Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A TWO-WAY STREET and THE WORD ON THE STREETIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a two-way street. Now, the street behind me is a two-way street. You can drive that way on that street or you can drive the other way. But this phrase also has a different meaning. It's used to describe a relationship or situation where things go both ways. Let's think about respect. When two people respect each other, it's a two-way street. I respect to Jen and Jen respects me. In order to be respected, you have to respect other people. It's a two-way street. I think this happens as well with trust. In order to trust someone, they need to trust you. It's a two-way street. You can also use this to describe a situation like this. Sometimes Jen doesn't have enough flowers, so we get some from another flower farmer, but it's a two-way street. When they don't have enough flowers, we sell them flowers as well. So we help each other out.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, the word on the street. This is what we use when we talk about information that we've heard from someone else. It doesn't have to be information you heard while walking along the street, but you could say to someone, hey, word on the street is you're expanding your business. Or you could say, hey, word on the street is you took an English test and you passed it. So when you hear something from someone else, you would say, it's the word on the street. It's what people are talking about, about that person.So to review, a two-way street is that street behind me, but also any relationship or situation where things go both ways. And the word on the street is a phrase we use to talk about information we've heard or things we've heard about other people.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Andres. Oh, volunteer firefighters. Interesting. If you were a firefighter, were you allowed to interrupt your lesson at school, jump in your car and go to the accident/fire? Will this affect your performance as a teacher? And my response? I'm pretty sure volunteer firefighters have an agreement with their boss that they can leave. It's for the greater good, after all. So thanks, Andres, for that comment.And I did actually look this up, and it's actually a law in Ontario, Canada. Let me read a little snippet of the law to you. It says, no employer shall without good cause prevent a person who is a volunteer firefighter from leaving for work to attend any kind of fire or accident or other firefighter related incident. They may either leave work or fail to appear at work for those situations. So it's the law. If you're a volunteer firefighter, it means you can get out of work when you need to.Hey, I'm going to cough for a sec. It's just a little cold out here.I wanted to show you this fence. I find this fence interesting. We're actually at a park. Okay. But this park has this really tall chain link fence. We call this a chain link fence. And at the top it's kind of bright in the sun there. It actually has barbed wire. This is the kind of fence you would more likely find at a prison. You don't normally find a fence like this at a park. Now you can just come in the park down there. I'm not sure why this fence is here. I have a funny feeling that maybe this used to be something else. Maybe this park used to be some sort of power station or some sort of small water pumping station for the town. And then maybe the park part came later. But yeah, Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AN OPEN MIND and IN THE OPENIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase an open mind. When you have an open mind, it means that you're willing to listen to other points of view. It means that even if you've decided you think something is a certain way, you're willing to listen to other people say that they think it's different. Here's a good example. When I was young, I remember that we had garbage day, but we didn't have recycling day and the town decided that we were going to start recycling. But before that they wanted everyone to come for a special meeting. And I remember my dad saying, I'm going to go to the meeting. I don't think recycling is going to really be a good thing. He was wrong. But I'm going to keep an open mind. I'm going to have an open mind when I go to the meeting and I'm going to listen to what other people say, because maybe it is a good idea. So when you have an open mind, it means you think one thing, but you are willing to discuss an alternate thing as well with other people.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 in the open. Sometimes people do things in secret, but sometimes they do things in the open. A good example of this would be when Jen and I are working at market. We're working in the open. People can see us make the bouquets while we're at market. But the night before, Jen works at home in her flower studio and then she's not really doing it in secret, but you can't see her make the bouquets. Sometimes people do things in the open so that people can see it. Sometimes when they count votes, after a vote, they will do it in the open so that it's all done fairly and correctly.So to review, when you have an open mind, when you keep an open mind, when you go somewhere with an open mind, it means you're willing to hear a different point of view. And when you do things in the open, it means other people can see you doing it. There's some things you shouldn't do in the open, by the way. There's some things you should always do in secret.I'm not going to go into too many details, but let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Natalia. Hi, Bob. Do your dogs have their own dog houses or kennels? It should be relatively warm there. And my response, they sleep in the garage at night and on days when it is too cold.So yes, our dogs, they don't actually have.... well, we had a dog house, but it blew down or it blew away. And we don't have a kennel for them, but they are allowed to go in the garage at night. We often have our dogs in the garage at night. In the winter especially... actually year round, they just sleep in the garage and they both have their own little crate, we call it, which is like a little pen, I guess they could go in, but we don't close the door. And they also can go in the barn sometimes. So it's not the nicest place to go. But we will take the dogs out to the barn and then that's a little warmer for them.Hey, I'm at the fire station. I've been here before, but I haven't been here for a while, so I was just going to walk up. You can see me in the window. You can sort of see in, in our town, the fire trucks are red. In some towns, in some cities, the fire trucks are actually yellow, but ours are red. And it looks like they're ready to go. If there was a fire or a car accident, that's when our firefighters actually go out. Now, we operate in this town with volunteer firefighters. We don't have full time firefighters, so if there's a fire, they are notified and theySupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS and TO JUMP THE GUNIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to jump to conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, it means you think something is true before you actually have all the facts or know for sure that it is true. Let me think of an example. Let's say you came to school and you went to my classroom and there were no students there. You might jump to conclusions. You might think, oh, Bob must have kicked all his kids out of class and he's not teaching them today because he's angry. You might jump to conclusions and think that maybe all of my students are on a field trip, but the reality is, the truth is there just wasn't any school today. So when you jump to conclusions, it means you see some evidence or you know some facts and you think something is true before you know all of the details.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 second phrase I wanted to teach you today is to jump the gun. When you jump the gun, it means you do something before you're supposed to do it. Let me think of an example. Let's say Jen was harvesting flowers and she had 100 Lisianthus sitting in buckets here. I might jump the gun and start selling them to people without talking to Jen. So I might do something before I know I'm actually allowed to do it. Another example would be, let's say I was making an invitation to a party and we hadn't quite decided on the date, and we had a draft version of the invitation, and I decide to print it and send it to everybody before actually talking to the people organizing the party. I would be jumping the gun. So when you jump the gun, you do something before you're supposed to do it.So to review to jump to conclusions means to think something is true before you have all the facts. And to jump the gun means to do something before you're supposed to do it. I don't often jump the gun. I'm pretty good at doing things when they're supposed to be done.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Aquiles. At minute 4:05. Wow, the cat is running outside with that weather. He's not even wearing a sweater. And my response, our cats are quite furry and well adjusted to the winter weather.So, yes, sometimes people voice their concerns when they see our dogs or cats outside in the winter when it's -15C or even -20C but rest assured, our cats all have an extra thick layer of fur. Our cats grow lots of hair when the winter is approaching. I think it's a very natural thing for animals to do Oscar and Walter as well have winter coats on right now. They grow extra fur, they're furrier and it just helps them be outside. Now we are cautious with our dogs outside when it's really cold because their paws. You don't want their paws on frozen ground if it's -20C. But the cats do live in the barn. They have lots of cozy places in the hay and straw where they can hang out. So it's not too bad.So anyways, guess what? As you are watching this, I am teaching as you watch this. It's Tuesday today, but you'll be watching this on a Wednesday. It's the first day of classes and someone asked me today if I was nervous for tomorrow and I just said, I'm not nervous for tomorrow, I'm nervous for the day after. The first day of school is rather easy. You hand out textbooks, you learn the students names. You kind of get them enrolled in the different online software packages that you use. The first day of school is actually quite easy and the classes are also a little bit shorter because we meet as a school in the morning just to have an assembly, we would caSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FREEZE TO DEATH and TO BE FROZEN IN TIMEHey, I'm going to start this lesson by showing you how Canadians put gloves on with one hand. You have to use your mouth.Anyways, in this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to freeze the death. To freeze to death. Sorry, I'm having trouble talking because it's so cold. We use this phrase sometimes to exaggerate. I mean, to use the word death to exaggerate something isn't very nice, but we do often use it in this phrase. For instance, if my son was going outside today without a winter hat on, I would say, put a winter hat on, you're going to freeze to death. I don't actually mean that he's going to die. That would be horrible. And that's something that I don't even want to think about. But we do sometimes use the word death when we exaggerate. If my son was going outside wearing shorts today, I would say, put some pants on. You're going to freeze to death if you don't.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 to be frozen in time. When something is described as being frozen in time, it means that it hasn't changed. Probably the best example I can think of is that when my parents lived here, the house was frozen in time. They built the house and then they never painted any rooms, they never bought different furniture. The house was literally frozen in time the whole time that I lived here as a kid. It's hard to hold these with big gloves on. By the way, I'll explain why I'm wearing my big gloves in a moment. But yeah, the house was frozen in time. I think the same was true when I think about my grandparents' house. They lived in a house in town after they retired from farming, and that house was frozen in time. It had old brown wallpaper and all kinds of other things that just made you feel like they never changed anything. My grandpa had the same chair the whole time when I was a kid. I think I'm doing the same thing now. I think my studio office in the house is frozen in time a little bit, too.Anyways, to review, when you say someone is going to freeze to death, one of the mean it can literally mean freeze to death. But we do sometimes use it as an exaggeration to talk about how cold it is. And when something is frozen in time, it means that it doesn't change.Now let me see if I can find the comment from the previous video. It's right here. Get my glove back on again. The commemt is from Konstantin. Nice shades Bob, my son's just finished reading Two Against the North. Farley Mowat, Canadian author by the way. And there's an episode where the guys suffer snowblindness due to not wearing sunglasses. Cool story. And the sequel isn't bad too. Keep yourself warm. And my response it can get so bright. Sun in the sky, sun reflecting off the snow. So much light. So yeah, thanks Konstantin for that comment. It can get that bright. It can get so bright. It was actually that bright when I first came outside and it might get that bright again. We'll see as I finish making this English lesson.Anyways, why the big gloves? Well, it's -17 today and it's windy. This is about as cold as it gets. If it gets colder than this, then I would probably be making the English lesson inside. This is cold enough that when I went for my walk this morning, I wore my balaclava, I wore my ski mask. I'll put a little picture here of what that looks like. And I wore multiple layers this morning. Man, it was a chilly walk. But what was I going to show you? Oh yes, this is a day where it's actually hard to move my fingers.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S COLD! and TO STOP COLDIn this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase that's cold. This is a phrase we use to describe when someone does something that's kind of mean, something that's not very nice. Here's a good example. Let's say your cousin is dating someone and he decides to break up with your cousin. So he sends her a text message saying, I don't want to go out with you anymore. We would say, oh, that's cold. Because when you dump someone, when you end a relationship with a text message, it's very impersonal. It's not very kind or nice. It would probably be nicer to say to the person in person, hey, I don't think it's working out. So when you dump someone, when you end a relationship with a text message, this is a great way to describe it. That's cold. That's not a very nice way to do it, although I hear that's the common way to break up with people now for younger people.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/bobthecanadianBut anyways, the other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to stop cold. If I was doing the lesson and all of a sudden I stopped like that, I would describe that as stopping cold. Maybe I heard something, maybe the dog barked, but I stopped cold. When you stop cold, it means you stop what you're doing very quickly. When I'm walking outside at night, sometimes if I hear a scary sound, I might stop cold because I'm not sure if it's someone stealing something from the barn or something other weird... or some other weird thing that's happening out here.So to review, when you describe something by saying, that's cold, you're describing an action by someone that's kind of mean and not very nice. And when you stop cold, it means that you stop what you're doing very suddenly in order to listen or look around or do something else.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from, I think, Tara. Yes. In Russian, it's to move like a turtle, referring to yesterday's lesson or the previous lesson, what have you done with the snow? It vanished. Here in Ukraine, everything is covered with snow and it's minus twelve. Well, it's exactly the same weather at my place right now, Tara. It is minus twelve out here and everything's covered with snow. My response is, it's back again today.So, yes, the snow has kind of come and gone a few times here. And one of the things that I find interesting is I had to find my sunglasses yesterday because even though if you look up in the sky, the sun is not very, very bright. Oh, it's over there. But because of the snow, it's very hard to see. Like if I take my glasses off, I have to squint in order to see the camera. So I dug out my sunglasses. They were in the van, buried under all kinds of junk. By the way, I don't keep my vehicles very tidy on the inside. I've never shown that on camera, but definitely a messy person when it comes to vehicles. So I dug around, I found my sunglasses, and now we're all set.I know I show you geese a lot, but this is kind of fun. The river has frozen a little bit. I'm not sure how many geese are down there, but it is a lot. So they're standing on the frozen part of the river, but they're also swimming in the non frozen part of the river. Sorry, I stopped cold there for a second because the camera wasn't turning around. So, yeah, our yearly winter visitors, the geese, they don't seem to mind the cold at all. They're definitely similar to me. I'm out here, it's minus twelve. I don't even have a winter hat on. And I'm not cold at all. In fact, on my walk this morning, I had too many layers on, Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AT A SNAIL'S PACE and TO PACE YOURSELFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase at a snail's pace. Now, I'm not going to tell you what this means right away. I'm going to give you a few seconds to think about this. If you know what a snail is, there's a good chance you know what a snail's pace is. So let me just go one, two, three. Let you think about it for 3 seconds. It means to go very, very slowly. If you're driving your car in an 80 kilometer an hour zone and the person in front of you is doing 60 kilometers an hour, would say that they're going at a snail's pace. Do you know what a snail is? It kind of looks like a slug, but it has a shell on the back and it goes really, really slowly when it moves. I hope my mom's not watching this, but sometimes when I ride with my mom, she goes at a snail's pace. She's a very slow and cautious driver, so that's probably a good thing. But when I'm in a hurry, if someone in front of me is going really slow, especially if they're below the speed limit and they're going at a snail's pace, it gets me a little bit agitated. I'm like, just get going, man. It's time to go. I need to get to where I'm going.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 second phrase I wanted to teach you today is to pace yourself. You can pace yourself in a number of different things. If you're running a race and you normally take a certain amount of time to run a kilometer, you want to make sure that you pace yourself and you run each kilometer about the same speed, maybe the last kilometer a little faster. But you can pace yourself doing other things as well. If you're going to eat a big meal, maybe you should pace yourself. Instead of eating really fast, maybe eat slowly, have some conversation, eat a little bit more. You might need to pace yourself to get it done. If you have a lot of work to do in a certain day or week, it's nice to pace yourself instead of working really quickly, just kind of lay out the work for the week in a logical way and get it done one little bit at a time until the end of the week comes and you're done. It's nice to pace yourself.So to review at a snail's pace means to go very, very slowly. And to pace yourself means to kind of do something in an organized, logical, timely fashion. I had a lot of work to do this week, but I paced myself and I got it all done.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Silvia. Seven years ago, you took your camera and started to make lessons. You have succeeded. You have a special natural style. When I see your videos, I feel like a Canadian friend is sharing with me his daily life. Double dipping is not polite and is considered gross here in Argentina, too. That's from the last lesson. Yesterday's. Yeah. Seven good years. Here's to seven more.You think I can do it? Seven more years. Can you guys watch for seven more years? Seven more years of me showing you the river whenever it floods. This is a rare occasion. If you look way in the distance, there's actually a lake over there at the provincial park. But the river has almost risen so much that it might actually connect to the lake. Not sure how well you can see this behind me, but it's definitely flooded. If we look over here, you'll see that these trees are actually in the water. So the river has really come up. It's almost touching that big, round, concrete thing down there. That's one of the things we look at to kind of measure how much the river has come up. So definitely flooding.I'm laughing because Walter was just doing hisSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DOUBLE DOWN and TO DOUBLE DIPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to double down. When you double down on something, it means you work harder at it. This week at school, even though the semester is almost over, I need to double down on some of my work. I'm a little behind in my grading. I have some student work that I need to look at, so I need to double down. That means instead of coming home at the end of the work day, I might stay for an extra hour. Instead of getting up late in the morning, which I never do, I might get up extra early because I need to double down on getting that work done. This is sometimes used to talk about sports as well. A player who is having a bad year might need to double down at practice. They might need to work harder and get stronger so that they can perform better when they're out on the field.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 second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to double dip. Now, when you double dip, you know, when you eat chips and there's a bowl of dip or hummus and you dip, you take a brand new chip from the bag and you dip and you bite half of it and then it's not considered polite to then dip again with the piece that you already had part of in your mouth. I hope that makes some sense. If you take a piece of bread and it's straight from the bowl and you dip it into some hummus and you bite it, you're not supposed to dip again because the bread's touched your mouth. And so we call that to double dip. So sometimes my kids will say to one of my other kids, hey, no double dipping. That's gross.Anyways, to review, to double down means to work harder. Sometimes when the new year starts, people who like to exercise, they will double down on their exercise and start going to the gym a lot more. And to double dip means when you're sharing a bowl of food with someone and you're dipping chips or pitas or bread into the bowl, you should always dip once and then eat the whole piece of bread. Don't dip a second time. It's considered a little rude, at least in North America. I'm curious to hear what it's like in your country.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ünsal. Hi teacher Bob. I don't know if it's just me, but in the modern age, time passes so quickly and is so inadequate. If it is decided to do something, it should be started without wasting any time. There is truly no time like the present. And my response well said. I agree 100%. 2024 is the year to do the thing you've always been dreaming of. And thanks Ünsal for that comment.I was listening to a podcast the other day and it was a guy who was, he was 56 years old, or 57, and he talked a little bit about how there's no time like the present because eventually we all get old. And he talked about things like he wanted to go and climb a certain mountain. And he said if he thinks about his mom, his mom is in her 80s, she can't climb a mountain anymore. He's in his fifties and he's still able to climb a mountain. So he said at some point he's going to be the same age as his mom, so there's no time like the present. Eventually he won't be able to climb the mountain that he wants to climb, so he needs to do it now.I think I felt the same way a little bit when I started my YouTube channel. I think I felt like I really needed to kick out a lot of videos really quickly in those early years because I was so old. I mean, I was 47 or 48 at the time. I wasn't that old and I don't feel old at all now, but certainly at the time I felt likeSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THERE'S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT and TO BE PRESENTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase there's no time like the present. This is a phrase that we say to people when they're talking about starting something new or they're starting about maybe restarting something. You might say, hey, there's no time like the present. So let's say my brother said to me, I'm thinking of going to the gym again. I haven't gotten to the gym for a couple of years and I'm thinking of going to the gym again. I might get a membership. I think I might do that sometime in the new year. I could say to him then, hey, there's no time like the present. Basically what I mean is, why don't you go and do that today? Why don't you go to the gym today and get a membership? You could also use this when talking about English. Maybe you need to increase the amount of English studying that you're doing in 2024. Well, you know what? There's no time like the present. You could get started today.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 second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to be present. Now, this kind of has two meanings. When I take attendance in my class, the students are present. They even say to me present when I say their name, and it means that they are there. So to be present means that you are somewhere physically sitting or standing in that space. But it could also mean to be listening to someone. If Jen is talking to me and I'm on my phone, I'm not really present. It's important for me to be present when Jen's talking to me, both physically, like actually standing or sitting, but also to not be distracted by other things. It's nice to be present when people talk to you.So to review, there's no time like the present simply means it's just a little saying that means, hey, why don't you start on that thing you're talking about today? Today is a great day. Right now is a great time to start on it. And to be present means to be physically present, but also to be mentally present, to be paying attention to someone.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video before I get too cold out here. It's a little chilly today. It's minus seven right now. Can you believe it? I have gloves on, but no, toque. This is from Francisco. I need to pull my socks up with my English. I woke up with good intentions. And my response, there's no time like the present. Now, you know where I got the idea for that phrase from.And it's true, right? Like sometimes it's easy to talk about doing something. It's easy to. In English, sometimes we say, oh, he talks big. If someone says to you that someone talks big, it means that the person talks a lot but never actually does what they're planning to do. With the example of my brother. If my brother said, I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to get a membership, I might just say, he's just talking big. He's not actually going to do it.Hey, another boring lesson out here in my yard. But I did want to show you that. Sorry, I'm using my new camera and I keep pushing the power button to spin the camera around. I did that in another video before, but there are some geese swimming across the river. A little hard to see. I'll zoom in a bit when I do the edit and then if we look over there as well, there are a whole bunch of geese across the river on the neighbor's property. Let's see if we can see these again. Kind of curious to see if my new camera, whether I can do a nicer zoom when I zoom in when I do the edit, we'll have to see.No, we haven't burned the pallets ySupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PULL YOUR SOCKS UP and TO BEAT THE SOCKS OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to pull your socks up. Or you could also say to pull up your socks. Both work. It simply means to work harder and work better. I think I did teach this phrase in a lesson on my bigger channel at one point. But when you say to someone, you need to pull your socks up or you need to pull up your socks, it means they're not doing a good job. It means they're not working hard. Let's imagine a younger Bob working at a greenhouse, moving pots and the boss coming and saying, you're not working fast enough or hard enough, you need to pull your socks up. Or you need to pull up your socks. That didn't actually happen, by the way. I've always been a pretty hard worker, unless I'm not feeling well. I'm usually working hard and usually working fast, but I could imagine maybe that could have happened in the past at some point. I'm trying to use some could phrases for you.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/bobthecanadianAnyways, the second phrase I wanted to teach you is to beat the socks off of. When you beat the socks off of someone, it's usually a sporting event and it means obviously that you won the game. Last night, the Raptors beat the socks off of the Cavaliers. They won their game. It was really exciting. They got two new players and it was really cool to see them win. They really beat the socks off the other team. So to review to pull your socks up means to work harder and faster and better. And to beat the socks off of means to win a sporting event handily. By the way, there's another phrase to knock your socks off. If you are someone who has drinks, beverages that have alcohol in them, if the alcohol is really strong, you might say, oh, this is going to knock your socks off.But anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from sanoakley. Hi, Bob, what kind of breed is the black one, please? Thanks for the lesson, by the way. And my response, he's mostly black lab with a bit of something else I can't remember. I'll ask Jen and mention it in the next lesson.So his name is Walter. He was just out here with me and he has kind of disappeared a little bit. Not sure where he went. He might not appear in this video. We'll see. Yeah, so he's part black lab and part chocolate lab. I'll try to find pictures of both of those for you. And there's a little bit of something else in him and I don't know what it is so part black lab, part chocolate lab, which is like a brown lab. And lab is short for Labrador, by the way. Oh, I thought I heard him, but I didn't. But that is what he is.And he also has a good dose of happiness in him. He's one of the happiest dogs we've ever had. He's happy to see strangers. He's happy to see people we know. He's happy to see me. He's just happy all the time, which is good. But you do want your dogs to bark when strangers come as well.I mentioned in the comments to some of you that we have a little bit of snow here. You can see some over there in the yard as well. As well as behind me here. We would call this a skiff of snow. I mean, not a lot of snow, but some snow. So that's nice.And if you're wondering what that is, that is some wood that my son brought here that we will eventually burn. It's actually a bunch of old skids. Do you know what skids are? We sometimes call these pallets or skids. And I think he cleaned up someone's yard and he brought them all here. We'll probably burn them later this week so that they are gone. We don't burn a lot of stuff. We only buSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN A JIFFY and BEFORE YOU KNOW ITIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in a jiffy. This simply means that something happens very, very quickly. It's an older phrase. I don't actually use it that often anymore. But I did hear my mom use it the other day. She said she was going to be back in a jiffy. We were playing a board game and she went to get something out of her purse and she said, oh, I'll be back in a jiffy. So it is something that is still used, but maybe by older people. If you're watching an older movie or an older tv show, you might hear the phrase in a jiffy. When someone talks about doing something really, really quickly.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 second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, before you know it, this means the same thing. To do something very, very quickly. The other day I was at the garage and I needed a new windshield wiper. And you know what? Before you know it, they're done installing that. They do it very, very quickly. I actually went to talk to the mechanic, and the other mechanic installed the wiper before I knew it. So I got to change the tense here a little bit. But he popped the old one off and he put the new one on. Sometimes I do it myself, but with my blue van, it's not as easy as you would think. So sometimes I just have the mechanic do that for me, even though it's an easy job.So to review, when you do something in a jiffy, it means you do it very, very quickly or almost instantly. And if someone does something before you know it, it means the same thing. When you're in a restaurant, sometimes you order food and before you know it, the server comes back with the food. That's always nice. A colleague of mine went to a restaurant a few days ago and waited 2 hours for his food. That's definitely not quick at all.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Denis. I miss the old days when I could learn English with short lessons and then the little, few dots at the end and then my response, I'm back.Yeah, thanks, Denis, for that comment. It's been a while, hasn't it? It has been a while since I have made little short lessons on this channel. And many of you have told me before, don't apologize when you take a break. But I do feel a little bit bad. But it's nice to be back at it. It's nice to be doing it again. It's nice to come outside on a rainy December day. It's kind of strange. And to make a little lesson for you and teach you a couple of phrases. My plan is to keep going from now on.I think that I have started doing everything again. I've done live streams again. I've started walking quite regularly again. I'm caught up on all my schoolwork, and I think it's time for this channel to start rolling again. So you'll get a lesson today. It's Friday today that you're watching this. I'm making it on a Thursday, by the way. And as well, next week, Wednesday, and Friday. For the foreseeable future, you should be seeing lessons.Hey. Yeah, so no snow. If you've been watching my other videos, you've seen that we did get snow one day. That was kind of nice. But we're kind of in this zone right now. It's flooding. It's December 28 today, and the river is flooded. In fact, way over there, I have a nice field of wheat. And there were Canadian geese eating my wheat this morning. I didn't like that. I was about to go out there with Walter and Oscar to chase them away. But, yeah, it's just that kind of year.I can show you this direction as well. If you watch my videos a lot, ySupport the show