Are you usually on board with your boss or have you thought about jumping ship?
Are you the kind of person who likes to rock the boat or make
waves. If so, I hope you are not in deep water. Let's
discuss. Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from New York
City. And here's your English teacher, Michael. All right, thank you,
johnn and thanks everyone. It's Michael here from Happy English and I help
people speak English better. And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode six seventy
six Idioms from Sailing. These are nautical idioms that you can use in your
everyday English conversations in the workplace and with your friends, ends in family.
Now listen to a conversation between two office workers. This is a bit slower
than natural speed. You can hear the conversation again at regular speed. At
the end of this lesson, Good morning, Jim got a second high,
Anne, sure thing, what's up? I don't want to rock the boat,
but I get a sense that the new sales guy is taking a long
time to learn the ropes. I'm on board with that. This is our
busy season and we really need all hands on deck to be successful, right
And everyone knows mister Peterson runs a tight ship here. I'd like to help
him out, but I don't want to make waves. Yeah, but if
we don't do something, he'll be in deep water pretty soon. You're right.
And if we don't support him, he'll probably end up jumping ship like
the last new guy did. Whole it seems like they've got new guy issues.
Let's have a look at the idioms that you just heard in the dialogue.
First of all, we have rock the boat in the dialogue, and
said that she didn't want to rock the boat. Literally, rock the boat
means to make a boat unstable in the water. As an idiom, when
we say someone is rocking the boat, it means they are causing problems by
trying to change the usual situation. Here are some other examples. The student's
demand for change in the school's curriculum started to rock the boat, leading to
a heated debate among the faculty. John is not the kind of employee to
rock the boat. He basically does whatever the boss tells him to do.
Next is to learn the ropes, and said that the new sales guy is
taking a long time to learn the ropes. On a sailboat, the ropes
control the boat, and learning the ropes is the first and most basic thing
a new sailor needs to learn. With this image, when we say that
someone is learning the ropes, it means that they are learning the basic skills
and knowledge to do a new job. For example, the intern is learning
the ropes of the marketing department by shadowing experienced colleagues and familiarizing themselves with the
company's marketing strategies. After joining the new project team, Mark spent the first
few days learning the ropes of the project management software. Next is to be
on board. Jim said that he was on board with what Ann said about
the new board means to get on a ship, and when you are on
board a ship, you have joined the other people there in conversation. When
we say that someone is on board, it means that they are in agreement
with another person's idea or opinion. Here are some examples. Sarah pitched her
innovative marketing strategy to the team and everyone was on board with her ideas.
The company decided to implement a new casual dress code policy, and all of
the employees were on board with the changes. Next, we have all hands
on deck. Jim said that they need all hands on deck to be successful.
The top part of the ship is called the deck, and the people
who work there are called the deck hands. So when the captain says all
hands on deck, he means everyone needs to get to work, and all
hands on deck has the same meaning as an idiom, everyone needs to work
together. For example, there's a major project deadline coming, so the boss
said, we need all hands on deck to ensure its success. The company
is launching a new product next week, so we need all hands on deck
to coordinate the launch event. The next one is to run a tight ship.
In the dialogue, and said that mister Peterson runs a tight ship.
As I mentioned before, there are a lot of ropes on a boat,
and when those ropes are tight, the ship is sailing smoothly. When we
say someone runs a tight ship, it means they manage a group or organization
in an organized and efficient way. Here are some examples. The restaurant manager
runs a tight ship, ensuring that all operations runs smoothly and customers receive excellent
service. The school principle runs a tight ship, maintaining discipline and creating a
focused learning environment for the students. Next, let's talk about making waves.
Jim said that he didn't want to make waves. When a storm makes waves
on the ocean, it can cause problems for a ship. Well, when
we say someone or something may waves, it means they cause problems by challenging
the usual rules. For example, the new CEO's innovative ideas are making waves
in the organization. The boss seems to be in a bad mood these days.
If I were you, I wouldn't make waves by asking him to take
time off. The next one is to be in deep water, And said
that the new guy will be in deep water if he doesn't learn the ropes
quickly. Being in the middle of the ocean where the water is very deep,
could be a tough situation. As an idiom, if someone is in
deep water, it means they are in big trouble or basing a difficult situation.
For example, if you forget an important deadline at work, you might
find yourself in deep water with your boss. After losing his job, John
found himself in deep water financially and struggled to pay his bills. The last
one is to jump ship. Jim told and that they need to support the
new guy, otherwise he'll probably end up jumping ship. If you try to
escape from your job on a ship, you may just jump in the water.
When we say someone jumps ship, it means they leave a situation,
usually to escape a difficult or unfavorable circumstance. Here are some examples. Several
employees jumped ship when they found out the company was facing financial troubles. A
few new team members jumped ship because the boss was I grow managing them.
Now, listen to the conversation again at natural speed while listening for the idioms
from this lesson. Good morning, Jim got a second high, Anne,
sure thing, what's up? I don't want to rock the boat, but
I get a sense that the new sales guy is taking a long time to
learn the ropes. I'm on board with that. This is our busy season
and we really need all hands on deck to be successful, right, and
everyone knows mister Peterson runs a tight ship here. I'd like to help him
out, but I don't want to make waves. Yeah, but if we
don't do something, he'll be in deep water pretty soon. You're right,
And if we don't support him, he'll probably end up jumping ship like the
last new guy did. Keep in mind the best way to remember this and
any vocabulary is to take the word or phrase, write it in a sentence
that's true for you or true in your world, and then memorize your sentences.
Well that's it for this English lesson podcast. I hope I'm not in
deep water. By the way, if you'd like to get more practice using
your English, why don't you join my podcast Learners study group. There you
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and in the future, and each episode now has exercises where you can practice
this English point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more or
to see some of the example sentences from this lesson, just visit my Happy
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