Expression: In a Sticky Situation

[music] Hi everybody, my name is Shawna and this is the American English podcast. My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States. Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting. Let's do it. [music] Hello! Welcome back! This is episode 207 and before we jump in, I'd like to give a quick heads up. The next episode will be the second part of this one and in it we'll be talking about one of the strangest disasters in US history, the Great Malacis flood. Yeah, a real flood of molacis. It happened in Boston in 1919 and if you think you heard me wrong, yes I said molacis. Do you know what molacis is? It's that thick, dark, sweet syrup that sort of looks like honey and is very, very sticky. I use it to make Christmas cookies and gingerbread. Anyway, imagine that, filling the streets of Boston. It sounds fake, doesn't it? It sounds like something from a Marvel movie, where superheroes would come and save the day, right? Well, it is a wild story and it's a true one, so stay tuned for that episode. It'll be posted shortly. As usual, part one, which is this episode, is related to part two and in today's episode we'll be focusing on a very common and very useful expression to be in a sticky situation. I'll start with a joke. Teach the expression by first breaking down the individual words. I'll explain the etymology, so where the expression came from. Then we'll do a bunch of realistic examples so that you can hear how to use it in context. At the very end, we'll do some pronunciation exercises, so stay tuned for that. And yeah, let's go ahead and begin with a little story. So as you can probably tell, I'm sick. This past week, my family has had a bad case of the flu and when I'm in bed and sick, all I want is tea. Any tea, in fact, herbal tea, black tea, ginger tea, if it's hot and in a mug, I'll drink it. And to me, there's nothing better than tea with honey. I love honey. Or I should say I loved honey. Because yesterday I spilled honey on my kitchen counter and suddenly I hated it. I tried wiping it up with a sponge and the sponge stuck. I got a towel and the towel stuck to it. I think at one point I was stuck to the counter. Have you guys ever tried cleaning up honey? It's a sticky situation. Did you catch that? Did you catch my joke? All right. A sticky situation is an idiom in English and it means a difficult, complicated or troublesome situation. So when I say it's a sticky situation in this context while cleaning up honey, it has two meanings. The literal meaning, right? The honey is physically sticky and the figurative meaning. Cleaning it up is annoying and difficult. Have you ever tried cleaning up honey? All right. I hope you enjoyed that joke. So let's backtrack a bit. We'll start by going over the individual words in this expression in a sticky situation. So in shows position or condition. So when we say someone is in trouble, in love or in danger, we mean they're in that particular state or circumstance. Christoph is in love with Anna. We were in trouble for talking in class. A is an indefinite article. It means one among many possibilities. I'd like to have a waffle, please. All right. So maybe it's one on a breakfast menu, one item on a breakfast menu among many possibilities. In a sticky is the next word. So literally sticky is when something feels gluey. Sticky is a very unpleasant feeling, isn't it? If your hands are sticky, what do you do? I bet you go straight to the sink and wash them off with soap and water. Now, the thing is sticky in the context of this expression is slightly different. It means complicated, awkward, or difficult to escape. So keep that in mind, which brings me to the last word. Situation. A situation is a set of circumstances at a given time. So to be in a sticky situation means to be in a difficult, awkward, or troublesome circumstance, that's hard to get out of. It can be an uncomfortable situation, a complicated one. That you just really don't know how to deal with. I was very much stuck in it. I was in a sticky situation. Now according to Oxford English Dictionary, the figurative meaning of sticky, meaning that difficult situation appeared in the early 1800s. And over the course of 100 years, English speakers in both the UK and the US started using it, right? In that metaphorical way to describe things like legal issues, embarrassment, or just complicated problems. Now with that said, this idiom has been around in use for over 200 years. So how do we use it? Let's go through three examples so that you can hear how it's used in everyday life. Now this first one, I'm not going to lie, it makes me cringe. It makes me go, "Ah, I don't want to experience that." It makes me feel uncomfortable and I want to run away from the situation. It makes me cringe. Now example number one. Now imagine this. You're at work and you're annoyed with a project. It just sucks. It's repetitive, it's boring. And so out of frustration, you open your email to complain to a coworker. You write, "I don't understand why our manager approved this stupid project. It makes no sense and now we're stuck fixing it." You hit send and then to your horror, you realize you clicked reply all. That message didn't go just to your coworker. It went to the entire department, including your manager. Within seconds you get little reply emails and then one from your manager arrives. Let's discuss this in my office. That's the moment your heart starts counting. You my friend are in a very sticky situation. You're in a complicated situation, a troublesome situation. You might say you're in a pickle or you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. You're going to have to find your way out, some way, somehow. Ooh, it's complicated, right? What do you do? I bet you're going to have to apologize. For sure. Example number two. Do you watch the Oscars? I do. Not every year, but I do remember one from 2017. Do you know which one I'm talking about? At the 2017 Academy Awards, presenters Warren Beatty and Fay Dunway accidentally announced the wrong movie for best picture. They said La La Land won. The cast of La La Land got on stage and gave speeches. Then it was revealed that the real winner was Moonlight, a totally different film. So imagine that situation, like the presenters, the producers, everyone involved in onstage were suddenly in a very sticky situation. And it was live on television. So millions of viewers were watching at home. This is a perfect example of public embarrassment. How do you get out of that? I honestly don't remember how they got out of it. The point is, this expression fits perfectly here. It was a sticky situation. Last but not least, example number three. In 1985, Coca-Cola decided to change its original formula and introduce new Coke. Attention Pepsi drinkers, introducing the new taste of Coca-Cola, the best Coca-Cola ever. That's all I'm going to say. In fact, that's all I have to say. It's funny actually online, you can see images of the advertisements, new Coke, better recipe, and guess what? Customers hated it. There were actual protests. People went to the grocery store and stockpiled the old Coke bottles to stockpile means to gather in a large quantity for a later period of time. So people stockpiled old Coke bottles and the company quickly realized it was in a sticky situation. So sticky that they decided to bring back Coca-Cola classic. Crazy huh? As my dad always says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." In other words, if it's not broken, don't go change in things. This expression can be used for business situations, business decisions, personal decisions, decisions anywhere or just like people miscalculating and messing up anything that's complicated. I could go through plenty of other complicated situations. I was thinking about Watergate. Was a big one. I can think about the Epstein files right now is a really sticky situation for a lot of people. But yeah, let's go ahead and just jump to the pronunciation exercises. I think my voice is about to piece out. So let's get to it. We'll use the sentence, "I'm in a sticky situation." Repeat after me. I'm in. I'm in a. I'm in a sticky situation. Notice how in and A blend together in fast speech? It sounds like inna. Inna. Now let's conjugate. You're in a sticky situation. He's in a sticky situation. We're in a sticky situation. They're in a sticky situation. Pay attention to the rhythm. The stress falls on. Stick. The situation. Stick. Stick. And the situation. Sticky situation. All right. That wraps up today's lesson. So the next time you make a mistake, reveal something that you shouldn't. Maybe you offend somebody or call someone by the wrong name. Someone of somebody's pregnant and they're not. When you send the wrong emails, you can confidently say, "Ooh, I put myself in a sticky situation." And speaking of sticky things, next week we're going to talk about a moment in US history when people quite literally were in a sticky situation. A great molasses flood of 1919. Trust me, it's unforgettable. Stay tuned. Now if you liked this episode, if you learned something new, if you could take a minute to give a five star review on your favorite listening platform, whether that Spotify, Apple podcasts, Castbox, wherever you listen, I'd greatly appreciate it. All next time, guys. Bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast. Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how to speak like someone from the States. If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode or you just want to support this podcast, make sure to sign up to premium content on AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Thanks and hope to see you soon.