Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases "BETWEEN JOBS" and "ODD JOBS"

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase between jobs. When someone says they are between jobs, it means they don't currently have a job. It's kind of a nice way of saying that you're unemployed. If someone says they're between jobs, it means somehow their last job ended. Maybe they got fired, maybe they got laid off, maybe they quit and they are looking for another job. So they are between jobs. Again, it's simply a nicer way of saying that you don't currently have a job. I have. Let me just put it this way. There's someone I know who is often between jobs because whenever they find a job after a month or two, they usually get let go. They get fired because they're just not a very good worker. So they're often between jobs looking for a job.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is odd jobs. When we say there are odd jobs to do around the house, it means little things like fix the bathroom sink or put a new rug in the entranceway. There's just little things that you need to do. When I was a kid, I used to visit my grandparents. And when I visited my grandparents, my grandpa had a whole bunch of odd jobs to do around the house and we would help him. We would do some odd jobs outside too, like rake the leaves, weed the garden. I remember one time we changed light bulbs in a couple rooms where the light bulbs weren't working. Just odd jobs that needed to be done.

So to review, if you're between jobs, it means you don't have a job and you're looking for a new one. And if you are doing a bunch of odd jobs, they're just simple, small jobs that you need to do around the house.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video after we look at the really loud car at the gas station. Let me put this back on the tripod. Hopefully that sound ends soon. This comment is from... I think this is more interesting. I think they got the car going. I think everything is okay now.

This is from Konstantin. By the end of a school day, my voice gets so strained that even lozenges hardly help. I sometimes can't shoot the breeze with my friends. A blessing in disguise. This little frog in the throat gives your ramblings a unique charm. Bob, big thanks, Bob. Take care of your professional tools, my voice, and enjoy the indian summer. My response? It's par for the course for us, I guess, mine is doing better. Yeah, my throat feels way better than it did the other day. But thanks, Konstantin, for that comment. It usually just takes a week. Voice is a little strained and then it goes back to normal.

But hey, I did want to show you the gas station because something has changed here and it made me a little bit sad. You used to be, this is probably normal for all of you, but you used to be able to pull up, fill your car with gas, and then if you wanted to, you could go in and pay. But now there's a sign here that says prepay before fueling. And I know that's probably a normal thing for most of you. It's a normal thing in most big cities in Canada as well. You can't put gas in your vehicle and then pay afterwards.

So usually I pay at the pump, but today I have cash with me, so I had to go in, I had to tell them I want $50 worth of gas. And then I was allowed to put that gas in my vehicle. So small towns used to just trust people. I guess we're now more like a big town. You have to pay before you put gas in your vehicle. Do I sound a little annoyed? It was just a little bit inconvenient. I'm used to the old way. There's a gas station close to my

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SIT IN ON and TO SIT OUT

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sit in on. It's a nice phrasal verb with two prepositions at the end, which makes it a little confusing. This means to go to something like a class to observe rather than take it. At work, sometimes the principal needs to check if I'm teaching properly and so the principal will sit in on one of my classes. When you visit a school and you're thinking about going there, you might sit in on one of the classes to see if you like it. Maybe your town has a meeting and it's open to the public. And if you want, you can go sit in on the meeting. So it means you go to something to observe it. It doesn't mean you're going to participate or ask questions. You basically are just going to sit and watch and listen. You're going to sit in on whatever's happening.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to sit out. This means to not do something. Sometimes a player on a team will be injured and they will sit out for a game or two. Sometimes it's a minor injury and if they just sit out for a game or two, it will get better. So it simply means to not do something. In fact, if you're part of something where you can volunteer whether you want to do it or not, sometimes you can say, oh, I'll just sit this one out. That means you're not going to do it.

So to review to sit in on something means to go to something like a meeting or a class. Just to listen and watch and to not participate. And to sit out means to simply not participate in something. It's not fun when you're on a team and you're hurt and you have to sit out for a game or two. You just sit on the bench and watch everyone else play.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from MRfisheri. Wow, Bob got contacts to get a plane flying above for a video. Puntastic! And my response. Yep, it cost quite a bit. So that's in reference to my last lesson where a plane flew over and I made a pun about puns while a plane flew over. And some of you not necessarily questioned whether a plane actually flew over, but suggested maybe that it was just some sound effects. But it wasn't. A plane actually did fly over. I promise you in the future, any time a plane flies over during a lesson, I will spin the camera around and show the plane to you. Even if it's a tiny dot in the sky.

Well, what am I doing today? Well, I am walking to the drugstore to get more of these. It's the second week of school, and as usual, I'm using my voice too much. Actually, that's not necessarily true. I think I'm speaking too loudly so I don't have a sore throat. And this does happen at the beginning of every school year. I just feel like it's strained a little bit. So I like to buy throat lozenges to just kind of soothe my throat while I'm teaching, and at the end of the day. So I'm on my way to this drugstore up here. Not the dollar store. They don't have very good throat lozenges. I'm on my way to this drugstore to buy a few, and interestingly enough, they're not very cheap anymore.

I feel like maybe my school should buy them for me, but then they might question how much talking I do on my YouTube channel as well and whether I should be resting my voice. But anyway, it's just one of the things that happens when you're a teacher. You talk a lot. You talk like, I don't yell, but I talk just a little more loudly than I normally would talk when I'm teaching my classes. You say a lot of things like, hey, could I have your attention, please? And all thos

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases "no pun intended" and "pun intended"

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase no pun intended. Now, first, I should explain what a pun is. A pun is when you say something and it's funny because maybe one of the words has two meanings. So sometimes you say something and you realize after you say it that it's funny. I could say something like this, I'm going to go out on the river in my kayak and I'll probably end up bobbing up and down, no pun intended. Because my name is Bob and we have a verb to bob. After I said it, I might realize that it's funny. If I'm going to go in my kayak, it's likely that I'm going to bob up and down, no pun intended. So I didn't realize it was going to be a play on words until after I said it.

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Now we also have the phrase pun intended. If I was to say, I'm going to go out in my kayak today, I'm going to bob up and down, pun intended. It means that I realized that what I was going to say was going to be funny because of the play on words. By the way, a play on words is when words have two meanings and it ends up being a little bit funny.

So to review when there's no pun intended. So if I was to say, right now, this is going to be a plain English lesson, and then I hear a plane flying over because the word plain and plane sound the same, I could say no pun intended. This is just going to be a plain English lesson, no pun intended. And then if I knew that the words were funny before I said it, I would say pun intended. Hopefully that made some sense. I do highly recommend you look up the meaning of both those phrases on the Internet so that you're 100% sure.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from I'm just going to say nghivotan, I don't have a lot of time. Your shorts are so helpful. Thank you, Bob. My response I'm glad you're enjoying them. They are meant to be a bite sized lesson that is easy to watch and re watch. Have a great day.

So yeah, I don't often talk about why I do these lessons, but they started a long time ago because I was waiting for my kids to get in the van before school. So I would get a up, I would have breakfast, I would get ready to go to work, and then because I drive my kids to school, I would wait and I thought, hey, I have a phone and I have a few extra minutes here. Why don't I just teach a quick little English phrase?

And then they progressed from there to be about four minutes long, usually give or take a few seconds. And so the point of this was twofold eventually. One to teach you a couple of phrases, but two to give you kind of like an insight into my life where I'm speaking candidly about things I'm doing as I go through my week or go through my day. A little bit more of contact for you with a native English speaker who's talking in the way they normally talk and showing you things that they normally do.

So that's what this has evolved into, a nice little short four minute lesson twice a week where you can learn a couple of phrases and you can hear me ramble on about everyday things like, for instance, two days of school are done now. I'm actually shooting this on a Wednesday. I know you're watching it on a Friday because I got to get ahead of my work. We have market tomorrow and Friday is rather a busy day as well. But yeah, I'm shooting this a bit early. I lost my train of thought there.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little lesson where there were a few puns about me bobbing in the river. I hope that made some sense. What was the second pun? Oh, the one ab

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FLIP-FLOP and TO DO AN ABOUT-FACE

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English verb to flip flop. When you flip flop on something, it means you change your mind. Usually it means you change your mind to the exact opposite. Let's say your boss said everyone is going to get Friday off this week. And then the next day your boss says everyone has to work on Friday. We would say that your boss flip flopped. Your boss, for some reason, decided to flip flop on their previous statement. First they said everyone was going to get Friday off. Now they're saying everyone has to work on Friday. So they decided to flip flop. They changed their mind and said the exact opposite.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to do an about face. And this means exactly the same thing. Let's say the government says you can start driving at age 15 next year. And then the next day they say, no, you have to be 16 to start driving. We would say that they did an about face. When you do an about face, it's actually the same as to flip flop. It means you change your opinion to the exact opposite. So to review, to flip flop, to do an about face, it means somebody says one thing, and then very quickly after that, they say something that's completely the opposite and completely different.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Judit or otherwise known as Aerosmith 77. And the comment is rhyming pairs. Great. There are many of them. Thank you for the video and my response. I think I'll add them to the lineup for future videos. So thank you for that comment Judit.

Yes, in the past lesson I talked about rich rich and reach and pitch and peach. And I think that maybe I'll add more things like that to these short lessons. I've been doing a lot of verb phrases in these lessons. I've been doing a lot of sayings and idioms. Maybe I'll start broadening a little bit and do some other things. Or maybe I'll flip flop. Maybe I won't change anything. We'll see. Who knows?

Hey, I'm out here for a walk down this really nice path. It is the first day of school. Well, for me, the first day of school is actually over. I taught my classes this morning. I worked at school for a few hours, and now I am out here making a video for all of you. The first day went really good. I was really happy. I went to each of my classes. I was well prepared. I taught my lessons. I met some new students. And I also have some students that I've taught other things in the past, so it was nice to see them again and say hi. But all in all, how would I phrase this? I still got it. I still know what I do, what I'm doing. I still did a good job teaching the class.

Sorry, there was. It just sounded like a car was coming down this path, but this is a walking path, so I'm not sure what that sound was. And I was a little worried because my tripod is way over there. This is a really nice town, though. Normally people don't steal my tripod, but it's always a little worry that I have.

But anyways, what was I saying? I still got it. It's kind of an informal way of saying you think you're still good at something. It sounds a little arrogant when you say it about yourself, but, yeah, I think I still got it. I think I can do this job still. It does help that I'm able to do it part time. So a full load of teaching is three classes a day. I teach two classes and I do a couple other little things. So I'm really close to, like 75%. That's my workload. And it's nice to have a little time in the

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Read along to practice your English pronunciation of the words REACH and RICH, PEACH and PITCH

In this English lesson, I wanted to talk about the difference in pronunciation between reach and rich. This is actually from a question that's from a viewer that I'm going to read later, but I'm going to answer the question first. At the beginning of the video, when you reach for something, you reach for something with your hand. It's kind of a longer e sound. You reach for something, I can reach towards the camera. Hopefully that didn't scare you too much. So reach. When you have a lot of money, you are rich. So a rich person has worked really hard in their life, or maybe their parents just gave them all their money and they are just really, really rich. So you can reach for something or you can have lots of money and be really, really rich.

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The other two words I wanted to talk about are peach and pitch. And I'm not going to talk about beach and the other word because it's not really a good word. But you can eat a peach. Right now it is peach season here in Ontario, Canada. I have been eating a peach every day. They are really, really yummy. We buy them at market. We leave them on the counter so they ripen. And then I eat one peach every day. If you don't eat your peaches when they're ripe, sometimes they go bad and then you have to pitch them. When you watch a baseball game, the pitcher will throw the ball and we call it pitching. They will pitch the ball. You can also pitch a tent, by the way, so you can eat a peach and you can also pitch it if it's not very good, if it has gone bad.

So to review reach and rich, I'll say them slowly. You can reach for something or if you have lots of money, you're rich. And then you can eat a peach and you can pitch a baseball.

But hey, let's look at that comment from a previous video. I have it right here in my pocket and it is from Ladepla. Hi Bob, can you explain to us the difference in pronunciation of the words reach and rich. In this video you often say reach and it sounds quite short, so I couldn't tell it from rich if not for the context. And my response, I'll make a point of talking about this in the next video, which I already did.

So thanks for that comment, Lidepla. I hope I answered your question. And if you need to, you can go back and listen to those parts of the video over and over again until you get a sense of the right pronunciation and then do some shadowing as well. Shadowing is when you hit pause and you say what I just said. And then you rewind and play it again and listen. And then you say what I just said. It's a great way to practice your English speaking when you don't have an English speaking partner.

Well, hey, I'm just kind of walking down here. We had a fire the other day and there are still some remnants here of the fire. I did want to say, I'm happy to let you know that I did put some new screws in the picnic table. So I think I mentioned this last year a few times. You can't see where I'm pointing, but I actually finally put some new screws in. And so our old picnic table that was kind of falling apart is now usable again, but it's a little bit dirty. I feel like I need to refinish the seats. Let me show you those. The seats are quite mossy. When it's dry, you can sit here and your shorts don't get stained. But when it's wet outside, it's not the nicest place to sit.

So reach, rich, peach, pitch. And then there's also beach. You go to the beach and there's lots of sand. And then there's another b word, which is actually not a very nice word. So I'm not going to say it out loud

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OUT OF REACH and OUT OF TOUCH

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out of reach. When something is out of reach, it simply means when you try to grab it, it's a little too far away. Sometimes in the kitchen, there are things on the top shelf and they are out of reach. You can't reach them, but it can also mean that something you want to do is something you'll never be able to do. I will never be prime minister of Canada. That is out of reach for me. I would have had to have started my political career years ago in order to get to that point in my life. So becoming prime minister is out of reach. So something can physically be out of reach, but something you want to do can also be out of reach for you.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase out of touch. When someone is out of touch, it means that. Oh, sorry, this is one of the first times I forgot to teach something. You can also say you're out of reach when someone can't get a hold of you. If I was to go on vacation really far up north, I would be out of reach for a few days because phones don't work that far north. Now, let's move on. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase out of touch. When someone is out of touch, it means that they don't really know what the current way of doing something is. So you could say that old people are a little bit out of touch. They don't use their phones to watch things on social media. They still watch things on a computer. Maybe instead of, I'm trying to think. Maybe instead of taking an Uber, they still take a taxi because they're out of touch and they don't realize there's a new way to do it.

So to review when something is out of reach, it means it's hard to actually grab. When something is out of reach, it means it's something you won't be able to do. And if you go on vacation, you might be out of reach for a while. And when you're out of touch, it simply means that you don't know what's hip and cool anymore. You've just gotten too old and you don't know. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Denis. Thanks a lot for the lesson, Bob. As you get older, you get stuck in your ways. Just as you become stiffer physically, you also become stiffer mentally and more narrow minded, unless you make a conscious effort to keep yourself flexible. That's from Viggo Mortensen, a quote from a famous actor. And my response: I'll try to stay flexible on all fronts.

You know, there's some truth to that. Like, you become physically quite stiff as you get older. Like, it's hard to bend and touch your toes and do things like that. And mentally you kind of get stiff as you get older. It's kind of unfortunate. It would be nice if we could stay really open minded and not become as stubborn as we get older. And it would be nice if I go and run 5 km, if I could walk the next day instead of sitting for the whole day waiting to feel better. I did that a couple weeks ago, by the way, with my son, and I was very stiff the next day. I'm not sure it was a good idea. I was able to run the whole race. I got one of my worst times ever, but still I was able to do it.

But yeah, it would be nice if we weren't. But there is always some advantage. I think we need people who want things to change and people who want things to stay the same. And then I think together we actually get a nice balance. We get something in the middle and I think that's a bit of an advantage. We don't want the new idea people to always get their

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases STUCK IN YOUR WAYS and TO BE STUCK ON SOMETHING

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase stuck in your ways. When you're stuck in your ways, it means you do certain things a certain way, and you will not change the way you do it. You are stuck in your ways. I'm stuck in my ways for some things. Like, for instance, many people have suggested that I stop using a piece of paper, that I should get an iPad or something else that I bring outside. But I'm kind of stuck in my ways. I like bringing the piece of paper outside. I do recycle all of these, but for me, it's just, it's a little simpler to use paper sometimes. So I'm a little stuck in my ways.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to be stuck on something. So this is when you don't understand something. If you remember when you were in school, or maybe you are in school, and if you're doing math sometimes, you might be stuck on a problem. You don't understand what to do next. As you learn English, there may be times where you're stuck on something. You just don't understand how to create a certain phrase. So when you're stuck on something, it means you don't know or understand what to do next.

So to review, when you're stuck in your ways, by the way, usually older people are stuck in their ways. I say that as if I'm not old. I'm not really old. I'm middle aged. But when you're stuck in your ways, you like doing something a certain way and you don't want to change it. And then when you're stuck on something, it simply means that you don't understand it.

But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ruslan. Teacher Bob is really a jack of all trades. He can teach, he can build, he knows computers, and his most valuable skill is he can do any sound effect in the world. And my response? Well, mostly I'm just good at watching YouTube videos to learn new things. So thanks for the compliment and the comment there, Ruslan.

I'm not, I don't know. I wouldn't consider myself that good at that many things. But I think one of my best skills is that I like to try new things. I like to learn new things. And YouTube is, like, the greatest thing in the world for that. So I would attribute a lot of the things I've done to the fact that if I want to learn how to do something, I just sit down at my computer or pull out my phone, do a little search on YouTube, and I find a whole bunch of videos. And then usually I watch two or three to get a sense of which person actually knows what they're talking about and which person isn't.

So yes, even though I said I'm a little bit stuck in my ways, I do like to learn new things. And whenever I'm stuck, whenever I don't understand something, I find a YouTube video to watch and it explains it to me. So, like laying those pavers by my house or even how to properly prune a tree or any of those kinds of things, I don't know what I would do anymore without YouTube. It's just amazing. So I know I'm a youtuber and there are probably, there are probably other ways to learn new things.

When I was a kid, I did like books. Books, I think were amazing as well. But in this day and age, sometimes it's just easier to watch a quick video than to go to the library and try to find a book. So anytime I do something new, like the other day, I was using a chainsaw.

Oh, actually, I can show you. The other day I was using a chainsaw. And before I started using the chainsaw, I watched a little video to refresh my memory on how to use it. Yeah, I c

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL DONE! and BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase all done. Now, you probably know this phrase. It's a pretty common one. It means that you've done a job and the job is finished. You are all done. I love it when I finish something and I can say that I'm all done. I'll give you a better view of that later. But I worked on this for a long time, and now I'm all done. I started the project, I worked on the project, and now I'm at the point where it's completely done. All done.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase been there, done that. So this is kind of a phrase we use in a funny way or a sarcastic way when someone's describing something they've done and we've already done it. So if someone said to me, oh, I went to Toronto and saw a Blue Jays game, if I was like, it's kind of funny, but also a little bit mean, or it can mean that you're not interested in what they're saying, I could say, ah, been there, done that. Basically, I'm saying, I don't really need to hear about your experience because I've already gone to a Blue Jays game and it was very, very exciting. Been there, done that. So kind of funny, but kind of rude at the same time.

So to review, when you do something and when you finish it, you can say all done. Or you can even use a complete sentence and say, I'm all done. And when you say been there, done that, it's kind of a dismissive way to express yourself when someone's talking about something they've done that you've already done and experienced. Been there, done that.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. You're probably anxious to see the work behind me, but this is from Ünsal. Hi, teacher Bob. I can't wait to see the results of your exhausting work. Thank you so much for the amazing lessons. Have a great day. Bye. And my response? I feel like I'm running out of time for my summer jobs. Thanks, Ünsal, for that comment. Yes, I feel like I'm running out of time, but that's okay. There's always more time in the fall.

So I don't know if you remember what this used to look like, but now it looks like this. I was able to take some time to remove a whole bunch of dirt and stone with my tractor and of course with a shovel as well. My son and I spent a great deal of time out here and then I laid what's called interlocking block, or pavers, or simply patio stones. Let me get in the shade here so you can have a better look. This was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed doing this. Underneath, we put down coarse stone and then finer stone that you can spread easily. And then we chose a pattern that was kind of the hard part, actually choosing a pattern so that it looked really, really nice.

But as you can see now, I have room. Oh, yes, we also put lots of new stone down over there. I have room to park both my vehicles. And Jen and I can sit out here in the morning and have a cup of tea if we want. Maybe I'll try to find a link to an older video where you can see what this used to look like.

But I am very, very happy because for a couple of reasons. Number one, we wanted to do all this, or have all this done professionally, but this was cheaper. I did it myself. Secondly, the interlocking block, the pavers that we used were actually used. My son got them from somewhere. He paid very sorry, there's a spot here that's not level. I'm very particular. He paid very little money for them, so they weren't free, but they were very, very cheap.

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