In this mini episode, you will learn the expression “fishing for compliments.”
Episode 418 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the expression “fishing for compliments.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, this is Lucas, from Chile. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 418 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 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
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting phrase. The phrase is “fishing for compliments.” Fishing for compliments. That’s spelled f-i-s-h-i-n-g, f-o-r, c-o-m-p-l-i-m-e-n-t-s. Fishing for compliments.
What does it mean to fish for compliments?
To understand this phrase, let’s look at the end first. Let’s look at that word compliments. Do you know what a compliment is? A compliment is a nice thing that you say about somebody. If you praise somebody for something, then you are giving them a compliment.
For instance, if you say to somebody, “You are so smart,” that is a compliment. Or if you say, “You are such a good soccer player,” that is also a compliment. And it’s also a compliment if you say, “You are very good at your job.”
All of those are examples of compliments, nice things that you say about somebody.
And you probably already know what it means to fish—or sometimes we would say “to go fishing.” To fish means “to try to catch a fish.” But in this expression, “fishing for compliments,” we are using the word fish or fishing in a slightly different way. Instead of meaning “to try to catch a fish,” we use it to mean “to try to catch compliments, to try to make someone say nice things about us.”
Let me give you an example of something that someone might say if they are fishing for compliments, or trying to get other people to give them compliments, trying to get other people to say nice things about them.
If I am talking with a friend about another friend of ours, and I say, “Oh, he is such a good singer. I don’t think anybody thinks I’m a good singer, too. He is just so much better than I am. I practice so much. I try so hard to be a good singer. But he is just so much better than me”—if I say that, I might be hoping that somebody will contradict me. I might be hoping that somebody will say, “Oh no! You are a very good singer, too. Yes, he’s a good singer, but so are you. Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself. You are a great singer!”
And sometimes when people talk this way—when they are fishing for compliments, or trying to get or trying to receive compliments—other people will react that way. They will give them compliments.
Of course, sometimes it can be very annoying when people fish for compliments or when they go fishing for compliments. But anyway, even if it can be annoying, this is what we call that kind of behavior.
When people are trying to get other people to say nice things about them, we call that “fishing for compliments.”
And that is “fishing for compliments,” an interesting and useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
And this is the end of episode 418 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Lucas recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!