In this mini episode, you will learn the expression “the middle of nowhere.”
Episode 472 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the expression “the middle of nowhere.” 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 472 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 expression. The expression is “the middle of nowhere.” The middle of nowhere.
That’s the middle, m-i-d-d-l-e, of nowhere, n-o-w-h-e-r-e. The middle of nowhere.
Where is the middle of nowhere? What does this expression mean? The middle of nowhere is what we call any place that feels very far from everything. It feels very far away from other people. It feels very far away from houses and neighborhoods and everything like that.
It feels like it is far away from anything interesting or important. If you are someplace that feels far away from all of the important things, and far away from many people, and far away from many things to do, and if you don’t like being in this place, you could refer to it as the middle of nowhere.
When you think about this expression, you can think about a place that is very far from everything. It’s even far from the border of this place called nowhere. You’re not even close to the edge of nowhere. You’re in the middle of it. You really are as far away as you can be from people and interesting and important things.
Here’s an example of a situation where somebody might use this expression, “the middle of nowhere.”
“I was driving in a new place when my car suddenly broke down. My car wouldn’t work. It completely broke down. I couldn’t even get a signal on my cell phone. I was in the middle of nowhere.” In other words, “I was far away from everything. I was far away from people and cell phone towers and everything. I was in the middle of nowhere, far away from any place I wanted to be.”
You might also hear people who grew up in the countryside refer to their homes as in the middle of nowhere. They might say, “I grew up in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive two hours to go to the nearest movie theater. I needed to ride on a bus for an hour to get to my school. It was the middle of nowhere.”
If someone said that, I would imagine that they did not have a very good opinion of the place where they grew up. I think they are saying that where they grew up is far away from everything that is important and interesting. They grew up in a place that is almost like no place. It’s kind of just nowhere. Not only that, but it is the middle of nowhere. It’s far away from everything.
We use “the middle of nowhere” to describe any place that feels far away from where we want to be. It feels far away from anything that is interesting or important or comfortable or active and full of interesting things and people.
That is “the middle of nowhere,” an interesting expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 472 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!