Transcript of AE 1134 - Expression: Be On A Roll

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 flipping 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. What's going on? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English as well as learn about Australian culture, history, news, current affairs, everything like that. It is a one stop shop for those migrating to Australia, interested in Australia and learning English. So, guys, I am your host, Pete. I hope you are having a ripper of a week.

A ripper of a week. Remember that "a ripper" is something amazing. So, if you are having "a ripper" of something, you are having an amazing something. A ripper of a week. An amazing week. Oh, man. So, my wife is currently at work. She recently got a job just working in the kitchen at the local golf club. So, she's sort of doing that at the moment to obviously help with finances.

In the House, we have two small children, and as many of you guys will know who have kids, small children are expensive. The different things that you have to pay for, it quickly stacks up. You know, you're paying for nappies, you're paying for food, you're paying for clothes and toys and day-care and going out a lot, trying to do activities out and about. You know, it's just like money comes in and it goes out.

But yeah, my wife is away at work at the moment. My kids are both at Day-Care and I was thinking the expression "when the cat's away, the mice will play" is a great little expression. I guess it's a proverb, a saying, right? So, "when the cat is away, the mice will play". The idea here being that people will naturally take advantage of the absence of someone in authority to do as they like.

So, you could talk about people at work doing the same thing, right? The boss is away, the employees will play. "When the cat's away, the mice will play." Anyway, let's get into today's Q&A. The question today comes from Luciana, and she asked, "what do Australians think about migrants? In general, are they open to them? Luciana I absolutely think that Aussies love migrants, for the most part.

Obviously there's always, you know, in whatever country you go to, generally every single person in the population doesn't necessarily share a single view. But for the most part, the Australians that I'm surrounded by love migrants, you know, they have friends who are migrants, they know migrants, they're the children of migrants, they are migrants themselves who have become Australian citizens.

Migrants get along in Australia just fine with everyone, you know. That is why we have such a huge migrant population. In fact, I think that it's something around the 30% mark, where 30% of Australians or people living in Australia were actually born overseas. So, that is a huge proportion of Australia's population who are migrants.

And clearly with such a huge migrant population, if Australia didn't like migrants, you would think that that population wouldn't be very big. So, yeah, Australians and Australia loves migrants. So, slap the bird guys, it's time to get into today's joke. So, here's the joke, guys, and I've tried to tie this in with the expression today, "be on a roll" and I guess you should think of a roll of toilet paper. And this is a toilet paper joke.

Okay, so are you ready? Here we go. "Why are toilet papers good detectives? Why are toilet papers good detectives? Because they always get to the bottom of things." Do you get it? "Why are toilet papers good detectives? Because they always get to the bottom of things." Right? So, a "detective" is like a policeman who solves crimes, looks for clues, interviews, people, investigates. They are a "detective".

"Toilet paper, toilet papers". It sounds a bit weird to say this in the plural. Usually, it's sort of like an uncountable noun. You just get some "toilet paper". But you could use "toilet papers" if you were referring to, say, different brands or different types of toilet paper. Right.

It's kind of like when you say, "fish or fishes", if you say, "I've got a lot of 'fish'", that's usually I think, more and more now, that is that you have many "fish" of the same species, whereas "fishes" would be used for different fish of different species, so different types of fish.

"To get to the bottom of things". Now, this is a good little expression that means to find out the true reason for or cause of something. So, the true reason that something happened or the cause of something. "To get to the bottom of things". So, you may hear people say, "oh, we're going to get to the bottom of it. We have to get to the bottom of things." We need to sort of work everything out. We need to find the reason for something.

And "bottom" is your bum, your buttocks, your derriere, your rear end, your arse, your butt, your arse if you're American. Your "bottom". "Bottom" is kind of like the polite version. Your "bottom". "Why are toilet papers good detectives? Because they get to the bottom of things." Right? They resolve things, but they also if you're using toilet paper, you wipe your bottom with the toilet paper.

Okay. Time to get into today's expression. "To be on a roll. To be on a roll. To be on a roll." Let's go through the different words in this expression, and then we'll learn the expression itself. We'll go through where it came from, where it was derived. We'll go through some examples, a little pronunciation exercise, and then we'll finish up with a listening comprehension exercise of a clip from some Aussie TV or film.

Okay, so "to be" this is to exist, right, to occur, to take place. You are, right. So, you are here. You are there. He is annoying. It's talking- We use this verb to talk about existence, occurrence, or that something is taking place. "On". "On" has many different meanings. Most commonly it is used to mean resting on top of something, right, to be above and touching something.

So, at the moment "I have a drink in front of me and it is 'on' the table." But here it means in the course of a journey. So, like "I'm going to the shops 'on' the way home", right, "'on' the journey home, 'on' that journey." In the course of that journey, you are "on" something in that sense.

It's kind of used a bit more, I guess, metaphorically, figuratively here, as opposed to "on" the surface of something or above something and touching it. "A". "A" is the indefinite article. A single non-specific thing, "a chocolate, a hot dog, a snag", which is a sausage in Australian slang, "a cat". As opposed to a very specific thing, the chocolate, the hot dog, the snag, the cat.

And lastly, "a roll". There's going to be a lot of different things as well, right? It could be a- I guess you could have "'a roll' of bread". So, if you were to go to Bakers Delight and you ask for "a roll", you're going to be handed a round kind of savoury bun, as opposed to say a sweet bun, that you can make into what Americans would call a sandwich. But we would call it "a roll" if it's not sliced bread.

But "a roll" of something is like, say a thing that has been rolled up into "a roll". So, if you get carpet, if you buy carpet from a store, it's usually in "a roll". You know, it's not going to be folded up. It's not going to be in a pile. It'll be rolled up in "a roll". When you buy toilet paper, it comes in "a roll". So, like a cylinder formed out of that material or thing.

But here in this expression, I think it's referring to a movement in which someone or something is turning over and over and over itself. Right? So, if you roll over, you are rolling your, turning your body over. If you do a somersault, that's also a forward roll.

So, "to roll over, to roll" is to turn over and over oneself. So, the expression "to be on a roll", it kind of doesn't- It doesn't really explain itself directly. Right? You can't really read this and understand exactly what it means. But if you were to say, "you are on a roll", this is that you are experiencing a prolonged spell of success or good luck. So, you're doing very well repeatedly.

You are doing really well and don't want to stop for fear of losing your good luck streak. And we'll go through some examples shortly. So, according to TheIdioms.com, the phrase dates back to the time when gambling was a common occurrence. When someone kept rolling the dice, it meant that they were winning. It is derived from the idea that when something starts rolling, it will continue to do so if there is no outside force there to stop it.

So, the phrase was used to describe a prolonged winning streak, right. You can imagine that if you are gambling and rolling dice and you keep rolling the dice and you're doing really well, you are "on a roll" in this sense, that's where that expression sort of comes from.

So, let's go through three examples of how I would use this expression. Okay. Example number one: You're a good little English student. So, you usually study a little every day in order to improve all areas of your English, you know, your speaking, your listening, your reading, your writing and your fluency.

Just like the Academy members I have, they're always hungry little English learners, working very hard inside the Aussie English Academy. Shameless plug there. Shameless plug. But today you've managed to massively motivate yourself and you've worked really hard all day studying for hours and hours and hours. Right. So, like 8 hours you've been studying.

You've been watching movies, TV shows, reading books, listening to podcasts, chatting to your mates, writing in your diary, you know, working your butt off. "You didn't want to stop because you were 'on a roll'." You were doing really well. You wanted to continue. You were having a lot of luck in staying motivated. You are having a great spell of success, doing really well. "You were on a roll."

Example number two: Maybe you're a hunter who loves going out with mates and hunting wild animals in Australia, especially, say introduced pest species like feral pigs, deer, camels and donkeys. So, they're animals that aren't native to Australia. Most times you go out and you find nothing, right? You sort of have no luck. You try tracking the animals down, but you don't end up finding any.

Or when you do find them, they end up too quick and they run off before you get to, you know, have a shot at them, to fire your weapon at them. But today you go out and for one reason or another, you have an amazing spell of good luck, and you end up killing ten large feral pigs. So, you have a large amount of success. You want to keep going because the hunting is so good. You're doing so well. "You are on a roll. You're on a roll."

You're doing incredibly well. Loads of good luck, loads of success. "You're on a roll." The last example I have here is about Brazilian jiu-jitsu. So, I know, you guys are probably like, oh, here we go. Pete talking about this again. Yes, my hobby is Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so it's a great example that came to mind.

The aim of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or BJJ, as it's often abbreviated to, is when rolling to fight with someone because- And we call it rolling because you're rolling around on the ground effectively, right? Wrestling with someone, grappling with that person.

And the ultimate goal of Brazilian jiu-jitsu is to dominate them positionally, so to control them and then to submit them. Right. To apply a choke or a joint lock where they tap and they say, I give up, you win.

So, if you're rolling with them one day in class and you hit submission after submission after submission on all your opponents, you know, you fight everyone you fight for the day, everyone that you roll with, "you're also on a roll". You're having a great spell of good luck. You're doing incredibly well. You are clearly really skilled. You're doing great. You're successful. "You're on a roll. You're on a roll."

So, hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression "to be on a roll". This is to be experiencing a prolonged spell of success or good luck. To be doing really well, and you don't want to stop for fear of losing your good luck streak. So, as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. What I suggest you do here each time, obviously, is to find somewhere away from other people where you can speak out loud.

I mean, you know, you can do it in front of people if you have no problem getting strange looks, you know, if you're on the tram and you start saying out loud "to be on a roll", people may get a weird vibe. They may be like, what is this guy doing? If you have no issue with that, obviously do that. Otherwise, find somewhere alone where you can speak, and you can work on your pronunciation. Read these lines out after me. Are you ready?

Let's go. "To. To be. To be on. To be on a. To be on a roll. To be on a roll. To be on a roll. To be on a roll. To be on a roll." So, before we get into the rest of the exercise, go back and listen to me saying the full phrase "to be on a roll" and see if you notice when I switch to using the dark L in the word "roll" and I end up saying it as "roll", right? So, the dark L is where we round the lips instead of making the L sound.

It's kind of a reverse /w/ sound, instead of going /w/ you go /u/, right, the lips come in. And we do that in Australian English, other dialects of English as well when there is no vowel sound after the l. Okay? Let's keep going. "I'm on a roll. You're on a roll. He's on a roll. She's on a roll. We're on a roll. They're on a roll. It's on a roll." Good job, guys.

And I did it again inside of those. What have we got? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven lines. "I'm on a roll. You're on a roll. He's on a roll. She's on a roll." One of those. Only one of them. I use the dark L with at the end of the word "roll'. I said it as "roɫɫ". See if you can go back and have a listen and pick out with your ears, listening well, which one of those phrases it was. Okay?

So, besides the dark L, some other interesting aspects here in terms of pronunciation and spoken English is that we have a lot of connected speech going on. Obviously, the first thing is that we have the "to" becoming "tə", we always do that, right? You have "to", you say it clearly with the /ʉː/ vowel sound, but as soon as it's within a phrase it is unstressed, and you will say it with the schwa "tə". "To be on a roll. Tə be on a roll."

In terms of connected speech, because "on and a" start with vowel sounds, the previous sound is linked. In the case of "be, be on, be on, be on" we use a little /y/ sound to link those two vowel sounds. "Be/y/on, be/y/on". In the case of "a", we have "n" at the end of the word "on" before it, so we go "be/y/on ə, be/y/on ə". And "a" becomes de-emphasised as well, it doesn't get stressed, so it gets the schwa sound, too.

"Tə be/y/on ə roll. Tə be/y/on ə roll. To be on a roll." So, which words, too, are being stressed in this sentence? "To and a" are unstressed. "Be on a roll, to be on a roll, to be on a roll." So, it sort of- "b" kind of gets a bit of stress, but then it's "on a roll". Actually, "a" doesn't. "On roll. To be on a roll. To be on a roll."

So, there you go, guys. Don't forget, if you want to level up your pronunciation, be sure to go to AussieEnglish.com.au/APC. Grab my pronunciation course you will learn the international phonetic alphabet inside of it so that you can master pronunciation studying on your own.

You will then also learn how to pronounce and master all of the different sounds in Australian English. All the different vowels, all the different consonants. And then you'll get access to 25 advanced lessons that teach you things like the light L, the dark L, the Australian R sound, the T-flap, the yod /j/ linking, loads of stuff is in there. Okay, so go check that out. Aussie English.com.au/APC.

So, finally guys, let's finish up with a clip from an Aussie movie, and we'll do a little listen comprehension exercise here where you've got to try and listen and see if you can write down what you hear. Remember, grab a piece of paper and a pen. I'll play the clip for you twice. You will be able to pause, obviously, you can rewind if you need to as well.

But the idea is to listen to this phrase or series of phrases and try and write down everything you hear. Okay? The clip today comes from the famous Australian movie called "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". This is an incredibly classic Australian film. It's got the famous actors, Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving. If you've seen The Matrix, Hugo Weaving is Mr. Smith, I think, right, the bad guy.

Hello, Mr. Anderson. That guy, he's Hugo Weaving, famous Australian actor. So, the excerpt is two drag queens and a transsexual take their act on the road. They have several adventures and uncover deep secrets as they travel across Australia, entertaining homophobes and enthusiasts alike. So, it is a very interesting film that I definitely recommend you guys check out. Anyway, you ready to hear this line the first time? Let's go.

"Don't darling me, darling. Look at you. You've got a face like a cat's arse."

Great job there, guys. How did you go? Did you get everything? Let's have a second listen.

"Don't darling me, darling. Look at you. You've got a face like a cat's arse."

Awesome. Well, that's it for me today, guys. Thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget, if you want to read whilst you listen to these episodes, take notes, highlight new words and expressions, and just get a lot more out of each episode. Be sure to sign up for the premium podcast at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

You'll get the transcript for all of these episodes; you can use the premium podcast player to read and listen at the same time. Some of these episodes also have video lessons, so go check it out. I think you're going to love it. And besides that, I hope you have a ripper of a week and I'll see you next time. Catch ya!