English Conversation Lesson: Learn 3 advanced expressions

Dan: Hello.

Vanessa: Hello, hello.

Welcome to today's live English lesson here on the wonderful Speak English with Vanessa

YouTube channel page.

Thank you for joining me.

I'm Vanessa and this is my husband, Dan.

Dan: I'm Dan.

You might know me well.

Vanessa: Yes.

Dan is going to help today to explain three valuable English expressions.

One of them is a phrasal verb.

One of them is an idiom and what's the last one?

Dan: We got slang as well.

We like slang around here.

Vanessa: Yes, so we're hopefully help you to expand your vocabulary and also just see

some specific examples when you can use this in your daily conversations or in your writing

or in your job or in your travels, anytime that you use English.

If you're joining us live, thanks so much.

Let us know where you're from and let us know in the chat box.

We're going to be asking a lot of questions today so make sure that you interact and participate.

You can write out the questions.

You can write out your answers even if you're not watching live, if you're watching the

replay, you can do the same thing.

Write out the questions.

Write out your own answers.

Try to use these because that's the best way to remember what you're learning.

Dan: Yes, and a happy, early, Merry Christmas, if anybody has noticed our Christmas tree

back here.

Vanessa: Yes.

Dan: I love Christmas.

It's my favorite time of year.

Vanessa: Yeah so we decided to open the door so that you could get a little sneak preview

of our Christmas tree.

That was Dan's idea.

Thanks.

Dan: Yes.

You need the sneak preview.

Vanessa: Yes.

Yes.

Thank you, everyone who's joining us from Mexico, India, Brazil.

Dan: Japan.

Vanessa: Yemen, Columbia.

Dan: Egypt.

Vanessa: Hungary.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Peru, Turkey, Morocco.

Wow.

Dan: Kurdistan, never been there.

Vanessa: From everywhere.

Everywhere around the world.

Thanks so much.

I'd like to start by asking you the first question.

Dan: Okay.

Vanessa: My first question is, what has to do with something that happened this week.

We had a friend who invited us to an escape room for her birthday but I had never heard

of that so could you explain it to me?

What's in an escape room, because if my friend's inviting me there for her birthday, I want

to know what I'm going to do.

Dan: Yeah.

An escape room, I don't know if they do this in other countries yet, but it's started to

get kind of popular in America so you actually pay to get locked up in a room.

Vanessa: Yes.

Dan: It's filled with puzzles so you have to, one might say figure out some puzzles.

I've done one before and I remember they started me off in the room in handcuffs with all the

lights off.

Vanessa: You were with other people or were you alone?

Dan: I was with other people.

Vanessa: Okay.

Dan: It'd be a little scary alone I think.

Vanessa: Yeah, I guess you could do it alone but it's fun as maybe a group activity.

That's why we got invited to a friend's house.

Dan: Right, and they call it an escape room because you're supposed to escape the room,

that's the point of the game so I don't know.

Do they have that in your countries?

Vanessa: Yeah, are escape rooms becoming popular in your country?

The kind of principle of this type of activity is that you have to figure out how to get

out of the room.

What is this lovely phrasal verb here?

Figure out.

Dan: Figure out, that means to learn how to do something.

Vanessa: Yes.

Dan: It usually means it's a little difficult.

You're working on something.

Maybe you have a really hard math problem.

This happened to me all the time when I was in school.

Math was not my strong suit so I had to figure out how to solve the problem.

Vanessa: Yes, you had to figure out so this kind of implies a process.

It's difficult, maybe you have to look from one resource to the next resource and ask

someone.

You have to do some problem solving, kind of like you can imagine if Dan's in a dark

room with his friends, handcuffed, and they have to figure out how to get out of the room,

that involves a process.

You have to problem solve and figure out other things so I want to know for you, my question

for you is when was a time you had to figure out how to solve a problem.

Dan: You can also say, figure it out.

Vanessa: Figure it out, so when would we use figure it out?

Dan: Yeah.

If you're already in the process of working on something, you might just say to yourself,

oh, man, I really need to figure it out.

Vanessa: Yeah, so the other day.

Dan: I need to figure this out.

Vanessa: I was in the office, in this room and I think I made some kind of sound like,

some kind of frustrated sound and you said from the other room.

Hey, Vanessa, are you okay?

I said, I was fine.

I'll figure it out.

I didn't tell him any specifics.

I didn't say I'm working on this problem on the website and technical things are sometimes

frustrating to me.

I didn't give him any details.

I just said, oh, I'll figure it out.

Dan: She knew I wouldn't be able to figure it out so.

Vanessa: I didn't want to explain those details.

Dan: She figured it out on her own.

Vanessa: Yes, so do you think that this is an expression and a phrasal verb that you

could use in a workplace situation?

Dan: Yeah.

Vanessa: If you have some kind of problem?

Dan: Absolutely.

Yeah.

Vanessa: It's useful for those kind of professional situations, certainly so maybe if you have

a problem on some kind of report that you're working on and you want to ask a coworker

about it.

Dan: Can you help me figure this out?

Vanessa: Figure this out.

Dan: That would be polite and it's acceptable.

It's not slang.

Vanessa: Yeah, it's not slang.

It can be polite and you can split this phrasal verb like Dan just did, figure it out or figure

this out or figure this problem out, figure this thing out so you can split it or you

can keep it together, no problem.

We've got two different choices.

A lot of you are writing wonderful expressions here.

I see, Zahira says, I will figure out how to get confident in English.

Dan: That's a good one.

Vanessa: That is a great one.

Dan: Yeah.

Vanessa: Here, we can kind of imagine that you're solving the problem.

You're working through this issue and you're going to figure it out.

I will figure it out.

I know I'll do it.

Dan: I couldn't figure out what my boss was talking about as I don't speak Mongolian.

That's a good one too.

I couldn't figure it out, in the negative.

Vanessa: Yes, so when you're using this in the negative version, just like we saw here

in the sample sentence from those of you who are here live with us, saying I couldn't figure

out what my boss was saying or maybe if you had an English teacher who just talked way

too fast and talked about too many complex things, then maybe you would say, oh, I can't

figure out what Vanessa is saying.

She's just talking too fast.

Dan: We have a question.

Is find out, similar?

Vanessa: Oh, this is a great question.

Dan: Find out.

Vanessa: I want to give you a little tip, maybe a year ago, over a year ago or maybe

less than a year ago, I'm not sure.

I made a video comparing figure out and find out.

After this has finished, I'll link this video up here and then also in the description but

I want you to get some more details about that.

If I said, I'm going to find out who is at the door.

Dan: That means you're going to discover, you're going to see, find out.

You don't know right now and then you're going to find out, you're going to discover.

Vanessa: It kind of doesn't imply that process.

You're searching a difficult thing.

Instead, it's an instant thing like, a-ha.

I opened the door, and I can see who's there.

I'm going to find out who's there.

Dan: Yeah, maybe if you said, I'm going to figure out who's at the door, maybe you hear

a knock on the door and you look through the hole and you don't see anybody or maybe somebody

is wearing a mask and then they give you a puzzle.

Vanessa: Yes, so it is kind of implies a process.

Dan: It needs to be more involved.

Vanessa: Yes, so if you would like some more details about figure out versus find out,

feel free to check out that video but in general, figure out means there's some process, you're

searching, you're figuring out how to do something.

We often add how at the end, figure out how to escape from the room, figure out how to

become a confident English speaker and find out is just the solution.

Find out what is happening.

Find out who is at the door.

Dan: I want to find out what presents are under my Christmas tree.

Vanessa: Are there any presents under our Christmas tree?

Dan: There are no presents.

Vanessa: maybe someday there will be presents under the Christmas tree.

Dan: Christmas is ruined.

Vanessa: Oh, well when you have a toddler.

Dan: It's still early.

Vanessa: You can't put Christmas presents under the tree early.

It's a recipe for getting them opened.

Dan: Yes.

Vanessa: All right.

I'd like to go to the second expression, which is an idiom.

This past week, our car was doing some kind of funny things, making some funny sounds

and I noticed that you didn't fix the car yourself.

Dan: No.

Vanessa: You took it to the mechanic.

Why did you take the car to the mechanic?

Dan: Well, I'm not a mechanic.

I'm not very handy.

Handy means you can fix a lot of things.

I'm kind of handy but not with cars so I am in over my head when it comes to fixing cars.

I would be in over my head if I tried to fix my car.

In over my head.

Vanessa: A lovely idiom.

In over my head.

We need four words here.

Dan: In what?

Vanessa: Well, we can kind of imagine the feeling of being overwhelmed.

You're completely surrounded or covered in the problem so here we can imagine Dan opening

the car, trying to fix the problem.

He's trying to figure out what's making that strange sound.

He's trying to look around.

Dan: I'm ripping pieces out of the car.

Vanessa: Oh, and he thinks, oh, it's going to be a disaster.

I should just go to the mechanic because I am in over my head.

It's a problem that's too big.

Dan: You can think of swimming in the ocean.

If you're drowning, the waters over your head.

You're in trouble.

Vanessa: Yes.

Dan: You're you're struggling.

Vanessa: I think that's a great image.

Dan: I think this is where this comes from.

Vanessa: Yeah, when I think of this expression, I do think of water that you're in the swimming

pool or in the ocean and the water's getting higher and higher and when the water is over

your head, bad news.

Dan: Yeah, I mean really, that probably means you're going to die.

Vanessa: Yeah.

Dan: This is a little bit of an expression that's not literal, obvious.

That's why it's idiom right?

You're just in trouble.

You're in big trouble.

Vanessa: Yes.

In over your head.

I want to know for you, when was a situation that was just too much for you and you felt

like you were in over your head.

What was a time?

Maybe you decided to volunteer at your job to be the person who helps the American director

who's coming to your office and you said, sure, I'll talk to the American director.

I'll take him out to dinner, I'll guide him around the office.

I can speak English.

This is fine, and then you meet him and you realize he has a strong Southern accent.

Dan: Howdy, folks.

Vanessa: Maybe at the end of that day, you feel like I was in over my head.

This situation was too much for me.

I can understand English, but I didn't realize that his accent would be so strong.

I was in over my head.

Dan: Yeah, I have a personal example.

Vanessa: Yes.

What was your personal example?

Dan: We used to teach English in South Korea, you probably know this.

I had never taught children before so the first time I had to teach a class of children,

I was in over my head.

In over my head because the children, they didn't necessarily respect me yet.

I'm different looking in South Korea, my red hair and my freckles.

They thought it was weird.

They didn't take me seriously, they started yelling and screaming.

I was in over my head because I didn't know what to do about it so.

Vanessa: Yes, and over time, you learned more and more what to do but that's a perfect situation

and perfect expression to use especially for your first day at school, your first day as

a teacher, your first day at your job, maybe your first day living in the U.S. or if you

move to Australia.

Dan: This happens a lot.

Vanessa: I was in over my head that first day, but eventually it got better so I want

to know for you, when was a situation when you were in over your head?

Dan: Tell us about it.

Vanessa: Yes, yes.

Let us know in the comments.

Make sure that you use this expression as much as you can.

I'd like to read a sentence that one of you wrote, I was in over my head.

I was stressed.

I couldn't do it.

Oh, stress is usually associated with being in over your head.

You're stressed.

You're overwhelmed.

Yes, it's just too much.

I'm in over my head.

Khaled says, I'm in over my head.

The American director speaks too fast.

Dan: That's a good example.

Vanessa: I hope that that didn't happen to you but if this happened, you're going to

use a beautiful idiom to describe it, oh, I'm in over my head.

Dan: Are you in over your head when you watch Vanessa's videos?

I hope not.

Vanessa: Oh, yes.

I hope that you can easily understand and you're not too cool for my videos.

Dan: She's a little advanced.

Vanessa: Sure, if you're here.

That means you can already understand two native English speakers.

Congratulations, but hopefully it means that you're learning something new while also understanding

most of our explanations.

I just used our third expression.

Dan: You did?

Vanessa: The slang expression.

I hope you're not too cool for these videos.

Dan: Too cool for.

Vanessa: Yes.

I want to know when you were a teenager, what was something that you decided that you didn't

want to do anymore?

Dan: Yeah, I can actually go back to when I was younger.

Vanessa: Okay.

Dan: Even when I was a kid, when I was eight years old, I was too cool for Barney.

You know Barney is?

Vanessa: Barney is a kids TV show.

It's probably popular around the world.

It's a big purple dinosaur.

Dan: He's a big purple dinosaur in a big costume and he's, I'm happy, you know and I remember

being as a kid, I was too cool for Barney and this means that I thought it was dumb.

I wouldn't watch it myself.

If somebody was watching this show, I would maybe look down on them.

Vanessa: They're too like, they're children.

Children, watch this.

I'm too old and too cool for this.

Dan: I don't watch Barney.

I'm too cool for Barney.

Vanessa: Yes.

I feel like this slang expression, too cool.

Dan: Barney, B-A-R-N-Y.

Vanessa: N-E-Y?

Dan: Y?

E-Y?

Vanessa: E-Y?

Something like that.

I'm sure you'll find the big purple dinosaur online.

Dan: That's it.

Vanessa: Well, when you say too cool for something, it's pretty self explanatory.

You feel like, this is for children.

This is for someone who is less than me so it's a slang expression where you feel like

you're above some kind of item or activity or concept.

Oftentimes, teenagers feel like this.

Maybe when you were a teenager, you felt like you were too cool to hold hands with your

mom when you cross to the street.

You said, I'm a teenager.

I can handle this.

I'm too cool for that and you kind of feel like that's for children.

Dan: Yes, and this slang term definitely implies attitude.

You're not just saying, oh no, I don't like that.

You're saying, that's stupid.

Vanessa: Yeah, I'm too cool for that.

Dan: That's dumb.

I wouldn't listen to that music anymore, loser.

Vanessa: Yeah, so you might hear this often used by kids, like in Dan's example about

the children's TV show or by teenagers but we can use this as adults in a joking way

because we often take expressions that are strong and then use them in lighter situations

where it's not as serious.

For example, maybe if I want to watch, I don't know if you've seen the, I think it's a Pixar

movie, Coco.

It's really cute and I enjoyed it a lot.

If I asked Dan, hey, do you want to watch Coco tonight?

He might say.

Dan: I would say.

Vanessa: He would say yes.

Let's imagine that he might say no and let's say-

Dan: Let's say I'm too cool.

Vanessa: Yeah, I might say, what?

Dan: Coco.

Vanessa: Are you too cool to watch Coco?

Dan: I don't watch cartoons.

Vanessa: That's not true but in this situation.

Dan: I actually love cartoons.

Vanessa: We might say, I might say to Dan, are you too cool for Coco?

Dan: Too cool for Coco.

Vanessa: Are you too cool for Pixar movies?

Are you to cool for more animated movies?

Here, we're using this not in a, like a teenager or childish way, but just in a joke kind of

way.

Dan: It's kind of a joke.

Vanessa: Yeah, to say oh, you think you're better than this movie?

It's great for everybody.

I enjoy it.

I think a lot of people have enjoyed it so you can use too cool for something in a lot

of situations.

Dan: By the way, the original expression I think from too cool is too cool for school.

We actually say that still.

Sometimes people even say that like as a good thing, like, wow, that's too cool for school.

Vanessa: When would you use that?

This is taking slang to the next level, extra slang.

Dan: If you saw maybe like an outfit that was really cool.

You'd say, that's too cool, or that's too cool for school.

I wouldn't say this is extremely common but it's, people would understand you're not being

rude.

Vanessa: Yeah, so I imagine if you heard this in a TV show or a movie, now you'll feel a

little more comfortable with too cool and also too cool for school, which is just the

rhyming original expression.

Dan: Yeah, the original expression was, you would say somebody is too cool for school.

He's too cool for school.

He doesn't like to go to school.

He is unhappy at school.

Vanessa: He has an attitude.

Dan: He doesn't like reading, that kind of thing.

That's the original source.

Vanessa: Yeah.

Well, we have a lot of great sentences here from those of you who are joining us live,

talking about- Dan: Your grandma's too cool to watch Coco.

Vanessa: Oh, no.

Well, Sylvester says I will never be too cool to watch cartoons.

Dan: I agree.

Vanessa: I'll never be too cool for cartoons.

Dan: Maybe it's because I was a child with cartoons.

I still like cartoons especially Miyazaki, does anybody watching Miyazaki, Japanese animation.

Vanessa: Very cool.

Dan: I like that.

Vanessa: Very cool or another great comment we've got here is, I'm too cool for dancing.

Oh, so maybe if your friend asked you to go to a concert to dance or a club or somewhere

to dance on, I'm too cool for dancing.

Dan: I'm not too cool for dancing but I'm bad at dancing so.

Vanessa: There are lots of excuses you can give, various excuses.

Dan: Too cool for Brad Pitt?

Vanessa: Oh, maybe there's a lot of different ways that you can use too cool for something.

Well, I'd like to thank you so much for joining us to learn about phrasal verbs, idioms and

the slang expression today.

Figure out, in over my head and too cool for something.

If you enjoyed Dan and I's explanation and our little stories about this, we do this

every month in The Fearless Fluency Club.

We make a vocabulary lesson that's about, how long would you say?

Dan: That's like 30, 40 minutes.

Vanessa: Oh, I'd say it's about an hour.

Usually there's two parts.

There's two 30 minute parts that we have for the vocabulary lessons.

Dan: Okay, that's true.

We cut it in half.

Vanessa: Yeah, we cut it in half and make two different parts so you'll get an hour

of about 15 to 20 vocabulary expressions every month.

For the month of December, you got a sneak preview about these expressions.

In December, three of the 17 or 18 expressions are figure out something, in over my head

and too cool for something.

Dan: Too cool.

Vanessa: These are three expressions that we talk about in the December lesson set for

The Fearless Fluency Club so I'd like to show you really quick and give you a quick sneak

preview.

Dan: Yes, so Let's take a look.

Vanessa: Yes, of this wonderful monthly lesson set so that you can see here.

We have the December 2018 lesson set that's going to come out tomorrow.

If you join in December, you'll get access to the December lesson set and you can use

the coupon code NEW, N-E-W to get it for only $5 and I'd like to show you here, we have

the vocabulary that we just mentioned.

The vocabulary part one, you can see, oh we're going to put this on.

Dan: I had a haircut.

Vanessa: On mute, just so that you can see it.

We talk about a lot of different expressions and then you can see the clips from the original

conversation when it was used so here, you're getting great explanations from Dan and I.

Two different parts and then we go on to the grammar lesson and in December, you're going

to get one of the longest grammar lessons that I've ever made.

It's 34 minutes but you're going to get access to this grammar lesson where we're going to

discuss some excellent expressions with would have.

Would have, oh, this is a complex verb.

It seems simple but it's quite complex so we break it down, go through it step by step

and I try to help you use it naturally.

Then in the next section in December, we talk about pronunciation.

This pronunciation lesson is extra special because we're going to be focusing on a lot

of sentences.

Oh, here we have a sentence with figure out, they can figure things out.

We go through this step by step and you can figure out how to pronounce this sentence

as accurately as possible and then you get to watch the conversation with my friend,

Faith.

You get to hear her naturally say this originally in the conversation because the last video

is the conversation where we have a 30 minute chat together about her interesting job, working

for AmeriCorps, which is a nonprofit in the U.S.

She volunteers at different schools, at different organizations and has interesting perspective

about education.

We're going to talk about some wonderful ideas there.

We also focus on a story that includes all of the vocabulary and grammar.

All of the would have expressions.

Some new expressions as well that are in the story.

This is a fun Christmas story because it's the December lesson set and you can study

this all together.

I hope that this lesson set overall will help you to feel comfortable using English and

really trying to incorporate it into your daily life so if you enjoyed today's lesson,

feel free to join us every month in The Fearless Fluency Club.

There is a link in the description.

You can continue learning with Dan and I. Dan: You can figure out English with us.

Vanessa: Yes, you can figure out how to use it.

Dan: If you're not too cool for school.

Vanessa: Yeah, don't be too cool for school.

Before we go today, I'd like to practice pronouncing a final sentence that uses two of the expressions

we talked about today.

I wrote it down here so that we can practice it together.

It is, I would like to say it slowly, and then we're going to speed it up and I want

you to say it out loud so that you can use your speaking muscles.

I'd like you to join me too, Dan.

Dan: Okay.

Vanessa: Okay.

Dan: I'm nervous.

Vanessa: All right, we got this.

The sentence is, I was in over my head before.

Dan: In over my head.

Vanessa: Now I figured out how to learn English.

I was in over my head before, but now I figured out how to learn English.

What does the sentence mean?

I was in over my head before, but now I figured out how to learn English.

Dan: Well, this means that before today maybe, you didn't know how to speak English at all.

You didn't understand me.

You didn't understand Vanessa, but now you have figured it out.

Vanessa: Yes, you have figured out the best path and the best method is with Vanessa and

Dan.

Dan: This is true.

Vanessa: Let's speed this sentence up and I want you to pronounce it clearly and then

use it yourself.

Are you ready?

I was in over my head before, but now I figured out how to learn English.

Let's say it faster.

I was in over my head before, but now I've figured out how to learn English.

I wasn't over my head before, but now I figured out how to learn English.

Can you say it?

Dan: I was in over my head before, but now I have figured out how to learn English.

Vanessa: I was in over my head before, but now I have figured out how to learn English,

with Vanessa and Dan.

Thanks so much for learning English with us.

I hope that you enjoyed this lesson.

This live lesson you can join me for a new lesson every Friday and you just can subscribe

to my YouTube channel and click the bell to get a notification every time there's a live

lesson.

I hope that you'll continue to enjoy these and we'll see you again next Friday for a

new lesson here on this YouTube channel.

Thanks so much.

We'll see you again later.

Dan: Thanks, everybody.

Vanessa: Bye.

Dan: Bye.