Episode 17 • Sport
Out of one's league
Step up one's game
Throw in the towel
Play hard to get
Rookie mistake
Story
I was sitting at a bar with a few friends, just like any other Wednesday, when a group of girls sat next to us. One of the girls especially caught my attention. She was incredibly funny and smart… definitely out of my league. I still decided to go talk to her but I knew I’d have to step up my game. So I basically told her every single great thing I’ve done in my life. How I became a firefighter, how I volunteer at least once a week, and about the one time I saved a sea turtle. After about an hour, she still didn’t seem very interested in me or in what I was saying. I decided it was probably time to throw in the towel so I got up and started getting ready to leave and that’s when she asked me if I wanted to dance. Now, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to play hard to get, so I told her I was busy and couldn’t stay, hoping she would insist. That was a rookie mistake, she looked pretty disappointed and simply left with a ‘Okay, bye, I guess’. I don’t know if you can tell but I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to women.
Questions
We're back here with my normal voice. I promise you guys when and if I ever have the money, I will hire a male actor for these dialogues, because as hard as I try, I just can't seem to do a good male voice. Sorry, anyway-- All right, let's begin with expression number one.
Out of one’s league
'She was definitely out of my league.'
• If someone is out of your league, are they a good match for you or not?
If someone is out of your league, that means that they are not a good match for you.
• Why do you think they're not a good match? Is that because you think they're too good for you or not good enough for you?
If someone is out of your league, you think that they're too good for you. In the case of this girl, she was too funny, too smart, and she didn't feel like he was enough.
• Can you think of someone you’d like to be with that’s out of your league?
I’m very happy right now. Let's set things straight. I wouldn't want to be with anybody else, but if I have to say someone that's out of my league, it would probably be like a famous actor maybe, Ashton Kutcher, for example, or Brad Pitt. They're in their own world, completely out of my league. I don't think I'll ever get to meet them.
Step up one’s game
'I knew I’d have to step up my game.'
• If you step up your game, does your performace get better or worse?
If you step up your game, your performance gets better.
• Why do you sometimes need to step up your game?
There can be a bunch of reasons. Maybe you haven't been putting in enough effort. You're not trying hard enough. Imagine you go to school, for example, and you've been preparing for an exam or a test, and you keep failing. That means that you need to step up your game. You need to put in more effort. Your performance needs to get better if you want to succeed.
• Can you think of a time when you’ve had to step up your game?
Yes, actually I was working as an online teacher for a while, and I started teaching on a platform, and there were lots of other teachers on that platform, like thousands and thousands of other teachers that I was competing with. I knew if I want it to attract students, I had to step up my game, and so I made a really nice one-minute video, and they got a lot of attention. So that's a good example of stepping up your game.
Throw in the towel
'It was probably time to throw in the towel.'
• If you throw in the towel, do you keep trying to do what you’re doing it or you quit it?
Throwing in the towel means quitting.
• What are some reasons for throwing in the towel?
Maybe you're tired. Imagine in the middle of a workout, you don't feel like working out anymore. You throw in the towel. You could literally throw in the towel, or just as an expression. Or I don't know, just anything hard that becomes like it's not worth your efforts anymore, you can quit it and throw in the towel.
• Is it easy for you to throw in the the towel in a difficult situation?
Oh boy, yes, it is. I am not afraid to quit. It's not a good thing. I'm not proud of this but when something gets too hard, and I don't have the motivation anymore, I throw in the towel.
Play hard to get
'I thought it would be a good idea to play hard to get.'
• If you play hard to get do you act interested or uninterested?
If you play hard to get you act uninterested like, "Well, yes, actually, I'm kind of busy, and you're not that important, so I don't know." This is playing hard to get.
• Do you really not care or do you just pretend?
No, it's just you're pretending.
• Why do you pretend?
You're hoping, and sometimes it works. You're hoping that by showing the other person that you don't care, then they will be even more intrigued, or more interested in you.
• Do you think, in love, playing hard to get is a good strategy?
A little bit. Not too much. Don't make the mistake that this guy made in the story because otherwise people are going to walk away but a little bit of like, "Well, actually I'm busy." It shows the other person that you're not just like simply there for them. So yes, it can make the other person look more interesting.
Rookie mistake
'That was a rookie mistake.'
• Is a rookie mistake a mistake you’ve made because you don’t have enough experience or because you don’t care enough?
A rookie mistake is a mistake that you make because of lack of experience. You don't know how things work very well. It's a mistake that many, many people make at the beginning but that with experienced, people stop making.
• Can you think of a rookie mistake you’ve made in the past that you wouldn’t make now?
I think a rookie mistake that I've made that was at the very, very beginning of my teaching career is when I started teaching little kids, and we're talking three, four year old’s. I had this idea of them all sitting in a circle, like this perfect circle, all listening to me, mesmerized and interested. It was the total opposite. I had kids running around. I was very stressed. My mistake was taking that personally, thinking that I wasn't doing a good job but at the end of the day, with experience, I've understood that I should have just let things go, and it was okay for them to not be completely still and interested in the lesson, because they're very young. My rookie mistake was to just try and control the situation too much because at the end of the day, with kids that young, you can't.
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