Summary

When you haven't chosen a piece of authentic English to explain what do you do? Listen to this programme and see if there's a phrase about taking a chance and hoping things will turn out OK.

Transcript

Feifei
Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, I'm Feifei…

Rob
…and hello, I'm Rob. Now Feifei, I've got a confession to make…

Feifei
OK, so what is this confession?

Rob
Well, I haven't chosen a piece of authentic real English to explain today.

Feifei
Oh. Do you have any choices?

Rob
Well here is the list of phrases… have a look, what do you think?

Feifei
Hmmm, let me see…. Shall we take 'pot luck'?

Rob
'Pot luck' – So you mean one at random and see what happens?

Feifei
No, I mean let's pick 'pot luck' as a phrase – look, it's there on your list.

Rob
Feifei you are a genius. You have just explained an authentic English phrase – job done.

Feifei
Don't sound so surprised!

Rob
Well our phrase is pot luck which describes a situation in which one must take a chance that whatever is available will prove to be good or acceptable.

Feifei
Yes, pot luck describes a situation that isn't planned or prepared, you just take a chance and hope that the result will be good or acceptable. Let's take pot luck Rob and hope these examples will show this phrase in action…

Examples
We didn't know which restaurant to eat at, so took pot luck and chose the one recommended in the guide book.

If you can't decide which book to pick, take pot luck, I'm sure they'll all be good to read.

I'm going to take pot luck, and I'm sure the course I choose will be the right one for me.

Feifei
So if you take pot luck at something, you take a chance that whatever is available will prove to be good or acceptable. It's a bit like presenting this programme with you Rob!

Rob
Not exactly Feifei – I am the only presenter available so you don't get any choice about who you present with – there is no luck involved.

Feifei
True – that's not pot luck, that's bad luck – is that on your list of phrases?

Rob
Let me have a look… no, but next time let's choose our English phrase before we come to the studio so we won't be taking pot luck anymore.

Feifei
Yes let's. See ya.

Rob
Bye.