00:11
So, regarding sports, I realized, and since we're an English podcast, technically,
even though we haven't really done that much Englishy educational content in a while,
anyway, I realized, I was listening to this podcast, I think it was Radiolab, not sure,
and it might have been a new episode, it might have been a very old episode. I had a lot of episodes
to catch up, so I'm not exactly remembering correctly, but basically, they were recounting
the memory of the podcast host's father learning how to speak English, because he's an immigrant
to America, and English is not his first language. And he remembered saying one of the biggest things
that he struggled with, because he went to grammar schools, he learned English, it was fine,
but one of the hardest things, upon starting to work, actually, for real, in the US, were idioms.
And, you know, you might be thinking, wow, groundbreaking, idioms are hard.
You know, I mean, it's a known fact that idioms are culturally specific,
vary depending on context as well, so hard to teach, you just have to be exposed to it.
But it is true, I think, there are definitely some things that you can prepare specifically
for America. In that podcast, he found out that Americans like baseball-related idioms.
Now, yeah, I guess the US is one of the biggest baseball countries, aside from maybe Japan,
Korea, and Cuba, is that, like, randomly, right? And it makes sense that culturally,
baseball, and historically also, right, being a pretty big part of American culture.
And I wanted to share a few that I was using without even realizing that it was from baseball
idioms. So one of them, and maybe let me know if you personally use some of these things as well.
And I have a Wikipedia page open, baseball idioms. Yeah, there's like a Wikipedia page,
specifically, glossary of English language idioms derived from baseball.
So if you're interested, you can go look at it. The first one is ballpark. Oh, I use this
03:04
very frequently. Yeah. Especially in research context, you know, when you're trying to design
an instrument, you're like, ballpark, it's probably 10, you know, 10 millimeters. So
or something like that ballpark is like, or in the ballpark, I guess, is like roughly
in a correct zone, like within the tolerance kind of idea, right? Do you use that phrase?
I don't think I use that somehow. Really? Okay. Yeah.
I, and again, I'm trying to remember when I started picking this up ballpark, because
I don't play baseball. So there's no way I would have naturally came up with this.
But yeah, interesting stuff. Ballpark, I use that all the time. The other one is a curveball.
Do you use that? Like, that was a bit of a curveball. Like, kind of a little bit unexpected.
So we're like, like, usually in an onyx. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you were in a conference and like,
you know, friends ask you, like, Oh, how was your talk? How did it go? And you might say,
Oh, there are a couple of curveball questions. But I managed it, I think, or something like that.
Oh, interesting. Kind of, kind of unexpected. Usually, not like, not a good surprise. It's
like unpleasant or like, unprepared surprise. Curveball. And what else? I'm going through the
list of them. What about knock it out of the park or hit it out of the park? Oh, yeah. I won't use
it personally. But yeah, it's like, it means like, amazing, successful, you know, case or like,
you know, like, yeah, just like spectacular achievements that are like, completely like
nothing to complain about. It's like, that was amazing. Yeah, knocked it out of the park,
kind of thing. And I also probably wouldn't use it myself. But I definitely have came across
06:07
people using it. Another common one that I use is hit or miss. Oh, hit or miss. Yeah. Yeah. It's
a bit like, that restaurant is a bit of hit or miss. Like, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's
bad. Yeah. How about a long shot? It's not a baseball thing, but yeah, we use it quite often,
you know, it's a, although it's a long shot, it's worth trying or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But
the shot, is it like, I wonder, like, I think about, and this is me going off of imagination
completely. But when you say, shot, I think of like slingshot, you know, like a pachinko.
It's a long shot. Because of the distance. Yeah, it's long shot. Origin? I'm just typing it out.
Did you find out? So, I mean, I'm looking at the first thing that pops up on Google,
which is never the good idea. But for interest of time, I'm reading it out loud. It's saying
that originating sometime in the late 1700s. The phrase refers to the likelihood of hitting
the target that is very far away. Long shot came to be used in horse racing in the mid 1800s
to mean a horse that had very little chance of winning. So, it doesn't, oh, and the term
arose, okay, Wikipedia says the term arose from the accuracy of early naval guns. Oh, guns, yeah.
Like, no, like, but like,
I see.
I don't know. Not that I've used, but it looks big and clunky. It seems hard to kind of pinpoint
your target. So, maybe it makes sense. Yeah, it's a long shot. The other, moving on,
inside baseball. How about this one? Inside baseball? Yeah. Do you use this? No, I don't use
it. Inside baseball refers to, like,
like, when, like, it makes sense between your colleagues, but it doesn't make sense to anyone
in the same field, but not in your office, maybe. So, inside, like, sometimes maybe you'll find
09:02
people. Yeah, inside jokes is one of them, but I think inside baseball means more, like,
discussions or usually in, like, I think it's most used in, like, a discussion or conversation,
like, exchanging of ideas kind of context. So, you might find in a conference, again,
like, two people who know each other's work really well, kind of taking over the Q&A session.
And, like, you know, other people who wants to ask questions that are maybe not as familiar as
each other's work are, like, unable to participate because it's like, these two are friends,
and they've followed each other's work for so long. And it's a bit of inside baseball.
Hmm. So, yeah. So, I just, I searched Japanese dictionary for this, inside baseball,
and it says,
頭を使った野球のこと、相手の心理をよく読み、その裏を書くなど、高度な頭脳的野球。
So, it's an extension of this 頭脳的野球 among people who really are knowledgeable about
the field? 心理戦みたいな?
Maybe there is that kind of usage as well. Like, I mean, I'm talking, like, the example I talked
about was just the real life experience I've had, not necessarily, like, the, you know, more common
ways that this has been used. Maybe the dictionary definition of inside baseball is more like
psychological, political sort of game to play, rather than, like, 内輪のり or, like,
内輪でしかわからない話みたいな。
Oh, yeah. Yeah, like you mentioned, according to Wikipedia, maybe I'm looking at the same website,
the phrase was originally used as sports metaphor in political context, but has expanded to
discussions of other topics as well. So, it refers to the, yeah, like a detailed inner, yeah, I see,
12:03
I see. Interesting. Another one that I'm seeing on a list is out of left field,
when something, like, something was, again, like, kind of unexpected.
Like, wow, that question was so out of left field, and I don't know, like, maybe people who
understand baseball can tell me why it's so weird to have something out of left field.
I don't know what about it. I don't know the exact, you know, actual rules of the baseball to,
like, know why it's so relevant. But basically, from, like, there are, like,
several dozens of baseball related idioms in English language, just by, like, scrolling
through Wikipedia, and just going through my, you know, inventory of idioms that I personally know,
which is really not that many. But yeah, so if, I don't know, and maybe this is more useful in a
business context, because I have a hank in that business people like talking in idioms. Yeah.
I don't know. I have not verified this personally. I have not worked in corporate culture. So I don't
know. But I feel like they like, they like talking in idioms. You know, it's a part of the,
it's part of the in group, out group, like them us dynamics that corporate culture likes to create.
Right, you know, they want to create a sense of belonging. And this is one of the ways they do it.
And I think it's, it's interesting. But yeah, so if you're, if you if you want to up your English
game, and you want to sound, you know, now that you've gotten your basics down, you know, you,
your grammars are mostly correct, your confidence speaking in English.
Now is the time to throw in some idioms and phrases that, you know, people use frequently,
and specifically in America, start from baseball, apparently. Yeah, so it just occurred to me,
this may not be a baseball term. But yeah, we, we use, you know, you are all set, like an all set
term. And for a long time, I didn't think it was like, um, um,
何て言うんだっけ? えっと、土地の固有の。 So, I thought, um, like, you didn't realize it was
like a, like, Eastern, yeah, local, yeah, yeah. Word, but it is, regional. Yeah, regional.
15:02
It's all set? Yeah, it is. So not, like, specific to East Coast of US? East Coast, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, me too, for a long time. And then, um, but maybe it's not really
related to baseball. So it could be some sports related. It's not baseball, maybe. It could be
sports. And it's also interesting, right? Like, even within the same country, there's some regional
specific, um, idioms and signs. Wow, I would have never thought that all set is one of those.
Yeah, because we use it all the time, right? Are you all set? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like,
doctors would say, you're all set. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's time for you to go. But,
uh, I would have never guessed that. Yeah, but I, it's not like I lived in West Coast or other
parts of America. So I guess I didn't really have a reference point. Yeah, yeah, me too.
Interesting. Oh, well, well, English is weird. Okay. All right, I'm stopping there.
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening. And find us at
Eagle Day Science on Twitter. That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time.
