#303 English Expressions for Teamwork with Emma
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Hello everybody and welcome back to the Level Up English podcast. The best place to come to practice the English language, learn about the British accent and culture with me, your host, Michael Lavers. Today, you might be able to see from the title, is a special guest episode, which we do these once a month here at Level Up English.

up English. So if you're new, every month we bring on a guest, perhaps a teacher or expert in some area to talk about some topics quite casually. And today I'm very excited to introduce my friend and someone I've been kind of working with for maybe around a year. And this is teacher Emma. So Emma is a teacher also from the UK and we got in touch, again, I think it was about one year ago.

And over the past year, Emma has been really an amazing help and she's been helping with the group classes on the Level Up English website.

I'm not available for all the classes, so I generally teach the classes on Friday and Emma takes over occasionally to teach on Saturdays or maybe another day as well. And she's really been a great help and it's amazing to see what a fantastic teacher she has been. We first connected on Instagram and I highly recommend that you go check out Emma on Instagram. Her page is adventure.com.

into English. No spaces, just Instagram adventure into English. Highly recommend you give Emma a follow. The posts there are really amazing. She puts a lot more effort into her page than I do. And as we say later in today's episode, that even I have learned something from her page. So there's a lot of great vocabulary and other things that

you can learn from there. And as we also say later in the episode as well, Emma is open for students. So you can also consider looking into that more on her page there as well. In today's episode, we talk mostly about groups because of course, that's kind of how we know each other. We've been working together a lot with these group classes. I believe there are so many benefits to learning with a group.

And it's just been so fun over the past couple of years to see the groups in Level Up English evolve and grow over time. People becoming friends as well while they're learning. It's always amazing to see. And I feel that Emma also appreciates that too. So in today's episode, we're not really talking about the classes so much, but more the topic of doing things as a group.

and doing things alone. And I'm going to be asking Emma a little bit about which she prefers to do in different areas. And we've also got some expressions today, some phrases in English that we'll be practising related to this topic.

So hopefully this will be a fun conversation and you will learn a lot as well. So highly suggest that you watch until the end or you listen until the end. And as always, you can leave comments and feedback either on the YouTube video down below, or you can go to the website, which is levelupenglish.school.

And then if you click on the page for this podcast episode, you can go down to the bottom and leave a comment and join in the discussion over there. And of course, if you are interested in joining our weekly group classes online classes, by the way, then there's also a members button at the top of that website. And you can click there and find out more about the classes and everything else that's going on at Level Up English.

But for now, let's get into our conversation with Emma. Hope you enjoy it. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Level Up English podcast. I am joined by a very special guest today, our teacher, Emma. Welcome. How are you? Hello. Hello. Yeah, I'm fine, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting. Yeah, I've been actually meaning to invite you on for a while because we've been kind of working together for some time and obviously you've got your own stuff going on as well. So maybe you could...

give a bit of a self-introduction and tell people about yourself and also what we've been doing, if you like. Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Emma. I teach English,

privately but I also do group classes for Level Up English and I have an Instagram page called Adventure Into English where I upload videos and posts kind of helping English learners with any problems that they might have with pronunciation or kind of introducing idioms and phrasal verbs because I know that they are things that confuse people a lot.

I can't think of a specific one, but I have to be honest that I've actually learned some words from your Instagram. I can't remember the one, but sometimes I come across one like, oh, I've heard that word, but I didn't really know what it meant before. So yeah, it's also useful for me. I've had the same thing from a few of my friends. They're like, we find your posts so helpful. I'm like, oh, brilliant. I'm so glad. Nice.

And yeah, I forget how long ago it was, but a while ago we got in touch somehow and you were, I was very happy that you were interested in helping me with the group classes at Level Up English on the website. So I guess you've been helping with that.

not not every week but you know quite quite often you've been having a lot of the lessons and it's been a really big help and I hopefully it's been fun for you as well it's I find it so fun because my um my own teaching is one-to-one so being able to do group classes as well is a whole different environment and um I find it so fun and everybody is from all around the world so um

I'm always learning so much about different people's cultures. And yeah, it's just been a lot, a lot of fun to do. Yeah. Obviously, there's benefits to both group classes and one-to-one classes. But there's so many things about group classes that people maybe don't consider before they try. Like, as you said, cultural exchange is so... Yeah. Can be so exciting. And obviously for the teacher as well, that's a nice benefit. Absolutely. And...

It's been quite fun to do that. So with that in mind, I've planned a rough topic, a rough guide today to talk about doing things alone or doing them in groups. I thought it kind of is relevant to maybe how we know each other as well. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So to begin with, I've got a very fun, I think they're fun, Would You Rather questions quiz. Okay.

I'm extremely indecisive. So this could be, oh, maybe both for some of them. But I'll do my best. I think both is fine if you have a reason for that. If it's like dogs or cats, I'm always like, I can't choose. Maybe a dog that looks like a cat or something like that. Yeah, or something like that.

But yeah, I have done this on the show before. But if anyone, if any listener is not familiar with these questions, it's a really nice way to have a fun conversation where you say, would you rather choice A or choice B? And it's usually not real situations like they can be realistic, but they're usually not actually happening. It's just using your imagination to think of a fun situation. Yeah.

And we're kind of recording this, or this is coming out during the holiday season where maybe people will be traveling, going on holiday. So the first one I want to ask you about is travel, adventure. Yeah. This is, would you rather go on a solo adventure to explore a new city or travel with a group of friends or family maybe who want to explore together? Oh.

I think this is a tough one because I feel like it depends on the destination. But I really, really love solo traveling. So I would probably say solo. Solo.

um I think this year I traveled to Japan solo and I did it for a couple of months and I felt like it was one of the best experiences I ever had and I because I didn't have to compromise on what I wanted to do and I was able to work early in the morning and then go and spend the day out and it was yeah it was really kind of

I don't know, kind of a freeing experience. So I think I would say solo because I'm selfish. Yeah. It's a lot less stressful in many ways where you don't have to compromise. It depends how similar you are, I guess, to the people you're with. Yes. Can you see yourself going with a group of friends to Japan back again one day? Yeah.

Yes, I can. And actually next year I am. We're going to Star Wars Celebration in Japan, which is a big Star Wars convention. And I'm going with other people. So that will be kind of a group part of that. But then I've also got some time afterwards for solo travel because I need that. That's a nice compromise, like the best of both worlds. You can enjoy both styles. Yeah, absolutely.

But I'm excited to share like the destination with other people and be like, oh, this place is really great to eat or yeah, you should try here or, you know, and just kind of introducing people to like somewhere that I really love. So, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, my concern would be being too into it. Like I would take charge too much because I get too passionate, too excited and probably talking too much. Like, you know, you need to let them also explore on their own a bit and find out, not be told everything. And it's a hard balance. Yeah, it is. Because you're like, oh, but this is so good. And they're like, yeah, but I want to do something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I think I agree. It can be lonely. I don't know how you cope with that. But for me, I think I've had more

Good experiences on solo trips. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time in Japan alone, like you. Japan's a great place to go alone because it's very comfortable. Yeah, definitely. I would agree. Not too dangerous. Yeah, exactly. It's a very, very safe country. I think that...

I don't think I felt lonely because I think if I needed to talk to people or have some kind of connection, I can always, you know, phone home or something like that. And because I had because I was teaching most days, I kind of felt like I was talking to people a lot anyway. So then outside of that, I was like, cool, time to myself. Yeah.

But then I also met some lovely people while I was out there. And I think that's something about solo travel that I don't necessarily think you have with group travel. And that is that you are much more likely to interact with other people. And I don't know if that's the same for everybody. But for me, if I'm with somebody else, I'm so much less likely to go and talk to other people. Whereas when I was on my own, I was like, right, I'm going here and I'm going to see if I, you know...

say hi to some people and you know um and sometimes things happened organically and sometimes I kind of went with a specific purpose in mind um I ended up meeting some like really lovely people while I was away and I think that that was because I was on my own so yeah I think there were other benefits too it works both ways right because people are much less likely to approach you if you're in a group because it's quite intimidating if you're alone it's a bit easier yeah that's a great point

Okay, well, let's do another one now, a different topic. Would you rather learn a new language independently, where you can go at your own pace, or take group classes where you can practice with others?

Oh, it's another tricky one because I think there's benefits to both. I, at the moment, am learning Japanese and I am self-learning. So I'm doing it on my own with a textbook, like, and then doing like online testing and things like that.

And that is good. And I think that will be fine for beginning while I get the hang of like the basics and things like that. But I know further down the line, I am going to have to talk to people. And I think... Scary part. Yeah, exactly. And I think then that's where group classes really come into their own is when you can go in somewhere and...

kind of listen to people, but also practice what you've learned. And I feel like it's not so overwhelming when there's more people there because you don't have to talk all the time. You can just pop in when you want to put something in or like, or when you,

have something to talk about but if you don't really know what to say for something sit back and listen to somebody else and I think that is a really great benefit of group classes.

Yeah, it's so cool that you found that as well, because that was my feeling, one of the big benefits. People often message me when they want to come to our group classes, but they're nervous. And they'll say like, I'm a bit scared because there's so many people. What if my English isn't very good? And I say, well, it's totally fine if you want to just watch. You don't have to talk. And obviously in a private class, if you don't talk for the whole time, it's very weird, but not possible. Yeah.

But in a group, it's fine. Yeah. Like you can totally sit back and watch and it's actually counterintuitively. It's more appropriate for introverts and shy people. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree because I think sometimes when you have a one to one class and people are a little bit shy or a little bit uncomfortable, it's

it's hard for them to kind of start you've really got to get them out of their shell whereas I think with a group class you've got that little bit of time to kind of suss out the situation and you can stay hidden a little bit and I think you're right it's actually perfect for introverts yeah it's a nice benefit yeah just to give my opinion on this because it may be similar to you I like to learn independently I think it's quite fun again to go at your own pace and

uh stuff like that but recently i have been going to some they're actually not classes but they're group conversation meetups yeah physical ones in in thailand here and there's one every week in japanese that's really nice i've also been hosting one myself in chinese because i didn't find a good one amazing um

even though my Chinese is always the worst in the group. It's still nice to have other people there though, isn't it? Yeah. And it's surprisingly really beneficial. Like even, there's usually like a mixture of native speakers and learners. Yeah. But even if I'm just chatting with other learners, it's so beneficial because I can

I'm learning from, you know, they're filling in the blanks of stuff I don't know. Yeah. And also if they do make a mistake, I might notice that. I maybe may not tell them, but I'm kind of learning in my head from their mistakes. Like, or maybe I'll hear them say something that I realize I've also been saying wrong. Yeah.

um so i found that there's a lot of benefits of learning with other learners as well which i didn't expect before yeah and i also think as well like with um with the group classes i mean what i've noticed teaching in a group class is that people will help each other as well you know and if someone doesn't know something then they're

someone else will pop in and say oh I think you mean this or is it this that you're thinking of and I think that that's great because you've got two people both learning the same thing but they're kind of helping each other with stuff that they are perhaps stronger at or more confident with and I think that's really nice yeah yeah helping each other and in my experience I've never seen anyone who's been rude or judgmental because everyone's in the same position we'll kind of come back to

I'm planning to talk about this expression later on, so I'm not going to tell. I'm not going to say what I was going to say, but same position. Remember that phrase. Anyway, let's do another one. I've got two more maybe. Okay, yeah, yeah. I know you like travel adventure, so here's another similar one. Would you rather go for a long hike by yourself in the mountains, enjoying the peace, or hike with a group where you can chat and share the experience?

Oh, I have done both of these. And actually, I prefer hiking alone, which I guess is like not as safe. But I think if you're going along normal trails, you're totally fine. I found that hiking alone was actually so nice because it gives you a lot of time to kind of think about things, stop and take photos if you want to, like if you're going on a really scenic hike.

I feel like I didn't have to be like, oh, can I just stop and take a photo? Or, oh, I just want to take a video of this. Or, oh, can I... You know, you don't have to ask permission to kind of pause your journey. So I think sometimes hiking is good. And alone, and I also think, we've been talking a lot about going at your own pace. I think when it comes to something like physical activity, everybody is so different in their levels. And I think when I've done...

in a group before. I've had people that just go so far ahead and you're not actually hiking with a group. You're kind of hiking separately anyway because everybody's at completely different levels. So sometimes it's quite nice doing it on your own because you don't have to worry about the pace you're going at. If you want to take it slowly, if you want to speed

speed up that mountain if you want to speed down the mountain like you can do whatever you like um and i think yeah that's that's quite good another very good point yes i've also had the same experience with walking with other people and uh that usually you split off into different groups and i get quite anxious about that like i want to make sure the group stays together but i can't control everyone and it's more stressful sometimes yeah

I do think, for example, though, if you've got like a purpose in mind, like, for example, imagine like you're hiking Mount Fuji or something and you want to do it as an experience together to reach the top at the same time. I think that is a really good thing to do as a group. But I think like a general hike where perhaps you're just going up for a nice scenic hike, you're going to see what you see along the way, look at the views. I think, you know, that's fine to do on your own.

Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Although if you've seen Mount Fuji in the last few years, I think that the mountainside is so busy that you probably couldn't get separated. You'd never be alone. You'd be stuck in a queue. Yeah. Some pictures I've seen look horrible. I used to want to do it, but not anymore. It's too overcrowded. Yeah, I think it has got that way in past years, hasn't it?

Definitely. I think there are other routes that you can take up the mountain. And I think some of those have become more popular recently because they might be a more difficult route, but there's far less people on them. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay, let's do one more. Yes. Quite simple one. Would you rather go clothes shopping, which is what I'm doing tomorrow, alone or with friends? Ooh, yeah.

I think it depends on what I am shopping for in terms of like if it's for an event or if it's just general. General clothes shopping I prefer to do on my own. But if I was shopping for like a wedding or something like that, I do like to have somebody else's opinion to make sure I don't look bad. Yeah.

Yeah, also, you don't want to be over or underdressed. You want to make sure that your outfit kind of matches the formality of whoever you're going with. So I get that. Yeah. But yeah, general clothes shopping, I prefer to do it on my own because I think people get bored of other people's shopping habits. Oh, it's so boring. Yeah.

Yeah. Shopping for yourself is so fun, but I don't know if this is everyone or if it depends on the person. But for me, shopping with other people for their clothes, I find so dull. I get so impatient. Yeah. I only like to shop for myself. Yeah. Very selfish, but we're in the same position again. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I would agree with you, but I'm seeing a pattern then. So I think we've had four out of four. You'd rather do it alone. Would you say you're more introverted or you like solitude? You like being alone? I am definitely an extrovert, but I have a massive introverted side and I love my own company. And I think I have become more like this as I've got older. Yeah.

But I love just doing stuff at my own pace, doing things for myself. And I don't know if I've become more selfish in my old age, but I definitely, definitely prefer or started to prefer doing things on my own or I'm more happy to, I think, or happier to. I think that.

Perhaps when you're younger, you need kind of maybe other people around a bit more often or something. But now I'm just, I don't like to compromise a lot. I don't like to do things I don't particularly want to do. And I think when you're solo, you just do what you want to do and that's fine. Yeah.

Yeah, it's maybe a nice perk of getting older is you stop caring so much. You don't want to please everyone. You just want to make sure you're happy in some, not in a too selfish way. I think that's good. No, it's just kind of like wanting to make sure that you are making yourself happy. And I think that, you know, and if that's philanthropic,

feeling surrounding yourself with a group of people perfect for me that is doing my own thing um and yeah I'm not very good at watching like films and tv with other people either so I think that that is another thing I would do prefer to do alone I guess unless I've seen the film before and then it's fine to do like a group watch I really enjoy that um but yeah I don't know

I do, yeah. I've started to really like doing stuff on my own. That's really good, though. I think if you can make a friend out of yourself, enjoy your own company, you'll never be lonely, right? You'll always have someone nice to talk to in here, in your brain. It's true, it's true. Yeah, I think it's a really underappreciated skill. I don't know if it's a skill, just enjoying your own company. Yeah, I think it's definitely good. Just taking time for yourself. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, me time. Okay, well, maybe we can move on to the second part today. I can never decide what to do. So I tend to squish several topics into one episode. So that was a nice warm up. And now I thought we could give the listeners some value, hopefully. And I've got...

I've got some questions, more questions about group related things. Okay. And the focus now is on using some expressions or idioms that are very commonly used in this topic of groups. And how shall we do it? I think I might just...

maybe I'll just say the expression yeah let's not make it too hard I'll just I'll just say it and then you maybe I challenge to see if you could use it in your answer that could be a fun challenge okay yeah and um I give it my best shot I think this is kind of like what we do in the group classes right we often don't

give the meaning we'll like allow students to work out an answer and then we'll confirm the meanings later i think it can be quite useful to think about what the answer could be and not just be given the answer right away yeah so i think i'm not going to explain the meaning until after we spoke about it a little bit yeah absolutely uh so the first one i've been i've been saying in the same actually i'm kind of telling you the meaning now never mind

I'll continue with that line of thought. I've been saying a few times today, in the same position. And the expression I want to talk about now is in the same boat. So I want to ask you if you have ever been in a challenging, uncomfortable situation, something like that, but you've had other people with you to share your suffering with.

It's quite a specific question, but does anything come to mind? Yes. So when I was in France with a friend of mine, we had a situation where we bought a train ticket and then missed the train. It was a very, very tight thing, but we had to buy it through a machine. And by the time we bought it and got to the ticket gate, it

It wouldn't. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I lie. The ticket, the machine wouldn't print the ticket. So we purchased it. It wouldn't print the ticket. And then it was like, please see a member of staff for help. So we went to see a member of staff for help. We needed to print the ticket. And by the time we'd gone through all of this, the train had departed. And then they were like, you can't get a refund for your ticket.

Even though we obviously had bought it in time, but the machine wasn't printing it.

there was a whole hoo-ha and anyway we didn't we had to buy a whole new ticket to get the train back but at the time both of us were like fuming but also having to deal with it quite calmly I am not very good at hiding my emotions and so I was like oh my god um but um she was she was a

I was like annoyed but you know you have to just suck it up and get on with it so we were both in the in the same boat in in that situation where we were both feeling very frustrated um but having to deal with it anyway

Nice. That's a really good example. Yeah, I've missed many trains in my life, mostly in the UK. I don't know why. I think I always live very close to the station, just by chance. You underestimate. Exactly, yeah. I only need one minute to leave my house and get to the station. And I'm always...

like almost missing it or missing it. And yeah, I feel like when it's happened to me, when I've been with someone else, it's not so bad. Maybe you've got some company, but if you can share the misery, it feels a bit less bad somehow. Maybe that's how you felt. Yeah, definitely. I think having someone to be like, this is so frustrating with was nice because if I don't have anyone to like whinge to, like,

I'm a bit like, oh, I have to whinge to myself and this is not the same. I want to complain to somebody. And sometimes I might complain and like in my head, I'll be like really negative or complaining. But I feel like, am I over? Is this too much? Like maybe I'm being too negative and there's no one to calm me down or maybe the opposite. Make you think rationally about your thoughts. Yeah, it's true. Yeah.

Yeah, kind of as we said, yeah, in the same boat is a nice expression. You're in the same position, two people. Is it often bad or can it be, I guess it can be both bad and good things. I think you often hear it more with negative situations, but I think it can be used with both. I don't see why you couldn't use it with positive situations, but I think you do more commonly hear it with negative situations.

Yeah, I guess in this metaphor, if the boat is sinking, it's like, yeah, we're in the same boat. We're both having the same experience right now. We're both having the same problems. Connect with someone. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, if you hear someone who has a problem just like you, you can say, we're in the same boat. I have that same thing. Really good expression to use. Very common. Anyway, let's go to another one then. Expression here, two heads are better than one. Yeah.

I think people might be able to guess what this means. So let's keep it in the travel area. When you plan a holiday, do you prefer to plan alone, do everything on your own or have some help?

With the planning. In planning holidays, I would say two heads are not better than one. I am very much in the solo category for this one. I love planning a holiday. I love planning trips. But I really like to plan it on time.

my own and I remember that my um my ex-boyfriend he loved that because he was like I just sit back you can do all the research and you just tell me what I'm gonna eat I'm like yeah sure I've got all my all my pins on my google maps um I've like every relationship is

It's the same, right? There's the organiser who does everything, planning, and there's the one who just sits back and rests. And enjoys it all. It's never always man or woman or whatever. It's always random. But there's always those two people, right? Yeah. Oh, definitely. And I think even in friendships, I've experienced this. There's one of my friends who I travel with a lot, and she loves it. She's like...

We both of us will have lists of things that we want to see. But she's like, I rely totally on you for food recommendations. And I will always plan the food. I will plan where like where the bakeries are, like where the good places to eat the cheapest options for the local food. And yeah, that's my favorite part of planning. So sometimes we will collaborate and in which case we'll

I suppose if you're doing a trip together, two heads are better than one. But I feel like if you, I think it depends on the relationship between the people that you're traveling with as to whether that works or not.

I was going to say something similar, like doing it alone can be a lot easier, but certain areas you can delegate, like give to other people. Yeah. If someone's better with restaurants, they can do that job. And yes, I think that could be an option too. Yeah. If other people are better at transport, they can sort that out and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Two heads are better than one.

It's easier to do things in a group of two people rather than just on your own. Usually, that's what it means, right? And I think as well, it kind of goes through thought processes. Sometimes if you've got a problem, sometimes two heads are better at solving that problem than one. So if you are travelling and you have an issue, then...

And sometimes figuring out what you need to do, it's better to have someone to talk to and to figure out that problem. And I think that is when two heads are better than one. Definitely. When you've got an issue, having another person is definitely better. And, you know, I heard about a really interesting study recently, which kind of, as you're saying, you know, people are much better at giving advice to others than

compared to following their own advice. Others' problems are very clear to you, like the answers, but you can't see the answers to your own problems. So there was a study done where people would write down advice to themselves with a problem, but instead of writing, I need to do this, they would just change the pronoun to, you should do this, or...

someone else should do this. And just by changing the pronoun kind of tricked their mind into thinking they were advising someone else. And I don't know how it worked exactly, but according to what I heard, the advice was more useful. It was better just by doing that because they weren't doing it to themselves. So I guess that kind of leads into that as like helping each other is much more powerful than...

just trying to help yourself oh yeah i 100 never take my own advice i am very good at giving it and terrible at taking it yeah it's really tough yeah let's go to the next question now uh the expression here is to have someone's back have someone's back yeah it could be interesting could be a bit strange maybe if it's new for some of you i i'm trying to think of a situation where this has happened

Um, okay. So when I was traveling in Europe, we did a camper van trip. My friend had a camper van that she had built herself. And she had she was taking it around Europe on like a big trip. And we'd seen a lot of cool places and we were coming through Germany. And we had just left

Munich Oktoberfest and we were coming through to Neuschwanstein and on the way the camper van decided to completely break down and we had to take it into a garage to get it fixed and

It was a bit of an ordeal. We had about a week waiting for it to kind of come back to life. And I would say at that time I had her back, you know, when she was kind of worried about her camper van and like whether she was going to be able to get home and things like that. And I just was kind of there as like moral support.

And yeah, to kind of give her a bit of a shoulder to not necessarily cry on, but to be, yeah, I think frustrated about the situation. And I was just like, it's okay, I'm here, whatever you need. That's nice. So important, isn't it? Just to have someone who can support you or friends who support each other. Yeah. I'm curious what kind of person you are. So if you had a kind of unusual, slightly crazy friend who did stuff like

wanted to go dancing in public actually this is kind of relevant to me because it's quite common in asia as you might know to go to the park especially for older ladies and they'll join some like dance group in the park and they'll be very loud oh yeah yeah maybe chinese music playing or something happens a lot in bangkok as well and one time a friend i was with went to join them and go dancing like come on michael join us yeah and i did not have her back i uh

I didn't want to... You were like... Yeah, I'll just watch. Thank you. What would you do in that situation? What kind of... How supportive of a friend are you? I think it would depend on the situation. If it was dancing in a park, I am 100% in. I would definitely do that. But... Yeah, I think it depends on what the situation is. But I would like to think that I would have people's backs for...

the majority of the time um but that I think there probably would be certain situations that I'd be like you can do that by yourself on your own with this one yeah definitely yeah interesting everyone has a line right but it's nice and I yeah as we kind of said I guess we use back quite a lot to mean supporting someone helping someone um yeah back me up is a similar one

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's just to know that you've got someone behind you to kind of say like, I'm here. Don't worry about falling. Like I've got you. I don't know if it comes from the military, but I know it's used a lot in that context. Like,

yes if you're shooting someone this way you want to make sure no one's going to shoot you from behind so you need to someone who has your back and they're watching this way where you cannot see and maybe that's where it comes from to have someone's back yeah i mean that would make sense i do not know the etymology behind it but yeah i would say that sounds like it could definitely be plausible yeah yeah very good one to use again so if you have a friend you want to support them or show that you you're ready to support them you can just say don't worry i have your back

very useful. But yeah, it's a good one. Let's see how many more we could do. Maybe one or two. Let's go to this one, which is band together. Band together. B-A-N-D. So the question I have for you here is quite broad, maybe. Do you prefer to solve problems as a group or alone or solo? And maybe you can give some examples of a problem that you've had to

fix i guess it could be like the last example but different um i am probably not a great person at solving problems on my own unless i am alone i think when i am alone and i don't have the option of asking for help then i will figure it out and i power through if i have the option to phone my dad and be like dad help um i will choose that option every single time nice so um yeah

I think it depends on the problem, but... Are you banding together in that case? Or does it not quite work? Is it more just your dad doing it? Maybe. No, I would say, but he likes to teach... Well, my mum is the same as well. They both like to teach me how to do stuff. So the next time I have the same problem, I can do it on my own and not with them. But yeah, I think...

When I have a problem, I do like to talk it through with other people. And I think in that case, people would band together to help me, I suppose. But if, for example, like in the situations I talked about before, you know, where we had the problem with the train and things like that, we had to band together to figure out the problem and to...

figure out how we move forward how we get from point a to point b um and I think in those situations you do have to band together because you have to solve the problem together because you're both in that you're both in the same boat you're both in that same problem you need to band together to figure it out um but if I have a solo problem yeah I if I have to I'll do it I

I'm quite capable, but if I know that I can get someone else to help me, then I 100% will. Yeah, yeah. And I was also thinking about where this comes from. Again, I don't know. I don't know if we're talking about band as in like a...

musical band like I don't know or like a rubber band that like squishes people together that ties people together oh I see do you know I never really thought about it neither I always assumed it was just kind of a group of people and you kind of make a band of people rather than like a band like music band but like a band as in like a group yeah

And you know what else just came to me now? I never made this connection before. A band of people, kind of means group as you said, the word bandit, I guess is from that word. I never thought of that before. Oh, maybe. Like a, what's a bandit? Like a kind of a old fashioned criminal. Like a highwayman robber. Not super useful word in 2024, but.

Yeah, I never considered that. But yeah, maybe that kind of band, but I don't know all my band meanings. But yeah, band together, make a group. No. Usually to fix... But then I wonder, can you band together with just one other person? Or does it have to be more than two people to band together? I think, to me, I would say two is fine as long as... Two is fine, yeah.

Is one person a group? You can have two groups of people. I feel like no. Yeah, maybe it doesn't quite make sense. Unless, yeah, I'm getting out of here. I feel like, yeah. So if you're banding together, I feel like joining forces. Yes. I think you can do two people.

so like one person and one person coming together to solve a problem but then because I was thinking of band as being like more than two people usually is but then no maybe it's not I think it's a very common movie thing as well I don't know if you can think of any movies where two groups of people band together maybe they used to be enemies but then they band together to defeat the bigger enemy I know you like Star Wars as do I I don't know if it's happened in Star Wars before though

I mean, I guess you get... You do get kind of like the rebels and then they might join forces with like the pirates or something in a situation or with like, you know, maybe the Jedis will team up with some of the rebels to defeat the Empire, like depending on which part of the universe we're in. But I do think they do. They do band together. They join forces. I remember in...

In the Clone Wars, for example, the animated series, there is an arc which is set on the planet Ryloth and they have the freedom fighters from the planet themselves and then the Jedi come with the clones and everybody fights together to try and overturn the separatist government that is trying to take over the planet.

the planet yes i've seen all of them my nerd side i've seen all the clone wars um and yeah maybe more mainstream one that this is a spoiler by the way that's uh like 50 years old now so be aware everyone uh spoiler i guess you could say in in the end uh luke

banded together with Darth Vader or oh yeah yeah if we're talking about groups maybe the good the light side banded with the dark side to overthrow the emperor uh the worst something the worst of all of them or the in Return of the Jedi same film uh the Ewoks uh

and the rebels joined together to defeat the uh empire on the moon of endor much better example many uh cute ewok soldiers were lost along the way which was the worst part of the film i know poor ewoks yeah great examples if you don't know star wars that's going to mean nothing to you so maybe we should move on but you should watch the films if you haven't yeah

Let's just do one more before we close. So this is what I've been doing today a little bit for you. A little bit different from the other expressions, which is to pick someone's brain. Pick someone's brain. Oh!

I actually really like this term. It kind of brings up disgusting images in my head, but it can be useful. And I've been doing it to you a bit today. And it's obviously it happens in the group classes a lot where people might ask us questions or they might ask each other questions about their countries. So here's my question for you. If you could meet one person from history, what would you ask them about?

Oh, that is super, super interesting. Oh, one person from history. I don't, oh, I feel like if it was like ancient history, maybe I would, I'd be interested to talk to somebody like a pharaoh from the Egyptian times and like find out more about history.

kind of their culture I find the Egyptian times really fascinating I remember learning about it at school and just being like fascinated um so that would be interesting equally more modern history um I would absolutely love to talk to Agatha Christie um about her experiences that kind of

gave her the inspiration behind all of her stories because she was absolutely fascinating and I know that that's not kind of finding out about a specific period of history but um she did so much and kind of experienced so much I think she'd be a fascinating woman to talk to yeah

I actually don't know much about her, but I know she used to live in Torquay, where I used to live. She did, yeah. And actually, this is the only thing I know about her, which maybe is more impressive if you know more, but right next to where I lived, like literally...

30 second walk like next door basically there was a little stone that said Agatha Christie used to live here so I could kind of say I used to live next door to her but the house is no longer there but there's just a stone oh that's pretty cool um yeah she she worked for um

the kind of far, like, I guess with the pharmaceuticals in hospitals, like during the war. Um, and she got a lot of her information for her poisons and stuff in her books. Um,

based on her experience working in that side of things. But she also married an archaeologist. And so she would travel to lots of different places in the Middle East, accompany him on archaeological digs and things like that. She was really fascinated by that sort of history. And so a lot of her books are also set around archaeological digs and things. And yeah, I think she just had a really fascinating life. Yeah.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, great answer. I like it. I'm with you with the Egyptians too. It's such a fascinating part of ancient history, really. And they were so advanced, even though they lived so long ago. I know, yeah. So I might choose someone similar, like pick their brain, which just means to learn what they know, get information from their brain into your brain. Ask lots of questions. Absolutely. So I guess a common way we might use that is

Excuse me, do you mind if I pick your brain on this topic for a second? Which means, can I have a few minutes of your time to talk about something that you know more than me? It's a nice way to flatter someone, I suppose, as well. They feel quite smart. Yeah, true.

But I mean, also, you'd use it again, going back to like our travel topics from before, like I might say to you, oh, I'm visiting Bangkok. Can I pick your brain about good places to eat or, you know, where I should stay or things like that? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Perfect example. And yeah, you're always welcome to. Thanks.

Well, maybe we'll finish up here. I can probably let the listeners know a little bit behind the scenes that we kind of have to finish up because my group class is starting in nine minutes. Yeah, you have to leave. We have a lot of group stuff today talking about it happening soon. So it's a big group class day.

But yeah, before we go, maybe you could tell everyone a little bit more about yourself. I don't know if you're open for students, but you can mention that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I am. So I am open for kind of one to one students, whether that is for conversation, exam preparation, anything.

grammar. I offer kind of two different types of classes. So you can come and do just a half an hour conversation class if that's all you have time for. Or you can take a full 50 minutes and have a full class and we can kind of

the type of class that you want to do depending on your goals your aims your needs and yeah absolutely but yeah you can find me on instagram adventure into english um and i will be able to answer any questions that you have there

awesome i will link that up so people can find it easily um but yes sounds great so thank you very much it's been so good to chat i'm glad we can oh it's been lovely yeah i've really enjoyed it thank you awesome awesome oh yeah thank you so much and i'll chat with you again soon absolutely thank you

Thanks for listening.