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MISS UNSINKABLE

CONVERSATIONAL VOCABULARY

In this recording, I’m going to talk about some of the words and phrases that Dan and I use in our conversation about Violet Jessop, the woman who survived three disasters at sea.

1. grounded The first four of these vocabulary terms occur at the very beginning of the conversation when Dan and I are joking around. First of all, I tell Dan that, “I’m grounded.” This means that I’m stable. I’m realistic, like mentally stable, emotionally stable. I’m a sensible, practical person. I’m down to earth.

My center of gravity is low. Basically this just means I’m practical, realistic, sensible because Dan says that I’m just floating in the cloud. I say, “No, I’m not floating in the cloud. I’m grounded. I’m on dry land, high and dry.” 2. high and dry To be high and dry means to be safe and sound, above the water. Not anywhere near danger in any way, free from danger. That’s what I’m saying, is that I’m high and dry. I’m grounded. I’m nowhere near the water. Now, be careful because the phrase high and dry can also have a different meaning, almost a completely opposite meaning, which can mean to leave someone in a very difficult position. We talk about leaving someone high and dry. The workers quit suddenly and left the boss high and dry. He couldn’t run the factory that day. The person I was traveling with stole my wallet, ran away, and left me high and dry in a foreign land without any money. To leave someone high and dry is to put them in a very difficult, maybe even dangerous or hard to resolve, situation. Okay, so that’s high and dry.

3. on cloud nine Then Dan says, “Okay, and now you’re on cloud nine.” Actually to be on cloud nine is to be very happy, very blissful. To be extremely happy. I know a guy. He has a new girlfriend, and now he’s on cloud nine. That means he’s very happy. A couple I know just had their very first newborn baby, and they are on cloud nine. They’re very, very happy, very blissful. The team won the world championship, and they’re all on cloud nine. That means they’re all very happy, very blissful. Are you on cloud nine right now? Have you ever been on cloud nine? I don’t actually know where this comes from, this phrase cloud nine. I actually looked it up, and I couldn’t find any reliable information on where it came from. There are many theories, but I’m not really sure why people say cloud nine. It means happy, blissful.

4. sea legs Then Dan says, “You got sea legs?” He’s asking me a question. To have sea legs means that you are very easily able to walk firmly aboard a rocking ship. You’re able to keep your balance very easily without getting knocked over or upset. My answer to his question is, “No. I get sick very easily on a ship. I don’t have sea legs. I get seasick very quickly.” Sometimes it takes time to find your sea legs when you’re at sea. At first you might feel sick, but after a while, you find your sea legs and you’re able to cope with the movement of the boat. I’ve never really been able to do that so well.

Some people, it comes easy to them.

5. wimpy The next one is wimpy. Dan says he’s afraid of the ocean. It’s a big, dark unknown, and he’s a terrible swimmer. I’m joking with him, and I say, “Yeah, you’re a bit wimpy, too.” To be wimpy means to be weak, not strong. Weak. Not just physically weak but especially weak in spirit, weak in your inner fortitude. A wimp is a person who is wimpy. Wimpy is of course an adjective. We can change it into a verb as well, to wimp out, a phrasal verb. To wimp out means to give up because of fear or weakness. For example, let’s say George really likes this woman named Susan, and he plans to ask her out on a date. He’s kind of nervous, and then he calls her up and he has a conversation on the phone with her, but he wimps out, and he doesn’t ask her out. He gets too afraid, or he gets too nervous. He wimps out. He doesn’t ask her out. That’s what it means. To wimp out means to give up due to fear. Of course I’m just joking with Dan. Dan’s far from being a wimp. He’s actually a pretty strong guy.

6. get out of here Then, Dan says, “Crazily enough, I almost became a merchant marine,” which surprised me because I’d never heard Dan talk about that before. I said, “What? Get out of here.” If you use this phrase get out of here, you are expressing surprise and shock. You’re really surprised. It’s the same type of expression as saying, “Really? Wow! No way! Are you kidding? I can’t believe it!” It’s the same feeling. Get out of here. I don’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. It’s too amazing, too incredible.

That’s what I’m doing. I’m expressing surprise. Get out of here. You can use that. Of course it’s very casual. You might not say that in a very polite situation, but in a casual situation with friends or with colleagues, you could use, “Get out of here.” Yeah, it’s a good thing to use.

7. make the grade All right, let’s move on to the next one, which is make the grade. Dan’s talking about how he was interested in becoming a merchant marine, but he ended up not becoming what. I said, “What happened?” He said, “Well, I went there,” and I tried to complete Dan’s sentence by saying, “You didn’t make the grade.” To make the grade means to meet the standards of someone else or some other group. I’m implying that Dan actually tried out for it, but for some reason because of his health or because of his aptitudes, he wasn’t good enough or he didn’t make the grade. He wasn’t able to pass the expectations or the standards of the organization, the merchant marines. It turns out that Dan just had asthma. He had to fill out another paper, and he never got around to it. Yeah, you can use this term make the grade when you’re talking about standards. You can make the grade in a positive way, or you can not make the grade.

For example, I know a guy, he tried out for the football team, but he didn’t make the grade, and he got cut. My neighbor built a really large wooden deck in his front yard. Then the city inspectors came around to make sure that the deck met the standards that the city enforces on people who have houses. He didn’t make the grade. They found some problems with the size of it, and so he had to go back to the drawing board and redesign the deck and make the changes in order to make the grade for the city. All right, so that’s make the grade.

8. quite the looker The next one is quite the looker, quite the looker. Dan says this when he’s talking about Violet Jessop. He said that, “She’s quite the looker.” What he means by that is she’s very attractive. She has very attractive good looking appearance. You can use this phrase about men or women, and you’re referring to their physical appearance as being attractive. In this case, Dan says that Violet Jessop was a very attractive woman. She was quite the looker. The actor George Clooney or the actor Richard Gere are quite the lookers. People think they’re very attractive. They’re quite the lookers. Do you know someone who is quite the looker? You can use this phrase to talk about them if you wish.

9. badass All right, the next phrase is a badass. Dan’s talking about … Actually both of us are talking about Violet Jessop, and I bring up the fact that I thought it was odd that when the Olympic, which is the name of the first ship she was on, almost sank, she didn’t even write about it in her diary. I thought that was really odd. Dan says, “Yeah, I think she was a badass.” What he means here is he thinks that she was a very tough, very strong person, who’s not easy to upset or rattle, a real fighter.

Someone who’s just a fighter, who’s very strong. What he’s implying is that it didn’t even bother her that there was an accident on the Olympic. She didn’t care. It did not phase her. She didn’t even bother writing about it. It was no major thing. He’s saying that she’s tough for that reason.

You can use this to describe anyone who displays any kind of attribute of being strong and tough, which we might traditionally call masculine attributes. Nowadays, especially in the age of women’s equality and feminism, we can call women badasses, and it’s actually a positive thing to call a woman that, depending on the context. For example, this young woman, Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, she’s definitely a badass. She got shot in the head as a teenager by a man who was against educating young children. Rather than give up, she recovered and she went on to fight this injustice, in great danger of her own and her family’s lives. She didn’t fight with guns and knives. She fought with the pen and fought with her voice, and she gave speeches. Of course now she’s world famous. She’s a badass, right? She’s a tough, strong person who’s really a fighter. She doesn’t give up. That’s an example of how to use it. It is a very colloquial term, so be careful. You could, I suppose, mildly offend someone in a very polite situation if you use this term.

10. what’s the big deal? All right, and then, little bit later, a few lines later in the conversation, Dan says, “Yeah, that ship accident was nothing to her. It was like she was saying, ‘What’s the big deal? I still got my toothbrush.’ “ This is actually a very useful phrase. What’s the big deal? It basically means what is so important, why is everyone so upset, or why is everyone so excited? It’s not important. It’s nothing. What’s the big deal? Another way to phrase this is, to make a statement, “It’s no big deal.” It’s not important. It’s not worth getting excited or upset about. For example, last week, I heard a sound downstairs, and my daughter had broken a glass. She was a little bit upset about it. She came and she said, “Daddy, I broke this glass. I’m really sorry.” I said, “Oh, that’s just a glass. It’s no big deal. Everybody breaks glasses. I’ve broken hundreds of glasses in my life, you know? You just have to be careful. Don’t cut yourself when cleaning it up.” I just said, “Hey, it’s no big deal. It’s just a glass.” Now, if I had heard the sound, and if I heard my wife getting angry and yelling at my daughter, I might go downstairs and I might say, “Hey, what happened?” My wife would say, “Our daughter broke the glass! I’m very upset at her. She shouldn’t have done that.” I might respond by saying, “Well, what’s the big deal, right? It’s just a glass. It’s not that important. Everybody breaks glasses.” That’s an example of how you might use that phrase what’s the big deal or it’s no big deal.

11. off-kilter Okay, moving right along. We have a few more to go here. The next one is off-kilter. We’re talking about how this toothbrush was really important to Violet for some reason. She had a thing for toothbrushes. Dan says, “Yeah, that’s a little crazy.” I said, “Yeah, she’s a little off-kilter maybe.” Now, crazy does not equal off-kilter. Let me explain the difference between them. Crazy’s a little bit stronger. Crazy just means crazy. Off- kilter means like eccentric, not completely normal, a little different, a little strange, a little odd, just not normal, unconventional. Crazy can have a bit of a negative connotation, but off-kilter has a neutral connotation. It’s neither negative nor positive, or it could be negative and positive depending on the context in which you use it. I think this case, this example of how we use this in the conversation, is a perfect example of the difference between crazy and off-kilter. Crazy’s a little negative, it’s a little strong. Then I say, “Well, she’s probably a little off-kilter,” meaning she’s not actually crazy. She’s just a little unconventional, a little eccentric. She has this weird attachment to her toothbrush.

I know a guy whose view of the world is a little off-kilter. He believes in a lot of conspiracy theories, and his explanations for why things happen tend to be a lot different than what most people would say. I can say that yeah, he’s a great guy, I love him, he’s my good friend, but his view of the world is a little bit off-kilter. Do you know anyone whose view of the world is off- kilter or whose behavior is off-kilter? 12. all the rage All right. The next one is all the rage. Dan’s talking about how Leonardo Dicaprio, the actor in the movie Titanic, how his haircut influenced many young Afghanis to cut their hair in the same style after that movie came out in the 1990’s. Dan says, “Yeah, it was all the rage in Afghanistan.” Of course you can probably figure out the meaning. All the rage means in fashion, very popular, very trendy. Actually the word rage, the noun rage, means great anger. Really strong anger. Rage. We can talk about a person who’s full of rage. They’re very, very angry. In this phrase, of course it doesn’t mean angry. It means just people are really excited about it. It’s all the rage. It’s in fashion.

It’s very, very popular. Many people are excited about it. Let’s say right now in Japan, women dyeing their hair brown is all the rage. Everyone’s dyeing their hair brown.

In the 1970’s, wearing bell bottom pants were all the rage. Lots of people were doing it. Nowadays nobody wears bell bottom pants, as far as I know. Maybe wearing bell bottom pants somewhere in the world is all the rage right now. I don’t know where that is. If you know, please tell me. I’d be interested. Maybe we’ll do a lesson on it.

13. crack down (on) The next one is “crack down,” which is the very next line. Dan says, “Yeah, cutting your hair like Leonardo Dicaprio is all the rage in Afghanistan, and then the Taliban,” and I try to complete Dan’s sentence for him by saying, “Cracked down on it. The Taliban cracked down on it.” To crack down on something means to deal with it. That something is usually illegal or some kind of unwanted behavior from a position of authority. Usually it’s the authorities that crack down on citizens to deal with some kind of unwanted behavior or illegal behavior. For example, maybe a city where lots of young people are partying far into the night, and accidents and fights are starting to happen. They get many complaints from neighbors and other citizens, and so the police start to crack down on partying after midnight.

Right now in some countries authorities are cracking down on illegal immigration. Maybe in the past they turned a blind eye to illegal immigration by letting it happen for the benefit of, not only maybe the immigrants, but also some of the businesses that hire them for very low wages, which is good for the economy, perhaps, in various places. Now, when political conditions change, suddenly the authorities decide to crack down on it, and they go after illegal immigration. They start deporting people and detaining people and fining businesses who are hiring people illegally, et cetera. They crack down on it. What is your government cracking down on right now in your country? I wonder.

What are they cracking down on? 14. tidbit Okay. A few more here. One is a tidbit, an interesting little tidbit. What is a tidbit? Well, a tidbit, literally, is a very small, tasty piece of food. When we use the term tidbit, we’re talking about interesting tidbits from the story. We’re not talking about food. We’re talking about interesting piece of information. In some cases it could be gossip or it could be … The reason it’s a tidbit is because it’s very tiny, it’s very small, and it’s not crucial. It’s not a piece of information that is central to the main topic being discussed. It’s extra. It’s like little anecdote, a little story, a little interesting fact.

That’s a tidbit, an interesting tidbit. This story actually is chock-full. It means it has many, it’s chockfull of tidbits. It has many interesting tidbits in it, pieces of information. We might say a police investigator, who’s investigating, trying to build a case against a criminal organization, pores over thousands of pages of emails and telephone transcripts, looking for little tidbits of information to help build her case against this criminal organization, so looking for tidbits.

15. left and right All right. Two more very quick. One is left and right. That phrase left and right. Dan’s talking about another interesting tidbit in the story where Violet actually saves this little baby’s life during the sinking of the Titanic. Then, later she says that she never told anyone about that. She says to her friend John she never told that story to anybody. Dan thinks that’s unbelievable. That’s just incredible, right? If he had saved a baby on Titanic, he’d be telling people left and right about it. To tell people left and right, to do something left and right, it means everywhere, all over the place, all over the time. This phrase left and right usually follows a verb. In this case, Dan says, “I’d be telling people left and right. I’d be telling people all the time about it, all over the place about it.” Let me give you a few other examples. In the United States right now, it seems like almost every day there’s a mass shooting, where someone gets upset, or they go a little crazy, and they take a gun, and they just kill as many people as they can. Shooting people, these mass shootings, it’s happening left and right. It’s happening left and right in the United States, meaning it’s happening all over the place. There’s a great basketball player, and these days he is scoring baskets left and right, all the time. He’s the highest scorer in every game he plays in. He’s scoring baskets left and right like this. He’s setting records. Dan and I, we’ve got students all over the world. We’re teaching English left and right. We’re teaching to all over people. We’ve got students from all over the world.

Yeah, we’re communicating with people left and right about our method, about our materials, answering questions about English. It’s really fun and exciting, and we’re doing it left and right all over the place all the time.

16. newbie Okay. The last one, the very last one is newbie. Dan asked me, “Did you have any experience sailing?” I said, “No, I was a newbie.” A newbie is just a person who’s brand new at something, a complete beginner. All of us start out as newbies, and with experience we grow and we become more experienced, and we’re no longer a newbie. We’re someone who has some experience. If you have lots and lots of experience, we can call you a veteran. You’re someone who is no longer a newbie. It’s the opposite. You’re a veteran. You’re someone who has vast amounts of experience.

That’s a veteran. Okay, so that should do it. That’s all sixteen of the words and phrases from this conversation, and these are all really useful. Try to incorporate them in your conversations with other people, and especially in the writings, your written communication with people. That’s a great way to really allow these terms to sink into your consciousness, is to do it slowly through writing.

You can keep a list of these words and phrases nearby. Keep it handy so that when you’re writing you can find time, you can find ways, to use these terms. The more you use them, the more likely it is that in a conversation you can very quickly, easily, very effortlessly use them. They come right out.

Writing is a great way to practice them. Okay, that should do it. I hope you enjoyed it. Take care.

The End.