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This is an All-Ears English Podcast episode 2611. How to direct someone's attention with enthusiasm. [music] Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast. Downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl. Coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All-Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your 7-Day free trial at allyoursenglish.com/app. Enthusiasm is a key piece needed for connection, especially when you see something you are excited about. In today's episode, learn how to bring people in on the excitement in English. [music] [music] Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Hi, Lindsay. Check it out. I got new earrings. Very impressive. Very impressive. Yes. Yes. If you are watching on YouTube, you will see that I am not wearing any earrings. But for the purpose of the role, we're just kidding. We were just joking around here. Just joking. Just joking. It's interesting years, what you said before you showed me your earrings. What did you say, Michelle? I said, "Check it out." Check it out. It's kind of fun to say that, right? That is. Yep. Yeah. So today, we're going to focus on how to tell someone to look at something in a very enthusiastic way to draw their attention to something. Yes. Totally. So this could be drawing their attention to something visual or even something you're listening to. Check it out. And then you hand them a headphone, could be, right? Or you turn up the volume on something. And it could just be saying, "Please pay attention to this. This is interesting." Yeah. Directing someone's attention to something, right, Michelle? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And this is, I mean, you hear this all the time. This is extremely common. I use it. Lindsay, I'm sure you use it. Yeah. Even in work emails, I would use it to send you, like if we got new reviews. I might use it for them too. We love reviews, by the way, guys, I believe you're review. Yes. I would forward them too. I say, "Check it out. We got four new listener reviews." Right? Exactly. Yes. Exactly. Or here's another example. Check it out. The dress is on sale now. So maybe I've been waiting. We're shopping together and yeah, I'm like, "Wait. It's on sale." But the key piece that I think is really important for listeners to know about this phrase is that you have to be in the presence of the thing, right? You have to be in the presence of the thing. The dress, maybe you're walking past the store and you see it on display or it can't just be like talking about a dress and you want to go to the mall and it lets you see it in a catalog and say, "Oh, it's on sale." It's on sale. Do you know what I mean? It has to be around somewhere. So someone can actually look at it. Right. You want to just say that conceptually. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're a check it out, there's a new restaurant opening down the street. So again, the restaurant, we would either maybe, it's possible. Maybe you're scrolling Instagram and you see an ad for it or you're actually walking right. Right. You know, either one. Yeah, exactly. Why do you think this is good for connection, Michelle? I think this shows enthusiasm and it shows that you know the person will be interested in some way and what you have to show them. So it actually, to me, it shows a little bit of confidence. Right. I think you'll be excited too. Yeah. I think you're interested. Mm-hmm. Like, you have the confidence to say, "Hey, look at this thing. This is interesting to me. It probably will be to you too." Right. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And you can also say, "Check out something." Right. Instead of just check it out, you can say, "Check out something." So, for example, "Check out this guitar solo. It's incredible." Right. We're listening to a song together and I'm excited to have you hear it and they say, "Oh, check out this guitar solo." Exactly. Or, "Check out her nails." Aren't they gorgeous? But this is again, you're just, you're again, drawing someone's attention to go over and look at the nails. Let's do. Oh, wait. We've talked about this before. I don't know if it was on the show or not. But do you get your nails done? I did when I got married. Yeah. I need to. I think that may have been the last time. I did it once for a photo shoot last year. So, I'll do it once a year if I have something where my hands are going to matter. Yeah. But, no, honestly, it's interesting when I traveled to Japan. I lived in Japan. I noticed, you know, if you take something like nails, there's a lot of emphasis on nails. It's what I noticed at that time, it was just 20 years ago. So, it might be different now. And I think in the US, we might. I don't know. It might be less common, but it also depends on the person. Whereas here, like, teeth are super important, like dental work and things like that, which is not the same all over the world. So, really interesting how these things can vary, don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, these cosmetic things. Or check out my moves. I've been practicing my three-point shot for weeks. Love that. Yeah. So, there is a certain confidence, especially when you say, "Check it out." Right? Yeah. Right. A certain level of. Yeah. Love of life, I guess. Yeah. I mean, Lindsay, what might you tell someone, like, "Check it out or check out this?" Like, what are you excited about when you. Yeah, if I've come up with something creative, and I can show it physically, or if I've solved the problem, or maybe I've cooked something and I'm proud of it, something I'm proud of, I'm excited about. Absolutely. Absolutely, you're proud of, yeah, like that. Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's also, I realize I use this a lot because, you know, I'm moving to a new area when you find something new. So there's always something you know, oh wow, check it out like. I didn't realize that this restaurant was here or something like that. Right. Right. A discovery. So it really has a note of enthusiasm. Maybe pride. Maybe pride. Yeah. Right. That's the only. Mm-hmm. Okay. So other things we might say like if I were to send you our new reviews, right. We might say, look at this. Look at that. Look at these. Right. Mm-hmm. Look at this. I finished my project. It's right. Or instead of check it out, you could also say, uh, check this out. Check this out. I found my diary from middle school. So yeah. I'm not sure what the difference is there exactly, but I think it's maybe a little more emphatic. Um, it's a you're kind of taking a little more time to say it, right. Instead of just check it out, right. This is check this out. Well, I also think that the thing, the this, the diary is more of a rare object maybe like an unexpected rare object. Yeah. Right. Like if you say I want to go rock hunting in the mountains and I find this really rare rock and I'd say, check this out. Look at this rock. Look how interesting it is with the veins and things. So the thing is a little bit more noteworthy than just check it out. I found a rock. Right. Did you keep a diary when you were a kid? Yeah. Yeah. I definitely did. Yeah. Do you have it? Do you know where it is? No. No. I've lost all my diaries or thrown them out over the years, but I definitely feel like I just kind of said, hey, I went to school and I came home. It was just very basic, you know. I used to write down like the time in which it took me to write the entry. Like I would say, like writing from 10 15 to 10 30. I don't know why. Um, planning to be like a reporter or something, a reporter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody needs all of this information so they know. That's funny. So it could be say Michelle. You could say see this or see that, right? So see this. It's a picture of my great, great grandmother. For sure. Yeah. I mean, and again, these are flexible. Right. So you have a lot of leeway, a lot of wiggle room in terms of what we use here. But I think the key theme that's arising for me, Michelle is enthusiasm, enthusiasm and maybe pride. Okay. Yeah. It's really really interesting, um, how we use all of these. But yeah, so let's do a role play. So Lindsay, here we are on a safari. Ooh, check this out, right? Very cool. Something new. I love it. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. Something new. All right. Here we go. All right. Lindsay, check it out. Those Lions are running over there. Wow, incredible. Whoa, whoa, look at that. that Cheetah is eating. This is an amazing experience. - See that? I think there are some giraffes over there. - That's so cute. Check this out. I can't believe my camera is so good. - Oh, amazing shot. - Wow, good. Okay, great. So that was fun. I feel like I went on a little safari with you, Michelle. - Oh yeah. - Well, I need vacation to Africa or something. - Yeah. - Have you been on the safari? - No, I would love to one day. - One day? - Yeah. - So we started off by saying, you said Lindsay, check it out. So you're seeing these lions running and you're drawing my attention. And again, enthusiasm. If you're not enthusiastic on a safari, I don't know when you're gonna be enthusiastic. (laughing) Right? - Yeah. - Then then you said, whoa, look at that. And then you said, this is an amazing experience. See that? I think there's some giraffes over there. And then you said, oh, so cute. And then he said, check this out. So what am I talking about? What are you talking about? - I'm talking about the photo that I just took. So probably in this scenario, I went ahead and I snapped a photo of those giraffes. And then, and now I'm saying check this out. So it's not the giraffes again. It's the photo of the giraffes. - Yeah. - Right? - So interesting. - And this sounded completely natural, like using all of these. I mean, especially when you're traveling, you might say, oh, look at the, if you're on a tour or something like that. You know, constantly, look at that. Oh my gosh, look at this. - Right. The cool is feeling when you, I don't know, when you go to play so many exotic and different. And like the first day, you're just like, oh, God, check this out. Look at that. I can't believe that. Look over there. You're like a kid in a candy store or something. - It's true. - That's true. - Yeah. - So guys, check out episode 2590. We did three tips to keep your accent and be understood with Valerie Fiddland. - Yeah. - That was the conversation that Aubrey had with Valerie and can't wait for our listeners to listen and give us some feedback on that episode. Really good. Michelle, today's takeaway for me is about, wow, showing enthusiasm and light. There are a lot of things in life that are really worth checking out and being excited about and highlighting like this. Don't you think? - Oh, yeah. And again, and you should just as the side point, make sure that you reflect it and how your voice sounds. You're not gonna get anyone's attention. You can say check it out until the cows go home. But if you say, if you're just saying check it out, right? No, they're really like what? Like it just doesn't match. You have to match the excitement of the expression. - And you should because whatever you're saying, you want people to look at, you've, exactly. - It struck you as something interesting, right? So, there you go. So that's really the connection skill today is how to show enthusiasm and how to direct someone's attention to something, okay? - Yeah. - In a very natural way. Love it. - Exactly. All right, Lindsay, well, this was fun. Hopefully we'll go on a safari one day together and I'll talk to you. So, sounds good, Michelle. Talk soon. - Bye. - All right, bye. (upbeat music) Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to allhearsenglish.com/fluency. Goar. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. (upbeat music)