Episode 137 • Physical Space
Speak volumes
Be packed like sardines
Roomy
Scoot over
Teeny-tiny
Story
Ally: Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. I bet it’s going to be so good.
Greg: I’ve read a few reviews and all the critics seem to love it. They say it’s the best movie that’s come out in years.
Ally: Yeah, I mean, and the fact that we’ve been trying to get tickets for a month now but all the shows were sold out speaks volumes, don’t you think?
Greg: Yeah, totally. Hey, should we go wait inside? I don’t know about you but I’m freezing.
Ally: Uh, uh. Not until they start letting people in. Look at them, they‘re all packed like sardines in there. Plus, they should be letting us in soon.
Greg: Oh, look at that, here we go.
Ally: See, I told ya! You got the tickets?
Greg: Here they are. B 23 and B 24.
Ally: Awesome! Aren’t those like the VIP seats or something?
Greg: Uhm, I don’t know about that but they’re these ones.
Ally: Oh my gosh. These seats. They’re amazing. Look, I can stretch my legs and everything. And will you look at this? They’re so roomy! I can put all my stuff right next to me! Okay, now I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep. These things are more comfortable than my bed! I love it, Greg. Should we get some popcorn-
Stranger: Hey, man, scoot over. These are our seats.
Greg: What? No, they’re not.
Stranger: Uh, yeah. B 23 and B 24.
Greg: No, look. Here are our tick- Oh, damn it.
Ally: What?
Greg: I’m sorry, man. We’ll move.
Ally: Where are we sitting?
Greg: Z 23 and Z 24.
Ally: Z? Like in the last row?! Who confuses a B with a Z?
Greg: They used a weird font, okay? Come on, it’s not going to be too bad.
Ally: No way, these teeny-tiny things are our seats?
Greg: Okay, don’t compare them with the other ones, cuz those ones were amazing. Just look on the bright side. We still get to see the movie. Or at least some of it because this pillar is right in front of us, I guess.
Ally: Oh my gosh, these seats are so uncomfortable.
Greg: Well, at least you’re not going to fall asleep, right?
Ally: No, definitely not…
Questions
Okay. I think I may have written the story because tonight I'm going to go watch Avatar 2 at the movies. So I guess I don't know, I sometimes I really don't know how I get inspiration for the stories that I write. Sometimes it's a combination of like something that I see on TV and then something that's happening in real life. And then, I don't know, it just happens.
Speak volumes
'… the fact that we’ve been trying to get tickets for a month now but all the shows were sold out speaks volumes, don’t you think?'
• If a circumstance, a gesture, a face speaks volumes, does it give you a lot of information or not?
Yes. If something speaks volumes, that means that it is giving you a lot of information. You can definitely figure out a lot about a specific situation, if something speaks volumes.
• If a circumstance, a gesture, a face speaks volumes, does it give a lot of information using words or not?
No. Here's the thing about this expression. You often use it to say that you're getting a lot of information about how someone is feeling or about a particular circumstance without the need for words. So say, for example, that a friend is mad at you, or maybe you don't know how mad at you his and you throw a birthday party for your birthday and then he doesn't show up. Well, you can say that the fact that he didn't show up speaks volumes. Meaning, you know, obviously, he didn't have to say anything. He didn't write you an angry text or anything. But the fact that he didn't show up says a lot more than anything else that he would have said otherwise. That's why you say that him not showing up, for example, speaks volumes. In the case of the story, the fact that they were trying to get tickets but they couldn't spoke volumes, meaning that it was telling a lot about the fact that people loved the movie, apparently.
• Do you remember a time when you thought someone’s actions spoke volumes?
I hate to, like, bring up a sort of the same things all the time, but I don't know. This is just the one thing that came to my mind. So I'm going to share it with you, I think once again, I don't know if I was favorite to share that, but I think it was the time when my boyfriend and I- it was actually, I want to say three, two or three Christmases ago, I forget. But it was like a couple of years ago and my boyfriend had asked a bunch of friends and family members to record a short video of them saying Merry Christmas to me. And then he like, put them all together and showed them to me. And at that time I was in angry terms with my sister Paola. And so I remember- My whole family was in the video, and then she was just in the background doing dishes like visibly, like, upset, angry. And I remember watching that video. I got really emotional because it made me really sad that at that time, like, she couldn't even say, you know, Merry Christmas. And yeah, and it was just it was really sad. But yeah, the fact that she didn't even want to be on camera, I mean, she was on camera, but not because she wanted to, just because she was doing dishes in the background that really spoke volumes and it gave me a lot of information about how she was feeling and about our relationship, I guess.
Be packed like sardines
'… they’re all packed like sardines…'
• If things or people are packed like sardines, are they very close to each other or not?
Yes, If people or things are packed like sardines, they are very, very close to each other.
• If things or people are packed like sardines, do they have enough room to move around?
No, they don't. Because, well, I don't know if you ever eaten sardines, but they usually come in a in a tiny can, but they usually come in this little tin type of thing. And you can see them. They stack as many as they can in there together. That's just the way they're packaged. And so when you're in usually an enclosed space, like a bus or a train or a room or even a stadium, whatever, and you have tons of people, a big, big crowd, all very, very close to each other, then you can say that they are packed like sardines because that's what it feels like. Did you ever find
• Did you ever find yourself in a place where people were packed like sardines?
I think pretty much every time that I had to take the subway in Milan to go to work in the morning. If you want to know what the expression to be packed like sardines really means, then go to Milan, I want to say one of the main train stations. Cardona or Centrale, just go there at 8:00 in the morning and then you're going to see it because you got people that are just like, well, yeah, packed like sardines on the train. And it gets a little crazy. It gets a little intense in the morning in Milan if you're going to work at that time.
Roomy
'They’re so roomy!'
• If a place is roomy, is it large or small?
If a place is roomy, it's large. So you got plenty of space to move around. It just feels very light when you look around. You don't see like a lot of different furniture. And in this case, I'm describing a house. But for example, in the story they were referring to seats. So if the seat is roomy, that means that you got plenty of space to move. You know, you don't have the armrests, right? Like, for example, the opposite of a roomy seat would be seats on an airplane. I'm not talking about business class or first class, obviously. You know, usually you don't have enough room. They're pretty uncomfortable. But there are some seats at like movie theaters or you could even buy like a nice chair or something for your house and it can be roomy. So any time you're describing a space or something where you sit that feels very large, that leaves you plenty of room to move around while you're there, then you can describe that thing as roomy.
• Is your house/room roomy?
Uh, we tried to make it as roomy as we could, but it's really small. Our apartment is extremely small, so we did the best that we could, but I wouldn't necessarily describe it- Describe my apartment as roomy.
Scoot over
'Hey, man, scoot over. '
• If you scoot over, do you move to the side or up?
If you scoot over, you usually move to the side and you're usually sitting when you tell someone to scoot over. You're usually saying that to someone who is sitting on a seat and they have a bit of extra room next to them.
• Why do you usually scoot over, to make room for someone or something or to take up more space?
You usually scoot over because you want to make room for someone. That's not always the case. I could scoot over because I don't want you sitting next to me, I guess, but just scooting over is this idea of like moving to the side while- usually when you're sitting. And so, yeah, oftentimes you're already sitting and someone else joins you. You might have to scoot over you and maybe other people to make sure that they have enough room to sit.
Teeny-tiny
'No way, these teeny-tiny things are our seats?'
• If something is teeny-tiny, is it really big or really small?
If something is teeny-tiny, then it is really, really small.
• Is teeny-tiny a formal or an informal expression?
Teeny-tiny is an informal expression. So, yeah, I mean, I guess it's more of a childish expression, but you can say it in like a fun, chill, relaxed context. You can definitely say teeny-tiny. Just to kind of highlight the fact that something is truly small.
• Name something you have in your house that’s teeny-tiny.
Well, I have- Let'see, I have a bunch of teeny-tiny screws because at one point when we're doing some stuff around the house when we moved in, we basically got all kinds of screws, all sizes, just because we kept buying and buying and now we have so many left over we could open a hardware store at this point. So we have a lot of teeny-tiny screws that are really cute. I love teeny tiny things because they're adorable. And then, Oh, yeah. And then sometimes I find in my purse these teeny-tiny rocks that I- when we were traveling a few months ago, I, we often went to, you know, some very nice beaches and everything and I never, like, took anything major and never really took sand or anything, but if there were rocks on the beach, sometimes I'll start to look for like little stones and I have a few still in my purse from the trip that I never took out because I don't know what to do with them. They're so small. And yeah, they're these teeny-tiny rocks and, um, yeah, and I guess they're going to live in my purse forever. They're like, I don't even know, like three millimeters big, or small, I should say. I don't know what you do with them. I really don't know. So yeah, they're probably just going to live in my purse until the end of time or until I lose them because, you know, let's face it, I'm probably going to lose them at some point, but I can't bring myself to throw them out either. So I don't know what's going to happen to them. But yes, they are teeny-
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