Learn English with Bob the Canadian

Learn the English Phrases "to have a field day" and "a day off"

Learn English with Bob the Canadian

Show Notes

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to have a field day. When you say someone or a bunch of people are going to have a field day, it means they're going to be really excited and eager and, really looking forward to doing something. I'm sorry, I'm having trouble explaining this one for some reason. Maybe because I'm doing this lesson in the morning. But here we go. Let's say that in the World cup, they found out that the referees were being paid money to decide the outcome of the games. The journalists would have a field day with that information. The people who write news articles would be super eager and excited to interview people and to find out the true story. By the way, this isn't a true story. I'm pretty sure the referees are very impartial and a good judge of the game. But if there was a scandal in World cup, there would certainly be a lot of reporters who would have a field day researching the story and writing about the story and talking about the story. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase a day off. Happy Canada Day. It's Canada Day here in Ontario, Canada. I guess it's Canada Day in the whole country. And I have a day off now. I'm a teacher, so I kind of had the day off anyways. Notice I switched to the there. When you say a day off, you're talking in general I have a few days off during the school year. I have a few days off during the school year. But if I was to be working now, I could say I took the day off today because I'm going to celebrate Canada Day. So, anyways, a day off is a day where you don't need to work. So to review to have a field day is to be really excited to do something. When Jen feeds the ducks or the chickens, they have a field day eating all of the food. But when she first puts it in their little area. And then the second phrase, a day off is simply to have a day where you don't need to work. In Canada, you get a day off almost every month. It's kind of cool. I hope your country has the same. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Vitor. I remember you mentioned a book called Project Hail Mary a while back. I'm actually reading it now. I'm not sure if you recommended it during a live stream, but either way I'm reading it. Thank you, Bob. And my response? You're welcome. I'm glad you are reading it. It's a great book and as a bonus, it's also a great movie. If I were you, I would read it in English and then watch the movie in English. A great way to study. So thank you, Vitor, for that comment. Yeah, that's great. That's a great movie. Great book, great movie. Andy Weir is the author. I highly recommend that you, read more of his books as well. I think Jen's waiting to drive away. You can drive away. She doesn't, she doesn't want to make noise while I'm making a video. So I do appreciate her concern. But as you know, we live on an active farm. There are things happening. Every once in a while you're going to hear somebody doing something in the background of one of my videos. So you might be thinking, Bob, you just said you have a day off and now Jen is going out to work. Well, farmers don't often get a day off. Both Jen and I will be doing quite a bit of work, later today. It's simply the way it goes when you are a farmer. Plants don't stop growing. Animals need food to eat. And so when we take a day off, we usually get one of our kids to do all the work for us. And we are planning to do that a couple of times this summer. We might take, next week, Friday, we might take the day off. And, I think there's another Friday towards the end of the month. We might take that day off as well. Anyways, thanks for watching. You guys are awesome. I hope you don't mind this one being a little late. Instead of making it on a Tuesday, I'm making it on the actual Wednesday, that it comes out. So if you're seeing this, it was just filmed at 7:58am and there is a mosquito biting me.

More from Learn English with Bob the Canadian

Oct 13, 2026

In this English lesson, I'll help you learn how to talk about the things you're thankful for! It's Thanksgiving Day here in Canada, so I thought it would be a great time to teach you some natural English sentences and phrases you can use to express gratitude. In this lesson, I'll share four things I'm thankful for: my family, my health, my teaching job, and all of you who watch my English lessons! As I talk about each one, you'll hear real examples of how to use phrases like I'm thankful for, I'm thankful that, and I'm happy that in everyday English. What are you thankful for? You can use my sentences as examples to help you talk about the people, experiences, and little things in your own life that you're grateful for. Thanks for watching, thanks for learning English with me, and happy Thanksgiving from Canada! 🍁

Oct 11, 2026

In this English lesson, I'll help you learn how to talk about stunts, tricks, and dangerous behaviour in everyday English. Do you know what it means to pop a wheelie, to peel out, or to do a burnout? What about to drift, to catch some air, or to lay rubber? In this English lesson, you'll learn over 20 common English phrases used to describe exciting stunts, crazy tricks, and dangerous behaviour! In addition to the phrases above, in this English lesson you'll learn words and phrase like: to tailgate, to brake check, to cut someone off, to weave through traffic, and to swerve, launch mode, launch control, to rev the engine, to slam on the brakes, to roll coal, to fishtail, to roll a vehicle, to wipe out, and more. I'll explain each phrase in simple, easy-to-understand English and give you example sentences so you can start using these expressions in your own conversations. I'll also be sure to provide a picture to help you remember the meaning. Thanks for watching this English lesson about Fast and Furious vocabulary! Have a great day!

Oct 7, 2026

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "track record." When you refer to someone's track record, you're talking about how they've performed in the past. As a teacher, I think I have a good track record when it comes to doing my job well. I've done this job for almost 30 years. Wait, has it been 30 years? It's certainly been a long time, and I think that when you do something that long, you must have a good track record. If they look at how well I relate to students, how well I grade the work that they give me, my consistency year to year. I think I have a good track record. So, track record is a phrase we use to describe past performance of a person at a job or at a place where they're volunteering or anything that they are doing. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to get sidetracked. So, this has the word "track" in it. I I try to keep the phrases related. When you get sidetracked, it means you're not doing what you're supposed to do. A common goal for students in a classroom is to get the teacher sidetracked. I remember when I was in grade six, no, it might have been grade five, we had a teacher where if we asked him questions about what it was like living in the Netherlands when he was young, he would get sidetracked and instead of teaching math, he would talk about growing up in the Netherlands. He he got easily sidetracked. I sometimes get sidetracked as a teacher if students talk to me about farming. I love talking about farming. I don't have a lot of students who live on farms, so sometimes I get sidetracked if they ask me about farming. So to review, if you have a good track record, it means you've done well as a politician, as a teacher, as a worker, as a manager. It simply means that over time you've been doing a good job consistently, and to get sidetracked means to get off topic, to talk about what you're not supposed to do, or to do what you're not supposed to do when something else important needs to be said or done. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Vladimir. Bob, you have a unique memory. I've been watching your videos for five years now, and there are no repeats in them. I don't recall YOLO ever being used before. And my response, I'm sure there are a few phrases. I've covered twice or maybe even three times, but other than that, I think my track record is pretty good. So thanks, Vladimir, for that comment. And I used the phrase track record there just so you could have another example of me using the phrase. Well, hey, during my live stream this past Saturday on my other channel, the geese were very, very loud. So I'm going to walk down there right now, and you won't be able to see them too well. But you'll be able to see them in the distance. Let me turn and give you a bit of a view. There are some geese in the river, but there's actually more geese on my field, and I hope they're not eating the newly emerged wheat. I don't think the wheat is actually out of the ground yet, but you can see. Let me see if I can point right there. There are some geese in the river and right there, there are some geese, who I think are eating soybeans. When the combine comes and combines the crop, sometimes some of the crop does fall on the ground. That's not, you can't really prevent that. And so often, geese will come, and they're either eating the soybeans that fell out of the combine, which is the harvesting machine, or there might be some wheat laying on the ground from the planter. Whenever you lift the planter at the end of the field as you're planting, a little bit of wheat, or other seeds fall out depending on what you're planting, so they might be eating that. But yeah, a beautiful fall day here in Ontario, Canada. The leaves are just starting to turn. If you look way in the distance, well, if you look at these trees, you can see a bit of yellow. But we're not in full on fall yet, but it's definitely close.

Oct 6, 2026

✅ If you need help while learning English, Preply is a great way to find an English conversation partner who will help! Use this link: https://preply.sjv.io/R03XAa to get 50% off your first lesson or use code BOB50 at checkout. In my experience Preply is a great way to take your language learning to the next level! Are you making progress with your English? In this English lesson, you'll learn 12 common phrases that English speakers use to talk about improving, learning, and reaching their goals. You'll learn phrases like "to make progress," "to get the hang of," "to come a long way," "to stay on track," "to catch up," and many more. Whether you're getting back into learning English, trying to improve your speaking, or simply want to keep moving forward, these phrases will help you talk naturally about progress in English. Thanks for watching, and I hope this lesson helps you take your English to the next level!

Sep 27, 2026

In this English lesson I’ll help you learn useful words and phrases for describing damage and wear. These are common English words you can use when talking about things that are old, broken, damaged, or simply showing signs of regular use. You’ll learn words like scratched, scuffed, dented, cracked, chipped, torn, ripped, frayed, worn, worn out, faded, stained, rusty, corroded, peeling, flaking, warped, bent, dull, blunt, loose, stretched, crushed, smashed, shattered, and more. As always, I’ll have a slide for each word with a definition, a picture, and an example sentence to make the meaning clear and help you remember it. I hope you enjoy this English lesson about damage and wear, and I hope it gives you some useful new vocabulary for describing everyday things in English. Have a great day, and thanks for watching!

See all episodes →