Deep Dive
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Hi, everybody. My name is Shawna, and this is the American English Podcast. My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States. Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting. Let's do it. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of
We're going to do a lot today. First, we're going to start with a joke. Then we'll go through the expression, go big or go home. And last but not least, we'll do a pronunciation exercise. As you probably know by now, expression episodes have two parts. In this first part, you're going to do all of the things I just mentioned.
And next week, you'll have access to part two, which is the cultural story or historical story of the United States. In that episode, we're going to be discussing...
the Vanderbilts, and the Biltmore Estate, which is actually located in Asheville, North Carolina, where I live. So I'm very familiar with the estate itself. My family has an annual membership to it. Be sure to stay tuned for part two. It'll be posted shortly. Let's start with a joke. Are you ready? Why did the elf bring a ladder to the bar?
Any ideas? Because he heard the drinks were on the house. Do you get it? What does on the house mean? It can mean something is physically on top of a house. So maybe on top of a roof, on top of the shingles, maybe on the chimney. It's up there, right? Or it can mean free.
If you are at a restaurant or a bar and someone says something is on the house, it means that it's paid for by the establishment. A bartender might say, oh, don't worry about it. This drink is on the house. In that case, you don't have to pay for that drink. It's on the house. Now, this elf heard that the drinks were on the house, which...
In normal situations, you would say, hey, okay, they're all free. But he took it literally. And so he brought a ladder. So those sort of stairs that you can walk up to get to a top of the house that are portable. You know what I'm talking about. A ladder. So he brought a ladder to the side of the house to get on top of the roof. So that's the punchline. Do you want to hear the joke one more time? Why did the elf bring a ladder to the bar?
Because he heard the drinks were on the house. Poor elf. The ladder was probably pretty big for him. Let's jump into the expression of the day. We'll go through each individual word first. To go is a verb. It means to move or travel from one place to another.
But it can also mean to proceed or advance. For example, go forward with the plan. Go do it. In other words, try your best. Just do it. Go. Big is an adjective. It means of considerable size, extent, or intensity. The house is big. It can also mean impressive or bold. They made a big entrance. A grand entrance. Or as a conjunction.
It connects alternatives or choices. You can have coffee or tea. And we have go again, to go big or go home. And home. Yes, the last one. Home is a noun. You know what home is. It's a place where someone lives. It's a residence. I'm going home after work. But metaphorically, it can also mean a point of retreat or failure.
he went home defeated. Go big or go home is an idiomatic expression, and it means to fully commit to an effort, to take bold actions or aim for greatness without holding back. It also implies that if you're not willing to fully commit and take a significant risk, then why bother trying at all? Go big or go home.
The phrase go big or go home really started becoming popular in sports and competitive environments. So you'll hear it a lot in extreme sports like motocross and skateboarding. Back in the 80s and 90s, athletes would take massive risks to pull off incredible stunts. And so this became a rallying cry. Go big or go home!
It popped up in advertising and marketing too. Companies used it to sell everything from athletic gear to energy drinks. Now, nowadays, it's often used to motivate other people to try their hardest or to go all in in whatever they're doing. It's actually sort of a mindset. And I feel, from my personal opinion, it's very deeply rooted in the culture here.
You got to drive for greatness, be brave, take big risks, and reject mediocrity. Go big or go home. Let's go through some examples of this idiom. We're going to start with an example of a name you really, really should know. Evil Knievel. A long time ago, there was this guy called Evil Knievel.
And I'm not sure if he was a global sensation, but in the U.S., he was a legendary daredevil. He did things that risked his life. He was known for his motorcycle stunts, such as jumping over 14 Greyhound buses in 1975, or later jumping over 13 double-decker buses at Wembley Stadium. He became a star.
And despite his fear, he had this mentality of go big or go home. In other words, be assertive, be dramatic, be bold. And he was. It made him a fantastic showman and an icon of courage. In his lifetime, Knievel broke over 433 bones and received a number of blood transfusions. But you'll still hear his name in pop culture.
He had a go big or go home type of mentality. He's the first person I thought of when I thought of this expression. But let's get outside of the sports world and talk about business ventures. This is so common in business because there are a lot of risks. A lot of times you need to take a leap of faith in business. Listen to this story.
I've always wanted to start my own bakery, but the idea of leaving my stable job was terrifying. I kept thinking, what if it doesn't work out? But then I realized if I didn't try now, I might never get the chance. So I emptied my savings, rented a small shop, and opened my doors with a grand launch party.
It was the scariest thing I've ever done, but it's true. Go big or go home. In other words, be bold, be brave. You need to be courageous in order to accomplish things. Go big or go home. For the third example, I'm going to tell someone else's story. Are you ready?
My partner and I were planning a trip to Italy, and we kept debating whether to stick to a budget, in other words, to limit the amount of spending. We're only going to spend $10,000. $10,000 is our budget. Oh, that's a pretty big budget. Or splurge on a few things.
So the opposite of sticking to a tight budget would mean to splurge, which is to spend money freely or extravagantly, often on something that feels luxurious, unnecessary, or indulgent. So this couple can either stick to a budget or splurge on a few things. Then I thought...
How often do we get to visit Italy? So we booked a gondola ride in Venice, stayed in a fancy boutique hotel, and even did a private wine tour in Tuscany. It cost more than we planned, but it was the trip of a lifetime. Sometimes you've just got to go big or go home. In other words, sometimes you just got to go all in. Just do it.
There are so many other examples I could give you today, but anytime there's a moment where you can either be bold or just not bold, you can use this expression. Maybe if you want to throw a really big wedding party.
You can say, come on, go big or go home. In other words, let's put everything into this wedding party. Or, hey, we're on vacation. We can go skydiving. You know, go big or go home. Let's just do it all. Let's give something 100% all of our effort. Be brave, be bold. You get the point. Let's go through the pronunciation exercise. We'll use the sentence, come on, go big or go home.
Repeat after me. Come on. Come on. Go big. Come on. Go big or go home. Come on. Go big or go home. Still getting around to that fix on your car? You got this. On eBay, you'll find millions of parts guaranteed to fit. Doesn't matter if it's a major engine repair or your first time swapping your windshield wipers.
eBay has that part you need ready to click perfectly into place for changes big and small. Loud or quiet. Find all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. But you already know that. eBay. Things. People. Love. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. Let's go through some conjugation. Repeat after me. I asked for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right?
You asked for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right? He asked for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right? She asked for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right? It asked for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right? We asked for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right?
They ask for a promotion and a big raise. Go big or go home, right? Right, so promotion might be an improvement to your position at work. And raise simply refers to the money. So usually promotions come with a raise, so an increase in your salary. But this person's being very bold. They're being very forward.
And they are just saying, hey, I want a promotion and a big raise. You just got to be bold, right? As I get older, I've really started to admire people who are brave, people who are willing to take risks. Like the example we heard with the girl and her bakery. Now, from the outside, it can seem like she's just fearless and bold by nature. But that might not be the case.
We have a proverb in English, courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to face it. Let me repeat that. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to face it. More importantly, we also say, face your fears and they will fade. In other words, the power of fear goes away when we confront it. So all we need is courage, right?
It seems silly, but as the year comes to a close, I encourage you to practice having courage. Whether that be talking to strangers in English, applying to a new job, having important conversations, ask yourself on a daily basis, how have I stepped out of my comfort zone today? Because how are we supposed to become more courageous if we don't practice?
For any normal human being, the fear of going big can be paralyzing, especially when we view the opposite, going home, as a sort of failure or just it's not worth it at all. But here's the thing. Entrepreneurs flip the script. They live by go big or go home. But with one twist.
failure isn't the enemy, it's the teacher. For them, big gutsy moves are a win-win. They either crush it or walk away with a lesson that sets them up for the next big move. So what do you think? Do you think it's good to have a go big or go home type of mentality? In what situations is it good and in which situations is it not?
I really like this idea of practicing being courageous because I think most of us are afraid of things. We are all a little bit skeptical. We're not as bold as we would like to be. And so I'm actually going to be typing this into AI later and asking for a sort of daily task for myself to become a bolder human being.
I think it's going to be very interesting. I'm going to definitely talk about it in a future episode.
Until then, be sure to stay tuned until next week's episode. Once again, we're going to be discussing the Vanderbilts and the Biltmore Estate, which fortunately is in Asheville, North Carolina. So I will try to go there before Christmas. It's just so that you can get some images of what it looks like at this time of year. There's a huge tree. There's such beautiful decoration from what I see in the photos. And...
Until then, bye.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast. Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how to speak like someone from the States. If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode, or you just want to support this podcast, make sure to sign up to premium content on AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Thanks and hope to see you soon.