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Speaker 1: In the middle of recording this podcast, I realized that

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the microphone wasn't plugged in a ya yay, so I

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had to go back to the top and start again.

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That's what happens with modern technology. Sometimes things go smoothly,

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and sometimes well it's back to the drawing board. Let's

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dive in.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from

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New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael al Ry.

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Speaker 1: Thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here from

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Happy English and I help people speak English better. This

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is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight oh nine. Let's start

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from the top. Sometimes in life you need to redo

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something completely, maybe because the first time you tried doing

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it you were not successful. In this case, you can

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start from scratch, or do something from scratch, which means

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to begin doing something from the very beginning, without using

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anything that you used the first time. Like the other day,

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my computer crashed in the middle of doing my homework,

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and since I didn't save the file, I had to

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start from scratch. I had to go back to the

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beginning and redo everything. Here's another example. Peter's friend Nestor

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was trying hard to save money and then he found

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out that his wife Phoebe lost it all in a

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poker game. Now he has to start saving money again

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from scratch, poor Nestor. By the way, you can also

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make a dish, a meal, and so on from scratch,

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which means to make that from the basic ingredients. You

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know how they sell pancake mix in the store. You

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put like two cups of the powder in a bowl

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and add milk and you're good to go. But when

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I was a kid, my mom made pancakes by mixing flour,

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baking powder, salt, eggs, and milk. In other words, my

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mom made pancakes from scratch. One of my friends told

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me yesterday that her mom used to make soup stock

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from scratch. I gotta be honest with you. I totally

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prefer the old fashioned way of cooking from scratch then

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the modern way of using processed and instant food. How

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about you can you cook anything from scratch? Next up,

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we have the phrase to go back to the drawing board.

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This is another phrase we use to mean redo something

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from the beginning. A drawing board is a kind of

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wide desk that designers and architects use. They can start

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new designs easily because the drawing board is big, wide

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and tilted, and it can hold a large piece of paper.

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So the drawing board is the place to start something.

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With this image, we have the phrase go back to

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the drawing board, which means to go back to the

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beginning of a plan or project after it fails. Go

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back to the drawing board is like saying you need

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to rethink or redo something completely. Like the other day

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in the office, I thought that our new marketing plan

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was good, but the manager rejected. It looks like we

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need to go back to the drawing board. In a

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similar way, you can go back to square one, which

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means to return to the beginning after a failure or setback.

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But why do we say square one. Well, it seems

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that before the Internet, there was television, and before that

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there was radio, and in the days of radio, the

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sports announcer would use a lot of descriptive language to

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describe the game. Over the radio, the phrase square one

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was used to describe the area of a soccer field

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around the goal. If the ball went out of bounds,

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the announcer would say that play would resume back to

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square one, the goal area, which was the starting point

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of play. These days, we use the phrase go back

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to square one to mean that we need to start

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something again from the beginning. Like I accidentally left the

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cake in the oven too long and it burned, so

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I had to go back to square one and bake

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it again. When Jack tried to apply for a business loan,

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he had to submit a lot of paperwork, but in

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the end the bank rejected his application. Now he has

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to go back to square one and try getting a

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loan from a different bank. And finally we have the

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phrase from the top. You can say things like take

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it from the top, or let's start from the top,

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or let's go back to the top. This idiom comes

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from the entertainment world, specifically music and theater. The top

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refers to the beginning of a song or the beginning

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of a performance. Like when a band is in the

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studio recording a song and they make a mistake in

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the middle, the producer would stop the recording and tell

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the band, let's go back to the top. In other words,

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let's start the song again from the beginning. Keep in mind,

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the best way to remember English like this and any

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other word or phrase in English is to take that

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word or phrase write it in a sentence that's true

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for you or true in your world, and then memorize

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your sentences and you know what. You can get more

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practice using your English when you join my podcast Learner's

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study group online. There you can make new friends, join

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us for live group lessons every week where we practice

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these podcast lessons together. Plus you get access to the pdf,

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transcript and audio download for every Happy English podcast in

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the past and in the future. On top of that,

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each episode has exercises where you can practice this English

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point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more,

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just visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson

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eight oh nine. Remember, learning another language is not easy,

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but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you

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on your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy

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English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get Happy,

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Happy English.