This mini episode teaches you the phrase “comfort zone.” What does it mean, and how do we use it?
Episode 206 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use the phrase “comfort zone.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, everyone. This is Gamze from Izmir, Turkey. And you are listening to Everybody ESL podcast.”
Welcome to episode 206 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
The expression I’m going to teach you today is comfort zone. Comfort zone. That’s comfort— c-o-m-f-o-r-t. Zone—z-o-n-e. Comfort zone.
What is a comfort zone? Comfort zone means “the place where you feel comfortable” or “the kinds of things that you are comfortable doing.” Before I talk about this phrase, I want to make sure that you understand the parts. First of all: comfort. Comfort means “the feeling of being comfortable or relaxed.” And zone means “area.” So, when you put those two words together, you get comfort zone: “the place where you feel comfortable or relaxed.”
Let me give you an example of a situation where we might use the phrase comfort zone. Let’s say I have a friend who has always wanted to be a singer. But she is also shy, and she does not like singing in front of people. One day, she decides she is going to take singing lessons. And she says to me, “I thought it was time for me to step out of my comfort zone.” I thought it was time for me to step out of my comfort zone. In other words, she is saying, “I thought it was time for me to leave the area where I usually feel comfortable.” “It was time for me to do the kind of thing that makes me uncomfortable.” “It was time for me to do the kind of thing that makes me nervous or the kind of thing that feels like a special challenge.”
In this example, my friend’s comfort zone would be something like singing only for herself, or singing only when she is by herself, or not singing in front of other people. Not taking singing lessons so that she can perform. But she decided to leave her comfort zone. She decided to do something new and different that makes her feel uncomfortable. Something that is difficult for her.
When we use the phrase comfort zone, we almost always use it in a prepositional phrase such as “in my comfort zone” or “in her comfort zone” or “in our comfort zone.” Or “out of my comfort zone” or “out of her comfort zone” or “out of his comfort zone”. . . I think you get the idea. We almost always use it in one of those two prepositional phrases: “in the comfort zone” or “out of the comfort zone.”
And now that you know the phrase comfort zone, maybe you can try to do something that is a little bit out of your comfort zone.
Outro
And that’s the end of episode 206 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Gamze recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye. I’ll see you soon.