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Conversational Vocabulary

Hi, everyone. Aaron here. I am now going to talk about some of the words and phrases that Dan and I used in our conversation about second chances.

1. tangentially

The first is “tangentially.” Dan uses this. He says, “We’ve had three stories that are somewhat tangentially related to second chances.” This adverb “tangentially” actually comes from the noun “tangent.”

In geometry, a tangent is a straight line that touches. At one point, it touches a curved arc or a curved line, and so the paths of those two lines are different even though they touch. If you imagine that you are walking down a curved path and eventually you get to a point where a straight path, a different path, but a straight path is touching your curved path, you could, at that point, jump over, or hop over, or walk over to the tangent, the straight path and start walking in a different direction. When something is tangentially related or tangential, it means that it is connected but different, so that’s what he’s talking about. These stories are different stories, and they’re related to second chances, not directly, but tangentially.

We often use this word in its noun form in the phrase “go off on a tangent.” He went off on a tangent. He was talking about gardening, and I mentioned the word “rose” and suddenly he went off on a tangent and started talking about love because roses are related to love, so he went off on a tangent. Really good speakers can go off on tangents and then come back to the main topic, but sometimes people who are not so skilled at speaking, they’ll go off on a tangent, and they’ll forget about the main topic. Sometimes it’s hard to follow what they’re saying. You have to be careful when you go off on a tangent as interesting as it may be in conversation.

1. a bit of a stretch

All right. Let’s move to the next one. Actually, Dan says this in the very next sentence. I say, “Yeah, there are different types of second chances.” Then Dan says, “Yeah, completely different. It’s a bit of a stretch.” What he means by that is it’s not so easy to make the connection between the curved arc, the curved path and the straight path, the tangent. If you imagine again walking on the curved path and the tangent touches the curved path, you can easily step over and start walking on the tangent or go off on the tangent. If there’s a gap, you might need to really stretch to get over there. If it’s not connected at all, wow, you’re not going to be able to reach it. You’d need an airplane or some sort of magic jumping shoes to jump all the way over that big gap. That’s what we’re talking about.

When something is not so easy to do, it’s a bit of a stretch. Often, we’ll use this in a way in conversation to mean a mild exaggeration. Let me give you an example. Let’s say you have a neighbor and his son is a good swimmer. He’s a good swimmer. One day, your neighbor is very excited. He comes and he says, “Yeah, my son, he won the city tournament for the swim competition. He’s the city champion. He’s a great swimmer.” I might think to myself, “Well, yeah, wow, that’s great.”

Then I find out later that the reason he won is because some of the best swimmers that day were not there. There was a special competition that was even a higher level competition than the city tournament. Some of his main competition was sick or injured on that day. Even though he won the city championship, he’s not really a great swimmer. It’s a bit of a stretch to say he’s a great swimmer. A good swimmer, yes. It’s a bit of a stretch to say he’s a great swimmer. That’s an example of how you might use that term “it’s a bit of a stretch.” Anytime someone exaggerates a little bit, you can say, “Yeah, but that’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?” Like this.

1. out of the blue

Let’s move to the next one, “out of the blue.” We’re talking about this bull named Chance that was cloned by a farmer who loved this bull. The clone came around and acted just like the bull did. Then one day, out of the blue, it attacked him. When you use this term “out of the blue,” it just means completely unexpected. Totally unanticipated. It’s a total surprise when something like that happens.

I think the best way to remember this is imagine a really beautiful sunny day. The sky is blue, bright blue. There’s not a cloud in the sky so you go to the park. You take your family to the park for a picnic. Beautiful day. Then suddenly it starts pouring down rain. That rain is literally coming out of the blue sky. It’s shocking. There’s no way you could have expected that. It’s totally out of the blue. Blue sky starts raining. That’s out of the blue.

Imagine you go on a first date and your partner is a really nice person. He’s a real handsome guy. He has a good job. You guys get along. You start talking, have a good conversation over a few drinks and then suddenly, out of the blue, he starts crying and he can’t stop. Out of the blue. You don’t even know why. That’s an example of how you would use “out of the blue.”

Let’s say you’re driving down the street and it’s not a whole lot of traffic. Everything is smooth. You’re going under the speed limit. No problem there. Then, out of the blue, a kid on a bike just comes right out in front of you, and you slam on your breaks, and you almost hit the kid. He came out of the blue. I didn’t see him. He came right out of the blue, like this.

1. money to burn

Okay. Let’s move on. Money to burn. We’re talking about the couple that had their dog cloned and how expensive it was. It was a hundred thousand dollars to get their dog cloned. Dan says, “Yeah, well, obviously, this couple had a lot of money to burn.” If you think about money, what it actually is, in a literal sense, it’s just paper. That’s all it is. You can burn it. You can put a match to it, and it will burn just like any other paper, but it has a lot more value than paper because we put value into it. If you have lots and lots of money, you’ve actually got money to burn. You can afford to burn that money as paper. This couple wanted to spend it on their dog to get it cloned. Most people would never spend that kind of money on a dog, so obviously this couple was rich. If you have money to burn, that means you’re rich or you just have lots of money at the time.

Another way to say this is “money to blow,” which is another way of saying lose. People who have money to blow, money to burn are loaded. That’s another way to say rich or having lots of money. They have deep pockets, like this. Do you know anyone with deep pockets who has money to burn? I know a few people like that.

1. Good ol’

Let’s move on to number five, good ol’ Melvin. Good ol’ Melvin. We’re talking about Melvin, the dog. Dan was saying how Melvin would babysit a little kid which sounds ridiculous. It sounds crazy but apparently it’s true. I say, “Yup, good ol’ Melvin. Oh, man. Good ol’ Melvin.” When you use the term “good ol’,” you’re actually saying “good old,” good and old, and then the person’s name. In this case, it’s a dog but we usually use this with people. It’s a term of endearment.

What this means is you want to say something nice about the person. You have a good feeling about that person. You just say, “Oh, yeah. Good ol’ Melvin. What a good dog. He does everything. He gets cloned. He can babysit children. He probably does everything he’s supposed to do. Good ol’ Melvin.” It’s often used when we’re talking about someone who is totally human, totally full of imperfections and mistakes, and you love them anyway for it. You have a feeling of endearment towards that person.

Let me give you another example. There’s a man, he’s like an uncle, a second uncle to me. His name is Bob. Good ol’ Uncle Bob. He is one of these guys that’s so nice. He’s so kind. He always helps other people. He’s just a good hearted man, but people just cannot stand being around him in conversation because he will not stop talking. He won’t listen. He’ll talk over you. He just talks, talks, talks, talks, talks. Oh, it’s tiring. Sometimes I’ll hear people complain. “Oh, gosh. I got stuck in a conversation with Uncle Bob.” It’s like, “Oh, yeah. I’ve been there. Good ol’ Bob. Good ol’ Uncle Bob.” It’s like saying I love that person even though he has some faults. Even though he’s not perfect, we love him anyway.

Anytime you feel good about someone, even though they might be behaving badly or doing things over and over that annoy you or bother you, you can use that term of endearment and people will appreciate it. They’d like to hear that. It’s a positive kind of statement.

1. creep you out

Okay. Let’s move to the next one, “creep you out.” I asked Dan, “If you lost a child, would you want to clone your child?” Dan says, “No, I wouldn’t. I think that would creep you out.” Well, he’s talking about anybody, creep you out, or creep me out, or creep him out. To creep someone out, well, this “creep,” this verb “creep” actually means to walk very slowly in a stealthy kind of stalking kind of way. Cats, they will creep up on their prey before they pounce, or an insect might creep up slowly on its prey before it catches its food, like this, so to creep. That’s kind of a scary, uncomfortable action. The adjective is “creepy.”

You can talk about things that are creepy, creepy people, creepy insects, creepy movies, creepy houses, creepy old house, a story that creeps you out. It makes you feel scared, or anxious, or uncomfortable, or somewhat disgusted. It’s creepy. Do you know any creepy people? Do you know any stories or movies that creep you out? Like this. That’s what “creep you out” means.

1. kickstart

Okay, let’s move on. Kickstart is the next one. This is a verb. We’re talking about cloning, the process of cloning another organism. Dan says, “They actually kickstart it with electricity.” That’s real Frankenstein stuff. Kickstart it with electricity. He’s talking about I guess the egg and the sperm, the little embryo that’s growing. They kickstart it. They get it going. They get the life energy moving with electricity.

This verb “kickstart,” actually this comes … I think this comes from starting a motorcycle. If you want to start the engine of a motorcycle, you literally have to use your leg and you kickstart it. You got to forcefully and very quickly put your leg on a lever and kick in a downward motion to get that bike started. Sometimes you got to kick four or five times or six or seven times to get the motor started. That’s what kick-starting is.

Now, we’ve taken that term and we now use it for a lot of different things. It basically means to forcibly or very, very quickly with lots of energy start something up. In this case, the doctors or the researchers are kick-starting the development of this embryo into an organism with electricity. Some people kickstart a new sales campaign. Let’s say a company kick-starts a new sales campaign. They aggressively and energetically start the campaign, and they put lots of energy into it. They kickstart it. Some companies when they’re forming are kick-started with an influx or an investment of lots of money. If you’re starting a company and you don’t have any money, it’s very slow to get going. If someone gives you a big chunk of money, it can really kickstart your growth as a company. That’s what “kickstart” means.

1. gives it away

All right. We have a few more to go here. The next is “gives it away.” We’re talking about this possibility of cloning a woolly mammoth. In my joking mood, I say to Dan, “Yeah, that’s interesting. Hey, do you think you have any woolly mammoth blood in you, Dan?” I say, “I think you do.” Dan says, “Yeah, I feel it.” I say, “The fur on your face just gives it away.” Gives it away, this is actually a really good phrase. It just means it reveals a secret or maybe some kind of hidden knowledge or facts that are under the surface that are not obvious. Sometimes something can give those away like make them come out into the open, make it obvious what the truth is. Things that do that are giveaways.

For example, it is a giveaway. In this case, I’m jokingly of course saying that Dan may possibly have some woolly mammoth genes in his family history. I point to his beard and I say, “The fur on your face gives it away,” as if that is the sign that he is related to a woolly mammoth. If you’ve ever seen a picture of Dan, he often has a very furry, thick, dark beard on his face just like a mammoth would have on its body. That gives it away. Dan’s beard is a giveaway. If it’s really a strong giveaway, we can say it’s a dead giveaway. That means we’re a hundred percent certain it’s a dead giveaway. The fur on his face is a dead giveaway. He is definitely related to woolly mammoths, like this.

Let me give you another few examples. Let’s say that your husband is applying for a new job and it’s a job that he really, really wants. To support him, you go with him to the interview and you wait in the lobby. You’re really hoping that the interview will go well but you don’t know, and your husband is very nervous about it. When your husband, as soon as he walks out of the interview room, the smile on his face and his body language give it away. He had a successful interview and he knows it. That’s a giveaway. It’s a dead giveaway. His wife knew immediately right when she saw his face that he had a great interview. His smile gave it away, like this. That’s how it works.

1. whole nother

Let’s see here. Here’s a good one. Whole nother. Whole nother. We’re talking about this woman Barbara who had a lot of negative press on TV because of the things she was doing with sterilizing women, sterilizing mothers actually. Then Dan says, “The whole nother angle on … Then a whole nother angle on it is the fact that she raised these four children that she loves very much, and they wouldn’t exist if her NGO was around before.” He says, “Then a whole nother angle on it.” What does this mean, “whole nother?”

This is interesting because actually it’s totally grammatically incorrect the way it sounds because there are two ways that you can say this. You can say, “Then, there is another angle on it,” or you can say, “There is a whole other angle on it.” Let me repeat that one more time. There is another angle on it. There is a whole other angle on it. The way that Dan pronounces it, he says, “There’s a whole nother,” as if to say whole plus another, which is totally grammatically incorrect. However, almost every native speaker I’ve listened to says whole nother. I say it all the time. It’s a very common way to say whole other or another. It’s a whole nother, a whole nother. Get used to that when native speakers will say it like that all the time. What they’re actually saying is whole other, whole nother. They put an N in there and I don’t know where that comes from. Maybe some kind of original confusion between another and other. I don’t know but that’s how people speak.

1. surreal

Okay, the last one, surreal. Surreal. We’re talking about Aki Ra and how he has removed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of landmines with just a stick, a knife and his bare hands without any protection to his body over decades. I say, “It’s unreal,” and then I say, “It’s surreal in a way but, yeah, pretty amazing guy.” I initially say, “It’s unreal,” and then I say, “It’s surreal.” What’s the difference between the two? Basically “unreal” means it’s not real. It’s factually false. In this case, that’s actually not true and that’s probably why I corrected myself by saying, “It’s surreal,” because surreal is the feeling that you’re in a dream. It’s almost something that your imagination creates. This guy, to do that for that many years and never be injured and to save so many people’s lives with your bare hands taking out landmines, it’s just surreal. It’s hard to believe that it’s actually real. If something is actually real but it’s hard to believe that it’s real, you call it surreal like it’s in a dream.

I had a surreal experience recently. I saw an old friend that I hadn’t seen for more than 20 years. We were eating dinner together. It was like we had never been apart. It was almost like it was yesterday even though we physically had aged, our spirits, our souls … It was just like I saw him yesterday. It was surreal. It was a surreal feeling. It was hard to believe it was actually happening.

One day, recently, it was snowing very hard here in Kyoto and the sun was shining very brightly in fact. Yet, it was like a blizzard outside. I was wondering where could the snow could possibly be coming from because the sun was so bright and even the sky was quite blue in some areas. Obviously, there must have been a cloud, a thick snow cloud up there somewhere causing that snow in my location, but it was surreal. It was hard to believe it was actually real. The sun was shining, yet, heavy snow was falling. Very strange. It was surreal. It wasn’t unreal. I know that. It was true but it was surreal, so that’s the difference between the two. Please remember that when you’re speaking.

All right. That brings me to the end of this commentary. I hope that you find these useful, and I also hope that you put them to use because then they become a part of your bank of English vocabulary that you can use off the top of your head.