We learn various ways to communicate disbelief when someone tells you something hard to believe or surprising.
***Transcript***
What’s up everybody I’m Keiran the crazy Canadian, and welcome to another podcast of unnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncensored English! Where we talk about whatever the hell we want to talk about.
So goodmorning, goodafternoon, goodevening, goodnight, to whoever you are wherever you are and thank you for joining us. So today on this episode of Uncensored English were doing a video podcast as well as a podcast so if you’re listening to this on ITunes you can watch it on the YouTube channel. Not sure what the podcast is going to be called yet, I usually come up with that after. But look for it, it’s there. Ok so let’s cut to the chase today guys. Today were going to be talking about different words or different, or one expression that you can use to sound more like a native English speaker when you want to communicate disbelief. Ok so you’re having a conversation with someone and they something to you, and from your end this is just unbelievable, it’s like you just don’t believe that they’re saying that, or it’s crazy, or it’s surprising. And you want to communicate this emotion to that person. Ok so let’s start off right away I’m going to give you an example. Let’s say that I am working in an IT company in some Slavic country. And I come in to work, and my manager comes and says to me, he says “ Keiran I need you to stay a few hours after work today, Vladimir added some lines of code to the database today and screwed it up.”
And I’d just be like “What? Are you serious? He did that last week he did it again?”
I said what? Are you serious? I’m communicating that I don’t believe that happened again. I’m communicating that I don’t believe that happened again. Vladimir, oh Vladimir. Or maybe it was a different situation. Right maybe I came in to work and my manager came up to me and said. “Keiran come in the meeting room, we have some new employees today I’d like to introduce you to. This is Vladimir, from Belarus and Vladimir from Moscow”
and I’d just be like “What ? Are you serious? Is Vladimir the only name for men in the Slavic countries? How do you find all these Vladimirs?” So again I said what? Are you serious? And guys I’m not joking I’ve had like, since I’ve been teaching online, I’ve got to have had at least three or four different Vladimirs, anyways it’s ok I love them all they’re all great people. Let’s keep going. Ok. So another way that we can communicate disbelief. You go to work, I don’t know you’re at a party or something. And your friend John he won like a 10000$ lotto last month, k. So you go to the party, you see John and you see John and you say “Hey John what’s going on?” and he’s like “Whoa what’s going on Keiran, how’s it going?”
and I’m like “Ah I’m alright, what’s new with you?”
and he says “you’re never going to guess what happened to me Keiran I won another 10000$ lotto.”
And I’d be like “No way, that happened again. No way! Get out of here! It’s not possible that you win that two months in a row. No way, get out of here!”
You might have heard this before, it’s pretty common, they use it in a popular American sitcom from the 90s, Seinfelf. No way, get out of here! You can even hit him. And guys if you’re using no way get out of here, or your using, what? Are you serious? Make sure you do it, with some emotion. Don’t say, no way are you serious, or what are you serious, get out of here. No way!! Are you serious?! Get out of here! Put some emotion into it. Put some feeling in it. Actually I just combined them. You can combine these two. You can say no way are you serious. Get out of here. Ok let’s go on to the expression now. So this is, meh, I don’t think I use this one that often but you’re definitely going to hear it once in a while. Umm.. there’s two variations of it, they’re both very similar. And it’s, you’re going to use it the same way as these words that we just went over. So this expressions is, are you yanking my chain. Yanking means pulling, pulling. Or you’re going to say, are you pulling my chain? When someone tells you something that you just don’t think would ever happen. Ok, hmmm, let’s say I go to a wedding ok. I go to a wedding last month and then you get your wedding gifts, you all dress up, you dance all night, oh all the wedding couple, they’re so happy. Then three weeks later you talk to someone who was at the wedding and they say “oh my god, you’re never going to guess what I just found out”. Marc and Marie got divorced.”
You’d just be like “whoa, are you yanking my chain? Are you pulling my chain?” Meaning are you lying to me, are you leading me on? Cause that is hard to believe. That they already got divorced. Are you yanking my chain? Are you pulling my chain? Or maybe you go to work. You show up at the building you work at, try to knock on the door. And then the manager comes and says “look Vladimir I’m sorry, but the company is closed”
and you’re just like “what?! Are you yanking my chain? Are you pulling my chain? Why is this happening?” You have a hard time believing what you just heard. Alright guys, those are the expressions, those are the words, that you’re going to use to try and communicate disbelief. You listened to this podcast, good. Now don’t just listen to it. Write em down, use them. You them next time when you’re with some native English speakers, use them next time you’re with your teacher, if your my student you better use this on me next time I hear you. What?! Are you serious?! No way! Get out of here! And are you yanking my chain? Alright guys that’s it for the podcast. If you’ve enjoyed it subscribe to us on YouTube, iTunes, rate it, review it and I’ll catch you next time on the next episode of UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNCEnsored English!