We don’t like making trouble at Culips, but we do like making episodes about it! The expressions in today’s episode are all about causing problems and making changes when everything was just fine to begin with. Are you someone who likes to stir the pot? Or would you rather stick with the status quo when things are already working well? Either way, check out this episode to know when someone’s making waves.
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Expressions included in the learning materials:
- So far so good
- To be big on something
- To rock the boat
- Seasick
- To start from scratch
- To stick to something
- To stir the pot
- Tempers flare
- To get in someone’s head
- To make waves
- To hop to it
Sample transcript:
Harp: Yes. So let’s get started.
Maura: So today our expressions have to do with causing a negative change to something that seemed to be fine.
Harp: Yeah. So they’re all about disruptions to something that seemed to be fine before.
Maura: Right. We use these expressions to mean that someone is causing trouble. Sometimes people cause trouble accidentally, but sometimes people cause trouble on purpose, too.
Harp: Yeah. So we’re gonna look at some expressions related to this.
Maura: All right. The first expression in this episode is to rock the boat.
Harp: Yes. To rock the boat.
Maura: Mmhmm. To rock the boat means to cause trouble.
Harp: Yeah. To rock the boat, it means to disturb something that was stable and calm.
Maura: Right. If you rock the boat, you cause problems. And this could be especially in a place where people don’t want to have problems. They don’t want anything to change.
Harp: So when you rock the boat, you cause trouble in a situation.
Maura: Right. And this usually upsets people, which makes sense, because not many people like trouble.
Harp: Nope. That’s definitely true.
Maura: You know, this expression makes me think about the actual rocking of a boat. Because if you’re in a boat, especially a small boat, if it starts to rock, it can cause trouble because water could get in the boat or the boat could flip over, and that would be very dangerous.
Harp: Yeah. Or people could start to feel seasick. It can cause a lot of trouble.
Maura: Right. So, when a boat starts to rock, it’s not a good thing; in the actual sense and also in this expression.
Podcast/Learning Materials: Culips English Podcast, Photo Culips