Boil over

Boil over

Now we’re going to talk about the English phrasal verb “boil over.”

Before we get into it, I want you to think about a pot of water on the stove. And it’s full to the top. And you turn the stove on, and nothing really happens. And then after a minute or so, the temperature starts to rise, but still, there’s no real change. Then gradually you start to see some bubbles at the bottom, but things are still under control. Next, what happens? The bubbles reach the surface. And remember, this is a pot of water full to the top. And if you leave the heat on “high” long enough, the water boils over. The boiling water spills over the side and you have a hot-watery mess on your hands.

So keep that image in mind when we talk about emotions boiling over. When emotions boil over, they go from being under control to being out of control. They go from being something orderly to being something messy.

When we talk about “boil over” we frequently use words associated with emotion. The two most common emotions to use with “boil over” are anger and frustration.

In today’s lesson about Chile , I gave you some background on why they were drafting a new constitution. In 2019, the government raised the price of a subway fare by a very small amount. But by that time, people were already frustrated with inequality and the current government .

Their frustration boiled over into violent protests. Santiago and other cities were badly damaged by these protests. The government was in shock; just to lower the temperature, the government agreed to establish a process to write a new constitution.

So we say, “their frustration boiled over.” The frustration was always there. It was real, it was legitimate, it was intensely felt. But before the increase in subway fares, people weren’t setting fires to subway stations. After the fare increase, the frustration boiled over. It got to a point where it was out of control.

You can say this about a specific person, too. We’ve all been in a situation that makes us angry. Most of us can control that anger, most of the time. But sometimes our anger does boil over. If your anger boils over, you might say things you regret. You might take actions that you wouldn’t take in a moment of calm. If anger boils over between two people, there might be pushing and shoving—or worse.

You can sometimes say “tension” boils over. Tension is like, a feeling of discomfort between two people. And if two people or two sides don’t trust each other, you can say “tensions are high.” Both sides are on alert; both sides are nervous. But, at least outwardly, things are under control.

Tensions are high between the U.S. and China these days. About a month ago, a high-ranking Congresswoman from the United States went to visit Taiwan. And more people started asking, will tensions boil over between the U.S. and China? Will the situation, which is at least under control right now, will the situation start to boil over? Will the two countries lose control over the situation?

Luckily, the situation did not boil over. We’ll explore that in a future lesson. But the tensions remain. And people might be asking all over again, if the situation will boil over.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote of the week is from Henry Ford. Here it is: “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.”

Obviously “thinking you can” do something is not enough to be able to do it. But the point of the quote is, if you start with an attitude that something is impossible, then you’ll convince yourself that it’s impossible, and you won’t be able to do it.

I, for example, convinced myself that I do not, under any circumstances, belong on YouTube. And so I never wanted to put any kind of content on YouTube. I thought I couldn’t, and I couldn’t.

But life is funny. I had this germ of an idea to live stream the 500th . I promised it would be on Instagram and Facebook. And then after I said that over and over, for like three weeks in a row, I realized that Instagram is vertical and Facebook is horizontal. And that would be a problem. So I scrambled for another solution and that solution was…YouTube. And guess what…that’s where most people watched the stream.

So at least now I have an account. And I have the 500th lesson videos up there. And maybe—maybe in the future —you will see some YouTube videos from us. Maybe in the future .

See you next time!

I just don’t think I have the full range of facial expressions necessary to succeed on YouTube. I think there’s a normal range of facial expressions…and I have less than normal. But the people on YouTube need to have these exaggerated expressions for their cover images.

Maybe we have a future on YouTube, I don’t know. But I am drawing the line at these crazy faces.

Well that’s all for the future. For now, we’ll focus on the next lesson, which is another serious one: haircuts. And we’ll talk about the haircut that Australians love to hate…and now maybe love to love? I don’t know. We’ll find out together on Thursday. See you then!