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What “Ivy League University” in America Really Means

Lindsay: This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 23: Teaching Tuesday!

Gabby: Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real, native English conversation. Now here are your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel,’ coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Lindsay: In this Teaching Tuesday, you’ll learn what I – what the term “Ivy League” really means.

Lindsay: So yesterday, on Monday, we talked about – we gave – Gabby gave you her top three tips for getting into the university that you want here in the US and today we just wanna (want to) go through two or three (uh) phrases that you can learn from this lesson. So the first one, we said that it’s really important ‘to stay on top of’ deadlines. So what the (heck) does that mean?

Gabby: ‘To stay on top of’ something is to manage it, to meet deadlines. I mean well we used that in an example ‘to stay on top of’ deadlines, but ‘to stay on top’ – it just means that you’re doing what you should be doing.

Lindsay: Right.

Gabby: You’re not letting your work pile up.

Lindsay: (Yep).

Gabby: That’s another phrasal verb, but (um) you’re just, you’re doing all of your work by – in time.

Lindsay: You’re getting things in on time. Can say “I’m on top of that.” Right. “I’m on top of something.”

Gabby: Exactly. “I’m on top of that.” “I’m on top of my work.” “I’m on top of (uh) homework.” I don’t know.

Lindsay: Perfect.

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: Yeah that’s it. That’s a common phrase that we use and the other one was we talked about the ‘Ivy League.’

Gabby: (Hmm).

Lindsay: So the – this is an interesting one. So a lot of people know the term ‘Ivy League.’ It actually is a sports league. Okay. So it’s comprised of Brown University, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, U Penn, and Yale. Okay. But…

Gabby: Well when people say the ‘Ivy League’ there’s this connotation of academic excellence. (Um) it’s difficult to get in. They’re very selective.

Maybe 20% of applicants – applicants get in and it’s kind of a (uh) (like) a network of – how can I say just (like) (um) an elite network.

Lindsay: Elite schools. Right.

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: But it’s just interesting that actually what it is is a sports network. It’s a group of teams that play each other in sports events.

Gabby: Right.

Lindsay: Sporting events.

Gabby: Right. But most people don’t think of the sports events.

Lindsay: Right.

Gabby: They just think about “Oh, those are good schools.” Lindsay: Yeah. Which is really cool.

Gabby: And they’re all on the East coast.

Lindsay: Right. Northeast.

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: Okay and what was the next term that you had Gabby.

Gabby: Okay. So we have (uh) a couple other just English phrases, so the next one is ‘to make sure.’

Lindsay: (Hmm). So for this one, this is a way of (um) just checking on things. Right?

Gabby: (Mm-hm).

Lindsay: I want to make sure – I’m not sure if I turned off the oven and I’m gonna (going to) go back and ‘make sure’ that I turned off the oven when I’m leaving the house.

Gabby: Yeah. Yeah to check. I like how you said that.

Lindsay: To check.

Gabby: To double check.

Lindsay: Double-check. Yeah. And the last one was ‘the right fit.’ You wanna (want to) find the school that’s the right fit.

Gabby: Absolutely. So something that you feel comfortable in. (Um) it could be, (you know), clothing, shoes, but when we say ‘the right fit’ (um) at a university, we mean you feel comfortable there, you feel like it suits your goals and your character and who you are.

Lindsay: Yeah. That’s perfect. Okay.

Gabby: Great. Yeah. So cool. So let’s just (um) have a minute for you to repeat the phrases. So repeat after me. (Uh) ‘stay on top of,’ ‘Ivy League,’ ‘To make sure,’ ‘The right fit’.

Lindsay: Great. Cool.

Gabby: All right. Thanks Lindsay. And (um) I’ll see you tomorrow for Wisdom Wednesday.

Lindsay: Wisdom Wednesday. All right. See you then.

Gabby: See ya’ (you) then.

Lindsay: Hey. So I’ve heard that a lot of students get stuck at the intermediate level and they’re looking for a way to push through, break through to that advanced fluent level of English. One of the best ways that you can do this is to listen to the podcast we have here but then also check your listening by reading our transcripts. (Um) it’s the best way to get the most out of your All Ears English experience. So you can find all of our transcripts, everything we say, word for word, on our website. It’s www.allearsenglish.com/conversations.

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See you next time!