This is an all year English podcast, episode one thousand five hundred seven, How to Attract Good Luck in Life.

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On today's episode, we answer a listener question about an expression about buttered bread. What does this expression mean and what are other ways to talk about good and bad luck in English? Find out today.

Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Hey, Lindsay, it's going good, it's going good, how are you? Also, what are we getting into today?

I'm excited to be podcasting and we have kind of an interesting topic today.

We do. We do. I learn something new from today's question that we had from a listener. So we're going to get into this listener question today.

But first, I have to say that I'm super excited because tomorrow I am doing a Web class with Aubrey.

I know that's going to be so cool. You guys have never done a Web class together, right? Is that the first time?

Yeah, well, we did the the four of us, but I've never done just me and Obree, so I'm excited to to hang out with her and to hang out with her and our listeners. And I love it and our listeners. I mean, these Web classes are the only opportunity for us to hang out, live with our listeners. And we love getting you guys involved in the Web classes, asking you chatterbox questions and, you know, getting to know you in a way.

Michelle, what are you guys talking about on that Web class?

Well, we are going to be talking about slang in English. So you are going to learn some English slang and what could be better than learning the slang that will help you naturally connect with others in English because native English speakers use slang?

Definitely, Michel. Definitely. So guys go over to all the English dot com forward slash slang, SLA and G. And what are the dates of that Web class, Michel?

All right. Well, the first one is tomorrow, January 20th, and the second one is January twenty third.

OK, don't miss it, guys. Go over there and sign up, mark your calendar and show up on time or even five minutes early. We usually do start about five minutes early. Right. Michelle, do a little pre party.

We do. It's fun before we like get the presentation started.

We do a pre party. I love it. Awesome. OK, Michelle, let's get into it then. For today. Yes. OK, great.

So would you want to read the question.

OK, this is a question from we don't have the name of the listener do we. But that's OK. So OK. So our listeners said Hi Lindsey, Michelle and Jessica and Aubrey, I've been listening to your podcast during this pandemic and enjoying it very much. You guys have provided me enormous functional vocabulary and I'm using each of them well speaking. I love that. I love that this listener feels the vocabulary is just useful.

All right. That's the show. Oh, yeah, for sure. I love it. I love it.

OK, here's getting into the question. I was watching Dragon Heart movie enthusiastically, even though I didn't get the meaning of the idiom. Here's the idiom. That man could not butter bread without dropping it. Butter side down. Help me understand it. So I would be able to use it the next time. Interesting. OK, yes, it is a good question.

And I learned on the I mean, Lindsay, do you do you use this expression? Do you know what that is. I don't like I guess. Yeah, no.

I mean I guess I can infer the meaning right. What it means but it just the fact that I don't know what you don't know it doesn't mean that it's not valid.

You know, there's so many expressions out there in the world that we don't know for whatever reason, we don't use them. But we are going to talk about this one today. Yeah.

And it was interesting because when I Googled the expression, only the movie jargon came up so that I mean, it's possible that I maybe I used the exact words and maybe it's used kind of differently. So I don't really know it. But again, maybe maybe other people do so. Well, I seen the movie Dragon Heart. I mean, I don't know and even seen it. OK, OK, so. Yeah, yeah.

So I mean I did look it up and I found it on, on the free dictionary. It can give the link. It's, it's, it says bread always falls on the buttered side.

So I guess that's how you should use it.

So basically apparently this comes from the idea that if you drop a piece of buttered toast, I don't know if you ever do this.

Just drop it will drop with the butter side on the ground. Does that help London?

Well, I guess it kind of makes sense when you think about physics. I'm not racist or anything, but I would think that I would be heavier. So it would make sense that it would drop on that side. But I don't know, maybe it's just people being unlucky.

Right. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, basically, this is a proverb. And according to and we can give you the link where we got the the definition, it means if something bad happens, more bad things happen. So I'm just going to quote what they wrote that says, it's a proverb that says when things go wrong, they go completely wrong. And they gave the example of I stepped in mud and then I slipped in a puddle.

Bread always falls on the butter side down. Interesting.

So this is something that you might say after you've had your own experience of this phenomenon, that when something's bad, it becomes even worse. Right. Right, right, right. Right, exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, it's a good to know and I and I like it. It kind of makes me hungry.

I don't know. I'm just looking up like a nice, like, melted butter.

Oh, that sounds good right about now. I know lunchtime is coming for me pretty soon when we finish up recording it. Yeah. There you go. So but guys, so, you know, that's our opinion on this expression, neither of us use it, uses it, but doesn't mean that other people don't. And certainly Dragunov thinks it's important. So, so but we are going to go over some other expressions today. What's the first one lindsy?

Yeah.

Because even though we don't say this exact one, we certainly do have ways to say this concept. Right. So one thing is, oh, it's just one thing after another.

OK, this is usually about bad things. I agree, Michel. Right. Right, right. So what's an example of that?

Yeah. I mean, maybe you are just you are having a bad day. You maybe you got into a car accident. Really extreme stuff, right? Maybe you got into a car accident and then and then something got stolen, your wallet got stolen. And then, you know, just one thing after another. You come home, you talk to your partner like, oh, all these bad things happens just one thing after another. It's come it's coming in like a string of things.

Right, right. Right.

You can also use it to criticize someone. Right. So if you say something like, oh, Lindsay is just one thing after another with you, you have to shape up, right?

Exactly. Exactly. That's someone's way of saying that you need to change your patterns.

Right. Right, right. Right. Exactly. And then the other one is when it rains, it pours. And we use this on Eilts and Eilts Energy Episode eight twenty five. These phrases are not bad luck for ILT. So listen to that one. If you're interested, and especially if you're taking Eilts, that can be useful.

So, yeah. And just to be clear before we go, it just goes to know where to find that. Just to be really clear, go and subscribe to the Eilts Energy podcast. It's our other podcast from Maulers English. That's where you would get that one. OK, cool. Absolutely good.

So, yeah, when it rains are pours, that can be for good or bad things. Right. So, you know, it's just saying, like one thing happens and then it leads to more and more things.

Right. So, for example, I can't believe I haven't gotten a job interview in three months and now I have five.

When it rains, it pours or she lost her job and her boyfriend broke up with her. When it rains, it pours.

Oh, man. So, yeah, OK. Oh, yeah. And I see we have we do have another example, for one thing after another. I didn't see that in our notes here, Michelle.

Oh that's okay. No problem. But Michelle, I do have a question before we go into a role play on an existential level, do you think that there are actually people that just have bad luck?

Oh, that's a really good question. It sure seems that way, sometimes does. Yeah, like I mean, I feel weird even talking about this just because I don't want to jinx anything, you know, but I feel like there are people, you know, who like either it's serious or maybe it's kind of funny. Bad luck, like just like other things keep on happening. You know, I feel like there are people in in I don't know if you can think of anyone in your life, but yeah, I could think of some people who you're kind of like, oh, man.

Like this person needs to catch a break, you know.

Yeah, I've seen it on the more serious side and the funnier side. Like when I was growing up, my mom always said that my dad just has bad luck. Right. And she'd get frustrated with him because, you know, for example, once when we were kids, we climbed a mountain like a long day long hike. And he took his wallet out of his back pocket, put on the top of the mountain when we were sitting and we walked down the mountain.

Oh, my goodness. We didn't realize that he left it there until we got the very bottom. Oh, my goodness. And then he would always do things like lose the keys out in the snow.

Like, I don't know why my mom would always say growing up, your father has such bad luck.

That's funny. He would actually have to have two wallets because. Oh, my wallet. So often he distribute his money into two wallet, so.

Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. Oh, my gosh. I think your dad and I would get along. I think I think you would tell he's a great guy. So fun. But anyway.

But those like it's funny because like that kind of bad luck that leads to like some of the best memories, like those are amazing stories.

It absolutely was. Also maybe it's a combination of him just being a little absent minded and maybe it's bad luck.

I'm not sure. But guys, let us know what you think. Do you think there are actually people that have this bad luck that bad things happen to them, either serious or lighter things? All right. Yeah. You know, let us know on the blog, by the way, before we get into the role play, what episode is this, Michelle?

This is episode fifteen oh seven. Yeah. So come back to English Dotcom and let us know what you think for sure.

It's happening tomorrow, guys. Attend our free live webcast to learn the slang terms that you need to sound native and natural in English with Michelle and Aubrey. Come and hang out and learn with us. Go to all ears, English dot com forward slash SLA and G spots are limited and this web class will not be recorded. So don't miss it. See you there.

All right, shall we try these together in a little role play? Here we go. So in this situation, Michelle, we are trying to get recognized for a science competition who I'm always trying to think of new situations, but it could be a scientist.

Scientists are saving the world.

I know. Seriously. All right. Here we go.

Michelle, we heard back from three more sponsors. Oh, my goodness. Wow.

After so long, when it rains, it pours. Seriously, for a while, I feel like no one is ever going to be interested in us.

Yeah, it was one rejection after another. I'm so thankful we're finally being recognized. Nice. OK, excellent call.

OK, so going back to it, what do we use here, Michelle? Well, it's it's so it sounds like we had never, you know, really heard back from anybody. We're looking to get sponsors from this competition or to be in more competitions maybe. And we heard back from three and we haven't really heard from anybody. And all of a sudden we got three. So I said when it rains, it pours. It's like when you get something, you get more.

Definitely. And this is a positive thing. That's a positive thing. Right. So, again, like we said, some of these expressions can be used for positive or negative. But this next one we said before in the episode, it's usually just negative things, right? Like, yeah, it was one rejection after another. I'd say that that's negative usually. Yeah, I yeah. Because we were saying we're saying in the past, that's what it was.

So in the past it was negative.

Now we're saying like it's kind of like something happened and then like everything's switched like so it was one rejection after another and then now when it rains it pours. Right. So and guys. So how we use that.

Right. It's it's not always just one thing after another. Right. You can use other words, write one rejection after another, one mistake after another, you know. Yeah. One argument after another. Whatever it is, put whatever you can plug whatever word you want into there, unless you want to just use thing that's fine too. Yeah.

That's a good point. Michel. Here, guys. So, you know, get flexible with this phrase. Understand it doesn't have to be just used for one thing and practice it. That is the key. But Michel, I want to talk about this on the positive side.

We talked about the bad luck piece. I mean, what do you think? Do you think that on the positive side, like what is that about? Why does that tend to happen in life? Like, one good thing happens after one. You know, when it rains, it pours in a good way. Have you found that?

Yes, I think that it's possible.

I think sometimes, just like the change in attitude can sometimes lead to a change in luck. I mean, and I'm not I mean, that's ridiculous to say like that. That's just as easy it is. That is like be happy and good things will happen. But there is something about just like your attitude, your mindset where I think more good things come to you because you are giving off that positive energy and you're looking for the good things. So I kind of I kind of do think like I don't know.

I'm just thinking about when I moved to New York and like, I first, like, find my apartment and then I got a job and then I had to move apartments and I was able to get into a different apartment that I really liked. And so, like it kind of like good things were happening. I think it's because I was motivated. I was really motivated to succeed.

Exactly. I think it's kind of it's like a virtuous cycle, right, Michel? Yeah. And then so good things beget other good things in a sense. That's so true.

And I like what you said, that it's what we're looking for. So you could have the same experience, but you could notice something positive which could then turn into something else positive and another person could notice something negative, which makes them spiral downward in this. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think that's true. Right.

If you're is I feel like it's like kind of very unlikely that when you're just like kind of in this negative, you know, down in the dumps way that all of a sudden thing all of a sudden something like out of nowhere just comes to you from good luck. Right. It can happen, of course. But I feel like it's more at once you want to like, OK, think of the movies, right? It's oh it's never when the character is just oh I'm so upset.

It's always like that montage. But then they start getting motivated and they start changing and then good things happen. Exactly.

It also makes me think of this concept of the tipping point. Right. So let's say in terms of a timeline of your you're building a company maybe, and you're working so hard for three, four or five years and just nothing is working. But then you've hit a certain point and you tip over and all the good things start happening. Right. So it feels like they're all happening at the same time. But it's just due to the work that's happened prior to this whole idea, like there's no such thing as an overnight success.

Right, right.

Right. Yes, I love that. Yeah. That's really that's really true to Lindsay. So. Oh, my gosh. Lots of things that we can learn from this episode.

Not only language, but philosophy is a how does a business life success.

Oh, my gosh. We're talking about at all. All right, so, guys, if you want to have more conversations like this, you have to know the slang to do it, right?

Yes, exactly. Well, remember, guys, join Aubrey and I are going to be on this webcast about slang in English, so you definitely don't want to miss it.

The first one is January 20th. That is tomorrow. All right.

So be sure to sign up. And the second one is January. Twenty third you can sign up at all is English, dot com slang, SLA and G.

And we can't wait to see you guys. They're awesome. I love it. And I think we've already given our listeners the takeaway today, right, Michel? Absolutely.

So this has been a good one. Yes, definitely. Try these expressions today and try and attract that positive energy.

Yeah, there's really something to that. We'll talk about it more on another episode. But it really is such an important piece of life, like how can we be positive? And those things will come to us. Right. If we're working hard, we're keeping our head up. It's good stuff all around.

All right, Michelle, this has been fun. I'll talk to you soon. All right. Bye, Lindsey. Bye.

Thanks for listening to all ears English. If you are taking ILT this year, get your estimated Vänskä with our two minute quiz. Go to all ears English dotcom slash my score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit. Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.