Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some expressions you can use when talking about challenges and struggles. Let's get started.
Okay. On this side of the board, I have some expressions that you can use to talk about things that are difficult for you. Things that are challenging or things that cause you to struggle. These are some very common expressions to do that. First, "Noun phrase is really difficult for me." Noun phrase is really difficult for me. Here, "really" is in parentheses. You can remove this. So, "Noun phrase is difficult for me." So, you can put one of these items here, if you like. For example, "English is really difficult for me," or "Spanish is really difficult for me," or maybe, "Exercising is really difficult for me," "Eating healthy is really difficult for me." Whatever you find challenging, it's tough, it's hard to do. You can say, that thing, so, "Noun phrase is difficult for me." Please, please, please, use "for" here, not to. Not to. English is really difficult for me. Eating healthy is really difficult for me.
Also, as I said, I have put "difficult here." You can change this to "tough," sounds more casual. You can also use "hard," which is probably the standard way we use "difficult." So, "difficult" tends to sound a little bit politer. I thought this expression would be good if you want to use this at work. If you want to use this with your friends, you can use "hard." If you want to sound very casual, you can use "tough." So, "English is really tough for me," or "English is really hard for me," "English is really difficult for me." Those are the levels of formality there.
Okay. The next one is a very general expression for when you're not sure. You have no confidence or very little confidence. "I'm not sure I can do this." I'm not sure I can do this. So, this is, "I am not sure," means 100%. "I'm not sure I can do this." So, that means, "I don't think I can do this," or "I don't have much confidence." So, maybe you're in a very challenging situation, like jumping out of a plane to skydive, or maybe you have to give a speech in another language. You might think to yourself, "I'm not sure I can do this." So, this expression gives a sense of like anxiety. So, we're very nervous about something, we're not maybe feeling confident in ourselves. So, you might say this just before something you need to do. Just before something important, or maybe you're preparing for that thing and you make a comment to your friend or to your colleague and you say, "I'm not sure I can do this." And then, your colleague or your friend maybe can cheer you up or try to build your confidence a little bit. So, "I'm not sure I can do this." This expresses anxiety so nervousness.
Okay. The next expression is, "I'm struggling with noun phrase." "I'm struggling with noun phrase." This is quite similar to the first one from this lesson. Grammatically, it's a little bit different. So, I am struggling. Struggling. So, and in fast speech, it sounds like struggling. Struggling. But, struggle-ing, struggling. We don't say in fast speech, it sounds like "struggling." "I'm struggling with noun phrase." So, this is in the progressive form, paired with this "I am." So, that means, this is happening now. "I'm struggling with," present perfect tense. Or, "I'm struggling with work." So, this means something is happening now, and it's very difficult for me. So, this sentence sounds quite general. Like, "English is difficult for me," or "Exercising is difficult for me," something that I'm not good at doing or it's hard, I don't feel very good at it.
This one in the progressive tense sounds like something now. So, this is the situation may be at work recently, the last few weeks or so. "I'm struggling now with work." Or, "I'm struggling with," present perfect tense. Like, "We've been studying this in my English lesson, and I can't get it. Ah!" "I'm struggling with," present perfect tense. So, it sounds like this is kind of a temporary problem, temporary challenge, temporary struggle. But, it's like just the thing that's happening right now. So, it doesn't mean forever. This sounds like something that's longer term. This sounds like something happening now. Also, the difference between challenge and struggle, "challenge" generally has kind of a positive feel about it. So, a challenge is a good thing. Like, you want to challenge yourself. "Struggle" sounds like it's negative. "Ah! This is a struggle." "Ah! this is really hard for me."
Okay. Let's go to the next one. "I don't understand noun phrase." "I don't understand noun phrase ." This is excellent to use in any lesson that you ever take. Not just in an English lesson, not a language lesson. But you can use this in any lesson ever, "I don't understand noun phrase." "I don't understand this word," "I don't understand this grammar." Or if you go to another class like a painting class or something, you could say, "Ah, I don't understand this idea," whatever. You can also change this to past tense. "I didn't understand something." So, like, "I didn't understand what he said," or "I didn't understand our homework." So, you can change this to past tense to talk about something that was difficult to understand in the past. This means, right now, "I don't understand this word right here," "I don't understand this grammar." So, if you want to talk about some past point that was confusing for you, you can use "I didn't understand the homework," or "I didn't understand the lecture." So, please keep this point in mind, past tense and present tense.
Okay. This next one expresses a lot of anxiety and nervousness. "I don't know what to do." I don't know what to do. So, this expression is usually used at the end of a list of problems. So, for example, "Oh, I lost my job and I don't have money to pay my rent, and my family is out of town. They can't help me. I don't know what to do." So, this means, "I don't know what the next step should be." We use this when we're like very upset, and we feel like we have no options, or we don't know the next thing to do. We don't know the next thing we should do. So, this expresses like very upset feelings, so maybe sadness. It could be, sometimes, maybe embarrassment, it could be anger, maybe too, or frustration. But very negative emotions here. "I don't know what to do." This one is like is more like less confidence. "I'm not sure I can do this you feel anxious or not confident in yourself. This one is more for like sadness, "I don't know what to do." Okay. So, these are, these expressions, for sharing your nervousness or talking about challenges and struggles.
On this side of the board then, is ways to talk about challenges and struggles in a positive way. So, first, "Noun phrase was a huge challenge." "Noun phrase was a huge challenge." For example, "That test was a huge challenge," or "The marathon was a huge challenge." You'll notice in this sentence, I'm using past tense. So, "was," not "is." This means that this noun phrase is finished, it's done. It's finished, like we're done with it. We're not working on it anymore. It's over. So, "That test was a huge challenge." So, we're using "challenge" here. It sounds like it was difficult, but it was okay. We probably would not use "struggle" in the same way. Because, "That test was a huge struggle," sounds more negative. "Challenge" sounds kind of positive, "struggle" sounds more negative. So, "That test was a huge challenge," "That test was such a struggle." You might hear that. It sounds much less positive than "challenge." Same thing with the marathon, "The marathon was such a struggle." It sounds like it wasn't fun, it wasn't a good experience. "Challenge" sounds like it was a positive experience.
Okay. Let's continue to this next one. "Subject has overcome many struggles." "Subject has overcome many struggles." So here, "subject," usually, we'll use this expression when we're talking about another person. For example, a famous person. Like an author, or an artist, or maybe actor/actress, someone who has a famous story. And this "overcome many struggles," means that person had many struggles. So, negative challenges in his or her life. Overcome, "to overcome something," means to do something in order to get past it. So, I have this struggle, but maybe I work hard and I can go past my struggle. I can move forward. I can go to the next step to overcome something, so to go beyond that struggle. So, we'll often use this with he or she. "He has overcome many struggles," or "She has overcome many struggles." You could say this about yourself, I suppose. "I have," in this case, we need to conjugate the verb. "I have overcome many struggles," you might say that, too. But you might hear this when we're when listening to an interview with the famous person or when talking about a famous person perhaps.
Okay. Let's look at the next one. "Noun phrase was a struggle, but I got through it." "Noun phrase was a struggle, but I got through it." So, earlier, I talked about how "struggle" has that negative feel compared to "challenge." So, here, I'm using "struggle," because I want to emphasize it was negative, it was really hard. Like, "I was not happy about it." However, "but" -- and then, here, the mood improves. "But, I got through it." "I got through it." So, "I got through it," means I finished something, I was able to complete it, I was able to do it. So, at native speak, I might say something like, "My exam was a struggle, but I got through it." So, that shows that, "Yes, it was really hard. I didn't like it, but I finished it." So, there's that balance there, of down and upward feelings.
Another example: "Getting certified was a struggle, but I got through it." So, it sounds like, "Yes, I had this thing that I didn't like. However, I completed it." So, that's another way that you can express, like a little bit of positivity and some negativity with your word choice here. You could use "challenge," if you want. Like, "My exam was a challenge, but I got through it." So, that sounds a little more positive than "struggle." So, the contrast here is not as strong. It's like you're sharing two things that are very similar in these parts of the sentence. But, you can, if you like. I feel that "struggle" is a little bit better of a word choice here, personally.
Okay. Last two are just a couple of ideas -- a couple of maybe expressions you might hear from time to time. First, "It's okay to struggle sometimes." "It's okay to struggle sometimes." So, this is a common idea that not everybody is perfect always. So, it's very normal to "struggle," to have a difficult time sometimes. So, you might hear, "It's okay to struggle sometimes." It's okay to struggle sometimes. So, don't worry. You might hear this, if you express something like this or like this to a friend. You might say, "I'm not sure I can do this," or "I don't know what to do." And your friend might say, "It's okay to struggle sometimes." Like, "Let's look at the next step," or "Let's look at what we can do." The last one is a very common one. This is used a lot for school children, I feel. "Challenge yourself." "Challenge yourself." So, that means make choices, or try to do things that are a little difficult for you, but that are positive. Why? Like, to help you grow, to help you move to the next step. So, we say this as well like in language learning. Like, don't just do the easy thing always. It's important to challenge yourself to do the things that are a little bit difficult so that you can grow. You can go to the next level. So, challenge yourself. This is a very common expression for anyone growing and learning.
So, these are some expressions that you can use to talk about challenges, and struggles, and expressing difficulty in your life. As well as, to express getting past that difficulty. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye!

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