21 Common English Phrases | from Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Podcast

Wouldn't it be amazing to listen to a podcast in English and

understand every single word, idioms, phrasal verbs,

collocations and all. No more getting lost, stuck,

or confused because there was something said that everyone's laughing about and

you're not really sure what it meant. Instead,

you get to choose a podcast that's interesting to you,

listen to it and just enjoy it.

This is a feeling members in my Confident Women Community have regularly because

of our focused on theme-based vocabulary growth,

and we have our podcast club as well.

I want you to have that same joy and excitement when listening to a

podcast of your choice. For example, Oprah's Super Soul Sunday.

In fact, that's exactly what we're going to do today.

You and I are going to explore a specific episode of Oprah's

Super Soul Sunday where she interviews Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book,

Eat, Pray, Love.

We're going to take an in-depth look at the language used in that podcast,

the idioms, phrasal verbs, and so on,

so that you can listen to that particular episode, understand every single word,

and just enjoy the podcast. So after watching this lesson today,

I recommend that you visit this specific episode.

I'll make it easy for you by leaving a link below. When you do that,

you'll get to hear all the vocabulary you learned today used in context,

the most effective way to expand your vocabulary.

What that means is not only will you understand the idioms,

collocations, and more that you hear in that specific episode,

but you'll also recognize them and understand them when you hear them in other

podcasts, conversations, TV shows, and more. Plus,

you can use that same vocabulary in your English conversations.

Now, before we continue, if you don't already know,

I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

I do that by sharing weekly Confident English lessons where I share my top

fluency,

building strategies and advanced level vocabulary like we're going to do in this

lesson today. So while you watch,

make sure that you subscribe to my Speak Confident English channel on YouTube so

that you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.

And now let's talk more about this specific podcast,

this interview that Oprah did with Elizabeth Gilbert.

You might be curious why we're exploring one specific episode.

And a while ago I did a lesson on why podcasts

are an effective way to improve your listening skills as well as your overall

vocabulary. I'll share a link to that specific lesson,

but here are three key reasons listening to podcasts is so

effective. Number one,

podcasts are a gold mine for discovering new

vocabulary,

vocabulary that is commonly used in conversations every single day.

Secondly, podcasts allow you to learn vocabulary in context.

What that means is you're hearing an idiom or a frail verb used in

a sentence as it's typically used. And in doing that,

it tends to give you a better mental picture,

which makes it easier to remember and use it in your own examples.

And lastly,

podcasts are way more fun than conventional stagnant forms

of learning, new vocabulary. If you're having fun while learning,

it motivates you to keep going.

So that's why we're using a podcast to learn 21 common English phrases

in this lesson today. Now,

I have no doubt you know exactly who Oprah is and you know she has a talk

show in podcast called Super Soul Sunday.

We're going to look at a specific episode with Elizabeth Gilbert called The

Curiosity Driven Life.

If you've ever heard the advice follow your passion and

either felt confused by that, frustrated or even disagreed with it,

this is a podcast episode for you to listen to. Here,

Elizabeth Gilbert shares her thoughts and her own transition

from the advice of following your passion into following

your curiosity. Instead, from start to finish,

we hear her initial perspective on that advice, follow your passion.

And then we hear the story of a fan who wrote her an

extremely shocking letter and how it completely transformed

her initial perspective into this idea of following your curiosity.

Throughout the episode,

she uses a plethora of English phrases that allow her to express her

thoughts with impact and accuracy.

So let's get to these 21 common phrases from this episode of

Super Soul Sunday.

I want you to understand exactly what they are so that you can go listen to the

episode with absolute confidence and enjoy it.

To help organize this lesson,

I've divided the episode up into four different parts.

Each one focused on one of the key points that she shares,

and along the way I'll introduce you to the common phrases.

We're going to look at their meaning and examples.

If you want to see those more in depth,

I recommend that you visit this lesson at the the Speak Confident English

website where I've written all of this out.

And now let's start with section number one. Passion is everything.

In this first part of the episode,

Elizabeth Gilbert shares her initial perspective on that common advice,

follow your passion. And in doing so,

here are several useful common English phrases that she uses.

Number one, to speak out against somebody or something.

For example,

Jesse decided that she was going to speak out against the new policies at work

to speak out against something or someone means to publicly share your

opinion. And of course, it's typically an imposing opinion.

A second important phrase in part one is to piece something together.

Imagine putting all the pieces of a puzzle together.

As you put more of those pieces together,

you start to get a clearer picture.

And when we use this phrase idio automatically,

it means to begin getting a clearer picture of the truth or

what's real based on pieces of information. For example,

fans listened to the album and tried to piece together the underlying message

from the artist.

The third common phrase from part one is out of the other.

For example,

money doesn't appear out of the other to appear out

of the other means to appear from nowhere.

We have a similar idiom in English to appear out of thin air.

Number four on this list is to stay in the game.

For example, you must put your blood, sweat,

and tears into growing your business if you want to stay in the game.

To stay in the game means to continue being involved or continue giving

your effort in order to achieve success despite experiencing

obstacles or barriers.

Is there anything that you've worked particularly hard to achieve?

And no matter what happened, no matter what challenge was in front of you,

you stayed involved, you gave it your effort, you stayed in the game.

If you've had that experience, let me know.

Try using that expression in your own example sentence and you can share it with

me in the comments below.

And now let's look at one more common phrase from part one of this

episode.

To give a dog and pony show to give a dog and pony show is

a rather unusual idiom,

and it means to arrange an event that is simply there

to impress someone or to encourage someone to invest their

money.

And you might use it in an example such as when I'm looking for advice,

I don't want a dog and pony show. In other words,

what you want is something real. You want concrete advice that you can use,

not something to simply impress you. And with that,

let's move on to part two of this particular podcast episode.

At this point in the episode,

we hear about a shocking letter she received from a fan

and the aha moment that came to her,

the reality that passion isn't everything.

Let's take a look at three common phrases you'll hear at this part of the

episode. First, to keep up with someone or something.

What this means is to do whatever is necessary to

stay at the same or equal level as someone else or

something else. For example, when my husband and I go running,

I have to work extremely hard to keep up with him.

If I want to stay at the same level,

I have to do a lot of work. The next one,

to take a step back from something or someone,

for example,

I needed to take a step back from the situation in order to think deeply

about possible solutions to step back from something or someone

means to separate yourself or withdraw from a situation

so that you're able to have a broader or more objective

perspective.

And number three for section number two is to tear something

or someone apart. For example,

critics to her first book apart,

but she kept trying to tear something or someone apart

means to strongly criticize.

Can you think of a movie or a TV show that you loved but

others to it apart?

They had strong criticisms to share. If so,

try using this particular phrasal verb in that example and share it with me

below. And now section number three of this particular episode,

Bouncing Through Life. In this particular part of the podcast,

we hear Elizabeth Gilbert's experience of

reevaluating that common advice to follow your passion

and where that reevaluation took her.

And here are five common phrases you're going to hear. Number one,

to have a checkered past or journey.

We tend to use this to describe someone's past life that

may have been full of bad decisions or

not really appropriate behavior.

It certainly isn't the way they behave or make decisions. Now,

for example,

the current political candidate has a rather checkered past

number two to face plant or a

face plant. Now,

if we use this phrase literally it means to fall

with your face hitting the ground first, super painful,

but you'll often hear this used idio automatically

imagine what it feels like to hit the ground face

first. Not only is it painful, but if other people see it,

it's kind of embarrassing.

So if you have a situation in which you felt embarrassed or maybe

even felt a little bit of internal pain,

you might describe it as a face plant for example,

I've faceplanted more times than I can count while working

to achieve my goals.

What I mean by that is I've made a lot of maybe embarrassing or even

painful mistakes along the way.

Our third phrase for this section is to be golden.

This is often used as a way to compliment someone. For example,

thank you so much for all your help.

You're absolutely golden or your absolute gold.

This can be used to mean that you are of great or significant

value.

It can be used to mean that you're not at all wrong or that you're

absolutely fine. For example,

let's say you make a little mistake and you tell your coworker, Oh my gosh,

I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do anything wrong. And they might respond with,

Oh, don't worry about it, you're golden. In other words, you're fine.

There's no reason to apologize. Number four,

to bounce through or around, for example,

to bounce through life.

What this means is to move in an energetic and enthusiastic

manner going from one thing to the next. Here's another example sentence,

Ellen is bouncing through life and enjoying every minute of her

retirement.

And now our last common phrase from this particular section,

to be at ease with someone or something.

This means to be perfectly calm and comfortable.

For example, I feel at ease with my current stage in life.

Have you ever had a moment in English where you felt perfectly at ease?

Maybe you were talking with someone who made you feel really comfortable and you

just enjoyed the conversation,

Or after watching this particular Confident English lesson,

you will feel perfectly at ease.

Listening to this podcast episode that we're talking about today and now,

section number four of this particular Super Soul Sunday podcast

episode, Take Passion Off the Table.

This is the most critical section of this particular episode.

We're going to explore eight common phrases that you're going to hear,

and in this particular section you'll hear Elizabeth Gilbert urge

everyone to follow their curiosity as opposed to their passion,

and she walks through exactly what that means.

The first phrase you'll hear in this section is to take something off the table.

This is a phrase everyone in my Confident Women Community should definitely know

because we've talked about it recently.

It's a great phrase to know because it's very common to take

something off the table means to remove it from the discussion,

or it's something that you're not allowed to discuss.

For example,

let's not take curiosity and interests off the

table. What I mean by that sentence is let's make sure that

curiosity and our interests are part of the conversation.

Maybe we're working to resolve something and we need to make sure

that talking about curiosity in our interests is something that we

talk about to reach that ultimate conclusion or solution.

Our second phrase is to take everything out

of somebody or something. For example,

it took everything out of me to write my exams and pass

or preparing for that presentation took everything out of me.

What that means is to drain or take all the time

and energy you had for something and in the end,

you're exhausted.

Have you ever had something take everything out of you? If so,

once again, I want you to try using that in your own example sentence,

and the best place for you to share is right below in the comments.

Number three in this section is to look back at something or someone.

For example, when I look back at it,

I can't help but laugh at the situation to look back at something or someone is

to think back to the past or reflect on something that happened.

Number four, to do a scavenger hunt of your life.

Now, this one isn't really a common phrase in English,

but I wanted to talk about it because it's rather unusual and it's an

important one to understand.

A scavenger hunt is a game that kids and even adults might play.

It's when you have clues and you're supposed to understand the clue

and collect items. For example,

you might do a scavenger hunt around the city.

Maybe you have a list of things that you're supposed to collect at different

places in the city,

and the team that collects all of those items or the most items

on the list wins. This is a common game.

Kids in the United States will play if their families celebrate Easter.

It's common on the Easter holiday for someone to hide eggs around

the house or the yard, and when kids wake up in the morning,

they might do a scavenger hunt.

They're supposed to go around and find those eggs and collect them. Now,

here it's being used, of course, idiomatically.

To do a scavenger hunt with your life implies that you spend your life

looking for clues or hints as to your life's

purpose. It's meaning, and over time,

you collect those bits of information.

Number five in this section is to not be into

something. In the past,

I've taught that to be into something means that you like it, you enjoy it.

So here we're hearing the opposite.

In this particular episode, for example, I really love cooking,

but I'm not really into baking.

It's not something I like or enjoy.

Phrase number six is to follow a trail of breadcrumbs.

What this means is to follow a series of clues. For example,

sometimes we need to follow a trail of breadcrumbs to truly

discover our purpose in life. In other words,

it doesn't always come at us in an immediate revelation or in an

immediate decision. It's something that we discover over time. Okay,

we have just two more common phrases we're going to review together so

that you can fully understand and enjoy this particular podcast.

Episode number seven in this section is to let go of

something or someone, for example, to truly relax.

Let go of your anxieties and the pressures surrounding you to let

go of something means to stop holding onto it,

to stop focusing on it or spending all your mental energy thinking

about it. In other words, to release something or someone.

And our last phrase for today to be pushed around.

What this means is to be forced into doing something or even

bullied into doing something. For example,

I will never forget my grandmother's advice.

Don't let others push you around. With that,

you have 21 common English phrases from this specific

episode of Super Soul Sunday. To finish,

I have a question and a recommendation for you. First, my question,

what are your favorite two or three new phrases from this lesson Today,

I want you to limit your decision to just two or three,

and then I want you to try using those in your your own example sentence.

My recommendation is to then go listen to this episode,

Listen to how those particular phrases are heard.

It'll give you additional context or an additional visual

picture of how to accurately use those phrases

so that you always understand them when you hear them,

and you can use them successfully in your English conversations.

If you enjoyed this Confident English lesson, I would love to know.

You can tell me in one very simple way.

Give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube, and while you're at it,

don't forget to subscribe as well. Thank you so much for joining me,

and I look forward to seeing you next time.