Today we're talking about an idiom that you can use when you have to make a difficult or unpleasant decision. I hope you find it useful!

DAILY Business English VOCABULARY builder

This idiom sounds dangerous!

Want to reserve a table in Spanish without any hassle? We’ve got the perfect episode for you! In this episode, you'll learn useful phrases to call a restaurant, ask about availability, and even specify seating preferences like a local.

🎙️ Listen in to hear Carla as she calls a restaurant to make her reservation.
💡 Want this guide? Drop me a message, and I’ll send it your way!

Spanish Unplugged Podcast

EP11: Restaurant Booking Decoded 🔓

This story is made from '2000 most common words in English'

The owner spoke, as if he was a host on a TV cooking show. 

“Both these dishes are mighty fine, and soon it will be revealed which will take the title of World’s Best Main Meal.” 

The owner prepared his chopsticks and reached to pick up Little Ball. But then, a mysterious noise sounded, a kind of ring-ring. 

“Ugh, what is it now?” groaned the owner as he returned to the living room. 

Little Ball turned to the serving of shredded, dried kelp. “Did you hear that? World’s Best! That’s us. You’ve got no chance at winning the title.” 

Dried Kelp, who hadn’t made a sound or a movement until now, slowly came to life and said, 
“Whatever, dude, titles are for books…” 

Little Ball whispered to its 5-piece family, “Pfffft, did you hear that? I know Dried Kelp secretly wants the title and we can’t let it win. If it does, then the owner will look down on us, and shame us, and never buy us ever again. We will bring shame to all the unborn octopus balls. No. I won’t allow it. Dried Kelp is the side dish and we’re the main dish.” 

Raising its voice to an intimidating roar, Little Ball, with all of its power, said, “We’re six large balls, but you’re only a few dozen little strips. Good luck beating us!” 

Dried Kelp took a moment to think. “It’s not the amount of pieces that’s important; It’s the owner’s experience that truly matters.” 

Little Ball was confused. Did Dried Kelp just prove my point? We’re less in numbers, but far superior, thought the bite-sized mashed octopus ball. “Exactly, pieces don’t matter—it’s about flavor! And you’re bland!” 

Dried Kelp seemed insulted, or so Little Ball thought. 

Being a Cloud

Little Ball the Octopus Ball 

الرِيَاضَة تْسَاعِدْنَا نِبْقَى بِلَيَاقَة وصَحَّة جَسَدِيَة وَعَقْلِيَة جَيِدَة.
Sports help us stay fit and in good mental and physical health
مُمَارَسَة الرِيَاضَة مُمْكِن تْقَلِّل التَوَتُر و كَمَان تْزِيد التَرْكِيز فِي المَهَام اليَومِيَة.
Practicing sports can reduce stress and also increases the focus in the daily tasks
والرِيَاضَة تِلْعَب دَور مُهِم بِنَجَاح الإِنْسَان لأَنَهَا تْعَلِّم الإِنْسَان عالإِنْضِبَاط 
And the sport plays a main role in the success of the person because it teaches discipline to the person 
والرِيَاضَات الجَمَاعِيِة تْعَلِّمْنَا كَيف نِشْتَغِل كَفَرِيق.
Group sports teach us how to work as a team.
بِالإِضَافِة, الرِيَاضَات مُمْكِن تْسَاعِدْنَا نْكَوِّن أَصْحَاب جَدِيدِين
In addition, sports can help us make new friends
بِالمُقَابِل, مُشَاهَدَة الرِيَاضَة تُعْتَبَر طَرِيقَة جَيِّدَة للتَوَاصُل مع العَائِلَة والأَصْحَاب.
On the other hand, watching sports is considered as a great way to connect with family and friends.
بِشَكِل عَام, إِضَافِة الرِيَاضَة بِرُوتِينَنَا اليَومِي يْزِيد السَعَادَة بِالَحَياة.
In general, including sport in our daily routine increases the happiness in the life

Gulf Dialect (Level 2)

الرياضة / Sport 🏟️

Un breve episodio sulle stranezze del web, ci sarebbe molto altro da dire ma non c'è fretta, sarà il per il prossimo episodio.

The Italian Miscellaneous Podcast🖐 

Internet è un posto strano!

Iniziamo il nuovo anno con l'arte dei macchiaioli. Buon ascolto!

Due parole d'arte in italiano

Giovanni Fattori - La Rotonda dei bagni Palmieri

“It’s sad to say, but there have been too many times I’ve seen terrible examples of plastic waste. The one time that really sticks in my mind was about 2 months ago when I visited a very famous and beautiful lake, just a stone's throw from my hometown. The whole area is famous for its natural beauty and scenery, and has become a very popular place for tourists to visit.




I went there with a couple of my friends, as we thought it would be the perfect place to enjoy some of the wonderful natural scenery the country has to offer.




I can still clearly remember as we took a path down to the lake, there were plastic bottles and bags tossed everywhere all the way down to the shore of the lake. The lake itself was in an even worse state, with plastic bags, bottles and discarded styrofoam boxes floating on the water, which was a pretty depressing sight. 




It was obvious that so many ignorant visitors to the lake bring along some food or drinks to have a picnic, leaving their waste behind, or just tossing it into the lake without a thought about the harm they are doing.




I was so disgusted and ashamed by the sight that we took lots of photos to post on some public social media groups, and try to bring some attention to this environmental mess. It was truly heartbreaking to see such a beautiful place destroyed by people's ignorance, as well as making my blood boil, that nobody seemed to care.

IELTS 85 Speaking

Describe a time you saw a lot of plastic waste-IELTS speaking part 2

In this podcast, I cover the history and meaning of the following idioms:
   * to be taken aback
   * by and large
   * to be left high and dry

For a transcript, please see https://www.difficultenglishexplained.com/nautical-idioms-part-1/.

Difficult English Explained

Nautical Idioms in English, Part 1:  What Do they Mean and Where Did They Come from?

In this episode we will talk about 【China's social media】, you will learn how to say 【social media，software，search engine】 ect. 
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It is recommended that you study in the following ways:
Step 1: Gist listening. Listen to get the main idea. (more times if necessary)
Step 2: Check the script and learn new words. 
Step 3: Listen and imitate as much as you can then retell the story.
Step 4: Write down what you hear if you want to practise writing.
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大家好，我是Yuli。欢迎收听我的播客。
今天想给大家介绍一下中国的社交媒体。
开始之前，我先让大家猜一下这几个名字分别是国外的哪个社交媒体。第一个、脸书；第二个、抖音；第三个、推特；第四个、油管。揭晓答案啦！第一个、脸书是facebook，face是脸，book是书，很直接的翻译。第二个、抖音是tiktok，在tiktok出现之前，中国就有抖音了。可以说tiktok是抖音的国际版本，不过这两个软件的内容是独立的，你在tiktok看不到抖音上的视频。第三个，推特是twitter，这个是按照发音翻译的。第四个、油管是youtube，这个翻译很有意思，you像汉字“油”的发音，tube中文是管，所以是发音加意思的翻译。你可能会问，instagram中文叫什么？其实没有中文的翻译，我们一般就叫ins。
那我们正式开始介绍中国的社交媒体软件吧。像脸书这样可以跟你认识的家人朋友们一起互动的软件，中国应该就是微信了。不过说起微信，它现在可不是一个简单的社交媒体软件，我们生活的方方面面都离不开它。除了用来和家人朋友，甚至是工作相关的人聊天，以及发照片视频分享自己的日常，我们也用来叫外卖，订酒店机票，预约医生等等。
抖音大家应该很熟悉了，跟tiktok差不多，用来看短视频。现在除了抖音，大家也经常在微信的“视频号”看短视频。跟推特类似的中国软件叫微博，很多年轻人喜欢在上面发表自己的想法。像油管一样可以看长视频的软件我们也有，叫bilibili，也叫b站。那像ins一样的软件有没有呢？当然有，这个软件叫小红书。在小红书你可以查到各种各样的信息，所以对年轻人来说，小红书也像一个搜索引擎。顺便说一下，国外最常用的搜索引擎是谷歌，也就是google，在中国我们一般用百度。
你每天用得最多的社交软件是什么？留言告诉我吧。我们下期见。
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社交/shè jiāo/socialize
媒体/méi tǐ/media
猜/cāi/guess
分别/fēn bié/respectively
揭晓/jiē xiǎo/reveal
答案/dá àn/answer
翻译/fān yì/translation
版本/bǎn běn/version
独立/dú lì/independent
按照/àn zhào/according to; base on
发音/fā yīn/pronunciation
管子/guǎn zi/tube
互动/hù dòng/interact
软件/ruǎn jiàn/software
分享/fēn xiǎng/share
预约/yù yuē/reservation
类似/lèi sì/similar
查/chá/check
搜索/sōu suǒ/search
引擎/yǐn qíng/engine