LICENSE TO PRINT MONEY 🇺🇸

Hello, welcome back to the American English Conversation. This is Joe English. And the first phrase today is, the early bird gets the worm. Now you can follow these phrases on the telegram if you... Go look in the show description. Just click on the Telegram link and then you can read and follow along with the phrases that will be on the show.

So the early bird gets the worm. This is pretty simple. It's just a way of saying that people that get up early in the morning are the ones that tend to get the most opportunities. So if you sleep in and you miss the opportunity, then you could say the early bird gets the worm. So this really mostly applies to just getting up early. It doesn't really apply to anything else. So like if you.

You know, let's say you got in line first for the new iPhone or you wanted to get the movie ticket or something. You wouldn't say this phrase unless you had to get up really early to get in line. But just getting in line first, you know, like I said, this only applies to getting up early in the morning. And it's not really something that people say very often, but if you do say this, people will think, wow, this person is pretty clever. Okay, so...

The next phrase, let's see, scrolling through here. Okay, let's talk about some money phrases. It's a license to print money. So the first time I really heard this phrase used in an actual situation, one of my friends, his family... knew somebody that had this restaurant in Florida. And they said that this restaurant that they owned was really popular. and the owner said it's a it's licensed to print money so apparently this restaurant made so much money that you know they it's

They were saying it's almost like owning a printing press because that's how much money that this place was making. And the actual, I'll tell you, the actual... uh, place, I don't know if it's still there, but this was in Gainesville, Florida, and the place was called Chiny Takey Audi, which, uh, it was just, it was literally a hole in the wall. at a main intersection on 441 right across the street from the University of Florida.

And, you know, that's the first time I heard this phrase used was someone who was Chinese. But, you know, this is a common phrase. You know, if you are in a profitable business, it's sort of a clever way of saying that. you know, the business is profitable. Um, now sometimes people make a joke about being an artist. Like if you're an artist that's selling art and, you know, you could say, I have an artistic license. Now, the artistic license is a little bit of a tricky phrase because...

You're not necessarily referring to making money, but let's just say somebody does something really unique and clever. Then you could say they're using their artistic license to... make uh you know make that clever um adjustment to something that's maybe unusual so if someone does something that's unusual and creative you can say oh you're using your artistic license there But, yeah. Artistic license is not so much of a money phrase, but it's...

It's somewhat related because artists do literally have a license to print money. That is assuming that the artist is able to sell their artwork. The next phrase on this. business is our cash cow and now let's just say you had multiple businesses and then Some of the businesses were not very profitable. They're not making very much money. But the cash cow business might be the business that's making all of the money.

So for instance, like, let's say I heard this example used on a podcast recently. where a car mechanic realized that they were making most of their money with oil changes. So you could say, you know, the oil changes, that was the cash cow for the business. Actually, I heard that, well, there's a franchise here in the United States called Jiffy Lube, and all they, well, they do more than just oil changes now, but...

That business started out just doing oil changes because they realized that oil changes are something that everyone needs very frequently. And so that was the cash cow. for that, um, for that business, but now Jiffy Lube, I believe they do other services besides just oil changes, and I personally would not recommend going there, they, uh, they will try to rip you off, at least that was my experience, they, um.

They lied about a problem with my muffler and they didn't pass my inspection. So this is my endorsement to not use Jiffy Lube. Okay, so moving on. Okay, we're going to skip that one where we talk about that came out wrong. Well, I could just say it real quick. So when the meaning you intended was misunderstood because you chose the wrong words, you could say that came out wrong. I think we covered that in a previous episode. I was just clarifying that one.

In terms of the Instagram, I'm not sure if Jane will continue doing the Instagram or not. That was something she was working on, but I don't think she's going to be working on that anymore.

But she might. It's hard to say. I don't know. Let's see. The next phrase is sing your heart out. So this phrase refers more to doing something with a lot of passion. You know, you could say dance your heart out or... You know, run your heart out if you're in a race or maybe, you know, any activity, you could put any verb there.

pretty much, but this more refers to doing some activity to, to an ability that's really pushing you to your limit. So if you, um, Let's say you were a musician and you wanted to play your heart out and there was really some kind of vigorous, it's usually some kind of vigorous activity, like let's say someone's... playing a violin or something and they're really you know going going at it with their with their arm moving back and forth uh so if it was if if it's sort of a

If it's not a strenuous activity, I wouldn't necessarily say you would use this phrase. So this phrase is more intended for something that requires a lot of effort or a lot of passion. Okay, the next phrase, and by the way, if you have any questions about these, like if you could ask me, you know, would this use of the phrase be appropriate? You can ask me these questions in the Telegram. And I think you have to subscribe to the Telegram because I see some of you...

reading the telegram, but you're not subscribed to it, so I don't think you can write, I don't think you can leave comments unless you subscribe. Okay, the next phrase is... Break a leg. Now, this is something you might say to someone before a performance or before some kind of endeavor. And it's a way of saying good luck, but... It's not necessarily a nice thing to say because you're suggesting that they might get hurt.

So it's more of a phrase you would say to your friends that they're not going to think that you're wishing them bad luck. So it is a sort of a phrase that you would use with someone that you know well. You probably wouldn't use this phrase with a stranger because then they might think you're wishing bad luck on that person. But this is a phrase you might use before some activity. Now, let's say your friend was in the Olympics and they were about to...

you know, do some kind of skiing event, you wouldn't want to say, go break a leg. I mean, you could, but I don't think you would want to say that because they could misinterpret you. But, you know, it could be seen as a funny thing to say. I personally wouldn't really use this phrase, but if other people are saying it, then at least you'll understand what it means.

Have a nice trip. See you next fall. This is just a joke. And you probably won't hear it very often. But it just means... It's a joke because you're... The word trip can mean two things. It can mean you're going to travel somewhere, but it can also mean that you're falling over, tripping on something. So tripping on something.

Means, you know, let's say you stumbled on a rock and then you fell down. So that's just sort of a silly joke. You know, have a nice trip. See you next fall. Fall is the season and falling down is the joke. So another phrase is better safe than sorry. So, if you're doing something that you don't necessarily need to do, but you're just being careful, you could say better safe than sorry. So, in the United States, in most...

It might even be a national law. But in most states in the United States, you have to wear a seatbelt. Otherwise, you could get a ticket. You could get pulled over by the police and they could say, hey, you have to wear a seatbelt. And there's a fine you could be fined for not wearing a seatbelt. So in that case... Of course, that's not really a good example because that's really something that you need to do because it's enforced. But let's just say you're always backing up.

your files on your computer. Um, and then you're saving that to like an external drive or something. Now the likelihood of your house burning down or something and, and. You know, that's pretty unlikely, but you could just say better safe than sorry just because you're planning for some kind of disaster. But it doesn't just have to be a disaster. It could just be...

like maybe saving a little bit of extra money in case you lose your job or something like that. So better safe than sorry is a very common phrase to hear. And that's about it. I have a lot to do today, so I'm just going to wrap this up. All right, so thanks for listening, and we'll hopefully get another episode out soon. And join us on the Telegram. All right. Bye.