Interview

It would be great if I could always feel happy all the time, day in and day out. But sometimes I feel down. This is one of those days. Sometimes I get depressed if something disappointing happens—like if I interview for a job and I don't get it, or if I have to cancel my vacation after looking forward to it for a long time.

Once in a while, I'll even feel down if I've read a very sad book or have seen a movie with a sad or tragic ending.

Well... None of those things happened today, but I'm still feeling a little blue. I don't know what the cause is, but maybe what I need to do is to try to cheer myself up.

When I've felt this way in the past, I've found that a change of pace helps. Getting out of the house, going to a new restaurant for dinner, or just going for a walk outside can sometimes get me out of this bad mood.

Sometimes, I hate to say it, but going out and buying myself something new sometimes does the trick. Getting something new, especially something I've wanted for a while, can sometimes cheer me up.

Other times, just having a long talk with a good friend helps me put things into perspective, and I feel better.

Okay, I've got it. I'll call my friend Debbie and invite her out to dinner. Debbie is such a good friend, and she has a way of seeing the bright side of things. She's one of those people who always sees the glass half full—not half empty. I bet she'll help me get out of my lousy mood. And, if that doesn't work, I'm heading to the mall.

Vocabulary and Expressions

There were several expressions that we heard that mean the same thing—all of them expressing the idea of feeling sad. You heard the woman say:

I feel down.
I feel depressed.
I'm feeling a little blue.
I'm in a bad mood.

All of these are ways of saying pretty much the same thing: that we don't feel well, that we're not happy.

The expressions I feel down or I get depressed or feel depressed are fairly common. The expression I'm feeling a little blue is a little more old-fashioned—not used quite as often anymore in English—but to feel blue means to feel badly, like the color blue.

A bad mood can sometimes be used when we feel sad, but a bad mood can also be when you are angry or upset over something.

A couple of other expressions that were used:

The woman said that it would be great if I could feel happy all the time, day in and day out. The expression day in and day out means all of the time, constantly. For example:
It rains day in and day out, meaning every day, all the time.

The woman also said that because she was feeling a little blue, she was going to try to cheer herself up. To cheer yourself up means to make yourself happy.

One way she was going to do this was by having a change of pace. Change of pace means a change in the way that you are doing things. Literally, the word pace refers to speed, but here it means doing something different from your usual routine.

For example, in a race: If you are going to run a long race, like a marathon, you want to pace yourself, to keep your pace so that you don't get tired. To change your pace or have a change of pace means, more generally, to do something in a different way—to go in a new direction, to do things to get yourself out of your depression, to cheer yourself up.

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ESLPod011 - Expressing Emotions

ESL Pod Official - Speak English Fluently by Listening (with Text)