Stick with (someone)

Stick with (a person)

Not long ago, in lesson 659, I showed you how to use the phrasal verb “stick with .” So if you “stick with an activity” you continue doing that activity.

Today, I’m going to show you what it means for something to stick with you. We use this with emotions , lessons , or experiences that remain in your memory , or in your consciousness , for a long time.

Let’s start with experiences. We’ve all have experiences that we forget and that we don’t care about. But we also have experiences that stick with us. These experiences make a lasting impact on us .

I told you a couple of months ago that I was working in consulting, in the real estate industry , in 2008 when the financial crisis hit. And I was only a few years out of school at the time. And that experience stuck with me for a long time.

This was a very hard time, economically . People were losing their jobs, their homes. People in my company were losing their jobs, people I knew and respected and had worked with for a long time— victims of the recession .

And that experience stuck with me. It continued to have an impact on me long after the recession had ended. I shared with you all that I was very cautious in my career after that because I had experienced that recession. The experience stuck with me.

I don’t think I was unusual in that. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman did a lot of research on how we perceive positive and negative things. And one of the things he found is that people experience negative emotions more strongly than they experience positive ones.

So let’s say you lose $100 one day and you win $100 another day. It’s the same amount of value. Shouldn’t you feel those two events with the same intensity ? Sadness one day, happiness another day? It’s $100 one way, $100 another way. Neither one is life-changing .

But in fact , we feel losses far more intensely than we feel wins. That’s what Kahneman showed. The pain of a loss sticks with us for longer than the pleasure of a win. That affects how people invest. That affects how people gamble —you can imagine that, right?

Words from another person can stick with you. How many words do you hear a day? A lot, right? You’ll forget most of them. Some other words are useful, but they don’t have a long-lasting impact on you. But some words will stick with you for a long time.

You might do a great job on a project at work and receive compliments from a customer or from your boss. That type of positive statement might stick with you. It might give you the encouragement you need to do a good job in the future.

But you might also have an argument with someone. That person might say some hurtful things . And those words might stick with you, too. You might have a hard time repairing the friendship or relationship if those negative words stick with you.

Advice can stick with you. You’ve probably gotten a lot of advice in your life—and you’ve probably forgotten the majority of it. (It’s okay; I’ve done the same thing!) But sometimes, someone will give you some advice that sticks with you. The advice sticks with you: it continues to have an impact long after the person gave you that advice.

I saw an article about the country singer Alana Springsteen. She said that Kenny Chesney—a famous singer—gave her some advice, and the advice stuck with her. He said, “Don’t be in a rush” and don’t look for instant gratification . And Alana Springsteen said that advice stuck with her. She has remembered it for a long time. It has had a lasting impact on her life.

And then finally, memories can stick with you. Just like advice, just like words, just like experiences, you can use “stick with you” with memories, too. As a kid, you probably had thousands of days with your parents, thousands of experiences. But I bet a few of those experiences have stuck with you as you’ve grown older. Maybe it was a family vacation ; maybe a holiday spent at home; maybe a special thing you did together. But even if your parents, your grandparents, aren’t living any longer, I bet some memories have stuck with you.

See you next time!

All right, that’s it. We’re at the end of Plain English for today. Nice job. Now listen, you got to the end of the audio. If you’re listening in your car, if you’re out for a walk, if you’re in the kitchen making dinner or breakfast—basically if you’re away from your computer, just remember that there is more to the lesson than just the audio.

You can go back and read the text later to catch some words you might have missed. You can take the quiz that goes along with the story—that’s part of the free membership, by the way. If you’re a Plus+ member, you can listen to the fast version. I’m about to record that now. You can take the exercises, do the fill in the blanks, record your voice in the pronunciation exercise. Lots of stuff to do at PlainEnglish.com/678, so check that out when you have time.

And if you’re already on the website—well, you’re close. Just click on the tab called “Activities” and you can get started exploring there.

We’ll be back on Thursday with a new lesson. See you then.