ENGLISH CONVERSATION | LOWERING EXPECTATIONS

Do not get in the way of a pregnant lady and  her donuts. That is the moral of this video.  

Along the we'll will talk about expectations in  English and how to describe how good something  

is. Is it mediocre? out of this world?  Stick with us, learn useful English phrases,  

and English vocabulary and a cute  toddler makes an appearance too.

Important: I am not pregnant again. This  is footage from a couple of years ago.  

We visit these friends every year. And for 3  years, we've been trying to get these donuts. We'd

heard such good things about them each year. For  whatever reason, it didn’t work out to go until  

this trip. So at this point, our expectations  were pretty high. An expectation is a belief that  

something will happen. Our high expectations meant  we were expecting these donuts to be amazing.

We're on our way to try what we've heard  are some of the best donuts in the world.

So Tara just said she hope she wasn't talking  about it too much because we have been wanting  

to come here for 3 years and sometimes  when you talk something up too much, then  

you get let down because you blew it up in your  head into something more than it could ever be.

Talking something up: a phrasal verb. When you  talk something up, you talk about how great it  

is. “These donuts are the best donuts you’ll  ever have. People come from all over the state  

for these donuts.” Think about something  you’ve heard great things about. A movie,  

a restaurant, a place to work. Got  it? Now make a sentence with it.

I’ll do one.

The critics really talked up  Parasite, but I  never saw it. Now you make a sentence, out loud,  

for your example, using ‘talk up’. Go ahead and  pause this video if you want to take your time.

And before I forget, if you like this  video or you learn something new,  

please give it a thumbs up and  subscribe with notifications.  

I’d love to have you as my student here on  YouTube. Now, let’s hear just that phrase again.

So Tara just said she hope she  wasn't talking 'em up too much.

Talking’em up. What’s ‘em? This is one of  common ways we pronounce the word ‘them’.  

In this case, ‘them’ refers to ‘the donuts.’ And  what we do is drop the TH sound, we also change  

the vowel EH, THEM, to the em, em, em the schwa.  And we say it really quickly. Em,em, em. We link  

it on to the end of the word that comes before  it. Talking’em, talking’em, talking them up.

So Tara just said she hope she  wasn't talking 'em up too much.

Now, I also said “let down.”

Sometimes when you talk something  up too much, then you get let down  

because you blew it up in your head into  something more than it could ever be.

You get let down. Disappointed. Like  the Beatles song “Don’t let me down”.

You get let down because you blew it up in your  heard into something more than it could ever be.

Because you blew it up in your head. Blow  up, a phrasal verb, it has a lot of different  

meanings. The way I used it here, it means  to make something bigger, better in my mind.  

You think about something so much, so  positively, that you kind of blow it  

up into something bigger or better than it can  actually be in reality. It also means to explode.  

They’re going to blow up the old building to make  space for new houses. It also means to get really  

angry. My boss blew up at me for being late  again. It also means to enlarge, like a photo.  

We’re going to blow up a family  photo to hang in our dining room.

You get let down because you blew it up in your  head into something more than it could ever be.

As we said, talking something up is to speak  very favorably of it. What’s the opposite? To  

belittle something, to disparage it. In other  words, to say it’s not very good. Talk down.

So David said we’re going to talk‘em down. How to  we talk'em down? These donuts are kind of stale.

Well they’re just, they're average.

Notice that ‘them’ reduction. Talk’em  down, talk’em, talk’em. Talk down does  

have another definition. It’s when you think  someone can’t understand what you’re saying,  

so you really simplify it. It’s a little  insulting. If you’re arguing with somebody and you  

feel they’re doing this to you, you can say, don’t  talk down to me. But here we’re talking about  

trying to lower our expectations. They’re really  high, and we don’t want to be disappointed.

High expectations, low expectations, no  expectations. If you have no expectations,  

that means you have no idea what to expect,  you’ve heard nothing about it. If something’s  

been really talked up, of course, you’ll  have high expectations. If it’s been talked  

down a little, you might have low expectations.  Your expectations might also be based on previous  

experience. For example, if you went to Disney  world last year and had the time of your life,  

and now you’re going back, you  probably have pretty high expectations.

So we decided, to lower our expectations,  

we’re going to come up with a bunch of ways  to say the donuts just aren’t that good.

So David said we’re going to talk‘em down. How to  we talk'em down? These donuts are kind of stale.

Stale. You do not want that in a pastry.  

It’s a few days old. Eww. You want  the opposite. Fresh. What else?

We’ll they’re just, they're average.

Average. Not terrible, but not very good. If  you’re selling something, this is not what  

you want people to say about it. You want  them to give it a glowing review – that is,  

to say how much they loved it. You want them to  say it’s out of this world. Out-of-this-world,  

out-of-this pronounced “outta”, means excellent,  the best of the best. Way better than average.

We’ll they’re just, they're average.

Stoney: Yeah. They just (mumbling)

They’re just average.

Stoney, can you talk them down a little bit?

Say I bet these donuts aren’t that great.

Not that great. Again, that’s sort of like  average. What else? How else can you describe  

something as being not very good? Let’s hear  what Stoney has to say about the donuts.

Yummy,yummy!

Oh, you think they’re going to  be yummy? Stoney’s talkin’em up.

Talkin’em’up! He didn’t want to talk them  down. He was too excited to have donuts.  

But David and I had lots of other phrases  to say something is just not very good.  

Stoney, as you’ll notice, was really  into repeating what we were saying.

David, you said they we’re kind of average  and then you had another phrase for that.  

What did you say? Yeah, I’ve heard these  donuts we’re just run of the mill. Yeah.

Yeah. They’re just. They’re just run  of the mill. They’re nothing special.

Nothing special.

Run of the mill, nothing special. The idiom run  of the mill means exactly what we’re talking about  

here. Average. Not especially good, not especially  bad. Just ordinary. Notice the stress there,  

just like when we reduced ‘them’ in  “talking ‘em up”. RUN uhthe MILL. ‘Of’  

and ‘the’ are unstressed, said very quickly.  They SHOULD NOT have the same stress as  

‘run’ and ‘mill’. I even reduced ‘of’ by dropping  the V. uhthe, uhthe. Run of the. Run of the mill.

We also said they were nothin’ special.  

Changing the ING ending, nothing, to the  IN ending, nothin’. This is something we  

do sometimes in familiar phrases like this. It  makes it a little more casual. Nothin’ special.

Yeah, I’ve heard these donuts  we’re just run of the mill.

Yeah. They’re just run of  the mill. They’re nothing special.

Nothing special.

What else?

Mediocre.

Stoney: Mediocre.

(Laughing) Stoney thinks so too.

I bet he won't think so when he eats them.

Eats’em. Again, reducing ‘them’ to ‘em’.  

We also said ‘mediocre’. Just not very good. You  never want to hear your boss saying about you,  

“His performance is pretty mediocre.” Let’s hear  three more ways to say something is not good.

These donuts leave a lot to be desired.

Yeah. They’re falling short of expectations.  Anybody else got one? They suck.

Stoney: Yes!

The final one there, “they suck” is very informal,  maybe a little bit crass, not a cuss word but sort  

of. It’s used a lot in the US, but you probably  don’t want to use it in a professional setting.  

Casually, you can use it to describe something  that’s not good at all, like “these donuts  

suck,” “the weather sucks”, “that movie  sucked.” You can also use it for situations.  

Let’s say you run out of gas and you’re  stranded on the side of the road. You might say,  

“Well this sucks.” You can also use it  for sympathy. If a friend is disappointed,  

for example, “my computer crashed and I lost a  bunch of work” you could say, “Aw, that sucks.”  

But you would not want to use this for sympathy  in a more extreme situation, like “My dog died.”  

Do not follow that with “That sucks.” Let’s listen  to these three again. We all laugh because of how  

informal ‘sucks’ is, and to be honest, that’s  probably not a word we want Stoney using yet.

These donuts leave a lot to be desired.  Yeah. They’re falling short of expectations.  

Anybody else got one? They suck.

Stoney: Yes!

We have one more.

These donuts have nothing to write home about.

Another idiom, that again means, just nothing  special. Not particularly good. You wouldn’t  

write home to family. Back in the days of writing  letters, to tell them how good the donuts are.

Ordinary run of the mill  donuts, we hope that’s not true.

Ok, so, we’ve used a lot of phrases to describe  

the donuts NOT being good. We’ve tried to lower  our expectations. Let’s go try these donuts.

Rise’ n Roll. They took the and reduction and they  wrote it. They've made just and n. Rise’ n Roll.

It’s overrated?

Overrated

Yeah We’re trying to lower your expectations.

Yeah, thank you!

They’re still trying to lower our expectations.  

Saying something is overrated means you don’t  think it’s as good as other people say it is.

Is it good? Is it meeting your expectations?

Stoney ate a free sample. Let’s  go ahead and put in our order.

He’ll have one of the Cinnamon caramel  and I’ll have one too. So two of those.

Three of those.

Three of those.

A glazed.

I’ll have a glazed. You want a glazed too?  

Well, let’s split the glazed and then  let’s just split the chocolate covered.

Lucas and Tara should come  with us. We got a dozen.

One glazed, one chocolate covered.

We finished putting in our order and  pay. Now, let’s try these donuts!

Here Stoney, put on your smock.

A smock is something kids wear to keep clean while  doing messy art projects, or in this case, eating.  

We also have lots of bibs, which just go around  the neck. With a smock you put your arms through.

So you love it. Do you think it’s as good as  the Krispy Kreme fresh off the conveyor belt?

As you know I never have that.

You haven’t?

Right.

A Krispy Kreme fresh off the conveyor belt.  Remember fresh, the opposite of stale,  

which we talked about earlier in this video. I  grew up in Gainesville, Florida, where there is  

a Krispy Kreme donut shop. And when you drive  by, if they’re finishing up a batch of donuts,  

they turn on this neon sign  to let you know they’re hot,  

super-fresh, just made. And, when they’re  that fresh, they’re truly the best.

A conveyor belt is something you’ll see in a  factory, moving things from one place to another,  

so if it’s coming off the conveyor  belt, it’s done, it’s hot,  

it’s perfect. And David has never had one.

I didn’t know that I forgot.

But yeah, there’s no chance. I mean nothing  could be better than this. So that’s not bad.

I’m just saying get a glazed off the  conveyor belt. It’s better than that glazed.

So there it is, my opinion.  These donuts were good,  

but they were not the best donuts I’ve ever  had. However, I did say this about them.

Definitely worth the drive.

What did you say?

Definitely worth the drive.

Oh good. Okay.

Worth the drive. Worth it. We use this phrase  when we’re talking about something that was  

expensive, or took effort. Even with  that expense, we’re glad we did it.  

It was ‘worth it’. “It’s a long hike to the top  of the mountain, but the views are so great,  

it’s worth it.” The necklace was very expensive  but my mom likes it so much, it was worth it. In  

this case, we had to drive about 30 minutes to  get there, but it was good, so it was worth it.

I try to make great videos for you so that each  minute you spend with me feels worth it. I make  

new videos here on YouTube every Tuesday and  I love being your English teacher. Keep your  

learning going right now with this video, and  don’t forget to subscribe with notifications.  

I’ll see you back here next week. That’s it,  and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.