50. Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Useful and natural vocabulary and expressions on the subject of Waiting and Being Patient.

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Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Welcome back to Luke’s English Podcast. This is Luke, and this is the long awaited next episode! I expect some of you have been waiting for the next episode to be uploaded. Well, here it is! Proof, surely, that good things come to those who wait.

In fact, that is what this episode is about; waiting and being patient. I’m going to teach you some useful words and expressions on the subject of waiting.

Here are the expressions I will be teaching you. First I will list them, then I will talk and use them in context. You will have to listen to the podcast to hear me give definitions and explanations.

Vocabulary and expressions: Waiting and being patient (23 items of vocabulary)

Good things come to those who wait
Persevere
Stick at it
Don’t give up
Keep going
It’s worth it in the end
Hold on
Hang on
Hang in there
Hold tight
Hold your horses
See how things go
Wait and see
Bear with me
All in good time!
Don’t be impatient
I’m looking forward to it/doing it
I can’t wait for it
I can’t wait to do it
Don’t hold your breath
An anticlimax
To queue up for something
To hold out for something

Here are the expressions in context. Listen and notice the expressions. You can read and find them here too:

They say that Good things come to those who wait, and I’m sure it’s true. If you have the patience to wait for a long time, eventually something good will come to you. For example, if you’re looking for Mr Right or Mrs Right – if you want to get married, it’s no good if you just marry the first person you meet. You need to be patient until you find the right person for you. If you’re starting a business, you might need to persevere before you get success. Success might not come immediately – if you think you have a good business idea, just stick at it and eventually success will come along. Good things come to those who wait – patience is a virtue! So, if you’re waiting for something, don’t give up – keep going! This is true for learning English – it is a long term thing. You can’t get big success in a short time, you have to stick at it. Keep listening a lot, keep studying, keep taking risks with English. It is worth it in the end. You’ll improve in the long run. There’s no short, quick solution to learning English, unfortunately. So, if you’re impatient to become a fluent speaker, keep practising and hang in there. Hold on, hang on and hold tight – you’ll get there in the end if you keep trying. Sometimes students ask me what their English will be like in 3 months time, or 6 months time. I usually say – if you work hard and have the right attitude, you could make a lot of progress, but I can’t really predict the future – you’ll have to just wait and see. Sometimes my students are so keen to improve that they ask me to give them extra work to do after school (don’t worry – I have plenty of students who are happy to do nothing after school!) and usually I have to say “OK, I’ll have to go into the teachers’ room to photocopy something for you. Just bear with me, I’ll be back in a few minutes”.
Sometimes if my students do a test in class, they want to know their results immediately, but they have to wait until I’ve checked their answers. “Can I see my score please Luke?” They say. “All in good time! I haven’t checked your tests yet! Don’t be impatient!” I might say.
Often at school, the students work pretty hard and they just want the weekend to come so they can go out and enjoy themselves. They might say “I can’t wait for the weekend!”. Some students get tired of living in London because they’re homesick, and it’s cold here and the food isn’t very good. They might say something like, “I’m really looking forward to going back to my country”.
Sometimes, teachers at my school organize trips out of class (e.g. to interesting places in London). The students often look forward to these and say things like “I can’t wait for the trip into London”, but I might say “Don’t hold your breath! – it might not be that good. It might rain or something, and that would spoil the trip, wouldn’t it?” There’s nothing worse than building something up, expecting it to be great, and then it being an anticlimax in the end.
Some students think that the British are naturally patient people because we seem to enjoy queueing up for things. They always see people standing in lines at ATM machines or outside theatres. Perhaps it’s true – maybe we are quite patient. I think we like to queue up because it makes life easier. Who wants to live in a place where people push and shove and don’t respect each other?
So, are you finding this episode useful? I know some of you have been holding out for this one for a while. I hope it is what you expected, and not too much of an anticlimax.

That’s it. You’ll have to listen to the podcast in order to hear my explanations and examples of the 23 items of vocabulary listed above.

You can also hear me chat with English Robot 3000.

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Hang in there!