This is the All Ears English Podcast, Episode 2424. You strike me as someone who will love this episode. 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 connecting Connection, not perfection with your American host. Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe. Do you ever find yourself observing a situation that's out of the ordinary and wanting to connect with someone over what you see? Today, get three ways to achieve this connection skill in English. At All Ears English, our goal isn't perfect grammar. It's something bigger. Human connection.
We believe English is more than vocabulary and rules. It's about laughing with coworkers, making new friends and sharing who you really are. Every episode gives you the tools to connect confidently in real conversations. perfection needed. If you believe connection is the goal, tap follow and join us on the journey with five fresh and fun episodes every single week. Hit the follow button on All Ears English Now and we'll see you in the next episode.
Hi Lindsay, how are you? Hey Aubrey, I'm doing great. How are you? Excellent. I have a difficult question for you. Let's see if you can think of something off the top of your head. Has anything happened recently that struck you as odd? Well, I'm not sure if this is a great example, but this morning I accidentally hit the car against a brick wall. That was a little odd for me because I don't do that kind of thing very often.
That's a perfect example. That does strike me as odd that you would hit something because you're not the type of person to make an error like that, right? No, no, it's hard. We have a huge SUV and a very tight driveway, a city townhouse. normally i do like a 15 point turn to get out of our driveway but this time i was going about my 15 point turn and then i heard it
And then I realized, oh, shoot. Oh, no. And it wasn't beeping at you like proximity warning. Oh, no, no, Aubrey. Our car is from 2005. Yeah, no, no beeping. I have a feeling a lot of the listeners probably have newer vehicles. Most of.
them for the last 10 years or so to have these proximity warnings. So it's like beeping at you really loud if you're getting too close. No, no, no. Nope. Not for Lindsay. That's what happens. Yeah. So that's odd. It's not odd that it happened, but for me, it's odd.
because I don't really hit things very much. Yeah, I'm usually pretty careful. So that's a perfect example. I love this for this expression for something to strike you as odd. We got a great question about it. I'm excited to dive into this vocab. because this is an interesting way to talk to connect about things that strike you as odd all right good and this is a question from mateos we love your questions guys send them in to support at allersenglish.com right yeah all right want me to read it
Sure. Go for it. Hey, Aubrey, thank you and Lindsay so much for answering my question about sick and sickening on the podcast. You're welcome. That was a great question. That was a great episode. I have another one. I've been hearing native speakers say that struck me as odd. or that struck me as smart a bunch of times. And I was wondering if I could use this chunk with any adjective or only with odd or smart. Such a good question.
yeah it's a great question and this is a feature of what native speakers tend to say it's a really nice way of fine-tuning your english for connection don't you think aubrey absolutely i agree and i had to think about this a little bit because it's definitely most common with like odd weird strange that strikes me as strange that strikes me as peculiar maybe bizarre also surprising interesting that strikes me as surprising or interesting because it definitely
um implies that something is unexpected or strange right okay out of the ordinary out of the ordinary yes but i don't feel like i have heard it with anything positive like even that strikes me as smart that strikes me as intelligent i don't use it this way i don't feel like i've heard it what do you think no no if something is wonderful let's say for example i wouldn't take the time to say that strikes me as wonderful i would just say that's wonderful
That's wonderful. That's awesome. Yeah, because that's true. That's a good point. This is sort of a longer chunk that you're sort of saying as you're processing how peculiar something is. That strikes me as concerning. That strikes me as peculiar. So it's sort of like you're narrating your cognitive process there, right?
Exactly. So we're going to dive into this today. We want you to use this amazing phrase and also a few other ways that we express this, because really these are just interesting ways of saying, I think, right? You're just sharing your thoughts.
right but we don't want to always have to say i think i think i think that gets boring even if we're on the ielts exam and the speaking test we don't want to always be repeating i think right yeah that'll hurt your scores your fluency scores your vocab scores you can't repeat vocabulary but even in conversations. You don't want to be the person that's using the same verb over and over. There's so many fun options.
yeah don't forget guys if you are preparing for the ielts exam we have a whole other podcast called ielts energy podcast aubrey is over there jessica's over there i'm over there it's a good time to get the skills that you need for ielts so aubrey
our listeners find that show, by the way. Yeah. Search IELTS Energy wherever you listen to podcasts, hit follow. Honestly, even if you're not studying for IELTS, we teach so much great vocabulary over there, speaking and writing strategies, but especially if... you're preparing for the IELTS exam, you need to make sure and listen to that podcast. Exactly. And while you're hitting follow, hit follow right here on all ears English. All right, good.
all right what's the let's go deeper into it strikes me as yeah let's give a couple of a couple more examples here right i love we've kind of shared when we would use this so i might say and in the past tense too it struck me as odd when he arrived early. He's usually late. Yeah. And again, we're narrating kind of what we're thinking. We're thinking, oh, I felt it was weird. I thought about it. And yes, it seemed weird to me.
And it's interesting to think about the difference between present tense and past here, right? If we're saying it strikes me as odd, we're sort of talking about a general something that's always true, usually, right? It always strikes me as strange when something happens.
And then if we're talking about something in the past that was surprising, that's when we're going to say it struck me as odd. So we do need to use different sort of variations of this word in the present and past tense. So here's an example in the. Present. Always. It always strikes me as surprising when someone gets really aggressive. Right. So we're not talking about a specific instance here. We're just saying like, this always strikes me as surprising. I always find it shocking.
Good. And what would be another one? Our opinions of people. right yes we use it this way a lot so she strikes me as the type of person who is a good leader and this is an interesting chunk just to say i think this about this person i think she's probably a good leader she seems like she would be a good leader this is
just an interesting way to say that yeah and this is not going to the meeting of something out of the ordinary right this is just saying my impression my feeling my first impression how I take in that person is that they would be a good leader Right. So this is a totally different way that we use that expression. It's more idiomatic. Right. And we're just sort of being colorful with our language instead of saying she seems like we'll say she strikes me as.
Yeah, I like that. I want to use this more. I don't use it enough. I'd like to use this more. I really like it. Yeah, this is a good reminder to both of us. Let's add this to it. We need to use it more. I agree. We're learning so much on this show, Aubrey. All right. Our second option, this is very similar. Instead of just saying, I think, I find it. We'll say I find. So for example, I find it odd that she never called. And really what I mean is I think it's odd that she didn't call.
or it seems odd or it strikes me as odd too right yeah same meaning she found it strange that he doesn't lock his doors at night aubrey did you lock your doors when you're going up this is always a good question for people never okay not part we would leave keys in the car in our driveway really and not lock them
It was in the middle of nowhere. That was very rural, right? Our closest neighbor was a couple of miles away. So someone would have to like, really want to steal something. And we just felt so safe. Yeah, I felt always felt safe. I grew up to we did lock our doors. But I don't know that we needed to really, you know, yeah, it is nice to feel that safe, but it's still probably smart. I mean, I've definitely heard a lot of true crime stories about someone in the middle of the woods getting.
murdered so we probably should have locked our doors well i think that's the thing the 80s it was before the true crime boom right of podcasts and we weren't aware yeah we weren't aware we had the movies and everything friday the 13th but we didn't really have
true crime in the way we have it now as a form of entertainment now we know that we we need to be careful we need to lock our doors all right and here's another one because this is we'll also use this like it strikes me to talk about kind of something that's always the case like always found it strange that horses can sleep standing up, for example, right? Something you've always thought that always strikes me as odd.
And this is another good way of asserting who you are and what you think, right? Just the things that we find odd or strange are a good conversation starter or a good way to show our values and our views. Okay. Yeah. Or what a fun way to like, if you say something that you have always found strange and then ask, what about you? Do you think that's odd or is it just me? Or just the other connection piece is things that the whole world takes for granted that you want to question.
Good point. Deeper things, right? Anything about the way society is run. Maybe you want to question that and see if someone else agrees with you and you can start a conversation. yeah this might be a great way to strike up a conversation with someone that if you're not sure they agree with you this is a pretty non-abrasive way to say you know it struck me as odd when i read this in the news what do you think right because you're not going in hard on like i think that
very strongly, right? You're sort of broaching the issue to see if this is a topic you could talk about. Interesting. Interesting. now there is a third aubry that we want to share with our listeners what is it now this is a little less common but i really like and it's fear that i fear that so for example i fear that she is getting more stubborn by the day i might say this about one of my children
And really, it just means I think, I think she's getting more. Okay. It's kind of like in something that's negative, right? You're observing something that seems to be negative.
exactly yes right or i fear that we missed out on our opportunity okay yeah this almost sounds a little more um poetic right it's a yeah more beautiful way of speaking if you're like oh i fear that or you might even say it to be sort of facetious like jokingly a little bit like i fear that we missed the train as the train goes by
Right, right, right. I was going to say poetic or theatrical or dramatic or something, right? Yes. Maybe at work. We fear that this is going to be a mistake, right? Really, you're just saying, I think this is going to be a mistake. Perfect. Excellent. Okay, Aubrey, let's dive into a role play. What are we doing here? Yeah. So you and I are friends describing something that happened at a party we both attended. Okay. Let's see what happened. Here we go.
i found it odd that marie wasn't speaking to jack did you notice that yes i fear that they may have broken up if that's the case though i'm surprised they both went to the party Yeah, that does strike me as peculiar. You'd think they'd want to avoid each other for a while. yeah this is interesting because this if you if you notice something out of the ordinary right i would strike up a conversation like this with a friend be like did you notice that did you think it was strange or was it just me
Yeah. What I like here too is this is useful if you're standing on the outside of something happening next to someone and you want to connect with them. This is commentary. right you're not in it you're not what are the names of the the two marie and jack right but you're on the outside that's kind of a cool connection skill as well
Yes. And this is interesting, too. If you want to ask someone about this, but you don't want to gossip, there are phrases that would be so much more like gossiping, right? Whereas this, you're just kind of like, this struck me as odd. What do you think, right? You're kind of floating above the gossip.
gossip on just so it more just like talking about like what do we think yeah I agree it feels a lot less gossipy or shallow these phrases yeah yeah yes right so i started by saying i found it odd that marie wasn't speaking to jack did you notice that and i'm checking in with you which is another thing we do as social beings to read the room right
Yep, exactly. It just means the same as I thought it was, but a little bit less, yeah, a little softer, kind of just like, oh, I found it odd. What do you think? and then i said yes i fear that they may have broken up and this is me sort of saying i think they may have broken up but it does have this little bit of an implication of like i don't know for sure i'm worried this is the case i think it might be but i don't know yes and then it's a negative
thing right yes you wouldn't say I feared something positive that would be weird I fear that they just won the lottery no maybe that's you know I fear because then I didn't right now it would be something negative yes good and then i said yeah that does strike me as peculiar right and peculiar is a good bonus word for today
Right. Strange, bizarre. And it's interesting. There are a lot of options. I think the most common is this chunk that strikes me as odd, but really any of the synonyms for odd, peculiar, strange, bizarre. Absolutely. And then anything else, as long as it's kind of that connotation of something being surprising or different, there are a lot of options.
Wow, Aubrey, I feel like today we found a lot of different social contexts in which this can be a connection skill, don't you think? Yes, I agree, right? If something strikes you as odd or interesting, strike up a conversation about it. I would love to have that conversation with you guys out there.
I love it. Interesting. Yeah, for sure. Guys, don't forget to hit the follow button so you don't miss a single episode of this show. All right, Aubrey, I'll see you next time. Awesome. See you next time. Take care. 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.