180 - Expression: To Keep One's Head Above Water
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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. Hello, hello. Welcome back. How are you?

How's life wherever you are in the world? I hope you're okay. It's winter now in Asheville, North Carolina, and the days are icy cold. Right now I'm looking outside my window and there's frost covering the leaves and the grass. We have a lot of oak trees in our front yard. And early in the morning, like right now,

I watch the squirrels chase each other up the tree trunks. I still see a lot of birds flying around. It's very much nature here in the Appalachians. And I have no idea how these animals stay warm, but power to them. I'm just happy to be inside with a heater and a cup of warm tea. Now, today we'll be going through the common English expression to keep one's head above water.

This is a two-part episode. In part two, which will be posted next week, we'll talk about a woman who swam from Cuba to Florida. Honestly, I had no idea that was possible. I actually didn't know much about open water marathon swimming until I started researching about Diana Nyad.

She's so fascinating. I'm so impressed. Her story is filled with adventure. It's mind-blowing, honestly. So stay tuned until next week. You have to hear that story. As usual with expression episodes, we'll start with a joke. Then we'll go through examples to make you feel comfortable using the popular idiom.

which once again, that is to keep one's head above water.

Then we'll end with a pronunciation exercise. If you would like the premium content that goes along with this lesson, including a quiz, the PDF transcript, and premium podcast reader to work on your pronunciation, be sure to sign up at AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. You can also find the links in the episode notes.

Without further ado, let's begin with a joke. Are you ready? What did the hat say to the head? Do you know? You stay here and I'll go on ahead. Do you get it? This one was easy, wasn't it? This joke has a play on words, specifically a pun involving the phrase, go on ahead.

A hat is a type of headwear that literally goes on top of a head. You may put a baseball cap on your head when it's hot outside, a cowboy hat if you're going line dancing. I always wear a hat to avoid skin damage. It's true. Now, the phrase to go on a head can also mean to proceed forward.

If you come to Disneyland with me and want to go on a ride that I'm afraid of, I might say, go on ahead. I'll go grab a bite to eat. In other words, continue without me or proceed without me. Go on ahead. So there are two meanings of go on ahead. To proceed and to literally be on top of a head, which is the top of our body.

where our scalp is and our hair is. Let's hear the joke one last time. What did the hat say to the head? You stay here and I'll go on ahead. All right. Hope you enjoyed the pun and that I wasn't punishing you. Anyway, do you wear hats regularly? Honestly, right now, because it's so cold outside, I'm such a wimp. I'm not very strong. My go-to hat is a beanie.

A beanie is like a tight-knit sock, sort of. For the top of your head, it protects your ears and your head from the cold. It's called a beanie. Actually, it sort of looks like a bean if you were to cut a bean in half. Never thought of that before, but it's true. Let's move on from my tangent. We're going to talk about the phrase to keep one's head above water.

We'll go through each individual word first. To keep means to maintain, preserve, or hold on to something without losing it. She worked hard to keep her promises to her family. Ones is a placeholder here. It's for a possessive pronoun. So my, your, his, her, it's, our, or their.

And so I might fill this ones in with your. Don't forget to bring your umbrella. It might rain. Or keep your head above water. You're going to be fine. Then we had head, which is the uppermost part of the human body containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Also used metaphorically to mean intellect or leadership.

He used his head to solve the tricky puzzle. Above means in a higher position than something else, higher than. The clouds floated peacefully above the mountains. And water is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless liquid that forms the seas, rivers, lakes, and rain. It's essential for life.

Please drink enough water to stay hydrated on hot days. Now, these words together form the idiom to keep one's head above water. Imagine you are in a pool with your head above the water. When your head is above the water, you have access to oxygen. You can breathe. You can survive.

If you get stuck underwater for too long, you won't have access to oxygen and you will drown. D-R-O-W-N. Drown. According to ChatGPT, this idiom, to keep one's head above water, originates from that physical act of swimming or staying afloat in water.

A long time ago, especially in maritime cultures, drowning was a common fear, and the phrase was likely used literally to describe staying afloat in order to avoid drowning.

Over time, the idiom took on a figurative meaning. Today, when someone says they're keeping their head above water, it means they're surviving a difficult situation, maybe a financial situation or an emotional struggle. So you know how sometimes people say, how's it going? And someone else might respond, oh, it's going.

In other words, it's moving. I'm not thriving. It's just moving along. In that situation, they could also say, I'm keeping my head above water. I'm surviving. The phrase is typically used to describe moments like that. When someone is maintaining a minimal standard of living or coping with overwhelming challenges. I'm keeping my head above water.

Let's go through a few real-life situations using this expression. Example number one. Last year, at the end of September, my area of North Carolina was hit by one of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history. It caused damage like I've never seen and affected my immediate environment.

I haven't talked about it on this podcast because it's been hard. I'm still trying to figure out how to make an episode like that lighthearted and upbeat. I don't want it to be a bummer or traumatic. So in any case, if you had asked me last year how I was doing at the end of the year, I would have said, well, I'm keeping my head above water. In other words, I'm surviving. I'm coping.

You see, it's not like, oh, I'm doing really well. It's the bare minimum. I'm moving along. I'm alive. Now, I know it sounds dramatic, but the situation doesn't need to be devastating like a hurricane to use this expression. Many people simply use it as a response to, how are you? Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life.

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You planned a trip to Europe for the summer and are so excited. But then your boss is insistent that you finish a lot of work before you leave. You have to work overtime. And then when you get home, your significant other wants you to pack, clean, and spend time with the family. There are not enough hours in the day to do everything. So you feel overwhelmed.

it feels hard to keep your head above water. In other words, it feels hard to cope, to get by, or to manage surviving. But you are resilient, and soon enough, you'll be eating croissants on a beach in southern France. So between work, family, and chores, you were barely able to keep your head above water.

At times, it can be hard for all of us to keep our heads above water. But as we say in English, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. In other words, when the situation gets difficult, strong, resilient people work harder and get through those times. They will not sink. They will survive. And eventually, hopefully, they will thrive.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going, right? That second tough, of course, refers to the people, the tough people. I've mentioned two emotional examples. The other common way to use this is in situations where surviving is related to finances. A few weeks ago, I posted an episode about the expression, go big or go home.

And I talked about a girl who took a loan from the bank to open a bakery. She decided to go all in and be very brave and bold. She opened her own bakery. Now, great for her. Now, let's imagine that same girl is experiencing her first year in business. During high season, her business is bustling. Every day, people come in to buy fresh loaves of bread.

cardamom buns and cinnamon rolls, along with freshly brewed coffee. But during the low season, there are fewer tourists, or much fewer tourists. We could say that during the low season, she relies on local, loyal customers to keep her head above water. In other words, she needs those local customers to keep her business alive.

to survive financially. She needs them to keep her head above water. So I think it should be fairly clear now when and how you can use this. I'll read a few other quick examples to drive this point home. Listen to these. The coursework was so demanding that he had to cut back on social activities to keep his head above water.

After the unexpected medical bills, they're doing everything they can just to keep their heads above water. All right, so can you remember a time when you were coping or just managing to survive overwhelm or financial difficulty? Try to create an example sentence using this expression.

And if you would like to get it corrected, you can post that example on my Instagram on this week's post at American English Podcast. Let's move on to the pronunciation exercise. And I'm excited about this one because I'll heavily focus on possessive pronouns. My, your, his, her, its, our, their, their.

A few of these can be reduced, which means that when we're speaking at a regular speed with friends or with family members, and these specific words are not stressed in the sentence, then we'll eat them. We'll make them shorter, quicker. Pay attention. See if you can figure out which ones are reduced. We'll start with the statement, I'm just trying to keep my head above water. Repeat after me.

I'm just trying. I'm just trying to keep. I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I'm just trying to keep my head above water. And the conjugation, repeat after me. I keep my head above water. You keep your head above water. She keeps her head above water. He keeps his head above water. It keeps its head above water. We keep our heads above water.

They keep their heads above water. Could you catch which words were reduced? Your often sounds like your. You keep your head above water. You keep your. You keep your head above water. Her sounds like er, er. She keeps her. She keeps her head above water. And his. He keeps his head above water. It almost sounds like is rather than his.

He keeps his head above water. All right, pay attention to native speakers when they chat or if you're watching your favorite TV show. See if you can catch some of these reduced forms in conversation. His and her specifically will be reduced on an unstressed word when a consonant sound precedes it. Keeps ends in what letter?

An S, which is a consonant sound. So it runs straight into his or her. Keepses. Keepser. Let's go through a few more examples. The past tense of keep is kept. Kept also ends in a consonant sound. Tt. He kept his beanie on during the snowstorm. She kept her beanie on during the snowstorm. Kept is kepter.

He left his keys at home. She left her keys at home. Left his, left her. Now these T's can sometimes sound like flap T's, so like soft D's.

which if you're familiar with American English pronunciation rules, you know that our T's sound like flap T's or D sounds when they appear between vowel sounds like butter or water. Rather than saying butter or water, we say butter or water because of those vowels around that T.

We also do this when the T falls in an unstressed syllable. All right? So you might hear left-iz, left-iz, or left-er, left-er. So we get rid of that H, and it can sound like a D. In any case, awareness always comes first. And over time, with some work, you can also start inserting these reduced forms into your own speech. ♪

I hope you enjoyed that lesson. Once again, be sure to stay tuned for next week's episode. I'm currently in the middle of Diana Nyad's memoir, and I've already watched the film on Netflix about her, Nyad, and I've watched some interviews and her TED Talks, and I'm like so into her story, and I think you guys are going to really like it. So be sure to stay tuned for that.

Once again, if you want to get the transcript, podcast reader, and quiz for this lesson, be sure to sign up to premium content at AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. This lesson is part of season four. Enjoy the rest of your day.

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.

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