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.