Hey there everyone!<\/p>\n
I was studying Japanese today, and it got me thinking about the toughest part of learning a language. I had a bit of a writer’s block about how to begin this little blog today. Nothing was coming to me, and I nearly threw in\u00a0the towel\u00a0with intentions of trying again another day.<\/p>\n
Then, the phrase that you can see in\u00a0the title of\u00a0this little article hit me: holding someone back.<\/p>\n
This is one of\u00a0the most literal phrasal verbs. By that, I mean that it’s straightforward to imagine\u00a0the actual meaning of this phrasal verb when you look at\u00a0the literal meaning of\u00a0this phrasal verb as well!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you look at this literally, ‘hold someone back’\u00a0means to restrain or stop someone from doing something.<\/p>\n
For example,<\/p>\n
He held his sister back, before she jumped into\u00a0the pool.<\/em><\/p>\n In this situation,\u00a0his sister<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>was about to jump into\u00a0the pool, but he stopped her by\u00a0holding her back<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, this phrase can be used for more<\/strong> than just physical actions. That’s right, it can also refer to other reasons why someone is reluctant to start or do something.<\/p>\n For example, here\u2019s another example using this phrase:<\/p>\n What\u2019s holding you back from starting to study English?<\/em><\/p>\n Looks like a complicated sentence, I know!<\/p>\n However, let\u2019s focus on the meaning of What\u2019s holding you back~?<\/em><\/strong> here. When it\u2019s used with a non-physical action, hold someone back <\/em><\/strong>means to cause someone to hesitate to do something. So, you could also phrase this sentence as:<\/p>\n Why are you hesitant to study English?<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s right! It\u2019s a Why~?<\/em><\/strong> question.<\/p>\n For the longest time, this question applied to me and Japanese. However, I finally found the answer.<\/p>\n Well, that might not be completely accurate. There was something holding me back, but it was easy to stop. I was holding myself back! I had no excuse for not studying. Not only that, but once I started studying, I really, really <\/strong>enjoyed it. In my opinion, this holds true for all languages, since they are incredibly practical<\/strong>. While I do have my degree in science, I freely admit that, at least initially, it\u2019s not that easy to see the connection between the theories that you learn and the real world. That\u2019s because the study of science, in most cases, describes things we cannot see. While chemistry is all around us, from the batteries in our phones to the food on our plates, the actual study of chemistry lies beneath the physical manifestations of the reactions, and instead focuses on the activity occurring at the particle level! This is a double-edged sword when studying. In the beginning, it\u2019s difficult to see the connection between what you are studying, at the particle level, and what is actually occurring around you. However, the reward that you get when you finally connect all these different theories, and then test them out in the lab and physically see the results of your efforts, is momentous!<\/p>\n For languages, it\u2019s the complete opposite. Although you do learn theory and grammar, you can use these rules to communicate at once, and use your language to discover new things! So, what\u2019s holding you back from reaping the immediate rewards of English?<\/p>\n Learning English is immediately rewarding. And, although it might seem like you don’t have any opportunities to learn, there are <\/strong>opportunities out there, both online and in the real world! The sense of satisfaction that I get from using a new Japanese phrase in the real world is without parallel, and it\u2019s a feeling that everyone should have. With over a billion English speakers in the work as well, you have infinitely more opportunities to use that new English phrase as well!<\/p>\n So, nothing should be holding you back!<\/p>\n And, if you’re holding yourself back, ask yourself \u201cWhy?!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n See you on\u00a0Fruitful English to reward yourself\u00a0with some\u00a0English!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey there everyone! I was studying Japanese today, and it got me thinking about the toughest part of learning a language. I had a bit of a writer’s block about how to begin this little blog toda…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[72,30,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-2017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-information","8":"tag-motivation","9":"tag-30","10":"tag-33","11":"article cf"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/iStock-943301044.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6072,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions\/6072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘hold someone back’\u306e\u4f7f\u3044\u65b9\u2461<\/h2>\n
\u50d5\u306b\u97ff\u3044\u305f\u8a00\u8449\u3001”What’s holding you back?” \u306f\u3001\u81ea\u5206\u3078\u306e\u554f\u3044\u3060\u3063\u305f\uff01<\/h2>\n
Nothing!<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n
You!<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n