Learn the English Phrases TO BE ONE STEP AHEAD and TO STEP OUT

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase TO BE ONE STEP AHEAD and TO STEP OUT

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be one step ahead. When you run a business like Jen and I do, when you run a flower business or any other kind of business, you want to be one step ahead of your competition. You want to do things that are innovative or new, and you want to do them before the other people, who do the same thing as you, do them. We've done a few things over the year to stay one step ahead, to be one step ahead of our competition. A while ago, we stopped using plastic. We use paper to wrap our flowers, and all those kinds of little things. We just are always, through the winter, looking for ways to be one step ahead of our competition. They usually catch up. Sometimes the competition is one step ahead of us, then we look at what they're doing, so we can do it too.

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The second phrase I wanna teach you today is the phrase to step out. When you step out, it means to leave a room for a little while. Sorry, it's gonna get loud in here, 'cause I'm in the cooler. I'll show you the flowers in a second. Sometimes when I'm in my classroom, the principal will come to talk to me, and I will step out and talk to him for a little bit. It means I'll just go in the hallway and talk to him. Maybe you're at a friend's place or a relative's place, and your phone rings, and you say, "Hey, I'm just gonna step out and take this call." That means you're gonna go outside of their apartment or outside of their house in order to take the call. To step out means to simply go out of the room that you're in, usually outside.

So, to review, to be one step ahead means to be doing things that are better than what other people are doing. You can be one step ahead of your colleagues. You can be one step ahead of another business. You can always do little things to be innovative and one step ahead. And to step out means to simply leave a room, just for a little bit, usually to chat or to talk with someone.

Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from ünsal. "Hi, dear teacher Bob. How are you doing? What a blessing it is to raise kids in a place where you have childhood memories. I wish you and your family a healthy, peaceful, and long life there. By the way, I wonder if you bought the farm from your parents. If it's not too private of a question, can you tell the story of it? Have a great day. Love from Istanbul. Bye." And my response, "Sure, I'll tell the story in the next video."

Yes, Jen and I actually bought the farm from my mom. My dad actually passed away, so it's kind of a sad story. My dad passed away, and my mom didn't wanna live on such a big farm, so Jen and I moved here, and we lived here for a few years, and we rented it from my mom. But then eventually we decided that we wanted to buy it, so we went to the bank and we got a mortgage. You can't live on a property this beautiful and not eventually buy it.

Anyways, where am I standing? Well, I'm standing in the flower cooler. It is market day, and Jen has a lot of flowers ready to go. We have peonies and snapdragons and yarrow and feverfew and things that I don't know. And down here, you'll see there are all kinds of bouquets ready to go to market today. Over here, some flowers. It's actually a slow flower week for us. There aren't as many flowers as we would normally have.

Transcript

In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be one step ahead. When you run a business like Jen and I do, when you run a flower business or any other kind of business, you want to be one step ahead of your competition. You want to do things that are innovative or new, and you want to do them before the other people, who do the same thing as you, do them. We've done a few things over the year to stay one step ahead, to be one step ahead of our competition. A while ago, we stopped using plastic. We use paper to wrap our flowers, and all those kinds of little things. We just are always, through the winter, looking for ways to be one step ahead of our competition. They usually catch up. Sometimes the competition is one step ahead of us, then we look at what they're doing, so we can do it too.

The second phrase I wanna teach you today is the phrase to step out. When you step out, it means to leave a room for a little while. Sorry, it's gonna get loud in here, 'cause I'm in the cooler. I'll show you the flowers in a second. Sometimes when I'm in my classroom, the principal will come to talk to me, and I will step out and talk to him for a little bit. It means I'll just go in the hallway and talk to him. Maybe you're at a friend's place or a relative's place, and your phone rings, and you say, "Hey, I'm just gonna step out and take this call." That means you're gonna go outside of their apartment or outside of their house in order to take the call. To step out means to simply go out of the room that you're in, usually outside.

So, to review, to be one step ahead means to be doing things that are better than what other people are doing. You can be one step ahead of your colleagues. You can be one step ahead of another business. You can always do little things to be innovative and one step ahead. And to step out means to simply leave a room, just for a little bit, usually to chat or to talk with someone.

Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from ünsal. "Hi, dear teacher Bob. How are you doing? What a blessing it is to raise kids in a place where you have childhood memories. I wish you and your family a healthy, peaceful, and long life there. By the way, I wonder if you bought the farm from your parents. If it's not too private of a question, can you tell the story of it? Have a great day. Love from Istanbul. Bye." And my response, "Sure, I'll tell the story in the next video."

Yes, Jen and I actually bought the farm from my mom. My dad actually passed away, so it's kind of a sad story. My dad passed away, and my mom didn't wanna live on such a big farm, so Jen and I moved here, and we lived here for a few years, and we rented it from my mom. But then eventually we decided that we wanted to buy it, so we went to the bank and we got a mortgage. You can't live on a property this beautiful and not eventually buy it.

Anyways, where am I standing? Well, I'm standing in the flower cooler. It is market day, and Jen has a lot of flowers ready to go. We have peonies and snapdragons and yarrow and feverfew and things that I don't know. And down here, you'll see there are all kinds of bouquets ready to go to market today. Over here, some flowers. It's actually a slow flower week for us. There aren't as many flowers as we would normally have.

It's just a little bit of a, we call it a dip in our production. When the peonies are done, these are the last of them, and then the sunflowers down here are just starting to bloom, we have a little bit of a dip in the production. Maybe I'll try to talk like this so you can still see. So we're in a bit of a slow week or so, and then lisianthus and dahlias and everything else will start blooming. And we'll have lots of flowers again.

Anyways, market day. I'm gonna go with Jen. I hope you're having a good day today. I know you're watching this on a Friday. It's actually a Thursday. Bye. See you in the next video.