Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases PAST THEIR PRIME and PRIME TIMEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase past their prime. When you say someone is past their prime, it means they peaked at whatever they do well and now they aren't as good at it. We usually use this to talk about athletes, a professional athlete. Often when they are in their 30s, they start to not be as good at the sport as they used to be. And then we might say when they're 35 or 36, that they are past their prime. It's not a nice phrase, is it? I do not look forward to the day where I'm teaching a class and some parent says, Bob, that guy is past his prime, it's time for him to retire. I don't think I'm anywhere close yet, but that would not be a nice thing to hear. But often used to talk about professional athletes when they're in their 30s. It's common to read a news article or hear someone on TV say that they are past their prime. Again, not very flattering, not very kind.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is prime time. This is kind of an older phrase. This refers to TV shows that are on between 8 and 10 or 7 and 11. There's a bit of a... There's a... There's a couple different ideas as to what it means, but it means the time where people normally, I guess, used to watch TV. Now there's streaming and YouTube and all kinds of other things to do from 7 to 11. But prime time meant a TV show that was on between 7 and 11 at night. So for me it's usually game shows from 7 to 8. So there's Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And then at 8 o'clock I don't often sit down to watch a TV show anymore. I might watch a Blue Jays game, but those are on at prime time sometimes as well. They start at 7 or 7:30 at night. Anyways, prime time, the best time to get a lot of viewers to watch something.So to review. When someone is past their prime, it means that they were good at something and now they're not as good at it because they're getting older, they've peaked and now they're kind of going downhill. And then prime time would be any TV show that's on between 8 and 10 or 7 and 11, whatever you choose.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from. Know that as for your example of the shirt with the hole in it, Bob, if it were one of your favorite shirts, you could possibly wear a sweater over it in a pinch. Assuming of course that the weather is right for a sweater and how many holes it has, how big they are and where. I know that was just an example and as always, a really good one from you. Thank you so much, Bob. You're awesome in so many ways. Have a great day.And my response, yeah, I've done that from time to time. In fact, I'm doing it right now. Yeah, I went and found what is my favorite shirt. It's too bad that shirts get. The shirt is past its prime there. I could use the example as well. It's too bad when things get old. This doesn't have holes in it, but it's actually. It's just starting to wear out a little bit where you can't see. So I can't wear it unless I wear a sweater or a top like this over top of it.So anyways, the lawn chairs are back out. You might have noticed that in a previous video. We put them back out a week or two ago. This has just become a beautiful spot to sit in the spring, summer and fall. For Jen and I. It's shady in the morning right now. It's about 9am so it's nice. We put them away for the winter and now they're back. We've also removed one row, one row of the little markers from the driveway. We have to remove these at some point. The dogs were startiSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE and TO SET A BAD EXAMPLEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a textbook example. When something is a textbook example, it's something in real life that could have been in a textbook, maybe. Let me explain a little bit better. A textbook is a book you use in school to learn new things. And a textbook example is something that happens in real life that maybe could have been taught in a textbook, but we sometimes use it in a funny way. Here's a good example. If you're watching a football game or what I call soccer, and there's a corner kick and the person kicks it and the ball bends nicely and goes right into the top far corner of the net, we would say, that's a textbook example of how to do a corner kick. That's how, if there was a textbook that taught you how to kick the ball, that's what they would teach you. To kick it in a way where it bends and hooks right above the goalie or goaltender and goes into the net. That would be a textbook example.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianSo the other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to set a bad example. Now, if I was to wear jeans to school or really old shirts with holes in them, that would be a bad example. I would be setting a bad example for the students. When we have students in school that don't behave, that sets a bad example for the other students. They might think because that one student is misbehaving, they can misbehave as well. So when you set a bad example, you do something that encourages other people to do the same, even though it's a bad thing. If I speed in my van, I would be setting a bad example for my own children.So to review a textbook example is like something that happens in real life that's done so well. You think, oh, they could. If they taught this. This is how they would teach it in a textbook. A textbook example. And to set a bad example simply means to do something that encourages other people to do that bad thing as well.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from the paper got all crumpled in my pocket. I've been a number of places between school and here. Here we go. From Bryce. It's nice to see you, Unc Bob, which is short for uncle. And my response, it's good to be back in action. So, Bryce, thank you for that. I picked that one because I always giggle a little bit because in some places in the world I'm apparently known as Uncle Bob. In some Asian countries, I think it is what we call an honorific. It's a term we use when we respect someone. We might call them uncle, even though they aren't technically our uncle. So I'll take it. If you guys want to call me Uncle Bob at some point, that's fine. I have the gray hair to be like an old wise uncle, so we'll go with that.Where am I today? I'm getting water. Some of you have been here before with me. This is the place where I come to fill my water jugs. I've already filled them. You can see here that it says small container fill station. Please push and pull handle slowly. Although they've replaced it with a switch now. And then you can read that if you want to take the time, hit pause. And then also, they don't like it when people hook a hose up directly to the tap. So that's where I am today. I just filled the jugs. And so we have a little bit of drinking water again for the rest of the week.We don't drink as much in the in the late winter, early spring as we do in the summer. But it is important. The water we have at home is not really good to drink. It's in the cistern. We do keep it clean enouSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL and THE FEELING IS MUTUALIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you understand the English term mutually beneficial. When something is mutually beneficial, it benefits both people. The other day in my lesson I used the term win win. When something's a win win, it means it's good for both people who are involved in whatever is happening. You could say the same thing here. When something is mutually beneficial, then both people are... both countries benefit. I will say this, I don't like to get political, but tariffs don't seem to be mutually beneficial. The world's a little crazy right now. Again, I don't like to comment on too much of the political spectrum, but I'm not sure everything is mutually beneficial right now in the world.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the feeling is mutual. When someone tells you what they think about you or how they feel about you. And if you respond by saying the feeling is mutual, it means you feel the same way. If one of you didn't like me and said, Bob, you're not very nice and I thought the same about you, I would say, hey, the feeling is mutual. You can also use this to talk about, like if two people think the same way about something, you could say the feeling is mutual. Like if one of you said that you don't like tariffs, I could say, oh, the feeling's mutual. It means I don't really like them either. I hope I don't get too many comments from this lesson. But anyways, to review when something is mutually beneficial, it's good for both people or both parties or both countries. And when the feeling is mutual, it means that you and another person or a group of people and another group of people feel the same way about something.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Mohd Ags. It's so good to see you Mr. Bob. Thank you for the useful phrase sight unseen. And thanks to the student that used it naturally, they basically taught us the phrase too, eh? Correct use of "eh" by the way. And my response? Yep, the people around me are unaware that they are inadvertently teaching all of you. So thanks Mohd Ags for that comment.And yeah, I've explained this before, haven't I? That what I do in order to figure out what to teach you today is I just listen to people and someone actually used the phrase mutually beneficial today. And then usually the second phrase, I just look for something that's kind of related. It doesn't always mean the same thing, but it usually has the same word in it or some version of that word.So yeah, what was I going to talk about today? Not politics. I'm not going to talk about that at all. Or did I already do that? Maybe a little bit. I know someone else commented, and I didn't have this comment on the screen that in the last video I was probably talking faster than I did in previous lessons on this channel. And that could be true. I'm a little out of practice In English, when you say you're out of practice, it means you haven't done something for a while, so you're maybe not as good at it or not doing it in the same way that you used to do it.So maybe I'm a little bit out of practice. I just intentionally started speaking a little bit more slowly, 10% more slowly than normal, and pronouncing all my words correctly. So we'll see. Now I feel like I'm thinking about it too much and adjusting how I speak too much. So I'll try to go back to normal. The idea with this channel is that I do speak close to my normal speed for the last two minutes, so hopefully I'm gettinSupport the show

Preply is a great way to find an English conversation partner. Use this link http://preply.sjv.io/e1gM5D to get 50% off your first lesson or use code BOB50 at checkout. In my experience Preply is a great way to take your language learning to the next level.Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SIGHT UNSEEN and OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MINDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase sight unseen. Now we use this when we're talking about buying something that we haven't looked at. Here's an example. If I was to go online on Facebook Marketplace, it's a popular place to go when you're trying to buy something used. And if I saw a car and I called the person and I said, I'm going to send you $10,000 over the Internet for that car, I would be buying it sight unseen. What that means is I didn't go and look at the car before I bought it. If I saw a house online and the price was really good, and if I was a multimillionaire, which I'm not, I might call the realtor and say, I want to buy that house. And I would then buy it sight unseen. Meaning that I didn't even bother to go and look at the house to see what it looked like. I bought it sight unseen.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"✅If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase out of sight out of mind. When there are no cookies in the house, I don't eat cookies because when something is out of sight, it's not in your mind, it's out of sight, out of mind. If I see cookies, then I want to eat cookies. So it's best for me. Sorry, I'm trying to keep my back to the wind. Let me shift a little bit here. It's best for me if things are out of sight, out of mind. If I don't see cookies, if I don't see cake, if I don't see donuts, then I don't crave them and I don't eat them.So to review, when you buy something sight unseen, it means you buy it without going to look at it. It's always best to look at something before you buy it. But sometimes you might buy it sight unseen. And then when something is out of sight, out of mind, it means you can't see it. So then you don't think about it.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Duncan Kim. Thanks for watching. Thanks for teaching and my response. You're welcome.So what Duncan's saying there is I often at the end of my videos will say thanks for watching. But Duncan feels that I deserve thanks. And this goes back to when I taught the phrase. By the way, thanks Duncan for the comment when I taught the phrase when something's a win win. I've mentioned this before. I like making these videos. It's really nice to be outside making a video today. And you like watching them. It's a win, win. We both benefit. And just so you know, I do get a little bit of money from YouTube. There are ads and you watch the ads and I get a little bit of money. But it's, it's a win, win situation. So I do thank people for watching and people do thank me for making the videos. So it's a, it's a win, win. We both say thank you and we both say you're welcome.Anyways, what can I say? It is really nice to be out here making a video again. It is really nice to be feeling a lot better. I'm not going to go into any details, but yeah, I took a little bit of a break if you didn't notice. And it's good to be back. I was excited because today I heard a student use the phrase sight unseen and I was like, there's the phrase. It's time to get things going again on this second channel. So again, you shouldn't buy things sight unseen, but maybe you're the kind of person that likes doing that.So anyways, what else was I going toSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT and A HOP, SKIP, AND A JUMPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression my heart skipped a beat. Now this can be used in a couple of ways. It can be used in a romantic way. Like I could say, the first time I met Jen, my heart skipped a beat, meaning that I found her attractive and I was excited to see her. So my heart skipped a beat. Like ba bump, buh bump, buh bump, buh bump. It can also be used for something that's a little bit scary, though. As a parent, if the phone rings in the middle of the night, my heart skips a beat because it makes me think that maybe one of my children, maybe something bad has happened to them. If you are my age and if you have teenage children and if they are supposed to come home at midnight and it's one in the morning and the phone rings, usually my heart skips a beat. So when you say my heart skipped a beat, it's the past tense. It means that something exciting happened or something a little bit scary happened.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a hop, skip and a jump. I think this comes from triple jump in the... the Olympic sport where you hop, skip and jump, but we use this to refer to something being not far away. I could say my brother just lives a hop, skip and a jump from here. That's not true, actually. My sister lives a hop, skip and a jump from here. My brother lives a little bit further away. So it's used to talk about distance and it means not very far.So to review, if you say my heart skipped a beat, it could mean that something exciting happened or it could mean that something scary happened. And if you say something is a hop, skip and a jump from here or a hop, skip and a jump away, it means it's really, really close. If you hopped and then did a little skip and a jump, you would be there.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Judit. Let me get it open here. Or Aerosmith77 as she also goes by. Thanks for this short video, Bob. I hope it doesn't mean that you skip tomorrow's video though. I was happy to hear that you are getting ready to make a live stream on Friday. I am looking forward to it and my response I'm getting ready to go out and shoot the lesson now, so no skipping. I guess I'm in the middle of shooting the lesson. Thanks Judit for that comment. Yeah, I am definitely out here making a lesson and putting this lesson up for Wednesday morning. So this will be ready to go. I'll do a little bit of editing on it as when I go back in the house and it will be ready for all of you to watch.So a little update. I have switched from a winter coat to a spring jacket. I might have referred to this as my fall jacket last year. It's kind of funny how the same jacket, when worn in a different season, gets a different name. So I put my fall jacket away, wore my winter coat for the entire winter season, and now I have my spring jacket on, which looks exactly like my fall jacket. It's beautiful out here. Jen and I are really excited to get started on doing little things on the farm. Now, I do say it's beautiful, but it's very brown, isn't it? Like no leaves on the trees. The. I should really pick that gate up, shouldn't I? At some point. Yeah. I am looking forward to the return of green. But this is nice. It's 12 degrees right now, Celsius, so I'm really, really enjoying it.I have a list of little chores I have to do later today. It's spring break and I have a few things to do. I'll show you one of them. I don't know if I'll get to this Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S THE WAY IT GOES SOMETIMES and IT IS WHAT IT IS.In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression, that's the way it goes sometimes. This is an expression we use when you know life. Things just happen in life and there's nothing you can do about it. I picked this expression or phrase because this is exactly what I said when I lost my voice last week. I had just done a video saying that I'm bound and determined to put out videos somewhat on a regular schedule. And then literally the next day I lost my voice. And then I couldn't make a lesson for last Friday, but I'm bound and determined to put one out today. It's Monday today. So kind of this expression means, well, that's life. That's the way things go sometimes. That's the way it goes sometimes. I just said it subconsciously. I said the phrase even though I wasn't looking at the phrase. I don't know if you caught that, but it just came out automatically. So this is a really authentic English lesson.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase is it is what it is. This is another phrase that means, well, that's life. Or in French we would say c'est la vie, or that's the way it goes sometimes. Yeah, it is what it is. Do you like having a lesson on a Monday? Hey, it is what it is. It's better than no lesson. So to review, when you say that's the way it goes sometimes, or when you say it is what it is, it's just a comment on how life is going. If your car breaks down three times in a row, you might just say, hey, that's the way it goes sometimes, or, hey, it is what it is.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Vitor. Technical question. Bob, if you stop posting for one or two weeks, does your channel perform worse in terms of the YouTube algorithm? I mean, having a defined schedule is good not only for views, but also for the algorithm. Sometimes I feel like this platform treats its creators like machines. The great thing about your channel is that it has evergreen content. It doesn't matter the time. It's always useful. Thank you, Bob. And my response? The short answer is yes, if I stop making videos for a couple of weeks, then my graphs all start to go down. And that can be a little concerning.So you do realize that I love doing. Thanks, Vitor, for that comment. I love doing this, but I also work less in order to do YouTube. So therefore, I do need to earn some money from YouTube. Like, I don't have the luxury of just working three quarters of the week at my real job. And then YouTube is nothing. So I do notice it. When I take a break, my views go down and all of those things. And of course, the amount of money I earn goes down. Here's what I would say. What's really cool about English lessons and about youtubers like me is that the same things that benefit you benefit me as a creator.What I mean by that is this. If you watch the entire lesson, and then if you watch the entire lesson the next day, that is really beneficial for you as an English learner. Watching the video twice is just a good idea. But it's also good for me as a YouTube creator, if you watch my video twice. And if you watch the Entire video, then YouTube thinks, oh, this video is very helpful. I will show this video to other people who are learning English. So that's kind of the. The longer version of the answer. If you wanted to help me and inadvertently help yourself, the best thing you can do is watch the entire video. Like, don't watch half and then stop watching. And then the second thing would be watch it again later that week. LikeSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BOUND AND DETERMINED and TO BE BOUND TOIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase bound and determined. When you are bound and determined to do something, it means you are going to do it. It means you are serious about doing it. It means that you are committed to doing it. The best example I could come up with today, even though I don't like to be political, is to say that President Trump is bound and determined to put tariffs on Mexico and China and Canada. He's... I'm pretty sure today he's going to do it. You're watching this on Wednesday so you'll know the results. But he seems bound and determined. He seems committed to doing it.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to be bound to. This means that you are most likely going to do something. If you're walking on ice, you're bound to fall. If you're not good at walking at ice, if it's something you've never done before, you're bound to fall. It means you are most likely to fall. If I go into a Tim Hortons restaurant, I'm bound to buy a cookie. That means I'm most likely going to buy a cookie. Sometimes I don't have any self control.So to review when you are bound and determined, it means you have decided you're going to do something and you are not going to change your mind. You are bound and determined to do it. And if you're bound to do something, it just means you are likely to do it. Most Tuesdays I'm bound to make a lesson. I usually go out and I do one, sometimes I do two.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video and it is in my coat pocket today and it is from Know that. And the comment is... Let me get this open. Although it is quite windy, the weather does not look too bad, Bob. Even the sun is out to play. Enjoy it while it lasts. Thanks again for making all your regular videos for us this week. It would have been easier and less stressful for you to just skip some of them and that would have been completely understandable. So thank you for that, Bob. You know it is much appreciated. Have a great day. And then my response using today's phrase, I'm still bound and determined to only skip lessons if I'm sick. So far so good. So thanks Know that for that comment.And yes, I'm not sure if you were aware of my... I guess you might be able to call it a New Year's resolution. But but I did make a decision at the beginning of this year 2025 that I am going to try and stick to putting out the same number of lessons every week on both channels. When I looked at 2024, I realized that there were many weeks where I just took a week off, and sometimes it was maybe because I was sick or because I was busy. So this year I decided, you know, I'm not going to do that.I'm going to, at the very least, put out the same number of videos every week. That might mean that a short lesson comes out on a Saturday or maybe even a Sunday. Some weeks it might mean that my Wednesdays with Bob Members Only video on my other channel might come out on a Thursday. I don't think that's happened yet. But yeah, I'm bound and determined to do that for a couple of reasons. One, when I looked at my stats from last year, when I looked at my my views and everything from 2024, I realized that it's probably disappointing when a video doesn't come out.And it also made me realize you don't actually care what day the video comes out. If I put a video out on a Saturday, one that normally comes out on a Friday, just as many people watch it. So I thought, you know what? There's seven days in a week, and if Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words AIRHEAD and AIRBALLIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English word airhead. Now, this is not a nice word. This is a word you use to talk about someone who isn't very smart, someone who makes a lot of mistakes. You might call them an airhead. Actually, it's more like someone who doesn't remember things. You might call them an airhead. Maybe at work, you have to work with someone and you teach them how to do something, and an hour later they can't remember how to do it. If you were being mean and if you wanted to insult them, you would say that they are an airhead. This happens in school sometimes, too. I just the other day had a student complain because they said the other people in their group that they were working with, they thought they were a bunch of airheads. So basically, that student was saying the other students weren't very smart.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other word I wanted to teach you today is airball. This is a very specific and unique word. This refers to the game of basketball. When you shoot the ball and if it misses the basket completely, it doesn't hit the rim. Like, it doesn't hit the edge of the basket. It doesn't go in the basket. It goes right past the basket. We would say that's an airball. We sometimes in English might use this to talk about an idea that didn't work out. You know, we might say swing and a miss, or we might say, oh, that was a real airball. But mostly, 99% of the time, this word is used to talk about someone in a basketball game shooting the ball at the basket and it misses it completely.So to review, an airhead is a person who isn't very smart. And an airball is a ball that you shoot towards a basket in the game of basketball, and it doesn't go in.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Let's... I don't think I have one. Where'd it go? I thought I printed it. Okay. I don't have it. Yeah, okay. Sorry. That was the grouchy... Did you see the grouchy Bob there for a minute? I'm... I'm a little bit annoyed with myself. I was at school. I printed this, and I thought I printed a comment from a previous video. Maybe I didn't. Okay, there's no comment today.And I didn't do... I didn't do that on purpose so I could say that I'm an airhead. That's... That's not why. I literally... Maybe it's in my van. Sorry. I know you don't watch these videos to see Bob wandering around. No, it's not okay. No comment from a previous video today.But hey, I'm here in town it's a beautiful February day and it feels like February is ending for sure. We've been in deep, deep cold for so long. Just walking around out here with no coat on. The parking lot... By the way, you can see there is snow piled up over there. We should go have a look at it. In countries that get lots of snow, you have to put the snow somewhere. So sometimes you lose parking spots because you have to put the snow somewhere. So these piles were probably a lot bigger a couple days ago.But yeah, it's definitely a lot warmer. It's probably not warm enough to just walk around outside with no coat on. But hey, I'm enjoying it. It's... It's been... It's been a long winter. I know I complained about it in another video on my other channel. I do still love winter, but this feels really nice. I'm looking forward to the weather getting a lot better.Anyways, thanks for watching. Sorry about the no comment thing. No comment, yes. I guess I'm a bit of an airhead today. Anyways, thanks for watching. See you in a couple days with another short English lesson. Bye.#englisSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN THE DARK and A SHOT IN THE DARKIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in the dark. When you are in the dark, it means you don't know about something. I use this example a lot, but if someone was planning a surprise party for me, they would want to keep me in the dark. They would want to make sure that I don't know about the party. If they were planning like a surprise birthday party, they would all talk amongst themselves, but they would try to keep me in the dark. Sometimes governments do this as well. They do things that they know the citizens won't like, but they try to keep them in the dark. They don't let the press or the newspapers know, and they try to make sure people don't know what's going on. They keep them in the dark. Not a very good thing.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a shot in the dark. Now, a shot in the dark is simply a guess. If you were to say to me what's 10 times 11 and I didn't know the answer, I might say, it's shot in the dark. It's probably around 110 or something like that. Anyways, a shot in the dark, that's a bad example. A shot in the dark is a guess. If you were to ask me how many English lessons have I made, I would say, and it's just a shot in the dark. At least over a thousand. Maybe close to 2000 if you combine the two channels. But that's just a shot in the dark. That's just a guess because I don't know the actual answer.So to review, when you are in the dark, it means you don't know about something. It means other people know, but you don't know. And a shot in the dark is simply a guess about something.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Klopcyna. Dear Bob, do your students know you are a successful YouTuber? Do they watch your videos? This question's come up before my response. Most do know, but few watch them. I think when they find out, it's cool and unique. But after a while it's just a normal thing. Yeah, once. Thanks, Klopcyna, for that comment. Once I'm their teacher and I start assigning homework and I start checking their homework and doing all the things that teachers normally do, like telling them to stop running in the hallway. I think they forget that I'm a YouTuber and that I'm doing quite well on YouTube.So yes, most of them know I think most of them think it's pretty cool. But the other thing I would say is this YouTube isn't as big a deal for them as some of the other social media apps they use. I don't consider YouTube necessarily a pure social media app or platform. I mostly use YouTube to learn new things and obviously to teach things. But for my students, I think it's a little more of the like TikTok, Snapchat, BeReal. All of those kinds of things are more important in their lives. So yeah. Do they know? Yes. Do they care? Maybe a little bit. I don't know. It doesn't really matter to me. I just hope that they learn something from me in the classes that I teach.So hey. Yep, it continues. Once again, I was not going to talk about the weather, but yeah, it's a little warmer as you can see, I'm able to be outside without a winter hat or gloves, but it's still definitely winter. I haven't had to clean the driveway again. I think what I miss the most is the sun. Like you can kind of see it up there behind the clouds. But I'm looking forward to not necessarily warmer weather. I don't mind if it stays a little bit cold. I think I'm looking forward to just a little more sunshine. I've been taking my vitamin D pill every day because I'm nSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WISHFUL THINKING and TO THINK BIGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is when you think positively about something, but it probably isn't going to go the way you think it will. Here's a great example. If you don't study and you have an English test in a few months and you just think, ah, I'll just watch YouTube videos and I'll pass that English test, that's probably wishful thinking. You probably aren't doing enough. You're thinking that you're going to pass the test by just watching YouTube videos, but you should really be practicing your speaking and your writing and your reading and all of that stuff as well. So it might be wishful thinking. So hopefully you understand. It means you think a positive thought about something, but you're probably wrong.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to think big. So sometimes at work someone will have an idea for a small change and then someone will say, why don't we think big? Instead of doing the small change, why don't we do something even bigger? So an example would be maybe a teacher says, my classroom isn't big enough so I'm going to remove a couple desks. And someone else might say, hey, why don't we think big? Why don't we instead spend millions of dollars and build you a bigger classroom? That's something that doesn't usually happen, but it could.Anyways to review. Wishful thinking is when you hope for something positive, but it probably won't happen. You're just being really, really optimistic. And to think big is to dream bigger than you would to solve maybe a small problem.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I wasn't going to talk about the weather today, but it's minus 15 right now, minus 21 with the wind chill. It's about, it's about as cold as it gets. This comment is from. Let's see here. Let me get my glove back on. Paper and gloves are a bit of a challenge. This comment is from Tolik. Thank you for the lesson, Bob. You have really nice boots. I like them. Have a nice day and I said I love my boots. I hope they last forever. But alas, I think that is wishful thinking.So yeah, I've had these boots for a while. I really, really like them. They are really, really nice boots. But to think that they might last forever I think would be wishful thinking. So a positive thought for something that most likely won't happen. So Tolik thank you for that comment, let me see If I can get this off here.Yeah, I wasn't going to talk about the weather, so I'll try... I'll try not to do that at all. So, anyways, I had a beautiful family day Monday. Yesterday for me. Two days ago for you. I think that is just the best holiday. My kids and I and Jen, we actually went and we played some badminton at the school. We went out to a little cafe afterwards and had a little treat. Uh, we spent some time as a family. We watched the TV show Jeopardy.I'm not sure if you know what that show is, but Jeopardy is a trivia show, a quiz show where they ask questions and then the contestants have to try and answer them. By the way, Jeopardy is probably a great way to learn English if you could find a way to watch that show. Uh, so we had supper together. Uh, we watched Jeopardy together. It was a fun evening, and it's fun just to have a day where you decide to spend the day with your family. So I really enjoyed it.Right now, though, I'm going to go back inside. It's a little too cold this morning for me, and I think I need to go warm up. ThanSupport the show