Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to our English podcast where we try to help you with your conversational English to improve your spoken English, your understanding of English and any grammar rules that might apply. And for this podcast we have four particular expressions and they're all to do with the word talk, T a L K talk. So here they are fighting talk, a pep talk, pillow talk and small talk. Okay? So I'll explain them and then give you some examples.
Uh , hopefully you'll be able to integrate those into your English where it's appropriate. Okay. Fighting talk while fighting talk is when somebody really wants to get his point across. Sunday is not going to be shouted down by anybody and he's determined to stand his ground and he's determined to win at all costs. So when somebody comes out with a rousing speech said , wow, that's fighting talk. Yeah, he's really determined to win.
So in a political situation, perhaps you have one political party that's under a lot of pressure. The leader is under pressure to improve his position. And he comes out and he makes a really amazing speech to those that are listening, make some promises, make some really good political arguments and people and the press in particular say, wow, that's fighting talk . He's , he has come out fighting and he's determined to win.
Okay. So anytime we refer to fighting talk, it's a inner determination that perhaps we didn't show before. But when our back is to the wall as it's an expression we used before we come out fighting and that's fighting talk, we're ready to defend ourselves even to the point of getting physical. Okay. Fighting talk. Second one, a pep talk. Well, we all need a pep talk from time to time and a pep talk. Pep is a particular talk that picks us up.
Yeah. That gives us a bit of a momentum that gives us a bit of motivation. Okay. So your team is losing three nil at half time , three goals to zero and things are not looking so good. So at half time the captain calls the players together and he says, look guys, we're better than this. We can win this match . These guys are not at our level. We had a bit of bad luck, bad referee decisions . So let's go out there and let's show that we can fight. Okay ?
So a little pep talk to get the players , uh , ready. And in the second half, okay, you don't win, but you, you don't concede any more goals. You score a couple and the end result is three, two little bit closer. Soar , a real pep talk. You might give your children a little pep talk before an important exam. You know, to tell them, Oh, you're good. You're, you've studied hard, you've worked hard, you be a little bit nervous, but don't worry about it. I've, I'm full of confidence.
Or just go in there, do your best, a little pep talk. And then the boss, when he wants to get the sales improved, we had a little bit of a , a bad quarter, perhaps the , the quarter to the end of September wasn't so good. So he calls in the sales team. He says, okay guys, look, we need to get some things going. We need to improve. We need to start selling. Let's get back to basics. You know, our product is good.
We just need a little bit of improvement, a little bit of extra work, and we can make it, let's go. Let's get it done. So a real pep talk and yes , in the next quarter, sales increase quite significantly. So that's a pep talk. The third is pillow talk, P I. L. L. O. w you go to sleep on your pillow like a cushion.
But in English we call it a pillow, a pillow for your head and pillow talk is the type of talk when you're laying in bed talking to your partner, your husband or your wife, your boyfriend or girlfriend, whoever it might be. But usually when you pillow talk, it's a little bit loose. It's , um, it's not perhaps , uh , uh , top secret, but you usually talk about intimate things or things that are really important. And you might tell your partner a little bit more than you should.
And that's usually pillar talk . Something that you wouldn't tell anybody else. Um, but you're nice and relaxed. You can trust the person that you're sleeping beside. So yeah, your , your hope that nothing will be , uh , will go wrong. So pillow talk. Yup .
Um, and sometimes people would make a little bit of a joke about it when in the , or I heard from Mary that, you know , uh, things that have gone so well in , in the job where her husband was telling her last night, he said, ah, look, don't believe that that's only pillow talk app. It might not be true at all. So pillow talk is that conversation you have with a nearest and dearest.
Somebody you love, somebody you're lying beside and it's a conversation you have before the lights go out and you go to sleep. Pillow talk. Okay. And number four , small talk. Well , I think we've all heard of small talk and small talk is those conversations that we don't necessarily want to have, but they're good to have. Perhaps when you're stuck in an elevator with somebody, eh , the conversations you have with somebody before you start an important meeting. How's the weather?
How's your hotel? How did you get here? Yeah. What do you do? What department do you work in? So these small talk conversations, meet somebody at a conference and it's to fill in time. Uh , you're sitting beside somebody at Amelia, perhaps don't know them so well. So you start conversations with small talk and hope that it will open up to something more meaningful.
So very , um , definite small talk conversations would be the weather, the sport, the traffic, the job, the family, all of these sorts of issues. Okay. So that's our second podcast and the four particular aspects around talk, fighting, talk, a pep talk, pillar talk and small talk. Okay. Thanks for listening and join me again soon. And as always, you'll get me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com always happy to answer your questions.
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