Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases JOIN THE CLUB and MIND IF I JOIN YOU?

In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase, join the club. "Join the club," is kind of a funny thing that we say when someone is having something happen to them that isn't enjoyable, and we're experiencing the same thing. So here's a good example. This morning, Jen said, "Oh, I'm really tired. I didn't sleep well." I could respond and say, "Join the club." It's like we're pretending there's a little club for people who didn't sleep well. You could have someone say, "Oh, my boss is really mean to me all the time," and you could respond by saying, "Join the club. My boss is not a very nice person, either." So when you say, "Join the club," there's no actual club. A club is a group of people that meets because of a certain topic or a certain thing, but you kind of pretend there is. So if someone says, "Oh, it's really cold out here and my hands are freezing," I could say, "Join the club."

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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is, mind if I join you? "Mind if I join you?" is a polite way of asking if you can sit with someone. Maybe, let me think here. When I eat lunch at work, sometimes there are some teachers sitting at a table, and there's an extra chair there, and when I walk up with my lunch, I say, "Mind if I join you?" because they might be having a meeting, and they might not want other people to sit with them, or they might just be having a relaxing time, eating their lunch, and I could say, "Mind if I join you?" and the response from them would probably be, "Sure, have a seat," or "Yeah, no problem. Have a seat." So when you say, "Mind if I join you," you're simply asking if you can sit with people, and we usually say this when there's an empty seat and there's already people there, and we're wondering if we can sit there.

So to review, "Join the club" is a funny phrase we use. When someone is having something not so good happen to them, and we have the same experience, we might say, "Join the club." And if you say, "Mind if I join you?" it's something you say when you see people sitting somewhere at a table, and there's an extra seat, and you're wondering if you can sit with them, so you would say, "Mind if I join you?"

Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. If I seem out of sorts today, it's because it is cold today. You can tell by what I'm wearing that it's really cold. So let's look at a comment. This is from Qiu Park, and Qiu Park says, "Your sunglasses are really cool," and my response is, "Thanks. I can't remember where I bought this pair, but they have served me well." So I wanted to talk, first of all, Qiu Park, thank you for leaving that comment, and then I do want to talk about the phrase, I'll just... I can't get this in my pocket, 'cause I have my big gloves on.

I'll talk about the phrase, "Served me well." In English, when you say something served you well, it means that you bought something and it worked for a really long time, and it was worth the money you paid for it. So my camera that I'm using has served me well. I bought it used a few years ago. Every time I go out to make a video, it works really well. It has served me well. These sunglasses, they have served me well.

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Jim G. Tobias

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