5 ENGLISH IDIOMS NO ONE TOLD YOU BEFORE

85,297 views ・ 2023-02-05

Speak English With Tiffani


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hey, in today's English lesson, I'm going to teach you five English
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idioms you've never heard before.
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Are you ready?
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Well, then I'm teacher Tiffani.
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Let's jump right in.
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The very first English idiom is be in a tight spot.
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Again, be in a tight.
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Excellent.
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Now, this just means to be in a difficult situation, so I want
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you to think about it like this.
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Imagine you had a shirt, your favorite shirt, and every time you wore this shirt,
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you felt good about yourself, but all of a sudden you started gaining weight.
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So when you go to put on the shirt that you love so much, all of a.
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Ah, it's a little tight.
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It's, it's difficult to get the shirt on and even more
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difficult to get the shirt off.
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Taking the shirt off requires extra energy.
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It's a difficult situation.
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That's why we say be in a tight spot.
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Makes sense, right?
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Again, a difficult situation.
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So let me give you some examples.
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Ands.
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Here's the very first one you have put.
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In a tight spot.
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So I think I need to let you go.
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This is a very hard situation for me to be in.
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I, I can't really help you anymore.
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I need to let you go.
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You have put me in a tight spot, so I think I need to let you go.
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Sentence number two, her divorce put her in a tight spot, a difficult
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situation, but she is doing better now.
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It make sense and sentence number three, Jeremy put me in a tight
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spot when he brought up the bankruptcy in front of everyone.
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I didn't want everyone to know about my bankruptcy, so I felt very awkward.
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It was a difficult situation when Jeremy told everyone revealed brought up my ba.
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makes sense, right?
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Again, we say be in a tight spot.
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Now, idiom number two is also a very useful one.
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Idiom number two is be off the mark.
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Be off the mark.
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Once again, be off the mark.
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Excellent.
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Now, this one just means not achieving the desired result due to inaccuracy.
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Think about it.
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Maybe you took a test and you expected that you were going to get an A on the
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test, but then you receive your test results and instead of an A, you get a C.
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Wait a minute.
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That's not the expected result.
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, you were off the mark again, not achieving the desired result due to inaccuracy.
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Here's the first example sentence.
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I was really off the mark on my exams.
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You got that one right.
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Number two, his efforts were off the mark.
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He didn't achieve the desired result.
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His efforts were off the mark and.
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The weather forecast was really off the mark today.
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You know, the weather forecast said that, Hey, it's going to be a
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sunny day, but it rained all day.
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The weather forecast was really off the mark today.
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Make sense?
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All right, let's move on to English idiom number three, English idiom
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number three is bend over back.
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Bend over backward.
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I want you to repeat after me.
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Bend over backward.
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Excellent.
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Now this idiom just means to work extra hard in an effort to make someone happy.
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Again, you're going the extra mile.
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You're working extra hard in order to make someone happy.
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Now, think about bending over backward.
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Oh, it's not really the easiest thing to do.
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You have to put a lot of effort in order to do it right.
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It's just saying that you're working extra hard to help someone else out
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In English, we say bend over backward.
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Now check out this example.
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Jamie's husband constantly bends over backward for her.
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He loves her so much.
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Whatever she wants, even though he comes home from work, extremely tired, he will
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go right back out to get her some flowers to get her the food that she wants.
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Why?
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Jamie's husband constantly bends over backward for her.
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He worked extra hard.
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He.
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Extra, extra hard in an effort to make her happy.
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All right.
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Sentence number two.
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I bent over backward for that guy and he still treats me poorly.
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I worked hard.
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I put in my best effort, and yet he still treats me poorly again.
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I bent over backward for that guy and he still treats me poorly.
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And what about sentence number?
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I only bend over backward for family.
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I only put in an extra effort for my family.
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Once again, I only bend over backward for family.
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Makes sense?
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Right.
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Okay.
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Let's check out idiom number four.
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Idiom number four is bite off more than you can chew.
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Bite off more than you can chew.
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I want you to repeat after me Bite.
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More than you can chew.
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Excellent.
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Bite off more than you can chew.
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Now, this just means to make a commitment you cannot fulfill.
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You tell someone, Hey, I got you.
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I'll make sure to complete all of the things you asked me to complete.
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And then you realize, oh my.
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I'm not going to be able to do what I said.
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I bit off more than I can chew to make a commitment you cannot fulfill.
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Hey, I'll record a video for you every single day.
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Wait a minute.
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I'm a little too busy to do that.
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I bit off more than I can chew.
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Make sense?
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All right, let me give you an example sentence.
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Here we go.
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I think I bit off more than I can chew with this new job.
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I think I bit off more than I can chew with this new job.
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Next I need to expand my company, but I don't want to
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bite off more than I can chew.
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I, I want to get bigger, but I, I, I don't wanna make a commitment that I cannot.
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, I need to expand my company, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.
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And this one, he is about to bite off more than he can chew by marrying Sabrina.
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I don't think that's a wise decision.
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This might be a little bit much for him.
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He is about to bite off more than he can chew by marrying Sabrina.
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You got it right.
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Okay.
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Now let's move on to idiom number five.
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Idiom number five is bitter pill to swallow.
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Bitter pill to swallow after me.
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Bitter pill to swallow.
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Excellent.
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Now a better pill to swallow.
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This just means an unpleasant happening that is difficult to.
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Something that happens that it's hard for you to accept.
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It's hard for you to believe that this thing is happening to you.
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An unpleasant happening that is difficult to endure.
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It's not easy, a bitter pill to swallow.
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Now, let me give you an example sentence that will help you understand
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this idiom moving away from.
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Was a bitter pill to swallow.
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It's so hard to move away from family, for example, you know, I lived in South Korea.
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I lived there for almost 10 years, and during that time I
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missed so many family events.
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It was a bitter pill to swallow.
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But now I'm home and I'm with my family, so I'm happy.
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But again, moving away from family was a bitter pill to swallow.
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You got it.
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Good.
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Next we have this.
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The pandemic is a bitter pill to swallow, but we will overcome this.
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Yes.
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You know about the pandemic that we experienced all around the world, right?
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With 2020 and the Covid Pandemic.
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The pandemic is a bitter pill to swallow, but we will overcome this.
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Make sense?
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All right, and sentence number three, failing the bar exam yet again.
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Was a bitter pill to swallow.
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I failed Again, I, I gave it my all, but I failed.
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Failing the bar exam yet again was a bitter pill to swallow.
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Make six.
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All right, excellent.
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So now you know the five English idioms that you didn't know before,
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but now you can use them in real life.
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Now I wanna keep helping you, so if you want my free English newsletter,
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all you have to do is go to www.speakenglishwithTiffani.com/newsletter.
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Each week I send out English tips and so much more to help you along your English.
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So remember to keep speaking English, keep studying hard, and
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I will see you in the next lesson.
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You still there?
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? You know what time it's, it's story time eight.
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I said it's story time.
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Alright, now today's story is actually about my neighbor.
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That's right.
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So, You might not know this, but I am an artist.
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I love to draw and I love to paint.
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I've been a painter my entire life.
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I can remember when I was around five or six years old, just drawing for hours.
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I have always enjoyed drawing and painting.
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So when I moved into my new apartment and I had set everything up, I walked
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into my bedroom and it looked perfect, but I realized that one thing was.
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I realized that I didn't have an art table.
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I didn't have an area in my bedroom where I could be creative and express myself.
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So I decided to purchase an art table.
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Mm.
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I bought a beautiful art table.
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I went on Amazon, didn't find one that I wanted.
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But then I went to a store called Michael's.
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Michael's is a popular arts and craft store here in America, and
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I found the exact table I wanted.
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It was a glass top table with black legs, and it had a very, um, uh,
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a very useful way of lifting up.
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The mechanics were beautiful.
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I could tell by watching the video that it lifted up just so nicely.
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It was the table I wanted, so I.
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, buy now.
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Purchase the table.
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Now remember, it was a table, so it was going to be big.
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Now I live on the third floor, so I said, okay.
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When they deliver it to my apartment, I hope they don't leave it downstairs.
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I was praying they would bring it to my door.
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So a few days went.
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Then a few more days, and I got a notification on my phone.
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Tiffani, your table, your art table has arrived.
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Ooh, I was excited.
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So I went to my front door.
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I unlocked the door and I opened it and there was nothing, and I could
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hear the music playing, da, da, da.
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I said, no.
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They left the table on the first floor.
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Remember I said I live on the third?
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Three flights of steps.
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I'm one person, I'm strong, I'm in shape, but not enough to lift an art
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table up three flights of stairs.
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Now I had just moved into the apartment, so I didn't know anyone really.
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So I walked downstairs and I saw the art table, a huge box.
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So I said, well, let me see if I can try to maneuver it.
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No, there was no way to maneuver.
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So I walked back upstairs and right when I was about to go inside of my apartment to
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try to figure something out, I remembered, wait a minute, one of my neighbors in
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passing, I had seen him in passing.
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He just said, hi, how are you?
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I said, Hey, I'm new here.
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And that was it.
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Few days prior to me receiving my art table.
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So I knocked on his door.
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I said, Hey.
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He said, Hey, how are you?
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I said, I'm fine.
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I said, I'm so sorry.
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Would you mind helping?
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Bring this table upstairs.
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His response, of course, sis, no problem at all.
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It kind of caught me off guard.
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Remember he didn't know me at the time, but he was so happy
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and so willing to help me.
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So we went downstairs, we both lifted up the table and we brought
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it back up to my apartment.
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Now I couldn't get it into my apartment at all, so he brought it into my apartment.
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Again.
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I didn't know this guy.
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He brought it into my apartment.
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And he set it at the door.
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He didn't come in too far and I said, thank you so much.
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He said, SIS, anytime we're here to help each other.
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And then he walked out and I thought about this situation for a while.
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We live in a world in a time where, Many people are separated, right?
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At the time, we had just come out of the pandemic and people were very nervous
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about being around each other, right?
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Because you could possibly get covid and people were nervous
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about, Hey, is this person okay?
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Are they sick or not?
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But this gentleman was so kind, he helped me without asking for
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anything, without hesitation.
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And since that time, we've become good friends.
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He's still my neighbor, he and his family, his wife, his kids.
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They're very, And I just thank God so much for his kindness
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that night, and now I have an art table in my bedroom and I love it.
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So remember, you can help someone out and they will appreciate it so much.
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I hope you enjoyed today's lesson, and I'll talk to you next time.
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