AEE 2653: When Fishy and Cheesy Aren't About Food

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2653, when fishy and cheesy aren't about food. 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, Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

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Have you heard something described as fishy or cheesy, but you could tell they weren't talking about food? Today, learn how to use these fun adjectives idiomatically to add flavor, but not flavor, to your vocabulary.

Do you know a lot of English vocabulary but still struggle to find the right words when it's time to speak? This can make you feel isolated and disconnected from other people. That's exactly what our brand new course, Active Vocabulary, is designed to fix. In just 20 minutes a day, you'll follow our step-by-step Active Vocabulary system, which helps move your vocabulary from passive recognition to active use.

you'll learn from real all ears, English conversations, practice with speaking activities and build the confidence to use better words in real time. Plus you'll be invited to our popular open conversation club and fluency practice every week. Hello, Michelle. How are you?

Hi, Aubrey. I'm good. How are you? How was your weekend? Amazing. I have fun news. Okay. I'm going to show everybody, if you're watching on YouTube at home, you'll be able to see this.

And if not, we'll have Michelle describe it. I got a tattoo. Wow. oh my god okay so sleeve oh my gosh aubrey so it was funny because when we were talking earlier i was like there was one moment where i was like did i just see something and then and then no

you know we said i'm tired i don't know i like so but i oh my gosh whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa does it look real beautiful i love it so this is a real wait you gotta no it's henna oh it's a henna tattoo it's henna on the video it's hard to tell right so yeah henna but it is a full sleeve of henna tattoos and So you can come and look at it on YouTube if you are listening on the podcast later. I am obsessed. And okay, here's the story really quickly.

I was at my daughter's birthday party and a woman had a full sleeve of tattoos that I loved. They were so beautiful. And I was telling her, I'm like, I love your tattoos. I've always wanted a sleeve like that.

And she was like, why haven't you done it? I said, I don't know. I just never have. I don't love needles. And I told her now I'm too old. And she was like, yeah, I got mine when I was young.

And I was like, that's not, you're supposed to say you're not too old. Right, right, right, right, right. And then she was like, why don't you just get a henna tattoo? She's like, then it's not needles.

She's like, you could just get a full sleeve of henna. And I was like, I've never thought about that. We'll do henna tattoos for our kids sometimes on the beach in Rocky Point. Artists will come by and offer and they'll get like a little tattoo on their arm of whatever.

But I've never gotten one. I've just never even thought about it. And I especially hadn't thought about getting a whole sleeve. And so I like looked at her and I was like, I'm going to go do that right now.

And I left. And I called another mom to pick our kids up from the birthday party. And I went to a henna shop. And for the next three hours, I was there getting this henna tattoo.

And it was so fun. I was going to ask how long it takes. Well, it's beautiful. And at first, it's very dark before the ink flakes off. So I got home and my husband saw it.

And it looks more like a real tattoo when it's really dark before the ink flakes off. And he was flabbergasted, just like, Oh, because I've never even really talked about getting a tattoo. It's not something that would be on his radar.

So that was fun. And so I shocked you and I shocked him and maybe everybody listening at home, everybody on YouTube. Wait, so how long will it last? A couple weeks.

They said if you don't get really hot water on it and keep it out of direct sunlight, it should last two weeks. But now that I have it, I love it so much. I'm like, maybe I need a full sleeve of real tattoos. Maybe I can handle needles because I love it so much.

You could start with something small and then, you know. That's not really me though. I'll probably just get the whole sleeve all at once. No, I'm joking.

I think I would start with a small one and see if I can handle the needles. Right. Exactly. We'll see. We'll see. Do you have any tattoos, Michelle? No, but I do think they're really cool.

And sometimes I think about getting one, but I don't know. Maybe one day. I was always jealous of Jessica's tattoos. I know. You made me think of Jessica.

Yeah. Oh, gosh, awesome. Well, I remember I did get a henna tattoo when I went to my friend's wedding in India. And I had it like on my hand for a while.

And I and I did really I liked it. But yeah, I haven't since but that's really awesome. There were two henna artists at the shop. And while she did my sleeve, which took a lot of time, like four different girls cycled through the other artists getting small tattoos on their hands.

And it was fun to like watch this beautiful art, you know, be done on their hands. And then they were always like, whoa, a whole sleeve. That's cool. I was like...

Yeah, I don't know. Why not? That's really awesome. Well, it looks beautiful. Enjoy it. And then we'll see where the wind blows you, Aubrey. No, I know.

It's interesting because it's not on the inside of my arm. At first, I wanted the full sleeve that goes all the way around your arm. But she said that won't work because you'd have to do the top and it's wet for a long time while it dries. She's like, you wouldn't be able to turn your arm and have her do the bottom right away.

You'd have to come back another time. And so I was like, just do it on the top. We're good. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, beautiful. I love the main part of my arm that people see.

It's not like I'm showing people the underside of my arm very often. Right. Though I just did it twice on YouTube. Well, I'm excited to dive into some vocab today, Michelle.

Now that I've shared my exciting news, I was excited to share it to you. That's awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you. Another question that is not about tattoos, but do you know any cheesy jokes about

Ooh, yes. As a mom, I think the average parent has a few cheesy jokes up their sleeve ready for the opportune moment because kids, I think, love cheesy jokes. My kids love cheesy jokes. So here's one I told my kids the other day.

Why did the scarecrow win an award? Okay, why? Because he was outstanding in his field. That is a cheesy one. It is cheesy. It took them just a second because outstanding is not a word that my kids use a lot.

They know what it means, but it's not super common. So they got the literal meaning that a scarecrow would be outstanding in a field, like a cornfield. But then to think of the adjective outstanding, meaning like... worthy of receiving an award that that second meaning took them a second to get but i love the moment when they have the this realization i don't explain it to them i give them time to like figure out what the double meaning is like what makes it a joke and it's always fun when they're like oh i get it yeah exactly exactly oh that's so funny very cute aubrey i like it so aubrey when we talk about cheesy jokes

We're obviously not talking about food. We're not talking about like, oh, the taste cheesy. Right. But there are several adjectives that describe food, but have a completely different idiomatic meaning.

So today we're going to answer a listener question about these, about this of cheesy and then another word of I'll share a few words like this that we use to describe something in English that is totally unrelated to the food that you would sing. They're idiomatic. So yeah, I'll go ahead and read the question.

This is from YouTube. Remember, you guys can leave comments on the YouTube videos. If you came to YouTube to see my tattoo, leave a comment while you're here. Let me know what you think of my henna.

Let me know if you think I should get a full sleeve of tattoos or not. I'll take all feedback and commentary with an under advisement, which means I'll consider it and then I'm going to do whatever I want.

All right. Here's our comment. This was from Tomoko, F-U-1-Q, who said, thank you always for your podcasts and videos. You're welcome, Tomoko, and thank you for the comment.

Thank you. And then they said, I'd like to know the difference between fishy and cheesy and more examples with them. They sound funny to me. And that's because they are funny.

I love these words. They are. Yeah. I mean, I can definitely thank you for the question and the comment. And yeah, I mean, I can definitely understand why English learners would be confused about these because the difference isn't very obvious, but people do use them and they're really good for connection because they're so playful and they add personality and humor to your conversations.

Yeah. Right. And something can taste cheesy, like you said, cheesy crackers, cheesy pizza. But what we're talking about today is idiomatic meanings that are unrelated to those more literal meanings.

So I'm excited to dive into this. We're going to teach you four expressions like this, where we're using food words, but not actually talking about food at all. And they're very casual. They're perfect for everyday conversations.

Exactly. And guys, remember to hit the follow button if you haven't already, wherever you are listening to the All Ears English podcast, or if you're on YouTube, hit subscribe so you never miss anything from us.

Yeah. So let's dive in with the first one. When we're not obviously talking about food and something that smells fishy, what does that mean to call something fishy, Michelle?

Yeah. Well, if we're not talking about food, it means something is suspicious, dishonest, or just not quite right. So if something is fishy, you have this feeling that someone might not be telling the truth, or maybe they're doing something they shouldn't, or you just don't really trust a situation. Yeah.

Exactly. Actually, I may have used that this weekend because my son told me something that had happened at school. And I was like, that sounds a little fishy. I need more details.

And long story short, he shared some things that his teacher had said she was comparing his class to another class. And he found out about it because my daughter, they're twins. My daughter is in the other class. And so they sort of had more information than most kids would have.

And she basically was telling the other class, you're my favorite class. You're by far the better class. You're more well behaved. She was even saying some things to my son's class like that.

Like they're the better class. They're more way. So I had to contact the principal. So I was like, this is not great. Like this is discouraging. It's making well like sad, you know, so.

And how and how old at what grade again? He's 11. He's in sixth grade. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a grade. Because that's definitely still the age where it really matters to them what their teacher thinks of them and that their teacher likes them.

And he was devastated. He's devastated. So it was good. The principal took it very seriously and is speaking to the teacher. And I'm really glad because I've certainly heard of teachers doing worse things, pretty minor in comparison to what could happen, but a big deal to a small child, you know?

Yeah. Oh, anyway, that's one example of something being a bit fishy when your kid tells you something adding up. They're like giving D and then you're like, I need the whole story so that I can understand what sounds off to me. Right.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you said something, Aubrey. Let's do another. Let's do a role play. So here we go. It's a little fishy that he suddenly changed his story.

Yeah, I definitely don't trust him. That's a great example. When someone is telling you something and you can tell that details aren't matching up. And this is different.

Like when my son told this story, it wasn't that I didn't believe him. It was that I could tell he was leaving things out and I could tell, right? He like didn't want to get in trouble. He didn't want anything to happen.

But this can also happen where someone's lying and you can tell something's fishy because you can tell from their demeanor that they don't seem like they're being truthful. Right. Yeah. All right.

Here's another example. The hotel keeps quoting me a different price. The price shouldn't keep changing like that. Something's fishy. Yeah. Suspicious, weird.

Yeah, exactly. How about he said he was sick. yeah but then he posted photos at the beach oh seems fishy yeah we've all been there where someone calls out sick because they're going on a vacation and then something happens or you realize that actually they were going on vacation yeah happens with social media it's harder to get away with it like you can't be posting on social media yeah you gotta yeah oh that's not a good idea um that's really funny so okay let's get into cheesy so

Cheesy is basically, I think we've talked about this a little bit on the show before, but it's basically trying too hard to be funny or romantic. But it's really hard to define this word, actually. It is tricky. And there's a fine line.

There's a fine line between a joke that's just funny and one that you would call cheesy. And there are different definitions. The joke I told about the scarecrow, some people would just be like, that's a great joke. And other people would be like, that's really cheesy.

So that's kind of a matter of opinion as well. Right. So it might be a little embarrassing or cliche. And it sounds lighthearted. So it's not overly offensive.

I guess somebody could get offended if you say that, you know, something they said is cheesy or that they are cheesy. Or especially if they try to make a romantic gesture and you accuse it of being cheesy or they write you like a sweet note and you call it cheesy. I feel like that would be devastating to me if I tried to do something heartfelt and romantic and someone called it cheesy. I would be devastated.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're being vulnerable. You're putting yourself out there and maybe it is a little cheesy, but you're being willing to be vulnerable and a little cheesy to show you care for someone.

So I would never like if someone did that for me, I would never be like, this is a little cheesy. I think that's so mean. Yeah, that would definitely hurt someone's feelings if they're trying to do something like genuine, romantic, and you say cheesy.

But this is often used to describe jokes, like we said. Movies, like a romantic comedy might be a little bit cheesy, depending on which one it is. Pickup lines, marketing slogans. I'm thinking of when they have commercials for,

pharmaceutical drugs and that everyone's dancing and singing and you're just like, oh my gosh. Right? This is a little cheesy. I would say that Broadway musicals are cheesy.

I love them. I love them. But I've had this conversation with Jessica. She... hates. She hates musicals, all musicals. She won't watch them. She thinks they're so cheesy.

And I get it. I get that they're cheesy. I don't disagree. I love them anyway. Sometimes I really like things that are cheesy. Do you like musicals, Michelle?

Well, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I will. So I'll say this. I do love musicals. It depends on the musical. Some are too cheesy for me. But Dan is of the opinion that they're pretty much all cheesy and yeah, I can't.

Can't really watch. I get it. I'm not saying they're not cheesy. I think my husband might agree and just be like, no, this is too cheesy. I can't do it.

But sometimes they really are though. Yeah. Sometimes they really, and different music, like some of the older ones are more cheesy. Like my fair lady might be really cheesy.

The newer ones like Hamilton and dear Evan Hansen are not as cheesy. I feel like the modern musicals are not as cheesy. Um, So, yeah, it depends. But this is, we're going to get into just a second into like, you know, more examples with cheesy and a roleplay.

So we will show you those right after the break. Yes. I built Ornod in 2013. We make bike clothes. Thanks to Shopify, we can run the company without having a lot of technical knowledge.

We can manage everything from the back-end to the front-end and sell products easily online. Okay, Michelle, so let's give some examples with Cheesy here. For example, did you hear his pickup line? Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

So cheesy. Oh, that is cheesy. And a lot of that is in the cliche of it, right? Everyone's heard this pickup. It's the prime example of a cliche pickup line that everyone would have heard.

And so it's cheesy. It's really cheesy. Don't use that pickup line, guys. No. Or here's another one. What did you think of the Hawaiian-themed party? It was fun, but the decorations were a bit cheesy.

So yeah, this might be stuff you bought at the dollar store that's a little bit more like bright colors and it's not those like, you know, really classy decorations. Like it's maybe more like big flowers and then it might seem a little cheesy, but like my kids would love that. My kids love cheesy decorations.

Yeah. It depends on the party. Sometimes you want cheesy. Right. Right. Exactly. There's a time and a place. Exactly. And then how about this? Because sometimes people like cheesy things, right?

So I might say, we've talked about love actually on the show, and though it has its faults, I still love it. Oh, I watch it every Christmas. I love cheesy holiday movies. Yeah, I still love Love Actually.

I do too. This is very true for me. I watch it now. I still watch it every Christmas. We've talked about it on the podcast before, but I recognize its faults.

There is fat shaming. There are things that shouldn't be there, but I can forgive its faults, recognize it as a product of its time. I'm grateful that we have evolved and those jokes wouldn't be in a movie now, or at least would be less likely. And I can still love it.

And I love the cheesiness. I love the ending. I love everything about it. Not everything. I love that movie. Yeah, me too. It's the best. All right, let's do a role play here, Michelle, with Cheesy and Fishy to show how they might look in a conversation.

I'll start us out. Ready? Yes. Hey, did you hear about Jake's business opportunity? Yeah, I don't know. It sounds kind of fishy to me. Yeah, he said we could get rich overnight.

That's already a red flag. Anytime someone says that, it's usually fishy. Yeah. I agree. And the way you presented it was sort of over the top. Right?

All those dramatic lines like, this will change your life forever. So cheesy. Yes, I almost laughed out loud when he paused for effect. Oh, same here.

I felt like he was acting in a low budget movie. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to sign up. What about you? Not a chance. It's both fishy and cheesy. Worst combo ever.

Exactly. Let's stick to normal ways of making money. Yeah, less drama, fewer scams. Oh, that would be so tricky. Imagine like a friend is pitching to both of us like a multi-level marketing scam.

And we're just like trying to be polite and save the friendship. But we're like, oh, no. No, thank you. No, thank you. Yeah. This was really great. Like a way to combine both of these and give lots of examples.

So I really like this role play. So yeah, you said, how did you hear? Did you hear about Jake's business opportunity? And you were saying that in this way of?

already you have almost like it's in quotes right if i wrote that i would write quotes around it kind of like a business opportunity question mark right and i said yeah i don't know it sounds kind of fishy to me so i here you we need more information why does that sound fishy so that's what you gave next so what did you say you said you said oh yeah you said he said we could get rich overnight right Yep. And then you're like, that's a red flag, anything like that. And when someone says that, it's pretty fishy.

And then I said, yeah, this just seems over the top. And you said one of his lines, one of the things he said, you called cheesy. This will change your life forever. That's kind of a cliche line feels cheesy.

Right. Yes. And then let's see. The next thing is, oh, you said, so are you going to join? And I said, not a chance. It's both fishy and cheesy. Worst combination ever.

That is the worst combo ever. Imagine. Fishy and cheesy. I'll pass. I'm passing on something that's fishy and cheesy. But guys, stay for us follow for part two.

We are going to do a part two. This is a two part series with other words we use that are related to food, but we use them like this where we're not talking about food. We're talking about something else like nutty and peachy. So definitely hit follow so that you don't miss that.

And if you'd missed it, go check out episode 2652. That was just yesterday's episode. When to call it the American narrative toward perseverance. Love it.

All right. This was fun, Aubrey. I hope you guys didn't think this episode was fishy or cheesy. I hope you don't think my tattoo is cheesy or fishy. My daughter, actually, this is funny.

When I got it, my daughter was a little giving me the side eye and she went and Googled if henna tattoos are cultural appropriation. And then she came and luckily she reported to me that it is not cultural appropriation. It is considered cultural appreciation. And I was like, thank goodness, because I didn't even consider that.

And I would have had to wear long sleeves for weeks if I was like, my bad. Yeah. Because I do, I appreciate every culture that does use henna tattoos as part of their culture. I think it's beautiful.

Any celebration that incorporates that, I love. So I'm glad that this, I hope everyone out there sees this as cultural appreciation as I do. But if you don't, I actually would love to hear from you. Leave a comment on our YouTube and let's start the discourse.

Do you think this is cultural appreciation and do you approve or not? If you feel like, no, we have henna tattooing in my culture and And I don't think Aubrey should be doing it. I would like to hear that too.

That would be really interesting for me. So come back to YouTube, leave a comment on this video. And yeah, we'll report on the podcast what the results are. I want to know.

Aren't you curious, Michelle? I am curious. Yeah. All right, Aubrey. Well, enjoy the tattoo. And guys, we will see you on the next episode. See you guys next time.

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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