English Phrasal Verbs - Blurt Out, Boil Down To
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Hey, English learners, welcome to another phrasal verb episode. I hope you're doing great, and I hope that your English learning is going well. And in today's phrasal verb episode, we're going to look at two phrasal verbs. The first one is blurt out, and the second one is boil down to. So first, let's define these two phrasal verbs and see an example of each one.

So blurt out means to say something suddenly or impulsively without thinking. So you just suddenly say it out loud without really reflecting first. For example, I could say, John suddenly blurted out that he loved her.

So maybe John was talking to this girl and they were just talking about different things. And without really thinking it through, John just suddenly says out loud, I love you. He blurts this out. So that's a good example. And the other phrasal verb is boiled down to this means love.

to have something as its most essential element. Let me explain this further. So if something boils down to something else, that means that the most essential element of this thing is this other thing. For example, the debate boils down to whether people think we should or should not lower taxes.

So I'm saying that there's a debate and people are discussing many things when they debate this particular topic. But really, the essential element of this debate, the most important question is whether or not we should lower taxes. It all boils down to this question.

All the other details and related things are not as important as this particular question. It all boils down to this question. Okay? So now I'm going to talk about a couple different things. And while I talk, I'm going to use these two phrasal verbs over and over again in different sentences so that by the end of

of this episode, you should feel more comfortable understanding these phrasal verbs when you hear them, and maybe you'll even want to use them in your own speech. And of course, this is all just good listening practice as well. I always forget to mention that you have the transcript available in the description below each of these phrasal verb episodes. So just use this as listening practice as well.

Okay, the first topic I want to talk about is elementary school kids. When I was in elementary school, we were always taught to raise our hand whenever we wanted to say something in class. And not only that, we were supposed to raise our hand after reflecting on

about what we want to say. Because sometimes kids would just raise their hand when the teacher would ask a question and these kids didn't even know the answer to the question. They just wanted to raise their hand. So raising your hand is not the only thing. You're supposed to reflect first and see if you really have something to say and then you raise your hand.

That is what I was always taught. That's what other kids my age were taught in school. And I'm sure kids today are still taught to do this or something similar to this. So the reason why teachers emphasize this so much in schools is because kids constantly blurt out without reflecting.

If you have kids or if you work with kids, maybe you're even a teacher, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Kids blurt out, it's in their nature. It's not like a bad personality trait. It's just what kids do. And you have to teach them to control themselves. You have to teach them to reflect first and not just think.

say everything out loud, anything that comes to their mind without thinking about it first and just wanting to talk. Kids actually have to learn to control this natural impulse. And I'm not saying that every kid has this. Obviously, some people are shy. I was a really shy kid, so I didn't have this impulse when I was in class. But

But maybe just among my family or my friends, maybe I just blurted out without really thinking about what I wanted to say or thinking about the consequences of it. I can remember specific instances when I blurted things out that were not good things to say. They weren't appropriate. I didn't reflect first.

So I just wanted to talk. And kids like saying what they think when they're in a comfortable environment. And that's not bad. It's good to be able to speak your mind, as we say. But

We also need to learn to control ourselves, control our mouth, not always blurt out whenever we have the impulse to say something, especially in a classroom setting because there are other kids there and we need to show respect to the other classmates and not just talk every time we want to talk. And if we're not talking,

If everyone did that, that would be a very disorganized class, right? So elementary school kids are taught to raise their hands and oftentimes they'll get in trouble for blurting out.

Usually, if a kid blurts out once or twice, it's not a big deal. But if they make it a habit and they constantly blurt out without raising their hand, then there could be consequences.

I remember some of these consequences when I was in elementary school. We had like a card system. We had a green card, a yellow card, and a red card. Everyone started out the day with a green card.

And if they disobeyed or misbehaved or did something wrong, then they might get a yellow card. And then if they did something wrong after that, when I mean wrong, I mean something bad, something that's not allowed in that class. Then if they do that again, then they might get a red card.

And there are consequences when you get a red card. So maybe if a kid blurted out constantly and the teacher told that person not to do it, to raise their hand, they might even have gotten a yellow card because they blurted out too much or whatever. So sometimes kids get in trouble for blurting out in school. And so...

They go through this period of learning how to not just say whatever they want to say

at any moment out loud. I think kids go through a process where they learn how to raise their hand, not blurt out, control their mouth, and that's just a process they have to go through. So if you've ever worked with kids before, you probably know what I'm talking about. I don't work with kids, but I

I can see this with my son. He often blurts out when he's not...

supposed to probably, like we're trying to be quiet and he forgets that we're trying to be quiet in that moment and he just blurts out whatever thing comes into his brain. So that's normal. He's a little kid, but we of course also try to teach him the situations in which it's important to control his tongue and not just say things out loud, blurt

blurt out and to actually reflect first or know that it's not time to talk or scream something out. All right, now let me talk about one other thing.

I want to talk about the keys to success in any domain, just in general. It could be professionally, it could be in a particular hobby or sport or in your finances or self-improvement, self-development, any domain. Let's talk about what some people say are the keys to success.

If you search this on YouTube or on the internet, you're going to see many videos and content about the different things that people believe that we need to do in order to be successful in any domain. Some people say it all boils down to discipline.

So really the big key is discipline. If you have that, that will be the foundation of your success. And of course, discipline is important. I don't think anyone would disregard the importance of discipline. Even if you don't think that it all boils down to discipline, you probably agree with the idea that if

If you have no discipline in your life, that's going to make it hard for you to achieve your goals, right? So when someone is disciplined enough,

when they're trying to do something, this means that they will do that thing when they're supposed to do it and follow their routine and not let themselves get distracted and get off track. They'll probably continue with the process. So that's really important for success, in my opinion. Does it all boil down to discipline?

Probably not, but that is one of the keys, I think.

Other people say that it all boils down to perseverance, meaning there are going to be good times and bad times along the journey towards whatever goal you have. And it's easy to go through the good times. Everyone likes the good times. But how do you respond when the bad times arrive, when complications arise, when

What do you do? And if you are able to persevere, then you can get through the bad times. You can weather the storm, as we say, meaning you survive through these hard parts, and then it'll get easier again after that. If you're able to do that, if you have that habit of persevering,

continuing on, even though times are hard, the process is getting difficult. If you can do that, then we would say you are perseverant. You're someone who has perseverance. I think this is really important because throughout

Any process that we might go through to accomplish any goal, there will be hard times. That's just life, okay? Life is not just 100% easy. And even if you're trying to achieve a goal in a domain that you really like, let's say you really love programming, coding, and you're trying to reach a certain goal

in that domain, even though you really like that, you're going to go through difficult times, times when you're frustrated or something isn't really working for you or you lose motivation or whatever it might be. And if you can persevere through those periods, that's really going to help you achieve your goal. So I think perseverance is really important.

Does success boil down to perseverance?

I don't know about that. So another thing that a lot of people talk about is desire. Some people say that success boils down to how much you really want it. It boils down to your desire. If you really desire that achievement, if you really, really want to,

reach this level or whatever, then you will do it. You just have to have enough desire and will. And desire is really important.

I think that a lot of people kind of emphasize discipline and perseverance, and they kind of downplay desire and motivation when it comes to different things. But I don't agree with that entirely. I do agree that...

Without discipline and perseverance, you're probably not going to achieve your goal if it's a very ambitious goal. But I also think that desire and motivation are probably equally as important or in some cases more important. So when it comes to language learning, if you're learning a language that you don't actually want to learn,

your process of learning it is actually going to be slower than, let's say, you were learning a language that you actually desire to learn. Just that one factor can really change things. And maybe it's not just that you really want to learn it. Maybe you have a desire because it's just so essential for

for you. Like it's going to make or break your career, as we say. And maybe you don't have a natural desire, but you do have this desire because of your career. That desire can really push you to make progress in that language. I think desire and motivation are really important.

But does it all boil down to those things? I don't know. Probably not. One other thing that people sometimes say is that it all boils down to following the right path, following the right method, doing it the right way. They might say that if you follow these steps, you will succeed. And for many things,

A method, a well-defined path is essential. Like if you don't know the steps you need to take in order to achieve a certain goal, you're not going to achieve it. So I think in many cases, in most cases, a very well-defined path, a very well-defined method, a roadmap is really important or essential.

And if someone can show you that method and that roadmap,

you are much more likely to have success because you're following the path that has already led other people to success instead of needing to create your own path, which is sometimes good. But oftentimes it means that it's going to be harder. You're going to make some mistakes because sometimes

You're not learning from other people's mistakes and following the roadmap according to them. So I think a lot of times this is very important. Sometimes it's important to follow your own path. It depends. I think, though, that having a good roadmap, a good method that you can get from someone who has succeeded is usually really important, though.

But does success boil down to just this? Probably not.

I personally think it's a combination of all of these things and maybe some other things as well. I don't think success just boils down to one thing. I think there are multiple elements and keys that work together to help make someone successful. So I view it as a combination of things.

Not just that success boils down to one of these things. Okay.

All right, I hope that as I was talking, you were able to hear these phrasal verbs said again and again, and hopefully now you know them, and maybe you can even use them in your own sentence. And I want to encourage you to check out my advanced podcast episodes in which I speak fast, not like in these phrasal verb episodes or my normal episodes in which I speak slowly and clearly. In the advanced episodes,

I speak normally. So that's great practice for your listening. If you want those, the link to sign up is down below. And please check out my US Conversations podcast. People usually love this when they start listening to it. In this podcast, I talk to people from all over the US about different topics. It's a lot of fun and it's great practice for your listening. So if you want that, the link to sign up is also down below.

And as always, please give this podcast a five-star rating and write a review if you can. I really appreciate that. All right. Thank you for listening to this phrasal verb episode, and I'll talk to you in the next one.