Hey guys, how we doing today? Welcome to my English class. Everybody sit down, find a seat. No need to fight over seats, there are plenty of seats. Come in, come in. English class has begun.
So, as you know on this channel, I keep it real. That’s my middle name. My name is Prof A Real Lao. Kidding, but it should be cuz I’m always keeping it real on this channel.
Basically, what has been grinding my gears? In other words, what has been irritating me? The internet. Seeing tons and tons of videos of people, sometimes it’s not even people, sometimes it’s AI teaching English that I have a million problems with.
There are a lot of videos that I think are problematic. There are some that are not necessarily wrong, but I just feel like they are reaching, trying to find more and more phrases that exist in English just to be able to teach you something. When in reality, most people who are learning English just want to be able to have real, natural, realistic communication.
So in this video, I’m going to provide you with a bunch of examples, a bunch of different random contexts. I found some different situations, different contexts, and basically a bunch of sentences and phrases that you can say in that situation. I’m going to be giving you my real, honest reactions — unpolished, unfiltered.
Let’s go.
Situation 1: Overcomplicating in a Work Meeting
You’re in a work meeting and your coworker is explaining something in a really complicated way. The task itself is actually simple, but they keep adding unnecessary steps. You can tell people are getting confused.
This is like upper intermediate to advanced type stuff. This is real stuff that native speakers use.
So this is what you’re going to say:
“Honestly, I think we’re overthinking this. We can just keep it simple and get it done.”
I like how they used we, even though it’s really just one person who’s overcomplicating everything. But in order not to blame that person so much, they said “We’re overthinking.” Like, we, collectively, we’re thinking about this too much.
We use this phrase a lot — overthinking. “Maybe I’m just overthinking it.” Like, it’s maybe not that complex. Maybe I’m worrying about something and I’m like, “You know what? I think I’m just overthinking it.”
Honestly or to be honest — this is very my generation. I’m the first year of Generation Z, born in 1997. So this is like Generation Z millennial English, which is from teenagers to people in their late 30s. Young adults, basically.
“We can just keep it simple and get it done.” I had a teacher in school who used to write on the whiteboard K.I.S.S. — KISS. It’s an acronym: Keep It Simple, Stupid. It was a joke, but keep it simple. That’s a motto to live by. Don’t overcomplicate it. A lot of times as humans we like to overcomplicate things that are really quite simple.
Situation 2: A Friend Stressing About the Future
You’re talking to a friend who’s stressing about a situation that hasn’t happened yet. They’re worrying, stressing about something that hasn’t happened yet. They keep imagining worst-case scenarios.
What’s the worst-case scenario? The worst thing that could happen. Like, “I’m probably not going to bring my umbrella. Worst-case scenario, it rains and we have to find some roof to stand under.”
You want to calm them down without dismissing them. You don’t want to gaslight them. Gaslighting is when you basically tell someone that they’re not experiencing what they’re experiencing. You don’t want to just brush them off.
So you can say:
“Hey, you might be getting ahead of yourself. Just take it one step at a time. See how it actually plays out.”
Sometimes we say, “Just take it one day at a time.” Let’s just go day by day. One step at a time.
Sometimes we say, “Let’s just play it by ear.” That’s an idiom that comes from music — like you’re listening to music and you play it by ear. Or just “Let’s see how it goes. Let’s see how it plays out.”
Plays out — how it turns out, how it evolves, the result.
A great thing to do in this situation is to validate that — to be like, “I know you feel worried about this, I can see that you feel that way. It makes sense because you’re worried about this thing that could go wrong. But all we can do is just take it one day at a time.”
Situation 3: Declining an Invitation
A friend invites you to an event. Careful with the pronunciation — it’s event, not “event.” The emphasis is on vent, so it’s event. The first syllable is subtle, quick.
You’re not really interested in going. You don’t have a strong excuse, you just don’t feel like it. Well, in my book, that’s a pretty good excuse. Life is too short to be doing stuff you don’t want to do.
You still want to sound friendly and not rude. You can say:
“I’m probably going to sit this one out, but I hope it’s fun. Just let me know how it goes.”
Sit this one out — to sit something out means you’re not going to participate. Like in sports, the players sitting on the bench, not playing. They’re just sitting there watching. So it’s a way of saying you don’t want to participate.
Personally, I don’t usually say that. I am super honest, super direct. I don’t think it’s rude to be that way. I’d probably say, “Thank you for inviting me. To be honest, I don’t really feel like going. I just feel kind of tired. I’m not really in the mood for it.”
Or you could say, “That’s not really my thing.” If someone invites you to a sports game and you’re not into sports: “Thanks for inviting me, but that’s not really my thing.”
Just be transparent. You’ll find that if you’re just very honest in English, very direct, very straight to the point, you’ll sound good. You’ll sound like a native speaker.
Side Quest: Keep It Simple
There’s this English teacher on Instagram from Argentina. She’s always telling people: just keep it simple. When you’re starting out with English, focus on forming the most simple sentences. Start with the person and then the verb. Persona verbo.
A lot of times when you’re translating from your language to English, you’re trying to translate something complex into something equally complex. But there is often a simple way of expressing the same general idea. If your mind goes to that simple idea, there’s a higher chance it’s going to be correct.
I’ve learned Spanish and Portuguese. I consider myself fluent in Spanish even though there’s a lot of native speaker level stuff that I don’t use. My language in Spanish is very simple, very basic. It’s not colorful. But I can still communicate with everybody. I get my point across.
I take the path of least resistance. That’s a good phrase — the smallest amount of struggle, the easiest path. When I’m speaking another language, I’m always thinking: what is the easiest, most direct path to express what I’m trying to say?
For example, a Spanish sentence might be structured backwards like “a video appeared to me.” In English, simplify it: “I saw a video.” That’s how native speakers would say it. That’s what our brains do too. Even native speakers are often going to the simplest way of expressing things.
Keep it simple.
Situation 4: Why You Stopped Talking to Someone
Someone asks you why you stopped talking to a person you used to be close with. There wasn’t a big fight or drama. Things just faded naturally. You don’t want to make it sound like a big deal.
You can say:
“It just kind of ran its course. Nothing bad happened. We just weren’t really on the same page anymore.”
Ran its course — like a course that has a certain length of time, and then it ends. The friendship lasted as long as it needed to last, and then it ended. Normal.
Not on the same page — we were on different things. Our minds were in different places. We were into different things.
I personally would say: “I got busy living my life. She got busy living her life. We just started to do other things and we stopped making so much effort to maintain the friendship.”
Or “We just kind of grew apart.” Like two plants growing in different directions. I’m going this direction, she’s going that direction. We have different focuses, different priorities.
It happens. People come and go. Not all friendships are meant to be lifelong.
Situation 5: Giving Honest but Polite Feedback
You’re in a group setting and someone shares an idea that isn’t very strong. You don’t want to shut them down completely — completely dismiss it, say “No, that’s horrible.” But you also don’t want to pretend it’s perfect.
You can say:
“I see what you’re going for, but I’m not sure it fully lands. Maybe we could tweak it a bit.”
I see what you’re going for — I see what you’re aiming for, what you’re trying to do. We say this a lot, my generation. “Tryna” — I see what you’re tryna do.
I’m not sure it fully lands — like a plane landing. I don’t think it’s really working. I don’t think people are going to get on board.
Tweak it — change it a little bit. Just a small change.
Remember, every time you hear a word or phrase you don’t know — like “it fully lands” or “tweak it” — there is a simpler way of expressing that. You can say, “I see what your goal is, but I think it’s not really realistic” or “Maybe we could just change it a little bit.” There are always multiple simpler ways.
Situation 6: Responding to a Minor Apology
Someone apologizes to you for something minor. It didn’t really affect you that much. You don’t want to turn it into a big emotional conversation. You just want to move on.
So someone says sorry and you’re thinking, “I don’t really care. It’s not a big deal. It didn’t really bother me.”
You can say:
“You’re good. Don’t worry about it. I get it.”
You’re good or You’re fine — this is very common when people apologize for something small. If somebody accidentally bumps into you on the subway, they say “Oh, sorry” and you say “You’re fine. You’re good. No problem.”
When we say “You’re good” in this situation, we’re not saying they feel good. We’re saying your action was fine. What you did is okay.
For more serious things, you might say something like “Thanks for apologizing, but I’m not really worried about it. I’m totally fine.” But for minor things, “You’re good” is all you need.
Wrapping Up
So that was that on that. I only went through like six situations, but I gave you a lot of commentary, a lot of side quests, a lot of tips and advice. I like to show you my real honest reactions to what I’m reading, what immediately pops into my head — unpolished, unfiltered.
I like to go off on tangents, go off on rants. It helps you get more exposure to English and the thought processes — where my mind immediately goes as a native speaker when confronted with these situations.
I hope you enjoyed this video. For those of you who keep up with my life — I am in Puerto Rico. It’s my first time here. I’m loving it. The weather is beautiful. The climate is tropical. I’m a tropical woman, I always say that. So far, so good.
Thank you for watching the video to the end. Those of you who watch my videos until the end, you are a godsend. You are sent from God. I’m not even a religious person, but you are a blessing.
Love you. See you in the next one.