Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FREE UP and AS FREE AS A BIRDIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to free up. This is a phrase that we use when we want to make space or time available to ourselves. Let me give you a few examples. In my classroom, I have a bookshelf and there were a lot of books on there that I didn't need anymore. So I got those books and I put them in the recycling because I wanted to free up some space. I wanted to make some space available on the bookshelf for other books. The other way you could use this is to talk about time. Tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment. If I canceled that appointment, it would certainly free up some time for me to do some other things. So when you free up something in English, it usually means to make some space or some time available to 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 second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase as free as a bird. It's a little windy out here today. When you are as free as a bird, it means you have no obligations. Tomorrow I don't actually have a dentist appointment. That was just an example. Tomorrow is actually a holiday here in Canada and I'll be as free as a bird tomorrow. I don't have to go to work, I don't have to do anything. In fact, Jen and I are taking the day off. I'll be as free as a bird. Tuesday though is the day that school starts so I'll be back at work. If you think about the school year in Canada, at the end of the month of June, when the school year ends, I'm also as free as a bird. But that's gonna end quickly in just a couple of days.So to review when you free up space or you free up time, you make it available again. Maybe you take some books off a bookshelf to free up space. Maybe you cancel an appointment to free up time. And when you are as free as a bird, it means that you don't have any obligations. You don't have anything to do for a certain period of time. You are free as a bird in the sky.Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. And this comment is from Roberto and Roberto says, "Hi, Bob. I knew the expression, same old but only used once not twice. Why did you use it twice?" And my response was it's just another way of expressing the same thing. But in a more general way, if someone asked how was work, I could respond and say, you know, same old, same old. Or I could say, you know, same old lesson planning, same old boring colleagues or coworkers, sorry. By the way, my coworkers aren't boring.But that was just an example, but great question, Roberto. In English there are many ways to say different things. So one way with same old, same old, it's just a little more general. And then with same old, you usually need to specify what is the same.Anyways as I mentioned in a couple of days, I think you'll be watching this on Monday. I'm actually recording this on the weekend. On Tuesday of this week, I will be back at school. The school year will begin. We have a nice holiday on the Monday of this week. It's called Labor Day. So again, I'll be free as a bird because I don't have to do any work. But for you, if you're watching this on Monday, the day after today, Tuesday is the first day of school. I will be back at work.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SAME OLD SAME OLD and I'LL HAVE THE SAMEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, same old, same old. No, this is not a typo. We do sometimes say this. We say this when something was the same as the last time we did it. Today I had my first day of work, actually, my second day, I'll explain that more later. And if you were to say to me, Bob, how was your day at work? I would say, you know, same old, same old. We did the same things as we did last year at this time. Same old, same old. I was in meetings. I had to wear my mask all day. It was basically the same old, same old. You can use this for any situation. Maybe you're watching a TV show and someone says, oh, did you see the last episode? And you could say, yeah, it wasn't that great. It was just the same old, same old. It was the same story and it was kind of boring.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 want to teach you today. I'm kind of embarrassed by this phrase because it's quite simple when I look at it. The phrase is, I'll have the same. I think you probably all know this phrase. It means that you'll have the same thing that someone else is getting usually in a restaurant. I was actually in a restaurant recently with my brother, and he ordered a hamburger with fries and I said, I'll have the same. And I thought I should teach you this phrase. But now when I look at it, I think this is actually a pretty easy one, isn't it? Well, maybe it's your lucky day. Instead of two hard to understand phrases, you got one somewhat easy to understand and one really easy to understand phrase. So if you say, I'll have the same, it means you'll get the same thing as someone else in a restaurant.So to review the phrase, same old, same old, means that something is the same. And work definitely was the same old, same old today. Same people, same classrooms, like I said, same masks, same little lines on my face at the end of the day from the strings on the mask, when they go around my ear. So it was definitely the same old, same old. And if you say in a restaurant, I'll have the same. After someone you are with orders their food, it means you want the same order as them. It's an easy way to order stuff in a restaurant.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from, drum roll, please. So sometimes we say that in English to be funny, like we're waiting for a drum roll. It's from Alex. Alex says, "I got confused when you said around age 65, she decided to retire without subtitles on. I heard around 865, she decided to retire. And my response is, maybe you heard correctly. And my mom is over a thousand years old. Just kidding. Actually, when I went back and listened, it did sound like that a bit. I was speaking quite quickly."So thanks Alex for that comment. Yes, in my previous video, I was talking about my mom and she retired at age 65. And if you listen to it a certain way, you might have heard it as me saying that she retired in the year 865, sometime, I guess, in the middle ages.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP BUSY and BUSY WORKIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to keep busy. This is a phrase that we mostly use when talking about people who are retired. My mom is retired. She worked for a long time, and around age 65, she decided to retire, but she likes to keep busy. In English, when you say that someone wants to keep busy, it usually means they don't have a job, but they still like to do things. My mom, in order to keep busy, volunteers at what's called a thrift store. A thrift store is where people donate clothes, and then the people who work there put prices on them and sell them and the money's used for a good cause. So in order to keep busy, my mom likes to work at the thrift store. We could also say she likes to keep herself busy. That's another way of saying 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 the phrase busy work. Busy work is any kind of work that you do that isn't really productive. It's work that you do for the sake of doing the work. Here's the best example I can think of. Sometimes, when I give my students lessons, I try to make it very, very effective. I want them to learn a lot. I don't want to just give them a bunch of busy work. If I was to give them busy work, that would mean I would make them practice things they already know. I would make them do things that weren't teaching them anything new. I would be giving them busy work. It would just look good. If the principal came in the classroom, it would look like my students were working, but they would just be doing busy work. If I was making them review things that they learned last year, or if I was making them do something over and over again, it would just be busy work.So to review, to keep busy, or to keep oneself busy, means to do things similar to work, to stay active, to do activities, especially when you are retired or when you don't have a job, maybe you just don't need to work. Maybe you have so much money, you don't need to work, but in order to keep busy, you find little things to do. And busy work is any kind of work that just isn't productive. It's work that you do for the sake of work. I hope that makes sense.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Roman and the comment is this. "Hi, Bob, many people shy away from public speaking. "So do I, thanks for the lesson." And my response was, "The funny thing is that once you've done it for a while, "it becomes a lot less stressful. "I think a lot of things in life are that way."So the funny thing is when I replied to Roman, my first reply, I actually said, "Once you've done it for a while, "it becomes a lot more stressful." I typed the wrong word, so I corrected it, but I thought Roman would probably have a bit of a laugh or maybe be a little confused by that initial response.But yes, there are many things in life that are just easier once you do it for a while. It doesn't mean it's easy to do that thing. It doesn't mean that there's no stress involved. Usually, there's lots of stress, but I have found that if I can push myself, if I can get to a point where I convince myself to do something stressful, instead of shying away from it, great use of the phrase, by the way, Roman, sometimes, you just do it for a while and you become good at it.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases JUST SHY OF and TO SHY AWAYIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, just shy of. When you are just shy of something, it means you're almost there, but not quite. I'm actually five foot, 10 and a half inches tall. I'm just shy of being six feet tall. Maybe you watch sports, and there you have a favorite athlete who might break a record. Maybe the record is 100 goals scored in a season, but your favorite athlete scores 98 or 99 goals. You would say that they were just shy of breaking the record. So when you are just shy of something, you're almost there but not quite.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 shy away from. When you shy away from something, it means that you avoid it. It's something you don't like doing. Some people don't like speaking in public, so they shy away from it. That means if someone asks them if they want to speak in public, if they want to do some public speaking, they usually say no, they shy away from public speaking. I try to shy away from bad foods. I try to not eat them, but sometimes I fail at that. I'm not that good at shying away from certain things.So to repeat, when you are just shy of something, it means that you're almost there but not quite, In a few months, I hope, on my bigger channel, I will be just shy of a million subscribers. Right now I'm around 820,000 or something like that. So I'm not close yet, but if I was at 999,000 subscribers, I would be just shy of a million. And of course, again, the phrase, to review. To shy away means to avoid something. I shy away from being outside in bad weather, especially if there's lightning. If there's a freak storm, I don't like to be outside.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I'm having trouble with my pockets today. Let me get this out. I know it's from Russlynn and the comment is this. Russlynn says, "Thank you for the cool lesson, teacher Bob. Your phrase, fall is coming, reminded me of the 'Game of Thrones' motto, you know our words, winter is coming." My response was, "ha ha, I never thought of that. Yes, fall is coming."So "Game of Thrones," it's actually, I read the books and then I watched the TV shows. It's a really interesting fantasy series. It has knights, and it has big battles with swords and horses and everything. And one of the phrases in that show is "winter is coming," because that's something that everyone, I think in that land, winter only comes every few years. So every once in a while, they'll say "winter is coming."And yes, fall is coming here. The trees are not quite turning color yet, but that will actually be happening soon. It's been very, very dry and that kind of speeds things up, but you can see behind me, we actually did get a little bit of rain. So I'm glad that- There's a little bit of thunder right now. It just finished raining a few minutes ago, so maybe I should have waited a little bit to come outside. I usually shy away from making videos in the rain. I don't think it's gonna rain again, but anyways, fall can come very quickly here. Even though it has been very warm lately and it feels like summer, it's been over 30 degrees for many days, it feels like in this part of Canada, in just, in a heartbeat, it can be fall.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG and TO TIP OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the tip of the iceberg. Now an iceberg is a gigantic block of ice floating in the ocean. And you can see the top of it, but there's a lot more below it. So we use the English phrase, the tip of the iceberg, to talk about things where you can see a little bit of it, but there's a whole lot more that is hidden. Here's a good example. Sometimes I'm sitting and I'm grading some student work, and I have a pile about this big, and another teacher might say to me, oh, that's not very much grading. I could say, it's just the tip of the iceberg. There are three more piles of grading in my classroom that I have to go and grade later today. So when you say something is the tip of the iceberg, it means you can see a little bit of it, but there's a whole bunch more to it that is hidden.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 tip off. When you tip someone off, it means you tell them a secret, or you tell them something that was supposed to be a secret. Let's say my sister is planning to have a surprise party for me, and my other sister tips me off. My other sister tells me about the party. We would then say that she has tipped me off. She told me about something that was supposed to be a secret.So let's review. The tip of the iceberg is any time you can see a small part of something, and maybe not realizing there's a whole bunch to it that's hidden as well. And when you tip someone off, it means you let them know something that was kind of supposed to be a secret.Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Valeria, and Valeria says, hi, dear teacher, Bob, thank you for the new lesson. I've never heard about a fruit cellar. Is there a special place in the basement for fruits? And my response is this, yes, in the basement of our house, there is a fruit cellar, many houses in Canada have them. It is a room that stays somewhat cool all year round. We actually don't use ours that much anymore, as a fridge is more convenient.So yes, fruit cellars, an interesting thing that all houses use to have, and most houses still do, but not everyone uses them to store fruit anymore. They were really handy, because they were below the ground, and so they stayed somewhat cool. So if you look right here, you'll see that there is a basement below my house. We have rooms in the bottom floor of our house below the ground. And because they are below the ground, they stay somewhat cool. And long ago, people used to harvest apples and pears, and they would keep them in the fruit cellar. It wasn't as cold as a refrigerator, but it was cold enough to keep things relatively cold, somewhat cold compared to what it was like outside. And they were especially good in the winter, because they never froze.So because they were below ground, they would stay somewhere around, I'm gonna say 55 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know what that is in Celsius. Let me see if I can do the math really quickly. Probably around 10 or 11 degrees Celsius. I hope that's right. Double it, and add 30. 10 is it? Yes, somewhere around there, around 10 or 11 degrees Celsius. That's my quick math.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SQUARED AWAY and READY TO ROLLIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "squared away." If I say that something is squared away in English, it means that it's properly organized, it means everything is in its place. If I had something squared away, it would mean that I'm ready for something. I spent the last few days getting squared away for the new school year. I have everything squared away for the school year, which starts two weeks from today actually. So I'm really happy because I have everything squared away. Notice you can use this two ways. I can say, "I'm squared away," or I can say, "I have everything squared away," or, "Things are all squared away for the start of the new school year." I'm pretty happy about that. I'm glad that I could take this little break to get ready because being ready for the new school year just makes me a little more relaxed.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 "ready to roll." Now, I couldn't remember if I've already taught you this phrase, but I am ready to roll. In English, we use this phrase somewhat informally to just say we're ready for something. When it comes to the new school year, I'm ready to roll. If my boss said to me, "Bob, are you ready for the first day of school?" I would say, "I'm ready to roll." It's kind of a funny phrase. I think it's related to, we use the word roll when we're talking about driving. Like when I'm driving down the road, you could say I'm rolling down the road. I don't actually say that, younger people might, but when you say that you are ready to roll, it means that you are prepared, it means that you are all ready to do something.So let's review. If you have everything squared away or if you say, "I'm squared away," it means that everything is in its proper place. You are organized and ready for something. I have everything squared away and I'm ready for the new school year. And when you say that you are ready to roll, it means that you are just completely and totally ready to do something.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from a Maritza and the comment is this. "Hi, Bob. Lisianthus are really beautiful flowers, but I wonder if you have any fruit trees on your farm? So far, I haven't seen any. By the way, I'm a cheap person too. I love to drive a hard bargain. Have a good day." And my response was this. "We do not have any fruit trees. There used to be a pear tree at the bottom of the hill behind my house, but it died years ago. We've thought about getting an apple tree someday."So one of the things that's unique about fruit and not everybody knows this is that you need a certain kind of soil to grow certain kinds of fruit trees. Where I live here in Ontario, Canada, we have very hard clay soil and so the only two types of fruit trees we can grow, we can grow apples and we can grow pears in this soil. I'm not sure if you can see it, but way down the hill, there is a dead tree and that is the tree that used to have pears on it.When I was a kid, we would go down the hill and we would pick pears off the ground and we would feed them to some of our animals, but we would also keep all the good ones and we would put them in the fruit cellar in the basement and then we would eat them during the winter. They were quite yummy actually. We've thought about getting an apple tree. Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WHAT A STEAL and NERVES OF STEELIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, what a steal. This is something we say when we buy something and the price was really, really low. Notice this word, steal, usually means to take something without paying, but when we buy something that's really, really cheap, when we buy something where it's on sale and where the price is really good, we sometimes say, "What a steal," or we say, "It was a steal." Let me tell you, I just bought this t-shirt today. Normally, it was $15, but I bought it for $8. What a steal. These sunglasses I bought the other day, normally $5. I bought them for just $1. What a steal. I know. I'm pretty cheap, aren't I? These are dollar store sunglasses. They're from the store where everything in the store is about $1, but I've told you before, I'm pretty cheap.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, nerves of steel. Notice this is the other word, steel. This one has two Es in it. It's different than this one. When we say steel, when we use this term, we are referring to the metal. And when you say that someone has nerves of steel, it means that when something is going wrong, they are very calm and they're able to handle the situation really, really well. My dad was like that. When something would go wrong on the farm, when there was an emergency, he had nerves of steel. He would just calmly do what needed to be done to fix the problem or the emergency. It was really awesome.Anyways, to review, when you say, "What a steal," you're saying that something was a really, really good deal. These sunglasses were a real steal, and this t-shirt, I think, was a real steal. I'm really happy that I got some new clothes. And then when you say nerves of steel, you just mean that someone, they don't get angry, they don't get upset, they don't start crying in a bad situation. They just calmly do what needs to be done.But hey, let's look at a comment. I have to check the time on the camera here. Let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Yaroslaw, and Yaroslaw says, "You know what? Recently, I realized that I understand almost all English jokes, especially when you're joking. It is a very new feeling to me. It's cool. Could you please make an English lesson someday about jokes slash telling jokes? By the way, Oscar laying on the table is adorable." Yeah, he's not around right now. Sorry about that. My response was this. "It's always cool to realize you've understood something in another language without working hard to understand what was said. When understanding starts to come freely, it's a great step.So congratulations, that is an awesome step." When that happens when you're learning a language, it's just an awesome feeling. I think I've talked about this before where I've watched television in French, and then all of the sudden, at a certain point, I'll realize I just watched 15 or 20 minutes of the show and that I understood everything that was happening. Sorry, it's a little hard to walk without tripping. It is a very, very cool feeling to completely understand what someone is saying in another language. So, very awesome that you are able to do that when I'm joking and when you're hearing English jokes, very cool.And yeah, Oscar laying on the table, yeah, that was very cool, but he's not around right now. I think it's too hot out here for him today, so he's just hanging out somewhere in the shade. Let me check my timer again. I have 30 seconds left.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms THE BIG SCREEN and THE SMALL SCREENIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term, the big screen. The big screen is simply another way of saying the movies. There might be an actor that you know really well and you see him quite often on the big screen. This would mean that that actor often plays roles in movies. So sometimes when you read a book, it might be adapted for the big screen. They might take that book and then make a script out of it and then make it into a movie and then you can go and see the same story that you read in the book, you can go see it on the big screen.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 term I wanted to teach you today is, of course, the small screen. The small screen is simply another way of saying the television. Now I'm not 100% sure if this also means Netflix or your phone, but definitely in the past, and even still a little bit now, we would say the small screen, and we would be talking about the television. You might have a favorite actor who used to be in movies, but lately, that actor has started to do more, to play more roles on the small screen. That would mean instead of being in movies, that actor is now normally seen on television.So to review. The big screen simply means the movies and the small screen simply means the television. I think you can understand where these terms come from, right? The movie theater has a very, very big screen, and your television, I guess is somewhat big, but not nearly as big as the movie theater.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Lolly Lolly, I think.By the way, Oscar's just kind, gent-- Nicely sleeping there. Oh, now he just kind of looked at me. I think he knows he's on camera. Shh, don't say anything.The comment from Lolly Lolly is this. Hello from France. Do you think that some of your children will follow in your footsteps on the farm? Thanks, Bob. My reply is I'm really not sure. We're taking a wait and see approach. We're not pressuring any of them. Right now, it seems like they have a lot of other interests.So that's a great question, Lolly Lolly. Often, it's hard to know as a farm dad and farm mum, it's hard to know if any of the kids are interested in working on the farm. Should we pet Oscar for a sec? Hi, puppy. And we don't want to pressure them. We don't want to try. We don't want them to think that they have to do it. We know they have lots of other interests. They like computers. They like music. They like sports. There's all kinds of things that children are naturally interested in and we don't want to force them. We don't want to say you have to take over the farm, so we're taking a wait and see approach. A wait and see approach is exactly what it sounds like. You wait and you see what happens. So they're still quite young. We'll see what happens in a few years. What often happens with kids who grow up on farms is, later in life, when they're in their 20s or 30s, they start to have fond memories of what it was like to be on the farm.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HARD TO FOLLOW and TO FOLLOW IN SOMEONE'S FOOTSTEPSIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "hard to follow." Hard to follow simply means that something is hard to understand or it's hard to keep track of what's happening when you're watching something or reading something or when someone is talking to you. Hopefully, when you watch my videos, they're not hard to follow. Hopefully, they are easy to understand. I know sometimes when you watch an English movie or English TV show, it might be hard to follow. You might have to pause and rewind and maybe turn the subtitles on every once in a while, because sometimes people just speak too quickly and it's hard to follow.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 follow in someone's footsteps." When you follow in someone's footsteps, it means you do the same thing as they do. Usually this is between generations, like when children do the same job as their mom or dad, we say that they are following in their footsteps. Often, this happens on farms. Often, farms are taken over by the next generation. Sometimes the son or daughter of a farmer will follow in their parents' footsteps and they will do the same thing as their parents. They will also become farmers.So to review, not sure I explained this one good enough, but when something is hard to follow, it's simply hard to understand. Again, I really hope my videos aren't too hard to follow. I hope they are easy for you to understand. And when you follow in someone's footsteps, it usually means that you do the same thing as an older family member. Sometimes grandkids will follow in the footsteps of their grandparents. Maybe their grandfather was a mechanic and one of the grandkids has decided to become a mechanic as well. We would say that they are going to follow in their grandfather's footsteps.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from, I think, Yellow DQ 1989. And the comment is this. "You just need a Clarkson's Lamborghini tractor." And my response was, "That would be amazing. I love that show. So fun to watch."So what Yellow is talking about is a show on Amazon Prime called "Clarkson's Farm." "Clarkson's Farm" stars Jeremy Clarkson. He was a presenter on "Top Gear" and "The Grand Tour," an automotive show, for a very long time. I think he still does "The Grand Tour" but he also has a little show now called "Clarkson's Farm" where he farms in England and he has a tractor that's made by Lamborghini. A very cool tractor. I'm assuming it's made by some of my Italian friends in Italy. And he is just learning how to be a farmer on his big farm. Maybe I should have a Lamborghini tractor.I'm not sure if you can see my tractor down there. My big tractor is also broken. I have two broken tractors right now. My small tractor and my big one. So hopefully the repairman comes to fix my big tractor. It's down there in the field. It's really little. Maybe I'll try to zoom in on it when I edit this video. Hopefully the repair person, hopefully the tractor mechanic comes today and he's able to fix that one. The tire on my other tractor is still not repaired. I have to go get that later today. Hopefully, within a couple of days, both my tractors are working again, but it's not a rush.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S NOT SET IN STONE and STICKS AND STONESIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it's not set in stone. If something isn't set in stone, it means it might not happen. Maybe you're making plans for something, but all the details aren't in yet. So you're not even sure you're going to do the thing that you are planning. You would tell people that it's not set in stone. We also sometimes say, it's not written in stone or it's not etched in stone. And we almost always use this phrase in the negative. I can't think of any time where I've said something is set in stone. I almost always say something is not set in stone. So maybe you're thinking of having a party, but you're not 100% sure you want to have one. You might say to your friends, hey, I'm thinking of having a party this weekend, but it's not set in stone. That means it might happen, it might not happen. It's not permanent. The decision hasn't been made yet as to whether it happens or not.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, sticks and stones. And this is a shorter version of a phrase that kids say, which is sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This is a phrase I used the other day because someone said, do you ever get negative comments on your YouTube channel? And I was like, wow, you know, sticks and stones. And what that means is that people do sometimes leave negative comments, believe it or not, sometimes I get really negative comments and I just delete them. I always, I think to myself, sticks and stones and then the whole rest of the little nursery rhyme. Words, negative comments do hurt a little bit, but I'm glad I'm older. I'm glad I'm an older YouTuber. I think I have a thick skin at this point in my life.Anyways, to review, when you say it's not set in stone, or it's not written in stone, or it's not etched in stone, it means that the plan is just an idea and it's not permanent at this point. And when you say sticks and stones, you're basically saying yes, sometimes people say negative things, people say mean things, but you don't let them affect you. Words do hurt sometimes though. I think when you're younger, it's a lot more challenging, right?But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Franco The Tutor and Franco says, first comment, i'm a teacher from Peru, thanks for being an inspiration to me. And then a little smiley face. And my response was, hey, it's no problem, Franco, I love doing it, I hope your teaching is going well, have a great day.So that's an example of a really nice comment. I mostly get really nice comments on my videos and I appreciate them. But going back to the sticks and stones thing, I was a little surprised when I first started doing YouTube, I almost tripped there, how many people would leave negative comments. And I think this is my opinion of negative comments. I feel bad for the person who's leaving the comment. I feel like that person is not having a good day and they're having a such bad day that they just wanted to leave mean comments on someone's YouTube channel. I don't know why people do that. It doesn't really help the world to leave mean negative comments.Support the show