Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Randomsome 5.
As a finale for this Randomsome week and to give taste of what’s to come next week during the blogs and vlogs week, I decided to dissect a 5 minute interview with Elon Musk. You can watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mDWWmMBkh_s
- 0.15 sec. ‘It’s worth mentioning’ (Erwehnungswert) / pointing out / highlighting. This construction is often used in interviews /reports/ documentaries and things of that nature. N.B. the gerund (verb+ing form) always follows ‘worth‘.
- 1.32 sec ‘to be on track to ….’ “We are on track to achieve our Q2 (2nd quarter of the year) goals.”
- 1.49 sec ‘issue’. “We have customs issues in China”
- 2.01 sec ‘extenuating circumstances’ “These extenuating circumstances have to be taken into account”.
- 2.20 sec ‘bullish’ means confident about the future. “We are bullish about this product”
- 3.17 sec. ‘ish’ the suffix ‘ish’ is often put on the end of a number to make it more approximate “Let’s meet at 6 ish at your place”.
- 3.27 sec ‘to convey’ = a more formal word for communicate. “I’m trying to convey the level of uncertaincy …”
- 4.03 sec. ‘I’d (much) rather’ is the more colloquial brother of ‘prefer’. The ‘I’d’ is short for ‘I would’. “I’d rather go to the cinema”.
- 4.22 sec.‘in the short term or run’. “We have spend to invest in the short run”.
- 5.41 sec ‘In terms of’ has become a very popular phrase replacing the more ‘regarding/with regards to etc’ now you know it, you’ll hear it all the time.
To dissect (hier: analysieren), ‘It’s worth mentioning’ (Erwehnungswert), to point sth out (auf etw hinweisen), to highlight (hervorheben), to be on track to ….’ (Kurs auf etw halten), ‘issue’ (hier: Problem), customs (Zoll), ‘extenuating circumstances’ (mildernde Umstände), to take into account (mitberücksichtigen), ‘bullish’ (optimistisch), ‘ish’ = approximate (zirka / Zeit gegen), ‘to convey’ (übermitteln), ‘I’d (much) rather’ (etw vorziehen), ‘in the short term or run’ (auf kurze Sicht) ‘In terms of’ (in puncto)
Enjoy the interview – cars are pretty impressive too
It’s worth mentioning that we are on track facing our language issues thanks to your great posts: lots of new words, helpful input, and valuable reminders combined with entertainment at its best which I do have to highlight here!
One has to take extenuating circumstances into account as we are all non-native speakers. But I’m bullish that on the longterm we’ll have a clue about how to handle all the tenses, pre- and suffixes, adjectives and adverbs, etc and for good measure we will become fully-fledged English lovers.
In terms of education you’d rather show us the beauty of the language and give us pointers instead of forcing knowledge by hook or crook into our brains. By elaborating on specific topics you turn our learning process into a no-brainer. That’s why I don’t have to dispute your enthusiasm and effort because they are blessed both with success and happy followers.
Ok, lots of your randomly picked words assembled in the text above. At least I tried my best putting together some intelligent sentences. 😉 Not from flattery but straight from the heart: thank you so much!
BTW: it’s ok if you feel like rewarding my chorus of praise with a Tesla model of your choice – especially since someone bumped into my car this morning………..
Jenny like music to my ears and a round of applause for your amazing effort of getting the randomsome vocab into one text. Well thought out and brilliantly executed – respect!!!!!! As for the Tesla – I’m working on it and as for your chariot, I’m sorry for that!!!
Seems like your two week’s online timeout has some creative leeway. 😉
Nevertheless, thanks for your feedback. I really appreciate that and your opinion as an English coach and native speaker in particular is important for me. But now: please switch into offline mode again and enjoy your timeout and holiday! Cheers!