5 English Idioms with Michael from Happy English Advanced English Conversation
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today i have a special
guest to introduce you to he’s Michael
from my happy English comm today he’s
gonna help you to learn five idioms that
we use in daily conversation let’s get
started hi Michael thanks so much for
joining me today
hey hey thanks for having me this is
just a lot of fun yes I’m so glad to
introduce you to my audience into the
Internet who some people who might not
be familiar with you yet can you tell us
a little bit about yourself
awesome sure so Wow so I started
teaching English back in 1994 in Japan
in a little town called Sendai any of
you guys in Sendai remember me and so
I’ve been in the international education
business for quite a long time and then
in 2010 I started happy English which is
where I am now here in New York City and
yeah so I teach I teach students here in
New York City right here in the office
and also online and YouTube and podcasts
and Facebook and all sorts of fun stuff
oh you’re a little bit of everywhere in
person and online so if people who don’t
live in New York want to contact you
they can still meet with you online yeah
absolutely a little plug my web site is
my happy English calm you can find me
there and then you can find links to the
YouTube page and you’ve got a daily or
pretty regular podcast that you put out
yeah great well we’ll talk about all of
the great stuff you have to offer all
together at the end so super yes yes
let’s talk about now something that
you’ve got some knowledge about which is
idioms there’s so many in English
exactly there are a lot of idioms and
one of you know I put a couple that I
wanted to about today and one of my
favorite ones is in a New York minute
I know that you’re living here in the
states too in North Carolina I’m in New
York the pace here is really fast if
you’ve never been to New York you see
people walk in we’re walking really
quick we do everything quick so when you
say that I can do that in a New York
minute it means that you can do
something in a really short and quick
amount of time so I can finish my dinner
in a New York minute because I’m so
hungry
exactly exactly in fact I finished my
luncheon in New York minute today do you
think that people who are living outside
the state could use this and feel
comfortable using this yeah I think so
because you know New York is a popular
place for a lot of international
tourists and anybody who’s visited here
knows that everything is really really
quick here yeah do you like that kind of
lifestyle that fast paced gogogo style
yeah you know I was born here so I’m
kind of used to it do I like it mmm
sometimes yes and sometimes it’s a pain
in the neck oh that’s a great idea yeah
when something is a pain in the neck it
means that it’s bothersome or
troublesome so like recently I needed to
renew my driver’s license and in New
York when you need to renew your
driver’s license you have to go to the
motor vehicle office the driver’s
license office and wait on line one and
then wait on line two and it takes like
four hours and it’s really bothersome so
you could say that it’s bothersome but
it’s a pain in the neck Oh we’d love to
say those kind of things oh it’s a pain
in the neck to go to the motor vehicle
place I just want to get it over with
and not go exactly and you can also use
that idiom when you talk about a person
so for example my boss makes me work
here at happy English until like nine or
ten o’clock every
he’s a pain in the neck that guy is a
pain in the neck I hope no one says that
about you me yes that’s the reason why
you wanted to start happy English one of
them was so that you didn’t have to work
for a boss who was a pain in the neck
you could give English to students the
way that you wanted to give it you know
and that’s the great thing about having
my own company here is that I can sit
here and I can teach my students and
meet my students and help them learn
English while I’m having a cup of joe oh
yes well I’ve got something here as well
but it is not a cup of joe so you guys
that are watching can you figure that
out because vanessa has a cup of
something and I have a cup of something
but I called my cup of something a cup
of joe and I’m gonna say that a cup of
joe is not my cup of tea
I’m not a big fan of Joe right and Joe
is a slang term and I think it’s an
American slang term which means coffee
so if you’re walking down the street and
you see a coffee shop and you say to
your friend hey let’s get a cup of joe
it means let’s get a cup of coffee yeah
and usually it seems like that is a
pretty casual expression so you might
even say cuppa cuppa Joe Camuto you know
when we pronounced of in the middle of a
phrase that talks about quantity we
usually pronounce it like up so yeah
it’s a it’s a cup of joe like a glass of
wine or a bag of chips it’s a cup of joe
yeah a cup of joe do you drink a cup of
joe every day or how often yeah I drink
a cup of joe about every two or three
hours well I’m sure you’re not alone I
bet there’s a lot of people who do the
same thing and they probably feel the
same way but a lot of people do it
exactly I’m trying to I’m trying to you
know
down a little bit on on having a cup of
joe but I feel that when I what I don’t
drink so much coffee
I kind of feel like a lazybones
lazybones when you don’t drink coffee or
when I don’t drink tea I kind of feel
like a lazybones two lazybones how would
you describe lazybone lazybone yeah
exactly so you know I have a friend Glen
and this guy like spends most of his
free time when he’s not working either
in front of the TV watching TV or
playing PlayStation he’s a lazy bones
so it means he’s so lazy
like even his bones I just imagine his
name’s Glen yes imagine Glen sitting on
the couch becoming a skeleton that’s
just sitting there like his bones aren’t
moving anymore there’s no muscles the
bones could be a good thing you might
even say to someone stop being a
lazybones or what are you doing don’t be
a lazybones get up exactly sometimes I
have to tell my students that hey don’t
be a lazybones do your homework
that’s kind of a funny image though it’s
a clever way to tell someone stop being
lazy right because you know that the
basic you know core of a human being is
the bones so if you’re a lazy bones it
means from your skin to your bones
you’re lazy that’s a reason
that’s pretty lazy it’s pretty bad
completely so let’s not be lazy bones
and people who are watching this are not
being lazy bones because they’re
learning idioms and English and learning
with us so great job those of you
watching it you’re not being a lazybones
right now that’s right in fact what
you’re doing is you’re killing time all
right you’re spending some time lean
time so that’s and that’s the next idiom
that I wanted to talk about today which
is have having time to kill
having time to kill right so you can
spend time doing something like we’re
spending time talking right now but for
example if you have an appointment to
meet a friend at a cafe at 4 o’clock and
you get to the cafe at about 3:30 well
what are you gonna do for that 30
minutes you have this kind of empty time
that you don’t have anything in the
schedule but you need to occupy that
time some way so you can say I’ve got
time to kill I have 30 minutes to kill
it means I need to I have that time that
I need to use for something for
something probably there’s not something
necessary you have to do but you’re just
entertaining yourself for doing
something while you’re waiting for the
Vanessa if you had if you were in that
situation you had 30 minutes of time to
kill what would you do oh probably if I
had my phone with me I’d probably listen
to a podcast this it’s a good thing to
listen to while you’re watching people
if I were in a cafe or somewhere in
public watch people listen to a podcast
and usually that’s a relaxing thing to
do too it’s a good way to kill time
absolutely
yeah what about you what do you like to
do to kill time yeah so you know I’m
like unlike a lot of people I’m
completely addicted to social media and
so when I have when I when I need to
kill time it usually kind of goes
Facebook Twitter Instagram snapchat oh
great that’s the order of interest
that’s the order of killing time for me
yeah 30 minutes can pass by so quickly
when you’re looking at different things
seeing what’s going on so social media
is a great way to kill time exactly
excellent so even though you’re killing
time you’re not necessarily being a
lazybones because you’re just waiting
for the thing that you’ve planned right
exactly exactly and
so it helps me kill time when I have a
cup of joe oh that’s a great way to
connect it all together thanks for
sharing all of these idioms sure as we
as we talk about these I wanted to let
our audience know too that I’m gonna be
giving the resources to learn more with
you below this video so you’ve got got a
chance today to teach several useful
idioms New York minute killing time lazy
bones all these fun expressions but
you’ve got so many more there’s a ton of
idioms on your podcast in your course
and can you tell us a little bit about
that I know you’ve got a course that’s
got lots of information for English
learners right so I think everybody
who’s watching this is gonna be
interesting to know that that you and I
and five are there awesome online
teachers are collaborating to put
together the English power pack which is
a collection of everyone’s different
lessons and learning materials all in
one for a really super price that will
help everyone learn English and some of
that money is gonna get donated to
charity to build schools it’s really
interesting yeah so what I have is I
have what I call the master learners
pack it’s it’s 400 of my podcasts which
there’s a there’s about an 850 page PDF
book plus 400 podcasts covering idioms
pronunciation like we talked about
before a cup of joe
slang grammar confusing words like bye
and until or because and because of and
things like that
so it covers all different aspects of
English so even students that are at the
beginner level the advanced level or in
the middle I think there’s something
there for for everyone yeah it’s gonna
be a great way to kill time when you
download it listen to it get a chance to
improve your English at the same time
exactly and
you know using like these electronic
resources to study is definitely not a
pain in the neck you know like you know
having to carry around a big dictionary
all the time like we used to do right
you could just download your 400 podcast
episodes and it’s just on your phone
it’s amazing awesome yeah that’s just a
great way to organize your information
cuz I know you’ve you’ve been doing this
for a long time so this is a great way
to help English learners have a path to
follow I think that’s a really useful
thing that we can give as teachers or
guides to them and it’s fun too you know
I always try and make the the podcasts
and the YouTube videos entertaining not
so today we will study that’s why people
go online to learn is to get something
different have a kind of new flavor to
English so I’m glad you’re also of the
same mindset the same method that’s
wonderful yeah yes so if there are
English learners watching this before
July 4th 2016
then you can join the powerpack you can
get all of this information I’ll put the
links below this video or on this video
but if it’s after July 4th there will be
the power pack is gonna be closed and if
you’d like to still get Michael’s
master course then I’ll post those links
below here so that after July 4th they
can still contact you or get the
information you’ve got that sounds great
yes thanks so much for explaining these
idioms today it’s so fun to connect them
and use them in conversation yeah
absolutely absolutely on I feel like I
feel like we’ve just we’ve had this
conversation in a New York minute
oh we did I know it passed so quickly
well thanks so much and I hope that
English learners will check out more
information about you to be able to
learn more that sounds great my happy
English comm that’s where you can find
me
and Vanessa’s thanks so much for
inviting me today my pleasure my
pleasure see you later Michael okay take
care have a great day bye thanks so much
for watching this interview with Michael
from my happy English now I have a
question for you can you make a sentence
with one or all five of these idioms
this is a good chance to use what you
just learned how often do you drink a
cup of joe are you a lazybones what do
you like to do to kill time use the
idioms you learned today in the comments
below
I’m looking forward to seeing your
sentences and talk to you later bye if
you enjoyed this video be sure to
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much for learning with me bye