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##Conversational Vocabulary

Hi, ladies and gentlemen. I’m now going to talk about some of the words and phrases that Dan and I used in our conversation this month.

1. grit

The first is grit. At the very beginning of our conversation, Dan asked me the question, “Are you ready to talk about grit?” True grit. What is grit? One meaning of the word “grit” is kind of like sand, or gravel, or loose pieces of stone and pebble. It has a very rough feeling to it, and the figurative meaning is kind of similar. You can imagine it. Someone who has grit means they have toughness. They have toughness of character. They can endure hardships. They’re brave, they’re courageous, they’re strong, and they’re tough. Nothing can stop them, so if you have grit, you have perseverance. You have bravery. You have courage. Do you know anyone who has grit? If you describe a person as having grit, you’re giving them a compliment. That’s a positive thing. It’s a good thing to have grit. It will help you in many situations in life.

1. pipe dream

Okay. Let’s move on to the next one. The next one is pipe dream. I was telling Dan that I was determined to have a great summer. I’m going to exercise, and hang out with my family. It’s going to be great, and Dan responds by saying, “Sounds like a pipe dream.” What is a pipe dream? A pipe dream is just kind of like a fantasy. It all exists in your imagination. It’s not actually real, and it has a very positive meaning. A pipe dream is something that you imagine that’s very, very positive, but if someone tells you, “Well, that sounds like a pipe dream,” they’re actually saying something a little bit negative, as if to say, “That will never happen. That’s only in your imagination. It’s as if you’re smoking a pipe, and you’re hallucinating,” so that’s kind of the feeling that it has. A pipe dream is simply a vision that will never be real. It’s just fake. It’s imaginary only. Perhaps you’ve had some pipe dreams before.

1. a little fishy

Okay. The next one is a phrase, a little fishy. We’re talking a little bit about this

Japanese man who spent all those years in the Philippine jungle fighting World War II, even though the war had ended. We’re discussing the fact that he was there for such a long time, and he was actually killing people, but the local people could never catch him and stop him. I just thought that that was very strange. I thought that maybe they would get him, and Dan says, “Yeah, he was like a mythical character in the jungle.” I said, “Yeah, maybe.” Dan says, “Well, you think it’s a little fishy?” I said, “No, I think it’s real.” Something that’s fishy, right, it means that it’s just not real. Something’s wrong with it. Something’s suspicious about it. I guess it’s another way of saying something is suspicious. I don’t think that it’s 100% true. It’s a little fishy, and I don’t know exactly where this phrase comes from. It could come from the smell of fish, because the smell of fish is very strong, so you can detect it easily, more easily than other smells.

It could also come from people telling fisherman stories of giant fish that they’ve caught, even though those fish are actually much smaller, but when you tell the story, the fish sound much bigger. I don’t know, but anything that’s fishy means that it’s suspicious. There’s something about it that might not be true, so you can use that phrase to describe suspicious things.

1. a piece of work

All right. The next phrase is a piece of work. A piece of work. We’re talking about the story of this boy whose legs were badly burned, and later in life, through perseverance, and through lots of struggle, he not only learned to walk. He learned to run and run very fast, and after all of that, his father punished him for running in competitions. You would think that the father would be proud of his son, but in fact, he got angry at his son for running. He thought it was showing off, and Dan describes him as, what a piece of work. That guy’s a piece of work. What a piece of work that guy is.

A piece of work is a phrase that you can use to describe a person who has problems, who has issues, a person who has something wrong with him or her. In a very unique way, so in this case, this man was a piece of work because he did something that most people would not do. It’s unique but in a bad way, and you have to remember that when you use this phrase, it does have a negative connotation. You can call someone a piece of work when you know that that person has problems that affect other people, right? She’s a piece of work. He is a real piece of work, like this. Perhaps you know a piece of work in your life.

1. There’s always tomorrow

Okay. The next phrase is there’s always tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow, and this is a phrase you can use when you’re talking to someone who hasn’t succeeded. They failed in some way, and you can use it to kind of give them hope that all is not lost. Hey, there’s always tomorrow. There’s always a chance to turn it around, okay? We’re talking in our conversation about the fact that Dan has not, in his life, he’s never run very far when it comes to jogging or running.

I asked him, “Well, what’s the furthest you’ve ever run?” He says, “Well, I think that I’ve never run more than five miles.” I said, “Well, Dan, there’s always tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow. You just got to get that determination up,” meaning there’s a chance to improve on that. There’s a chance to actually succeed. Don’t give up. There’s always tomorrow, so that’s a phrase you can use to kind of give other people hope and cheer them up.

1. a bum

Okay. The next one is a bum, a bum. Dan is talking about backpackers in southeast Asia becoming monks versus just becoming a bum. What is a bum, exactly? A bum is a very negative way of describing a person who does not contribute to society. They take and they don’t give back. Very often a bum is a synonym, or another word for, a homeless person, or a person who lives in the streets and begs for money, or a person who refuses to work. They just sit around, or stand around, so it’s a negative word to use. It’s not a very nice thing to say about another person. Don’t be a bum. Get out there and work, right? You can imagine a father or a mother telling his or her son or daughter to don’t be a bum. You should do something with your life, like this.

1. leech off (of)

This is kind of related to the next term, which is to leech off, to leech off of something or someone. A leech is a little creature. It looks like a worm. It’s usually a dark color, like a brown or black, and they will often attach themselves to mammals, other animals, and they’ll suck their blood in a way that the other animal can’t really feel that it’s happening. Perhaps you’ve had a leech attach to you before, and the leech takes the blood, takes the energy, takes your resources, but doesn’t give anything back to you. This is what maybe a bum might do to society, leeches off society. Dan mentions this when we’re talking about becoming a bum. He says, leeching off of people in that culture. Again, this is a phrasal verb that is generally negative, used to describe a person, or a business, or a group, or an organization that takes but does not give back. It leeches off society Sometimes children, when they grow up, they continue to leech off their parents. They don’t become independent citizens. They stay at home. They take money from their parents. They leech off their parents, so again, not a very positive term.

1. take (someone) under your wing

Okay. The next one is to take someone under your wing. This is just an idiom that is very useful, and it’s very positive. If you imagine a mother bird spreading out her wing and protecting her babies until they’re old enough and strong enough to be on their own, the mother bird took those children under her wing, and helped them become healthy adult birds. That’s kind of the image that you should have in mind, and people do this to each other. They can take each other under their wings, so a mother takes her children under her wing. A professor might take some of her students under her wing. A mature professional may take a younger professional under his wing, and mentor that person, teach them the ropes, teach them how to be successful. Perhaps in your life, some people have taken you under their wing, and helped you to grow and prosper, and perhaps you, too, have taken certain people under your wing, and helped them out as well. That’s a positive idiom.

1. loony bin

Okay. The final one is, again, Dan and I joking around, and I said to Dan, “Hey, Dan, you know, if it weren’t for me, you’d be in the loony bin.” The loony bin. What’s the loony bin? A bin is a container, and loony is another word for crazy, so a crazy container, a container that contains crazy people, so a loony bin is basically a mental hospital for people who have had serious mental problems. I’m just joking with Dan, and saying that what he’s telling me is just a delusion. It’s in his imagination, and if it weren’t for me taking him under my wing, he’d be in the loony bin. He wouldn’t be able to function properly in society. Again, the loony bin is something you might say when you’re joking around. I wouldn’t use it in a formal or proper situation, because some people might take offense to that.

Okay. That brings us to the end of this commentary. I hope you found these explanations useful, and please try to use some of these words and phrases in your conversations.