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###CONVERSATIONAL VOCABULARY

Hi Fast Fluency Formula members. This is Aaron Campbell, co-founder of Deep English. I’m here to talk with you about some of the vocabulary and phrases that Dan and I used in our conversation about the topic of falling through the air or free falling.

Let’s get started. I’m going to explain a few things and give some examples.

1. undergoing

The first one is ‘undergoing’. Dan says that he was listening to this podcast about a guy that was undergoing chemotherapy because he had cancer and he was losing his hair. To undergo means to experience something uncomfortable, to suffer something, to be subjected to something. We often combine this with things that are difficult or negative, like undergoing a medical procedure or undergoing a psychological exam, undergoing a difficult time in life. My aunt underwent 29 hours of labor before finally giving birth to her baby boy. So just things that are difficult, that are not comfortable, we undergo. We don’t undergo a party like, “Oh, I experienced a great party last night. I underwent a party.” No. No, you undergo something difficult, not something fun.

We can also use this with inanimate objects. For example, I can’t drive to the supermarket because my car is broken down and now it’s undergoing repairs in the shop. I’m living in an apartment this month with my family because my house is undergoing renovations. The company is undergoing major changes in its management structures, so there are many problems there right now.

That’s how you use ‘undergoing’. Are you undergoing any difficult times these days?

1. into it

The next one is ‘into it’. Dan says this about this guy who’s telling a crazy story about a woman he meets at a gas station and she’s flirting with him, and he’s kind of into it, Dan says. To be into something means you really like it. It interests you. You’re attracted to it.

What are you into these days? I’m into eating healthy these days. I’m into hiking in the forest. I’m into playing games with my children. Those are the things I’m into. Are you into any sports? Are you into any music? What kind of music are you into? What kind of food are you into eating these days?

You can also say ‘to get into something’, means to become interested in it. Recently, I’ve gotten into jogging around the city and around the outskirts of the city. I’m really into this iPhone app called Strava which tracks my distance and my pace and the amount of calories I burn, and the gain and loss in elevation. It’s really cool. I’m into it. What are you into?

You can also use ‘into’ as an exclamation, as a response to a good idea or a good plan. A friend might come to me and say, “Hey Aaron, you want to go snowboarding this weekend? My parents have a cabin in the mountains and it’s not far from the snowboarding slopes. We can stay there for free. You don’t have to pay any money.” And I’ll say, “Yeah, I’m into it. Into it, yeah. ” That’s how you can use ‘into it’.

1. whole load

Let’s move on. ‘Whole load’ is the next one. Dan’s talking about this guy who claims there’s a reality television show in Indonesia and you can buy, you can invest in it for $25,000. 25 grand means $25,000. He says there’s a whole load of questions there. ‘Whole load’ means a lot of questions. ‘Load’ means a lot. Load is a lot. There are a lot of questions there. There is a load of questions.

You might say on Christmas morning, there’s a load of presents under the tree. There’s a load of new vocabulary words in this week’s lesson.

You’ll also hear some people say ‘shitload’ or ‘buttload’. There’s a shitload of problems in society. There’s a buttload of issues with that website. There’s so many problems with it. You got to be careful with that because it has a much stronger, more vernacular kind of feeling to it, and it could be considered a little bit rude to say those words in some more polite or formal situations. But you will hear them quite a bit. Native speakers will say those words quite a bit.

‘Loaded with’ is a phrasal verb that’s related to ‘load’. If ‘load’ means a lot, ‘loaded with’ means having a lot. For example I stayed in a hotel room last weekend and it was loaded with amenities. It had everything. It had a refrigerator that was stuffed with cold drinks and snacks and chocolate. Inside the bathroom, there were all kinds of shampoos and gels and razors and toothbrushes. It was endless. It had everything. It was amazing. It was loaded with all kinds of good stuff. We could say Grand Central Station in New York City is loaded with people, loaded with people on a Saturday afternoon. Tokyo station is loaded with people all the time. There are many, many people there.

Dan says ‘whole load’. There’s a whole load of questions there. When we use ‘whole’, we’re using it to provide emphasis, and that’s all it is. It just means emphasizing there’s a lot, emphasizing the load. A whole load. And we use it often with words that mean group or grouping. A whole load, a load is a group of things. A whole range. A whole lot. That’s the most common actually - a whole lot. A whole category. A whole group. There’s a whole range of choices available on the menu at that restaurant downtown. It’s amazing. There’s a whole range, a whole lot of choices. If you turn on the television and if you have satellite TV, there’s a whole lot of channels available these days. There’s a whole range of channels. It’s amazing. When I was a child there were only 10 channels on TV. Now, there are hundreds and hundreds. There’s jut a whole lot of them. So that’s how it’s used. Whole load.

1. lost it

‘Lost it’. Dan says, he’s telling the story and the guy in the story says, “Yeah, my friend has lost it and he’s fallen for this ridiculous story.” ‘To lose it’ means to kind of go crazy. To lose your sanity, to lose your wits, to lose your grip on reality. To sort of go insane. It could be momentarily or it could be permanently. In that sense, that’s what he means. His friend’s gone a little bit crazy.

You might say this about a really old person. Like my best friend’s grandmother is suffering from severe dementia. She can’t remember anyone’s names, she can’t remember the faces of her loved ones, and she even talks to people who are not actually even there. She has totally lost it, and that means she’s just lost her mental faculties. She’s sadly unable to function normally.

‘Lose it’ can also have a different meaning depending on the context in which you are using it. And those two contexts, it means to go crazy, but in other context, it may mean to lose control of your emotions. Like to lose your temper or lose your composure or lose your patience. My friend, Jeff, he’s been really stressed out at work and at home recently, and recently in a meeting he totally snapped. He totally lost it. He started shouting and he got in a big argument with his superiors and his co-workers. It was terrible. He just lost it, couldn’t take it anymore.

A professional golfer recently on television had several shots in a row, several bad shots in a row. He got really frustrated and on his very last bad shot, he just lost it. He smashed his club into a tree and then he threw it into the pond and he started screaming and shouting. He just completely lost it. He lost his composure. So you’ve got to be careful not to lose it in those situations.

1. Off the top of my head

Next one, ‘off the top of my head’. This is number 5 and finally this is something that I say. I said, “Yeah,” Dan asked me, “Have you ever fallen for something?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve fallen for many things in my life, but I just can’t think of anything specifically off the top of my head.” ‘Off the top of my head’ means spontaneously, right now, in the moment without any planning or any thinking in advance.

I might ask you, “Hey, how many African countries can you name off the top of your head?” And you might say, “Oh geez, off the top of my head. Well, let’s see. I think there’s South Africa, and there’s Egypt and there’s Nigeria.” So how many can you name off the top of your head without looking it up, without going to the internet, without opening a book of maps or whatever? Maybe you’re able to name at least a dozen off the top of your head. Some people might be able to name more off the top of their head. “Oh geez, I could only come up with 4 or 5 off the top of my head.” We often use this also when making a guess. If something requires research or calculation to accurately describe or to accurately hone in on, you can use ‘off the top of my head’ if you have to make a guess before doing any of that research or calculation. Maybe you went to a live music concert and you got home and you brother says to you, “Hey, how was it?” And you said, “Oh, it was great but it was loaded with people.” And he said, “Really? How many people were there at the concert?” And then you say, “Uhm, I don’t know. I have no idea but off the top of my head, I’d say there were probably two thousand.”

Or maybe you’re thinking of buying a house or selling a house and you’re taking a look at a really beautiful house that you want to buy and someone asked you, “Hey, how much money do you think that house is worth?” And you can say, “Oh geez, I have no idea. I’d really have to look that up but off the top of my head, given its size and location, I’d say it’s probably $300,000, something like that.” So, ‘off the top of your head’.

Off the top of your head, how many synonyms can you think of for the word ‘big’ in English. Oh geez, I know there’s many. Let’s see, off the top of my head, big, large, gigantic, enormous, gargantuan, huge, et cetera. Off the top of your head.

1. a goner

Next, ‘goner’, ‘a goner’. We’re talking about Jeb Corliss, the wingsuit BASE jumper who comes close to death with each jump. And if you make any mistakes, I say in the conversation, that’s it. You’re a goner. I’m sure you can guess the meaning of that.

A ‘goner’ is a dead person. And of course it comes from the verb ‘to go’ or in this case ‘to go away’. He’s gone. You’re gone. You’re a goner.

Let’s say Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones gets really, really sick, he goes to the doctor. And after her undergoes some procedures, medical procedures, the doctor tells him, “I’m really sorry but you have stage 4 cancer of the pancreas.” And at that moment, he knew he was a goner. He knew he was going to die soon. He was a goner. He was as good as dead in his mind.

If you don’t wear a seatbelt on the highway and you have a wreck, you’re going to be a goner. You’re a goner. Wear a seatbelt because you don’t want to be a goner. So it’s just kind of a very casual way to say ‘dead person’. A goner. You wouldn’t use it in a polite situation. This is another word that you have to use a little bit of care with, otherwise you could upset someone. A more polite way to say it is someone has ‘passed away’. They’ve moved on.

1. to each his own

Number 7, the next one. This is something I say. We’re talking about why Jeb Corliss does what he does. Dan and I have different opinions about this. Dan is not so impressed with some of the quotes, some of the things that Jeb says, whereas I found them to be quite inspirational. We’re kind of discussing, we’re not really arguing, but we’re discussing our opinions. And then I say, “You know what? To each his own. Who are we to judge these guys? If that’s what Jeb wants to do, fine, fine. That’s no problem. That’s his business.”

This is a common way to just say each person has a right to his or her own choices, to his or her own preferences in life even if other people don’t agree with them. They have a right to like what they want to like. They have a right to be into something that other people are not into. So you’ll hear native speakers, especially, say this all the time. To each his own. “Ah, to each his own.” For example, I’ve noticed, some people put ketchup on their scrambled eggs. I think that’s not very appetizing. I prefer Tabasco sauce or pepper sauce or black pepper on my scrambled eggs. Others prefer cheese, some people put salt on it. To each his own. It doesn’t matter. Every person is entitled to eat their scrambled eggs the way they want to.

This is often used as a response to someone who disagrees with you. You can say this if somebody disagrees with you. Let’s imagine that you and I went to see a movie, and it was a comedy. And at the end of the movie, you and I we walk out of the theater and I turn to you and I say, “Wow, that movie was great! It was so funny! I really enjoyed it.” And you look at me as if I’m crazy and you say, “Aaron, have you lost it? That wasn’t funny at all. I thought it was really stupid and boring.” And I can say to you, “Well, to each his own. To each his own.” And that just means, that’s my response. That means I don’t want to argue with you. You think what you think. I think what I think. I liked it. You didn’t like it. It’s okay. No problem. Let’s not argue about it. To each his own. So that’s just something you can say.

Now be careful because we usually use this when we’re talking about things that do not have serious consequences. If you didn’t like the movie and I did like the movie, we can say ‘to each his own’. But when we’re talking about things like abortion or child pornography or gun control or nuclear energy, things that have real consequences, serious consequences on people’s lives, we got to be a lot more careful to say ‘to each his own’ because it’s NOT to each his own. Maybe for some people it’s not okay to own lots of guns, for example. Or to some people it’s not okay to abort a fetus. So that phrase ‘to each his own’ would not really be an accurate phrase and you might just upset someone. So be careful using that one as well.

1. buy into that

Let’s go to the next one. ‘Buy into’. ‘Buy into that’. Dan asked me to talk a little bit about Jeb Corliss’s view of failure and success. And after I explained it to him, Dan says, “Okay, I can buy into that.” And what he means is I can accept it or I can believe it. So ‘to buy into’ something has the feeling of exchanging of money. You’re investing. That means there’s some kind of risk present, it could be wrong. So maybe Jeb Corliss’s view of success and failure, even though both Dan and I buy into it or Dan buys into it, I sort of believe that Dan buys into it meaning like there’s the possibility that it could be wrong, but I’m going to believe it or I’m going to accept it because it sounds right to me. I’ll buy into it.

You often buy into an idea, an explanation, a justification. You buy into a belief that could be wrong. That’s why you’re buying into it. You’re sort of investing it. There’s an element of risk there. It might not be right.

Let me give you an example. When I was a child, I bought into the myth of Santa Claus because my parents, people I trusted, told me that he was real and that he would give me presents if I was a good boy. It’s a nice myth. It’s fun. I bought into it when I was really, really young as a 3- year-old, a 4-year-old, a 5-year-old. But once I started hitting around 6 or 7 years old, I started to question this belief and this didn’t seem right to me. I still bought into it, but something seemed wrong with it. And then by around the age of 8 or 9, I didn’t but into it anymore. I realized, okay this is not really in congruence with reality. This could not possibly be real. But I didn’t say anything because I knew if I said that I didn’t believe in Santa Claus, my parents wouldn’t give me any presents so I was very careful about telling them that I didn’t buy into it anymore.

We don’t have to actually use the ‘into’. We could just say ‘buy’. “I buy that. I believe that. I believe that. Yeah, that sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. I buy that.” Or, “I did buy that.” Or, “Oh no, I think he’s lying. I don’t buy it. I don’t buy his explanation. I don’t believe it. I just don’t buy it.” He’s another example. Bigfoot, the Lochness Monster, Yeti in the Himalayas. Some people believe that these creatures, these mythical creatures actually exist. They try to provide evidence that these creatures are there through fuzzy photographs or footprints in the snow, that kind of thing. But do you buy it? Do you really buy it? I don’t buy it. I think, maybe 100 years ago I would have bought it. But now I don’t buy it, not with today’s technology. With today’s technology, we could find anything that exists that’s that large, that needs that much energy to maintain itself. I think we could easily find it. So I don’t buy it. I don’t buy the explanation that these creatures exist. Do you buy it? Do you buy into it?

1. guttural

We’re moving on to the end here. There’s a couple more I want to cover. ‘Guttural’ is one of them. Dan says, he’s actually talking about the mistakes that people make and the fear that they feel, the anxiety that they feel when they’re speaking English in front of other people. And he says that, “You have a very emotional guttural feeling of, oh my God. I’m going to look like a fool if I make mistakes in front of other people.” So he’s talking about a guttural feeling.

Actually, the word ‘guttural’ refers to a sound that’s made in the throat or in the back of the throat, and it kind of has an unpleasant, it’s kind of an unpleasant sound. It’s not something that sounds beautiful. It’s kind of (making guttural sounds). This is actually just a mistake. I think Dan meant to say gut feeling, an emotional gut feeling in your gut, deep within your stomach. It’s not an intellectual feeling. It’s a gut feeling which means intuitive feeling. So I think this is a really good example of how native speakers, even native speakers can make little errors or mistakes when they’re speaking. And we do it all the time, because I look at transcripts of things that I say. We just don’t realize we’re doing it. But when you see a transcript of a conversation you have, sometimes you see yourself making mistakes and this is one of them. He just meant to say ‘gut’ and out came the word ‘guttural’.

So don’t feel bad when you make mistakes speaking English. You shouldn’t feel bad about it. It’s how you communicate and it’s how you maintain your fluency, is not worrying about all the little mistakes you make. Just keep going. Keep trying to communicate and connect with other people.

By the way, when Dan said ‘guttural’, I knew exactly what he meant. I didn’t get confused at all. So don’t let mistakes get you down. I think it’s really interesting that he actually made a mistake when he’s talking about making mistakes which I find very amusing.

1. the stakes

Let’s go on to the next one, ‘the stakes’. Dan says right after that, “Oh my God, this emotional gut feeling of, oh my God. I look like a fool. But really in reality the stakes are small and the rewards are great.” So the stakes are the risks, what you have to lose, what you have risked are the stakes. Sometimes this is money, sometimes this is property, or sometimes it’s just your personality or your reputation.

We might think about a penalty shot in football or soccer. Those are important. You got to make those if you’re an athlete. And if it’s just a local friendly game, the stakes are not high. If you miss it it’s not a big deal. But if you’re in the finals of the world cup, the stakes are very high. If you miss that shot and your team loses the game, then you will be known as the guy who missed the shot and that can ruin your career, it can have all kinds of negative consequences. So that’s an example of a high stakes situation.

1. at the end of the day

We’re going to move on to the last ones. ‘At the end of the day’. Dan says, “But at the end of the day, it’s just meaningless. It’s all about building our awareness of our own ego and realize that there’s no damage done from making mistakes, only steps to greater learning.” Well said, Dan. What this means when you say ‘at the end of the day’, what you’re really saying is ‘the important point is’. When all is said and done, the bottom line is… We use these phrases when we want to draw the attention of the listener to what is actually important about the topic that we’re discussing, because sometimes you lose track of the important point when you’re discussing all the details of something. So to bring the listeners back to the important point, you can say, “Look, yeah it’s true. There are many controversial issues here. There’s a whole load of things to talk about, but at the end of the day, it’s all about building awareness and realize there’s no damage done from making mistakes.” I could use this now. I could say, “Look, this vocab commentary that you’re listening to right now, I hope it’s interesting. I hope it’s interesting to you. I hope you’re learning something about the English language. But you know what? At the end of the day when all is said and done, the important point is it doesn’t matter. Because if you don’t use what you’re learning here, if you don’t incorporate it into your daily speech patterns and into your conversations you’re having with other people, then you will lose it. You won’t actually remember the things that you’re hearing right now. So you’ve got to use them. You’ve got to use these in your speaking. At the end of the day, that’s what matters. Can you use it? Can you recognize it and can you use it?”

1. buddy

Last one, ‘buddy’. Dan says at the very end, “Keep it together, buddy.” And I say, “Yeah, you too.” ‘Buddy’ just means friend, pal, bud, sometimes people say. It’s very casual, it’s very vernacular way of speaking. He could have said ‘dude’, he could have said ‘man’. “Keep it together, man. Keep it together, dude. Keep it together, bro. Keep it together, dawg. Keep it together, homes.” There’s a million different ways to casually refer to a friend and someone you know. You have to be careful too because this word could be used a little bit differently.

For example, if I see Dan I might say, “Hey buddy, what’s going on?” And that means ‘Hello, how are you? What’s new?’ But I could use the exact same words in a different context to a complete stranger who’s poking around in my backyard, who’s walking around in my backyard, who I don’t know. I can say, “Hey buddy, what’s going on?” In that case, ‘buddy’ has kind of a negative meaning.

It means you’re not actually my friend. I’m saying, “Hey you, guy that I don’t know. What are you doing? Why are you in my backyard?” Those are ways that you will hear the use of buddy. Just remember it means friend or you can use it to refer to someone you don’t know but be careful, it’s not really polite.

All right. That’s the end of this vocab commentary. I hope you’ve benefited from it and of course, please try to put into practice what you’re listening to. Okay, enjoy and we’ll see you next time.