Hello, Michelle. Feeling great today. How are you? How's it going?

Yeah, everything's good over here. Lindsay, do you find it irritating when people brag?

Yeah, for sure. It can be, well, it depends on how it's done, right?

If it's done well, then I may not notice as much that it's a brag, right?

I might consider it just, hey, this person is confident.

They've done a lot of cool things, and so it's okay.

It just really depends on the delivery, Michelle.

Right, and also on the person. If it's somebody that you feel is just doing it all the time, then you're just kind of over it, I think.

And that's when you kind of, they cross that line from confident to cocky, and yeah.

But we've talked about bragging a little bit before, and I would like to be a little bit better about promoting myself, but I feel very uncomfortable doing that. But you do need to share your skills.

Guys, it's also good to do it in a humorous way, and today you're going to learn ways to talk about bragging, and how to say that you're not bragging.

Because sometimes that's a key piece, right?

How to say, hey, this is not meant to be a brag.

Sometimes that can actually backfire. There's a lot here, Michelle, today.

So I hope our listeners are ready to get into some really good tips.

I'm sure that we'll pull in culture today as well, right?

Yes, and please, guys, remember, if you haven't hit the follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast, be sure to do that.

That's where you're going to get bonus episodes.

You're going to get all the episodes coming to you.

It's going to be easy. You don't have to think about it and go search for us.

Hit that button. We're coming to you.

All right, that sounds good. All right, what else, Michelle?

There is another episode we wanted to tell you guys about.

Episode 2194, play it cool with these English idioms.

So I don't remember exactly what that one was about, but I bet it was a good one.

Okay, let's get into it. Lindsay, what's the first one?

All right, so you might say, I don't mean to brag, but I make the best cup of coffee in New York City.

Ooh, that's a braggable thing for sure.

Well, it's funny. In New York, you always see different restaurants.

Best pizza, best bagel in New York.

It's always funny.

Well, it's funny because you don't have to qualify.

Anyone can say anything about their product, right?

Anyone can say they're the best X, Y, Z in X place for sure.

Yeah, but that would be really common. So I don't mean to brag, but I make the best cup of coffee in New York City.

Yes, yes. The next one, this is fun.

It's not to toot my own horn.

It's another way to say not to brag or to shout about myself.

So you could say not to toot my own horn, but I won first place in my middle school's art show when I was a kid.

Yeah, this expression to toot one's own horn.

We do hear that. It's kind of a strange expression.

We do hear it even in professional advice.

Like you need to toot your own horn.

For example, the way this translates into the working world, let's say you won an award in your industry.

You need to go on LinkedIn and do that thing that people do.

Toot your own horn.

And maybe we could do an episode on this actually.

I see this every day and I struggle with it too.

Writing those posts, but it's good to do for your career.

You hear a lot of people posting things and it might start with,

I'm honored to receive this award or I'm excited to be collaborating with.

There's a lot of ways that we can learn the right language for it, but you do need to get the word out.

Yeah, yes, yes, exactly.

I like that expression to get the word out.

That's a good bonus one today. What does that mean?

Get the word out, to announce things, let people know what's going on.

So there is a time and a place for not bragging, but self-promoting and tooting your own horn, I think.

Yes.

Okay. All right, next one is pat oneself on the back.

Very common, right?

So you could say, I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but I think I did a good job on this report.

Yeah, it's interesting how all of these phrases say,

I'm not trying to do X.

Right.

It's really interesting.

It is interesting because that's exactly what you're doing.

You're trying to soften it or at least acknowledge how it may sound and that awareness.

Without it just saying, I make the best cup of coffee in New York City or I won first place or I did a good job on this report.

Without that awareness of that it sounds like bragging, it feels more intense.

Right, right, right.

Yeah.

I think if it's the right platform for just presenting the facts as facts, it's okay.

Let's say you're on a panel and you've been invited to speak on a panel and it's okay to say, all there's English, we do 5 million downloads a month.

That is not something I would never say.

I don't mean to brag, but I would never say that on a stage.

True.

That's a very good point is when you are in that actual professional situation where you want to show what you've accomplished, don't use these.

You must present that data to give yourself credibility for what you're going to share.

So that's another episode for another day.

Probably for our Business English podcast, which you guys should check that out.

If you're planning to go to a conference, speak on a stage, or just speak in general, hit the follow button for Business English.

But this is more in, I think we should just lay out the context, Michelle, who are we talking to when we're saying these things?

What kind of context?

We know it's not a conference.

Maybe you're talking to a friend.

You're talking to a friend about your coffee-making skills or you're sharing something with a friend that you did at work.

Maybe you won an award at work and you say, no, not to toot my own horn, but I just got the Employee of the Month award.

Yeah, I agree.

Maybe it's a dinner party with your partner and another couple.

And if it fits your personality, too.

There's a personality aspect.

Sometimes people might just be able to say it and be okay with that.

And that could actually be okay.

It depends on your personality in general outside of the comment, too.

Right.

Right.

So these actually might be best used by someone who's uncomfortable bragging.

Yeah.

But wants to try it out and needs to a little bit, right?

So it might give you that push or just feeling, okay, I'm softening my brag a little bit.

And so it might be best for that kind of a personality.

Yeah.

So we're not saying today that if you feel proud and you're excited to talk about your accomplishments, that you have to put this qualifier before it.

We're saying if you're otherwise not going to say something great about what you've done and you need a way to kind of inch into it and feel okay about it, this might be useful for you today.

Get your feet wet with brag.

Start to be comfortable with it.

And the last one we have – well, these are actually two.

It's gloat or boast.

So these both mean brag.

So I hate to gloat.

Well, gloat is a little bit more in your face than brag, I think.

Like, oh, he's gloating.

It's like – I've been watching a lot of basketball games.

If a basketball player, like, makes this huge dunk and then goes around, like, making all these motions, that might be more like gloating.

It's a little bit more extreme than boasting.

Or in football, it's even worse than basketball.

They have their, like, end zone dance where they do something.

It's so ridiculous, I think.

Right. Yes, it is. It is.

So you can say, I hate to gloat, but I won. I won.

Yeah. Okay.

All right.

So for you, Michelle, which one here feels the most natural that you would tend to use?

I think I might like to use not to toot my own horn because it's fun.

Yeah.

What about you?

Yeah. I don't love the word brag.

It feels kind of younger to me.

Yeah.

You know, so maybe the same one as you, not to toot my own horn.

Yeah.

I feel like I have people in my life that brag for me and, like, say, oh, Lindsay did this, and then I kind of go into it and explain a little bit.

So it just depends on the context.

Who are you around?

What do they want to hear from you?

There's so much context here that we have to pay attention to.

Yeah. Lindsay, I want to hear from you.

It doesn't have to be something with work, but what is something you can brag about?

Tell us.

Probably the traveling I've done.

Right.

So I've traveled probably more than your average person.

I lived in South America for a year, lived in Japan for a year and a half.

Well, studied abroad in Paris, hiked the Camino de Santiago, had a lot of adventures.

So adventure is one of my highest values as a person, and I think I've lived that to a fair extent.

I could do more, but more than the average person.

So, yeah, I think that's one of the things.

And I would rather tell stories than brag.

But, yeah, I suppose that's braggable.

What about you, Michelle?

Well, I'm going to brag about something less than travel, but something funny.

I can brag about my egg-making skills.

Dan always says that I make the best eggs, and it has definitely gone to my head, which is a bonus expression when somebody tells you how good you are at something and you become a little bit, oh, you have this feeling of I'm the best.

So I do feel that my eggs are significantly better than Dan's.

What is your secret?

Do you whip the eggs?

Like, what's the secret?

Little milk in there?

I could do that.

But I like to make, like, a good fried egg.

Oh, yes.

And sometimes he'll make the eggs in the morning, because I eat eggs every morning.

And sometimes he'll make them, and then it's just not the same.

They're kind of mushy.

And then whenever he sees me make my eggs when he's leaving for work, and then he'll say, oh, those look so good.

Those smell good.

They're, like, from a restaurant.

And you know what?

They are delicious.

So, guys, I hate to brag.

Not to toot my own horn, but my eggs are the best.

Good to know.

All right.

Well, that's great.

I wish I could try your eggs, Michelle.

I know, but one day.

The next time I may see you in person.

Yeah, there you go.

All right.

So where do we go from here?

What do you think?

All right.

Well, let's just say, you know, again, these are best for situations where you're being playful and fun.

If you are using these for real situations, it might get irritating.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

Yeah.

And so should we just do a role play to end off the episode?

Yeah, let's do it.

Let's do it.

So here we are friends, and we're deciding what to make for a party that we're throwing together.

All right, here we go.

Okay, so what should we make?

Well, not to toot my own horn, but I make amazing chocolate cake.

I can do that.

Oh, awesome.

That sounds delicious.

What about you?

Well, I don't mean to brag, but my chips and salsa are to die for.

Oh, sounds great.

Oh, my cinnamon rolls are done.

Let's try them.

Oh, wow.

I have to pat myself on the back for this one.

So good.

Ooh, cinnamon rolls, yum.

This ties in with I think we did an episode before about I make a mean ex.

Oh, yes.

Good memory.

Yes.

Yeah, guys, if you can find that in our back catalog, add that to your listening cue and then combine your skills.