Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TOUGH SLEDDING and A BIT NIPPY

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase tough sledding. Sledding is of course what my kids are doing behind me right here. They're going down the hill on sleds. If you stick around 'til the end of the video, I'll take you down on a sled. So this is a real English sentence, or a real English phrase, or, sorry, it's a real Canadian phrase. When we say something is tough sledding, we mean it's hard work. Sometimes at work, I might have a project that I have to work on and I know it's going to be difficult, and I might say, "Oh, this project's going to be tough sledding." So tough sledding simply means that something's going to be hard to do. We use this in life as well. We could say something like, you know, "Jim and Joey aren't getting along right now. Their friendship isn't going very well. It's real, it's tough sledding for them right now." So again, tough sledding means that things aren't going well or that it's really hard.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase a bit nippy. This is a kind of a funny phrase that we use when we describe the temperature outside. If you go outside and it's a little bit cold, we'll say, "Oh it's a bit nippy outside," or, "It's a little bit nippy outside." So it means it's not really cold. If it's really cold, we would say it's freezing cold outside, or it's freezing outside. But sometimes in the fall or spring, you go outside, and you expect it to be warm, and it's actually a bit nippy. So it's just a little colder than you were expecting.

So once again, tough sledding is whenever you have a time in life or at work where things are a little bit hard or a little bit rough or a little bit tough, when the going is just a little bit difficult. And if you say a bit nippy, it means that it's a little bit cold outside.

You should stick around, though. I will, I'll take you down sled in a minute, but let's look at a comment from a previous video. Hopefully I have it here in my pocket. Pretty sure I did. It's from Natalia. I remembered that much, but I got my gloves on again, so it's hard to get it open. Here we go. Natalia Illusion says, "I remember I worked in one company and it was obligatory to go to corporate parties there. Colleagues were angry and were not interested in each other. I only attended one party there, and I slipped out in the middle of the party." My response was, "Work parties can be interesting. I do not really enjoy them myself. I enjoy having coffee with coworkers, but parties can be awkward."

So Natalia, using the phrase slipped out. So she kind of, without people knowing, she slipped out of the party and she probably went home or maybe to a better party. And then I used the phrase, I used the word interesting, but not in a positive way. Sometimes in English, when you say something is interesting, you just mean it's curious or it's weird or strange. So I said, "Work parties can be interesting, but they can also be awkward." I don't enjoy work parties. I really don't. I really like just having a cup of coffee with a couple coworkers or colleagues. I like small meetings. I don't like really big meetings, because I find it's hard to talk and it's hard to have good conversations.

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Learn the English Phrases TOUGH SLEDDING and A BIT NIPPY