AEE 2427: Make Your English Magical
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This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2427. Make your English magical. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay

McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app.

In English, we sometimes bring magic into our connection with four key phrases. Find out how to do this today.

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That's allearsenglish.com/fluenciescore. Hey, Lindsay, how are you today? Good, Michelle. How are you doing today? I'm good. Thanks. Lindsay, do you like magic or did you as a kid? Yeah. What kid doesn't like magic, right? Yes. What about you?

Yeah, of course. But Dan was actually a magician. I mean, not a real professional magician, but he did volunteering as a magician. He was super into magic. So he's been kind of trying to get our son into it. That's cool. That's so cool. I want to know all the tricks. I want to know all the tricks.

Yeah, exactly. I liked doing more card tricks. Those were the kinds of things. And now, it's so frustrating because do you have any magic tricks that you knew as a kid, maybe a card trick or something, and you have no idea anymore how you did it? Like, I have a few things like magic trick. I never knew one. I was always very impressed by the kids that had tricks. Yeah.

Dan is very good at like the things with your hands where you're lifting things. He's very good at doing the acting and things like that. I love that. I love that. Magic is a big part of being a kid and being an adult. I mean, I know people go to see David Copperfield, right?

I don't know if he's still performing or what's going on with him now, but he was a big show back in the day, right? Yeah, exactly. So magic is huge. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today. We are going to talk about expressions dealing with magic and how we actually use this word in or this idea in English conversations.

Yeah, it's true. And we do. I mean, it's so fun when we do these expressions where it comes from a sport or a hobby and the words seep right into the English language and we want to know them to make our English more magical. There we go. Ah, here we go. So before we get into that, guys, we just want to give you some results from a key poll we did back on episode 2391. And this episode was called Coffee or Tea?

No, no, no. Sorry. The key poll was coffee or tea. That episode was called How to Connect Over Coffee Habits in English. And the question was coffee or tea. So, Lindsay, what were the results? I'm actually a little surprised about the results. I thought we would have more tea, but it's 72% coffee. Coffee wins big time and 27% tea wins.

Wow, Michelle, interesting. Yeah, it is interesting. So good to know. Good to know. And you are actually going to London. So are you going to have some tea over there? Oh, I guess I will. Yeah, I want to like tea. I want to get into it.

So maybe someone, a British person will take me under their wing and we'll do like a high tea or something. I don't know, at the conference. I don't know. Maybe, maybe. That's good. You'll have to let us know. So, all right. So let's go over some of these. Before we actually start with the ones I wrote down, I also just want to say that sometimes we just say something is magic.

It's magic. Or for example, if a kid is asking how you do something, you might just say, it's magic. And then the kid will be like, what?

Exactly. So sometimes you might just hear like, oh, how do you do it? It's magic, right? So that's just one thing. But what's another thing that we might say dealing with magic? Okay. So the expression do the trick, right?

Right? Do the trick. Is that the one you were looking for, Michelle? Yeah. Exactly. So I don't know if this comes from magic trick, but it sounds like it to me. Sounds like it. Yep. So to do the trick is to get something, make something work, right? Something is done in order to get something to work. So what would be an example of that? You could say, oh no, there's a hole there. Okay, just glue it. That'll do the trick. And I will just want to emphasize how common this is.

Yeah. In everything. Okay, again, we're not now we're moving out of the realm of magic, performing magic, right guys, and we're talking about phrases we insert into everyday life. Something broke, we fix it, right? That'll do the trick. Very common, Michelle. Yeah, exactly. Or you could say just call him and tell him we will have it ready for tomorrow. I think that'll do the trick. We'll get the deadline extended. So

Perfect. And yeah, so in that case, you're talking about convincing someone, achieving kind of an interpersonal success there, right? Yes. What's the next one, Lindsay? Can't wave a magic wand. Okay, this means we can't get something to happen just like that, right? You can't just do magic and make something go away or make something appear. Okay. Yep, exactly. So this is, do

Do we say that you can wave a magic wand? I feel like this is more used in the negative sense of I can't wave a magic wand rather than like, oh, I mean, I mean, you might say, oh, let me wave my magic wand. But it's always kind of used about something difficult because we don't actually have magic wands. Right.

Right. I guess that's true. I think I might use it in both ways. Like, I wish someone were here in Denver. They're in some other city. I can't wave a magic wand and make them appear. But I guess you're saying that is negative, right? You can't do that. Right. Yeah, that is something that you can't do. Yeah. Yeah, I would say it's true.

More so with that, but rather than like, oh, I can wave my magic wand. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally agree with you. So it's usually about making something appear or disappear, but you can't wave a magic wand. We don't say, let me wave my magic wand and make this person appear. Not so much, right? No, no, not so much. So here's an example. I wish I could wave a magic wand and get rid of my allergies, but I can't. Right. So you might say this,

you know maybe you're on a hike and your allergies are starting to act up and someone's giving you a hard time and you're saying hey i can't do anything about this this is not my choice right yep exactly or what's another example i can't wave a magic wand and clean this place up we all need to work together i wish i could have a magic wand and clean my house with that maybe one day michelle ai will just

have a way of doing that you just snap your fingers and AI cleans up your house that's what I'm like that I need yeah that would be perfect let's see if you had a magic wand what would you do with it is there something like that you would get rid of or somewhere well I will just transport myself instantly to any place in the world I would just say oh I have some free time this afternoon I want to go to Paris and I would be in Paris and I would be in a cafe speaking French

And then I would go to Asia. You know, that's what I would do. What about you? Same. Yeah. If that were my, if I had a superpower, it would be, you know, to be able to do something like that. Right. And just for a few hours or something. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Very cool idea. Love it.

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all right michelle let's uh come back to it there are a few others remember these are ways that we bring magic into our daily speech right so work someone's magic right so work your magic so that means that someone should do something they're really good at right they it's you usually say when someone is kind of specialized at something um or i mean it

Yeah, like your magic. It's basically saying that you are good at this, right? Yes. Yeah. And I mean, I really believe that everyone has their unique kind of magic. It sounds kind of, I don't know, like extreme, but I think it's true. Everyone does something really well and it's just a matter of finding it. I mean, that's why we did StrengthsFinder, you know, here. And we try to look at that and what do we do uniquely well? What are your unique abilities?

Right? Your magic. Yeah. So you could say, oh, I got paint everywhere. I'm not the artist here. Can you work your magic and fix this? Yeah. And then the other place I would say outside of talents, unique talent is maybe mothers. Like, do you ever feel, I don't know if this is true or looking at it on the outside, but maybe sometimes a kid just wants their mom and

It's just you have that special touch. Yeah, you can calm the kid down or something. Do you think that's true maybe? It depends on the family. Yeah, I think moms have a little bit of magic. We're just coming off of Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, Michelle. Thank you. My daughter last night woke up twice. Yeah, there are some things that only the mother,

mom can do kind of kind of i mean yeah that's the other context where i could imagine it do we have any other other examples here yeah well let's say you are you are in a sports game and you know maybe you're losing maybe you're down a little bit and then you could say okay let's put tony in the game so he can work his magic right so maybe he's just really good um at you know getting points and he can do it so we know that he's the best one for the job yeah

Exactly. If there's a go to person like when I was growing up, it was the early days of the internet. Okay, that makes me sound old, but it was dial up AOL. You know, I remember my brother. Yep. My brother was a tech tech wizard, right? He worked at a tech shop, and he knew how to get the internet connected, and the internet would constantly go out. So we would call Ben to work his magic on the internet at the house, right? That's a great example. I mean, yeah, that is a wonderful example. There's always that

that person in the family that is better at tech, you know, like, oh, for me, it's I think it's my brother in law, you know, whenever we're over at my in-laws house, it's always Oh, we need to hook this up. Okay, get Justin. Okay, he needs to work his magic. Yep. It's so funny how that happens, right? It's always that one person. Yeah, designated person. All right, good stuff. So that's work your magic. We'll have

one more. Let's do one more. So this is the magic touch. So this is, I mean, in a similar way, this is, we're all kind of talking about strengths here, the ability to do something special, right?

Yeah, that's why I think this episode is inspiring, right? Because it lets us highlight what people do well. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, the magic touch is the special way of being able to do something or to fix something. So I can't get this jar open. Come on, you try. You might have the magic touch. Yeah, right. You might. And so that's just a little bit more mundane, but it's like even like a chef has like a magic touch. Can you finish off this cake? You have the magic touch on the baking skills, right? Yeah.

Or I'd ask Sherry to edit your paper. She's so good at it. She really has the magic touch. Yes. Yeah. So Lindsay, what is your magic that you can work? I don't know. Maybe it's podcasting, Michelle. Sometimes I think it might be actually. I actually love podcasting and I feel like I'm better in podcasting than writing or video or other skills. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe I'm still discovering it.

Well, that's great. You have a lot of strengths. Thanks, Michelle. What about you? Do you feel like anything specific, maybe a hobby or skill is your magic? You're going to laugh. Well, first of all, I thought of a good example, another good example of how you would use this. For example, my sister-in-law was trying to get all her necklaces untangled the other day. And her mom was there. And so she... It's like...

you might say, oh, can you work your magic and get these on undone? Or you have the magic touch when it comes to this, you know, when you have to get a bunch of the necklaces untangled. So that's what it makes me think of. So you're, you must have very precise fingers then because you need real, like I find that really, cause those, those chains are very thin, right? Well, she couldn't even get it done. Nobody could do it. So nobody had the magic touch. We couldn't read the magic wand, but it just makes me think of like something like that. Um, but my magic touch, I'm

going to say roasting vegetables. I love that. You put just the right amount of spices or salt. Oh, and I'm also known for good eggs. So yeah. So you could say, oh, I have the magic touch. I'll make it. Right. So roasting vegetables. Guys, if you need any roasted vegetables, you know who to call. It's me. Well, now I want to know because I had some really good roasted carrots the other night, but I want to know what you put on roasted carrots. You put like paprika or cumin or something. I did

salt and pepper. And, um, and I, I got this trader Joe's other spice that I was just trying out. And then I actually drizzled some tahini on it. Ooh,

Ooh, interesting. The sky's the limit when you're working your magic, Michelle. That's right. That's right. So should we do a role play before we head out today? Let's do it. So here we are wrapping presents for our friend's party. Okay, here we go. Oh no, I ripped the paper again. Can you work your magic and fix this?

Let's see. Okay, tape in that spot. Okay, that'll do the trick. Thank you. You have the magic touch, Lindsay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so where are all the bows? We didn't buy bows. Well, I thought we had bows. Michelle, I can't just wave a magic wand and have bows. We need to buy them. Okay, okay. I'll go get some.

That reminds me of wrapping presents as a kid. I used to get so frustrated. I was so bad at it. And I always felt like my parents had the magic touch when it came to wrapping presents. And then I just learned how to do it. You know, you just learn as a kid. My dad had the magic touch with wrapping the presents, but I just had to wrap a present recently. And I always...

not my talent, not my strength. If there was a strength spinder for if you're good at wrapping presents, that would not be on mine. Hilarious. It's so funny. And then I think about all the cultures I've visited where your presentation matters so much. Like in Japan, everything is so beautifully wrapped and perfect when you present it to someone. And then here in the US, we just throw a bunch of paper on there. Here you go. You know?

like a roll of scotch tape holding it together, you know, like with my, with my family, we don't even really wrap presents, especially on Dan's side. We just kind of like hand in a, in a plastic bag with a receipt taped on it, you know, it's fine. Yeah.

I love that. That's so good. It's a thought that matters. It's not the wrapping. Right. Exactly. Love it. All right. Let's get through the role play here, Michelle. So you said, oh, no, I ripped the paper again. Can you work your magic and fix this? Yep. And then you figured out where to put the tape and you said, OK, that'll do the trick.

Yes. And then you said, thank you. You have the magic touch. Yeah. And then I get all nervous because I can't find bows. And I'm saying, I thought we had bows. And you said, I can't just wave a magic wand and have bows. Oh,

Oh, so funny. I love it. What an inspiring episode, Michelle. I mean, before we get to our takeaway, let's let our listeners know where to go now to keep listening to the show. I did want to direct you guys to this episode because this was another theme episode. This was 2385 and it was everyday courtroom English. We had a lot of fun with that. And that one kind of reminded me of this one.

Yeah, these theme episodes are so fun and they're so real. We really do take words from everywhere, from all these different realms of life.

I think the key here, Michelle, is this is an opportunity to elevate someone, whether it's you're talking about a serious skill, a career, whether you're talking about quirky things like little skills, like unwinding necklaces or the little things. It doesn't matter, but you have a chance to elevate someone. And that actually even the littlest thing could make them feel special and important. So true. So true. Yeah.

All right. Well, I think that's a great takeaway for today, guys. Let us know what your magic is. And I wish we could do a fill in the blank for this point. I know. Well, we'll have to talk about another day, guys. Write to us and let us and let us know what it is. And thanks, Lindsay, for working your magic with me today. Absolutely. Thank you, Michelle. Have a good one. Bye. All right. Bye.

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