I've got a question I'd like to ask you. And here's the question: have you ever made a mistake, but instead of getting in trouble or causing yourself to have a difficult time because of that mistake, things actually turned out for the best? Life's unpredictable and it frequently doesn't go according to plan. Now, usually that causes us to feel stressed out or causes problems. But sometimes, just sometimes, when life doesn't go according to plan, it actually makes our lives a lot easier. I'm happy to say that this exact situation happened to me last week, I made a mistake. I messed up, but it ended up working out well for me, it was a good mistake to make looking back at things in retrospect. I'll tell you the whole story here in just a moment, but before I do, I'm going to quickly introduce myself.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Andrew, and this is a bonus episode of the Culips English Podcast. Here at Culips, we make audio lessons for intermediate to advanced English learners that are designed to help you improve your communication skills and get you closer to reaching your fluency goals. There's an absolutely free interactive transcript for this episode, that you can get by clicking the link in the description or by visiting our website Culips.com.

So, back to the story of my mistake, turning out for the best. Well, if you listened to last week's bonus episode, you'll know that I was supposed to run in a half marathon last week. Even though I didn't really want to do it and I didn't feel like I was in very good shape, I wasn't about to let the $35 registration fee go to waste, and decided to definitely participate in the race, even if I had to take it slow and easy. So, the race was on Sunday morning, I woke up early, around 6:30 in the morning and got ready. I put on the clothes I had laid out the night before, I took a shower, and I had a couple of cups of coffee. I did some light stretching and some foam rolling, and then it was time to leave. By this time, it was probably around 7:30 in the morning. I was under the impression that the race started at 8:40am. So, leaving at 7:30 should have left me plenty of time to arrive and start the race with no issues.

I was under that impression. I was under the impression that the race started at 8:40. That's a great phrase to memorize, if you haven't already: I was under the impression that…. We use it to communicate that we think or believe that something is true, even if it's wrong or incorrect. So, I thought the race started at 8:40 in the morning. I was under the impression that the race started at 8:40 in the morning, but I later found out that that info was totally wrong. I have no idea where I read that or where I saw that the race was supposed to start at 8:40am. But in reality, I was supposed to have arrived at the stadium for the race by 8am, not 8:40am.

Anyways, at the time, I didn't know that, and I actually thought I was going to arrive at the stadium with lots of time before the race started. So, I left my place around 7:30am and I lightly jogged the kilometer or so from my house to the nearest subway station, just so I could warm up a little bit. And then, I caught the subway. Took me about 50 minutes or so to arrive, and I got to my destination which was Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, where the starting line was. And for listeners who are unfamiliar with Seoul, Jamsil Stadium is a really big stadium in southern Seoul, pretty close to Gangnam, the famous neighborhood, and as far as I know, all right, it wasn't around at the time here in Seoul, but as far as I know, it was the main stadium of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. So, it was an awesome place for the starting line of the race. So, I finally arrived to this Jamsil Sports Complex, there are many buildings like gyms and baseball stadiums, tennis courts, etc. etc. It's a big sports complex.

I finally arrived there, and as I was leaving the subway and exiting the station to head towards the stadium, I heard an announcement in the distance, and it said something like, "Good luck half-marathon runners, go, go, go!" And when I got over the subway station, I saw all of these runners whizzing by me and they were all wearing the half-marathon bibs. You see, there were several different categories of races at this event, there was a full marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k. So, there were four different events all happening on the same day. So, I was like, "Ahhh, I missed the start, oh my god!" So, I quickly ran the opposite direction of all the half marathoners, I had to go back toward the stadium, and they were all going out of the stadium to start their race. Maybe you're wondering why I just didn't jump in and start running with them. Well, that would be cheating, first of all. And also, it's important that I start the race at the official start line, because the race organizers gave me a little chip that I put in my shoe. And when I crossed the starting line, then that officially tracks my time. It's very high tech, very cool.

So, I felt like a salmon swimming upstream as I went the opposite way of all the other runners. The problem was I was actually pretty far away from the stadium. I had to run, it felt like, for around 10 minutes just to get inside of the stadium. But I wasn't too stressed out. I wasn't planning to win the race or anything like that. I just wanted to enjoy the run, have a nice morning outside, spending it with some other runners. So, I wasn't stressed out and I just tried to make my way to the start line quickly. I finally arrived at the stadium, I got inside, and I was shocked with how many people were there. You see, the start times of the races are staggered. So, the full marathoners departed first, and then the half marathoners second, and then finally, all of the runners who would be running the five and 10k races go last. And judging by how many people were in the stadium, the 5k and the 10k events are very popular. There were already so many people lined up to start the five and 10k runs, that I couldn't make it to the start line. And I tried to push and sneak and weasel my way to the front, but there were just too many people I couldn't pass. So, I just decided to wait and start the race with all of the people running the 10k. There was a clock counting down the 10k start time and it was only a few moments away. So, I thought, "Hey, once they let us go, then I can just run fast for a little bit, catch up with the half marathoners, and then it will all be good. I could slow down my pace and just enjoy the race."

So, I just waited for the 10k race to start. It was a nice atmosphere in the stadium. It was great to be participating in a run like this again. It was my first one since the Corona pandemic started. So, I was just enjoying the vibe of the stadium. And then finally, the race started. There was a countdown, 10-9-8… and then finally go! Some fireworks went off! It was a big deal. And we were off, we started running. But like I said, there were so many people participating in this event. And I was far back in the pack in the group of people that even after the race started, I couldn't even cross the start line for several minutes. And then of course, I was stuck in a pack of hundreds of other runners, and we were all moving at a snail's pace. Moving at a snail's pace. That's a funny idiomatic expression. I'm sure you can guess the meaning of it. If you're moving at a snail's pace, it means you're moving extremely slowly, just like a snail does. So finally, after about two kilometers of very slow jogging, things finally started to clear up and I was able to pick up my speed and try to catch the half marathoners.

Now I have to say that the racecourse was awesome. The weather was beautiful. It was a sunny, bright, and warm Sunday morning. Something that you don't really expect for mid-November here in Seoul, but it was welcome, nonetheless. And the racecourse went past some of Seoul's famous landmarks like the towering Lotte World Tower, which is a 123-storey skyscraper. And as I hit the three-kilometer mark or so, I started to wonder what was up. I was expecting that I would have caught up to some of the slower half marathoners by then, but I didn't even see one. I also started to get a little worried about the course I was on. I knew that the half marathon was supposed to head to the east of the stadium, but I was running north. And I thought there must be a turn soon or something where the 10k course and the half course separated. So, I just kept going. But the turn off never came! Either I missed it earlier, when I was stuck in the middle of all those other runners at the start of the race. Or maybe the staff had changed the course after all of the half marathoners had passed through? I'm not sure what happened. But either way, at that point, I realized that I wouldn't be running a half marathon that day. Instead, I'd only be running a 10-kilometer race.

And I was totally OK with that. In fact, I felt like the universe had given me a little gift. To be honest, I felt OK that morning, and I think I would have been able to complete the half marathon relatively painlessly if I had to. But knowing I'd only have to do a 10k race instead of a half marathon at that moment, was a great feeling. It's like when you wake up early on the weekend, but then you realize that you can go back to sleep for a couple of more hours, because you don't have to go to work that day. Do you know that feeling I'm talking about? It's just a nice, reassuring, comforting feeling. So, even though I messed up, and I was late for the race, I finished the race in just over 41 minutes. It wasn't a fast race by any means, but I enjoyed a wonderful morning, running through the streets of Seoul. The best part of the course was running over the Han River by crossing the Jamsil Bridge. The whole bridge was shut down to traffic. So, I got to see a perspective of the river and a view of the city that I had never seen before, and it just looked beautiful and awesome in the morning light.

So, that was it for my race, although the whole thing was a bit of a disaster, from me forgetting that I registered to do it, to arriving to it late. In the end, it was a great experience. And I'm definitely going to try and do it again next year. Only next time, I'll be more prepared, and I won't be late.

Have you been watching the World Cup? I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I enjoy watching soccer during big international events like the World Cup or the Olympics. Soccer is a truly global sport and it's fantastic that so many people from all corners of the earth can come together and unite because of the game. And in my opinion, there are not too many other sports that can do that in the same way, especially team sports. I also like how in the World Cup, it's not only the big powerful countries that get to participate. small countries like Wales, Uruguay, and Croatia are playing in this World Cup and they're all small countries. I think maybe Croatia is the biggest with a population of around 5 million people or so. So, it's a small country and Uruguay and Wales are even smaller.

In fact, I watched one of the Uruguay games last week when they played South Korea. Even though that game ended in a scoreless draw, it was a fun game to watch and there were exciting chances for both sides. Unfortunately, neither team were able to capitalize on the opportunities that they had. Oh! I like that expression. That's a great phrasal verb. To capitalize on an opportunity or to capitalize on something. It means to take advantage of something. So, both South Korea and Uruguay had opportunities to score, but they were unable to capitalize and actually score a goal and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

For the last couple of World Cups, I've cheered for South Korea. I've lived in Korea now for almost a decade and this place really is starting to feel like home. And I love it when Korea is successful. I love seeing this country succeed. Korean soccer fans are also very, very passionate, and they're really fun to watch games with. I've never had any problem at all cheering for the Korean team because Canada historically has been a terrible soccer team. Well, the men's team at least. The Canadian Women's team rules. They're very good. They won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year. They're an amazing soccer squad. But the men on the other hand, they're not so great. It puzzles me why Canada is bad at soccer. Growing up, I played soccer from elementary school until I was around 13 or 14 years old. So, I learned how to play the game and I always enjoyed playing it. And so did many other kids in my neighborhood. It's a sport that tons of kids play in Canada. But I guess we just don't have a system in place to help develop the young talent and the young players into professional players. And on top of that, I think most kids in Canada dream about being pro hockey players, not pro soccer players. So, I think if you're a talented athlete in Canada, probably you'd be more tempted to play hockey than play soccer. That's just my gut feeling at least. And historically, Canada's always had a bad international men's team, at least for my whole life.

But I'm happy to report it's not the case anymore. We finally have a decent soccer team in Canada, and they made the World Cup this year! To be honest, I don't even care if we come in last place in the World Cup. Just making it was an achievement in itself and I'm proud of the team for doing that. Canada played their first game last week against Belgium. I didn't watch the game because it started at 4am here in Seoul. It's just a little too early for me to wake up for a soccer game. Unfortunately, the games that take place in the evening in Qatar, the host nation, air here in Seoul either at 1am in the morning, or 4am in the morning, so they're difficult to watch. The good news is though, that the afternoon games in Qatar are perfect because they start at 7pm or 10pm local time, which is very convenient for me to watch.

Anyway, Canada played Belgium, and Belgium, as far as I know, are a very good team. They are ranked as the second-best team going into the World Cup tournament. And what I heard from my friends who watched the game was that Canada played really well, but that they weren't able to capitalize on the opportunities that were given to them. In particular, they missed a penalty kick, which I couldn't believe. In soccer, a penalty kick is almost a free goal! So, to miss that was just heartbreaking. And in the end, Belgium was able to beat Canada one to nothing, or as the soccer announcers on the BBC say, one to nil, and we lost the game. Like I said, though, my expectations for the Canadian team are very low. And I'm just happy to be able to cheer for both Korea and for Canada. Could you imagine if they both made it into the final, then who would I cheer for? I'd be very conflicted. I won't lose any sleep worrying about that though, because the odds of that happening are slim to none. Anyway, I'm sure a lot of the Culips community around the world is enjoying the World Cup at this moment too. And I hope that the team that you're cheering for has great success, and that they play some entertaining games that you can enjoy.

I have a couple of Culips updates that I want to pass along to you. First of all, we just released a brand-new Simplified Speech episode. And in it, Kassy and I talk all about amusement parks. I think it's a fun episode because Kassy is a huge amusement park fan. On the other hand, I don't really like them too much. So, it made for a fun episode, and you should definitely all check it out if you haven't studied with that one yet. Now this episode, like all of our regular episodes, comes with a study guide and transcript for all Culips members. However, for this episode, we've also made the interactive transcript free for everyone to study with, even if you're not a member. And the reason for that is we would love to have everyone's feedback about our new interactive transcript feature. We're still trying to work out the bugs and trying to make it perfect. And your comments and suggestions can help us to do that. So even if you're not a Culips member, please check out that episode Simplified Speech 160 about amusement parks and study with it using the interactive transcript. And after you've done that, please send me a quick message. My email is andrew@culips.com and let me know what your experience was like.

The second announcement is about the next Culips live stream. Maybe you don't know, but I host a live stream for the Culips member community each month. The live streams are always really fun. And it's great to hang out with many of our members and practice English together during the live streams. The next stream will be happening on December 6th at 7:30pm Korean Standard Time, and I'm planning some special surprises for this stream, which I hope will be fun. So, to join the stream, you just have to be a Culips member, and you can become a member by visiting our website and signing up. If you're already a member, then just log into your account and follow the link from the dashboard to participate and join in on the live stream fun.

And now it's time for this week's vocabulary lesson.

Earlier in this episode, I was talking about the World Cup and thinking about if Canada and South Korea met in the finals. I also said that I think the chance that that happens is slim to none. Slim to none. Can you guess what that means from the context? If you guessed that it means almost zero or almost nothing, then great job, you are correct. In fact, we use the word slim when talking about a very low possibility of something happening. Like, take for example, if you asked me a question, like, "Hey Andrew, does it snow often in Vancouver in September?" I'd answer something like, "There's a slim chance you'll see snow in Vancouver in September." So, that means that the chance that you'd see snow in September in Vancouver is like .000001%, right? It's like it's not going to happen. Aside from a crazy freak weather event, it never snows in Vancouver during September. So, there's like a slim chance that you'd see snow during September in Vancouver. And the expression slim to none has the same meaning, it means that there's a very, very low possibility of something becoming true and something happening in reality. You know what, why don't we rewind the episode and go back and take another listen to where I used this expression earlier. It's always good to listen again and again and again when learning English, so let's do that now. Let's go back and take another listen. Here we go.

Could you imagine if they both made it into the final? Then who would I cheer for? I'd be very conflicted. I won't lose any sleep worrying about that though, because the odds of that happening are slim to none. I won't lose any sleep worrying about that though, because the odds of that happening are slim to none.

So, when we say a sentence, like the odds of that happening are slim to none, or the chance of that happening is slim to none, it means that we believe that something isn't going to happen. I've prepared some example sentences using this expression to help us go deeper and to see how native speakers use it in a real-life situation. So, let's listen to the first example now.

Example sentence number one
The odds that Jessica agrees to go on a date with Matt are slim to none. She's just way out of his league. The odds that Jessica agrees to go on a date with Matt are slim to none. She's just way out of his league.

Let's break this example sentence down. The speaker says that the odds that Jessica agrees to go on a date with a guy named Matt are slim to none. And that just means that the speaker thinks there's no way that Jessica will go on a date with Matt. It's just not going to happen, OK? 0% chance of that happening. Well, the speaker said that Jessica is out of Matt's league and that's another great idiomatic expression. If somebody is out of your league, it means they are on another level than you. They are either richer than you, or more beautiful than you, or more handsome than you are, something like that. And it means that you are not on the same level and that person is too high above you to want to go down a level and date you or be in a romantic relationship with you, something like that. So, unfortunately for this guy Matt, it sounds like he's not going to be able to go on a date with Jessica.

Example sentence number two
I'd say the chances that this presentation goes well are slim to none. So, I'm already anticipating that my boss is not going to be too happy with me. I'd say the chances that this presentation goes well are slim to none. So, I'm already anticipating that my boss is not going to be too happy with me.

Let's break this example sentence down. In this sentence, we hear a speaker say that he doesn't think his presentation is going to go very well. It sounds like he's going to be making a presentation soon and he's not very confident about it, OK? He said the chances that it goes well are slim to none, so he's already worried that his boss will be angry with him.

Example sentence number three 
Even though the chance of winning is slim to none, my friend still plays the lottery every week. Even though the chance of winning is slim to none, my friend still plays the lottery every week.

Let's break this final example sentence down. In this sentence, we hear the speaker say that his friend plays the lottery every week, even though the chance of winning is slim to none. So, as you know, it's not very easy to win the lottery. The possibility of you winning the lottery when you buy a ticket is like very, very, very, very low, almost zero and most people who play the lottery don't win, so the chance of winning is slim to none.

That's it for this bonus episode everyone. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you learned something new. Congrats on completing an English study session with me. Great job! If you're looking for more awesome English lessons to learn with, don't forget to check out our website Culips.com. We've got tons of lessons there. And they all come with full transcripts and study guides for all Culips members. I'll be back again soon to bring you another new Culips episode. But until then, take care and I will talk to you next time. Bye bye!