New Year Questions
Ray (Learn English with Ray) joined me at the start of 2022 to discuss resolutions and planning for the new year. We look at some questions to make plans for the year as well as some useful expressions you can use at this time.
This is a really casual chat so you get to hear real, natural English with me and Ray’s wonderful Scottish accent.
Timestamps
These timestamps are for the video version. The audio version will be about 10 seconds later.
- 3:50 – Start of Conversation
- 4:21 – Chatting about the New Year
- 10:33 – Who is Ray?
- 13:39 – Do you have any resolutions?
- 17:50 – Do you reflect on the year?
- 21:41 – What’s your best achievement of the year?
- 27:13 – What should you cut down on?
- 32:36 – Exposing our screentime
- 37:32 – What are you forging ahead with?
- 41:46 – Will you embark on trips?
- 47:37 – Our private chat & outro
Where to Find Ray
Vocabulary & Expressions
- To get sidetracked (00:47) – To forget about the main topic of conversation
- Rusty (04:13) – Not very good at a skill because you haven’t practised for a while
- First world problems (09:19) – Very small and insignificant problems that only people in rich countries experience
- Peck (11:14) – A quick, light kiss
- Profusely (09:41) – To a great degree, in large amounts
- Get a grip (10:05) – Expression used to complain about someone who can’t handle simple things (such as daily life tasks)
- Rinse and repeat (10:41) – To indicate continual repetition with an action or habit
- Stagnate (11:20) – To stop progressing in an area
- Preposterous (14:05) – Ridiculous
- Get your foot in the door (17:14) – To have or gain a first introduction to a profession or organisation
- Arbitrary (17:54) – based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system
- Superfluous (20:45) – Too much of something
- To let something get to one’s head (25:33) – To be emotionally affected or offended by something
- To cut down on (27:19) – To reduce something
- Vicarious (39:56) – Experiencing something through the actions of someone else
- To cut out (27:27) – To get rid of something (eg. from your diet)
- To ring a bell (43:24) – To sound familiar
- To unwind (29:58) – To relax and de-stress
- To hold someone accountable (40:42) – To make sure someone does what they said they would do
- To embark on (41:51) – To start a journey (eg. vacation, spiritual journey…)
- To fall on my plate (42:41) – To show up in my life
- To build bridges (44:46) – To make connections with other people
- Daunting (45:48) – Something that seems scary to do because it’s so huge
Join Level Up English
Sign up to Level Up English to access online courses and join our global learning community.
Sign Up
