Daily English Pod

I’m Jale, an English teacher and graduate in Applied Linguistics from Canada. From Monday to Friday, I share short, practical educational podcasts. On Saturdays, you’ll hear an engaging story, and on Sundays, we explore artistic topics. Like a real magazine, these podcasts cover current issues, culture, society, and history in clear, easy-to-understand English. If you’re interested in learning English and understanding the world around you, this podcast is for you. With me, you’ll not only practice English but also gain a broader perspective on the world.

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Daily English Pod

Sticky situation

August 16, 2025 • Jale Qaraqan

Gmail address: https:/jaleqaraqan@gmail.com

For checking the transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2379282

Sticky situation

It’s an expression we use to describe a difficult, tricky, or embarrassing problem — something messy that’s not easy to get out of.

Examples:

1- If you forget your friend’s birthday and they find out, you might be in a sticky situation.
2- I once borrowed my brother’s shirt and spilled coffee on it before he even noticed — talk about a sticky situation!

Intro
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Daily English Pod! Today, as it’s the weekend, we learn English through real stories

The Story In 1919, in Boston, USA, a huge storage tank filled with molasses — you know, the thick, sweet syrup — suddenly burst. Imagine it: 2 million gallons of sticky, brown molasses rushing through the streets like a wave. Buildings were destroyed, horses and people were swept away, and the entire neighborhood was covered in sugar. What was supposed to be harmless turned into chaos. The city took weeks to clean up, and even years later, people said that on hot summer days, the smell of molasses still filled the air. Boston had truly found itself in… a sticky situation.

The Idiom So, what does a sticky situation mean? It’s an expression we use to describe a difficult, tricky, or embarrassing problem — something messy that’s not easy to get out of.

Examples

If you forget your friend’s birthday and they find out, you might be in a sticky situation.
A politician caught lying is definitely in a sticky situation.
I once borrowed my brother’s shirt and spilled coffee on it before he even noticed — talk about a sticky situation!

Here’s the fun part: locals still call it “The Great Molasses Flood,” and it has become a legendary example of how even something as sweet as sugar can create disaster. In fact, engineers now study it when learning about structural safety.

Final Question So let me ask you: Have you ever been in a sticky situation — maybe not with molasses, but in life? What happened, and how did you get out of it?