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Episode: AEE: Are You on a Wild Goose Chase for Better English? Listen Today

Author: Lindsay McMahon and Michelle Kaplan
Duration: 00:21:17

Episode Shownotes

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Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
This is an all ears English podcast. Are you on a wild goose chase for better English? Listen today. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English?

00:00:17 Speaker_00
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl.

00:00:34 Speaker_00
coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android.

00:00:50 Speaker_00
Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app.

00:00:58 Speaker_01
Have you ever been in a situation where you are looking for something but it's hard to find? Today, get one phrase that can help you express the intensity of your search in English.

00:01:13 Speaker_00
Hey there, Michelle. How are you doing today?

00:01:16 Speaker_01
Good, Lindsay. I have a question for you. Oh yes, I'm ready. Have you ever felt like you were on a wild goose chase?

00:01:24 Speaker_00
Wow, that's a big question. You know, my journey to find an apartment in New York. Right. Might have had tones of that.

00:01:38 Speaker_00
There was definitely a lot of chasing up and down Midtown, downtown, uptown, running, running from subway stop to the next to apartment. And it's just the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Michelle. Yeah. That is a New York.

00:01:51 Speaker_01
Oh yeah, that's a great example of how this expression might be used. So guys, well, we are here today on our Saturday episode, so hopefully you're relaxed today.

00:02:03 Speaker_01
Maybe you're going out to the gym, maybe you're sipping your coffee, however you're listening. Thank you for being here with us on this Saturday. Today, we are going to talk about this fun expression, a wild goose chase.

00:02:15 Speaker_01
But before we get into that, we want to remind you guys about our really great app.

00:02:21 Speaker_00
Yeah, we have an app, guys. We have an iOS Android app. It's custom just for All Ears English. And this is a place you'll want to go if you want to deepen your learning with the show. Of course, over there, you can listen to every episode for free.

00:02:34 Speaker_00
But if you become a premium member in the app, that's when you get to see the transcripts right there on your phone. You also get tappable words in each transcript. There's five to seven tappable words in each episode.

00:02:46 Speaker_00
If you tap on those words, you'll see the definition. You'll save them to your personal power list.

00:02:51 Speaker_00
And at the end of each week now, we are doing a weekly summary role play where Aubrey and I take all the vocabulary words from the week, not all of them, many of them. We bring them into one role play, right?

00:03:03 Speaker_00
So we're taking words from different episodes. We're talking about what they mean to review them again. Then we're doing a role play using those different words.

00:03:11 Speaker_00
And this is what we actually need to do to touch back to those words in a review format to make sure we fully learn them. I think for our listeners, a lot of what they tell us is, I learn a word once and then I forget it.

00:03:23 Speaker_00
And I don't know how to use it. This is how we actually are able to use it on the spot is by reviewing.

00:03:29 Speaker_01
I love that. That is so helpful because, you know, you might listen to an episode and then maybe you just go on to the next episode and you forget about it. And this is just such a great way to put it all together in a larger way.

00:03:44 Speaker_01
How can we fit these words all together? Because these episodes don't just exist totally on their own, right? This is all about how can we connect everything together in real life? Because real life isn't just

00:03:57 Speaker_00
One topic, next topic, next topic, right? Exactly. You got it. Sometimes you're going to need to grab an episode from a topic about X. When you're talking about Y, it's going to be completely in a different context.

00:04:08 Speaker_00
So what you see in those weekly summaries is those words are moved into a new context, which is really, really cool. So guys, that is only over there for premium members in the app.

00:04:17 Speaker_00
So go over to allersenglish.com app, choose Android or iOS, download the app, give it a try, do the trial and check it out. All right. Good.

00:04:27 Speaker_01
All right. And I bet this will be in a summary. Wild goose chase. What in the world does that mean?

00:04:36 Speaker_00
Yeah, I love this. This is so fun. Oh, my gosh. This means that you are or were searching for something that's impossible to get or that you just won't find. Right.

00:04:47 Speaker_00
So maybe you go all over the place and you're looking and you're trying to get something done or find something and it just doesn't happen. Or it's extremely difficult. So we can use this on literal levels and metaphorical levels. Right.

00:05:01 Speaker_00
And that's what I love about the advanced English. You know, in C1, we talk about using metaphors, speaking metaphorically. This is where we're headed as a community to move towards abstract English. So high level. So high level.

00:05:13 Speaker_01
Yeah, I mean, so it's not always used to say that you are, okay, so the meaning of an actual, of a wild goose chase would be that it is actually impossible to find, right?

00:05:24 Speaker_01
Something, it's, I'm on a wild goose chase, it doesn't, it's not going to happen, right? But sometimes we say, I feel like I'm in a wild goose chase, which is more,

00:05:35 Speaker_01
It seems that way, but I know that I can find it, but it's just everything is all over the place. But it doesn't always mean, oh, it's not going to happen. Sure.

00:05:43 Speaker_00
Yeah. I just emphasizing it feels crazy. Things feel crazy. Right. Yeah. Do you use this, Lindsay? Yeah, of course I have. Historically in my life I have used it for sure.

00:05:55 Speaker_00
Lately not as much, but I feel like I used it a lot or my mom might have used it a lot. I don't know. It could be even, I don't know, for some reason this makes me think of the wild turkeys that cross the road. It's holiday time, we're eating turkey.

00:06:08 Speaker_00
It makes me think maybe you're making Thanksgiving dinner and you have a guest that demands 100% genuine real turkey. cranberry sauce, but you only have like big box stores in your town that don't have fresh cranberries. Right.

00:06:24 Speaker_00
You want a wild goose chase all over your county to find fresh cranberries for this person. Right.

00:06:29 Speaker_01
Right. Yeah. Oh, that's a great example. Yeah. I yeah, I use this for sure. I don't know. I guess I'm just constantly on a wild goose chase.

00:06:38 Speaker_00
I don't know.

00:06:39 Speaker_01
But I just read your life, Michelle. I love that. I think so. Thank you. So again, it doesn't have to mean, if you really are in a wild goose chase, you're not going to find it.

00:06:52 Speaker_01
But if you say, oh, I feel like it, or it's like I'm on a wild goose chase in a more metaphorical way, you're probably going to find it's just annoying. So let's go for some other examples. I mean, Lindsay, this touches back on your New York example.

00:07:05 Speaker_01
I mean, you did find an apartment eventually, but it was like a wild goose chase. So yeah, looking for a house when the inventory is low.

00:07:14 Speaker_01
I know people who are currently looking for houses or have had to stop their search because there's just not enough inventory. So you could say, I want to move and we've been looking everywhere, but it's like we're on a wild goose chase.

00:07:30 Speaker_00
Yeah, I think anytime looking for any product, any item that's just rare, hard to find, unexpected, that's the vibe that we're going for.

00:07:39 Speaker_01
Right, right. Oh, yeah. Or even now, because yeah, the holiday time if people might be searching, it makes me think of, you know, maybe it's different now because we have the internet.

00:07:48 Speaker_01
But if somebody is looking for the hottest toy for their kid, oh my gosh, people get into the fights.

00:07:55 Speaker_00
Don't you think there's a lot of holiday movies that come out all about that this kid has his heart set on this one toy, and he just has to get it out at the end of the movie? Will he get his toy? Right? Yeah, there's just so many holiday.

00:08:07 Speaker_00
I love holiday movies, by the They're so light and fun.

00:08:10 Speaker_01
Yeah, I do too. I do too. It's a very special time of year. Okay, so here's another one. Lizzie, what's the next example?

00:08:19 Speaker_00
Trying to find an outfit to wear as a bridesmaid in a certain color that is really rare. Oh my gosh, yes. This is always hard.

00:08:27 Speaker_00
If you're honored to be selected as part of a bridal party, it's a wonderful thing, but you might have a challenge ahead of you in terms of getting the right thing to wear, especially if they're not just telling you what to wear.

00:08:40 Speaker_00
They're saying, oh, broadly try to get this color. Right.

00:08:45 Speaker_01
So, for example, the bride wants us all to wear a color called peacock blue, but I'm on a wild goose chase trying to find anything in that color.

00:08:54 Speaker_00
Oh, and it's so hard because, you know, you don't want to stress the bride out. You don't want to say the wrong thing in front of the bride. There's a lot of deference given to the bride, right? During these times.

00:09:04 Speaker_00
And so in the background, the bridal party is always going crazy. The bride might not even know it.

00:09:11 Speaker_01
Yeah. Right. It's true. It's so true.

00:09:13 Speaker_00
Yeah. Okay. Michelle, we are back to continue on. Now, what would be another example? Let's give more context.

00:09:21 Speaker_01
Yeah. So another example could be if you're trying to find a job in a bad economy. OK, so maybe there aren't that many jobs. So you could say I've been applying to jobs everywhere and networking, but I'm on a wild goose chase. Yeah.

00:09:35 Speaker_00
It's just kind of when you when you resort to the phrase wild goose chase, you're trying to say things are getting kind of crazy. Right. Yeah. Right.

00:09:41 Speaker_01
Things are a little exasperated. Yeah. Grim. Good. Good word.

00:09:46 Speaker_00
Exasperated is a good word.

00:09:48 Speaker_01
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. These are guys. These are going to be on the app for sure. Or what's what's one more example? Yeah.

00:09:57 Speaker_00
So let's see. Yeah.

00:09:58 Speaker_00
Well, if you're trying to get signatures for documents that you need and you're spending a lot of time running all over, for example, maybe you need to get something notarized, you print something out, but you don't have a printer at your house.

00:10:09 Speaker_00
It just goes. Yeah, I actually I've felt this way over the last couple of years dealing with my aunts, all of her financial stuff, family. Yeah, it's pretty intense. Do you have a printer? I actually do, and I'm glad I do.

00:10:24 Speaker_01
I figure you would need to. I do have a printer. I haven't had a printer, and most of the time I don't need one. Sorry, I think I interrupted you. No, that's okay.

00:10:34 Speaker_01
I haven't had one in years, and most of the time it's okay, but there is that time when it comes up and you're like, why don't I have a printer?

00:10:44 Speaker_00
Totally, I think every household probably should have a printer. I think especially if you're doing certain things like dealing with Estates and people just like wrapping up their their things when they pass away.

00:10:54 Speaker_00
There's a lot of that that has to go on So here's a sample sentence. Okay, so we need to get this notarized, but the notary isn't there and it's due by 12, right? Man, are we on a wild goose chase? I love that

00:11:06 Speaker_01
Yeah, that's a good example of what it might be. It becomes kind of a pain.

00:11:15 Speaker_00
I didn't even see your example and I thought about a notary for some reason. You have to call them and say, when is the notary in or the notary is not in today. It's just like, are you serious?

00:11:26 Speaker_01
Yeah, it's always some sort of paperwork, maybe a title of a car, maybe you're purchasing a house or leasing an apartment and you have to prove your bank statements or whatever.

00:11:40 Speaker_00
And sometimes it never ends. You just end up in this spiral of bureaucracy. I think I shared on the other podcast with Aubrey of trying to retitle a classic car that belongs to a family member, but there's no license plate. There's no title.

00:11:54 Speaker_00
There's no registration. And it's like a foreign car. Like, how do you do that in the state of California? We're going to find out.

00:12:00 Speaker_01
You're going to go on a wild goose chase in the middle of it right now.

00:12:03 Speaker_00
So these it's when things become extreme, they become extreme, right? It's not like I'm just going to go and find the thing and come home. No, no, no. Yeah, right, right, right.

00:12:14 Speaker_01
It's just, you know, it's used. It's interesting because it's used kind of in a when you're frustrated or in or exasperated. Right. But it's also very versatile because you can use it kind of humorously or sarcastically.

00:12:28 Speaker_01
So it doesn't always have to be this extreme situation. Not all the time. I think most of the time it is. But, you know, you could say, oh, man, now I have to go on a wild goose chase to get all my kids school supplies. It doesn't have to be extreme.

00:12:44 Speaker_01
It can just be like, oh, I have to go searching around for something.

00:12:48 Speaker_00
Yeah, I think this is useful because you need a way to say this is intense. Or, this is annoying. There's only so many hours in the day. I really get annoyed by this kind of thing.

00:13:04 Speaker_00
When things are harder than they need to be, I just want to be spending my time hanging out with my dog or outside hiking. I don't want to be running around chasing a notary.

00:13:12 Speaker_01
You know, I know that notary. Yeah. Sometimes.

00:13:15 Speaker_00
Yeah.

00:13:15 Speaker_01
I need to, I need to find a neighbor notary or something.

00:13:19 Speaker_00
And I just like, you can do a mobile notary, but it's expensive. Like they'll come to you. Yeah. They'll come to you. But I mean, they charge you for it, you know? Yeah. Anyways. So, do we have time for these? Lindsay, what is a notary? I'm sorry.

00:13:33 Speaker_00
Okay, just to be, okay, we haven't defined this. I think our listeners probably have, of course, they have the same thing, guys.

00:13:38 Speaker_00
So, a notary is, if you're signing an important document, certain important documents require that you sign in the presence of a notary, someone who's been trained to say, yes, I've checked this person's ID, they're who they say they are, we are here in this place, this is the date, this is the time, they stamp it, and then that kind of certifies the signing of the thing.

00:13:58 Speaker_01
cute little seal that they do.

00:13:59 Speaker_00
A little seal. Love it.

00:14:01 Speaker_01
Yes. Well, it's up to you. Do we have time? We're still kind of early on.

00:14:05 Speaker_00
I think we have a few minutes. Let's do it. Let's do a few of these. All right. All right. So a lost cause. This is the same idea. Kind of. I'm trying to find my glasses, but I think it's a lost cause.

00:14:16 Speaker_00
So this is a little different because you've already decided it's just not going to you're not going to find the thing. Well, goose chase, you could still have some hope. Right. But by the time it's a lost cause, it's over. Yeah.

00:14:29 Speaker_01
Right, exactly. And I think we could do a whole follow-up on a lost cause. But yeah, definitely could be used in a similar way. I think we'll skip the next one. Let's do waste of time. I mean, okay, well, this has been a waste of time.

00:14:44 Speaker_01
We didn't find anything we needed. So that's more after, well, it doesn't have to be after the fact. You could say, I think this will be a waste of time.

00:14:52 Speaker_00
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of unnecessary steps and things. Yeah. And then in vain, I think we're looking in vain over here. I really think Franny threw out what we needed. This should be its own episode in vain.

00:15:02 Speaker_00
I mean, you've seen we've seen this in songs and poems and movies, right? Doing something in vain means you're kind of misguided in your search.

00:15:13 Speaker_01
Yeah.

00:15:13 Speaker_00
It's not going to happen for another reason. Yep.

00:15:17 Speaker_01
Yes. Yeah, so we can definitely go deeper into these examples, these other ones soon, but let's do a role play on a couple of these now. So here, Lindsay and I are friends looking for a birthday present for our other friend. Okay, here we go.

00:15:36 Speaker_00
Go ahead, Michelle.

00:15:37 Speaker_01
Oh, I'm sorry. Here we go. So she told me she wants a fondue making set.

00:15:43 Speaker_00
Oh, boy. I don't even know where to start. OK, I don't see anything. Hmm. I think it's a lost cause. I don't think we're looking in vain. We may just need to try another store.

00:15:56 Speaker_01
Okay, well, I'll try one more, but it feels like we might be on a wild goose chase.

00:16:00 Speaker_00
Doesn't feel like we tried that hard. No, we're like looking on one shelf at once. Like if it's not in the aisle that I'm walking down.

00:16:07 Speaker_01
I'm not even gonna ask anybody. We must not like this friend very much. We must not like them very much. Or it sounds like I don't for sure.

00:16:18 Speaker_00
You have a little more hope. I'm like, Oh man, can't do it. Yeah, for sure. So I said, oh boy, I don't even know where to start. Okay, I don't see anything. Not trying hard here, Michelle. And then you said, I think it's a lost cause. I'm ready to give up.

00:16:37 Speaker_00
I don't, and then I said, I don't think we're looking in vain, meaning I think we could actually find this, you know, it exists out there, right? This thing she wants, it is a real thing. Yeah.

00:16:48 Speaker_01
And then said, okay, well, I'm sorry. This is so funny. I'll try one more, but it feels like we might be on a wild goose chase.

00:16:56 Speaker_00
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the quality of the gifts you get and how much thought was put into it. Right. We can always judge our friendships, I guess. You know how in it are our friends at that moment. Right. Into the friendship. I don't see it. Yeah.

00:17:11 Speaker_00
Michelle, is there another episode our listeners could check out here?

00:17:15 Speaker_01
Guys, head on over to episode 2315 was, Who Asked You?

00:17:19 Speaker_00
Rude Phrases to Avoid in English. All right. All right. So we've talked about what this phrase means, the intensity of it. Is there a takeaway here? I mean, a human connection takeaway, what it means for us?

00:17:34 Speaker_01
I think that it's really used when we are kind of in an intense state, right? You're kind of, like we used to use that word, exasperated. You're just kind of over it. Unlike the role play, it's not about looking at one Shelf in the store.

00:17:51 Speaker_01
It's you know, something is very annoying.

00:17:53 Speaker_01
It's become irritating or you think it will be that way So I think it's just good to connect with people over this feeling I mean even though it's a somewhat negative feeling it's a good way to connect it to vent and to share and

00:18:06 Speaker_01
maybe what will or won't be a waste of time.

00:18:09 Speaker_00
Yeah, because if you've had an experience that has been very exasperating, again, maybe you're physically out of breath when you're saying you've been in a wild goose chase, maybe you want to share that feeling.

00:18:21 Speaker_00
Like you said, Michelle, you want others to really understand how hard it was to find this thing, or maybe you haven't found this thing yet. OK, so you can share your life with people in a sense.

00:18:31 Speaker_01
Yeah, definitely.

00:18:31 Speaker_00
It's what it comes down to.

00:18:33 Speaker_01
Nice.

00:18:34 Speaker_00
All right. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you don't go in on any wild goose chases in the future. Anytime soon, Michelle. Same.

00:18:44 Speaker_01
Yes. Yes. Same to you, Lindsay. All right.

00:18:46 Speaker_00
You have a good day, Michelle. Bye.

00:18:47 Speaker_01
All right. Bye.

00:18:52 Speaker_00
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.

00:19:04 Speaker_00
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