What Is Up in the Air?

Audiogram version with subtitles: https://share.descript.com/view/dhzSEl2wiZY

Full Transcript:

Up in the air

Hey Daniel and Hey Vocab Man listeners. This is Steph from the Geopats Podcast coming to you from Rome, Italy. I'm an American expat, who has turned into a digital nomad. And so my current location is where I'm living right now. And that will change at the end of my three months in Italy. All right.

So forget location. I have a really juicy phrase to dig into that. Daniel gave me for this episode and that is up in the air. I love this one! Thank you Daniel, for giving me a phrase that is so connected to my current expat life from my current digital nomad life, my current crazy geographical life. Okay. So up in the air, let's do this


Up in the air.

Is a phrase that you really can't translate directly. I have to give you a visual.

So are you ready? Can you close your eyes, please?

Both of them. Okay, great. Thanks. So your eyes are closed.

Can you picture a coin in whatever currency? It doesn't matter, a picture of a coin going up into the air and coming down.

Now picture a person flicking the coin up into the air and it coming down in their hand and them looking to see which side of the coin is facing up.

Now in a few different cultures. English, isn't just one culture. It's about language that bridges a lot of cultures, but in a lot of cultures that use English tossing a coin like that, flipping a coin like that is a way to make a decision.

So for example, in the United States, a lot of our coins have. a symbol on one side and the head of a president of the United States on the other side. And so when we flip a coin, if there's two people in this decision, which there usually is, someone will say, Hey, heads or tail. And that means you're picking which side you want to be facing up.

And if you pick heads and the person flicks the coin into the air and it comes down and it's heads and some people, they just take it when it comes down, some people take it when it comes down, then they flip it over. There's different ways to read the coin. The important part is, however it's read in that case, if it's head you, quote unquote, win.

Your decision is the decision that happens. So the thing is, this is connected to up in the air because if something is up in the air, it's the coin - and again, this is where your eyes are closed - Don't open them! Picture the coin at the top of where before it starts to come down. So you flicked for the coin, it's up in the air just before it comes down.

That!

That moment. That's what this phrase is focusing on. When something, when an idea or an experience or a decision or a situation is up in the air, it's that uncomfortable, uncertain moment in time. That snapshot in time before we know what's happening, the discomfort. In the uncertainty is absolutely the heart of this phrase.

If something is up in the air, it's usually there's usually an impatience. It doesn't always have to be, but usually there's an impatience with not knowing what's going to happen. Whether it's your decision, somebody else's decision, whether it's a job interview or are you going to get the apartment that you want?

Does the girl you like, like you back there? It's up in the air. Like you just don't know.

You're close to knowing. Cause the coin has been flipped, but you don't know. So it's that uncertain moment in time. So let me give you some examples and these are going to get personal really fast because this is my life right now.

My geographic existence is up in the air right now. So there's an example right there, but let me give you. A more specific example right now. I know where I'm going to live in March. April may and most of June, but where I'm going to live in June, July, and August is up in the air again on.

Discomfort with the uncertainty and the unknown, but it's close. I wouldn't really say where I'm going to live in 2030 is up in the air. It's too far away. Do you know what I mean? Like it has to be something that's about to be clear. Now about to be clear, could be days, weeks, or months, but it's at least in the planning stages or almost about to happen. Do you know what I mean? Like, it can't be so far away in the future, but it also can't really be in the past. How can you have an uncertainty about the past, about a decision or something that's going to happen? Let's try an example and I'll show you why, where I was going to live in.

2020 was up in the air. So that's past tense, right? It's in 2020 the year 2020. Can it still be up in the air if that year already happened? No, because there's no uncertainty, the year's over and it all happened. So it's not really something that could be in the past, in that way. Now, as I'm saying that I'm thinking, oh wait, what if it was uncertain for a period of time?

Can we talk about that in the past? The job offer was up in the air for most of 2020. That one's okay. Cause you're stressing how long it was uncertain and uncomfortable for. The job offer was up in the air. But honestly, even though that makes sense. And I wouldn't question anything if somebody said that it's probably more common to say they didn't make their decision for a long time.

So I probably wouldn't even use up in the air for that. The vast majority of usage for up in the air is for things that are about to be known in the present and very near future.

Let me give you one more example. Uh, what I'm going to have for dinner tonight is up in the air. I love food by the way, the food in Italy is amazing, but I'm sure you already know that.

Okay. So, yeah, but. Now that one's not as uncomfortable, except for me right now, I've got three weeks left in the country. So the pressure of having all of my favorites in those three weeks, without gaining tons of weight, by eating them all at once is a little bit uncomfortable. Cause I'm coming to the end of my time here.

So that does fit. It's a little jokey fit, but it fits because getting all of that food in is a pressure for me .

Anyway. I hope this makes sense, and I hope you feel more comfortable and less uncertain with using the term up in the air. Thank you so much, Daniel. This was really fun to dig into and it was nice to be able to bring in my crazy daily life as a digital nomad in Europe right now.

Uh, again, GEOPATS, G O P A T S is one of my podcasts and probably the one that you'll find the most interesting. And my handle is Steph Fuccio, S T E P H F U C C I O. Everywhere online on the social medias. It's also my.com website address. So if any of this resonated with you and you'd like to hear more of what I'm doing with language and other things in the podcasting space, then please do reach out or check out all of the things that I'm doing or any of the things that I'm doing.

Again. Thank you, Daniel. And thank you, Vocab Man listeners. I hope you have a wonderful day and that you don't have too much up in the air yourself right now. Bye bye.

GEOPATS language:
https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopatslanguage