Transcript of AE 1202 - Expression: Live Your Best Life

G'day, you mob And welcome to Aussie English! I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa, and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go!

G'day, you mob! How's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. The number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So guys and girls, and women and ladies, I hope you guys are having an amazing week. I hope you've been living it up. I hope you have been living your best lives. Yeah, I'm going to be teaching you the expression, that expression that I just said: "to live your best life" today, and how to use it.

But you may already understand what it has, what it meant from the context that I just gave you. But yeah, hope you're having a great week, guys. I dropped the kiddies off today at day-care, so they are hopefully 'living their best lives' there at the moment, hanging out with all their mates. And it's really funny every day that I drop my son off, if his mates are already there. It is so funny. They kind of like hanging out in the, uh, what would you call them? The cubby houses, right? These sort of like wooden structures that are like houses with slides and stairs and other things they can climb up and down. They hang out in those and they can kind of see which cars and who and everything like that is coming and arriving.

And as soon as Noah arrives, he's got these two little mates. Today, at least, I think it was Benji and Caden, who were like pointing and being like, "Oh my God, Noah's here!" And then as soon as we take him inside, his little mates are already inside the classroom waiting for him. And I'm like, Man, I miss being at school and having friends. If I even had friends like that that were that excited to see me when I showed up, right. I didn't even think my kids- maybe my kids are about the only people in my life that are that excited to see me when I show somewhere, show up somewhere. Right?

So if I show up at home, they might be like "Dada!" and come running out and being like, "Woohoo", you know, so happy to see me. But yeah, as an adult, I totally miss that, right? There's no real experience like that anymore. You can't just go to work and everyone's like, "Woo Pete! There's Pete, everyone! Yeah!" So I don't know, it's just this funny thing that I was noticing and it always makes me laugh at the end of the day too. When I come to pick up Noah, he always has, like his little scouts, right? These kids playing wherever they're playing.

And they'll see my car come and they'll yell out to one another, you know, "Noah's dad's here!" And then one kid will hear and be like, "Noah, your dad's here!", you know, And they sort of pass it down the chain until they find wherever Noah is, if he's inside or outside on the other side of the yard. And he comes running up to the fence and he's just like "Dada!", you know, before I've even stepped out of the car. So I don't know. It's just something that I wanted to share with you guys. I find it really funny and yeah, I totally wish that people gave a crap about me the same way that my kid's friends give a crap about him. Oh, man, it seems amazing.

Anyway, guys, if you want to get access to the transcripts for these podcast episodes so that you can read and listen at the same time, be sure to sign up for the Premium Podcast. You can go to www.AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast and you will be able to sign up for either a monthly membership or the annual membership where you get a big discount when you sign up.

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Now let's get into today's question. So today's question comes from Sahar, who asks, "How do you feel when a colleague can't speak English fluently?" So I assume that Sahar is asking me as an Australian or a native English speaker, what it feels like to say be working somewhere and having a colleague who can't speak English fluently. And obviously it's going to depend on the kind of person that you are individually and how much patience you have, tolerance for all these sorts of things, maybe even how busy you are at work, what kind of work environment it is, right? There's a lot of factors at play here, but I think most people in most situations are ultimately going to try and make it work, right. At the end of the day, the average person, I think, I feel, this is my opinion.

I feel like most people are good people. And in the workplace, they're going to try and work and communicate effectively with their colleagues as best they can. But it can lead to frustration or feelings of embarrassment on your part or the part of the person who can't speak English. Obviously, if that communication is ineffective, if it's very difficult, right. So you may become stressed, annoyed or irritated.

So ultimately, you know, it is one of those things where from my point of view, as someone living in Australia who speaks English as a native speaker, if I was working somewhere and I had colleagues who didn't speak English fluently, that in and of itself isn't really the problem. It's whether or not they can do their job. And whether or not they can communicate, which is obviously part of doing their job.

So at the end of the day, their English doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't- it could be better than mine. It could be worse than mine. Ultimately, what I care about at work is whether or not I can work effectively with the people around me, you know? And so if they've got a strong accent, or they make mistakes, or they don't speak fluently, that in and of itself, I don't think is a big, big problem. It's just, if that starts affecting the work and making my life difficult and, you know, meaning that your work, as the person who's not speaking English fluently, isn't up to scratch, then yeah, I can imagine that's where it becomes a problem, right?

Just like if someone got a job and they spoke English perfectly, but they didn't have the skills to do the job right and it was affecting how the job was done. I'm sure you would get stressed, annoyed and irritated, so I hope that helps. I hope that makes sense. But I think, you know, most Australians, most people in general I think have their heart in the right place. And they're not going to think of you as a, you know, awful person because you don't speak English fluently or as well as they do or whatever. You know, if you've got an accent, whatever it is. Ultimately, at the end of the day, they just want to be able to do their job easily. So yeah, hopefully that answers your question.

Anyway, smack the bird, guys, and let's get into today's joke. So here's today's joke and it's a whopper, guys. It's a, it's a good one. It's pretty punny, right? It's pretty punny. Okay, so here's the joke.

"What did the fish say when he swam into a wall?"

"What did the fish say when he swam into a wall?"

"Damn!"

You get it? "Damn". So, 'damn', D A M N is something we would say to express anger or frustration. "Oh, damn, I totally forgot!" Or "Damn, I hit my foot! Damn!"

But a 'dam', as in D A M, is 'a barrier constructed to hold water back', right. Or 'to raise the level of the water forming a reservoir used to generate often electricity or as a water supply'. So, "The dam might burst if there is a flood or torrential downpour of rain." Right. "The dam might flood." You can often walk across a dam. It's often like a little walkway or bridge over the top of it that you can walk across. You'll see the lake on one side and on the other side you might see the water coming out and going down a river. So a 'dam'.

So hopefully that makes sense. "What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?" "Damn!", right. Because he's hit a 'dam'. But it's also that he's saying, "Oh, damn!" because he's angry and frustrated. All right. Bad jokes aside. Okay.

So let's get into today's expression, guys, "to live your best life". I hope you guys are all 'living your best lives' at the moment. We'll go through the different words in this expression, what it means. I'll give you some examples of how I use it in daily life. We'll then go through a little pronunciation exercise and then lastly, we'll have a little listen and writing exercise with a TV series from Australia called Rake. A little excerpt from that show.

Okay, so "to live". This means a few different things, but here it means 'to spend one's life in a particular way or under particular circumstances', right? So, "He 'lives' very well." That would be like he has a lot of money. He's very comfortable. He eats a lot. He does everything he really likes. You know, he's got a good life. He 'lives' well.

Or if you said someone 'lives like a king', it's usually a man who 'lives', again, sort of almost like they're spoilt. They get too much of everything. "This guy 'lives' like a king, you know?" Or maybe he's living a very lavish lifestyle with a lot of money that he spends on a lot of things. He's got a yacht, a mansion. He 'lives' like a king. And if it was a woman, you would say "She lives like a queen." So we'd change those genders. It would be very weird to say 'he lives like a queen' and 'she lives like a king'.

And I don't know why I'm putting on this accent, but hopefully you understand there what "to live" means.

"Your". We go through this in almost every episode. I'm sure you know what 'your' is. This is the second person possessive pronoun. "This is 'your' house." "This is 'your' coffee." "'Your' bike got stolen."

"Best", 'best' means 'of the most excellent or desirable type or quality'. So, "This, hopefully, is the 'best' podcast for learning Australian English." "Maybe it's the 'best' English podcast out there." You guys will have to let me know what you think. "What's the 'best' place to visit in Australia?" You know, "What's the 'best' place, the most excellent or desirable place in Australia?"

And lastly, the word "life". This is a noun. Again, it can mean many things, but here it's 'the period between the birth and the death of a living thing', especially a human being. Right? So, "I am currently alive and I am living my 'life'." "I have a very good 'life'." "I enjoy my 'life'", right. "You've only got one 'life', so make the best of your 'life'."

So what does the expression "to live your best life" mean? You know, it's a bit weird. Why would you say 'your best life' as opposed to what? 'Your worst life'. You know, 'your slowest life'. Your 'fastest life'.

If someone says they're "living their best life" or "lives", this is that they are living a life that makes them very happy. That they allowed to reach their full potential. And often we can use this kind of like in the present continuous tense to mean that we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

So you could say "I'm living my best life." "Oh man, he's living his best life over there." "Check out this guy. He's living his best life." "She's living her best life." So they're thoroughly enjoying themselves.

So let's go through three examples of how I would use this expression "to live your best life" in day to day English.

So example number one. So my wife and I, Kel and I, we love going to a beachside town called Queenscliff, which is just down the road. So there's a pier there. We like going on the pier, going for a bit of a walk, seeing the ocean. There's a train station there too that we can explore a harbour and we often get ice cream at this really amazing ice cream store on the main street.

So sometimes we indulge a little bit and let our kids also get ice creams with us. Although, proportionately, the ice creams are much bigger, for them than it is for us. So it's probably a bit of overkill. But either way, they get ice creams. They love ice creams. They're obsessed with it.

When they get their ice creams, it blows their minds. They're as happy as Larry. They tuck into their ice creams, eat them like crazy. It usually goes all over their face, all over their clothes. But they they're smiling. They're laughing. They're hyped up on sugar and they're incredibly happy.

So, they're 'living their best lives'. When they get to go to Queenscliff, they 'live their best lives'. When they get ice cream, they 'live their best lives'. They thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Example number two. As you may or may not be aware, I got into plants over the past year or so as a bit of a hobby. So I've ordered quite a few online and I love anticipating when they're going to arrive in the mail. And you know, the package is showing up on my doorstep. So any time that the postman, or as we would say in Australia, the postie, arrives and drops off a parcel at the door, on the doorstep, on my porch, and it turns out to be for me, and it turns out to be one or more plants, I am absolutely living my best life.

I can't wait to open the parcel. I'm so excited when I'm doing it. I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. I'm loving my life, right. I am 'living my best life' and I'm absolutely loving life.

Example number three So loads of online influencers these days seem to get famous travelling around the world and sharing it on social media. But things aren't always as they seem, right? They're not always as rosy as they may appear. So even though these people may look like they're 'living their best lives', constantly travelling around country to country, showing you all these beautiful images of themselves at different places, beautiful views, beautiful houses, all that sort of jazz. Even though they show you this, they may not actually be living their best lives. It looks like they're 'living their best lives' on social media, but behind the scenes they're probably just like you and me with their daily ups and downs, right? Life may not be perfect. They may not always be 'living their best lives'.

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression "to live your best life". This is obviously 'to live a life that makes you happy and allows you to be, you know, at your fullest potential'.

But it can also mean, yeah, thoroughly enjoying yourself in the moment. So at the moment I am absolutely loving recording this episode. I'm 'living my best life', right? I'm in the moment thoroughly enjoying myself.

So as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is where I'm going to read out a bunch of words and phrases, and your job here is to read these out loud or say these out loud rather after me and work on your Australian English pronunciation, if that's what you're trying to develop.

But again, as I always say, if you're working on a different accent or you're not fazed about sounding like an Australian, just use your standard accent and say these phrases and words out, out loud after me. Okay, so you're ready to rock? Are you ready to go? Let's do it.

To. To live. To live your. To live your best. To live your best life. To live your best life. To live your best life. To live your best life. To live your best life. I'm living my best life. You're living your best life. He's living his best life. She's living her best life. We're living our best lives. They're living their best lives. It's living its best life.

Good job, guys. So let's go through a little bit about what's happening there, pronunciation and spoken English wise. So in the phrase 'to live your best life', 'to live your best life', which are the words being stressed: "to live your best life".

So, 'live', at the verb, 'best' and 'life'. "To live your best life". The most important words in the phrase.

And which ones are being reduced? 'To' becoming /tə/ and 'your' becoming /yər/. So they're getting the schwa vowel sound, the most common vowel sound in English. /Tə live yər best life/, /tə live yər best life/.

The other thing worth mentioning there is the consonant cluster at the end of the word 'best' and the start of the word 'life'. So it kind of goes in between these two words. What do you hear when I say these two words together? 'Best life'. 'Best life'. Do you hear a strong T sound in there? /Best life/. /Best life/? No.

So what's happening is that the T is kind of the tongue coming up and stopping the S sound. So, /bes\t\. /Bes\t\. And then we go straight into the L sound at the start of the word 'life'. /Bes\t\◡life/. /Bes\t\◡life/. So you won't often hear /best/ /life/. We wouldn't do that. Too much effort. /Bes\t\◡life/. /Bes\t\◡life/.

So this is something to pay attention to when speaking English. When, I don't know, yeah. When working on your English, if you see these kinds of large consonant clusters of three, four, five, I think even six consonants in a row sometimes, often there are certain ones that are changing the way in which they're pronounced, if not completely being emitted, okay. /Tə live yər bes\t\◡life. /Tə live yər bes\t\◡life/.

All right, guys. Now let's get into the final section of this episode. So today I'm going to play a clip for you. And your job is to write down what you hear. So it's working on your listening comprehension skills. Today's clip comes from a famous TV show from Australia called Rake. And the excerpt is "Cleaver Greene, a Sydney based defence lawyer, has self-destructive tendencies and takes up the trickiest and the most unsettling cases in Sydney." So it's an interesting show. This is a pretty famous one in Australia. A lot of people like this one, so go check it out.

But the rules of the game. I'm going to play this clip for you two times and your goal is to listen and write down what you hear. So make sure that you grab today's free worksheet. You can get that on the website if you go to this episode's page on www.AussieEnglish.com.au and you'll be able to download that. There is a section where you can write out what you hear in this part of the episode and then below that is the answer. So you can check that. Otherwise just get a piece of paper, try and write down what you hear. And if you have the Premium Podcast membership, you'll see the answer in the transcript too. So there's two ways of getting the answer. The free worksheet if you're not a member, or the Premium Podcast transcripts, if you are a member.

So anyway, are you ready to go? Here's the first playthrough.

Buying a Porsche SUV for the sake of the kids safety. I don't think I've heard such transparently banal bullshit in my entire life. You go, girl!

Good job. How'd you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough.

Buying a Porsche SUV for the sake of the kid's safety. I don't think I've heard such transparently banal bullshit in my entire life. You go, girl!

All right. So that's it for me today. Thanks so much for joining me, guys. I hope you had an amazing time in this episode. Don't forget, if you want the premium transcripts, you can get them at www.AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. You can also check out my courses on the website. Just go to www.AussieEnglish.com.au/courses.

And guess, too, I should mention that the Academy is going to open up in about three or so weeks. So, on the 1st of April the doors will be open again and you'll be able to jump inside and start levelling up your English with all the content in there and the weekly classes. So there are numerous classes that take place every single week to help people work on their fluency, confidence and speaking skills in English. Anyway, that's enough from me guys. I hope you have a good one and I'll see you next time. Catch ya!