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I stumbled upon this in this video. It is at 6 minutes and 16 seconds.

The next type of akwardness is maybe one of the most common and this one that you want to turn around when you don't know what to do in a conversation.

I guess it means to prevent, but I am in doubt because none of the dictionaries I checked it with doesn't give the definition.

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  • It's new to me as well, Dmytro, but in context it appears to mean to deal/cope with, to handle or to overcome. Sep 24, 2019 at 19:03
  • Where did this sentence come from?
    – ColleenV
    Sep 24, 2019 at 19:24
  • ColleenV: From the video in the question section Sep 24, 2019 at 19:33
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    First, turn around is not a phrasal verb. It's a verb followed by a preposition. Second, the sentence doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe because it's not actually grammatical. I believe it should be and this is one that you want to turn around. But even given that, there is context that's missing. It's probably talking about turning the awkwardness around (for example, positive thinking is the ability to turn awkwardness into confidence), but I'd need to read what came before this sentence (and what comes after it) to know for sure. Sep 26, 2019 at 2:54

1 Answer 1

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First off, Hollywood types may have such limited cognitive function that trying to learn English from them is about as useful as listening to baboons. Their primary skill is in memorizing words that someone else wrote.

Second, this video is trying to pander to those who are socially and verbally insecure by discussing a performer whose routine is to act as though she has three functional neurons. (I suspect the performer is socially brilliant and very clever, but her act is to appear socially inept in ridiculous ways.)

Third, spoken English frequently requires high levels of interpretation. People speak as they think, and, without an opportunity to parse their words carefully, their utterances frequently do not make literal sense.

The topic of this video is how to carry on an extended phatic conversation. The point is that each party must give a basis for the other party to make a response, to provide the other party an opportunity to make an obvious and socially innocuous rejoinder, to "turn the conversation around."

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