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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2576, Lindsay's Language Adventure on the Spanish Steps. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl. coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. Today, let's find out what a cop said to Lindsay in Italy and why this was slightly incorrect English.
Listen in to fine tune your grammar and vocabulary today. English is part of how you're evaluated, whether you like it or not, in meetings, in interviews, in negotiations. The question isn't whether your English is okay or good enough. It's whether it's working for you. Is it getting you the promotions and the salary raises that you deserve? If not, this is the year to do something about it.
Our free two-minute fluency quiz shows you your true English level, B1, B2, or C1, and where you can level up for real-world success for your career or your global life in English. Take the quiz now for free at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hey, Lindsay. How are you? Hey, Michelle. Glad to be here. How are you? How's it going?
I'm doing well. So you recently went to Italy. I did. And I'm just curious, where's your favorite place in Italy to visit? Probably Rome is my favorite city in Italy just because it feels like the most authentic city to me in terms of touristy cities, let's say. I'm sure there's some dreamy city in some small town that I would love. But Rome is really cool because, you know, you're just...
you're taking like a city bus or you're just taking an uber or something or you're walking maybe you're on your way to work and you turn left and there's these ancient ruins right there in the middle of the city it's wild yeah i love rome too i really do um and one of my favorite places that when i visited rome i couldn't believe how beautiful the spanish steps were like yeah
I was just, I could have been there all day. So nice, especially in the evening. And it was gorgeous. When we were there, it was really crowded. I'm not going to lie. A lot of people on vacation in the week between Christmas and New Year's, right? And so we were around crowds a lot, which is not my favorite thing. But still, the Spanish Steps are beautiful.
And we just took a break and we sat down right on the steps, right? Mm-hmm. Um, so we're sitting there for about 10 minutes, um, you know, and a lot of other tourists were also sitting on the steps or sitting on the little blocks of cement next to the steps. So it seemed like an okay thing to do. We thought we were okay.
We were tired tourists, you know, that kind of thing, deciding where to go next. And then, um, a cop, a policeman came up to us and said, it's not possible. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: What does Lindsay's language adventure in Italy reveal about English usage?
Maybe because it was so busy and so crowded or who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah. Because I got some nice pictures there anyway. Yeah. But yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did it feel like a little awkward for you? And I'm really interested in language. And I think the thing is, like, we understood and we got up and we walked away. Right. Like we got it. No problem.
But because we're, you know, you and I were linguists here, we love looking at language and making sure our listeners are speaking really accurately in the most clear way possible. We want to do today's episode on this tiny, tiny mistake just so it's really clear.
Chapter 3: How can understanding English impact your career and promotions?
You know, because I have a feeling this is another false friend translation from Italian. So the first thing my partner and I said to each other, as soon as we got up and walked away, we kind of chuckled a little. We said, actually, it is possible because we were just doing it. We were just sitting there. It is physically possible to sit on the steps.
yes that's what that's what's in yes that's why it's so yeah interesting because yeah something being possible it's like can it be done it can't it's not is it allowed there's a difference exactly exactly so again what should the cop have said to us if we were not maybe not translating from italian or we want to say it exactly correctly what could we have said
He could have just said, you can't sit here. Right. Exactly. Or if you want to elevate that a little bit and sound more professional, you could say, it's not permitted to sit here. So it puts that more in the passive voice, puts a little distance between us and the cop, right? But saying it's not possible is actually incorrect, subtly incorrect, because of course it is possible.
We were just doing it for 10 minutes. Right. Okay. But this reminds me of the whole, and we've talked about this before, the can I go to the bathroom or may I go to the bathroom? Right. I think we've talked about this before. You know how kids, they always say, oh, can I go to the bathroom? Oh, I don't know. Can you? Right.
And when adults want them to say, may I, even though I think that's ridiculous because I think it's just conversational to say, can I? Anyway. I feel like when I was a kid, I heard that snap back. Some adults would snap back to kids when they would ask and I didn't get it. Like, I didn't know why the adults were saying that. Right. It's because. Yeah. But I get it now, obviously. Right.
You've got Lindsay. Let me tell you. No. But guys, so it's because can is about ability. So it's the same idea as like if something's possible. Well, yeah, it's possible. I'm doing it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. At the same time, don't let that throw you off, guys, because we do. You know, I go to a restaurant and I order all the time. You know, can I have mac and cheese? Oh, yeah.
Well, that's why I think it was so ridiculous to pick on, especially to pick on kids about that. It'd be like, you know, I feel like may I is just kind of antiquated. I agree. Yeah. So I just like, I don't know, really picking at nothing. Nothing. Anyway, but that's a whole conversation for another day.
Guys, we also want to remind you that we have an excellent app that is available on Android, right, Lindsay? It is available on Android. So guys, our app is on Android. And I want to call out some listeners who reviewed our app in the Android. Thank you to our listener, Ritik Roshan. Thank you to Peter Sirach. Thank you to Ali Ishaq. Thank you to Maid Oseini, Jasan Sidhu, Mayra Warmalinger-Lemes.
Guys, you all left us some amazing reviews. We super appreciate your reviews. So come on over if you are an app user and let us know what you think of the show. Or even if you're just a listener on Apple or Spotify, leave us a rating and review. Tell us what you think of our show. Right? Absolutely. Yes. Thank you so much. Yes. So yeah, so we're gonna we're gonna get more into this today.
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Chapter 4: What was the misunderstanding with the cop on the Spanish Steps?
Conclusions. Power. 10 weeks to solve the code. 10 000 euros as a gift card reward. Salkku X is waiting for its opener. Join the competition at power.fi.x Okay, and that's not it. Michelle, there's more. So what else? What else can we say? Well, you know, those ones are like a little bit more on the direct side. So let's talk about some ways that we might soften this. Yeah.
So you could soften this by saying, I'm sorry, but, and then give your explanation. So I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to X. I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to sit in this section. It's reserved for premium ticket holders. Yeah. And the interesting thing is whether you feel the need to soften this or not can depend on, well, number one, personality, but number two, culture. Right.
I mean, some cultures are much more rules based and there's less of a need for maybe politeness or saving face. Whereas other cultures really is saving faces very important. So it really think about your own culture and what you feel would be necessary. And of course, it depends on your position in society. Like, are you a cop or are you an authority figure?
Or are you just talking to someone at your level, like a peer or a family member? Right. There's a lot here, culturally speaking, Michelle. Yeah, oh my gosh, exactly. Or I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to use these bags unless you pay for them. They cost $1. So going to that bag example. Yes. Oh, geez. Or I'm sorry, but it's not permitted to sit here.
Okay, so here we're using the old structure we just taught our listeners, but we're making, we're softening it a bit, padding it, right? It is only for our premium members.
right yes um and another one you could say is um i mean this is really softening it and you might need to you might need to use this i apologize for the inconvenience but so i apologize for the inconvenience but it isn't permitted to purchase this at this time Yeah. And you might hear this too from someone coming over a loudspeaker, right?
We apologize for the inconvenience, but this line is off limits. This is only for first class passengers, that kind of thing, right? I apologize for the inconvenience, but you aren't able to purchase more than one bottle of this medication right now. Yeah. Sometimes they have limits, you know, I'm thinking COVID times, you know. But yeah, saying something like this, let's just highlight this.
You aren't able to. You aren't able to. Which is kind of funny because it is kind of more the it is or isn't possible, right? You aren't able to. Well, I I mean, but it's saying that there's a rule. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny, Michelle, this makes me think of, do you know where you can learn the most about the politeness culture of a city?
Well, let's just say within the US, the airport security line. Because if you go to Boston Logan, oh man, watch out. They will be complete. I can't say the words on the show because we don't swear on the show, but they will be jerks to you. Whereas here in Denver, like people are pretty smiley, right? They'll smile at you. Hey, have a nice day. They don't snap at you. Yes. What do you think?
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Chapter 5: What are more accurate ways to express prohibition in English?
Yeah. And for today's takeaway, I mean, guys, don't get me wrong. We understood this cop on the Spanish steps. We walked away. You know, he got the job done. Right. And that is connection on some level. That's what we talk about on that show.
But if we want to fine tune our English, if you guys are at the C1, B2, C1 level, and you want to know if you're making certain translation mistakes, maybe from your native language, or just not saying something quite right, then this is what we're highlighting today. All right. So there are levels of achievement here, but connection can happen even at the basic level.
Like connection already happened. We got, we left, right? We got the job done. Job accomplished. Yes. Good stuff. Yes. All right, Michelle, you have a good rest of your day. I'll see you back on the show very soon. All right. All right. Bye, Lindsay. All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.