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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 137. The noun phrase today is hot

  • potato. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says something is a

  • hot potato or someone is a hot potato, it is usually a difficult issue that

  • people try to avoid talking about usually because there is a lot of

  • controversy around it. Okay. Let's continue.

  • Hot potato is a noun phrase derived directly from an older idiom which is

  • still used today. The idiom is to drop someone like a hot

  • potato, which basically means to leave or

  • abandon someone quickly especially because he or she is trouble or too

  • unpleasant. Okay. Good. Let's continue here. The reasoning behind hot potato is that a

  • cooked potato is very hot to the touch. So if you touch it with your hands it's very

  • hot. It almost burns your hand and potatoes remain hot longer than other food

  • because of their water content. Because of the water that's in it and thick skin. So the

  • combination of thick skin and the water content lets the potatoes stay hot a lot

  • longer. The idea is that if one had a hot potato in their hands he or she does not

  • want to hold on to it too long and would want to pass it on to another person as

  • quickly as possible. Here you take it. No you take it. No you'll take it. Kind

  • of like that idea. All right. This is also directly connected to a children's a

  • game called "hot potato" that involves passing an object usually a beanbag. Like

  • a small beanbag of course on as quickly as possible to another player while the

  • music is playing. If a child is caught holding the object

  • when the music stops, he is out. It's very similar to another game that

  • we've often played like musical chairs. Where everybody walks around these

  • chairs and when the music stops everybody sits down and usually they

  • always took one chair away so one person will end up not being able to sit down

  • that person is out. So it's a very similar idea to that. Okay. Let's continue here.

  • And we got three examples. Okay. Example number one. If a politician is in a swing

  • state. You know , sometimes it can go for one party, sometimes he could go for the

  • other party. That's what we mean by a swing state. He often tries to avoid

  • controversial topics such as abortion gun control etc. like a hot potato

  • because no matter what he says, he's going to probably make somebody angry,

  • because those are some more controversial topics. Now if he was in a

  • state where obviously one party you know easy the for against that he could

  • speak that way you know, more freely or more easily because he knows the

  • majority of people would probably still vote for him. But if he wants to try you

  • know, to get some people like independents or in-between, he might be careful. He

  • wants to you know, he treats those topics like a hot potato. He tries not to to

  • touch them or get involved in them at all. All right. Number two here. We

  • especially use like the idiom his new girlfriend started acting controlling

  • and demanding , so he dropped her like a hot potato . Like oh no she's too much

  • trouble. Goodbye. Or number three here. That

  • athlete used to be a big supporter or maybe even a sponsor for that company

  • but after the scandal broke they dropped him like a hot potato or he became a hot

  • potato and they had to get rid of him. Yeah. Because suddenly he became

  • controversial. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it, I hope it was clear. I

  • hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 137. The noun phrase today is hot

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英語家庭教師ニックP 名詞句 (137) ホットポテト (English Tutor Nick P Noun Phrase (137) Hot Potato)

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    anitawu12 に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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