In the last episode, I really had a hard time picking a phrase to review; today there are like five. It\u2019s like waiting for a bus\u2014there isn\u2019t one for a long time, and then three come bunched up all together, right?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a phrasal verb today: brush off. When you brush something off, you reject it. You dismiss it. And you don\u2019t reject it or dismiss it after giving it careful consideration, either: you do it immediately, as if it were not important. Here\u2019s how you heard it the first time. A lot of people would hear about the zero-waste lifestyle\u2014buying secondhand clothes, making your own cleaning supplies, reducing your trash to a single jar for a year\u2014and think, \u201cThere\u2019s no way I can do this!\u201d And just brush it off. Just reject it, as an instinct.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure we can all think of a time when we\u2019ve brushed something off that we really should have given more consideration to. When I was starting this podcast, the first piece of advice people give is, just start. Just put something out there. And I brushed that off. I said no, I need to get the web site looking good. I need to figure out how to do the automatic translations. I need to figure out how to edit the audio so it sounds good. I need music. It needs to sound professional. And it took far too long for me to actually produce the first episode. I should have followed their advice and just started\u2014and worried about polishing things up later. I regret brushing off that advice; I should have taken that advice and started sooner.<\/p>\n
You can brush a person off. We\u2019ve all done that to others, at some point, and we\u2019ve all had it done to us. It\u2019s no fun when you\u2019re trying to get someone\u2019s attention\u2014at work, in your personal life\u2014and they just brush you off. That\u2019s no fun to be just dismissed like that. But there are times when it\u2019s appropriate to brush someone or something off. You know, I get a lot of messages from listeners. I love it; I treasure it. It really\u2014you guys have no idea\u2014it\u2019s such an inspiration. But. Once in a while\u2014and I mean, once in a very long while\u2014I get a comment that is less than fully pleasant. Now, I must admit, there is a language barrier, so in some cases the message didn\u2019t have any ill-intent, it just seemed not so nice at first. But sometimes\u2014and, look, this has really only happened twice, I think\u2014it was just a genuinely not nice comment. So what do I do? I brush it off. It\u2019s not important. I just dismiss it. It\u2019s not worth my time or my mental energy, and I instead think of all the great and encouraging messages that JR and I get.<\/p>\n
Speaking of all the messages that JR and I get, it\u2019s time for JR\u2019s song of the week. As you know, he is the producer and he has a new responsibility here at Plain English, and that is choosing one song in English, out of the thousands of songs that are nominated every week. And after going through the volumes and volumes of submissions this week, he selected \u201cThe Sound of Silence\u201d by Simon and Garfunkel. If you haven\u2019t heard Simon and Garfunkel, I highly encourage you to check them out. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They sang together as a duo in the 1960s and 1970s. \u201cThe Sound of Silence\u201d is a very pretty song. It was nominated by Israel from Brasilia. He said it was the first song where he could understand what the singers were saying. It\u2019s a good one to start with, too. It\u2019s kind of about people\u2019s inability to communicate with one another. JR says there\u2019s some applicability to today, too, when so many people can post on social media, but they still have trouble really communicating. So thanks Israel, thanks JR. If you\u2019d like to nominate a song for next week, please send an email to JR. His email address is jr@plainenglish.com.<\/p>\n
Oh, one more thing about this. I know we\u2019re going a little long today, but the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies is by Simon & Garfunkel, and it includes \u201cThe Sound of Silence.\u201d The movie is called \u201cThe Graduate,\u201d and it came out in 1967. The song plays during the opening credits and kind of sets the theme for the rest of the movie. <\/p>\n
Okay that\u2019s all for today. If you enjoy the show, there are a couple ways to get in touch with us. One is by WhatsApp, feel free to send me a message, introduce yourself. The WhatsApp number is +1 312 967 8757<\/a> . And if you\u2019d like to go the email route, sign up for our e-mail list, and you\u2019ll get a special welcome message from me, and we can correspond that way. To get on the email list, go to PlainEnglish.com\/mail<\/a> . Thanks again, Jana, for your inspiration, Israel for your song, JR for being a great producer, and all of you\u2014for being the best audience in the world. See you right back here on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Use “brush off” when you dismiss or reject something without thinking too much about it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"terminology_category":[79],"lesson_number":[338],"keywords":[1377,135],"content_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n