AEE: Are You on Thin Ice?

This is an All Ears English podcast. Are you on thin ice? 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 host. Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

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On today's episode, Michelle and Aubrey discuss the idiom on thin ice. Find out what this means, learn similar idioms, and discover if Aubrey and Michelle are good ice skaters. are you still translating from your native language into English in your head are you always getting confused between the different grammar tenses let's figure out what you need to work on Find your current English level with our five-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.

Aubrey, how are you? I'm great, Michelle. How are you? I'm doing well, guys. Aubrey and I are having the chance to record together. Lindsay will be back soon. But yeah, I'm excited for today. But Aubrey, I have a question for you. I'm really curious about this. Let's hear it. Are you a good ice skater? I am not a good ice skater. I've only been a couple times. Once was at Rockefeller Center when I lived in New York, which was really fun. Oh, I've been there too.

But I fell a lot. I have rollerbladed enough that I can stay up most the time. But for sure, I eat it a few times. What about you? Are you a good ice skater, Michelle? No, I'm like, I... It's funny, when I'm skating, what happens is, like, let's say I do start to get into it and I haven't fallen in a little bit. I have this feeling of...

Now that I haven't fallen in so long, I need to go to the wall because I will fall unless I take a break. Like it's inevitable. You feel it coming. I'm like, I might as well just like go to the wall because things are going too well. No, but. But in any case, I'm not a good ice skater. But Dan is a very good ice skater, totally randomly. That was our second date at Rockefeller Center. Did he play hockey? There's a lot of like kids that play hockey. No, no. Interesting. No, hockey.

He just like, he can skate, he can do like the kind of the backwards skating. Like he's very smooth on skates and I don't know why. Did he go to like the... Did he roller skate or roller blade a lot as a kid? I feel like that has to have been... I think he did do some of that. That makes sense. Yeah. So randomly, he's very good at it, but I am not so good.

And I don't like to be cold. But I do like the experience of going ice skating and getting hot chocolate. So that can be fun. But we are not talking about ice skating today, Aubrey. We are talking about an idiom. that relates. So this idiom is on thin ice. What does this mean, Aubrey? Yeah, well, it's very similar to if you're...

literally on thin ice. I have been before. I've gone ice fishing and the ice was very thin. We could see it cracking and I could see the water right below the ice. So then we would have to skirt around that to get to where the ice was thicker because we easily... could have just fallen through the ice into that freezing water. So it's a dangerous situation to be on thin ice. And this idiom has a very similar meaning.

Yeah, right. The situation is tense, right? So like one move in a certain way could result in you falling through, like Aubrey said. So you kind of have to be very careful about how you move and what you do. But this isn't really about literally being on thin ice. This is more metaphorical, how you're going to hear it.

So metaphorically speaking, how it's used is that, like, let's say you're in a delicate or a tense situation and the next bad move could result in something breaking down or ending. That's really what this idiom means. My parents said this to me all the time. Like you're on thin ice, young lady. If I like talked back or was disrespectful, this is what they would say to us to let us know like one more wrong move. Like you say one more word and you're going to get us.

serious consequence. That's how they'd say it. You're on thin ice, young lady. Yes, I could definitely hear parents saying that. So another way you might hear it is... I know I'm on thin ice with her because she's mad. I'm always late. Or our teacher told us we were on thin ice after we wouldn't stop talking in class. Very teacher thing to say too. You're all on thin ice.

The next thing that happens, you're in big trouble. Yes, exactly. Or I know our relationship is on thin ice, so I'm buying her a really nice present. Exactly, right? If your friendship or another relationship is on thin ice, that's when you need to step up your game. Like, you know, you're in trouble. Yes, exactly. Which we've talked about recently, stepping it up. Yes. Yes. Aren't they nice? You need to step it up.

Step it up on thin ice. But Aubrey, is there can you think of any time in your life where you've felt I mean, well, you already talked about, you know, as a kid. But well, I'll give a specific example, though, when I was a teenager. I remember the police came to my house once. I've never talked about this on the podcast because I was the getaway driver of something one of my friends did that wasn't the word, but it wasn't legal.

I think they like took a clock from the wall of a bowling alley. And it was one of those shenanigans teenagers sort of do just to see if they'll get away with it. But they had my license plate on the security camera. So the police came to my house. And I immediately like gave everyone's names and addresses. I was a total rat. But so we all were and I was on thin ice with my parents for a while. Of course, they were really upset with me about that.

Justifiably so. So what happened? Did your friends get in trouble? Did you get in trouble? Did you get indicted? Because I hadn't actually stolen anything. I don't remember anything worse happening, but they did go to the actual friend who had taken the clock. She had to return it. And I can't remember if she had to.

I don't think the business pressed charges, luckily for her, because they could have. She stole it, right? But she returned it. And I don't think it went further than that. But it certainly could have. It was a very dumb thing to do. It's crazy thinking back to. your childhood when you're really young. Whose idea was that? Who thought that was a good idea? Wait, how old were you? Probably 16, maybe 17.

Driving my parents car, their Oldsmobile is the getaway car. It's really funny. That's pretty funny. All right, guys, we're going to talk about other expressions that are similar to this after we get back. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses.

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states or situations all right guys we're gonna get to a few more expressions here today um now that we're learning about aubrey and her criminal past um But before we get into these, we also wanted to remind you guys to hit the follow button wherever you're listening to All Ears English so you never miss anything from us. All right. So the next expression is in hot water.

Another one where it's not a literal expression. You're not actually sitting in hot water. But yeah, this one basically means you're in trouble. I was in hot water with my mom, but she got over it when I planned her surprise party. Yeah, very similar to on. It's interesting how on thin ice is more like if you do something else wrong, you'll be in hot water means you're already in trouble. It's like you're on thin ice. If you do one more thing, then you'll be in hot water.

Right. And which is weird because if you're on thin ice and then you fall in, it's going to be cold water. That's true. That's weird. Now you're in cold water, but it's not. We say in hot water. Oh, English is funny. So the next one is... hanging by a thread. So this one, I would say, is closer to this on thin ice because it's also like, oh, you like...

You could fall off, right? So hanging by a thread. So this is my second time losing a book from her. So I'm hanging by a thread. I don't think she will let me borrow anything if I mess up again. We talk about a reputation hanging by a thread. If someone has done something and now we don't trust them, just like this, you don't trust them to return a book.

Or maybe like, I'm going to give you one more chance, but you're hanging by a thread. And same thing. You could say, I'm going to give you one more chance, but you're on thin ice, right? Yes. And this is really interesting. These are so useful for connection because they are really...

honest, right? It shows a change needs to be made. But also it's interesting because it does bring a little bit of lightness to what can be a very serious situation, right? If my parents are really upset with me and they say something like, you will now have very serious consequences. Instead, to use an idiom and say like, you're in hot water or you're on thin ice is creating just a little bit more lightness so that It's not like you're not in trouble, but it's not so serious, right?

If something really, really were that serious, like if I were going to be arrested and go to jail, they wouldn't say, you're on thin ice, you're in hot water. They would use more serious terms. Right, exactly. And if you want to learn some more serious terms that you might hear in... Then you might hear, if it's more formal in the courtroom, you should listen to our episode that we just did. That was 2545, Order in the Court, Legal Terms for Everyday Connection.

That's when you're getting serious. You're no longer on thin ice. You're being indicted. You're being convicted. It's getting serious. Yeah, exactly. You've fallen through the ice. Now you're in cold water or hot water or who knows what kind of water, but you're in water.

Right. Let's do a role play here. So Michelle and I are making a cake here for our friend's birthday. I'll start us out. I am so glad we are doing this. I feel so bad because we forgot her birthday last year. I think we're in hot water. I don't think she's that mad, but it does feel a little like we're hanging by a thread. Definitely on thin ice.

Ooh, these are perfect. We use them a lot this way. If a friend is mad at you about something, but it wasn't really serious, maybe you missed a birthday, right? It's something not quite that serious. That's when we would use these. You're on thin ice. You're in hot water. Someone's upset with you, but it's not extremely serious. So this is interesting because we do kind of draw that distinction here between in hot water and the other ones. So you said, I think we are in hot water.

And so you're saying we're already in trouble. She's upset with us. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So and then I actually said I don't think she's mad. But it does feel like we're. hanging by a thread. So you're kind of saying we're right on the precipice of her being really mad at us. We're hanging by a thread. So let's be careful not to do anything else wrong.

Exactly. We're not in the hot water yet. And then you just said definitely on thin ice to agree with me. So you're just really echoing what I'm already saying. Yes, these are such great phrases. For like we were saying, being vulnerable, sharing like I did, something that you did where you were on thin ice or in hot water, you made a mistake, right? And then also, if a friend shares this with you, right, they are being vulnerable.

They want to connect if they're willing to admit that they were on thin ice. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, takeaway for today is number one, we taught you a few different idioms. we taught you the distinctions, right? How hot water is different from the other two. And just also how I thought it was interesting, Aubrey's point, how they're serious, but there is some sort of light.

tone to them as well so it's kind of interesting that line like you're not quite using the serious courtroom terms um there's a little there's a little more to it a little more like personality almost A strange, sarcastic humor in a way. Because there are other options that would be more serious. Even before the courtroom issue, my parents could have said, you're in serious trouble. There are these more serious things, whereas these idioms...

have just enough lightness that they're going to be used more when it's not that serious of an infraction. Exactly. All right, guys. Well, Aubrey, thank you so much for talking about this with me today. And maybe we should go ice skating together one time. That would be lovely. I'll have to come visit you where it's cold and we could easily find ice here in Arizona. Not so much. Plenty of ice over here. Plenty of ice. All right, Aubrey. Have a good one. You too. Bye-bye. Bye.

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