Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TAKE A LOAD OFF and TO TAKE A BREATHERIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to take a load off”. When you tell someone to take a load off or when you decide to take a load off. It means you're going to relax usually after working. The last few days, I've come home and I just need to take a load off. I take off my shoes when I walk in the house and I just sit on the couch for about half an hour. I usually have a cold drink. Teaching is going great, but we're in a heat wave here. It's 32 degrees Celsius right now in September. So my classroom is just stiflingly hot. So when I come home, I just need to take a load off. I just need to sit and relax a little bit in the air conditioned house before I get back to work. By the way, my classroom is not air conditioned. It would be nice if it was.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 take a breather. Now this means to relax as well, but it usually means to stop doing something for a bit because you're out of breath or because you're exhausted. So if you're playing a sport, you might need to take a breather halfway through the game. If you're playing a game where you have to run a lot, you might need to take a breather. Let's say you're out hiking with someone and they're really fast and you're out of breath. It's hard for you to keep up. You might say, Hey, stop for a minute. I need to take a breather.So to review, to take a load off means to relax a little bit. Usually after working hard for a... for a period of time and to take a breather means that you're actually physically exhausted, usually you're out of breath a little bit and you just need to sit for a bit or stop doing what you're doing so that your breath, your ability to breathe, returns.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ünsal. So there's people I think paddling in the river will go look in a sec. Hi. Have you ever had rose jam? If you like peanut butter and jam sandwiches and you think this sandwich needs a little something to make it taste better, I suggest you try it with rose jam. In my opinion, it tastes much better this way. Thank you so much for this wonderful video. My response? I'll have to find some and try it. I do like peanut butter and jam sandwiches, so I'll probably like it.So yes, I probably should see if I can find that somewhere. It doesn't seem to me like it's a common type of jam that I know of. Um, I'm not familiar with rose jam. I'm sure that I'll be able to find it somewhere. I... maybe I'll look at market tomorrow. That might be a good place to start.So there's someone yelling over here. Oh, I see. There's someone going by on a paddleboard in the river way down there. And there's a man in a kayak as well. Oh, there's two people on paddleboards. So I guess they're enjoying the hot fall day. It's... it's not really fall yet, but it certainly feels like fall. And they're just out having an enjoyable time on the river. Soon, though, it'll be cold and those types of activities will definitely stop.I’m just checking my time here. It's a little bit hard to see. I think I need my reading glasses to check the time. Oh, it says only 3 minutes. Well, hey, let's have a closer look at the people on the river. They volunteered to come down here, so they get to be in the video now. So that's a stand up paddleboard on the left. I think the girl in the middle is on a stand up paddle board as well, but not standing. And the man is in a kayak, a red kayak. So I think stand up Support the show

Learn the English phrases 'a little something' and 'a little off', their meanings and usage. The hosts also discuss the importance of sharing personal experiences in YouTube content creation.

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases COULD BE WORSE and TO GO FROM BAD TO WORSEIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “could be worse”. Now, this is a phrase that we use in two different situations. If you said to me, Hey, Bob, how's it going? I might answer. Could be worse. This is a response to that greeting that means nothing's really bad in my life, but nothing's really good. It's a very neutral answer and kind of a funny one. So you might say, Hey, Bob, how's it going? And I could say, Ah you know it could be worse. The other way we use this or the other situation we use this in is when someone's talking about something bad that's happened and you want to kind of reassure them that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Here's a good example. The other day it rained a lot and there was... there was a lot of water on our property. And Jen said, you know, it could be worse. The roof of the house could have started leaking. That would have been way worse than what was happening. So it's used to just introduce a thought about how the situation could have been worse.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 want to teach you today is “to go from bad to worse”. This is used to describe maybe your day starting out badly, and then as the day goes by, it just gets worse and worse. You could say, Oh, my day went from bad to worse. On the way to school there was a traffic jam and I was late for work or on the way to work there was a traffic jam, but I was late for work. I know you don't all work at a school. And then when I got to school, I had to fill in for Joe because he was sick that day. So my day went from bad to worse.So to review “could be worse” could be used as a response to a greeting. Like, How's it going? Ah, could be worse. Or to describe how a situation could actually be worse. And to go from bad to worse is used to describe usually a day that starts out badly and then just keeps getting worse as the day goes on. Those are not fun days.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Denis. There are so many comments under this video. That is cool. And my response, I'm happy that it never gets to be too many, that I can't answer them all. Someday, though, it might. So thanks, Denis, for that comment.Yes. A little secret here. I really enjoy answering the comments on this channel. And one of the things that makes that possible is that there's usually only 30 or 40 of them. And I. I do want this channel to grow. That would be exciting for me. It would be exciting to get a silver play button someday for this channel. But at the same time, I do really enjoy the fact that I can respond to all the comments. Like it's... it's not a lot of work.One of you once asked how fast I type, so I'll tell you a little story. Years ago in university, I decided, this is way back in the late eighties, early nineties, I decided that typing on a keyboard might be important. So I sat down at a computer and I taught myself to type and eventually I could type over 80 words per minute. And to this day, I can still type that fast. That really helps me reply to comments. Sometimes, too, I use an app or an extension in my browser that lets me use voice, but sometimes typing is just faster. So yes, my typing speed is really high and that certainly helps me answer a lot of comments.And it's fun because I actually kind of get to know some of you on this channel. Whereas on my bigger channel, I try to respond to all the comments that I can on a Tuesday morning when the video comes out. But eventuaSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN HINDSIGHT and HINDSIGHT IS 20/20In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “with hindsight”, or sometimes we say “in hindsight”. And this simply means when looking back in time. So I could say this, “With hindsight we know that dumping garbage into the ocean is a bad idea.” If we look back 50 or 100 years, we know that some of the things we did were bad. So with hindsight, when we look back in time, we realize that those are bad things. You can use the phrase, too, to talk about your own personal life. You could say, in hindsight, I should have taken the job at the factory. Maybe everyone at the factory just got a $50 a day raise and you're still at your old job because you decided not to work there. But you could say, “In hindsight, I should have taken the job.” So when you look back in time, you think, Oh, I should have made a different decision.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/bobthecanadianAnd then we also have this phrase in English. Hindsight is 20/20. So this is interesting because hindsight refers to looking back in time and 20/20 refers to how good your eyesight is. If you have 20/20 vision, it means that you don't need to wear glasses to read or just to see things. So when you say, “Hindsight is 2020.”, you're basically saying that when you look at a situation in the past from the future, it's pretty easy to see clearly if you made a good or bad decision.So to review “with hindsight” or “in hindsight” simply refers to looking back in time from your current place in time and realizing that something was a good or bad decision, and saying that hindsight is 20/20 simply refers to the fact that it's much easier to see now if a decision you made a long time ago was good or bad.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Sorry these shorts of weird pockets, it's hard to get things in and out, it’s all crumpled. Sorry, This comment is from DimbikeY. Such a poor little tree behind you. R.I.P. Mr. Tree. That means rest in peace. And my response? I'm sure it will come back strong next year.So yeah, in the last video I showed you all of the beautiful trees, but one tree was kind of sad looking and I do think it will come back. I'm not too worried about that tree. I'm sure that it will look beautiful in the future. We just have to wait a year. Anyways, I'm out here. Thanks for the comment, by the way, I’m out here walking along, the flowerbeds are in full bloom.Sorry. My battery went dead there. That's never happened before. I'm using my old trusty camera, but I haven't used it for a few weeks because I've been using my new gimbal and my phone. So sorry I've charged it up. I'm kind of holding a battery pack here while I use it. I'm sure it will last for another minute or so. So I'm just out here by the flowerbeds. They look beautiful. Jen has done a wonderful job this year. We have been harvesting flowers like crazy. We have been selling a lot. And I thought it was time for me to kind of give you a little bit of a look at what they look like. These are the zinnias. These are a very, very popular flower. People are always wanting zinnias.Oh, What do we have here? Oh, Did it fly away? Oh, it's coming back. There is a butterfly. Oh, this is a rare treat. I hope that it's in focus and you guys can see. Oh, there it goes. Oh, this is kind of fun. Sorry if I'm getting distracted by this butterfly. It's not often that we have things come and join us when we're doing an English lesson, so that's pretty cool.Anyways, flowers are doing well. We have about six or seven weeks left herSupport the show

This podcast explores the English phrases 'a clean slate' and 'clean as a whistle'. It discusses the meaning and usage of these phrases, as well as personal experiences with starting fresh. The hosts also share stories about technology and learning new things.

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FLAT OUT and FLAT BROKEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “flat out”. When you go flat out, it means you're going as fast as you can possibly go. When Usain Bolt runs the hundred meter, he runs flat out. He can't go any faster. We also use this phrase to talk about things like work. For the last few days, I've been working flat out. I've been working really, really hard. Jen and I have both been working flat out. There is no way I could have worked any faster. School’s starting soon, so I have a lot of work to get done, so I'm definitely working flat out so that when I go back to school, I don't have to worry too much about some of the YouTube things I want to get done.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 “flat broke”. I think I may have taught you this phrase before. It means that you have no money. When I was a university student, there were a few times when I was flat broke. There was even a time where I ate oatmeal for a few days because I didn't have enough money to buy other food. But I had a big bag of oatmeal. So I was flat broke, but I still had at least some food to eat. I think I ate bananas too at the time. I think even when I'm flat broke, I find a little bit of money to buy bananas.So to review, when you go flat out, it means you're going as fast as you can possibly go, even in a car. If you were to drive your car 160 kilometers an hour, you would probably be going flat out. And then if you say that you are flat broke, it means that you don't have any money. It's not a nice situation to be in.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from let's see here.I'll just say KS. I had to look up the word gimbal in the dictionary and encyclopedia. Thanks for teaching some technology not only phrases Teacher Bob. And my response. It certainly is an interesting device. I find that the world of technology is very fascinating.So thank you KS for that comment. And yes, I'm not actually using that right now because I have it right here because I wanted to be able to show you guys a little bit about how this works. It's it's kind of wild. Like, I don't remember what all the buttons do, but I can spin it so that the camera’s sideways and what it does... here... let's let's actually turn this on and then maybe I'll show you the footage from this when it’s ah... let's see here. I have to go here. I shouldn't be using technology while I'm trying to make an English lesson. I might run overtime here, but let's see if we go to there and then it connects. There's a it's a little more complicated than you might expect. Let's see here. So we're going to flip the camera and we are going to flip it this way How do I do this now... there we go.Are you enjoying watching Bob struggle with technology? So now you'll see, no matter how I tilt this, the phone is always pointing at me. It's pretty wild. I will see if I can get this clip and I'll mix it in or edit it in with this video. But yeah, it's been fun. I'm not sure 100% yet how I'm going to use this. I mentioned that in my last video, but I just have my phone on it. And which way does this go? There we go. Let me put this back. So there you go. A little bit of new technology. I don't think I actually hit the record button while I was doing that. So you won't see that footage.But hey, I'm forgetting to walk around. I'm over here at the local what we call a strip mall because it's all in one long row. I'm back in town because I need to stop by Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP UP and FOR KEEPSIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, “to keep up”. So you might notice that if I move over here, my camera follows me. And if I move over here, my camera follows me. I bought a gimbal because I feel like I need to keep up. I don't want to get behind. That would be the opposite. I want to keep up. When it comes to technology, I don't like to spend a lot of money on technology, but sometimes I feel like it's just a good idea. I did have something that did this before..., my last camera, but it was a little too. Yeah, it wasn't perfected. This gimbal with my phone, I think, works a little better, so it's nice to be able to buy it to keep up. I want to make sure I have some of the latest technology to make English lessons 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/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, “for keeps”. When you give someone something, if you don't want it back, you've given it to them for keeps. Sometimes kids will lend stuff to each other that means you want it back. And one of the kids might think that the other kid gave it to him for keeps. That would mean that they thought the other kid gave it to them and they could keep it forever. Which is maybe not what the kid meant. We've had this happen when our kids were little before where one kid would give something to another and one the other one would think it was for keeps, but they were just hoping to get it back.Anyways to review “to keep up” means to be current. If you're running, you try to keep up with the person in front of you. But in life, sometimes it's important to try and keep up as well. And “for keeps” means permanently. If I was to give you something for keeps, it means that you can keep it forever.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Denis. Bob, when you left your place to shoot the last part of the lesson, did you think about the safety of your breakfast? And I responded by saying I wasn't too worried. It's a pretty small town and I didn't think anyone would try to grab it. So yeah, in my last lesson, I was sitting in the outside portion of a restaurant. I was sitting kind of on the patio and I left my breakfast to walk way, way, way back and to kind of show you the front of the lesson.So you'll notice I'm trying a couple of things out here. I have my wireless mic which lets me do things like this, like I can walk over here and point at this bike. Sorry, this is a bit of a technical lesson as well. And I can do things like this, like I can bend down and it will... and I can point that stuff on the ground. And I guess if I had something to climb up on, I could do that as well and it would follow me.I could grab that chair over there and try that. Let me do that. So I ran away so fast it wasn't able to follow me. But here we go. Let's see if this camera works. Let's... ooh... this is not a very safe chair, but I'll try it anyways. Oh, yeah, that's pretty wild. So I'm standing here up on this chair and the camera was able to see me. Let me move this ugly chair out of the way.So like I said, I don't know how I'm going to use this new technology yet or if I'm going to use it a lot. It's not something I normally do. It's like having a cameraman or a camera person. This is new for me. I could walk over here and say, Look at these beautiful leaves. So as I said, I'll have to think about this. I have to figure out how do I make a lesson with a camera that can follow me in a way that just makes better lessons for youSupport the show

Learn the English phrases 'Can I...?' and 'Could I...?' for ordering food and asking for permission, and discover that they have the same meaning. Also, hear the speaker's response to a viewer's comment on the proverb 'don't put all your eggs in one basket'.

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases LIKE CRAP and PIECE OF CRAPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase like crap. Now, sometimes when you're learning English, you need to learn phrases, not to use them, but just so you recognize them if you read them or hear them somewhere. This is a very vulgar way of speaking, a kind of a informal, rude way of speaking, but we do use this phrase, I use this phrase, and it just means something like this. If I say I slept like crap, it means I did not sleep very well. If I said I feel like crap, it means I don't feel very well at all. By the way, you'll have to look up what crap means. It's similar to the S-H-I-T word that I don't like to use, but I think it's just become an informal way to say something wasn't very good, like, oh, that car runs like crap, or I slept like crap, or I feel like crap.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 piece of crap. This is used to describe something that isn't working well or that breaks all the time. You could say, "Joe bought a car, but it's a piece of crap. It's rusty. The engine doesn't run very well. It drips oil whenever he parks it somewhere. It's just a piece of crap." You could say that, "Fred bought a used guitar for $50, and it's a piece of crap. It's not very well made. He should have spent a bit more money for a better guitar."So again, informal phrases not to be used, but you should recognize them. When something is described as being like crap, it just means it's not very good, and when you say something is a piece of crap, it means it is not very good at all. It's a very negative, negative phrase.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Let me find the comment here. This comment is from Tara or Tara. There's two pronunciations of that name. "You messed up with this lesson because the sound was bad, but the lesson itself was as great as always. Thank you." And I responded by saying, "Yeah, sorry about that. The sound was very distracting."So in both ways, and oh, thanks Tara, in the last video, the sound was distracting for a couple reasons. One is it was windy, so the mic didn't necessarily pick up the audio very good, and then it was, I just have to do this so Mohd can see the sunflowers and then also the car noise. The traffic noise was very, very distracting for me.By the way, in the last video Mohd asked if the sunflowers were blooming and they indeed are. It is definitely that time of year here. But it's interesting in the field, there aren't very many sunflowers because we pick them and then all you see is little stems with the flower removed. But I'll show you that sometime as well, sometimes as well.But yeah, the traffic noise was distracting. I'm back here on the farm making a video now. It's a lot more peaceful here as you can see. It has been though a strange year. I've complained about the rain too much, but it just won't stop. It's actually starting to damage crops a lot. We have certain flowers we just can't harvest because they're just dying from mildew or you know, fungus, all that kind of stuff loves the cold, wet weather. It's actually not that cold, but it's cold and damp at night and I just think it's not a good year, but we're getting through it.I mean, we grow sometimes more than we need and we do have a wide variety. Sometimes when you diversify, when you have a wide variety of things, then it's easier to keep going and keep selling. So we do have some flowers that love wet weather, not very many, so thatSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MESS UP and TO MESS AROUNDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "to mess up." When you mess up, it simply means that you've made a mistake. Sometimes I mess up when I'm driving. Just the other day, I was driving to see my brother-in-law and I messed up. I forgot to get off the highway at the proper exit. I messed up. I made a mistake. Sometimes people do this when they're at work. Sometimes the boss gives them a job and they do it wrong. They mess up and then the boss is really, really annoyed, especially if it made the company lose money. So when you mess up, it simply means to make a mistake.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 mess around." By the way, I hope you can hear me today. It's rather loud out here. When you mess around with something, now this has a number of different meanings, but when you mess around with something, it means you change the settings or you move things. Sometimes my kids mess around with the thermostat in my house. They think the house is too cold or too warm and so they mess around with the thermostat. I don't like it when they mess around with the thermostat. I like it when they just leave it where it is.So to review, hello, to review, to mess up means to make a mistake. Sometimes when you're driving, you mess up, and hopefully you don't mess up too bad and cause an accident. And to mess around has a lot of meanings. The one I'm focusing on today, means to change something, touch something, like a camera. Sometimes my camera doesn't work right and I think, does someone mess around with this? It's not working the way it's supposed to.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from SG. "You two have taken the bored out of the learning journey with your wonderful teaching style." And my response, "That's the plan. Make lessons that are as entertaining as they are educational."So SG is referring to the fact that Brent was down for a few days and that was a wonderful time. I did really enjoy making videos with another English teacher. So Brent, if you're watching, thanks again for coming. It was a lot of fun. And thanks for helping me make so much content, it's pretty cool.Anyways, I'm out here by the highway. Hopefully the audio is okay today, because it's a little bit windy and that messes with the microphone. So sorry about that. I came out here because, I sometimes come here to remind myself that even though there are some things about living in the country that I don't like, like I don't like that I can't get pizza delivered to my house, there are things that make it wonderful. Like, my drive to work every day is about 11 minutes long. Whereas for some of these people, their drive to work might take forever, especially if there's a traffic jam or something else slowing them down.That's the second person. I don't know if you heard that, that was the second person honking and there's now another person honking. I think people enjoy it when they see someone videotaping, and they like to, or maybe they're trying to mess up my video by honking. I'm not a hundred percent sure Anyways, it's always a good reminder that I live in a place where there is no traffic. So even though sometimes at night the power goes out, actually that doesn't happen very often. I'm having trouble thinking of good examples. There are down, oh, I'm trying, I can't even remember the right word. There are drawbacks to living in the country and whSupport the show