Jump through hoops

Jump through hoops 무엇을 성취하기 위해) 고생을 하다

Jiaying
Welcome to The English We Speak. I'm Jiaying…

Rob
…and I'm Rob. In this programme, we have an expression to use when we want to say something is difficult to achieve - because there are things preventing us from reaching our goal. The expression is 'jump through hoops'.

Jiaying
'Jump through hoops'. It's metaphorical language. We wouldn't actually jump through a hoop to achieve something, would we?

Rob
No, we wouldn't. But imagine if we actually did have to jump through hoops – that would be very difficult. And that’s the sense of this expression. What we mean is you have to do something difficult to get to the result you want. Furthermore, the effort involved is often unnecessary – the process is just made more complicated.

Jiaying
Right. So, you mean there's really no need to jump through the hoops to achieve the end result. A bit like trying to get a refund for my airline ticket – I had to talk to so many departments before I got through to the right person.

Rob
It can be frustrating, Jiaying. I had to jump through hoops trying to get a loan from the bank – there were forms to fill in, paperwork to find, appointments to attend.

Jiaying
Well, we’re not alone. Listen to these people who had to 'jump through hoops'…

Examples
I had to jump through hoops to get the shop to fix my new laptop. They claimed I had broken it!

I really want to buy a new car, but I’ve got to jump through hoops to get a loan from the bank.

He had to jump through hoops to get you a ticket for the match, so I hope you appreciate it.

Jiaying
This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we're looking at the expression 'jump through hoops', which means to have to do lots of difficult and sometimes unnecessary things to achieve something.

Rob
Yes, it can be challenging and frustrating – like you trying to get a refund for your airline ticket. Did you succeed?

Jiaying
I did, Rob. I jumped through lots of hoops but got the result I wanted. How about you – did you get your loan?

Rob
Sadly not - despite jumping through lots of hoops! But hold on, now you've got your money back from the airline, maybe you could lend me some money?!

Jiaying
Well, Rob, you'll have to jump through more hoops to get my money – the first one is to make me a cup of tea!

Rob
OK, bye for now.

Jiaying
Bye.