it's amazing but it might even be like almost too much. A

good example would be this. If you go to a concert and you see

that they have giant screens everywhere. Like they actually

have more screens than they need. You could say oh that it

was just over the top. They went over the top for that

concert. I mean there were 27 big screens in the stadium. So

when you say over the Top. You mean you were expecting

something to be this good and it was even better but maybe in

a slightly crazy way. It was over the top. My lessons are

not over the top. My lessons are as good as they need to be.

That's how I would describe them. Hard to follow. Now this

one is similar to the first one we look at looked at we talked

about hard to understand. When you say that something is hard

to follow. If you said well the class it was hard to follow. Or

the prof he was hard to follow. Um it doesn't mean you're

walking behind them. It means you're having trouble

understanding. You might be experiencing this when you

watch my videos I might talk too fast for you and you might

find that it's hard to follow the lesson. So when you

describe something as hard to follow it means you're having

trouble understanding it. Maybe your why a lot of English

television and in some cases you can understand what's

happening but with other shows you find it hard to follow,

hard to understand. Nasty. Now the word nasty has a lot of

different meanings. When I think of describing a situation

and using the word nasty I usually think of a storm. So

sometimes we'll just have a really nasty storm at night.

That means there's lots of wind and lightning and rain and

thunder. Uh it's just a crazy storm. So when you describe

something as nasty. It means that it's not pleasant. So you

would describe something nasty as being enjoyable. You would

say oh that was a nasty storm last night. I hope trees didn't

blow over in the wind. It was nasty. Remarkable. So when you

describe a situation as remarkable. Um you're basically

saying it's something you'll remember for a long time.

You're saying that you did enjoy yourself. Let's say you

visit a city somewhere. And you just really enjoyed all of the

buildings you saw. You could say oh it's just remarkable. I

went to Toronto and it was remarkable. Um it could also be

that you're impressed. Like maybe you just thought wow

they've built some really beautiful buildings in this

city. Uh it is definitely remarkable. So memorable would

be another word you could use. But remarkable simply means

that you liked it a lot. Puzzling. When you find a

situation puzzling it means that you were somewhere and you

needed to figure out something and you had trouble figuring it

out. I find it puzzling when I'm in a traffic jam because I

don't understand why it's happening and I don't know how

to get out of it. You just have to wait. So when you say

something is puzzling it means it's hard for you to understand

either why it's happening or it's hard for you figure out

how to get out of the situation. Um let's say you

were sitting in a class in school and it was the wrong

class. You might say oh this is really puzzling. Why am I in

the wrong class and how do I what do I do now? So it's when

you're in a situation where you don't know how you you don't

know necessarily how you got there and you don't know how to

get out of it. By the way that was a pretty bad explanation of

puzzling. You should look that one up online to get a better

definition Um inspiring. When something is inspiring it makes

you want to do better things in your life. So the best example

would be maybe you went and listened to someone talk and

they talked about things you could do to do a better job at

work. Maybe your work sent you to a workshop and they had a

speaker there who taught you some techniques to be more

efficient at work. You could say that that that experience

was inspiring. It Caused you to change how you do certain

things in your life. It's why we have the term inspirational

speaker. Sometimes you go and hear a speaker and the person

can be described as inspirational. Um and you could

use that to describe the event as well. You could say oh that

workshop was inspiring or the workshop was inspirational. It

made me want to do things in a better way. Creepy. Whenever I

think of creepy I think about there's a lake close to my

house. And when I was a teenager there was an old house

on the lake. This is not it. This is just a picture. Uh it

was an old house on the lake and it had like all the windows

were broken. And one of my friends like to go there at

night to explore that house. And I found the house really

creepy. And I found the experience really creepy. Um we

would go with flashlights and we would kind of he was always

looking for old coins and those kinds of things. So I found it

very creepy. Um mostly because noone lived in the house. The

house was starting to fall apart. Uh and we would always

go at night. By the way if you watch any kind of horror movie.

You would probably say the movie was really creepy. And we

even have a phrase in English you could say oh it creeped me

out. So when something creepy it's a little bit scary. That

would be how I would describe it. Too much or overwhelming.

When you describe something as being too much or when you say

something was overwhelming. You're basically saying that

you weren't comfortable there. For me when I'm in a crowd of

people it's too much. It's too much for me. When I go to a

sporting event and it's crowded like this it's too much. When I

go to the a store and if the music's really loud it's too

much for me. So it's when something is uncomfortable it's

when you don't like something it's when usually your senses

maybe your sense space or your sense of touch or hearing or

smell there's just too much happening and you would say you

would use too much to describe it like oh I went to the

concert and I was in the front row but it was too much for me.

It was it was too loud. It was too crowded. It was too much. I

did not like it at all. It was overwhelming. And we use this

phrase a lot by the way. Too much. Um yeah it was just too

much for me. Mystical. Whenever I think of an experience that's

mystical it's usually something that happened early in the

morning. I was on a trip once for school. Uh and I couldn't

sleep because of the time change. And so I went for a

walk before the sun came up. And I would say that walk that

experience was very mystical. Um I saw the sunrise. Um there

were no people around. I was just in nature. So I would say

Mystical is a beautiful feeling you get usually from being in

nature at a time when something cool is happening like a

sunrise or a sunset. Um maybe you're walking along the ocean

hearing the waves and watching the sun go down. You might say

that it's that's a very mystical experience. And then

of course we have magical which is very very similar. Magical

would again be used to describe an experience that you just

really enjoyed and was really fun it was very very

interesting and it made you feel really really cool inside.

Like if I visited this castle I would probably say the

experience of visiting the castle was very magical. Um I

felt like I was in another time and place.

A zoo. So I used this phrase in a short lesson a few weeks ago.

I said ah it was a zoo. So the best example I can come up with

for describing a situation as a zoo would be Black Friday in

North America. So Black Friday is a day in November where the

stores have really cheap things. So for one day you can

buy all kinds of things like TVs and other items for not

very much money. But it's a zoo. People line up in the

morning. When they open the doors it looks like this

literally. People run in and they they fight over things and

they get mad and they yell at each other and everyone's

trying to buy the same thing at the same time. I would describe

that as a zoo. Ah it was a zoo. Sometimes my classes my

students have lots of energy. And they're having trouble

sitting in their seats. And when I come home I might say

Jen Might say how were your classes? And I might say oh it

was a zoo today. Um you do know what a zoo is right? A zoo is a

place where there's lots of animals. So when we use this

phrase when we describe something as a zoo we're

basically saying people are acting crazy in that situation.

Nuts. So this is a very informal way to describe

something similar to when you say something was a zoo. Every

time Apple comes out with a new phone people line up for hours

at the Apple Store in their city to get the new phone. And

I just think this is nuts. When you say something is nuts. It

means you're like I don't know why people do that. They're a

little bit crazy maybe. I wouldn't do that. I just think

it's nuts. You can also use nuts to describe something like

this. You could say oh it was nuts at the store. There were

so many people there and they were all trying grab the same

thing. So when you say something is a zoo or when you

say something is nuts it's very very similar. Both very

informal. Uh but both quite common. A ghost town. So a

ghost is like a spirit of someone after they've died. I

don't really believe in ghosts. But when you have a town with

no people in it we call it a ghost town. We also describe

something where there are no people as a ghost town. If I

went to the grocery store in the middle of the night it

would be a ghost town. There wouldn't be any people in the

store except for the cashiers. So you can use ghost town to

describe anything I was going to say that is devoid of

people. Do you know the word devoid? Uh this when something

is devoid of something it means that it's not there. But when a

store is empty in the middle of the night you might describe it

as a ghost town. And then of course one other word on the

same level is packed. So we're talking about a place being

very crowded. Uh what was it like at the grocery store? It

was packed. There were so many people there. What was it like

at the restaurant? The was packed, we had to wait an hour

to get a seat. So when you say something is packed, it means

it is very very crowded. It means that there are a lot of

people there. And then pleasant. When you describe

something as being pleasant it means that you enjoyed it. I

lot of times I think about conversations. We sometimes

describe conversations as being pleasant. Oh I had a really

pleasant conversation with my mom the other day. That means I

had a nice conversation. An enjoyable conversation. It

means I smiled a lot during the conversation. So when you

Describe an event a situation or an experience as pleasant.

It means it made you happy. It was nice. Energizing. When I go

for a walk it's energizing. You would think if I went for a

walk I would be tired after my walk. But any kind of exercise

I do actually gives me more energy for the day. When I go

for a walk I'm more alert. I'm more awake. I'm very very

energized. So you could say that working out is energizing.

It gives you energy. Refreshing. When you describe

something as being refreshing it means that you've done

something differently or you've done something that just makes

you feel very very calm and peaceful. Um when you go to

maybe yoga class which I've never really done I don't

think. I think you would think it's very refreshing. You might

even say it's a breath of fresh air. So at work sometimes we do

something different. And it's very refreshing. Sometimes we

eat lunch outside instead of eating lunch inside and it's

very refreshing. We're doing something new in a different

place and it's kind of a breath of fresh air. Exhausting. So I

tried to find a picture of someone babysitting or taking

care of young children. Uh because that can be exhausting.

When you do something that makes you very tired. When you

do something that makes you unhappy tired. Maybe you have

to do it for a long time. We describe it as exhausting. You

could describe your job as exhausting. If I had a job

where I had to lift bricks all day. I would come home say work

was exhausting today. The experience was exhausting. So

it just means something that made you very very tired.

Harrowing. So a harrowing experience is an experience

that was very stressful. A car accident would be a harrowing

experience. If you were in a store and the store got robbed

that would be a harrowing experience. When we say

something is a harrowing experience it's very stressful

it's probably something bad that has happened. Um and it's

probably something like the two examples I just gave you. Um

certainly if you are in a car accident it's a very harrowing

experience. It's frightening. It's stressful. It is not

pleasant at all. Exhilarating. I'll say that word again.

Exhilarating. Probably a hard word for English learners to

learn to pronounce. But when something is exhilarating it it

means it's very very exciting. So when you go on a roller

coaster it's definitely exhilarating. It's something

that it's not that you're afraid but it's something that

gives you an adrenaline rush. Do you know what adrenaline is?

Your body releases adrenaline when you do something slightly

scary or exciting or fun or extreme like going on a roller

coaster. But certainly at the end of each school year as a

school we sometimes go to an amusement park. And when I go

on the roller coaster it's exhilarating. So I want to say

it's like scary but in a good way. Does that make sense? Like

it's a little bit scary but it's also a lot of fun. It's

kind of a mixture of the two. Well organized. I love going to

events that are well organized. I love it when I'm in a

situation at work. And someone has organized something and

it's just well organized. It's so nice it's just a better

experience when it's well organized. I sometimes go to

teacher conventions. And I really like when the convention

is well organized. So everything runs on time.

There's a schedule for the day. Lunch is ready when lunch

starts. You don't have to wait for lunch. So everything

whoever is in charge has organized the event well and

it's well organized. As opposed to a mess or a disaster. So you

can describe something as a mess. Even if it's not messy.

Okay so a mess is when let's say after you eat in your

kitchen. Maybe you eat takeout and there's just stuff

everywhere we say it's a mess. But if you go to an event

that's not well organized you could say it's a mess. So maybe

it was supposed to start at nine and it doesn't start till

ten. Um maybe they they had a microphone and the microphone

stopped working. And then everyone was supposed to have

lunch at noon but lunch wasn't ready until 1230. You would say

ah the whole day was a mess. It was a disaster. It was not well

organized. So when you say something's a mess it's the

opposite of saying that it's well organized. Excruciating.

Another word that's probably hard to pronounce.

Excruciating. When something is excruciating it's really hard

to watch or listen to because it might be boring. It might be

very badly done. It might just be maybe you can tell they

weren't well prepared. A good example Would be listening to

someone play a musical instrument when they're not

good at it but they play a really long song. So when I was

I used to go to piano recitals. And children would play piano.

And most of the children would have really good songs and play

them. But every once in a while one of the kids would play a

song and you could tell they hadn't practiced very much. And

it was excruciating Basically means it was it's really hard

to sit there and listen to because it wasn't well done and

they weren't well prepared. Excruciating.