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Critics - VIP Mini Story

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini story this month. Let’s get started. So let’s go back and talk about our heroes Heva the dog and Chim-chim the monkey.

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So, of course, Heva and Chim-chim were multibillionaire bankers. First, they started a company selling salsa and then they bought a bank and they became multibillionaire bankers. In fact, they’re so rich that they were tight with the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds and all these other super rich families.

So who were they tight with?

They were tight with the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds.

‘To be tight with’, this is kind of an idiom or slang. It means to be close with someone. As I say this is slang. It’s a very casual use. In fact, in today’s story we’re gonna have a few slang phrases. So to be tight with someone, you can say I’m really tight with him. That means that you’re close, like you’re good friends. I’m really tight with my sister.

Meaning, you have a good close relationship. Or you can say I’m not tight with him. I’m not so tight with him. Meaning, your relationship is not so close.

So did Heva and Chim-chim have a tight relationship? Were they tight with the Rockefeller family?

Yes, they were. They were very tight with the Rockefellers.

So did they have a close relationship or not close?

They had a very close relationship with the Rockefellers. They were tight with the Rockefellers.

Were they tight with the Rothschild family as well?

Yes, they were. They were tight with the Rothschild family. They were tight with both the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers.

And who was tight with the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds?

Heva and Chim-chim. Heva the dog and Chim-chim the monkey were very tight with the Rockefellers. They were very tight with the Rothschilds. They had a close relationship with them.

Heva and Chim-chim had a very comfortable life after they became super rich. In fact, they lived constantly in a safe cocoon. Their life was lived in a very safe cocoon.

What is a cocoon? So ‘cocoon’, the direct meaning. ‘Cocoon’ is something, let’s say a caterpillar or a worm kind of. It spins this little house, this little kind of silk house that it lives inside and then, eventually, it comes out and it’s a butterfly, right? You all know the story. The caterpillar eats a bunch of food then he makes a cocoon. He spins this little kind of white house and then he sits in there for a long time and then, eventually, he chances and he comes out and he’s a butterfly.

When we talk about someone living in a cocoon, for example, it’s this idea of a space that is very small and comfortable and safe. So when I said that Heva and Chim-chim lived in a safe cocoon – it’s kind of a metaphor – it means that their life was very protected, very safe.

So did they live in a safe cocoon or were they living a wild, crazy, risky life?

They lived in a very safe cocoon.

Who lived in a safe cocoon?

Both Heva and Chim-chim lived in a safe cocoon.

Did they live in a safe cocoon or did they live a very wild and risky dangerous life?

They lived in a safe cocoon.

They were cocooned with comfort. So, for example, they had a hoard of bodyguards each. Each one had a hoard of bodyguards, chefs, private assistants.

They were constantly surrounded by assistants, bodyguards, chefs, all of these things.

A ‘hoard’, by the way, is a very large group of people. It has this sort of idea of a large unorganized group of people. So if I say they had a hoard of assistants, you have the idea of a lot, a large group of assistants, bodyguards. You can picture this whole huge group of people around them all the time.

So did they have just a few assistants or did they have a hoard of assistants?

They had a hoard, a large group of assistants.

Did they have a hoard of assistants or did they have a hoard of employees?

Well, in fact, both. They had a hoard of assistants in their home and, of course, at their companies they had a hoard of employees. They were constantly surrounded by a hoard of people and they especially had a hoard of bodyguards. They were worried about being attacked or someone might try to take their money, so they had a hoard of bodyguards. Everywhere they traveled they were surrounded by a hoard of bodyguards.

Did they have a hoard of bodyguards when they traveled outside of their home?

Yes, they did. They had a hoard of bodyguards. They were surrounded by a hoard of bodyguards everywhere they went.

One day Heva and Chim-chim were talking about their life and Heva sat back and he said “Wow, we’re living the dream. We’re living the dream!” So this is sort of a slang pop-culture phrase that you hear sometimes. ‘Living the dream’ means you’re living the great life. You’re living a life that most people dream about. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re living your dream. When you say living the dream it means you’re living an image that most people dream about.

So, for example, if you become a famous movie star and you’re driving a sports car and you live in a huge mansion, a huge house and you have servants and everybody loves you then you might say yeah, I’m living the dream or he’s living the dream. So Heva says “I’m living the dream. We’re living the dream.’

So did Heva like their life?

Yes, he did. He was happy. He said “We’re living the dream. We’re living the dream of success that most people have.”

What about Chim-chim? Did Chim-chim feel that they were living the dream? Did Chimchim feel they were living a perfect life?

No.

What did Chim-chim say?

Chim-chim said “I’m bored off my ass.”

This is another great little slang phrase. Don’t say this in a business meeting necessarily, but you could say this to your friends. You might hear this in a movie. This is another one of these little phrases. ‘I’m bored off my ass’ means I’m super bored. This is, again, a very casual. It’s very, very, very kind of casual slang phrase. I’m bored off my ass means I’m super bored. You can use it on our VIP site. I’m bored off my ass.

So who was bored off his ass, Chim-chim or Heva?

Chim-chim. Chim-chim was bored off his ass. He was super bored.

Was he a little bored or was he super bored?

He was super bored. He was bored off his ass.

Was Heva bored off his ass?

No, Heva was not bored off his ass. Heva was very content. He was content. He was happy and content. He said “Oh, I’m living the dream.”

Was Chim-chim content?

No, Chim-chim was not content. Chim-chim was bored. He said “I’m bored off my ass.

Ah, everything is too boring and predictable.

Chim-chim, in fact, had nostalgia for the good old days of adventure.

So we have a few new words here, new phrases, first is nostalgia. ‘Nostalgia’, this is a very common word. It’s not slang. ‘Nostalgia’ is a feeling of sort of appreciation and even longing for the past. It means you’re looking back at some part of the past or the past in general and you feel this sort of warm, good feeling about it. You miss it. You feel like ah, that was so great.

So, for example, some people feel a lot of nostalgia for their time at school in the past, let’s say university. People might look back and they have all these wonderful memories about when they were in college or university. It was their first time to leave home. They had this kind of freedom, but not much responsibility so they had a lot of fun. Not all people, but a lot of people have nostalgia for that time, a very good feeling about a time in the past. That’s what nostalgia means. So we say ‘to have nostalgia’ or ‘to feel nostalgia’.

So Chim-chim felt a lot of nostalgia for his past, for the good old days. Now that is an idiom. Not really slang, it’s a common idiom. My grandmother might use it or I might use it, so it’s commonly used, ‘the good old days’. Again, it’s kind of nostalgic. ‘Nostalgic’ is the adjective to describe something. It’s a nostalgic phrase, ‘the good old days’. It’s a very general phrase.

So if you talk about the good old days it means the time in the past that was wonderful, but of course that can mean anything. It’s different for each person, but you say oh, I miss the good old days. It means you miss the days in the past where you were most happy. That’s really what it means. The good old days is this sort of romantic idea of some time in the past that was better than now.

So did Chim-chim have nostalgia for the good old days? Did he miss his past, some wonderful time in the past?

Yes, he did. He had nostalgia for the good old days. He told Heva “Oh, I miss the good old days when we were free and we had lots of adventures.”

Now, did Heva have nostalgia for those old times in the past?

No, no, no, no, Heva said “No, I don’t feel any nostalgia for the past. Those were not the good old days for me. They were uncomfortable and scary.” But Chim-chim says “No, no, I feel a lot of nostalgia for the good old days. We were free. We didn’t have bodyguards. We didn’t have all this money. We could do anything we wanted any time.

We had so much freedom.”

So which one had nostalgia for the good old days?

Chim-chim. Chim-chim had nostalgia, felt nostalgia for the good old days.

What about Heva, did he feel nostalgia for their old times, their times in the past?

No, no, Heva felt no nostalgia. Heva likes the present.

So which one felt nostalgia for the past?

Chim-chim. He had good feelings about the past. He had nostalgia for their good old days.

Well, Chim-chim finally says “You know what? We need to light a fire under our asses and get out there and have an adventure again.”

This is another slang phrase. Ah, depending on the business you could possible use it in a business meeting. I might, but this is a slang phrase ‘to light a fire under your ass’ or ‘to light a fire under someone else’s ass.’ You definitely will hear this in movies sometimes and it’s something that’s said kind of as a joke, but the meaning is to motivate someone or, in this case, to motivate yourself.

You can imagine this is your ass, your butt, so if you light a fire under it, if you have like a lighter and you put a fire under someone’s butt you’re going to make them jump, right? They’ll jump. They’ll move. This is the image. So that’s the image of it and the meaning is to motivate someone to take action.

We use this when we feel someone is being too lazy or too comfortable or when we feel ourselves that we are being too lazy, too comfortable. Maybe you’re sitting around watching TV all day and you do this many days in a row and then finally you say ah, I need to light a fire under my ass. It means I need to motivate myself. I need to get myself doing something more productive.

So who says “I need to light a fire under our asses?”

Chim-chim says that. So, ‘asses’, he’s talking about both himself and Heva. He feels that they’ve become too comfortable and lazy.

So does he want to light a fire under Heva’s ass?

Yes, he does. He wants to light a fire under Heva’s ass. He wants to motivate Heva to take more risks, to have more adventure, take more action.

Does he want to light a fire under his own ass?

Yes, he does. He wants to light a fire under his own ass too. He wants to motivate himself to be less comfortable, to take more chances, to take more actions.

So what does Chim-chim say? What did he say?

He said “I need to light a fire under our asses. We need to light a fire under our asses.

We need to motivate ourselves and have another adventure.”

So he decides we need to sail around the world. Let’s buy a sailboat and sail around the world. That’s what he decided. So Chim-chim decided we’re going to sail around the world.

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And that is the end of our mini story. Now, you notice at the end there I actually switched the present a little bit. I wasn’t thinking about it, it just happened. Sometimes this happens in conversations. You’re telling a story in the past and then you switch to the present because the present gives more of a feeling of immediacy. It gives a feeling of a little more action like it’s happening now. It’s a little more exciting and so sometimes it naturally happens. I’ll be telling a story in the past and I’ll switch to the present because it has a different emotional feeling. I’m getting more excited and then I just switch to the present. Then I might sometimes realize it and oh, no, I just switched to the present and I’ll switch back to the past again.

Now, I only do this for you because you’re learning English and it’s to help you practice.

In a normal conversation with another person I wouldn’t even notice. I would just continue speaking in the present or I might switch back and forth sometimes. The point is this is not school. There’s not one right answer. Each one gives a little bit of a different emotion or feeling. I might even change as my own feelings change. They just give a different feeling of being in the story or telling the story from more of a distance. That’s all it is. So don’t worry about that. Just listen to it, answer the questions. I recommend at least 10 times to listen to this mini story. More is great if you can.

All right, see you again. Have a great day, bye-bye.