Sunday, September 27, 2015

E-cubed 846: all but



Today's E-cubed:  ~ is all but ~

Trong bài học ngày hôm nay, bạn sẽ biết cách sử dụng cụm từ "all but" một cách hợp lý. "All but" có 2 nghĩa:

1. All but = everything except: tất cả ngoại trừ thứ gì đó
Example:
- I'm all but handsome. = I'm everything except handsome.
- Boring? He's all but boring.
- The bomb killed all but the roaches.
- My business is all but easy.

2. All but = almost, nearly: gần như, hầu như
Example:
- I'm all but bald = I'm almost bald.
- I had all but given up.
- Talking like Coach Shane is all but impossible.
- "Raining cats and dogs"? That expression is all but forgotten.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:
Hi, Jack! How’s it going these days?
Pretty good. I’m not all that busy—enjoying life. You?
Oh~ I’m all but enjoying life. Work’s been tough.
Oh, that’s too bad. I hope it gets better.
It will soon. I’m all but done~.

Tạm dịch:
Chào Jack! Dạo này anh thế nào?
Khá tốt. Tôi cũng không bận lắm—đang tận hưởng cuộc sống. Còn anh thì sao?
Ồ~ Tôi thì mỗi việc tận hưởng cuộc sống là không được thôi. Công việc vất vả quá.
Ồ, cũng không phải là quá tệ. Tôi hi vọng nó tiến triển tốt.
Sẽ sớm thôi. Tôi gần xong việc rồi~


Sunday, September 20, 2015

E-cubed 841: to milk it



Today's E-cubed:  to milk it

When you milk something, you try to take too much advantage over something.

"To milk something" có nghĩa là bạn cố gắng lợi dụng tối đa có thể một thứ gì đó để được lợi cho bản thân, bòn rút, lợi dụng nó. Như trong ví dụ dưới đây, anh chàng này lợi dụng lý do mình bị ốm để hưởng lợi mặc dù anh ta thực ra đã khỏi ốm từ 2 tháng nay rồi.

Cùng luyện tập đoạn hội thoại sau:
Ever since he was sick, he’s been milking it.
But he’s not sick anymore.
I know.
That was like two months ago.
I know!.

Tạm dịch:
Suốt từ khi anh ta ốm tới giờ, anh ta cứ lấy cớ đó để được lợi thôi à.
Nhưng cậu ta có ốm nữa đâu.
Tôi biết.
Phải tầm 2 tháng rồi chứ.
Tôi biết mà.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Ecubed Podcast 485: bow out

How are you doing? Let's listen to Daily Easy English Expression Podcast 485. I hope you enjoy it. 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

E-cubed 838: Jump me



Today's E-cubed:  Jump me

To jump somebody means to attack someone.

To jump somebody: tấn công ai đó, tấn công bất thình lình. Bạn có thể hình dung ra hình ảnh một tên du côn, hay một tay xã hội đen, hoặc là một người say rượu bất ngờ nhảy ra chặn bạn lại và tấn công bạn để trấn lột tiền, tài sản của bạn hoặc là chỉ để hăm dọa bạn. Be careful!!!

How was your hike? Not too good?
I was so scared.
What happened?
I saw some punks. I thought they were gonna jump me.

Chuyến đi chơi của bạn thế nào? Không vui lắm à?
Tớ đã sợ chết đi được.
Có chuyện gì à?
Tớ trông thầy mấy tên du côn. Tớ đã nghĩ là họ sẽ tấn công mình.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Ecubed Podcast 480: Crash

How are you doing? Let's listen to Daily Easy English Expression Podcast 480. I hope you enjoy it. 

Friday, September 4, 2015

E-cubed 828: Sticks and stones may break my bones



Today's E-cubed:  Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me.!!

Chúng ta sử dụng expression này trong trường hợp khi ai đó nói xấu chúng ta, expression này mang ý nghĩa: Lời nói gió bay/Gậy gộc và đất đá có thể làm tôi đau, nhưng lời nói thì không thể làm tôi tổn thương được.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to daily easy English expression. Thank you very much for watching my videos. I love you. Oh, yes. Today's expression, it's actually a little bit similar to yesterday. Somebody asks me about the expression "sticks and stones." Yes. It's a great expression. And, there're two versions. In America, we say "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me." And there is another version "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me." So what it means is, sticks - that's a piece of wood from a tree. You know, that's the idea, broken part of a tree, sticks. And stones - rocks. Sticks and stones may. And in this case may means might. It's possible. Sticks and stones may break my bones. If you throw a stone at me. I could break my arm. If you hit me with a stick, I could break my arm. So sticks and stones might break my bones. But names, words will never harm me. Names, words will never hurt me. So if you call me an idiot, no problem. It doesn't bother me. Nah nah nah nah nah nah. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Names will never harm me. It's what children say. It's what children are taught. Okay. And the idea, you know, Johny was teasing me. Daddy, daddy, daddy, Johny called me a bad word. Well, son. Don't worry. Sticks and stones might break your bones, but names will never harm you. Sticks and stones might break my bones, but names will never harm me. That's the idea, it's something we teach to kids. But I have a question, and I'll ask my question after you listen to the dialogue.

Oh my god~ Shane, you're so skinny and bald!
Let's call him "baldy bones"
Sticks and stones may break my bones...
Baldy, baldy, baldy bones~~
But names will never hurt me!

Whatever. You know, baldy bones. Baldy - losing my hair. Bones - too skinny. Yeah. You can say anything you want to me, but it's not going to hurt me. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names, words, they will never, ever, ever hurt me. That's not true. Some people are really sad. Some people get really depressed. Some people cry. Sure. It's true.

So, if you have a little boy or a little girl, do you want your son or daughter to be like this "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Or do you want your son or daughter to do this "What? What did you say to me? What did you call me? Huh? Huh?" Would you like your son or daughter to start a fight? Lots of kids. You know. Not all kids. Of course. Not all kids, but many kids, many boys, may girls, they, they don't like other people calling them names. So they wanna fight them. What do you think? What do you think? So do you want to be passive? Nice? No fighting, no fighting. Or do you want to be aggressive? And puupp, and hit them. Think about your children. And what about you? I'm sure some of you like to fight. And, some of you never want to fight. But I think most of us are in the middle. Me, what about me. Well, to be honest, I want the options. I want to, I want to make the decision. Oh, this guy is calling me names. But he's much bigger than me. Well, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. And I'll run away. But, some guys, what? You're calling me names? And you're a skinny guy? Shut up! I would like the options as a child. Now, I'm an adult. I don't care. Yeah, I don't care. Really. This is not my own business. Names will never hurt me. Uh yeah, as an adult I don't care. But as a child. I remember as a child, I was a small child. I was a little kid. And to be honest, there are guys that I wanted to just ... I wanted to. I really did. But those guys that I wanted to ... were bigger than me. And, and they were less intelligent. And I'm sorry. Sometimes, less intelligent people, when you hit them, they're so unintelligent. They don't feel the pain. And they keep fighting. So you could be hitting them, and kicking them, and kneeing them in their face. And they keep coming. That's dangerous. Because that person doesn't stop kicking, hiting to. Be careful. If I had a son, what would I do? I would encourage him to be passive. But, son, sometimes the hand, it's mightier than the pen. That's not just me. That's same thing with the daughter. If I have a daughter, I teach her, I teach her how to kick so hard. Kick, kick like a, kick like Beckham. I don't know. Beckham kicks hard.

That's it. That's today's expression. I'm curious about your opinion. What about you? You as a child, did you always want to be passive? Did you sometimes want to be aggressive or were you always aggressive? What's the situation. Did you get into a fight? I wanna know. I wanna know your dirty dark secrets. Actually I don't want to know your dirty dark secret. I just want to know what you think about this. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me. It's a child, children's poem. Pretty much American know it. So you should, too. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Check out the dialogue three more times. And I'll see you tomorrow.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

E-cubed 827: takes one to know one



Today's E-cubed:  It takes one to know one~!!

Chúng ta sử dụng expression này trong trường hợp khi ai đó nói xấu chúng ta, expression này mang ý nghĩa: từ bụng ta mà suy ra bụng người/hãy xem lại bản thân mình trước khi nói người khác thế này thế nọ. Ngụ ý chỉ những người đó cũng xấu giống như những gì họ nói về chúng ta.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to daily easy English expression. Today we have an useful expression. If somebody says something bad about you, especially if they call you a bad name likes you're stupid, or you're an idiot, or even worse. You know, they use the bad words. Whatever. In your languages. Whatever. I hope they never do. People shouldn't do that. But sometimes they do. So in America, we have this expression. If somebody calls me, "Hey, idiot!" They call me an idiot. Then I can say, "Takes one to know one." It takes one to know one. It takes one to know one. In this case, takes mean requires. So the idea of this expression is in order to know if I am an idiot then you too must be an idiot. It takes one to know one. That's the idea. It is ilogical. But anyway that's what we say. So you could say to me, "Coach Shane, you're so ugly." It takes one to know one. It requires an ugly person to know whether or not I'm ugly. So, if you think I'm ugly. That means you are also ugly. We're brothers. We are ugly brothers. Shane, you are such a terrible cook. You can't cook. It takes one to know one. In order to know if I am a bad cook, then you too must be a bad cook. You are a terrible cook. Therefore, you know that I am a terrible cook. Do you see how this expression works. Yeah, I like it. It always makes me feel good. Because if I'm an idiot, boom.. then you are an idiot, too. We're idiots. Ha ha ha... Yeah, let's check out a dialogue.

You cook all that food? You're such a liar~~
Pfft~ It takes one to know one.
Ha! I never lie. I always tell the truth.
Then why do you dye your hair?

Oooh, yeah. We have one of my DDM students. His name is David. He's from Brazil. And whenever he sees my cooking pictures, my food pictures on Facebook, he always says something likes "You didn't make that. You're lying. No way. You bought that. Your mom made it. He never believes that I actually do the cooking. He calls me a liar. Wow, David. It takes one to know one. If you think I'm a liar, you must be a liar. Because in order to know whether or not I'm lying, you must also be a liar. So David, you are a liar, too. Just like me.

Do you understand this situation? The guy says, I never lie. And then the other guy says, so why do you dye your hair? To dye your hair, to color your hair. Yeah I know lots of people. People who. I'm sorry. If... Now. There are some, I know some Asian guys whose hairs are turning gray, or white, actually gray very young. But in general, in general, you know the Asian, Korean, African, American that I know from the army, their hair stays dark for really long time. But white guys, and I can only speak for myself, my family, people that I know when we get like 30, the hair starts changing. OK. My hair, it's like silver. Silver. No gold. Just silver. OK. But, you know that I just cut my hair. And many people dye their hair. They dye their hair. They dye their mustache. They're liars. Should I dye my hair? You guys be honest. Be honest. Now look. You know I obviously have more energy than most 20 year old. But I look like a 60 year old. So maybe it's stressful for you guys. Should I dye my hair dark color so that I look younger. So that it matches my energy level. Or should I leave my hair silver. Silver hair, balding hair. Yeah. What can I do? No secret, gray, bald, wrinkles. What you see is what you get. No lies here. Now, don't worry. If you dye your hair, if you dye your mustache, that's your business. Go ahead. Feel free. Anyways, it's a great expression. It takes one to know one. It takes one to know one. If somebody says something bad about you. Buum. It takes one to know one. You can use that expression. Shane, you're so handsome. It takes one to know one. Shane, you're so smart. It takes one to know one. Shane, you're the greatest English teacher in the world. It takes one to know one. Now actually we don't use it in positive situations. But you could, you could do it. Sure. Why not? Yeah. So do you think I'm handsome? You think I'm pretty smart? It takes one to know one. You, too. We usually use this expression in a negative situation. But again, it's possible to use it in a positive situation. Let's check out the dialogue three more times. And by the way, if you're not a member of DDM or PIRF, what are you waiting for? Go to website www.letsmasterenglish.com, sign up today. Thanks a lot, guys. Have a great one. I'll see you again tomorrow. Bye bye.