Hey there, this is Teacher Ola Podcast episode 15: Learn English With Music: Michael Buble ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’. Lyrics explained.
My name’s Ola and I am an online English teacher, I teach through one to one classes.
This podcast is for you if you’re an English learner who wants to speak English with more confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. You’ll boost your vocabulary, brush up your grammar, improve your pronunciation. Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello again, thank you for showing up. It’s so great to have you here! As you may know, this is the fourth episode in which we dive into song lyrics. This time it’s gonna be a bit different because I decided to give you an opportunity to repeat each line of the song. Additionally, I prepared some explanation and extra example sentences for you to repeat. It’ll help you to gain more confidence, and basically that’s the goal here. Lines of this song will definitely help you to speak better because they are everyday phrases, and they are very useful.
‘Haven’t met you yet’ by Canadian jazz singer Michae Buble was inspired by his fiancee then and wife now as Michael admitted in one interview. Michael Buble said he had met her while she and he had been involved in different relationships. She didn’t speak English, there was every reason not to try to start something new. Yet they did. That’s what the song came from.
The song is relatable to all single people who dream about meeting Mr Right or Mrs Right. It’s about this mindset of being completely sure that somewhere there someone special waits for me. I’m going to meet this ‘someone’ one day, I know it is going to happen, I just haven’t met them yet. Jazz singers basically don’t reach high positions on billboard chart, yet this song appeared on the Top 30. Norah Jones achieved that too with the song ‘Don’t Know Why’ in 2003.
Are you ready to learn some English with Michael Buble? Ok, let’s do so!
Repeat each verse after me.
Let’s begin with the title.
“Haven’t Met You Yet” and don’t sound like a robot here. It’s not ‘Met you’ but ‘met you’. I haven’t met you yet.
I’m not surprised, not everything lasts
I’ve broken my heart so many times I stopped keeping track
Talk myself in, I talk myself out
I get all worked up then I let myself down
Now, let have a look at some structures here, shall we?
‘Not everything lasts’ Not everything can exist forever or longer, some things have to disappear, stop existing. Here, I think he’s talking about the relationship. This relationship has come to an end.
To break someone’s heart. That’s what usually happens with hearts. They get broken. It’s a strong collocation, you don’t crush your heart, you don’t crack it. It’s break. Break – broke – broken. A broken heart.
To keep track – to have information about what is happening with something or where somebody/something is. The opposite to keep track is to lose track of sth. Let’s practice sentences. Listen and repeat:
Bank statements help you keep track of your finances.
She lost all track of time.
I talk myself into – I persuaded myself to do something. Let’s practice in sentences:
I didn’t want to swim there but Ana talked me into it.
I talk myself out – It’s clearly the opposite of I talk myself into. Let’s repeat sentences:
She tried to talk him out of leaving.
I talked him out of running a marathon.
Ok! Let’s move on. Next interesting phrase in this verse was ‘to get worked up’.
I get worked up – to get excited or maybe upset about something. Repeat:
Don’t get so worked up about it, it’s not going to happen.
To let somebody down – to fail to help or support somebody as they had hoped or expected. Repeat:
I expected you to help me out, but you left. You let me down again.
Next verse, line by line, repeat after me:
I tried so very hard not to lose it
I came up with a million excuses
I thought of every possibility
To try hard – to do your best. ‘Hard’ in the line of the song, was exaggerated here by ‘so’ and ‘very’ in one phrase, so very hard. Repeat:
You have to try harder next time.
Next:
To come up with something – to find or produce an answer or money. Repeat:
She came up with a great tip for me.
How soon can you come up with the money?
Next verse, let’s read it out loud, shall we?:
And I know some day that it’ll all turn out
You’ll make me work so we can work to work it out
And I promise you kid that I’ll give so much more than I get
I just haven’t met you yet
It’ll all turn out – don’t separate it! I know you want to. Say it as it is, contracted: it’ll. Just like: she’ll, you’ll, they’ll. It’ll turn out – it’ll happen, develop in a particular way.
You’ll make me work – it’s just my interpretation but I guess, it’s about the fact that he’s broken so now he’s not working. Like a broken machine. She’ll make him work. Operate, function again. The verb ‘work’ has a few meanings, but I think this one makes perfect sense here. You’ll make me work, so we can work to work it out. Three meanings of one verb in one sentence.
To work out – has got two meanings. To train the body by physical exercise. That’s the first meaning. Repeat:
I never work out at the gym.
The second meaning is – to develop in a successful way.
My first marriage didn’t work out.
Ok, and the other example.
Things have worked out quite well for us.
I haven’t met you yet – I don’t know you, I haven’t had a chance to meet you. Present perfect. Next episode is all about ‘yet’ and ‘already’ so tune in for some grammar in TOP episode 16.
Next verse, please! Let’s say it out loud:
I might have to wait, I’ll never give up
I guess it’s half timing and the other half’s luck
Wherever you are, whenever it’s right
You’ll come out of nowhere and into my life
I might have to wait -might – a modal verb. I don’t know now, but I might wait. It might happen tomorrow or in the next 2 years, but I’m prepared for it, for waiting. I’m patient.
To give up – to stop trying to do something. Repeat:
They gave up too quickly.
Never give up easily.
I give up—tell me the answer.
Give up has a few meanings. Check them out in a worksheet. Worksheet 15 is available at teacherola.com/15.
I guess it’s half timing and the other half’s luck – so, half of the success of a happy relationship is the right timing, so finding a person in the right time. The other half is just pure luck, you can’t do much, you have to wait for the stroke of luck.
Next verse, repeat line by line:
And I know that we can be so amazing
And baby your love is gonna change me
And now I can see every possibility
Amazing – this word is very common. It means:incredible, outstanding. Don’t put ‘very’ before ‘amazing’. You can’t say that something or somebody is ‘very amazing’. You can say ‘so amazing’ or ‘really amazing’.
Gonna – going to. Useful when you’re speaking, and useful when you’re speaking fast and useful when you listen. When you listen to native speakers because they use gonna all the time, so you have to get used to this word. Don’t pronounce it ‘gonna’ though, there’s no /o/ sound, there’s a schwa sound instead: ‘gonna’.
Next verse. You know what to do, right? Let’s do that.
They say all’s fair in love and war
But I won’t need to fight it
We’ll get it right and we’ll be united
All’s fair in love and war – it’s a proverb, and in Polish, it sounds similar: ‘w miłości i na wojnie wszystkie chwyty dozwolone’. But he doesn’t agree with this, he doesn’t want to use any tactics to achieve his goal.
To get something right – to do something correctly or to understand something correctly. Repeat:
Did you get it right?
Let me get this right, you want me to go with you?
To be united – to be joined together.
Well done on repeating all the phrases and sentences! Now, please let me know if you like Buble’s music. Do you like this song? Have you met the right person yet? Go to teacherola.com/15, leave a comment there and download a worksheet, practice some more.
If you know someone who likes learning English and enjoys good music and has a language barrier – let them know about me.
Thank you for being here, come next Wednesday. I’ll talk to you about some grammar element. We’ll have a closer look at tricky words: ‘yet’ and ‘already’. Till then, take care. See you really soon, happy learning. Bye bye!