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Hi, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre mais dois ditados muito populares em inglês, desta vez ligados às consequências de nossos atos.
Hello, everybody. How’s it going? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.
Our episode today is dedicated to a couple of very popular sayings in English. The first one is What goes around, comes around. Think of a boomerang. When you throw a boomerang, it kinda makes a u-turn and flies back at you, or at least near you, right? That’s kind of the principle behind this saying: what goes around, comes around.
People usually use this saying to mean basically that if you’re bad, bad things will happen to you, and if you’re good, good things will happen to you. So let’s say you’re telling your friend Sara what happened at the office last week. You were in a meeting with your boss, who reports to the company CEO, and you watched how the CEO chewed your boss out right there in front of everyone. And what’s really weird about it is, the CEO is usally such a calm, slow-to-anger kind of guy! Not last week, though. He raised his voice and proceeded to scold your boss. Now, you’ve been working for this guy for a year and the thing is, he has the habit of scolding employees in front of everyone else!
When your friend hears that, she says “What goes around, comes around. He’s been such a jerk to his employees; now it’s his turn to be yelled at”. So he yelled a lot at his employees; now the CEO is yelling at him and scolding him. What goes around, comes around. Here’s another example: you friend Mark tells you that he had a neighbor who kept throwing trash on Mark’s backyard. Mark confronted him and he denied it. This morning, however, someone dumped a lot of trash on his garden and ruined the flowers! You could say “What goes around… comes around”. This guy dumped a lot of trash on Mark’s garden, but now it is his turn. Someone did the same thing to him, and he’s not happy! What goes around, comes around.
And this is the perfect example to introduce our second expression today. You know what else we could say about Mark’s neighbor? Here it goes: we could say that he got a taste of his own medicine. Again: Mark’s neighbor got a taste of his own medicine. What does that mean? Well, this expression means that Mark’s neighbor was doing something unpleasant to Mark, and now someone’s doing the same thing to him, so he can have a “taste” of that unpleasant thing he was doing. And just to clarify: “medicine”, here, means “drug”, but not that bad kind of drug. “Medicine” here means the kind of drug people take in order to heal a disease.
And what about my initial example, where Sara’s boss got scolded by the CEO? Remember I said he had the habit of doing just that to his employees? Well, when the CEO yelled at him in front of all his employees, he got a taste of his own medicine. You know when someone keeps doing something unpleasant, or bad, and then all of a sudden they become the victim of that same thing they were doing? That’s when you can say They got a taste of their own medicine.
So please give us your example in the comments. Can you remember any examples from your own life where someone had a taste of their own medicine? Talk to you next time.
reports to = responde para (é subalterno de)
chew someone out = dar a maior bronca em alguém
scold = repreender, dar bronca
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heyy, i really liked this podcast episode but i still have a doubt… the second expression can be translate as ‘provar do seu proprio veneno?’ i think so, but im not sure… xoxo
Hey Ana luiza, what’s up?
I was looking for website that could help me to be fluently , and I’ve discovered this one. I already read and listened ,of course , a lot of the stuffs here. Your podcasts are too great and you speak very well, infact. So, I want to know what kinds of audios can I put in a mp3? If I download a podcast of yours , it counts like a audio that might help me ? Sorry for my wrongs . I looking forward to your answer. Thanks”
Hey, Mauro – no problem. I always look for super common expressions.
hello Ana, this podcast was very interesting. Also very common in our everyday conversation…congratulations!
Hi Anna,
I think this podcast has a lot in common with the last podcast (you reap what you sow), I mean, this expression “what goes around, comes around” is similiar to “you reap what you sow”. If you do bad things, you will receive bad things in exchange. It also reminded me of another brazilian expression that has to do with today’s topic: O feitiço volta contra o feiticeiro ( what goes around, comes around). I’d like to thank you for the good work. I always look things up on internet and whenever I visit your website I learn a lot with your podcasts. Keep up the good work.
Hi Joao,
Yep, they’re definitely related in their meanings. Thanks ;) Glad to know you’re enjoying the podcasts.
The expression “Pay back in kind” can also be use is these cases?
i guess it’s related. That means you’d do to a person the same thing they did to you.
Hi Ana, I miss you all tis time I was out, studying hard, but your English classes surely helpd me-
Well , about your podcast, I can say it “de carteirinha” by my own…..
My father emigrated to Brazil a long time ago, meanwhile his relatives tooked their heritage that belongs him, because they wouldn’t think that he could comes back, so now we are requiring our rights hardly through the law…
So…..What’s goes arounf, comes around, they will get a taste of their medicine.
Thanks for your English Tips
Regards
Hi Vera,
Wow, sounds like your father could write a book about this!
There’s this song by Justin Timberlake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOrnUquxtwA
Check it out! =)
Thanks Daniel. I posted it to our page on Facebook ;)
Hello, I think all of us know examples of people that had bad action and after this, the actions comes around to them. I had a friend that did a lot of bad things to many people in the college. So, the people and me started to leave her. Now, she is alone. She have only her boyfriend. Like I enter in the college at the third period(before this, I studied in other University and I go to the University that I study now by a exam of transfer). I didn’t know she did bad things to others and for me she was a good person. But after, I perceived the way she behaved and started to connect the dots. What goes around, comes around. She did bad things, now other people do bad things to her. I know that my text is so confused, something I want to explain but I don’t find the words or expressions to explain. Please, correct my wrongs if you can. Thank you, Nicole.
Hi Nicole,
Your text is better than you think. Great example!
Hello Ana.
Today’s post are similar with the last week when you did focus the popular saying “you reap what you sow”, such a great tip. I already saw a couple of situations where we could apply it at all. I’ll talk about a sad situation lived around me.
I have a coworker that was looking for create a bad situation to harm her collegue. They were in a very friendship, but of course, one was ready to stab her friend in the back. All she was planning to make against her friend it was discovered and her boss chew her out. I belive that what you go around, you’ll probably come around. She didn’t taste of her medicine, but she had a discipline scold to learn how treat people without an second bad intention.
Thanks Ana.
Hi Diogo,
Good thing the boss figured out your coworker’s plans before she had a chance to act!
Hi!
It’s been a long time since I entered the site for the last time, but I came back and I’d like to say thanks to all your great tips!
I’ve got a friend that asked so many girls out, and he usually had one or two of these girls in love with him, but he always acted like he didn’t care about it. But, one day, he falled in love with a girl who was his female version! She had dates with many guys and he was only one of them… In the college all of our friends started doing jokes saying he got a taste of his own medicine, because, for sure, what goes arround, cames arround!
Great example, Veronica… That happens all the time!