UE 105 - Learn to Use the Verb Rub in an Interesting Way and Max's Broken American Soul

Uncensored English

Learn how to sound just a tad more fluent with a really simple idiom, plus we talk to an American about that silly election.

***Transcription***

Keiran:

All right. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Uncensored English Monday Podcast for November the 14th. And today, we have Max back on the podcast. How is it going, Max?

Max:

Hey, really good. How you doing, Keiran?

Keiran:

I'm doing good. I'm doing good. What'd you get up to on the weekend this week?

Max:

I saw a UFC fight on Saturday night.

Keiran:

Nice. Like in a bar or?

Max:

Oh yeah, sitting in a bar. Sorry. We didn't go to see it live, didn't go to Madison Square Garden.

Keiran:

Okay. Yeah. It's a little bit of a trek from Montreal.

Max:

Yeah, yeah. I'm not quite at that pay scale yet.

Keiran:

Alright. Last week on ... I think it was Wednesday. We did a podcast about the election, and you are the first American person I talked to about the election. And why don't you just ... You're living there. You're an American citizen. Why don't you just share your thoughts about what happened, man?

Max:

I think there was a lot of umm confusion between the different people just you know per state, and a lot of people, in my opinion, voted for change, and I think probably presidential candidate at the time, Donald Trump looked like he was giving a bigger message that he was going to change things and try to make things different, but ah Hillary, the democratic ... Hillary Clinton, democratic candidate, ah looks like she wasn't really sending that same message, so she lost people's uh favor.

Keiran:

Yeah. I think also that people are just sick of politicians like Trump just doesn't seem like a politician.

Max:

Yeah.

Keiran:

He seems like a ... Maybe not the brightest like he's like ... You see, he comes across very honest, and I think people maybe think he has a successful track record in business. Maybe he can use that to improve the country or something.

Max:

Yeah. I think people were definitely thinking that. They're really hoping for that business savvy.

Keiran:

All right. Okay, great. Last week, we talked about umm this expression, "Rub me the wrong way," and I was saying how Donald Trump rubs me the wrong way, but also, Hillary rubs me the wrong way. I'm curious. Do either of those people rub you the wrong way in any sort of manner?

Max:

Umm no, no. They're just politicians. It's a different game. It's not something that I should take personally at all so.

Keiran:

Okay. Donald's hair doesn't rub you the wrong way?

Max:

It looks ugly, that hair. That hair rubs me the wrong way. Definitely ugly hair. Yeah, yeah.

Keiran:

Okay. I wanted to continue today with another expression that's very similar to, "Rub me the wrong way." It's, "Rubbed off on you," or, "Rubbed off on me."

Max:

Oh yeah.

Keiran:

Can you explain real quickly what does, "Rubbed off on you," mean?

Max:

"Rubbed off on you." If somebody rubbed off on me, it means pretty much that I've adopted some of their characteristics you know by spending time with them.

Keiran:

Right. In your recent life or like in the last few years, can you think of ... Who's the person who you think has rubbed off on you the most?

Max:

Oh man, loaded question. Umm.. that's a tough ...

Keiran:

Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. What's a loaded question? People might not know that.

Max:

A loaded question is a question with a lot of meaning behind it, so if I answer it wrongly, it wouldn't be as ... It's got a lot of weight behind it.

Keiran:

Okay. Let's do something to take the pressure off you. Let's take off ... take me another question because I don't want to ... I don't know, aside from ... Maybe people who you know who I don't know in your personal life, who has rubbed off on you the most in, in the last year?

Max:

Okay. Let's say my buddy Stefan has rubbed off on me the most in the last year. I learned a lot about the way he thinks about, ah you know situations and the way he patiently think things through. It's not my strongest suit.

Keiran:

Right. Do you think you rub off on him at all?

Max:

Yeah, definitely. I think he's got a ... He's a little bit more ... How do you say it? A little more expressive about his needs. He doesn't spend as much time thinking about it, and he knows quickly how he feels about things.

Keiran:

Ah that's great, man. I think that's another area where I've had a weakness in the past is like sometimes, instead of just communicating with someone or getting the issue out in the open, you think about it too much.

Max:

Yeah.

Keiran:

When you think about it too much, sometimes it builds into something that it actually isn't, and it turns into a terrible situation.

Max:

Right. It becomes a big deal even though it was a small thing that you weren't sure you cared about, but actually you did, and you waited too long to say it.

Keiran:

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So what else has rubbed off on you? It's not only people that rub off on you. Has anything else rubbed off on you in the last year?

Max:

Mmm.. I guess work life has rubbed off on me, really forcing me to get more organized in a lot of ways that I never expected to. Planning weeks in advance for simple meetings.

Keiran:

Right. That's that's probably a good thing in some ways. You know what's weird? I noticed that since I stopped comedy, I think I've become less lazy.

Max:

Really?

Keiran:

Yeah, and that doesn't surprise me because ... If you think about the group of comedians we hang out with, the vast majority of them are unemployed or like semi-employed. And they're brilliant people, but I think it's a stereotype and it's generalizations, but there's a lot of lazy comedians.

Max:

Definitely. I would even say that I, myself, am a bit of a lazy comedian. I .

Keiran:

I would agree with you. You are lazy.

Max:

I don't even have a writing routine. Gosh, thank you, but I don't ... I didn't say that expecting you to say the opposite. I actually mean it. I don't have a writing routine. And you know they say your friends rub off on you, so the people you keep near you, you're going to adopt their traits.

Keiran:

Yeah.

Max:

If you hang out with people who are super motivated, always pushing each other, you might become competitive and motivated as well and push as well to get ahead of them and them ahead of you in terms of race.

Keiran:

Yeah.

Max:

If your friends are lazy, that will rub off on you, and you get lazy too.

Keiran:

Yeah, and that's one thing I love about being a private tutor online is I meet so many amazing people, and a lot of these people are really motivated or really accomplished. And I feel like just by being in their presence, some of those things rub off on me.

Max:

What what student, if I can ask you a question, has rubbed off on you let's say in the last year?

Keiran:

Oh man. Well, i can't really say names, but ...

Max:

Sure.

Keiran:

I think that, I'm going to talk about it soon. There's actually a student I've had who I've started teaching recently, and he is just so diligent, and he really ... Whatever exercise I ask him to do, he just does it in such a deep way, like I think we learn this method of studying in school where you have to learn something, and then move on to something, and then learn something, and move on to something. And we had that in language schools. You would have to teach like two pages a day, which is dumb because you can't learn something properly if you only look at it for two days.

Max:

Right.

Keiran:

And I... you know just by witnessing this student like take this one audio file and like work on it for like a week or two weeks, I've been applying that to my French studying, and I've been seeing amazing results.

Max:

That's fantastic.

Keiran:

Yeah.

Max:

It's actually kinda like a deep learning. You don't just ... It's like if you were reading a book. You wouldn't just read it once and assume you knew all of it. You'd go back, and read it slowly, and look for different kind of morals and ideas in it, right?

Keiran:

Right. Right, exactly.

Max:

Yeah.

Keiran:

And it's it's really like I'm just happy that that like trait has rubbed off on me because if I want to master anything, whether it's comedy, or teaching, or any other like life project or skill, you gotta, you gotta do it whatever you're doing like 110%.

Max:

Yeah. Yeah, and take your time doing it, right? I think that's the takeaway.

Keiran:

All right. Let's have some fun here. Let's create a few sentences just out of our minds with the expression, "Rubbed off on."

Max:

Okay.

Keiran:

All right. I'm drawing a blank here. You want to go first?

Max:

Yeah, i got one. I was having a really bad day, and it became a really bad month, and then I saw every time I came home, my dog was so happy. It really rubbed off on me, and i decided to be more happy just like my dog.

Keiran:

Aw, that's cute. You're such a sweetie pie, Max.

Max:

I'm a softie.

Keiran:

All right. Two year ago, when my wife went to Mongolia with my daughter, I decided to do as much comedy as i could and i started to hang out with Gabriel and Max more, and heavy drinking really started to rub off on me.

Max:

Yeah. Keiran's students, listen. That was a weird way to use that. We could try again.

Keiran:

Okay. Gabriel's heavy drinking really rubbed off on me.

Max:

Two years ago, this is me, Max. I started drinking heavily, and the lack of discipline and organization that my friends represented really rubbed off on me. Because I let myself go, I also ... Maybe we're not the best examples since we were doing this probably at the same time.

Keiran:

Yeah. Well, whatever. It's fun and it's a good example.

Max:

I'm just kidding, just kidding.

Keiran:

Let's just summarize this for the guys out there. Rubbing off on someone means you are influencing them, and if they rub off on you, that means you are being influenced by them probably just because you're around them a lot.

Max:

Right, and sometimes it's because you want those traits. Not always, but if you want to be like someone else that you spend time with, you will learn how they do it, and you will emulate it. You'll copy it.

Keiran:

Yeah, especially, yeah, if you witness it and you really ... You're just aware when you're around them. You can pick it up.

Max:

A good one is growing up with your parents. I'm sure you've got a lot of traits, Keiran, that your parents have and you didn't even try.

Keiran:

Oh my god. I got my mom's worst trait which is she just loses like everything.

Max:

Oh, no.

Keiran:

Like every day, she loses her keys. Like every day, and we're just like ... I'm just like, "Please, just put it on the key rack." She's like, "Well, I always put it in my purse, or in the glove compartment, or I leave it in the ignition, or I put it on the counter, or I put it in my bag." I'm like, "Okay, so it's not in one of those six places. Where in like ...?"

Max:

Yeah, Keiran. I think that one might be genetic, buddy. Sorry.

Keiran:

Yeah. I don't know. Probably. My dad never loses shit.

Max:

No, no. I'm serious. I think it could be like ... You just learn that behavior of just dropping your stuff wherever.

Keiran:

But it's weird because when I lived on my own, I didn't lose shit as much, so I'm happy. I'm excited to be getting out of here soon because I think that problem will ... Like I don't have it that bad, but every once in a while, I do lose my wallet.

Max:

Ah, that's a bummer. It could be also when you're in a smaller place, it's harder to lose things.

Keiran:

Right, right. All right. We're going to wrap this podcast up, so guys, if you've liked this podcast, rate it, review it. If you're in the private Facebook page, feel free to test out this expression in the comment sections below. As always, you can record yourself saying some sentences if you want some corrections on pronunciation or grammar, or you can just write a few sentences down and I'll still point out what you're doing right or wrong. And that's it, man. You want to say toodaloo, Max, or give a goodbye to all these people out here?

Max:

I'll take your lead. Toodaloo, everyone. Toodaloo.

Keiran:

All right. We'll catch you on the next podcast of Uncensored English.