Episode 74 • Shock
Gasp
Taken aback
Drop a bomb on someone
Catch someone off guard
How in the world...?
Story
Roger: So… Julie… Why did you want to see me?
Julie: Well, you know, it’s been five months and a lot has happened since I…
Roger: Listen, I’m sorry I never called you after that night, but I just had a lot going on at the time, I wasn’t ready for something serious, you know? Plus, I was just…
Julie: I’m pregnant, Roger.
[Gasp]
Julie: What? What’s so shocking. People get pregnant, you know?
Roger: No, I’m not- I’m not shocked…
Julie: You gasped, I heard you.
Roger: Well, I mean… I’m just a bit taken aback… How did you think I’d react?! I haven’t heard from you for five months! Now we just meet up for a drink and you drop this bomb on me! I mean… I guess it just caught me off guard… I didn’t expect it… Also… How in the world did that happen? I thought we were being careful, you even told me…
Julie: What?! This has nothing to do with you…
Roger: Isn’t – isn’t the baby mine?
Julie: No, oh God, no! [laugh] Could you imagine?! No, thank goodness. I met someone shortly after going out with you, we fell in love and decided to start a family together. Oh my gosh, is that why you looked so scared? [Laugh] No, no, no… it’s just… I’ve gained a bit of weight and I was trying to look for my favorite sweater, the one that used to be too big on me and then I remembered I’d left it at your house… so I was wondering if I could have it back…
Roger: Y- yeah… Of course you can have it back…
Questions
Oh my goodness, what a relief for Roger, right?
Gasp
'You gasped, I heard you.'
• What sound do you make when gasping?
Well, there's two types of sounds that you can make when gasping. You make the [gasps] sound or the [gasps]. Wait, [chuckles] they sounded exactly the same. The first one is [gasps]. There we go, and the second one could be [gasps]. I think now you heard the difference. One was silent and the second one you could hear it.
• Why do people gasp?
There's really two reasons why you would gasp, and the biggest reason, the most common reason for someone to gasp is out of shock. If you've been given some crazy news or something totally unexpected happened, then you can react by going [gasps] because that's the natural reaction, I guess, or even if you're in pain, I guess. I don't really gasp a lot. Notoriously, that's what you would do in a shocking situation.
• Do you usually gasp audibly or quitely?
I guess, I don't know if I gasp that much, but I think I would do it quietly. My most natural reaction when something happens is to go, I don't know, I would say something like, "Oh my god," or, "Oh my goodness." I wouldn't go [gasps] I guess. I don't know. If I were to do it, I guess I would do it quietly, I don't know.
Taken aback
'Well, I mean… I’m just a bit taken aback…'
• If you are taken aback, how surprised are you?
If you are taken aback, you are very surprised.
• If you are taken aback, do you know immediately how to react?
No, that's why you say that you are taken aback because you have that for a split second, you don't know what to say or what to do. You go, "Uh, uh." You're just trying to process what you've just been told or what has just happened. You're so surprised that you don't know how to react right away.
• When was the last time you were taken aback?
Let's see, when was the last time that I was taken aback? I think I have to go back a few months. I think maybe when I was still in Asia and my boyfriend came up to me and he said, "I think we're going to have to go back to Spain sooner than we thought because this pandemic thing is getting out of control." I think I was a little taken aback because I was not expecting that at all because I figured we were talking about what is the next country that we're going to visit? Where are we going to go next? i think because I was not expecting that at all, I was definitely a little taken aback. I had a moment when I was like, "Whoa, hold on."
Drop a bomb on someone
'Now we just meet up for a drink and you drop this bomb on me!'
• If you drop a bomb on someone, do you tell them something they expect or something they don’t expect?
If you drop a bomb on someone, you are telling them something they do not expect at all.
• If we drop a bomb on someone, are we going to say something mildly surprising or shocking?
If we drop a bomb on someone, we are telling them something shocking, we're talking huge news. I don't know, in the story I'm pregnant. If you don't expect it, that could be a bomb. You could be dropping a bomb on someone, or I don't know, I'm moving to another country, or I'm breaking up with you. I don't know, whatever. It's usually communicating some very big news that will heavily affect potentially the other person. It's some very, very big news that you don't expect. That's what dropping a bomb on someone means.
• Have you ever dropped a bomb on someone?
I am known for being quite impulsive. I make pretty big decisions sometimes in a very short amount of time. Yes, I have dropped quite a few bombs on a few people. I guess an example would be when I was still in Italy, I was dating someone. I went to Spain for a weekend, and I decided that I wanted to move to Spain by myself. I went back to Italy and I told him. I dropped this bomb on him. I told him, "I want to move to Spain." He was not expecting that at all. Obviously, it was huge news for him, for us, for the relationship. That was definitely a bomb. I dropped a bomb on him.
Catch someone off guard
'I guess it just caught me off guard…'
• If you say something to someone and catch them off guard, were they prepared for what you were about to tell them?
If you say something to someone and catch them off-guard, no, they were not prepared to hear that. They were not expecting that.
• If you catch someone off guard, how will the feel? Lucid or confused?
Lucid means that you can think clearly. If you catch someone off-guard, that means that they were not expecting you to say something or do something so they are confused. They have a moment when they're trying to understand what's happening.
• When was the last time you caught someone off guard and told them something they didn’t expect?
I had to think quite a bit about this one. It was probably a couple of weeks ago and my boyfriend was trying to plan an event. He plays a sport called spikeball. He didn't have a teammate, so he asked me to be on his team. At first, I thought, "You know what? He's really good at sports, I'm terrible. I suck at it. I don't want to embarrass him. Also, I don't know if I'm going to want to go," because it was a series of events, "I don't know if I'm going to want to go to all those events." At first, I said no, which he was expecting because he knows I'm not too big on sports. Then a few days later, I've thought about it. I was like, "You know what? Let's do it." It's going to make him happy. I think it's good for us. I told him. I think it totally caught him off-guard because he was not expecting that at all. He was happy, but I definitely caught him off-guard.
How in the world...?
'Also… How in the world did that happen?'
• When do you use the expression ‘how in the world’? In questions or in answers?
You use the expression, how in the world, at the beginning of a question.
• What is the purpose of adding ‘how in the world’ at the beginning of a question?
Well, you put it in front of a question to emphasize that question. When you think that something's impossible or almost impossible and you want to show surprise and you want to show shock, you would say how in the world. Think about it, I can say how did you finish all your homework? I don't know why you would ask that question, but if I add how in the world did you finish all that homework? Then it shows surprise. It's like how is that possible? It's a good trick. When you want to show that you're shocked about something or very surprised, just put how in the world, then you ask the question.
A quick shoutout to Vivek who reached out to me on Instagram. He asked me for a shoutout. Here you go. Hi, Vivek. Thank you for listening to the podcast and remember to go follow me on social media, pretty please with a cherry on top. I need your guys' support so much. Go follow me if you can, and I'll see you in the next episode.
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