AEE 2652: When to Call It- The American Narrative Toward Perseverance

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2652, When to Call It, The American Narrative Toward Perseverance. Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.

With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl. coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe.

What can you say in English when you need to end something if it's just not working out for you? Learn a new phrase today, plus learn how to get into a robust conversation about your culture's narratives towards giving up.

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That's allearsenglish.com slash V-O-C-A-B-U-L-A-R-Y. Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Hi, Michelle. I'm doing pretty well. How are you? How's it going? Yeah, I'm doing well.

Thanks. Lindsay, what is something you tried but gave up on recently? So it could be something like sweets, learning something, a good habit. No, I did not give up on sweets, Michelle.

I have more ice cream than ever in my fridge these days. But I would say the getting up early, I was doing it for a while and I've tried to sleep a bit more in the last few months.

And so I've been like adjusting that a bit. So my walks are a little shorter in the morning. So I gave up on getting up super early to get more sleep. Yeah.

Sleep is... I'm just realizing how unbelievably important it is. It is. It's almost more important than anything in a way, right? What about you, Michelle?

Is there anything you've given up on lately? I've given... I've tried to give up on like... I've been trying to eat more in a clean way. I mean, even when I have processed food, it's with cleaner ingredients.

I'm really, really trying not to buy things with the whole long list of ingredients. I'm not perfect, but I really pay attention to that stuff more. I don't know if it's going to help. but uh try so that's something um so but today we're going to talk about an expression we use when we stop something or give up so what we can say is call it um

And this was inspired by another podcast episode. We use this phrase in the role play. So if you want to check that out, that was all ears English. No dice.

Fun ways to say something didn't work. I love that. Yes. No dice. That was fun. That was a fun episode to record. So guys, at the end of this episode, go and check that one out.

But that is where the idea here came for today's episode. So do we have a little excerpt from that role play then, Michelle? Yeah. So this is how it came up.

All right. All right. Wow. It sounds like tonight is not our night. I know. I say we just call it and try again next week. Agreed. All right. Call it, right?

I say we just call it. That is what we're focusing on today, right? Right. It's like we announced that it's officially over in some way, right? Make the official announcement and there's no going back at that point.

Essentially, it means to decide, right? Yeah. To decide something. Yeah. I mean, you might hear this with like, I'm just thinking now when there's like rain at a baseball game.

Oh, yeah. Yes. And they're trying to decide, are they going to keep it going? Are they going to wait? Sometimes they wait hours, right? Or are they just going to call it and say, okay, we're no more game?

Yes. Yes. Tennis was like that, too. You can't play on wet courts. So there's always a certain... moment when you were waiting for them to call it. You know, is this match canceled or what are we doing?

So we're going to get into this today. But guys, hit that follow button right here on the All Ears English podcast. Don't miss a second of our show. We've got so much good content for you coming out this summer.

You do not want to miss it. All right. That's right. So yeah, using this type of expression for giving up or just ending something is great for connection because it shows honesty and self-awareness.

right? Giving up, stopping something, it's really relatable. I mean, we have this culture of never give up, right? We do. That's true. Yeah, that is really cultural, this narrative we have of keep trying, keep trying, never give up.

But sometimes, yeah, it's strategic to call it, to make a decision because we can't put our energy everywhere all the time, right? Right, right. Yeah. I mean, we've all started something with good intentions and then just realized...

This isn't going to work for whatever reason. And, you know, I mean, what's your philosophy on giving up? This is a tough one because I know that my partner, my partner's parents, when a sport was chosen for the season,

The rule was that the kids had to continue it. Like they couldn't quit. After a few games, they had to finish the season, for example, to decide like if, you know, and then decide whether to quit after that. Like they weren't allowed to quit halfway through a season and they couldn't call it and just say, this is not for me.

They had to see it through. I kind of respect that, you know, that idea that like if – for a certain amount of time, you should see something through, right? Right.

Because maybe in the beginning you hate it and then something happens like later on and you're like, oh, actually I learned this lesson or I am actually pretty good at this aspect of the sport. Exactly. So I feel like I tend more in that direction. I want to give it a real chance.

Like I don't want to give in and quit on something until I really know if it's not for me or if I'm just being lazy or if I just don't like the inconvenience of learning something new. right it's a little inconvenient it's a little uncomfortable to be a beginner at something oh yeah oh my gosh it's so uncomfortable yeah um so yeah but it is definitely very embedded in our culture this idea of oh we can't give up you don't quit and you know there's a that's a whole other conversation for another day

Um, but yeah, I mean, um, so let's talk about, so call it as we've been saying, it means to decide to stop doing something. So we use it when we've had enough, we're tired of trying or just something isn't working. So here, let's do a little example. So are you still going to hot yoga?

Honestly, I had to call it after the third class. Yeah. So you just kind of decided that wasn't for you, right? That's a little bit different. Classes are a little bit different than joining like a team where the team is relying on you, right?

Like classes, you're just a consumer of a class in my mind, you know? Yeah, right. So I guess, yeah, this idea of calling things or giving up, it's really different depending on the situation and whether maybe you should give something more of a chance or if it's not that serious. It's like, okay, so you don't like the yoga class.

Yeah, not a big deal. Try the Pilates class next, right? Right. Yeah, right. That's fine. Um, so, but Lindsay, how do we use it? What's kind of the structure?

Okay. Generally guys, what we want to do is we want to create a structure like this. Have to plus call it. So for example, it's so late. Are you still studying?

No, I had to call it hours ago. Yeah. I don't mean I have to call it on the phone, right? Let's just make sure that I have to call the sitting on the phone, right?

It just, you know, I had to stop. Or here's another example. Should we keep working on the Ikea furniture? I think we have to call it. It's driving us both crazy.

Oh my gosh. Classic challenges. Have you ever ordered something from Ikea and just not been able to put it together? Just like you just couldn't do it.

Um, we've been pretty lucky. I mean, I, I, I'm not the big putter together of things. Um, I mean, but I'll help. Um, but yeah, the, um, I have had it.

It's funny. It's always this moment where I watch like if Dan's doing something or if I'm helping and you think I can't get it. I can't get it. I can't get it.

What is this? What is this? And then all of a sudden you're just you're like, oh, yeah, there's a realization. Yeah, I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

It's true. That's a good feeling, right? Oh, yeah. But is have to and call it the only construction we use? Are there other ways we could construct this phrase?

No, we could also do this. We could say going to plus call it, right? So going to call it. So this is usually when talking about yourself, right? So for example, you've been writing all day.

Yeah, I really have, but I'm going to call it. I can't focus anymore. Right. And notice Lindsay said gonna call it, right? So when we talk about the structure, we were saying going to, but you guys know we're going to say, we're gonna say gonna.

Yeah, we're not going to say going to. Right. And then there's you could give a suggestion. So if you're doing that, you could might sound like this. Should we and then say call it?

Should we call it? Should we call it? This recipe is not turning out as planned. Should we call it? Yes. Let's just order take out. Again, making the decision to not continue with the recipe, right?

Is what call it means here. And then the final construction is let's call it, right? Let's decide to do this together, right? So for example, Michelle, what would you say?

Should we keep searching? No, let's call it. I don't think we're going to find it. Yeah, so here you're calling off a search of some sort. You haven't been able to find it.

You haven't been successful. Just forget it. Maybe we'll buy whatever it is, a new one or just cut our losses. Yes, exactly, exactly. I have Ornod in 2013 upgericht.

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All right, Michelle, here we go. So there are other expressions that kind of mean the same thing, like call it quits. Yeah, I guess maybe call it is just a shortened version of call it quits, do you think?

Actually, I think so. Probably. It's used in a very similar way. I mean, so here's how, here's how you would use it. Do you still go hiking on the weekends?

No, I had to call it quits. I injured my knee. The other thing it might be a short for is call it off, but call it off and call it quits mean two different things. Yeah.

Yeah. right? Yeah, exactly. Call it off means like to actually cancel. Cancel something. Like I'm thinking of like a wedding. We have to call off the wedding, right?

It's a specific event at a specific time. Is it going to happen or not? Whereas call it quits means you quit anything, any hobby, anything that you tend to do, right? Right, right.

Like I don't think I would say like I'm going to call off learning French. Then there's let's call it a day. So this is usually just end something just for the day.

At the end, at the end of the day, we're saying this is done. So for example, how late should we stay? Actually, let's call it a day. You guys did great work today.

And I love this phrase. I love it because when I'm saying it, I'm like all done. It has a good feeling to it. Exactly. Or we can call it a day, but we can also call it a night.

So this one is more about actually going to bed. It's interesting because you would say call it a day usually at the end of the day. We're We're labeling this was a day and now it's going to be in the past, right?

Right. So, but when we say let's call it a night, it's more, okay, let's call it a night. I mean, you could say let's call it a day when you're going to sleep, but you could also say let's call it a night.

Yeah. It's kind of like there's been something happening in the evening. Right. Right. Like maybe you've had friends over to play cards or something. And, you know, you're the host and you're saying like, hey, guys, I'm tired.

Let's call it a night. And you're basically saying leave my home. We've done episodes about this, trying to get people to leave your home at the end of the night. So check out those episodes from the last couple of months.

Leave my home. Yeah. So let's call it a night or I don't know, just any event is happening in the evening. um you wouldn't say this like at the end of a work day though would you michelle i mean at 5 p.m you wouldn't call it a night because it's not the night time yet so call it a day so yeah so interesting um but it might sound like this so i'm exhausted oh me too let's call it a night or maybe you're like assembling furniture with your partner in the evening your ikea furniture right and you just can't quite finish it and you just say let's leave everything here we'll do it in the morning let's call it a night

Right. Exactly. Yeah. You're just giving up whatever you're doing for the day. All right. Exactly. So similar phrases. So this one comes from poker. So know when to fold them.

Right. That's enough. I think that's in a song. Right. Yes. I think it's in like an old country song or something. Yeah. yeah yeah give up so no one to fold them so i'm not really a poker player but i guess when you give up your hand uh yeah you fold you know that you're gonna win is that what it is or no no no you know you're gonna lose gonna lose of course that makes sense that makes a lot more sense you give up because you're gonna win it's like i should not play poker no especially not with money

No. So are you still trying to land that big client? Oh, no. I gave it a shot, but I know when to fold them. Yeah. This one you're not going to hear necessarily as much, but you might.

And now, you know, I mean, what it means. So or I can't believe I went on another date with him. It was terrible. Michelle, you got to know when to fold them.

It's a rare, it's more rare, right? We know it from that one country song and we know the phrase as native speakers, but we probably don't use it that much. Maybe once a year or something. I don't know.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. But this one is more common, I think. Throw in the towel. Yes. Yeah. So also give up. So this is like from boxing. So a coach throws a towel in the ring when the fighter is done.

Okay. I always wondered where that one comes from. So that's interesting. Okay. Yeah. So are you still training for the marathon? No, I threw in the towel.

My knees just couldn't handle it. Okay. Or were you able to fix the sink? I had to throw in the towel. I tried for hours and then finally just called the plumber.

You can't do anything. I probably should have done that originally. I know I'm not a fix it person. I'm just not that person. I don't. Yeah, you're falling apart here.

No, I'm not either. I have to call people. But that's all right. So let's do a role play and see how this all fits together. All right. So here we are friends.

We're talking on the phone at night. We're discussing a Netflix series that we've watched. All right. All right. Here we go. Did you finally see Stranger Things?

Ooh, I tried. I watched the first three episodes, but I had to call it. I'm just not into sci-fi. I completely get that. You have to know when to fold them.

Yeah, I definitely gave it a chance. What about you? Did you finish the series? I'm on the last few episodes, but it's so late. I'm going to have to call it a night.

Yeah, you know what? You're right. I better get to bed. Me too. All right. Talk to you later. Bye. Okay. All right. Nice. So here we're using lots of the expressions, some of the idioms and some of, and some of the main things that we taught our listeners today.

So Michelle, what did you say first? I asked you, did you see stranger things? And is this a series that you watch yourself, Michelle, stranger things? No, is it for you?

It's not for me, but I know it's popular. I bet a lot of people love it. Yes. Um, And I said, I watched the first three episodes, but I had to call it.

So I didn't watch it anymore. Lindsay, do you ever feel... It's always so interesting to me when people say, oh, this show is amazing, but you just have to get through the first few episodes. You just have to get through...

Right? You hear people say that? Yeah, I know. They're saying it gets really good. And it's like, okay, well... It makes it sound like work. If I want to do work, I'll do work.

There has to be something in the first couple of episodes that hook me, that keep me in it. So yeah, I also don't really get that. It seems like work. You just have to get through it that's terrible and then it pays off.

end of the night when you turn on netflix you're like all you want is just to be entertained and that's it you don't want to work right so i don't have to be like well if i just work harder i can get through these episodes and then yeah you save that attitude for the morning when you're back to work or something right yes yes exactly it's what always makes me laugh um and then what did you say i said i completely get that you have to know when to fold them so i'm just saying i understand why you stopped watching that show like and this can happen with a book too

Yeah, I'm bad. I don't know when to fold anything when I'm reading a book. I'm just like, maybe it'll get good. It might get better. It's probably going to be good.

So you just keep plowing through, right? I plow through. That's a good one. And then you said, I said, did you finish the series? And you said, I'm on the last few episodes, but it's so late.

So it sounds like you're binge watching, but you're being very responsible. And you say, I'm going to have to call it a night. So you're going to have to turn it off, go to sleep. Go to sleep.

Exactly. There you go. So these are great ways to say that you're wrapping something up. You're not going to continue with something. Something is just kind of not working for you, right?

That's right. Good episode today, Michelle. Guys, go over to 2574. Learn this English well before you need it, right? We like to do things well before they have to be done.

We prepare ahead of time. So go learn that vocabulary. And Michelle, any final takeaway for today? Yeah, I think it does take a certain emotional intelligence to know when do I keep on going?

When do I call it? And also it says a lot about our culture. So I'd be curious to hear from our listeners, like, is your culture, is it... Is it okay to give up?

Right? Totally. That is exactly what I was thinking too, Michelle. So this is a great connection moment. You could start a conversation with someone about their culture and your culture.

What are the narratives around giving up? We know what it is in American culture. It's very much never give up, right? Yes. the sunk cost phenomenon. When we've already put in a certain amount of money or work into something, we have a harder time walking away from it, even when it's not working out.

So that kind of collides with our cultural narratives and we get into some really robust conversations here. right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So guys have a conversation with someone with a native speaker about this, ask them about their culture.

Also get into like, what are the fairy tales that you were read as a kid or like the songs you consume, the storybooks that we read to children that will tell you so much about your own culture, right? That's right. Exactly. Perfect.

All right. Well, I'm glad we talked about this today. And Lindsay, should we call it? Let's call it. Yep. It's been called. It's been called. Calling it.

All right. Bye, guys. Take care. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.

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