LIVE English Conversation Lesson: Get out of your comfort zone

Vanessa: Hello, hello.

Dan: Hello.

Vanessa: Welcome to today's live English lesson here in our wonderful YouTube community in

the Speak English with Vanessa YouTube channel.

I'm Vanessa and I'm here with my husband Dan.

Dan: Hello everybody.

Vanessa: We're going to be talking about a really important topic today that everyone

encounters in life, so I hope that you'll be able to expand your vocabulary skills but

also test your listening skills because Dan and I are both native English speakers and

I hope that the way that we talk together is understandable, but also a little bit challenging.

Make sure you take notes and try to remember some of the expressions that we talked about

and write some notes in comments or in the chat so that you can use them as we're talking.

Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Vanessa: Okay, are you ready to get started?

Dan: I'm ready.

Vanessa: All right.

Dan: Let's do this.

Vanessa: I have a question for you, Dan.

Dan: Yes, what?

Vanessa: I want to know when was a time that you had to get out of your comfort zone?

Dan: Yeah, okay, we're going to talk about getting out of your comfort zone.

One might say I'm getting out of my comfort zone right now.

Vanessa: Yeah.

Dan: Maybe, because you know it's very comfortable to just I don't know, sit on the couch and

watch some videos on YouTube, hey, some of you might be doing that now but sometimes

it makes me a little nervous to speak publicly to people so it's getting out of my comfort

zone to talk to a lot of people.

I would say probably the most intense example in our life was when we taught in South Korea.

We taught English in South Korea and we really got out of our comfort zone there.

Dan: One day we were in America, then we took an airplane and then the next day, we were

teaching English, so that was not very comfortable.

Vanessa: You had never taught English before, right?

Dan: Yeah, no, so that was a completely new experience for me.

I'd never been a teacher before.

Nothing, it was just completely new so one could say I really just gave it a shot as

well.

Vanessa: Oh, you gave it a shot.

This is an idiom that I'd like to talk about so thank you for mentioning it, Dan.

What does it mean to give it a shot?

Dan gave teaching a shot.

He just gave it a shot.

Dan: Yeah, so that means you're going to try and just try your best.

Vanessa: Yeah.

Dan: To me, this sounds a little more risky to give something a shot so maybe you'll actually

fail so- Vanessa: The kids could laugh at you.

Dan: Right.

Vanessa: Or you just start to cry because you're so scared.

Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah, basically it just means you're going to try and you're

going to try really hard.

Vanessa: Yeah, so I think this is a great idiom that you can use when you're trying

to give yourself courage to speak with someone else.

When you want to speak with someone in English, you need to get outside your comfort zone.

Dan's examples have been perfect for that.

Doing something that's a little bit different, maybe a little bit more difficult or risky

than what you usually do.

Dan: It makes you nervous.

Vanessa: Yes, it makes you nervous so when you're sitting on the couch watching this

lesson, you probably don't feel your heart pounding but maybe right now Dan's heart is

pounding because he's getting out of his comfort zone.

I make lessons and videos a lot, I still feel a little bit nervous each time but maybe for

Dan, he's getting out of his comfort zone more to do this type of lesson but when he

or when we both went to do something new and try something completely different, we gave

it a shot.

This means we're just trying it.

Maybe we'll succeed, maybe we'll fail.

I want to know for you when was a time that you gave something a shot, that you just tried

it, there was some risk involved but you just tried it.

Dan: Yeah, and I would say we use give it a shot for maybe smaller things too, like

if you want to try a new food, you're just going to give it a shot, which means maybe

it's sushi.

Do you like sushi?

I don't know but maybe you're uncertain about sushi.

Maybe you're a little scared but you say, "I'm going to give it a shot," so you just

try a little bit.

Vanessa: Yeah, it doesn't have to be a whole new life experience like moving to a new country,

it could just be something new like trying a new food or maybe if you haven't been on

a date in a long time and you decide to go on a date with someone and you feel pretty

nervous about it, you could say, "Okay, I'm just going to give it a shot."

This full expression sticks together.

I'm just going to give it a shot and see what happens.

Maybe they're a wonderful person, maybe I am really annoyed and bored after three minutes

but I'm just going to give it a shot and try it.

This is great.

Dan: Hey, when was the last time you gave something a shot?

Vanessa: Well, I give stuff a shot a lot, especially by teaching English, I'm always

trying new things, trying out new different types of technology, new different ways to

create lessons for you but there's one time in the past that I can think about giving

something a shot and that was when I was living in France.

The first week that I was in France, I needed to do some official paperwork and I didn't

know hardly any French, this was my first week there so I was really lost, but I had

to go to these government offices and fill out this paperwork.

Vanessa: First, I needed to find the office, then I needed to communicate with the officials

at the office, and then I needed to answer their questions and fill out the forms.

There was a lot of things that were outside my comfort zone and I just said, "Okay, I'm

going to give it a shot, I'm going to try this.

I don't have any French-speaking friends to help me so I'm all alone, I have to do this."

Do you know what?

At the end of that day, it was a long day, there was a lot of mistakes that I made but

at the end of the day, I felt so good.

Vanessa: It was amazing because I had eventually succeeded.

I gave it a shot and I found the office, I talked to them, I filled out the forms, and

maybe for you if you do something outside your comfort zone, you have that same experience.

That there's a lot of mistakes along the way but in the end, if you speak to someone else

in English and at the end of the conversation you have this feeling of, I did it, I gave

it a shot, it feels really good.

Dan: It does, yeah, unless it goes wrong.

Vanessa: Unless it goes wrong.

Dan: Have you ever given something a shot and it went wrong?

Vanessa: Yes, but I want to hear your story about this because I know it's quite interesting.

Dan: One time I tried to prepare for a speech in college but I didn't practice enough and

so I thought to myself oh, I'll just give it a shot, right?

I'll just make this speech and- Vanessa: Bad idea.

Dan: Maybe I'll remember everything I need to and I forgot everything.

It was really bad.

I stood up there and I had my paper and I went like this, I don't remember and I had

to leave the room.

It was really embarrassing.

I gave it a shot but I failed.

Vanessa: Yeah, so what happened after that?

Did you pick yourself up and continue after that?

What happened after you failed in that speech?

Dan: That day?

The same day?

Vanessa: Oh, after that in general.

Dan: In general, well the next time I practiced a lot more so I learned something about this

and I practiced for my next speech probably 10 days in advance and I was really prepared

and I made a really good speech and I got an A-plus on my next one.

Vanessa: Great job, Dan.

As you were telling that story about some time you gave it a shot and it didn't go well,

I was thinking about one of the first times that I ever interviewed another English teacher

for my YouTube Channel.

If you go back a long time ago in my YouTube channel, I interviewed some other YouTube

English teachers and one of the first interviews that I did like this, I'd never used that

technology to record an interview before so the technology was kind of new for me and

I thought, okay, I downloaded the technology, I think I can do it, I'll just give it a shot,

but do you know what happened?

Vanessa: I recorded the whole interview with only the audio.

There was no video, so I felt so embarrassed and I felt so bad because he said, "You know

what, let's just re-do the interview.

Let's do it again and it'll be fine."

He was very forgiving and kind thankfully but for me, I gave it a shot and it was pretty

embarrassing.

Dan: She messed up.

Vanessa: Yeah.

We have a great comment here from Vincent.

Oh, Vincent, thank you for using the Super Chat and sharing money with us, wow, you're

awesome.

Dan: All right.

Go Vincent.

Vanessa: He said, "The last time I gave it a shot was when I had to present a lecture

about Chinese herb therapy.

I don't know if I should've used a present or shown a lecture."

Oh, so maybe here you weren't sure if you should've physically shown something or given

a lecture.

"When I had to present a lecture or show a lecture."

Present a lecture is the best expression.

Dan: Yes.

Vanessa: "To present a lecture about Chinese herb therapy."

Just to let you know, when we use this expression, we always use it in the middle, or we can

use that thing that's getting out of your comfort zone so let me give you a quick grammatical

example.

For Vincent's sentence he said, "The last time I gave it a shot was when I presented

a lecture."

Or he could say, "I gave the lecture a shot."

The word it is referring to the lecture, so you could put lecture in the middle of this

idiom or you could simply put it.

No problem, so we've got two different grammatical structures for this.

Dan: Yeah, we don't just say give a shot.

Vanessa: Give a shot.

Dan: If you say that then you're giving maybe a shot of whiskey.

Vanessa: Oh, or a gun.

Dan: Oh, or maybe a medicine.

Vanessa: Okay, getting a shot, so there's other ways that we could use this, but we

need to say give it a shot.

Dan: Give it a shot.

Vanessa: Yeah, great way to use it.

Dan: Is there any other expression that kind of is talking about getting out of your comfort

zone?

Vanessa: Yeah, so I want to ask you another question, Dan.

When you were teaching in Korea, did you feel like you were prepared for it or did they

just throw you in?

Dan: Ah yes.

I would say I was thrown in.

They threw me in.

Vanessa: Did they actually take your body and throw you into the classroom?

Dan: Yeah, no, so it doesn't literally mean they picked me up and then threw me into the

classroom.

Vanessa: No.

Dan: No, it means that I wasn't really prepared but they expected me to teach, right?

I didn't get a lot of preparation or training like-

Vanessa: We had like one or two days of training, kind of we shadowed the other teachers but-

Dan: Yeah, very, very little training.

That would mean you're thrown in.

We use this a lot for jobs, right?

Vanessa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dan: Yeah, the best way to learn this job is to be thrown in.

Some people might say that to you.

Vanessa: Yeah, I kind of feel like in some ways teaching is like that.

Every job you need to learn as you go.

You need to learn with experience, so you might say for Dan, he was thrown in on the

first day.

This is a beautiful phrasal verb that means you were expected to do something that was

outside your comfort zone, probably without training, without too much training or much

training.

I think for me, it was the same situation when I was a teacher before that.

Vanessa: Before we moved to Korea, I was an English teacher in the US for middle school

and high school American kids.

I wasn't teaching English as a second language, I was teaching American kids about grammar,

and Shakespeare, and essay skills, these types of things that you learn in language class

but I had no idea what I was doing.

I was a complete newbie.

I had no idea about this type of teaching style so on my first day in the classroom,

there was zero training.

No training.

I was completely thrown into the classroom.

Vanessa: Here we can imagine that I'm standing in front of the students, thankfully I tried

to be really prepared but nobody helped me to prepare.

Dan: Yeah, she prepared herself.

It wasn't like training and that would still be throwing you in.

Vanessa: Yes, so I'm curious for you, have you ever experienced a time when you were

thrown into a new experience, thrown into a new job, or maybe you are sitting at your

desk and your boss says, "Oh, the American branch, some of the employees from the American

branch are visiting us today, can you take them to lunch today?"

Dan: Go give them a tour.

Vanessa: Yes, and you immediately have to speak in English with them, take them to lunch,

show them around the city.

You have no training, no preparation, you were thrown into that situation.

Dan: Yeah, and that situation you may even use the really strong term, they threw me

to the wolves.

Vanessa: Oh, I like that one.

Dan: Yeah, if you're thrown to the wolves, just imagine being put in front of angry and

hungry wolves, it's really scary.

That means your boss or somebody puts you in or threw you in a situation that you were

not ready for and maybe you got really scared, or had a lot of pain, or you failed.

You'd say they threw me to the wolves.

Vanessa: They threw me to the wolves, so if you have a first day at your new job, you

could tell your boss this as kind of a suggestion or a request.

You could say, "I would like to have some training for a few days so please, don't throw

me to the wolves, or at my last job, they threw me to the wolves so I appreciate that

you're training me."

You're kind of showing that before it was a really scary experience but you're grateful

that they're not throwing you in, they're giving you some training.

Vanessa: I think everyone's experienced this in some way but for English, it is very important

to get out of your comfort zone, just give it a shot.

If you get an opportunity to speak English, give it a shot.

Just do it.

Don't think about it, don't worry about the failure, just think about the opportunity

being able to do it and maybe you haven't practiced, you just need to throw yourself

in and do that.

Dan: Yeah, somebody doesn't have to throw you in, you can throw yourself in.

Vanessa: Yes.

Dan: I just need to throw myself into this work, just go at it.

Vanessa: Yes, I need to really just do it myself.

If you enjoyed talking about getting out of your comfort zone and this idiom, give it

a shot, and the phrasal verb, to throw yourself in, Dan and I are talking about this topic,

getting out of your comfort zone during our course, the Fearless Fluency Club this month

in the month of May, doing something that's a little bit risky.

Doing something that maybe takes a little bit of challenge for you.

Dan: Courage maybe?

Vanessa: Yes, some courage.

We're talking with our friend Mike who did this.

He really took an opportunity that was outside his comfort zone and it was quite different

than his live so we talk about his experience getting out of his comfort zone.

There's a good chance to learn about this, maybe challenge yourself and expand your vocabulary.

Vanessa: What I'd like to do next is I'd like to share my screen with you so that if you

would like to continue learning like this with us, you can do that.

Let me share my screen with you here really quick.

All right.

You can see that here we're on the page for the Fearless Fluency Club, which is our monthly

English subscription course where you can expand your English, your conversation skills,

your vocabulary, your grammar, your pronunciation.

Vanessa: If you click on the link in the description, you can go to this page and learn more details

about the course, and if you have any questions about it, of course you can send me an email.

If you decide to join this month in the month of May, you'll be able to have access to the

course.

This is the course for the month of May.

We're going to be talking with Mike.

Let's take a look at the beginning of this conversation.

Vanessa: You'll be able to learn this lesson with Mike about his experience doing something

outside of his comfort zone.

Something that I personally would never do, but he decided to give a try and do it.

It's a good chance to hear native speakers talking together, but you'll also get a chance

in the vocabulary lesson to do exactly what we did today, which is learn vocabulary with

Dan and I. Vanessa: Here we're going to be talking about

all of the great vocabulary, this is a great picture of Dan's face.

Dan: Nice pause.

Vanessa: We're going to be talking about all of the vocabulary from the conversation with

Mike.

You'll learn some important phrasal verbs with Dan and I, and also with some extra clips,

like some clips from movies, some clips from songs to be able to improve your phrasal verbs

including to throw someone in, the phrasal verb we talked about, and we'll also talk

about pronunciation so you'll be able to step by step practice your pronunciation skills

and imitate my pronunciation and imitate Mike's pronunciation in the conversation.

Vanessa: All right, we're back.

I want to thank you so much for learning with us and hopefully thinking about getting outside

your comfort zone.

In the comments below this video, I want to know when was a time that you had to get out

of your comfort zone.

Can you use the expressions we talked about, give it a shot or throw yourself in?

Can you use those?

Dan used them wonderfully.

Dan: I tried.

Vanessa: Yes, I- Dan: I gave it a shot.

Vanessa: I hope that you can too, and I hope that you will have a wonderful week.

If you would like to continue learning English with me, make sure that you subscribe to our

YouTube channel and you'll get notifications every time we have a new lesson here on the

YouTube channel.

Dan: We have to show something off.

Vanessa: Oh, I want to to show you something before we go.

Dan: She's forgetting something.

Vanessa: Yes.

Something happened last week that I'd like to share with you.

Let's see, can we- Dan: Oh, what could be in this box?

Vanessa: Open this up.

Oh boy.

Dan: Whoa.

Can you take it out?

Vanessa: Let's see if I can take it out.

It's a little bit tough.

Dan: Oh, it's all shiny now.

Look at that.

Vanessa: Oh wow.

Dan: It's a trophy.

Vanessa: Thank you everyone for one million subscribers.

Dan: One million subscribers.

Vanessa: Yes, YouTube has sent us a Speak English With Vanessa one million subscriber

plaque.

Thank you for subscribing and I appreciate cool YouTube did this, pretty cool.

Thanks for sharing this plaque Dan, and you can see yourself in here and the computer.

Dan: Yeah, infinity screen.

There we go.

Vanessa: Thank you so much for learning English with us and I hope you have a wonderful week.

We'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on our YouTube channel.

Bye.

Dan: Bye everyone.