Learn Australian English in this episode of the Aussie English Podcast where I teach you how to use the expression HAVE EGG ON YOUR FACE like a native speaker.
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AE 414 – Expression: To Have Egg on Your Face
18th century Europeans thought it was a hoax when they first saw drawings of the peculiar creature. But make no mistake, this odd-ball animal’s no joke. It’s a one of a kind all-terrain species combining three animals in one. And it goes from cute to killer in an instant.
G’day, guys.
Welcome to the Aussie English Podcast, the number one podcast for anyone and everyone learning Australian English, guys. Remember that the Aussie English Podcast is brought to you by the Aussie English Classroom, an online learning environment designed to give you all the bonus content in sort of course form, lesson form, with quizzes, other MP3s, and just other materials for you to use that go with the podcast and often go with the videos on YouTube, in order to help you learn English faster. So, don’t forget to sign up and give that a go if you haven’t already. It’s a dollar for the first 30 days, and then it’ll continue on at a monthly rate after that.
Intro Scene:
Anyway, the intro scene today, guys. Can you guess which animal the intro scene was referring to? And that was a snippet from National Geographic. So, what was that animal? I want to let you think about that, and we’ll get to it in the Aussie English fact. But let’s say it’s an animal that was thought to be a hoax when the British first saw it. It looks like it’s made up of two or three different kinds of animals. And it lays eggs and is venomous. So, can you guys guess which animal this is?
Anyway, we’ll go over that in the Aussie Fact. Let’s go through a few announcements.
So, I’ve just gotten to Canberra, obviously, guys. I’ve been here for about a week, and I’ve been house hunting. That’s been a lot of fun. Not really. Not really at all. It’s been an interesting experience, because I had no idea how many people are looking for houses in Canberra. I had no idea it was this popular. I thought it would be an absolute shoo-in to find somewhere to live and that has definitely not been the case. I’ve been to about five or six house inspections in the past week, some of which had 25 or more people all looking at that house. So, it’s been insane. It’s been insane. But that’s what I’m up to at the moment. Still kind of getting into the rhythm of life. Still kind of getting settled, but hopefully it will all pan out okay in the long run.
Anyway, guys, don’t forget to get the download for today’s episode. Jump over to TheAussieEnglishPodcast.com, the website, and you can download the full transcript for this episode as well as the MP3, and you can read every single thing that I am saying and learn all the vocab and anything that you might miss when you’re listening and I’m speaking the way I do at a normal pace, ’cause I know that sometimes for some people I speak very quickly.
Aussie Joke:
Anyway, let’s get into the Aussie joke, guys. The Aussie joke. And you guys know that I love puns. I love puns. I love jokes that are “punny”. Get it? Instead of “funny”, “punny”.
Alright, so today’s joke is: What do you call an alligator in a vest? What do you call an alligator in a vest?
And “an alligator” is like a crocodile, but these guys are found in America. An alligator.
And “a vest” is kind of like a little suit top thing that you put on. It doesn’t have sleeves. You wear it on the top of your body over a shirt. That is a vest. You know? It sort of buttons up or zips up at the front.
So, what do you call an alligator in a vest?
An investigator. An investigator. Right? Because it’s an alligator in a vest. It’s an “in-vest-agator”. A play on words there, guys. So, I hope you like that joke.
Expression:
Let’s get into today’s expression, which is “to have egg on your face”, “to have egg on your face”.
So, this one was suggested by Quel. She suggested it in the Aussie English Classroom private Facebook group, which all of the members of the Aussie English Classroom have access to. We suggest expressions every week and then we vote on them in a poll, and this week was “to have egg on your face”.
Alright so, let’s go through and define the words in the expression “to have egg on your face” as we normally do in each episode.
Definition:
So, the first verb there “to have”, “to have”. I’m sure you guys know what “to have” is. This is one of the most common verbs in English. So, “to have” is effectively to own or to possess something in this example. Right? If you have something on your face it is that it is currently existing on your face. You possess it and it’s on your face. Right? So, if I have a T-shirt on, I’m wearing a T-shirt, I have it on my body.
“An egg”. What is “an egg”? You guys will probably know what “an egg” is. “An egg” is something that an animal lays, which later hatches into a baby animal. Right? So, a chicken lays an egg. You make omelets out of eggs. You’ll know what “an egg” is.
The particle “on”, the particle “on”. See this can be used in many different ways, but typically, it means to be in physical contact with something and to be supported by something. So, usually something will be a resting above a surface whilst in contact with it, and it is “on” that surface. So, right now, I’m looking at my computer, which is on the table. Okay? It’s sitting on the table. It’s supported by the table. It’s in contact with the surface of the table. It’s on the table.
“A face”. “A face” is the front part of a person’s head including the forehead all the way down to the chin. So, your eyes, your nose, your mouth are all on your face. Okay?
So, there are all the words in the expression “to have egg on your face”.
Expression Definition & Origin:
Let’s go through and define the expression as usual, guys. So, the expression “to have egg on your face”. Have you heard this expression before, and do you know what it means? “To have egg on your face”. Obviously literally, this would mean that you’ve been eating an egg or maybe someone’s thrown an egg at you and the egg is now on your face.
But figuratively, we can say “to have egg on your face” means to be embarrassed or to appear stupid because of something that you’ve tried that has gone wrong. Okay?
So, we’ll go through the origins of this expression, but just let’s go through that one more time. “To have egg on your face” is to be embarrassed or appear stupid because of something you’ve tried to do that has gone wrong. So, effectively just to look stupid or to be embarrassed. Okay?
So, the origin of this expression. When I looked this up there were two origins that were hypothesised, that were put forth, as possible origins for this expression.
The first one was that it could have originated in the lower-class with the more rowdy kind of theatrical performances that used to take place in which an incompetent actor would have been pelted with eggs and forced off the stage. So, an actor who wasn’t very good, if he wasn’t doing a good job in a theatrical performance while he was on stage, the crowd in the lower-class part of society might have brought eggs to that performance and pelted him with eggs, as in thrown them at him, and forced him off stage. So, if he’d done a bad job, if he’d embarrassed himself, if he had appeared stupid, he would end up with egg on his face, because the crowd will have pelted him with eggs. So, that was origin number one. It’s a possible origin.
The second origin was that it could be potentially referring to a social mistake where at a meal or you’ve eaten with poor manners or a little bit sloppily and egg has been left literally on your face. Right? So, you’ve been eating in a way that is a little bit embarrassing or has caused you to appear stupid and you’ve been left literally with egg on your face. Okay?
Examples:
So, let’s go through some examples as usual guise of how I would use this expression in my day to day life if I’m talking about being embarrassed or appearing stupid.
1.
So, example number one imagine that you have to do some public speaking. So, maybe you have to give a speech or maybe you’re involved in some kind of debate. We always have debates and school when I was growing up. So, you have to get up in front of a big crowd, in front of everyone, and say a few things and maybe somehow, you’ve buggered it up. You’ve confused your words or you’ve said something incorrect, and people have started laughing or booing, and you’ve bailed, you know, you’ve decided “Wooh! I’m not going to finish this!”, and you’ve left the stage. Sort of similar to the actor who was potentially embarrassed on stage. You’ve left the stage and you’ve left with egg on your face. You haven’t finished your speech, because you were embarrassed. You felt like you appeared stupid. You had egg on your face.
2.
Example number two. Imagine in this example that you’re a bit of a hoon. So, you love her running around in cars. And “a hoon” is someone who drives quickly and recklessly. So, maybe you are also a racer, someone who likes to race cars, and imagine that you are in a race against a bunch of other race car drivers, and you’ve been trash talking them. Okay? “To be trash talking”, and that means to sort of be sledging them, to be saying they’re awful, you’re the best, and to be talking a lot of “trash”. “To be trash talking”. And you’ve been saying how good you are that you’re going to smash everyone in this race. When the race actually takes place, you end up losing. You end up losing miserably. You come last despite all of this trash talk. So, you’ve got egg on your face. You lost the race. You embarrassed yourself. You appeared stupid. You have egg on your face.
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3.
Example Number Three. So, imagine in this example you’re “a pollie”, “a politician”. We’ve used that expression quite a few times, that Aussie slang term “a pollie”, “a politician”. And you’ve made a bunch of promises to your constituency. And “the constituency” is the members of the public who vote for you in order to go into office, in order to make it into office, if you win the election. So, you’ve made all these promises, you get voted in, and then you can’t deliver on these promises. So, maybe you’ve promised free health care, or that taxes would be lowered, or education would be a lot better, but then in actual fact, when you got voted in, none of these changes came about. If that happened and there was a backlash from the public, you could say that you’ve embarrassed yourself, you’ve appeared stupid, and now you have egg on your face. The voters have turned on you and you’ve got egg on your face.
So, hopefully by now guys you understand the expression “to have egg on your face”. It means to be embarrassed or to appear stupid because of something you’ve tried to do that has gone wrong. Okay?
So, let’s go through a listen and repeat exercise as usual, guys, and then we’ll go through the Aussie English fact, and we’ll finish up.
So, listen and repeat after me in this listen and repeat exercise, guys. This is where you get to practice your pronunciation. So, find somewhere quiet, away from everyone, and repeat after me.
Let’s go.
Listen & Repeat:
To
To have
To have egg
To have egg on
To have egg on your
To have egg on your face x 5
Good job. So, let’s practice conjugating through “I don’t want to have egg on my face”, “You don’t want to have egg on your face”, all the way through the different pronouns. So, listen and repeat after me, guys. And I’m going to say this with stronger Australian accent. Okay? How I would normally pronounce these sentences.
I don’t want to have egg on my face.
You don’t want to have egg on your face.
He doesn’t want to have egg on his face.
She doesn’t want to have egg on her face.
We don’t want to have egg on our faces.
They don’t want to have egg on their faces.
It doesn’t want to have egg on its face.
Great job, guys. I know that those sentences were a little long, but I wanted to try it, because there’s quite a bit of interesting stuff going on related to pronunciation and connected speech in those sentences, and we will go over that in much more depth in the Aussie English Classroom. So, don’t forget if you want to get access to all the bonus content for today’s episode, and you want to upgrade your Australian English or just your English in general and learn with lots of fun courses and lessons quizzes and bonus MP3s, especially those focusing on pronunciation and connected speech, then sign up to the Aussie English Classroom, guys. You’ll find the link attached to this episode. It’s $1 for your first 30 days, and then you pay a small monthly fee after that for access to the classroom.
Aussie Fact:
All right, let’s get into the Aussie English fact and we’ll finish up.
So, the Aussie English fact, guys. Do you know what animal that was we were talking about at the start? The animal was the platypus. The Australian platypus.
So, when British scientists first received a specimen of the Australian platypus, and they first laid eyes on it in the late 18th century, they thought it was a hoax. They thought the animal was fake.
So, English zoologist George Shaw said, “It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means”. Effectively saying that it definitely looks like someone has put this together as a fake animal.
Shaw was the first person to publish a scientific description of the Australian platypus, which was in fact a very real animal. And when reading Shaw’s account of this 200 years ago, it’s easy to see why he was skeptical at first about whether the creature was real or not. So, he said, “Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation, exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped.”
So, this effectively means, the creature’s beak perfectly resembled that of a duck and the body seemed awfully close to that of an otter or a beaver. Okay? A quadruped is an animal that walks on four legs, quadruped, “four legs”.
Initially Shaw thought it was more plausible that some jokester had put this together and had taken the bill of duck and the body from an otter or a mole or a beaver or something, and put them all together, sewed them together, shipped it from Australia as a joke, but Shaw went on to say that only with “the most minute and rigid examination”, did they persuade themselves of it being in fact a real beak and snout of a quadruped.
So, the scientific name of the platypus is Ornithorhynchus anatinus, and “Ornithorhynchus” means “bird-snout” and “anatinus” means “duck-like”. So, bird-snout duck-like is effectively what Ornithorhynchus anatinus means.
So, this animal is found in eastern Australia both on the mainland and in Tasmania, and it lives in freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes.
The platypus is one of only a few species in the mammalian group called “the monotremes”, which is an ancient form of mammals that is known for laying eggs. And monotremes only include the platypus and several species of echidna today. Every other species has gone extinct.
So, some unique features of the platypus. Platypus lay eggs just like echidnas and all monotremes, and the eggs take about 10 or so days to hatch, and then they drink milk that is secreted from the skin of the platypus. The platypus doesn’t actually have nipples, unlike marsupials like kangaroos, and eutherian mammals like humans, rats, and dogs, for example.
The platypus has a duck-like bill, which uses electrolocation. That’s pretty cool. So, electrolocation is somewhat similar to how sharks find their prey in the water. So, the platypus uses this form of electrolocation to feel the movement of invertebrates, things like yabbies and insects, in the water, and it can fish them out of crevices under rocks. And it uses this sense because it has such poor eyesight and closes its eyes underwater so it doesn’t actually see any of its prey, it feels them using this electrolocation.
It has a plump tail, kind of fat tail, because it stores its energy there as fat reserves.
It’s got webbed feet, which are obviously used for steering and swimming in the water.
And interestingly, the male platypus has spurs or spikes on its hind legs, which can inject venom into other platypus males, when they’re fighting for females in wintertime, or into any other animal that is unfortunate enough to grab a male platypus. And the females don’t actually have these spurs. So, if you’re unfortunate enough to be investigated by a platypus, the male platypus, if you pick it up, the pain is said to be long-lasting and excruciating. One ex-military guy in Australia said it was worse than when he got shrapnel from an explosion in the army. And worst of all it can’t be relieved with conventional painkillers. So, things like morphine don’t work on this venom.
Short-term victims will feel nauseated, they’ll suffer from cold sweats, and they might see the muscles around the site of envenomation slowly waste away.
And long-term victims can be left with hyperalgesia, which is a hypersensitivity to pain, and this can last for up to three months after being envenomated by a platypus.
So, I’m sure you’ll all agree, guys, the Australian platypus is one cute and cuddly Aussie creature, and one that is incredibly interesting, but it’s one that you should definitely not muck around with if you see it in the wild.
Anyway guys, that is long enough for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. It’s always a pleasure to know that I am chatting to you guys whilst you’re going about your day, doing your thing, and I hope you have an amazing week guys, and I’ll chat to you soon.
See you later.
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WWP: Internet Issues & Vocab Builder Videos
In this Aussie English episode of Walking With Pete I chat to you about the recent internet issues and my vocab builder videos idea.
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WWP: Internet Issues & Vocab Builder Videos
Guys! What’s going on? What’s going on? Welcome to this episode of Walking With Pete.
Man, I got so impatient about starting that I’ve actually started the video before I have even crossed the path, crossed the road and gotten into the park. So, (I’ve) just got to watch for the traffic, make sure I don’t get hit by some cars. This might take a while. It’s obviously sunset. I’ll try and keep the camera looking at me without giving you guys some glare like that for the entire episode. I’ll do my best. Anyway, maybe… no, I won’t be sneaky. I better wait. I’ve got to behave, be a good boy.
So, anyway, what can I talk about while I’m waiting for the fricken traffic to pass? It’s been a pretty frustrating week/weekend. You guys probably have noticed that the website’s been down, that’S BEEN DRIVING ME NUTS, driving me crazy. So, TO BE DRIVING YOU NUTS means to be… NUTS as in crazy, as in mad, not as in the food, you know, a nut like a seed, which is also a slang term for a man’s genitals, the two of the… we’ll just say it, testicles. You can use the word NUTS to mean testicles in English.
Anyway, TO DRIVE YOU NUTS, TO GO NUTS, TO BE NUTS, when you’re describing someone as BEING NUTS it’s more that they’re crazy, they’re mentally unstable, they’re insane. So, that’s what’S BEEN DRIVING ME NUTS, the website. You guys will probably have all known what was going on with that, but for those who don’t the website was down for several days, and I guess I’ll just give you the entire story, ‘cause I can go over some expressions to describe what I’m about to do. And I’m about TO HAVE A BITCH TO you guys, TO HAVE A BITCH. If I HAVE A BITCH it means that I complain, I whinge, I moan about something, I tell you something that’s been irritating me, I complain, I try and GET IT OFF MY CHEST. GET IT OFF MY CHEST is just sort of get it out there and, you know, unburden myself so that it’s no longer something that I’m stressed about. Anyway, I want TO HAVE A BITCH and GET this issue OFF MY CHEST, unburden myself, tell you guys about what happened. So, the website was down. That WAS DRIVING ME NUTS because I couldn’t work out what was wrong at first.
So, at first I thought, “Ok, I’ve done something. I’ve stuffed something up.”, I was looking online but (I) couldn’t work out what it was. So, I contacted my host, and the host is the person (company*) who has the data for the website. So, that’s what’s, you know, they’re the one (ones*) who housed the entire website on their own servers, on their hard-drives, wherever they are. And I was using a company called Arvixe. And I don’t mind telling you this, guys, because any of you guys listening out there I really suggest that you do not use this company in the future. Don’t use Arvixe.
Anyway, I tried to contact them 5 times, count it 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times. I got onto some people, I don’t even know where they were, but they were definitely not in American where I think the company is based out of, and they were somewhat useless, because their support system is an online chat, and each time they were telling me the problem was on my end and telling me, I guess I don’t really want to bog you guys down in the real… the small details, but that I had to go onto my website and change something, and refresh it, because that was the problem that the website wasn’t communicating, whatever. I won’t go into it. But I kept doing that 3 or 4 times I tried. The first time the guy said he sorted it out and that it was all fixed and then the second to fifth time I tried fixing it myself each time TO NO AVAIL. TO NO AVAIL meaning it didn’t achieve anything, it didn’t work, it was pointless, it was useless, nothing changed. So, I tried TO NO AVAIL to do all of that.
Anyway, I got incredibly pissed off, because the problem wasn’t resolving and I felt embarrassed, I wanted the website to be there for you guys, and I know how frustrating it is when something that you’re passionate about is not there for you to use. And obviously I’m here to help you guys out. I want to be there for you guys. And so, that was frustrating me after two or three days of trying to get that fixed.
So, ultimately, I decided, F them, fuck them, and I decided after the fifth time to just move my website to a new host. And, again, that was a massive headache, and a headache is something that’s a pain, it’s a problem, it’s not literally a head ache in the fact that you’ve got an ache in your head, but it’s that sort of non-literal sense of driving you nuts, of giving you a headache because it’s so complicated, it’s such a pain in the arse to try and sort out.
So, I tried to move the website across to a new host and that was somewhat less painless, less painful* I want to say, that was less painful because it was painless than I was expecting. So, I was really happy that that was so easy to sort out. And, yeah, I moved the website across. I put that on the new host, and this time they’re someone in Australia, someone in Melbourne. So, that’s obviously going to make things a lot more easy, and I simply emailed them, to be honest, and within 2 (or) 3 hours the website was up. So, now it’s back. There you go. Problem sorted. Crisis averted. But, what a pain in the arse, what a headache, and I’m glad I had that little BITCH, I’m glad I WAS BITCHING TO you guys and GETTING IT OFF MY CHEST.
But yeah, first and foremost I just want to apologise for the inconvenience. I know that it was probably, or most definitely, frustrating any of you guys who like listening to the podcast whilst also reading the transcripts, because you wouldn’t have obviously had access to the transcripts on the website unless you had downloaded these already. So, yeah, I’m sorry about that guys. I’m sorry it took a few days to organise and sort out, but fortunately it’s back. Let me know if you have any issues, because, yeah, I’m just horrified that it’s not going to be there for you guys. I can see it, I can see it on my phone, I can see it on my computer. So, it seems to be all good, but let me know if there’s any issues if you’re checking this straight after I put this up online for you guys.
Alright, so that was the first sort of order of the day, (it) was to just go over that and touch base with where we’re at for that. (I’m) trying to think what else we were going to talk about, I’ve got another… there was another subject, there was another topic. Oh! I started a new idea for a series of videos that I want to put on YouTube to try and help you guys expand your vocabulary, and to try and help you learn numerous different synonyms, and a synonym is a word that means the same as another word.
So, for instance, in the video that I did today, this is the perfect example, I taught you guys probably 10 or more different ways of saying “a lot of” or “lots of”. So, “a lot of”, “a lot of” things, that’s the singular version, “a lot of” things, or “lots of” things, the plural version.
And so, I guess, I wanted to talk to you guys about this. This is an idea I’ve been having rolling around in my head for a little while now, and I guess the main reason that I have decided to try and do this is because A. no one else seems to have done this really online, and B. it’s the kind of thing that I would really like to have in the languages that I’m learning.
Anyway, I should probably tell you what the basic idea is. The basic idea is to first and foremost tell you, show you, say to you as many different synonyms for a certain sentence of a certain word that I can think of. So, in this example today I said numerous different synonyms for “a lot of” such as “a great deal of”, “a bunch of”, “a ton of”, “a shitload of”, “a load of”, “a head of”, “a stack of”. So, there’s all those different kinds of synonyms, and I’ve put it together in a lesson where there’s a few different substitution exercises. So, first I get you to turn the sentence from the singular version, for instance, “there’s a lot of something” into the plural version, for example, “there are lots of X”, whatever it is.
So, I did that, first and foremost. There are also a few in there that you can’t make plural or that sound incredibly weird if you make them plural.
I’ll give you Melbourne in the background there guys. You can have a perve, have a look, have a squiz at Melbourne through this field. And, I just lost my train of thought. That will serve me right for interrupting myself.
Anyway, so yeah, I’ve done that. I’ve tried to make that episode on “a lot of” and “lots of” and all the different ways of saying that. I’ve also tried to include other aspects of the English language in these exercises. So, obviously, not only are you going to be working your vocabulary and trying to expand your vocabulary by learning different synonyms for specific words, but also you’ve got… I’m going to try and include other things in there. So, for example today I included numerous different ways of saying “women”. So, there were like five, I think it was like “babes”, “chicks”, “ladies”, “women”, “girls”. And then there were five for “men”. So, obviously, “men”, “boys”, “dudes”, “guys”, “blokes”. I think they were the five.
And so, I want you guys to practice associating all those words with meaning the same thing, because obviously you’re going to hear these things all the time, all the time. Guys say these kinds of… and I just said it. Guys, say these kinds of words when they’re talking about women, when they’re talking about other guys, and women say these kinds of words when they’re talking about women and guys, etc., etc. etc.. And so, it’s the kind of language that you’re going to hear all the time from native speakers.
I might just sit down.
So, I think that’s why it’s incredibly important to try and get you exposed, give you some exposure to all of this different kind of language, these different synonyms, get you practicing changing in and out and using all of them. So, that’s why I’m trying to create these kinds of lessons to put on YouTube as well as the podcast to try and help you expand your vocabulary whether it’s passive vocabulary, i.e. you just hear and you understand instantly whether or not you actually use it yourself, or for the active vocabulary if you want to learn all of these different ways of saying effectively the same thing. And this is the kind of thing that you’re going to want to do to get from that intermediate level to the advanced level in a language. And this is particularly what I try and do when I’m trying to get from the intermediate to advanced level in languages that I’m learning. I get to that point where I have one word for most if not all things that I want to be able to say, that I want to be able to communicate when I’m having a conversation, but it’s kind of like painting with one colour. After a while, you know, you’re learning how to paint, one colour’s all you need at first, but then you get a little bored, and then you get a little more, “I want to be able to do this. I want to be able to express myself differently. I want to be able to put my personality into my paintings or into my English.”.
And so, that’s why I think it’s so important to learn different synonyms, different ways of expressing yourself, because that is when you can take your English to the next level and really expression your own personality. Ultimately, our passive vocabulary, the stuff that we know, is massively, massively, massively bigger than our active vocabulary, the words that we actually use, the words that we say. And, words that I say may not be the same as the words that my parents say, my friends say, other English natives say. In fact, I can almost tell you with certainty that they won’t be the same words. The way they will explain situations, describe things, is almost certainly going to be different from how I would do it. And this is where putting your personality into the language you’re learning, English in this example, becomes incredibly important, and this is how you do it, this is how you do it. You learn all of these different words, for some reason one of them will seem nicer or cooler or easier to remember than a lot of the other ones and you’ll just start using that one all the time, and it becomes part of your English personality.
So, that’s why I’m trying to create these lessons, guys. That’s the aim of these lessons. I’m trying to also make them fun where I teach you more slang. So, in the “a lot of” or “lots of” lesson, today, that I’ve made I also taught you words like “a crap-ton of”, “shitloads of”, “fuckloads of” and how to use those.
Damn flies everywhere!
And so I’ve done that because, again, that’s the kind of stuff that I use every day. You’re not going to learn that in books because it’s probably pretty inappropriate with regards to formal English. You’re not going to ever use that kind of language in a job interview or if you’re in an interview on TV or talking to someone you don’t really know, but most of the time I imagine that once you get to Australia you’re going to form friendships where 1. People are going to be saying this stuff, particularly if they’re natives. They’re going to be saying “fuck-tons”, “shit-tons”, “crap-tons” when they’re talking about “a lot of” or “lots of” something. And so 1. I want you to be able to understand what that means, because it is relatively slangy, it’s quite a lot of slang to say, to use those kinds of words. But (2.) I also want you to be able to learn them and use them yourselves because if I heard someone who was a non-native English speaker using those I would incredibly impressed, you know, to be honest, and I don’t know what else to say. Yeah, that is why is why I’ve included them.
So, don’t be too shocked when you hear me swearing. I always try and give you some context and idea as to when and where not to use… when and when* not to use these expressions, and I won’t ever teach you stuff that is incredibly offensive without telling you at least. I will always give you a disclaimer or a caption down the bottom, but yeah, and I’ll do it now. If in doubt, go without. So, if in doubt, if you don’t know whether or not you should be using it, don’t use it. If you hear someone else use it while you’re talking to them obviously that’s a good sign that it’s ok to use it. So, until you get used to when and how to use these things, obviously, don’t use them in every single conversation, but play with them, you know. Practice them, play with them.
One last thing I might mention. Work on your pronunciation in these episodes as well. So, you can get different things out of these episodes. Not only am I going to give you as much as I can with regards to synonyms and different ways of saying these words, but I’m also going to give you the ability to listen and repeat and practice your pronunciation. So, if you notice that you have any kind of trouble with the pronunciation of any of these words or any of these sentences, definitely listen and repeat and go over these, and just keep practicing your pronunciation guys. It’s a never-ending battle. It’s the same for me and French, and me and Portuguese. I’m constantly finding out that I’m saying something slightly incorrect or in a bit of a weird way, and ultimately there’s no problem with having an accent but we always all want to reduce it as much as possible, right?
Anyway, this episode of Walking With Pete has gone long enough. I hope you guys are liking what I’m putting out there, what I’m giving you guys. Again, I’m sorry about the website being down. I’m going to try and put this episode up tonight, although, by the time you see it you won’t know when “tonight” is. So, I’ll get this out as soon as I can. I want it out by Wednesday. But yeah, let me know what you think in a comment below guys, and I’ll put up the episode that I’m talking about, the vocab expander kind of episode, as soon as possible, and when I do I’ll link below as well.
So, until then guys, peace out and all the best!
If you wish to support me and the many hours of hard work I put into The Aussie English Podcast then please consider donating a few dollars a month via Patreon! The more support I get, the more I can work on The Aussie English Podcast!
Check out all the other recent Walking With Pete episodes below!
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Ep053: Expression – To Kick The Dog
In this episode I explain the expression “to kick the dog” as well as how and when it is used. This may be a much more Australia specific, or even my family specific, expression, and it’s said in a more humorous setting.
Download the full PDF transcript here.
Ep053: Expression – To kick The Dog
G’day guys! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English.
Today I’m going to do another expression involving animals, and this one is
a little more Australian. It could be even a little more just my family, ‘cause it’s the kind of thing that my grandparents used to say quite a bit and especially my father, and I thought that I would add it in because it’s a little more humorous, it’s a little dirtier, it’s a little funnier.So, the phrase today or the idiom, expression today is going to be, “To kick the dog”, “To kick the dog”. When do we use this expression? This is the kind of expression that my father would use if someone farted. So, if someone passed wind, if they let gas out of their rear end, you know, [the sound of someone farting], if you fart, and in order to sort of cover the fact that you accidentally farted and made a sound. So it’s done when people notice when you’ve made the sound [the sound of someone farting] So, when you fart [the sound of someone farting] when you’ve made that sound and someone’s accidentally overheard it. In order to kind of cover your tracks, in order to get away with it, my father would often say “oh, kick the dog!”, as in kick the dog and blame him for farting, you know? So, if the dog farted you’d kick the dog. So if someone overheard someone farting they could kind of cover it up or make a joke of it by saying “oh, kick the dog, mate!”
So, let’s go through what the different words in this phrase mean.
“To kick”, I’m sure most of you know what it means. It’s to hit with your foot. So, if you kick something, you can kick a ball, you can kick a person and you can kick a dog [as] in this expression.
And “a dog” is an animal with four legs, fur, it has a tail. It wags its tail. It’s known as man’s best friend in English, and dogs often fight with cats. I’m sure you all know what a dog is. That’s a dog.
So, yeah, it’s almost exclusively used in that sense at least with my family that is when we would use the phrase “to kick a dog”. However, you can also use this phrase when referring to people taking something out, so, say um…, say you’ve gone to work and you’re boss above you has taken out a lot of his anger or issues or something on you. If you go home and then kick the dog and take out your anger and your issues on the dog that phrase can often be used to explain that situation. So, for when someone is sort of being bullied or being mistreated by someone above them, someone like their boss, someone who is employing them, someone that’s above them. If they go then and take it out on their wife or their kids or someone who is below them that act can also be called “kicking the dog”. So, you’re taking it out on the dog, you’re kicking the dog. However, in this sense I would always think of, when someone says kick the dog to me, that someone’s farted. So I would always… you know, it’s kind of a humorous situation that you would use to kind of make a joke about the fact that someone accidentally passed wind, they accidentally farted and someone’s heard it.
So, let’s do an exercise quickly:
Jesus, mate kick the dog.
Jesus, mate kick the dog.
Jesus, mate kick the dog.
Jesus, mate kick the dog.
Jesus, mate kick the dog.
Jesus, mate kick the dog.
So, that was the phrase “to kick the dog”, guys. Hope you liked it, and I’ll chat to you soon. Have a good one!
If you liked this expression episode guys then please jump over here and check out all the other Aussie English expression episodes to help you improve your Aussie English.
Also be sure to come over to the Aussie English Facebook page and chat to the many other Aussie English learners. Practice a few of these words or phrases, ask any questions you may have, and be a part of the conversation! All the best guys!
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Walking With Pete: Aussie English is now on Instagram!
Today I’m happy to announce that Aussie English is now on Instagram!
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Walking With Pete: Aussie English is now on Instagram!
G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Walking With Pete. Today I am currently outside of my work in one of these really really small laneways in Melbourne. So, I’m right in the CBD and as you may or may not know Melbourne’s got a lot of these really thin, long laneways that are kind of tucked away, they’re hard to find, and they have a lot of restaurants and cafés and small businesses hidden away in these small laneways. And that’s what makes Melbourne somewhat unique. You’ll find a lot of graffiti and a lot of street art also in these laneways.
So, I’m just outside of my work at the moment taking a bit of a break. [I] thought I would run you through what I’ve sort of been up to at work, not because it’s necessarily incredibly interesting but it’ll give you a chance to listen to me use some verbs and nouns and language talking about the kind of mundane things that I do at work, and that you may do yourself elsewhere.
So, I opened up the restaurant and filled up all of the stock. So, all the bottles, all of the different wine, different beers, and water and everything that comes in. I have to put that on shelves, open the boxes, put them up on the wine racks if they’re wine bottles, and if they’re beer I take them out of the cases and put them on the shelves where they sit. Then [I] had to sweep and then mop the whole floor. So, I swept the floor to get rid of all the dust and dirt, and then I used a mop with bleach and cleaning fluid to sort of clean the floor and get rid of all of the dirt and grime that’s built up over the last week. So, I do all of that, and then I get the restaurant ready. So, I make sure all of the chairs are down. I make sure everything’s clean, neat, tidy. I make sure the glasses, cutlery, napkins, everything’s out. [I] do all of that, and then [I] might take a break and make an Aussie English episode, a Walking With Pete episode. So, I guess that’s what I wanted to start with. Give you a bit of an idea of my sort of boring, mundane routine at work when I start early on Wednesdays.
And aside from that, today I wanted to talk to you about Instagram. And I’ve just started an Aussie English Instagram account where my aim is to just try and upload and share with you my sort of experiences, day to day life in Melbourne. So, any time I see something that I think will interest you guys or that perhaps is going to help you learn English, so it could be a certain sign or any kind of thing that I think of that’s just interesting, that I want to share with you guys, I will. And yeah, I wanted to get some feedback from you guys to see what you think. So, let me know on Facebook. The Instagram account is Aussie_English [underslash or underscore]. So, Aussie_English. So, just search this on Instagram if you use Instragram. You should be able to find it if you go to the Aussie English Facebook page because I’ve linked the accounts so that every time that I put anything up on Instagram it should directly go straight to the Facebook account so you guys get to see it straight away. So, yeah, hopefully that will shed some light on my standard day in Melbourne each day. Any time I see something of interest, whether it’s old buildings, graffiti… excuse me, old buildings, graffiti, street art, even just things like possums that you probably saw, all the wildlife around Melbourne, just the daily life in Melbourne, the trams, the people, everything. I’m going to try and share it. I might try and do mini English learning episodes for you guys where I talk about small expressions that I think of so I can sort of use the things that I upload as a reason to continue to teach you guys English. So, I’ll try and do that as much as possible as well. And yeah, if you have any suggestions of how to improve what I do, how to make it more amenable to you and to improve your English then feel free to comment on any of the photos that get linked on Facebook, or you can do it on Instagram if you use Instagram yourself. Also, feel free to send me a message on Facebook. You’re always welcome to do that. I will try and get back to you as soon as I can.
And, yeah, I guess aside from that if you are interested in staying up to date with everything that’s posted on the Aussie English Facebook page there’s a few things that you can do. First of all, just come to the page and like and share all of the posts that you guys enjoy. That will help me, one, grow the page and have other people see the page, but it will also help you guys stay up to date with everything because Facebook remembers the things that you like the most will actually show up in your feed more often, and at the top of the feed. So, if you want to stay up-to-date with it just liking the page won’t necessarily do that, you’ll have to also like and share the posts on the page or go to the top of the page and there should be subscribe kind of button. It depends what language you’re Facebook’s in, obviously, but there is something that you can click at the top there. One of the options is to have the page “Seen first” on your Facebook page. So, I really recommend you guys do that if you want to stay up-to-date and have Aussie English in your newsfeed each day so that you can see what’s going on and keep practicing your English. Give that a go.
Anyway, I’ve got to go back to work. I’ll chat to you soon and I wish you all the best, guys. See you later!
If you wish to support me and the many hours of hard work I put into The Aussie English Podcast then please consider donating a few dollars a month via Patreon! The more support I get, the more I can work on The Aussie English Podcast!
Check out all the other recent episodes of Walking With Pete below!
