Learn English – What kind of rain is “sprinkles”

I am no expert, but it sounds to me like his first language is a European one. His pronunciation of some words is similar to people from the Balkans or other Eastern European nations. Spain is a wild card. There's a hint of Irish in there too, but it's not full-on. The clues for me are:

"Strategies", (0:40), Spanish, Bosnian, Croatian?

"Skimming", he pronounces it skee-ming."Beginning",too (0:51); bee-gee-ning.

"look" - pronounced thickly, similar to Irish maybe?

"tell us" (2:40), slight Irish inflection?

"about luck" (2:43), an Eastern European inflection?

"ok" (2:47), Spanish inflection?

Most of his oks sound like how a Spanish person would say them.

"daily situation" (2:57), very close to a Bosnian inflection.

If you ever find out, do let us know.

Apologies to the Spanish, Irish, Bosnians, Croatians and anyone from Eastern Europe if I've got it wrong.:-)

This meaning of 'lift', the range of meaning that includes "a rain lifting", is part of a much larger montage or (if only we knew enough to see the connectedness of the whole) tapestry of meaning that might be said to explain any one use. The range of meaning that includes rain lifting also includes all atmospheric phenomena that increase visibility as they cease: darkness itself lifts, as does snow, hail, fog, smog, etc. So also are curtains and drapes 'lifted' when in fact they may only be moved aside.

The continued application of 'lift' to describe the cessation of atmospheric phenomena that increase visibility as they decrease testifies to the primacy of appearance as a driver of meaning. So, we say "the rain lifted" for much the same reason the 'solstice' (from "sōl sun ... + participial stem of sistĕre to stand still", OED Online) is called the solstice: on that day, to an observer from the limited perspective of earth, the sun appears to stand still. The rain that 'lifts' does appear to vanish into the gradually revealed sky...and an Old Norse word meaning 'sky' ("Old Norse lopt air, sky = lift n.¹" op. cit.) is a source of the first attested uses of 'lift' in English. In those uses the original meaning of 'lift', that is, 'the air, atmosphere, sky', a sense now mostly obsolete, is preserved:

lift, n.¹
....
Obs. exc. Sc. and poet.
The sky, upper regions; †in early use also, the air, atmosphere. Also pl., the (seven) heavens.
OE Beowulf 2832 Nalles æfter lyfte lacende hwearf.
c1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 146 Romane him..worhton eorþ hus for þære lyfte wylme & æternesse.
OE Maxims II 39 Fugel uppe sceal lacan on lyfte.
c1175 Lamb. Hom. 79 Of þe uisces iþe wetere and fuȝeles iþe lufte.

["lift, n.1". OED Online. December 2015. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/108135 (accessed January 03, 2016).]

The foregoing explanation, while complete in itself, discounts the virga effect by relegating it to a secondary role in the continued use of 'lift' to describe the lifting of rain. This is because, while the virga effect applies to rain, it does not apply equally to darkness lifting, or the lifting of hail, sleet, or other atmospheric phenomena. The virga effect does, however, apply uniquely to rain, and may partly explain the continued use of 'lift' to describe the cessation of rain.

Simply, the virga effect, and 'virga' itself, names this phenomenon:

virga, n.
....
2. Meteorol. Streaks of precipitation that appear to be attached to the undersurface of a cloud and usually evaporate before reaching the ground.

Raindrops, as it happens, start large in the clouds but, due to evaporation, diminish as they fall, and especially so in dry air. The raindrops also disperse as they fall, and so many rain showers appear lighter at the lower levels than the upper levels when viewed from a distance. In very dry air, it is common to be able to see in the distance a rain shower that vanishes altogether before reaching the ground. As such a shower gradually shrinks and ceases, then, the rain appears to lift into the cloud that produced it, disappearing from the bottom up, rather than the top down.