With me Feifei.

And don't you know who I am?!

I am Rob.

Yes, we all know that, Rob.

But I am THE Rob, Rob of

The English We Speak.

There is nobody else like me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah - don't milk it!

Eh? Come on, show me

some respect. Ouch, I seem to have

pulled a muscle. Oooh, that hurts.

Come on, Rob. You hardly moved.

Ouch, it's in my lower back. It's so

painful, I don't know if I can carry on.

You are milking it again!

Feifei, what am I 'milking' exactly?

Everything! 'To milk it' means to

take full advantage of a situation usually

to gain sympathy, respect or kindness.

Sometimes, like Rob, you fake something

to get attention.

That's when we say 'You're milking it'.

Are you talking about me?

Of course I am, Rob.

Let's hear some examples of

other people 'milking it'.

OK, don't milk it, Sam! You've told me

a hundred times you've got tickets

for the World Cup final.

Tom's had a week off work with a cold.

I think he's milking it now.

Since her promotion, Freya keeps

bossing us around and telling us

to call her 'Miss Brown'.

She's really milking it!

You're listening to The English

We Speak from BBC Learning English,

and we're talking about the phrase

'to milk it'. This means to take

full advantage of a situation

usually to gain sympathy, respect

or kindness. So Rob, have you got

what 'milking it' means?

I do, and I seemed to have recovered

from pulled muscle but I've become so...

thirsty, I was wondering...

...if I could get you a drink of milk?

No, Feifei. I was thinking of

a cup of coffee. You are so very kind

and generous.

You are milking it again, Rob.

Actually, I've got just the thing for you.

Hold on...

Meet Daisy!

Moo. Moo.

A cow!! How do I milk that?

I'd start down there somewhere.

Good luck.

Bye.

Moo. moo.

Hello, this is The English

We Speak. I'm Feifei.

And hello, I'm Rob.

Why have you brought a bowl of

fruit into the studio?

I'm not feeling great and

you know fruit is packed with

vitamin C, so I thought eating

some would do me good.

Hmm, I see. Well, I'm sorry

you're not feeling great, but we have got

a programme to do and

an English phrase to teach.

If you don't mind, I might just read

a few lines from the script today to save

my voice. Perhaps I could just

read the funny lines?

No Rob! You can't just

cherry-pick what you want to say.

Cherry-pick? No Feifei, there aren't

any cherries in my fruit bowl so

I won't be picking any.

I wasn't referring to your fruit.

When you cherry-pick something,

it means you choose only what's best or

most desirable out of a group of

things or a group of people.

But Rob, you're not going to do that, are you?

Errr... shall we hear some examples

of other cherry pickers?

Josh says he cherry-picked the players for

his football team based on

their skills but

I know it's because they were his friends!

We need to cherry-pick the best food

for our new restaurant. We really

want to impress our customers.

It seems unfair that our school

has cherry-picked the best students

to attend the conference.

We should all have a chance to go.

You're listening to The English

We Speak from BBC Learning English

and we're talking about the phrase 'to

cherry-pick', which means to choose

the best or most desirable things from

a group. And Rob wants to cherry-pick

only the best lines to read from

this script. It's a bit unfair, Rob...

I was just trying to save

my voice but I will do my best.

Would you like a piece of fruit

from the bowl, Feifei?

Oh, OK then. Err, that banana

is a bit mouldy.

That orange is a bit yellow.

I'll have this apple please.

Hmm, looks like you're cherry-picking the

best piece of fruit. Right, well,

now that you've got my delicious apple,

do you mind

if I go now, I'm really not feeling great.

Oh go on, Rob. But next time

I'm going to cherry-pick who I present

with - someone who wants a bite of the

cherry to work with me.

'A bite of the cherry' means a chance

or opportunity. I need someone

with a bit more... stamina.

See ya.

Bye.

Hello and welcome to The English

We Speak. I'm Feifei.

And I'm Rob. Feifei, feeling hungry?

Rob, they smell amazing!

Almost there. We're having a special

treat today... waffles!

Rob is making waffles: those lovely,

crispy little cakes with raised squares on

the surface.

Absolutely! My favourite. But what

are we going to put on them?

Oh that's simple: strawberries and

syrup. What about you?

OK, I'm not so sure. I mean, I used to

always love them with honey

and bananas. But they do taste

amazing with melted chocolate. Or with

cream. You know, I recently tried one with

peanut butter - not a good experience.

I guess strawberries would be

worth trying. Or mango.

But only if the mangoes are fresh.

Rob?

Yes?

Can you stop waffling on?

Ah, very clever. Perfect time to use

that phrase! I do need to stop waffling on,

don't I?

Yes, please. To 'waffle on' means

to talk and talk without saying anything

very useful or interesting.

I am sometimes guilty of that.

Let's hear a few more examples.

I think I did really badly in the interview.

I wasn't sure how to answer the

questions, so I just waffled on.

Meetings with Frank are frustrating.

He always waffles on about unimportant

things. Someone needs to have

a word with him.

I used to find her blog really interesting

and inspiring but these days

she just waffles on about her pet tortoise.

There we are. To waffle on.

At least we don't waffle on in this programme,

do we Rob?

Well, I must admit that sometimes

people have said I do talk rather a lot,

especially when it's about travel or

languages... which reminds me I really

should book my next holiday...

I've been considering Croatia, though I...

Rob?

Ah. Am I waffling on?

I'm afraid so.

Ooh, it's waffle time!

Great. Hopefully these tasty

waffles will keep you quiet for a while.

Are you saying the waffles will

stop me waffling on?

Yup! Now, enough talk.

Oh, these waffles are delicious.

Not bad, eh?!

Bye.

Bye.

Hello and welcome to The English We Speak.

I'm Feifei.

And I'm Neil.

Errr, Neil why are you still here?

I thought you were driving to Manchester.

and Rob was going to present the programme.

Feifei, have you looked

outside the window?

Errr, no. Should I?

It's a pea-souper out there!

You want me to look out of the window

at PEA SOUP?

Is there a big bowl of it or something?

No, there's no soup, it's an informal

way of describing thick fog.

It's so thick you can hardly see through it.

And that's why I can't drive to Manchester.

That is a shame.

But why a pea-souper?

I guess because, like pea soup, it's

thick and a dark cloudy colour.

Hmm, well I'd rather eat pea soup

than be in it! I think we had better hear

some examples of this strange phrase.

It looks like our flight is

delayed until this pea-souper clears.

It's a real pea-souper today. When I was

driving here I couldn't even see the car

in front of me.

There's no way I'm cycling in this pea-souper.

It's far too dangerous.

This is The English We Speak from

BBC Learning English. And I'm with Neil, who

can't travel because of a pea-souper – that's

a very thick fog, that's hard to see through.

Sometimes you can refer to it as 'smog',

if it's fog mixed with air pollution.

Yes, that's horrible stuff to be in.

Well Neil, if you can't go to Manchester,

what are we going to do?

Well, let's have lunch together.

Yes, but what are we going to eat?

Pea soup of course!

It's that kind of day.

Oh look, the fog is clearing.

Maybe you can drive after all!

Hmm, I'll get my coat. Bye.

See ya.

Hello and welcome to

The English We Speak with me, Feifei.

Hehe, oh, and me, Rob.

Rob, could we have

your attention please?

Sorry, I'm just snacking.

You know you can't

eat in the studio.

I'm not eating anything - I'm

snacking on some funny cat videos.

Sorry, they're really short.

I won't be long.

What, Feifei? Why the angry face?

Because we are here to talk

about an authentic English phrase.

OK, OK, well here is one

for you: snackable.

It describes short online articles, videos

and other content that are quick

and easy to read or watch.

Just like these cat videos.

And you are demonstrating it very

well, Rob! I guess it's like eating a snack

- quick and easy?

Yes, very snackable.

Just like these examples.

Because my free time is short, it's good to

find some snackable videos

I can watch on

my smartphone while I wait for the bus.

The short city guides I found on the

internet are very snackable and

great for planning

my trip around Africa.

These days videos are often less than

a minute long so that they're