Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Introduction
Hi, Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better@English.com. In today’s conversation I’m joined by my friend Yvette, who is a freelance writer specializing in screenplays. Her educational background is in American Studies, and she’s just an all-round energetic and creative person. I hope you’ll find her a welcome addition as my conversational partner here.

Our conversation today is about perfectionism and procrastination.

Conversation Transcript

Lori: Yeah, I was thinking that, that it would be fun to talk about perfectionism a little bit and about being a perfectionist and how horrible that is, and how it…and how it can really hinder you from…
Yvette: Being productive…
Lori: Yeah, being productive and moving forward with things that you want to do.
Yvette: Yeah.
Lori: Indeed I know it’s something that I struggle with a lot and that I’ve thought about a lot, and I know in the past we’ve talked about it from time to time, so…
Yvette: Yeah.
Lori: But, perfectionism as we all know and love it…
Yvette: Or hate it! It’s terrible!
Lori: Yeah!
Yvette: Well, it makes you not very productive. I mean, I just finished a text yesterday and I spent a lot more time on it than I should have… knowing that I wanted it to be absolutely perfect.
Lori: Mmm hmm.
Yvette: And I knew at some point…I just gave up, I, you know I just gave up and thought, “Well, it’s a lost cause,” even though I’m sure it’s fine, but err, you just give up.
Lori: Yeah, that’s good when you’ve actually already started working on something…and you’re working on it…err, that you can set a deadline for yourself, maybe, and say, “Okay, now I just can’t mess with it anymore; it has to be finished.” But what I find the most insidious and really destructive thing about perfectionist tendencies is that they can keep you from even getting started with something.
Yvette: Okay, the procrastination.
Lori: Yes. It’s very closely tied in with procrastination, I find
Yvette: Yeah. Yeah, there’s just two things that can happen. You know, you could be suffering from fear of failure or fear of success, one of the two. And err, you know, if you’re successful then you’re going to deal with, like, an additional amount of information that you need to process later on, and if you’re not successful you’re just a loser.
Lori: Yeah, exactly.
Yvette: At least that’s what I have.
Lori: Yeah, I find that, err, for me this idea of perfectionism… it’s not so much about striving to be perfect, it’s more like you’re, you’re constantly beating yourself up about things never being good enough.
Yvette: Yeah, that’s the problem. That’s pretty neurotic.
Lori: Yeah, it’s not that…I mean…you know intellectually that nothing can be perfect and nothing I do can be perfect…but…it’s, it’s… So you know that on an intellectual level, but somehow it’s like you’re still struggling with this idea that “Oh, but it’s not good enough,” or “I’ve not got all the information I really needed to make the perfect start.”
Yvette: That, that is usually the problem that I come up with, is you think you have all the information but you don’t, and then you start looking for more and more, and while you’re looking for all this extra information you’re just, well forget it, you’re not going to make it.
Lori: Yeah, seven hours on Wikipedia later…
[Laughter]
Yvette: Right.
Lori: You find you’re looking at something completely unrelated to what you started out with…
Yvette: Right. Right, that is the biggest issue is that you start looking for other information and then you discover 15 other things that are maybe also relevant or important, or maybe not, and by the time you’re done you figure out that, “Oh, that’s totally not what I needed to do.”
Lori: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Yvette: This is so unimportant, or that… you know, I remember in school that I, err, handed in a paper and it was so good and so well done he’s [the teacher] like, “This is way too much work for what was really required. So why did you do all this work?” I’m like, “Well, it had to be good, right?”
Lori: Yeah. Right. Right.
Yvette: So, you spend a lot more time working on something that another person might just dismiss more quickly, and nobody notices anything that’s wrong.
Lori: That’s the thing that…I find that a lot of the things that you worry about a lot qualitywise or things that are important to you, when you think about it oftentimes those things.. other people aren’t even going to notice those things.
Yvette: That’s right.
Lori: You know, the things that you’ve worked so hard on, the little details that are so important to you…and then other people don’t even notice, and then you can wonder “What’s the point?” and “Why spend so much time on all these little things?”
Yvette: Yeah, or you see someone else’s texts or something, like, some…you know, as a writer, you read about stuff and there’s all these errors in it, and I’m thinking “Is there really a… does it really bug me so much that this is happening; is it really a problem for me that there are all these errors there?” And I’m thinking, “I don’t really think that this person is doing a bad job,” I may think, “Ooh, that’s shoddy,” but oh well. You know.
Lori: Yeah, yeah.
Yvette: I’m not as harsh on other people’s work as I am on my own, I think, or I hope.
Lori: I know for me I’m harsh on my own, but I’m pretty mean and vicious about other people as well…I think maybe that’s why I’m so worried about what people will think about my own things, because I’m so horrible and vicious [laughs] myself.
Yvette: [laughs] you will destroy them all. Oh, yeah. Now I used to, I used to correct people all the time when they made errors…
Lori: Uh huh…
Yvette: Just because, you know, I knew. I just know… “You just made an error…ha ha!” Look at me being all clever. And they hate you for that, so…
Lori: Yeah, people really don’t appreciate unsolicited correction.

Final Words

Okay, that wraps up today’s Real English Conversation. We’ll continue with this topic in the next episode. Before I sign off, I just want to thank all of you who have emailed me this past year asking when new episodes would be posted. It feels really great to know that there are listeners out there who look forward to each new episode. Unfortunately, I can’t promise to post episodes as frequently as you might like because of my other time commitments. But you can be sure that I’ll do what I can to give you as many new episodes as possible for 2010! Bye for now!

Vocabulary

(Please download the pdf for full vocabulary notes)

moving forward – to move forward
from time to time
at some point – point (1)
a lost cause
mess with – to mess with something
procrastination – to procrastinate
tied in – to tie in with, to tie in to
loser
beating yourself up – to beat oneself up
neurotic
make it
totally
dismiss
qualitywise – the -wise suffix
point (2)
bug – to bug someone
shoddy
harsh
unsolicited

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Perfectionism and Procrastination 1

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Introduction
Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from betteratenglish.com.

In today’s conversation, which is part four of four, my British friend Michael and I wrap up our lengthy conversation about the pros and cons of dogs, dog ownership, and dog owners. Warning: some of the vocabulary we deal with in this episode is a bit vulgar, so if you are sensitive or easily offended I suggest you stop listening now.

As always, you can find the vocabulary notes and full transcript of this podcast on our website, www.betteratenglish.com.

OK, here we go!

Conversation Transcript

Lori:   And some people… I swear, you know, dogs I think are great. It’s dog owners that can be just really lame sometimes.
Michael: Mmm. Mmm..
L:   There’s a forest outside where I live here, where I like to go running and walking and…people, it’s a great place. I don’t see many people, but there are a lot of dog walkers who like to go there as well.
M:   Yes.
L:   And they don’t want to keep their dogs on a leash a lot of times. They let their dogs kind of run wild, and a lot of them don’t really have control over their dogs.
M:   Right, right.
L:   And the dogs can be quite aggressive sometimes. But then, dog owners are really weird. Sometimes they are so protective of their dogs and they think their dogs can do no harm.
M:   Oh dear.
L:   So they actually get angry at you, walking along telling you that, “Oh, it’s because you’re afraid, that’s why he [the dog] is acting like that.” And it’s like…
M:   “Of course I’m afraid. He’s a giant dog with slavering fangs.” Yeah.
L:   Running up barking at me, not looking friendly. Of course I’m going to be afraid, you know? And I don’t think it’s my responsibility as, you know, a person wanting to use the jogging trail — that it’s my responsibility to tailor my behavior to the comfort of dog owners, because it actually is their responsibility to keep their dogs on a leash, unless they have, you know, total control.
M:   I completely agree. I was going to say, do your remember the time I was over in Sweden, and we were having a picnic in the park. And there were the young teenagers that were there, and they had a dog with them. And the dog was running loose, and the dog was coming over and sticking its nose in our picnic bag. And you had to tell these folks, “Excuse me…your dog…?” They where oblivious to the whole thing.
L:   The dog was just doing what dogs do.
M:   He was looking for food.
L: Yeah, of course, he is going to be interested in food. So it is up to owners to make sure they keep their dogs under control when they’re, you know, in the public space.
M:   Exactly.
L:   It is not up to, you know, the other people there to deal with the dog. I think.
M:   You know, we shooed the dog away, more then once.
L:   But he kept coming back.
M:   Well we had some good chow!
L:   Oh we did. Oh man, those pies that Sabina had made! Oh, my god! That is really annoying when dog owners are inconsiderate and don’t understand that it’s really their responsibility to make sure their dog is under control.
M:   Right, yeah, it is part of the responsibility of being a dog owner, I think.
L:   Exactly. And I’m sure…most are fine. Most people do a good job, but it’s the few people who are idiots who kind of spoil it for everybody else.
M:   Sure. It gives the dog a bad name as well. I mean, if you have a few bad encounters with a dog that’s having trouble it can put you off.
L:   Exactly. And that can also…if, you know…there’s some people who are deathly afraid of dogs, who don’t, you know, who have a hard time with obviously friendly dogs.
M: Oh goodness! I was terrified of dogs when I was a little boy. Absolutely terrified. And that was just through a couple of dogs that lived locally. There was a house that I had to walk past on the way to school, and there were these two dogs that would, they would bark and they would run at you. They weren’t tied up either.
L:   Yeah. I think every kid has a house like that, or memory of a house like that, from when they were walking to school. I know I do.
M:   Right! It’s something that sticks with you for a long time.
L:   Yeah, because when you’re little, you know, I was walking to school on my own…I think from the time I was in first grade. So I would have only been five or six years old! Because it wasn’t far, it was only a few blocks and it was quiet, residential streets, so I walked to school by myself or with the little neighbor kids. But when you’re that little, a big dog is really big and really scary. And you haven’t…you’re not aware enough to tell the difference between a dog that’s just running up to inspect you and check you out and a dog that is really, actually aggressive.
M:   Right.
L:   So it’s really scary.
M:   Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I think it can stay with you for a long time as well.
L:   Yeah.
M:   And I guess some people never… in fact, my sister is still very, very scared of dogs, you know? And she’s nearly 40. She was like that when she was a child and she just never got over it.
L:   I have to say I’m wary of dogs. Little dogs, it’s no problem because even if they were horribly aggressive you could always just kick them like a football. And you’d be OK.
[laughter]
L:   But it’s the big dogs, you know, dogs that weigh as much as I do. Those, those can be quite scary.
M:   That would be hard to tackle, a dog like that.
L:   Yeah. And just…its going to be much more serious being attacked by a dog like that than by some little yappy terrier trying to bite your heels, you know?

M: Ankle biters. [laughs]
L:   [laughs] Yeah, ankle biters. Isn’t that a slang word for kids? Ankle biters…
M: I don’t know. I guess, maybe.
L:   Or like an informal colloquial word, for… Like the word “rug rats“, we have the word rug rats in American English for kids, which I think is a horrible word. But yeah, ankle biters, I think I’ve heard that before as sort of a disparaging term for little children.
M:   Well, maybe that’s not something you should use for a little dog then, I don’t think.
L:   No, it’s very descriptive though, little ankle biters! Ankle nippers!
M:   Well you could go further, “crotch sniffers.”
[laughter]
L:   Crotch sniffing dogs are the worst! Oh my God, oh I hate crotch sniffing dogs!
[laughter]
M: There is some film I remember seeing with some kid complaining about some dog. His parents say, “What’s wrong with the dog?” This poor little kid balefully cries out, “He is a crotch sniffer!”
[laughter]
L:   I know. I have seen the same film, but I don’t remember which one it is. But it’s funny…Crotch sniffers are…it’s so embarrassing. I know it is just what dogs do. They sniff each other’s, you know, nether regions.
M: They clean each other’s nether regions.
L:   Oh no, let’s not go there! I want to keep this one clean!
M:   OK.
L:   That is just what dogs do. That and the ones that hump your leg. That is so embarrassing especially when you’re over at someone’s house.
M: Especially when they won’t let go.
[laughter]
L: They latch on and won’t let go.
M:  Shaking, shaking your leg. And then… [laughter]
L: Yeah and oh, that’s so embarrassing because you know everyone is thinking about sex at that point. I mean you can’t have a dog humping your leg without people at least momentarily, you know, everyone is thinking about doing it. That just makes it so embarrassing.
M:  Right.
L:   It’s such a delicate situation.
[laughter]
M: Oh dear. Right. Yeah. Yes. It’s difficult to remain cool.
L: When a dog is humping your leg!
M: Trying to look cool and dangerous when there’s a dog humping away at your leg. Yeah.
[laughter]
L:   Yeah. Oh my god, that’s such an embarrassing situation… Anyway I think we’ve reached the point where, again, it can only go downhill from here.
M:   OK. Let’s quit where we are!

Final Words
Thanks for listening. This concludes our four-part series on the good, the bad and the ugly of dogs, dog ownership, and dog owners. We’ll be back again with a new episode as soon as we’ve had time to record some juicy new topics. We welcome requests from our listeners, so if you’d like to request a topic just visit our website, www.betteratenglish.com, where you’ll find everything you need to get in touch with us. This is Lori from BetterAtEnglish signing off until next time. Bye for now!

Download vocabulary list for this podcast

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Don’t step in the dog doo (4 of 4)

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from betteratenglish.com. In today’s conversation, which is part 3 of 4, my British friend Michael and I continue our discussion on dogs and cats, focusing on the way that human beings tend to get emotionally attached to their pets. As always, you can find the full transcript and vocabulary notes on our website, www.betteratenglish.com. OK, here we go!

Conversation transcript

Note: words in bold are covered in the vocabulary list.

Lori: Well, do you…you don’t have a dog now though, right?
Michael: No, not personally, no.
L: Would you consider getting a dog?
M: Well, that’s a good question. I mean, I do love dogs. But they really are a commitment and a responsibility, of course. And that isn’t to be taken lightly. But…
L: A lot of people do, a lot of people…especially in the States. People here in Sweden seem to treat their dogs much better overall than people in the States. But you see…I’ve seen the most horrible things back in the States. People get a dog and, you know, they’re all excited about it at first, and then they just, you know, the novelty wears off…
M: Right.
L: And the poor dog just spends its life out in the back yard chained up somewhere, barking its head off, and…
M: Right.
L: You know, that’s really sad.
M: Now that’s a real shame, that’s a real shame.
L: Yeah, yeah…
M: But I think that… this is kind of a morbid thing, but, you know, dogs die.
L: Yeah.
M: You know, their life expectancy is, what is it—about, maybe about ten years, depending on the breed?
L: Yeah.
M: And that’s something that, you know, you’re a lot more likely to go through that… and if you have another dog, you know, it’s something you’re going to be experiencing several times in your own lifetime, and that’s traumatic, if you, you know, regard the dog as a family member.
L: Yeah, you do get quite attached to your pets.
M: Yeah, oh yeah. So, you know, I mean a friend of mine, her dog died just recently, and that was terrible.
L: Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.
M: That was really bad; you know, I mean the dog was 18 years old, I mean, it was a very long-lived dog. But, you know, that’s…for her it was half her life, you know, so a terrible trauma to go through. So I’d rather not go through that, you know, I think?
L: I don’t know. I think the benefits of having a dog, I mean, as long as you can handle the responsibility and have, you know, a good place for the dog…I don’t think, you know, a German shepherd or a Great Dane would do very well in someone’s tiny little apartment.
M: No, for sure.
L: But as long as you can handle that, I think the benefits of having a dog would outweigh the sorrow of when the dog finally, you know, gets old and dies. But I guess everyone is different. I would love to have a doggy, I really would. A small one. A little one.
M: OK, but aren’t you allergic to dogs.
L: Yeah, that’s why I can’t have one! I’m too allergic and also I’m not really sure my life is organized enough to be fair to a dog, or that it would fit in with my…with my life.
M: Is that because you don’t have a regular schedule for things, or…?
L: I don’t have a regular schedule and sometimes I do work really, really long days and I wouldn’t be able to take the dog with me, so I’d have to leave it locked up in my apartment all day long. And, you know, the poor thing, you know, it would need to go to the bathroom or would just be lonely. I’d have to leave it alone so much that it just wouldn’t be fair.
M: Right. It would probably tear the place up. I think, yeah.
L: Because they are social animals, you know. They’re pack animals so they really don’t do well when left all alone for long periods.
M: Right. Right.
L: So it’s rather cruel. But I would love to have a little doggy, a little Border Terrier.
[laughter]
M: Oh yeah.
L: Yeah, but I would worry about getting a purebred dog because sometimes they’re so inbred that they’re completely crackers, and completely free of all intelligence.
M: Yes. I know what you mean. Yeah.
L: I think mutts are generally much more robust and tend to have better personalities ’cause of the…they have a much more varied genetic makeup.
M: Right. Right. Well that’s what they say when it comes to genetics that you should be spreading the genes apart and not…
L: Hybrid vigor!
M: There’s a good reason why you’re not allowed to marry members of your own family.
L: Yeah. Yeah.
M: Let’s tell the British royal family that.
L: Oh, no! Naughty!
[laughter]
M: Well they’re all related on some level or another you know.
L: Oh my god. Yeah. Oh I don’t want to be dissing the royal family so we’d better not go there. Seriously, I would love to have a cute little doggy that I could take with me everywhere…

[This conversation will continue in part 4 of 4]

Download the vocabulary list here.

Final Words
That’s all for today. We’ll be back soon with part four. If you found today’s topic interesting, we’d love to hear your comments. You can leave a comment at our web site, www.betteratenglish.com, or e-mail us at info@betteratenglish.com. Bye for now!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Don’t step in the Dog Doo (part 3 of 4)

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from betteratenglish.com. I’m traveling abroad this week so I have had to edit this show on my laptop. There is no theme music today because I forgot to bring my music files with me. But I figured that having no music is better than making you all wait until I get home before I post this episode.

In today’s conversation, which is part 2 of 4, my British friend Michael and I continue discussing dogs and cats, and which we prefer. As always, you can find the full transcript and vocabulary notes on our website, www.betteratenglish.com. OK, here we go!

Conversation Transcript

Note: Words in bold are explained in the vocabulary list.

Lori: Well anyway, we’re digressing. Enough about dog poo. What do you think the best thing about doggies is?
Michael: Well, it’s difficult to say any one thing. But I like the kind of nature and the relationship that dogs have with their owners. And they are generally interested. And they are genuinely affectionate — or they can be — genuinely affectionate to their owners, which is something that I really don’t see in cats.
L: Yeah, cats are interesting. They’re interesting. It’s hard to know where you have a cat.
M: Uh huh.
L: I mean, if a cat is coming up and rubbing against your legs and being what looks like affectionate, it’s like, are they really…?
M: Right. [laughter] That’s called cupboard love.
L: Cupboard love. Yeah, are they really just in it for the food? Or are they really…? You know, ‘cause dogs — I agree with you — dogs really can seem to be genuinely affectionate towards their owners. I mean, the best thing in the world has to be coming home, when you left your dog at home for a few hours, and you come home and your dog is so happy to see you. And you’re the best person in the world and it’s just the most exciting thing ever that you’ve come walking through the door.
M: Right.
L: One of my favorite sayings is “I wish were the person my dog thinks I am.”
M: Aww. Yeah. I know what you mean.
L: Because they just think that you’re just the best thing ever, and every time.
M: Well some people can be like that too.
[laughter]
L: Yeah, but not every time.
M: No. Maybe not.
L: I mean, seriously, with dogs it’s, like, every time. You only have to leave them for 20 minutes and then come back and they’re just all over you ‘cause they’re so…just…overwhelmed with happiness.
M: That’s true. Yeah. Without fail. Without fail.
L: Yeah it’s fantastic.
M: You know I like that. The interaction you can have with a dog. They really want to play. And yeah, that’s just… I’m a dog person.
L: Yeah…I think…I like cats too. I know we differ about that, but I do like cats. But I would have to say I feel more affinity towards dogs.
M: Well, I like kittens. You know?
L: Oh kittens! Don’t even get me started on little kittens.
M: Kittens… well yeah they like to play and they’re full of mischief. They can be fun. That’s before they turn into cats and that’s when it all goes horribly wrong for me.
L: Oh, yeah. Kittens are just the cutest thing. And…but cats like to play too. You remember Janne and Ozzie’s cat, with the laser pointer. What fun we had.
M: Yeah, that was a lot of fun, yeah.
L: Yeah. Cats go absolutely crazy if you have one of those laser pointers and taunt them with it.
M: Yeah, but…the thing is though, they’re trying to kill it.
L: [laughing] Yeah, that’s true again!
M: That’s the problem. While we’re going, “Aww, that’s so cute.” But the cat is thinking, “What is that little creature? I’m going to kill it and eat it.”
L: Exactly. [laughing] And, no, “I’m going to catch it and toy with it first and then I’m going to kill it.”
M: Right, yeah. “I’m going to toy with it until it dies of a heart attack and then I’m going to eat it.”
[laughter]
M: You know, “Tear it apart and bring its entrails to my master.”
L: Exactly. Yeah, that’s a funny thing that cats do. I don’t know if that is just anthropomorphizing, you know, when you want to, kind of, impinge human qualities onto animals. People tend to say that, if their cat has been out in the garden and killed a bird and left it inside the house, that the cat has left them a “present.” And I don’t know if the cat is just saving it for later…or something…you know, why does it have to be a present?
M: It’s bringing it to you saying, “Hey, can you stick this in the fridge for me?”
[laughter]
L: Exactly. “I want to save it for my dinner.”
M: That’s the reason. It is because the cat can’t open the fridge, that’s why.
L: When I used to have cats, I used to find dead birds and things in my room that the cat had…you know…killed and left under the bed…and…that’s kind of unsettling.
M: Yeah, that’s not so much fun.
L: Yeah, that’s horrible. Well, you don’t have a dog now, though, right? You personally.
M: No, not anymore…

Final Words

That’s all for today. We’ll be back soon with part three. If you found today’s topic interesting, we’d love to hear your comments. You can leave a comment at our web site, www.betteratenglish.com, or e-mail us at info AT betteratenglish DOT com. Bye for now!

Download transcript and vocabulary list.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Don’t step on the dog doo (2 of 4)

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to a new episode of Real English conversations from betteratenglish.com. I hope you’re all enjoying the summer. One of the typical summer pastimes in the USA is playing baseball. There’s even a saying that goes something like this: “It’s as American as baseball and apple pie.” But today’s show isn’t about baseball or apple pie. It is about food, though. Weird food combinations, to be precise. And after listening to today’s episode, you might want to change the saying to “It’s as American as donuts and peanut butter and jelly!”

Before getting into the conversation, I want to thank the anonymous listener who sent us three books from our Amazon wish list last week. Whoever you are, I hope you hear this message so that you will know how happy the books made me. Thanks so much!
I’d also like to encourage our listeners to visit our friends at China232. China232 is a free conversational English podcast similar to ours and I really think you’ll like it. That’s www.china232.com.

OK, let’s get on with today’s conversation.

Conversation transcript

Lori: When I was over in the States recently, I was reading one of my mom’s magazines. And in that magazine I read about a new hamburger.
Michael: OK.
Lori: That…it really takes the cake, this new hamburger. You know, we’ve talked about junk food before, but this is amazing. It’s a big beef burger, and they put sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon…
Michael: What… Can I just stop you there? What is sharp cheddar cheese?
Lori: Sharp cheddar cheese? A sharp cheese is a cheese that has a strong flavor.
Michael: Ooh, OK.
Lori: So cheese can be mild or sharp.
Michael: Right.
Lori: You’d think that the opposite would be “dull,” but you don’t talk about a dull cheese.
Michael: Or “blunt” cheese.
Lori: Yeah, a blunt cheese, right, exactly. Exactly. So sharp cheddar cheese. But anyway, back to the burger, it’s got…yeah, a big beef patty, sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon. And now here is the key.
Michael: Mmm, the bacon sounds good.
Lori: Yeah, but the key ingredient…the bun is actually a KrispyKreme glazed donut.
Michael: Uh huh.
Lori: Can you believe that? And it’s actually a baseball team, I think, the Gateway Grizzlies, it’s what they’re calling “Baseball’s Best Burger,” and they’re serving it at their baseball games.
Michael: Baseball’s weirdest burger, maybe!
Lori: Baseball’s most artery-clogging burger.
Michael: So you said that it was, the burger bun is a donut,
Lori: Mmm hmm. A donut, yes.
Michael: Is that, um, I mean, donuts are sweet though, aren’t they?
Lori: Yeah, it’s a glazed donut so it would be sweet. And apparently they cut it in half and toast it and use that as the bun on this burger.
Michael: That sounds horrendous.
Lori: It..I couldn’t…I thought it was a joke when I first read about it. I thought it must be a joke but apparently it’s true.
Michael: It really makes me wonder, you know, they have this, um this kind of, stereotype of American people being fat.
Lori: Right.
Michael: And I guess if, you know, they’re eating things like that whilst sitting down at the baseball game.
Lori: Yeah, sitting down watching other people do sports.
Michael: Exactly…that’s what I’m thinking, yeah!
Lori: Right.I just wonder, how would someone even come up with that, the idea of using a donut as a hamburger bun.
Michael: Well, there is something that you can, I mean, being an American you can tell me if this is true or not, I remember hearing about sandwiches that Americans like, and it’s peanut butter and jelly.
Lori: Well, that’s, yeah, that’s a classic kid’s sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly or even peanut butter and honey, you can have…
Michael: Well, what you call jelly, isn’t that what we [British English speakers] would call jam?
Lori: Yeah, jam.
Michael: So peanut butter and jam. So it’s the savory peanut butter, salty, peanutty tasting butter and something like sweet strawberry jam.
Lori: Yeah, but I guess it’s kind of like putting pineapple on your pizza. You know, some people think that’s just an aberration. But there’s something about the sweet, tart pineapple combined with the salty, savory ingredients of a pizza that is actually…I like it.
Michael: Well, I guess it’s like having gammon and pineapple, you know, the thick cut of ham which is also salty.
Lori: Yeah, or pork chops and applesauce.
Michael: Ah, right.
Lori: But you see, the thing is that in the States the peanut butter most people buy is actually slightly sweet anyway. It’s only natural style peanut butter that is just, you know, peanuts and salt with nothing added.
Michael: So how would you classify the peanut butter here in Sweden, that you and I eat? What’s…
Lori: Oh, that’s got sugar in it, definitely. It’s slightly sweet; if you just taste it on its own you can taste that it’s slightly sweet.
Michael: OK!
Lori: If you compare it with the taste of natural peanut butter that’s just peanuts and salt, you’ll really taste the difference and taste how sweet the normal peanut butter is.
Michael: I’m thinking, if you can combine something like peanut butter and jam, then combining a hamburger with a donut doesn’t seem so strange.
Lori: I’m sorry! I know what you’re trying to say, but just, even hearing you say that, just sounds so funny, “combining a hamburger with a donut.”
Michael: Well, yeah, it’s pretty loony.
Lori: Yeah, loony. I couldn’t believe that when I read that story in my mom’s magazine. But I went on the Internet and had a look, and there were people saying that it sounds disgusting and looks disgusting, but actually they were quite tasty, so what do I know?
Michael: I can’t even begin to imagine what it would taste like. You know, I have no frame of reference. My taste buds cannot picture it, you know, I have an image of a donut in my head and an image of a nice juicy hamburger with a couple strips of bacon on. And forget the cheese because I hate cheese as you know, but the hamburger with bacon, that’s something that…in fact we should cut this podcast short right now because I want to go to the store and get some bacon and some bacon and some hamburger because I’m getting hungry now.
Lori: Sounds like a plan, but let’s ix-nay on the donuts.
Michael: Right, yeah, Hold the donuts!

Final words
Thanks for listening to this episode of Real English conversations. And if you haven’t done so already, make sure to check out the show at www.china232.com. I’m sure you’ll like it! See you next time!

Vocabulary notes

takes the cake
(Informal American English) you can say that something takes the cake if it is something that you think is very surprising or annoying.
sharp
Sharp is a word to describe the strong taste of certain foods, such as cheese. Cheeses range from sharp (strong) to mild (not strong).
key
key (adjective) means very important
glazed donut
A glazed donut is a type of fried pastry covered with a thin coat (glaze) of sugary icing.
horrendous
terrible, horrible, extremely unpleasant
come up with
To come up with something means to invent it or think of it.
savory
Food that is savory is salty, meaty, or spicy, not sweet. In British English it’s spelled savoury.
aberration
An aberration is something that differs from the normal state of things, particularly the normal standard of morals or taste.
gammon
Gammon is also called ham. It is meat from the back leg of a pig, usually preserved with smoke or salt (or both).
loony
loony is an informal word for crazy, stupid, or foolish
ix-nay
Lori is using Pig Latin to play with the word nix. Nix is an informal word that you can use for negation (no, nothing, not, etc.).

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Weird food

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from BetterAtEnglish.com. My English friend Michael and I are back and ready to rock after our long-overdue vacations. In today’s conversation we talk about a fun electronic game that I found out about while on vacation in the States. But before we start with the conversation, I have a really cool tip for you. If you like what we do here at Better at English, you’re sure to enjoy Andrew and Addison’s ESL podcast at China232.com. Just like me, Andrew and Add are tired of the typical boring English learning material and podcasts, and have reacted by creating a fun and free conversational podcast. You can find it at www.china232.com. If you’re keen on improving your English in a fun and entertaining way, you definitely should check it out.

OK, let’s get on with today’s conversation. As always, you can find the full transcript and vocabulary notes on our website, www.BetterAtEnglish.com. Here we go!

Conversation transcript

M: Right, I mean, I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s the kind of thing that you know…you play this as a party game, “I’m thinking of something” and then get everybody to ask a question.
L: Right.
M: Isn’t that what you call “20 questions?”

L: Yeah, 20 questions.
M: OK.
L: And usually, I think at least when I played 20 questions with my students, the questions have to be “yes or no” questions.
M: Sure, yeah you can’t…umm…say, you know, “What color is it?” and you have to say “green” or “blue” or something like that.
L: Exactly.
M: But yeah, on this little thing, there’s a yes and a no button, and then…but also there’s a “don’t know” and a “sometimes” button, so umm…the kind of questions that this little thing will ask is something like…umm…well, it asks you, “Is it an animal?” or umm…“Is it a mineral?” or a vegetable or something, and…
L: Right.
M: And obviously you have to say yes or no.
L: Exactly. But it asks some kind of…some questions that are kind of hard to answer. Like if I’m thinking of a guitar, one of the questions might be “Does it bring joy to people?” And you know, a lot of people get really happy playing guitar or…
M: Yeah, or listening to guitar, yeah.
L: Right, but maybe it’s…it’s hard, so I guess for a question like that I would tend to put “sometimes.”
M: Well, yeah because…I mean my father, for example, hates it when I play the guitar. He really…[growls]…it drives him up the wall.
[laughter]
M: I like to think that that’s actually more to do with…umm…you know, my father’s…umm…dislike of guitar than my inability to play the guitar!
L: Yeah, let’s…
[laughter]
L: One can always hope!
M: Yes, that’s right.
L: Just kidding! Anyway it’s such a cool little, yeah, little gizmo and I was…the thing is that I think…if you’re going to try it, it’s really most impressive if it guesses the first thing that you think about. Because the first time I tried it, it was my little niece came up to me to show me this cool thing, and she said, “Here, it’ll guess what you’re thinking!” And I was thinking “Yeah, right” – like it’s really going to guess.
M: Right!
L: What I thought would be this really hard word — I picked “telephone pole” — And the darn thing guessed it!
[laughter]
L: I couldn’t believe it! I thought from the questions, you know, sometimes you can tell from the questions it asks that “Oh, oh –- it’s going to guess.” But from the questions it asked me I couldn’t understand how it could possibly know that I was thinking of a telephone pole.
M: Because you remember last night when we were…err…playing with it, and what was it that we had? Meerkat? That it got?
L: Yeah.
M: Then…errr…Sea horse
L: Yeah.
M: As well, I mean, that’s fairly obscure.
L: Yeah.
M: I mean, I have to say I did manage to beat it…
L: Uh huh.
M: I think…two or three times. One was “string.”
L: Oh, right.
M: It couldn’t get that.
L: Uh huh.
M: Let me think. The other one was “titanium.”
L: Right. I wonder if you…I mean, do you know enough about the properties about titanium to give it good answers?
M: I think so, yeah. I mean, it’s something that err…you know that’s…err…it…I’d be impressed if it picked any other kind of metal.
L: Uh huh.
M: I’d be thinking, “Well, it got pretty close.” But it…it didn’t get anywhere near, so…
L: OK right. OK. So it didn’t pick “platinum” or “gold” or something like that.
M: No. I have to say…How long have you had this thing? You got it when you were over…
L: In the States, yeah.
M: OK.
L: So I think I opened the package about 2 weeks ago.
M: OK –- have you tried guessing anything rude with it?
L: Yeah, we did. We took it camping with us, see…to help keep the little girls entertained, who were with us. And us too, I mean sometimes it’s…we couldn’t have camp fires where we were camping, so that makes for kind of long evenings when you can’t have the camp fire. And at one point after several glasses of wine, we did go through the rude words stage!
[laughter]
M: OK, I was just wondering, yeah.
L: Yeah, but I don’t think it has rude words in its database.
M: Well, I think there is a gap in the market there!
L: [Laughs]
M: For an adult version…
L: Right!
M: …of 20Q.
L: Yeah, exactly!
M: Where the objective is to think of a rude thing, you know, perhaps parts of the body or a rude action or something.
L: Oh yeah, definitely! But that…that vocabulary is so limited though; you would have to make it…make it an addition to the normal 20Q.
M: Yeah, but it’s so much fun!
L: [Laughs] It’s…it’s fun when you’re easily amused, like we are.
M: So we certainly recommend this…this little toy to our listeners.
L: Yeah.
M: It’s lots and lots of fun.
L: Yeah, in fact I’ve ordered some extra ones because I think it’d be really good to use in my English classes.
M: Yeah, well…
L: It’d be fun for the students, and that you can practice question forms and things, so…
M: Right.
L: Yeah.
M: Good idea.
L: OK.

Bonus Links
You can try the 20q game for free on the internet, and in many different languages, at www.20q.net!

Final words

Before I go, there’s a favor I’d like to ask. I have gotten lots of email from people who want to improve their writing. The best way to improve your writing is to do LOTS of it, but it’s also important to get feedback and suggestions from others. So I’m wondering: should we create a forum for our listeners to make it easier for us all to work together and help each other get better at English? I envision it as a place where Michael and I can answer your questions and help you, but also where you can help each other. It sounds like fun! There’s only one problem: there’s nothing more pathetic than a forum with little or no participation. So I would like to hear from you listeners – would you like a forum where you can get free help with your English? If I get a yes from at least 50 people before July 5, I will create one. You can let me know in several ways: you can send an email to info [AT] betteratenglish [DOT] com, you can go to the website and post a YES comment on this episode, or you can vote in the poll in the sidebar of our website. If you want a forum, make sure to let us know! OK then, I hope you’ll let us know about the forum, and that you’ll visit our friends at China232.com. We’ll see you next time here at betteratenglish.com.

Vocabulary notes

gadget
A gadget is a small machine or device that is used for a particular purpose.
drives him up the wall If you drive somebody up the wall, you make them feel very angry or irritated.
niece
Your niece is the daughter of your brother or sister. The son of your brother or sister is your nephew.
Yeah, right
The expression “Yeah, right” is used to indicate that you don’t believe something that you or somebody else has said.
Meerkat
Meerkats are small mongoose-like animals that live in Africa.
got
In this context, to get something means to solve a puzzle or answer a question.
obscure If something is obscure, it is unclear and difficult to understand or know.
properties
A substance’s properties are its characteristics or qualities.
rude
In this context, rude means words or things that are related to sex or going to the toilet, as well as other naughty words or swear words.
to make for
To make for something in this context means to contribute to something or to help something to happen.
adult
In this context, the adjective adult means things that have to do with sex or other topics that are not considered suitable for children.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: 20 questions game

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Introduction: Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English conversations from Better at English dot com. In today’s conversation, my English friend Michael and I talk about superstitions. You’ll learn about the idiom “to have an itchy palm” as well as what superstition tells us that it means when you really do have an itchy palm. Are you superstitious? We are curious about how many of our listeners believe in superstitions, so we’ve put a poll up on the website where you can tell us. You can find it at www.betteratenglish.com.

Thanks to everyone who voted in last week’s poll about naked cats. I’ve just looked at the results. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of you think that hairless cats are ugly. But 45 per cent of you do say that I should still get one. Only 12 per cent of you think that they’re cute. Oh well, to be honest, my mind was made up before the poll; it’s only Michael who needs to be convinced!

Right then, here comes this week’s conversation!

Conversation transcript

Lori: Oh, I’ve got this itchy palm. It’s totally itching. Doesn’t that mean something when your palm itches?
Michael: It means you have to wash your hands.
Lori: No, really! Isn’t it some superstition, something to do with money?
Michael: Like some sort of old wives’ tale or something about…?
Lori: Yeah, that you’re going to get money or something like that?
Michael: Well, off the top of my head I don’t know, but the only thing for it is to see what Google has to say.
Lori: Yeah, consult the Oracle.
Michael: Consult Google.
Lori: The Oracle of Google. What does it mean?
Michael: Give me a second…Itchy palm…Ah, OK! It’s a desire for money, or greed, or wanting a bribe, apparently. Like a hotel porter, you know, “The porter has an itchy palm,” he’s expecting you to give a big tip. Or, you know, someone could be known for having an itchy palm; I guess that means they’re known for being greedy.
Lori: Oh, OK. But isn’t that the idiom? Like if someone says “So-and-so has itchy palms”? What does it mean if your palm actually itches?
Michael: Oh, OK, let me see. Let me move down the list and see what Google has to say.
Lori: I hope it’s getting money…
Michael: Yeah, well actually, yeah, you’re right…it says…apparently having an itchy palm is an indicator of fortune coming your way…
Lori: Yes!
Michael: Or something like that. Umm, OK, Oh, hang on a minute.
Lori: Does it say anything about money? I could really use some…
Michael: Well, yes…Oh, wait a minute! Which, which one of your hands is it, the left or the right hand?
Lori: What, does it make a difference?
Michael: Ah, yes, it makes a big difference actually.
Lori: It’s the left one.
[long pause]
Michael: Ah.
Lori: Oh, that didn’t sound good.
Michael: No, you’re not going to like this. If you have an itchy right palm, apparently that means that you will receive money.
Lori: OK.
Michael: Do you want to hear this?
Lori: Oh no.
Michael: If you have an itchy left palm, it means you have to give money.
Lori: Oh no.
Michael: But wait a minute, isn’t it? It’s the time of year when you have to do your taxes! That’s what it must mean, it’s because you have to pay your taxes.
Lori: Yeah, I was just doing my taxes, just…in fact, I just finished them today.
Michael: OK.
Lori: Maybe that’s what it is.
Michael: Maybe you’ll be OK and you won’t get some big bill in the post just for taxes.
Lori: Well, plus I’m expecting a bill because when I leave for my vacation in a couple of days, I’m going to take my computer in and finally get it fixed so it will stop acting up. And I can imagine that that’s going to cost some money, so maybe that is is. Darn! I thought that I’d be getting some…winning the lottery or getting some unexpected windfall.
Michael: Yeah, well, we don’t believe in any of that stuff anyway.
Lori: No, actually, yeah, that’s true. But man, it really itches! It’s driving me crazy!
Michael: OK, well, you go wash your hands, young lady!
Lori: OK.

Final words
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Real English Conversations. Michael and I will be interested to see how many of our listeners are superstitious, so hurry over to betteratenglish.com and cast your vote.

Before signing off, I have to say thanks so much to everyone who has donated to support Better At English this week and who has recorded messages for Michael and me on the website. We really appreciate your support, and getting messages from you totally makes our day. If you get value from our podcasts, please consider making a donation. It’s not mandatory, and we don’t expect it, but every little bit helps! That’s all for now, see you next time!

Vocabulary list

superstition
A superstition is an unscientific belief about the nature of the world, usually related to ideas about magic or the supernatural. People who believe in superstitions are superstitious.

old wives’ tale
An old wives’ tale is a piece of advice or information, usually about health, that people used to believe a long time ago but nowadays is known to be false.

off the top of my head
If you say something off the top of your head, it means that you are using the knowledge you have in your memory. People usually say this when they are not sure they are correct.

Oracle
An oracle is someone who knows a lot about a subject and can give good advice.

porter
A porter is someone who helps you carry your bags in a hotel.

tip
A tip (n.) is a small amount of money that you give to someone for performing a service for you. You might tip (v.) a server in a restaurant or a porter in a hotel.

hang on
Informal for wait (a short time)

do your taxes
Doing your taxes means calculating your taxes and preparing the forms to submit to the tax agency.

bill
A bill is a formal request for payment or money owed, often printed on paper.

acting up
To act up means to behave badly or not work properly. Both people and objects can act up.

windfall
A windfall is an unexpected amount of money that you win or receive.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Itchy palms (superstitions)

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Hello and welcome to Better at English, the podcast that focuses on real English for real people. My name is Lori, and today I’m going to give you a quick and easy way to find the meaning of idioms that aren’t in your dictionary.

Idioms are notoriously difficult for non-native speakers, because they usually don’t make sense if you translate them word for word. For example, the idiom “to kick the bucket” has nothing to do with buckets and everything to do with dying. Most learners are eager to learn about idioms because native speakers use them so frequently. So understanding idioms is important for understanding native speakers, and for sounding more native-like yourself!

If you are reading or listening to B@E, you are probably already and independent learner of English who is used to looking up idioms in your dictionary. If you’re really keen, you might even have a special dictionary of idioms. Dictionaries are indispensable tools for learning the meaning of idiomatic words and phrases. But they are not perfect: we’ve all experienced the frustration of discovering that the idiom we’re looking just isn’t in our dictionary. Luckily, there is a simple trick for finding idioms on the Internet. Here is how you do it:

Go to Google and search for the word idiom plus the key words from your idiom. The search results are almost guaranteed to lead you to a helpful definition. Here is an example:

Imagine you heard this conversation:

Michael: Would you mind if I tried your new guitar?
Lori: Sure, knock yourself out!

The idiom is “knock yourself out,” or “to knock oneself out,” in the dictionary form.

To find the meaning of this idiom, do a Google search for the word
idiom
and add the phrase “knock yourself out” in quotation marks.
Like this:
idiom “knock yourself out”

All you need to do is scroll through the results, which, with luck, will be a combination of online dictionary definitions and online forum discussions. Make sure to check out any forum discussions that you find; they often contain interesting and useful discussions about meaning and usage and give you far more insight than you will get from a dictionary definition.

If you don’t get useful results on your first search, try adjusting your search query. For example, for “knock yourself out” you can try
idiom “knock oneself out”
or
idiom knock oneself out

Google is not a perfect corpus by a long shot, but it is a fantastic tool for doing quick’n'dirty research into meaning and usage. I highly recommend that you spend a few minutes reading the Google search help file so that you can take full advantage of this wonderful tool.

I use the trick I’ve shown you today all the time; in fact, Google is my number one reference tool for double-checking my native-speaker intuition. This is just one of several tips that I’ll be sharing with you over the coming weeks. I hope you find it useful.

That’s all for now; thanks so much for listening. As always, you can find the full transcript at our website, www.betteratenglish.com. Bye for now!

Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (Online, free!)

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

How to find English idioms that aren’t in the dictionary

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Introduction

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from BetterAtEnglish.com. In today’s conversation, my English friend Michael and I talk about how much we use and depend on the Internet in our daily lives, particularly Google. In our conversation, which was completely unplanned and spontaneous, we ended up using quite a few phrasal verbs. I have highlighted these phrasal verbs in the vocabulary notes, as well as some idiomatic expressions. As always, you can find the full transcript and vocabulary notes on our website, www.BetterAtEnglish.com.

Here we go!

Conversation Transcript

Lori: Can you imagine what life would be like without the Internet?

Michael: Without the Internet?

Lori: Yeah

Michael: Like in the good old days? Way back and…

Lori: Yeah, the Dark Ages! [Laughs]

Michael: Oh goodness! Yeah. It’s…it’s funny I mean, that…that’s we joke about it but, umm… Thinking about that yeah, it would be like the dark ages because we’re so…people are so reliant on the Internet.

Lori: Yeah, I know I am.

Michael: Yeah, oh me too, for sure. Umm…

Lori: Yeah

Michael: Ahh…Yeah, aside from obvious things like…email, umm…and, ahh, Skype and, aah, MSN and these sort of things, just for chatting with people, umm, it would just be…it would be crazy not having all that information at your fingertips.

Lori: Yeah, yeah.

Michael: Because for me, that’s the main thing, with the Internet, is looking things up.

Lori: Oh yeah, can you imagine me going even one day without my precious Google?

Michael: Err…I think you’d crack up!

Lori: Yeah! [laughs]

Michael: I think…

Lori: I’d be outside talking to lampposts.

[laughter]

Michael: Yeah that’s…

Lori: Going crazy!

Michael: Umm… No, I really hope that you don’t get a power cut this winter because you’ll go…err…going cold…errr…what is it?… cold turkey without—

Lori: Yeah I won’t be able to google things! Oh my God!

Michael: Oh no!

Lori: No, I love Google so much, it’s so useful; it’s such an awesome tool.

Michael: Sure, I mean it’s…it’s funny I was just thinking recently umm…that apart from the usual websites that I would go to, to get news or perhaps some of the music websites where I’ll just log on and have a look and see what’s new in the world, umm, the vast majority of the time that I’m on the Internet is actually going to Google and then looking something up.

Lori: Oh yeah, yeah.

Michael: Because if there’s some information I need to know about, then it’s straight to Google.

Lori: Yeah.

Michael: Umm…You know, it’s unlikely that I would go to some other site, I’d just let Google do the finding for me and then see where it takes me…

Lori: Yeah.

Michael:…and…

Lori: No, it’s amazing.

Michael: It…it’s like having umm…just the biggest encyclopedia [laughs] at your fingertips you know, it’s quite amazing…

Lori: Yeah, sometimes I would say I use Google hundreds of times a day.

Michael: I’ve seen you do it! [laughs] I’m sure…

Lori: Yeah, you know constantly googling things and checking things and it’s…

Michael: Right.

Lori: I don’t know what I would do without it; it puts you in touch – you know, the Internet in general and…and email and chat and the different social networks – it just puts you in touch with people all over the world.

Michael: Well, absolutely, I mean I know of at least one fantastic relationship that came about through the Internet!

[laughter]

Lori: Yeah, and no matter what your niche interest is, you can find other people all over the world who are interested in…in that same thing.

Michael: Absolutely!

Lori: You know, it’s underwater basket-weaving, or whatever it is, you’ll be able to find forums and…

Michael: Rolling around…rolling around naked in dog food, whilst barking, umm…

Lori: Yeah, I guess! I’m sure! It wouldn’t surprise me!

Michael: I’m sure there’s a whole community out there.

Lori: Yeah, yeah, who are…who are into that.

Michael: Yeah.

Lori: Umm, and it’s…that’s really cool that you can connect with people all over the world and…

Michael: Sure

Lori: Share the things that you love, it’s…I think it’s really cool.

Final Words

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Real English Conversations at BetterAtEnglish.com. And to those who have donated since last time, thank you very much for your support. We really appreciate your generosity. These casts take a lot of time to produce, and your continued donations are an enormous help. But donations aren’t the only thing that make us happy; we love when you email us or record messages for us, like this: Thanks so much Rocío, messages like yours make all our effort totally worthwhile! See you next time!

Vocabulary notes

the good old days
When people talk about the good old days (sometimes spelled the good ole days), they are referring to a previous time period that they remember fondly and preferred to the present. This phrase is often used whimsically (as Michael does here), or even ironically, as in “Back in the good old days when children were thrashed and women were bashed.”

the Dark Ages
The term Dark Ages refers to a period of European history stretching from about AD 400 to 1000. Lori’s reference to the Dark Ages here is a form of hyperbole, or extravagant exaggeration.

looking things up
To look something up (or look up something) means to search for information in a book or other source. For example, you can look up words in a dictionary, or look up information on Google.

going even one day without
To go without something means to not have something that you usually have, or not use something that you usually use.

crack up
To crack up (informal) means to become mentally ill or experience severe mental distress.

cold turkey
To go cold turkey means to abruptly stop using an addictive substance, such as narcotics, alcohol, or other drugs. This informal phrase is often used when talking about abruptly stopping any habitual activity, rather than taking a gradual approach.

awesome
The adjective awesome is Am. E. slang meaning excellent, superb, impressive, and related synonyms. Some usage experts react very negatively when awesome is used in this way, and prefer that awesome be used in its traditional sense of “inspiring great awe.” Lori thinks Google is awesome in both senses of the word.

at your fingertips
If something is at your fingertips, you can access it and use it very easily. For example, “Google and the internet put all the world’s information at your fingertips.”

I would say
Used as Lori does here, I would say means “I estimate” or “I believe.”

puts you in touch with
To put someone in touch with somebody means to make direct contact between them possible.

came about
To come about means to happen, start, or occur.

niche
In this context, a niche is a small area of specialized interest. You often hear about niche markets, i.e., smaller, specialized markets for particular products or services.

{pca-eb0aa83a30cd28fd458c60adfc2d2052}

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: The pre-Google Dark Ages

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

Introduction

Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English dot com. In today’s episode, Michael and I exchange some opinions about television, particularly with respect to commercials and advertising. In this conversation we discover some differences between British and American English vocabulary, and use some everyday phrasal verbs. As always, you’ll find the full transcript and vocabulary list on the website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Before listening to the conversation, you might want to pause and think about the following questions:

1. Are you influenced by TV advertising?
2. If so, then how are you influenced?
3. Do TV commercials attempt to appeal to people’s logic or to their emotions?
4. Is watching TV is a constructive activity, or is it more a waste of time?

OK, without further ado, here is the conversation.

Conversation Transcript

Lori: TV is so evil.

Michael: [laughs]

L: I mean, don’t…don’t even get me started on TV – what a time waster and a time sucker it is, and…and all of the horrible…all of the horrible messages that you’re bombarded with if you are, you know, just one of these people who comes home in the evening, turns on the TV and just has the TV on kind of in the background until you go to bed at night. Some people even fall asleep in their bedrooms with the TV on.

M: Yeah, well I don’t know…I think people would perhaps use this for different reasons. If you just want some background noise, maybe they just regard it the same way they would do putting on a piece of music…

L: Yeah

M: …in the background, just to have some ambiance…

L: Yeah.

M: …as they’re going about their evening, but I do know what you mean. I think that a lot of programs are a complete waste of time.

L: Well see, that’s the thing. I don’t think people should be limited to watching things that are educational. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with watching something that’s just entertaining. [It's just] that there’s so much…umm…just really negative stuff out there.

M: Yes. I…But I think that’s…that’s the commercial side of it, and unless you have something like in England for example – the BBC – they don’t have advertisements.

L: [laughs]

M: They… they get their…

L: Ads!

M: …revenue from…

L: Do you really say that, advertisements? You don’t say…?

M: Yes! That’s right, well we would say adverts but, or advertisements, yeah.

L: Even for the ones that are on the TV? You don’t call them commercials?

M: No, no! We wouldn’t…I mean, I know…we know what commercials are, but no, we would say the adverts.

L: Really?

M: “I’m going to make a cup of tea whilst the adverts are on,” that’s what we would say.

L: Oh that’s funny because as…I can’t speak for all Americans, but for an American we would definitely call those things you see on TV commercials.

M: Right, right that’s… that’s what I hear Americans calling them but we…

L: Yeah.

M: …we call them adverts.

L: OK, interesting

M: But that’s, umm, with the BBC they don’t get their money from adv-…advertising, they get it from the TV license, which you have to pay just for owning a TV every year, and that’s what… you know, they keep it free from adverts.

L: OK.

M: So you don’t have to put up with that, which is really quite nice because all the satellite channels and the independent TV channels in England are umm…full of adverts, all the time, and you really get that impression that people are trying to sell things to you all the time and it’s, err…all the things showing you that you have to be young and beautiful and all this kind of…

L: Yeah.

M: And “If you buy our products. you will be like these people in these… perfect people…”

L: Yeah, the myth of transformation.

M: Yes, exactly, exactly.

L: Yeah it’s like, “let’s create things that make you feel bad about yourself and then show you the things you need to buy to…”

M: That’s it!

L: “…improve yourself so you will feel better.”

M: That’s it, and I think that’s… that’s mean, that’s… that’s not nice.

L: It’s horrible!

M: So, but I… that’s… that’s what I see when I see the adverts, I… I see through it so…

L: Yeah.

M: But I… I don’t watch much TV either, so umm…

L: Uh huh. No, it’s horrible – horrible time waster.

Final words

Thanks for listening, and thanks to those of you who have donated since last time. I can’t tell you enough how much Michael and I appreciate your support. Remember, your continued donations make Better at English possible. Bye for now!

Vocabulary list

Don’t even get me started
If someone says, “Don’t get me started (on X)” it means that they have strong feelings and a lot to say about the current topic. The idea is that if they start talking about it, you won’t be able to get them to stop. You can say it about other people, for example “Don’t get him started on butterfly collecting…he’ll bore you for hours!”

going about
In this context, to go about something means to continue an activity for a period of time. If you are going about your evening, you are engaging in your typical evening activities.

revenue
Income (money) that a business, organization or government receives regularly. TV licenses generate revenue (money) for the government.

to put up with
To put up with (something or somebody) means to tolerate it, even though you don’t like it.

mean (adj)
Mean in this context means unkind (or even cruel). In Br.E, the adjective mean can also mean being selfish and ungenerous (particularly about money).

see through it
In this context, to see through something/somebody means to understand the truth about a person or situation that is intended to deceive or manipulate you.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: TV adverts, advertisements and commercials

Introduction
Hi, Lori here welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations at BetterAtEnglish.com. Today my British pal Michael and I compare working in an office with working at home, and talk about how difficult it can be to put up with rude treatment from nasty customers when you work in a job providing service. As usual, we end up touching upon some of the differences between British and American English vocabulary.

Download English lesson podcast and transcript

If you have a job where you have to look busy all the time, or where you have to tolerate rude customers, I encourage you to post your stories in the comments section on the website! It would be fun to hear what you have to say.

Before moving on to the conversation, I’d like to thank everyone who has donated since the last episode. Michael and I really appreciate your generosity, thanks so much! I also wanted to let you know that because of illness the past few weeks, I’ve not been able to keep up up with my email as well as I’d like to. Fortunately, I’m feeling a bit better now, so if you’d emailed and not received an answer, you will be getting one soon.

Right then, on with the conversation! [Download transcript from links above]

Final words
I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Real English Conversations. Before I sign off, here are this week’s announcements.

First, because I really want to post more frequent episodes for you, I’ve been looking for ways to streamline my work process. So from now on, I am not going to put the transcript on the web page itself. I’ll just provide PDF and Microsoft Word documents for you to download from the website. Not having to format the html for each episode will save me between one and two hours per podcast. I’m curious to know how you react to this, so if you have strong feelings one way or another, please let me know. I’ve put a new poll up in the sidebar of the website to make it easy for you to have your say.

Second, thanks to everyone who has voted in other poll on the website. It appears that close to 80% of you are learners of English, 9% are teachers, and another 9% are both. About 2% of you are neither teachers nor learners of English.

That’s it for this time! As always, the transcription and vocabulary notes for this podcast are available at our website, www.betteratenglish.com. And remember, if you enjoy our show, please consider leaving a donation. We really appreciate your support. Bye for now!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: The customer is always right, right?

Transcript

Introduction
Hi, Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English dot com. Today’s conversation is continued from our previous episode about chick magnets. In the previous episode I had wanted to talk to Michael about about a gym in Holland that offers its clients an unusual way to exercise. But we got sidetracked talking about dogs and chick magnets. Luckily, this time we are back on track talking about gyms, a topic that brings up some idioms and slang related to fitness, exercise, and human bodies.

Before we begin, some thanks are in order: since our previous episode, Better at English has received generous donations from Jörg, Christa, and Christian (from Germany); Nicola (from Italy); and Philipo. Thanks so much for your support! Remember, these podcasts take a lot of time to produce, so your donations are really appreciated. So if you enjoy our podcasts, you can find the donation link on our website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Right then, let’s get on with the conversation!

Conversation Transcript

Lori: Okay, but anyway, the reason I asked you if you go to the gym is I read this kind of funny article on CNN the other day. Apparently there’s a gym in the Netherlands that is planning to introduce training sessions for nudists. So people can go…

Michael: Why am I not… why am I not surprised?

L: Why, why would you be not surprised?

M: Well, that…everything else is legal in Holland, from drugs to prostitution, so why not a bit of naked working out?

L: Yeah, pump up in the buff! Got the drugs, got the hookers, all we need is a naked gym! Yeah, no, but apparently it’s true, they’re going to have Sunday morning sessions, and the reason that they’re going to try this is, umm, that they, they’ve had a lot of demand for them.

M: Oh, really! And…

L: Yeah! Special nudists’ sessions.

M: Okay, so I guess there’s a big nudist community, then, in Holland.

L: Yeah apparently so, at least around this gym. The article didn’t say… or actually, it did say, it was in a place called, uh, I’m not sure if I can pronounce it…Heteren? Heteren? Anyway…

M: Oh, I don’t know…

L: I don’t know where that is, but, they’re also, they’re worried that people will find out about it, and just show up, you know, just to ogle people.

M: Ah, well, yeah!

L: You know, not genuine nudists, so apparently they’re going to have, umm, they’re going to be really strict about who they’ll let in, and anyone who shows up just to gawk will get thrown out.

M: Well, I wonder if, I wonder if that would backfire anyway, ’cause, um, from my experience a lot of people who go to the gym to work out really need to go to the gym to work out, if you, you know…

L: Yeah!

M: Kind of weighty and somewhat rotund, um, so seeing people like that in the buff, jumping around wobbling and jiggling in the breeze…

L: Oh my god, doing deadlifts and squats and things like that…

M: That’s right, I mean, doing things like, what’s that, star jumps with your tackle hanging out, you know, is really…

L: Exactly! Yeah, really out-of-shape people. But I guess it really depends on which gym you go to, because where I grew up in Southern California, a lot of gyms you, you only really saw fit people in the gyms.

M: Full of beautiful people.

L: Yeah, in thongs.

M: Oh, I’m sure. Bright pink thongs.

L: Yeah, and pink leg warmers and stuff like that.

M: Oh man, that must’ve been the 80s then.

L: Uh, yeah back, back in the 80s. And even nowadays if you go somewhere it really depends on the gym because some gym, gyms are geared more towards, you know, the kind of trendy clientele who are really into fitness. And then other gyms are more like family gyms where you find all kinds of people going there. So it really depends.

M: OK

L: But my, one of my biggest concerns about this Dutch gym, you know, for the nudists, would be hygiene. And in the article they do mention that they’ll pay special attention to that, and make sure that people cover the machines and the equipment with towels and, and things like that.

M: I would hope so!

L: But…I don’t know, it just…

M: People’s naked, sweaty behinds sitting on the hydraulic machinery…

L: Yeah! Or just anything.

M: …you know, the things where you have to sit. Yeah, it’s really not…

L: Yeah, I mean, getting on the [stationary] bike, you know, right after someone’s just been on there… I don’t know.

M: Oh my god! Well, I’m never going to a gym in Holland that’s for sure. Not now.

L: Yeah, well, it’s only this one gym. But hey, who knows? If it’s a big success it might spread to other gyms, you know, that’s how capitalism works, I guess.

M: Who knows what be “spreading” to other gyms, if that’s what…if they’re all going in the nude. Oh, goodness!

L: Yeah!

Vocabulary list

nudist
Nudists are people who think that it is healthy for people to be naked and who enjoy being naked in mixed social settings. You can read this article for an overview of nudism and nudist philosophy.

working out
To work out (in this context) means to exercise strenuously, usually at a gym and using a combination of weight lifting and cardiovascular exercise.

hookers
Informal word for prostitutes

pump up
To pump up (or get pumped) means to exercise your muscles (usually with weights) so that they swell up and look bigger. With strenuous exercise, blood flow to the muscles increases and makes them look bigger and feel harder. To pump up is sometimes used in a more general sense (as Lori does here), meaning “to exercise” (to work out). So “To pump up in the buff” means “to exercise while naked.”

in the buff
Informal expression that means naked (used about people only, not about other objects or animals).

ogle
To ogle someone is to look as someone in a way that shows you are sexually interested in them. It’s usually used in a negative sense.

gawk
To gawk at someone or something is to stare (usually in a rude or stupid way).

backfire
If something backfires, it has the opposite result from the one you intended (and is usually a failure).

deadlifts
A deadlift is an exercise in which you pick up a heavy barbell and lower it again, keeping your arms straight and bending at the knees. See this link.

squats
A squat is an exercise in which you balance a heavy barbell across your shoulders, then bend down into a squatting position and stand up again. It is considered the “king of exercises” by many body builders. See this link.

star jumps
A star jump is a vigorous exercise which involves jumping up into the air and extending one’s arms and legs out in a “star” shape while in midair. You can see a video here.

tackle
Slang expression for male genitals

out-of-shape
In this context, shape means overall physical condition. If you are in good shape, you are fit and healthy. If you are out of shape, then you are in poor physical condition. The phrases “to be in good/bad shape” and “to be in shape” and “to be out of shape” are all very common.

fit
If you are fit, you are in good physical shape. In Br.E, the word fit is also used to describe someone who is physically very attractive.

geared (more) towards
If something is geared toward(s) something or somebody, it designed to be suitable for a particular purpose or attractive to a particular group of people.

clientele
The group of customers who use a particular product or service.

into
In this context, to be into something means that you are very interested in it. People who are into fitness are interested in working out and staying in shape.

in the nude
Naked (used only about people)

Final words

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Real English Conversations. If you are listening to us via iTunes or some other podcatcher, remember that if you go to our website you’ll find the full transcript for this and all previous episodes, vocabulary lists, illustrations, and related links. It’s all waiting for you at www.betteratenglish.com. Bye for now!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English conversations: pumping up in the buff

Transcript

Hi, Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better At English dot com. Today, my English friend Michael and I talk about the irresistible attraction power of dogs and puppies, and how
you can exploit this if you’re in the market for a romantic partner.

As always, you’ll find a full transcript and vocabulary list on the website, www.betteratenglish.com. And remember, your continued donations keep Better at English going – thanks very much to Kristof and Taz from the Netherlands, and Peter from Switzerland for your generous donations since the last episode. And thanks to Paul from France, who donated three awesome books about English from my B@E Amazon wishlist!

OK, enough of my yakkin’ – let’s get on with the show!

Conversation Transcript

Lori: Do you ever go to the gym?

Michael: I don’t go anymore; I used to go many years ago, but…

L: What…why don’t you go anymore?

M: Well, it’s very expensive, for one thing. And also it’s a long way to travel from where I’m living at the moment; it’s a long way to get to the gym, so I go walking with the dog and that’s my exercise.

L: Ooooooooh, doggie! Doggie! What kind of dog is it?

M: It’s a border terrier.

L: Ooooh, is he cute?

M: Which is…Oh he is very, very cute, and he’s very friendly. And also gets me lots of attention while I’m out, because everybody wants to say hello to my dog, so…

L: I know, isn’t that funny about dogs, they’re total conversation starters…

M: They’re a great way to get chicks as well!

L: Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard!

M: If you, if you have a very cute dog, then, yeah, then girls want to come over and pet your dog, and then of course you can start talking to them, so yeah, it’s a great way to meet friends.

L: Don’t you call that “chatting them up” in British English?

M: Yes, chatting somebody up is, I suppose, flirting with somebody, and um…

L: Trying to get their phone number?

M: Yes! That’s the kind of thing, yes.

L: Well I think that the ultimate weapon, you know, the ultimate chick magnet would probably be a cute little puppy.

M: Oh, oh, most definitely. For sure.

L: Because I can tell you from experience – and being a girl – that, oh, it takes all my power to resist going up to total strangers with cute little puppies and asking if I can pet the puppy. Seriously, it’s…oh my god!

M: Okay, I’m going to get rid of the … [line drops out] …then.

L: Sorry?

M: I’m gonna get rid of the dog and get a puppy instead; he’s too old now.

L: Oh yeah, total…total chick magnet. But you’ll also be attracting a lot of little old ladies as well.

M: Pardon?

L: You’ll also be attracting a lot of little old ladies as well.

M: Oh okay, so there is a downside to it.

L: Yeah, there is a downside…unless you like little old ladies.

M: It’s not really my thing, no, no…

Vocabulary List

I’m living at the moment
Grammar: this is a good example of the present continuous for temporary situations.

Doggie (or doggy – both spellings are very common)
Adding an ie or y to the end of a word is a diminutive in English. Diminutive forms make the object sound familiar, lovable (or pitiable), or just small.

Total conversation starters
Using the word total in front of a noun has an intensifying effect, typical in informal, conversational American English. Compare “He’s an idiot” with “He’s a total idiot.” A conversation starter is any object or tactic that helps get conversations started (usually with people whom you don’t know).

Chicks
In this context, chick is an informal word for girl or woman. Women often consider this word offensive. When men talk about “getting chicks,” they usually mean establishing romantic relationships (even the one-night variant) with attractive, desirable women. In the literal sense, a chick is a baby chicken (baby birds of many species are referred to as chicks).

Chatting them up
To chat someone up (BrE) means to talk to someone in a way that shows that you are sexually or romantically attracted to them.

Flirting
To flirt with someone means that you behave as if you were sexually/romantically attracted to them (but you are not necessarily serious about it).

Ultimate
To describe something as the ultimate X means that it is the best or worst possible example of something. This is often used rather loosely in conversation just to make a point that X is very good (or bad).

Chick magnet
A chick magnet is an informal word for any person, object, or quality that attracts women (romantically or sexually).

To get rid of
To get rid of something means to throw it away, to dispose of it.

Sorry?
When you haven’t heard what someone has said, you can say “Sorry”? (rising intonation) to alert them of this and get them to repeat. Sorry? is one of many phrases that have this function. Others include Pardon? (see below), Excuse me? And (I) beg your pardon?

Little old ladies
If you describe a woman as a little old lady, people tend to think of a stereotypical gray-haired, good-natured, somewhat fragile, elderly woman. It is usually used in a playful or affectionate sense, but sometimes is used disparagingly. Even though Michael certainly likes sweet little old ladies, he’s not interested in “chatting them up!”

Pardon?
Saying pardon? with rising intonation at the end signals that you have not heard what someone just said, and want them to repeat it.

Downside
The downside something is its bad or undesirable aspects, its disadvantage(s).

My thing
If someone says X is not my thing, it means that they are not interested in X. It can also be a diplomatic way of saying that you don’t like something. For example, saying “Getting up early is not my thing” sounds much softer than “I hate getting up early.”

Final words

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Real English Conversations at Better at English dot com. Before signing off, I have a small request: I’m trying to find out more about what type of people listen to B@E, so I’ve put a little poll up in the sidebar of the website. It’ll take less than a minute for you to visit the website, www.betteratenglish.com, and complete the poll. Knowing more about our listeners will help us make better podcasts for you. And remember, your continued donations make Better at English possible. Bye for now!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Chick Magnet (idiom)

Introduction

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English. Again, I apologize for the poor audio quality this time, but I’m still posting from abroad, using my laptop. This is the third and final episode of a three part series in which Michael and I discuss some of the potentially embarrassing differences between British and American English dialects. This episode takes up right where we left off in part two, so if you are a new listener you might want to go back and listen to parts one and two before you listen to part three. You can find all the previous episodes and full transcripts on the website, www.betteratenglish.com.

Hey ho, let’s go!

Conversation Transcript

Michael: Well, do you know, just to change the subject slightly, you just reminded me of something, of a very good friend of mine, an English computer programmer who went on a business trip to the United States. And when he was over there, somebody asked him where one of the other programmers was 'cause they couldn’t find him. And my friend Peter said, “Oh, I think he’s just popped outside for a fag.”

Lori: Oh, dear!

M: Now, in British English the word fag is a very, very common, perfectly innocent slang word for a cigarette.

L: Right.

M: And everybody knows it, everybody uses it, and you would be far more likely to talk about a fag and fags as being cigarettes than you would actually say cigarette.

L: Uh huh.

M: So, but, but the look that the American fellow gave to Peter, saying that he nipped outside for a fag, was quite priceless. So he had to explain on the spot, “No that’s not what I meant,” because, as we know, the word fag in American English is a slang word for somebody who is homosexual.

L: Yeah, usually, a male, male…and it’s not a very nice word I think, from what I’ve understood. It’s a derogatory word for…

M: That’s, that’s what I understood.

L: …it’s not very nice to say.

M: But it was a perfectly innocent mistake, but you just reminded me of that.

L: I know! No, it’s funny. And these are the kind of things…I’m not sure they even teach those types of words, you know, I’ve never seen that taken up in a mainstream ELT [English Language Teaching] course book.

M: Well, probably not. But it’s the kind of thing that, as we know from experience, this kind of mistake is very easy to make. And if you wanted to sound particularly, umm, if you wanted to sound like your English was British English, then knowing words like that, that fag for cigarette, is…would be a very important one. You would need to know what it was—and not to get it confused.

L: Exactly.

M: You know, umm, so, I mean, a typical thing, “I’m just going to the shop to buy some fags,” you know is an ev–

L: [laughs] It’s like, what kind of shops do you have over there?

M: [laughs] I know, I can understand…

L: Didn’t know they sold those!

M: That’s, well, when you come back from abroad in the duty-free you can get 200 fags very cheaply!

L: OK, yeah, they have them on discount. Oh, funny!

M: But I can understand this must sound ridiculous to you [as an American], but as a British guy this is just normal speak, this is what we say.

L: Well, that’s another thing: Do you consider yourself British or do you consider yourself English, or, does it matter?

M: Well no, I’m English. I’m very much English. I’m sure you don’t want to know about my family history, but no, I think of myself as being English.

L: OK

M: And certainly the other countries, I mean, Scotland and Ireland and Wales, they like to think of themselves as being exclusively Scottish and Irish, they don’t really like to be thought of as being British.

L: Mmm hmm.

M: I think they prefer to be thought of as independent. So…But, I don’t know, I think foreigners tend to think of…the people on that little green island in the middle of the sea, umm, as just being British. It’s just easier to say, to say Britain, you know.

L: Mmm hmm.

M: Umm, but no, I’m English. That’s it, yeah.

L: OK, and is it actually offensive to be called British, or…?

M: Not if you’re English. But in…actually, some…as I was suggesting, that the Scottish, Irish, and Welsh people could be offended to be called British.

L: Really?

M: Oh yeah, because, umm, they very much, you know, they like to have their independence, and I’m not completely sure, but I think that some…we have an independent Irish parliament now. They’re still governed overall by the English parliament, but they try to break away, really. And certainly in southern Ireland, which is known as Eire, they’re not British. I mean, they’re not part of the United Kingdom. It’s all, it’s all kind of complicated—I’m from the country and I don’t even understand it properly!

Final words

OK, that’s it for this episode of Real English Conversations at Better At English. Before I sign off, I just want to thank you all for listening and for your continued support. Paul’s generous donation came in right after I posted my latest message to you all—thanks so much, Paul! And Michael, your donation just popped in a few minutes ago as I was preparing this episode—thanks so much!

If you’d like to leave feedback about the site, you can email me at info AT BetterAtEnglish DOT com, or leave a message on my voicemail line at 1 (for the USA) 206 350 2283. And don’t forget that your donations make the Better at English possible, so if you get value from the show, please visit the website www.betteratenglish.com and make a donation. Your support really means a lot!

Vocabulary list

Popped
To pop [+ adverb or preposition] is an informal way of saying “to go quickly” in Br.E. For example, “I’m just going to pop into the post office to buy some stamps.”

Fag
An informal word for cigarette in Br.E. In Am.E, fag is a disparaging (i.e., not nice) word for a male homosexual. It has several other meanings as well — see here.

Oh, dear!
A common exclamation of surprise.

Nipped
To go quickly. Similar to to pop (see above).

Priceless
If something is extremely amusing to see or hear, you can describe it as priceless.

On the spot
If you do something on the spot, you do it immediately. In this example, Michael’s friend had to immediately explain that “fag” means cigarette in British English.

Derogatory
If something is derogatory, it shows disapproval or disrespect.

Duty-free
The duty-free is short for “the duty-free shop.” Duty-free shops are usually found in airports, and are special shops where travelers can buy goods that are free of government taxes. Duty-free shops usually sell “luxury” items that normally carry heavy government taxes, such as alcohol, cigarettes, perfumes, and cosmetics.

On discount
If something is on discount, it is being sold at a reduced price.

Offensive
If something is offensive, it means that it causes someone to feel upset, angry, or hurt. People can be offended by something, or take offense at something.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Cultural Differences (part 3 of 3)

Transcript

Introduction

Hi! Lori here, welcoming you to another edition of Real English conversations from Better at English DOT com. This is the second in a three part series in which Michael and I discuss some of the differences between our British and American English dialects. This edition takes up right where we left off in part one, so if you are a new listener you might want to go back and listen to part one before you listen to part two. In this podcast, we focus on some pronunciation differences between British and American English, as well as one potentially embarrassing difference in vocabulary.

But before getting into the conversation, I want to thank you again for your continued support of Better at English: Alberto and Yuichi, I received your generous donations this week—thanks so much! So to all listeners out there, if you get value from my podcasts, please consider making a donation; see the link in the sidebar at www.betteratenglish.com for all you need to know about how to donate. And as always, on the website you’ll find the full transcript and a vocabulary list. OK, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Conversation Transcript

Lori: …what has happened? What has happened?” And it turns out…

Michael: Well, I think that would be the same for me if someone was just a sharp intake of breath like when you take your car, to the garage, and you say, and they tell you how much it’s going to cost to have your exhaust fixed. And you respond with [gasp], that’s what you would do.

L: Exactly. It’s funny you said garage.

M: That’s, I think, is a regional thing with English people. Because you could say garage or garage or garage. People would understand you in English; it just depends whereabouts in the country you come from.

L: But it’s funny, where I’m from—and it, this might differ—you know, America is so big and I haven’t…I’m not really up on all the different regional dialects. But I would say I took my my car to the shop, or to the workshop. I wouldn’t even say the garage, or I would say garage. But the garage for me is the place you, at your own home…

M: Oh, that’s interesting

L: …a special building where you park your own car, that’s your garage. And usually you keep a bunch of tools and junk and, and things…in there…

M: Yeah, oh yeah. And your lawnmower, and things like that.

L: Exactly. Yeah.

M: It…that’s what we would call it in England too, but also it doubles as where you take your car to have it fixed, to have it repaired. But if you said that you were taking your car to the shop in British English, they would look at you really funny. Like thinking you’re going to sell your car in a shop; you don’t have it fixed, but they would understand workshop, you know, that engineers and mechanics work in a workshop, but a shop in British English, it’s where you sell something, newspapers and things like that.

L: Yeah, so that could be a misunderstanding, then.

M: Oh yeah definitely, definitely.

L: But, I mean, wouldn’t you be clever enough to figure it out? Don’t they know enough about American English from TV and things like that to… to pick up on that?

M: I think so, I think so now because there’s so much of the TV in England, are American programs, and if you want to understand what’s going on you just have to get up to speed with what people what people say and the names they have for things, so I think most people would be able to figure it out, umm, but I can’t speak for everybody.

L: It’s funny, there’s a lot of expressions in British English and American English that can completely…screw you up if you’re not careful. One of my very, very favorites is the word rubber.

[laughs]

L: Can I borrow your rubber? Have you got a rubber I can borrow?

M: That’s disgusting.

L: Yeah I know but, I mean, isn’t that what… because I learned…and I learn most of my British English from, from reading and from these English teaching materials and vocabulary lists that you have, because it’s almost always based on the British English model. And in these teaching materials a rubber is what I would call an eraser, what you use to rub out pencil marks, or erase pencil marks. But what do you call it, you know, spontaneously with what you know about British English, would you call it, a rubber or an eraser?

M: It’s quite funny that you brought this up, because when I was young I would, without even thinking, we’d just talk about this as a rubber, you know, I need a rubber. When I was a child we used to write in pencil at school and so everyone, every school child, had to have a pencil and a rubber—this was important equipment for going to school. But it was only when I went to secondary school in England that I realized that rubber could actually mean something else, and particularly in, with American English. And so I had to consciously start calling it an eraser, and that actually felt really false.

L: Oh funny! You say you eraser and I say eraser. Do you hear the difference?

M: Oh did I say that? Oh yeah, eraser, eraser. Yeah I say it with as if it’s a Z (zee). Or a zed, as we would say. You call it a zee, We call it a zed. You know, eraser.

L: Exactly. Exactly.

M: But yeah, I have to consciously do that because to me, to be honest, it’s still a rubber.

L: Uh huh! It’s still a rubber! And you know maybe people don’t understand what a rubber actually is in American English… and as far as I know…

M: Perhaps we should…

L: … the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word rubber used as a noun, for like, a thing, is a condom.

M: That’s right that’s it that’s it it’s a slang word for a condom, yeah.

L: Yeah! And I can just imagine the, you know, unintentional fits of merriment that could occur at a business meeting if you said, “Oh darn! Can I borrow your rubber?” If you were sitting there with a bunch of Americans, that they, you know, they might laugh at you.

M: I, well do you know…? Just to change the subject slightly, you just reminded me of something, of a very good friend of mine, an English computer programmer who went on a business trip to the United States…

[to be continued in episode 3 of 3]

Final words

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. You’ll hear the rest of Michael’s story in part three. Until then, I wish all of you the best for 2007. Stay inspired, stay positive, stay focused on what’s important to you, and don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from seizing the opportunities that come your way.

If you’d like to leave feedback about the site, you can email me at info AT BetterAtEnglish DOT com, or leave a message on my voicemail line at 1 (for the USA) 206 350 2283. And don’t forget that your donations make this podcast possible, so if you are feeling generous please visit the website www.betteratenglish.com and make a donation. Your support does a lot to keep me going. Bye for now!

Vocabulary list

Funny
Funny is a tricky word in English, because it has two different meanings: amusing/humorous/comical or strange/unusual. Something is funny in the amusing sense if it makes you laugh. Something can be funny in the strange sense it is unusual, weird or strange. Sometimes the distinction is not entirely clear, because some events that are weird or strange can also be rather amusing! For example, seeing a man wearing nothing but a chartreuse glittery tophat running (streaking!) through a crowded football stadium is probably funny in both senses of the word. At least Lori would think it was.

I’m not really up on
To be up on something means to be well informed about it, to know a lot about it.

Shop
In both British and American English, a shop is a store, a place where you go to buy things. In American English, it’s more common to talk about grocery stores or supermarkets (where you buy food and other household items). Lori (American) would be much more likely to say, “I’m going to the store—do we need milk”? Michael (British) would be more likely to say, “I’m going to the shop—do we need milk”? In American English, shop is often used as a short form of workshop, particularly the type of workshop that repairs cars. “I’m riding my bike to work this week because my car’s in the shop.”

Figure it out
To figure something out means to understand something or find a solution to it, usually after a lot of thought.

Pick up on
To pick up on something means to notice something and understand it or make sense of it.

What’s going on
To understand what is going on means to understand what is happening or what something is about.

Get up to speed
To get up to speed on/with something means to learn what you need to know about it.

I can’t speak for everybody
This is one of many phrases you can use to show that what you are saying reflects your own experience or opinions, and that other people may have different opinions or experiences.

Screw you up
If something screws you up, it causes you problems, difficulties, trouble, confusion or (in the worst case) causes you to fail at what you are trying to do.

Rubber
In American English, a rubber is an informal (and rather vulgar) word for a condom. In British English, a rubber can mean either an eraser or a condom.

Eraser
An eraser is a piece of rubber or soft plastic that you use to rub out (delete) pencil marks.

Brought this up
To bring something up means to mention it or introduce it as a topic of conversation.

Fits of merriment
A fit is a sudden and uncontrolled period of doing or feeling something. Merriment is when people laugh and have a good time. Lori means that Americans who don’t know that a rubber is an eraser in British English might (involuntarily) laugh at you if you ask to borrow a rubber.

Bunch
A bunch is an informal word for group. You can use bunch about things and people, for example:

I still have a bunch of Christmas shopping to do. (uncountable)

I still have to buy a bunch of Christmas presents (countable).

There is/are a still bunch of people I have to buy Christmas presents for. (Bunch is a collective noun (like group, committee, jury, etc.), so verb agreement is up to how the speaker views the bunch — as a unit or a group of individuals).

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Cultural differences (part 2 of 3)

Transcript

Introduction

Hi! Lori here with another edition of Real English conversations from Better at English dot com. This is my first podcast in a while because the computer I use for podcasting broke down a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, it’s still broken, but today I managed to MacGuyver enough hardware and software together to prepare some new podcasts for you.

Since the previous podcast, several people have been kind enough to send donations to support Better at English. Thanks so much to Hiroyuki from Japan, Matteo and Antonio from Italy, Franz from Germany, and to Pietro, Patrik, Ted, and Mirko. I really appreciate your generosity! Donations from listeners are enormously helpful and encouraging. If you would like to donate, just follow the link in the sidebar at the website, www.betteratenglish.com. On the website you’ll also find the full transcript for this podcast, as well as the audio and transcripts of all previous Better at English listening podcasts.

In today’s conversation, Michael and I discuss how native speakers use fillers such as “umm” and “uh” and “mmm hmm” in conversations, and how these fillers are not always the same in different cultures. This is the first part of a series of three: in parts two and three we go on to discuss some rather amusing pronunciation and vocabulary differences between British and American English. Here is part one: Enjoy!

Conversation Transcript

Lori: I got some e-mails from people saying that they wanted to have more of the British English guy because they like hearing the difference between British and American English.

Michael: Oh well, that’s very kind of them; I’d be happy to oblige you.

L: Yeah, but there was also one guy [who complained], do you remember when I transcribed all of the umms and uhs and stuff like that?

M: Oh yes! Yeah, I try not to do that too much, to say umm and ah and uh, like so many people do, it’s something I’m very conscious of, so instead of doing that I just tend to repeat what I just said instead.

L: You know that’s really hard to transcribe.

M: I’m really sorry about that, but it’s something that I think I get from my father. He speaks that way. It’s a family thing.

L: So you don’t think it’s just a British English thing?

M: I don’t think so, but now that you mention it I’ll start to listen out for things like that. I just… you can be very conscious of the pauses, the gaps in a conversation, and people I think find that kind of awkward. As you’re thinking of the next thing to say, it’s better to be making some noise than just have a complete silence. So I think maybe that’s why I do it; it’s subconscious really.

L: And what about, you know, I’ve had some of my students say that they think that it’s really weird that if you’re listening to a speaker, you make these little encouraging noises like “Mmm hmmm, mmm hmmm”?

M: Oh yes. Yeah. Well, do you know I think that people tend to do that because it would be completely rude to interrupt somebody when they’re in the middle of a sentence and saying, “Oh yes I agree.” But you want to give the other person confirmation that you are agreeing, and encouragement. And also I think when you’re on the telephone or using Skype or something like that, you want to let them know that you’re actually still on the other end of the phone…That you haven’t lost the collec— the connection.

L: Some of my students have said that they think that would be really annoying, you know, some of my Swedish students, particularly.

M: Is that something that Swedish people don’t do then when you’re speaking to them on the phone?

L: They make this weird sound instead of, of “Mmm hmmm,” “Uh huh,” “Oh, right,” they do this thing where they sort of suck in air. They go [imitates gasping sound]

M: Oh yes, I’ve heard of this, OK. Yeah, I’d think that they were gasping for air.

L: Yeah, when I first moved to Sweden and I heard people like that on the phone when I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, that’s the sound that we make in…where I’m from in southern California, anyway…we make that sound when we’ve heard something really horrible and surprising, like if you’d heard there’d just been a terrible accident, that’s the sound you would make. So I was always thinking that, “Oh my God! What had…what has happened? What has happened?” And it turns out…

M: Well, I think that would be the same for me if someone was just a sharp intake of breath like when you take your car, to the garage, and you say, and they tell you how much it’s going to cost to have your exhaust fixed. And you respond with [gasps], that’s what you would do.

L: Exactly. It’s funny, you said garage!

[to be continued]

Final words

In the next podcast in this series, Michael and I talk about some funny pronunciation and vocabulary differences between British English and American English. Well, I think they are funny, anyway! But then again, I don’t watch TV, so I’m easily amused…

Thanks for tuning in, and thanks again for your donations and supportive emails and comments! It makes my day to hear that Better at English is useful for your language learning. You can email me at info AT BetterAtEnglish DOT com, or call the voice mail line at 1 for the USA, 206 350 2283. Bye for now!

Vocabulary list

I’d be happy to oblige you
[I’d = I would] This is a phrase you can use to show that you are eager and willing to help someone. To oblige someone means to help them or do something that pleases them.

Transcribed
To transcribe something means to write down something that was spoken (or played or written in another form). Lori transcribes [writes down] the spoken conversations so that Better at English listeners can read along as they listen to the podcasts.
Conscious
If you are conscious of something, you are aware of it.

Tend to
If you tend to do something, you are likely to do it (but you don’t necessarily ALWAYS do it).

Hard
If something is hard to do, it is difficult to do.

Something…I get from my father
In this case, get means inherited or learned. Michael means that his own speaking style has been influenced by his father’s style.

Subconscious
If something is subconscious, it means that you are not conscious or aware of it. Something that is subconscious can influence your actions even if you are not aware of it.

Encouraging
Something that is encouraging makes you feel more confident, or makes you more likely to want to do something.

Confirmation
If you give someone confirmation of something, you show them that it is certain or that you understand.

Annoying
Something that is annoying makes you feel angry or irritated (annoyed).

Go
In informal conversation, native speakers often introduce reported speech with the verb go. Many careful users of English disapprove of using go in this way, so you should not copy it.

Gasping
If someone gasps, they breathe in very quickly and sharply through their mouth.

Turns out
In this case, to turn out means to happen in a certain way or have a particular result. Lori didn’t finish her sentence, but she meant to say: “It turns out that the gasping sound means something different than I thought it did.”

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Cultural differences (part 1 of 3)

Transcript

Introduction
Hi there! Lori here, welcoming you to another edition of Real English Conversations at Better at English dot com. Thanks to everyone who’s answered my question about the vocabulary notes in Better at English transcripts. Your answer is an overwhelming “Yes, we need the vocabulary notes.?? So to help you learn English, as time permits I will continue to post transcripts and vocabulary notes for all Better at English podcasts. However, there is something you can do to help: if you are feeling generous, you could always support my work by making a donation. Just click the “donate?? button on the website, www.betteratenglish.com, to learn about how you can help.

Warning: some of you might find today’s conversation topic somewhat offensive, because Michael and I talk about a rather vulgar and disturbing video that we saw on the Internet, and a related story on the BBC website. It’s about people doing amazingly stupid things to their own bodies, and involves talking about a body part that is considered rather vulgar. So if you are sensitive or easily offended, you should not listen to this conversation. For those of you who are not easily offended, there are links to the video and the BBC article on the website. And as always, the full conversation transcript and accompanying vocabulary notes are also available on the website.

So hey ho, let’s go!

Conversation transcript

Lori: Do you remember a while back there was this horrible video going around, you know one of these, umm, video links that friends pass around in email forwards?

Michael: Mmm hmm

L: And the video was of…I think it was a teenage guy who took a rocket…

M: a firework

L: a firework rocket, and put it in a very, very sensitive area and actually lit it, and you could just see him running around and screaming and, and the flame and…do you remember that?

M: That, I have, umm, the image of that is burned in my memory, no pun intended.

[link to video: warning, it is rude and vulgar watch at your own risk]

L: Yeah, and it makes you, you know, the whole Darwin Awards thing, like, so that?

M: That was actually…Interestingly enough it was Bonfire Night, November the fifth, as we call…Bonfire Night in England just recently, and I saw on the BBC a news report that somebody had done something similar just recently. I mean this is, what, you know…ten or eleven days ago… that someone had done the same thing with a firework, a rocket, and, uhhh, inserted it into, uhhh…

L: An area that doesn’t normally see the sun.

M: Yes! That’s a good way of putting it. But the difference here… and I remember the video that you mentioned, I remember seeing that, where the rocket as it was, the firework was facing outwards.

L: Uh huh.

M: Okay? This guy had put the rocket facing inwards.

L: Oooooh!

M; I think the idea was…yeah the idea was…

L: To shoot it?

M: Well, I think he wanted to make it look like “Hey, look I’ve got, ummm, I’m a rocket-powered guy!?? You know…

L: Oh dear!

M: …it was propelling him forwards, but unfortunately it didn’t quite work out and the rocket propelled itself into him.

L: Okay so he wanted to make it look like he was shooting flames out of his nether regions…

M: That’s right, that’s right but…

L: And it actually went inside and…

M: It went inside him, yeah.

L: Oh my gosh!

M: And this, I mean, this was on the national news in England, I mean how embarrassing would that be?

L: Oh yeah, did they have his name?

M: Ummm…

L: Can you imagine applying for a job after something like that, if your name had been…? And, umm, ‘cause that’s the kind of thing people will pass around as well, “Oh look at the stupid thing THIS guy did!??

M: Well I’m never going to forget that, that’s

L: Yeah that’s horrifying. I mean even the first one was horrible, I mean…how, why do people do such stupid things?

M: That was the…yeah…The thing that really struck me is “What were they thinking???

L: Yeah, what were they thinking? And how can you even get past the age of… three… and not understand that sticking a firecracker or rocket, you know, up your…

M: Up your bum.

L: Yeah! That’s just not a good idea! How does this happen?

M: Well, I don’t know I think, ummm, I mean, it’s okay in cartoons!

L: Is that it? That they can’t, that they really just don’t have a concept of, “Wow, these are flames and, and, you know, flames can burn you, and this is a sensitive area, and even a tiny, tiny little flame would just really not be very nice to have…???

M: Well, when you were, when you were young, at sch- I mean at school, ummm didn’t you ever have, ummm, things like the fire brigade come and tell you about these things? Because…

L: Oh yeah, yeah, the firefighters would come.

M: Because we have, ummm, Bonfire Night every year, traditional for letting off fireworks November the fifth… Just a few days before, the fire brigade for the different local fire brigades would go around to all the schools in Britain and you would have a lecture and they would show a video or slides, a slideshow, showing you the dangers of fireworks. And they would really hit it home. I mean we were told year after year after year that you…all these ground rules…and I can still remember them now. I mean, that you never hold a firework, you know, when you light… you don’t…If you light a firework and it doesn’t go off, you don’t go back to it.

L: Oh right, yeah.

M: You know, you leave it, because, just because you can’t see the flame burning on the blue touchpaper doesn’t mean it’s not going to go off.

L: Right

M: You never carry fireworks in your pocket. You never throw fireworks.

L: Right

M: This stuff, you know, they couldn’t have been stricter about it. I guess they still do that now; they must do that now.

L: Mmm

M: But maybe people just think they’re invincible.

L: Yeah, I guess so, because that to me is just so obvious that that’s just not a good idea.

M: Sure, I mean, the guy in the video actually pulled his pants down, and…

L: Yeah I remember.

M: Terrible.

L: That was, it was so horrifying to watch, I remember…

M: Yeah yeah

L: …just thinking, “Oh my god,?? and “What happened to the poor guy??? And at the same time it serves him right, you know, for being such an idiot.

M: I still can’t believe he actually did it.

L: I know, me neither!

Final words
Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Real English Conversations at BetterAtEnglish.com. Remember, I love your feedback: you can email me at [email address], or call the voice mail line at 206 350 2283 and leave a message, ask a question, suggest a topic, or whatever you like. And remember, if you get value from my work, then share the love by leaving a donation. Don’t leave it up to other people…be the first to show your generosity! If enough people donate, I can a use a transcription service to reduce my workload and post more frequent podcasts. Heck, if all subscribers donated 10 dollars per YEAR, I could quit my day job and do B@E full time. Hmm, a girl’s gotta dream a dream…

Links
Stupid bum rocket video (view at your own risk, it’s vulgar and disgusting)

BBC article about a stupid idiot and what he did with a rocket on Guy Fawkes night

See the Darwin Awards website for a compendium of human idiocy.

Vocabulary list

going around
If something is going around it is being passed from person to person or from place to place.

email forwards
emails that people copy and send to their friends, usually because they are funny, entertaining, or interesting

burned in my memory
If something is burned in/into your memory (or mind), you have a strong, vivid memory of it.

no pun intended
If what you say is a pun that you didn’t intend, you excuse yourself by saying “no pun intended.??

Darwin Awards
The Darwin Awards are given by an organization that “salute[s] the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it…ensuring that the next generation is one idiot smarter. Of necessity, this award is generally bestowed posthumously.” See http://www.darwinawards.com. In short, an award for killing yourself by doing something ridiculously stupid, thus removing yourself from the human gene pool (so you can’t pass on your stupid gene to your children).

Bonfire Night
Another name for Guy Fawkes Night. “In Britain, the evening of November 5th when models of men, called guys, are burned on large fires outside and there are firework displays. This is in memory of the failed attempt by Guy Fawkes to destroy the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605 with explosives.”

Inserted
If you insert A into B, you put A inside B.

see the sun
In this context, to see the sun means to be exposed to sunlight. In Western culture, the buttocks (bum (Br. E), rear end, posterior, derrière, butt, etc.) are usually covered by clothing (that is, not exposed to sunlight). Because the buttocks are usually not considered polite to mention, there are lots of euphemisms for talking about that body part. You might also hear the phrase “stick it where the sun don’t shine.” This does not mean “put it in your pocket”; it is a rude and vulgar way to angrily disagree with someone.

facing
If A is facing B, is turned toward(s) B.

propelling
To propel something means to push it or move it somewhere, usually with a lot of force.

work out
In this context, to work out is a phrasal verb meaning to be successful or to achieve the desired result.

nether regions
A euphemism for the male and female body parts that are usually covered by underwear (the buttocks and genitalia).

Oh my gosh!
An informal exclamation of surprise or other strong feelings.

did they have his name?
Did they have his name? in this case means Was the man’s name published in the news article?
In authentic, natural conversations, speakers often omit details because they assume that their interlocutor (the person they are speaking to) has enough background information to fill in the blanks.

pass around
In this case, pass around means be inclined to talk or gossip about.

horrifying
If something is horrifying, it makes you feel a strong sense of horror or shock.

horrible
If something is horrible, it is very unpleasant or bad.

struck
(From the verb strike) If something strikes you, it causes you to feel strongly about it, to think deeply about it, or to remember it.

sticking (sth up)
In this context, to stick something up something means to insert it into certain bodily orifices. The man in the BBC story stuck a rocket up a bodily orifice where it did not belong. You often see little children sticking their fingers up their noses. But you stick something in your mouth or ear.

cartoons
Usually funny or amusing films made using animated (drawn) characters and images rather than real actors.

fire brigade
(Br. E). The organization that is responsible for stopping unwanted fires. In Am.E, fire department)

firefighters
(Am. E.) A firefighter is a man or woman whose job is to stop unwanted fires (usually as part of the fire department or fire brigade). It is the gender-neutral form of fireman. Apparently, the term fireman is still quite common in Br. E.

letting off
To let off a firework or rocket means to fire it or make it explode.

go around
To travel from place to place

hit it home
If you hit something home it means you make your point about something in a way that makes people understand it. If something hits home for you, it means that caused you to realize and understand it.

ground rules
Basic principles or rules about something, usually about how you are supposed to behave.

go off
In this context, to explode. If a firework doesn’t go off, it doesn’t explode.

go back
To go back to something means to return to it

touchpaper
(Br. E.) a small piece of (usually blue) paper on one end of a firework, which you light in order to start the firework burning. In Am. E this is usually called the fuse.

stricter
If you are strict about something, you make it very clear that there will be severe consequences if someone disobeys you or doesn’t follow your rules.

invincible
impossible to defeat, harm or injure

poor
In this case, an adjective that shows that you think the person (or thing) you are describing deserves sympathy.

it serves him right
If you say it serves somebody right, it means that you think the person deserved what happened.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: What was he thinking?

Transcript

Hi, Lori here with another hot, steaming fresh edition of Real English Conversations. Remember, you can find the full transcript at our website, Better at English dot com.

As you can hear, my cold is almost better now. Thanks to Katja and Marco for the nice get well wishes!

Today’s conversation is between me and my friend Michael. We discuss my annoying neighbor and his habit of playing a very irritating song at very high volume, usually on Friday and Saturday evenings. I’m pretty sure it’s a live version, too, so it’s much longer than the original, thus extending my torture.

My best guess is that he plays it to get himself in the party mood. Here in Sweden, people usually “party” at home, that is, sit around and drink with their friends and make a lot of noise, until around 11 pm. After that, they go out to the bars, pubs and clubs. I think that’s because in Sweden, it’s so darn expensive to buy drinks when you’re out. So it’s good to drink a load of cheap alcohol at home to get a good healthy buzz going before you out on the town. I’m telling you this as a form of public service announcement in case you ever decide to come to Sweden. Now you know what to do when it’s time to party…

Right then! Let’s get on with it: here’s the conversation.

Conversation transcript

Michael: So, do you live in a house or an apartment?

Lori: I live in an apartment.

M: Okay but, but I thought you said that you were a musician? How do you get around playing your music when you live in an apartment?

L: Well, well, I’m lucky because, umm, with the equipment I use – I can use headphones to practice so I don’t need to make a lot of noise and, and bother the neighbors.

M: Okay, that’s good because that’s, that’s yeah, that, I would think that would be a problem for somebody playing music.

L: Oh man, tell me about it! I have this neighbor — I’m not sure which one it is, if he’s the one directly above me or if he’s on one of the adjoining apartments, but every weekend – Friday, five, six p.m. he’s getting ready to party. And the way he gets ready to party — You know that song “Relax” by…who who’s that, what, “Relax”?

M: Frankie Goes To Hollywood? That one?

L: Oh my God, yeah yeah yeah… yeah

M: From the 80s?

L: Yeah [sings] “Relax, don’t do it…” You know that song?

M: I’m afraid I do.

L: He blasts that song so loud. Like, over and over and over again. Every weekend. And it drives me crazy. And…

M: I, I guess that’s his “getting-ready-to-go-out” music.

L: It must be. But it’s SO annoying. I mean, ANY song but “Relax”!

Vocabulary list

Get around

Used this way, to get around means to avoid or solve a problem. Lori gets around the problem of making noise that would annoy the neighbors by using headphones when she practices.

Bother

If you bother someone, you annoy, irritate, or disturb them.

Tell me about it!

If someone tells you something that you agree strongly with, you can say “Tell me about it!” You often say this before you start talking about your own experiences with the topic, just like Lori does here.

Adjoining

Very near, next to, or touching. Lori means the apartments (flats) that are next to hers, the ones that share dividing walls.

Party

The word party can be used as a verb. When someone from southern California talks about partying, they mean engaging in adult-type parties, usually involving lots of alcohol, music, and adult socializing.

I’m afraid

A synonym for “unfortunately.” Michael means that he is not happy about knowing the song Relax, probably because he hates the song.

Blasts

To blast something means (in this case) to play audio at very high volume. Lori’s neighbor blasts the song “Relax” on his stereo. (Sometimes she gets her revenge by blasting Rammstein.) She has another neighbor whose TV is always blasting Dr. Phil (the TV show) in the afternoons.

Drives me crazy

If something drives you crazy, it makes you feel extremely irritated, frustrated, annoyed, or angry.

Must

Lori uses the modal verb must to show that she is very confident that she knows the truth about her neighbor’s reason for blasting “Relax,” but not 100% sure.

Any song but “Relax”

The Any X but Y construction means that you would prefer any X to Y. Lori would prefer her neighbor to play any song but the “Relax.”

Thanks for checking out this edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. Before I sign off, I’ve got a couple of favors to ask. I recently posted a question on the website, asking my site visitors about their favorite books in English. It would be great if you listeners could stop by the website and post your favorite books in the comments section, or just send me an email and let me know. I mainly read a lot of heavy, dry non-fiction, so I’m not very good at recommending light reading for pleasure. So I’d really value the input from all you non-native speaker listeners out there.

My second favor is this: I wonder how my listeners would feel if there was some mild swear words in the podcast. I don’t mean gross profanity or the F word or anything like that, but just normal everyday swear words that you might run across in everyday conversation. I think it’s important for you to be aware of these words and understand them as part of your all-round education in conversational English. But I would hate to post something that would offend my listeners. So please email me at info at better a English dot com or go to the website and comment and let me know what you think. I’d really appreciate your input!

That’s all for today — see you next time!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: noisy neighbors

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/real-english-conversations-noisy-neighbors/feed/ 16 4:59 Transcript Hi, Lori here with another hot, steaming fresh edition of Real English Conversations. Remember, you can find the full transcript at our website, Better at ... Transcript Hi, Lori here with another hot, steaming fresh edition of Real English Conversations. Remember, you can find the full transcript at our website, Better at English dot com. As you can hear, my cold is almost better now. Thanks to Katja and Marco for the nice get well wishes! Today's conversation is between me and my friend Michael. We discuss my annoying neighbor and his habit of playing a very irritating song at very high volume, usually on Friday and Saturday evenings. I'm pretty sure it's a live version, too, so it's much longer than the original, thus extending my torture. My best guess is that he plays it to get himself in the party mood. Here in Sweden, people usually "party" at home, that is, sit around and drink with their friends and make a lot of noise, until around 11 pm. After that, they go out to the bars, pubs and clubs. I think that's because in Sweden, it's so darn expensive to buy drinks when you're out. So it's good to drink a load of cheap alcohol at home to get a good healthy buzz going before you out on the town. I'm telling you this as a form of public service announcement in case you ever decide to come to Sweden. Now you know what to do when it's time to party... Right then! Let's get on with it: here's the conversation. Conversation transcript Michael: So, do you live in a house or an apartment? Lori: I live in an apartment. M: Okay but, but I thought you said that you were a musician? How do you get around playing your music when you live in an apartment? L: Well, well, I'm lucky because, umm, with the equipment I use ndash; I can use headphones to practice so I don't need to make a lot of noise and, and bother the neighbors. M: Okay, that's good because that's, that's yeah, that, I would think that would be a problem for somebody playing music. L: Oh man, tell me about it! I have this neighbor -- I'm not sure which one it is, if he's the one directly above me or if he's on one of the adjoining apartments, but every weekend ndash; Friday, five, six p.m. he's getting ready to party. And the way he gets ready to party -- You know that song "Relax" by...who who's that, what, ldquo;Relax"? M: Frankie Goes To Hollywood? That one? L: Oh my God, yeah yeah yeahhellip; yeah M: From the 80s? L: Yeah [sings] "Relax, don't do it..." You know that song? M: I'm afraid I do. L: He blasts that song so loud. Like, over and over and over again. Every weekend. And it drives me crazy. Andhellip; M: I, I guess that's his "getting-ready-to-go-out" music. L: It must be. But it's SO annoying. I mean, ANY song but "Relax"! Vocabulary list Get around Used this way, to get around means to avoid or solve a problem. Lori gets around the problem of making noise that would annoy the neighbors by using headphones when she practices. Bother If you bother someone, you annoy, irritate, or disturb them. Tell me about it! If someone tells you something that you agree strongly with, you can say ldquo;Tell me about it!" You often say this before you start talking about your own experiences with the topic, just like Lori does here. Adjoining Very near, next to, or touching. Lori means the apartments (flats) that are next to hers, the ones that share dividing walls. Party The word party can be used as a verb. When someone from southern California talks about partying, they mean engaging in adult-type parties, usually involving lots of alcohol, music, and adult socializing. Irsquo;m afraid A synonym for ldquo;unfortunately." Michael means that he is not happy about knowing the song Relax, probably because he hates the song. Blasts To blast something means (in this case) to play audio at very high volume. Lorirsquo;s neighbor blasts the song ldquo;Relax" on his stereo. (Sometimes she gets her revenge by blasting Rammstein.) She has another neighbor whose TV is always blasting Dr. Phil (the TV show) in the afternoons. Dr... General,silliness,,Intermediate,,Listening,,Real,English,conversations BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/real-english-conversations-office-pranks/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/real-english-conversations-office-pranks/#comments Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:16:27 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/real-english-conversations-office-pranks/ Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Office Pranks

]]>

Transcript

Hello and Welcome to another edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. This is Lori comin’ atcha from the Better at English studios here in Southern Sweden, where as you might be able to tell, I’ve got a really bad cold. But hey, your learning is more important than my voice, so I’m going ahead and podcasting for you anyway. So before we get on with the conversation, I just want to say thanks very much to everyone who’s provided feedback about the show. I try to reply to everyone who emails a comment, but Franck in France and Mustafa in Turkey, there’s no way for me to reply to you when you send a text through the Mychingo site, so I’ll take the opportunity to thank you here for your nice comments about the show.

OK, without further ado, here comes another episode of Real English Conversations.

Conversation Transcript

Lori: I was browsing photos on the Internet the other day on Flickr and I’m not sure how I ended up there, but I saw this really funny thing. It was to do with office pranks. And apparently, some guy in some office was known for having, like, far too many Post-its posted all over his workstation on his computer…

Michael: Mmm hmm

Lori: …and for his birthday the people in the office had gotten together and completely papered his entire office with Post-its — it was like, some 47,000 Post-its or something posted all over his office in this multicolored rainbow. And there was this whole collection of different office pranks in this photo collection on Flickr. And I, I, you know, I don’t really have much experience working in an office, but you do, and I was wondering if you ever played office pranks at any time?

M: Most of the time that I was working in an office we were too busy working to dead— unrealistic deadlines to think about pulling pranks. And usually the, the people I was working for were rather strict and didn’t have much in the way of a sense of humor. So pulling office pranks isn’t something that we were…it was never on the agenda; we wouldn’t have got away with it.

L: Really? So there was no place for fun at all? In any of the—

M: Not really no. We were, seriously, we were too, I’m not exaggerating, it was very busy, always focused on the work, and always a very short deadline with a lot of work to do. So there were very few idle moments when you would be able to pull off a prank.

L: Oh…well, that’s too bad ’cause I think a little bit of fun in the workplace probably makes people happier and, and, and, and work better.

M: I would agree, that’s something that would’ve made things more enjoyable, perhaps.

L: I mean, you don’t want people goofing off all the time on company time but I think, you know, a few, a half an hour here and there with people having some fun, that in the long run you’d have more productive and happy employees.

M: Sure, yeah, I think that’s a fair comment.

---

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Real English Conversations. As always, you can find the full transcript of this podcast at our website, Better at English dot com. And from now on, there is also a PDF file of the transcript available for download at the website. Thanks to Arpad S for suggesting this feature.

So keep your questions and comments coming in — it totally makes my day to get feedback from listeners out there. And if you’re subscribed on iTunes, why not log in and leave a review now? That would be awesome! Good luck with your learning, and we’ll see you next time. Bye for now!

Vocabulary

browsing

looking thorough something (like a book, a website, or a collection of photos) without any specific plan

ended up

to end up somewhere is to finally be in a particular place or situation

to do with

if A is to do with B, then A is connected to B.

apparently

You can use the word “apparently” to show that you have some doubt about what you have heard or read.

Post-its

A Post-it is the brand name of small note papers with a sticky strip on the back that allows you to stick it to objects. Like the image in the transcript above.

some

Used this way, “some” means “about” or “approximately”

deadlines

a deadline is the date that a project or piece of work is due.

prank

A prank is a trick that is meant to be funny or amusing, not hurt anyone or cause damage

pulling pranks

to “pull a prank” is to do, carry out, or execute a prank

sense of humor

If you have a sense of humor, you are able to see things as funny or amusing

on the agenda

An agenda is a formal list of points to be discussed at a meeting. But informally, if you say that something is “on the agenda” it means that it’s something important or something that you plan to do

got away with

If you get away with something, it means that you do something you aren’t allowed to do and nobody catches you

exaggerating

If you exaggerate, it means that you make something seem larger or more important than it really is

short deadline

Deadlines can be long or short. A long deadline means that you have a lot of time to get your task done. A short deadline means that you have little time

idle

If you are idle, it means that you don’t have anything to do. It can also be a synonym for “lazy”

goofing off

If you are goofing off (or goofing around) at work you are avoiding work and just doing silly or amusing things

in the long run

at a time far away in the future

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Real English Conversations: Office Pranks

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/real-english-conversations-office-pranks/feed/ 1 4:11 Transcript Hello and Welcome to another edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. This is Lori comin' atcha from the Better ... Transcript Hello and Welcome to another edition of Real English Conversations here at Better at English dot com. This is Lori comin' atcha from the Better at English studios here in Southern Sweden, where as you might be able to tell, I've got a really bad cold. But hey, your learning is more important than my voice, so I'm going ahead and podcasting for you anyway. So before we get on with the conversation, I just want to say thanks very much to everyone who's provided feedback about the show. I try to reply to everyone who emails a comment, but Franck in France and Mustafa in Turkey, there's no way for me to reply to you when you send a text through the Mychingo site, so I'll take the opportunity to thank you here for your nice comments about the show. OK, without further ado, here comes another episode of Real English Conversations. Conversation Transcript Lori: I was browsing photos on the Internet the other day on Flickr and I'm not sure how I ended up there, but I saw this really funny thing. It was to do with office pranks. And apparently, some guy in some office was known for having, like, far too many Post-its posted all over his workstation on his computer... Michael: Mmm hmm Lori: ...and for his birthday the people in the office had gotten together and completely papered his entire office with Post-its #8212; it was like, some 47,000 Post-its or something posted all over his office in this multicolored rainbow. And there was this whole collection of different office pranks in this photo collection on Flickr. And I, I, you know, I don't really have much experience working in an office, but you do, and I was wondering if you ever played office pranks at any time? M: Most of the time that I was working in an office we were too busy working to dead#8212; unrealistic deadlines to think about pulling pranks. And usually the, the people I was working for were rather strict and didn't have much in the way of a sense of humor. So pulling office pranks isn't something that we were...it was never on the agenda; we wouldn't have got away with it. L: Really? So there was no place for fun at all? In any of the#8212; M: Not really no. We were, seriously, we were too, I'm not exaggerating, it was very busy, always focused on the work, and always a very short deadline with a lot of work to do. So there were very few idle moments when you would be able to pull off a prank. L: Oh...well, that's too bad 'cause I think a little bit of fun in the workplace probably makes people happier and, and, and, and work better. M: I would agree, that's something that would've made things more enjoyable, perhaps. L: I mean, you don't want people goofing off all the time on company time but I think, you know, a few, a half an hour here and there with people having some fun, that in the long run you'd have more productive and happy employees. M: Sure, yeah, I think that's a fair comment. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Real English Conversations. As always, you can find the full transcript of this podcast at our website, Better at English dot com. And from now on, there is also a PDF file of the transcript available for download at the website. Thanks to Arpad S for suggesting this feature. So keep your questions and comments coming in #8212; it totally makes my day to get feedback from listeners out there. And if you're subscribed on iTunes, why not log in and leave a review now? That would be awesome! Good luck with your learning, and we'll see you next time. Bye for now! Vocabulary browsing looking thorough something (like a book, a website, or a collection of photos) without any specific plan ended up to end up somewhere is to finally be in a particular place or situation to do with if A is to do with B, then A is connected to B. apparently You can use the word "apparently" to show that you have some doubt about what you have heard or read. Post-its A Post-it is the bran General,silliness,,Intermediate,,Listening,,Real,English,conversations BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-for-spending-money-unwillingly/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-for-spending-money-unwillingly/#comments Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:58:17 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-for-spending-money-unwillingly/ Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

phrasal verbs: spending money unwillingly for boring stuff you don’t want

]]>

Transcript

Hi and welcome to Better at English!

Do you ever have to pay for things that you wish you didn’t have to spend money on? For example, if you get a parking ticket, do you enjoy paying the fine? If your computer breaks, do you enjoy buying new parts for it or having to pay to have it fixed? If it’s been a really hot summer, do you like paying for that huge electric bill you got because you had to run your AC so much just to keep yourself from melting in the heat? I sure don’t like having to pay for those things. In fact, it’s a real drag to have to fork over my hard-earned cash to pay for boring things like that.

Today we have an upper intermediate lesson for you, and a slightly different, longer format than our normal two-minute English podcasts.

We’re going to look at a group of phrasal verbs that all have the meaning of to unwillingly or reluctantly pay for something. What do reluctant and unwilling mean? Well, if you’re reluctant or unwilling to do something, it means you don’t want to do it.

I’ll say each phrasal verb twice slowly so that you can listen and repeat:

to shell out

to fork out

to fork over

to fork up

to cough up

Meaning

All of these phrasal verbs have the idea of reluctance or unwillingness built into them. You can use them when you have to pay for things that you aren’t happy about.

For instance, buying a sexy new laptop because it’s super cool, you really want it and don’t mind spending the money on it is one thing. But buying a new laptop because you spilled coffee all over your old one and ruined it beyond repair is something you probably wouldn’t be too happy about.

If you use an attitude-revealing phrasal verb like to cough up or to fork out instead of a neutral verb like to spend or to buy or to pay for, you let the listener know not only that you spent some money, but also how you feel about spending the money: in this case, it made you feel unhappy, unwilling or reluctant.

To fork over and to fork up are a bit broader in meaning than the other three in this group. We mainly use to fork over and to fork up about spending money, but you can also use these two to talk about having to give people things in general. For example, if your annoying little brother Nigel has taken something of yours, you want him to give it back, and you know he won’t be happy about it, you can tell him:

Hey Nigel, that’s mine! Fork it over!

This means, “Hey Nigel, that’s mine. Give it to me.” Of course, you could also ask him a bit more politely: “Excuse me, Nigel. Would you mind giving that back to me?” But sometimes the more direct approach works better with annoying little brothers.

Usage

These five phrasal verbs are all separable. That means that you can put objects between the mighty VERB and its cute little adverb or preposition friend. So you can say, for example,

to shell out money or to shell money out

to fork over 50 dollars or to fork 50 dollars over

to cough up a lot of cash or to cough a lot of cash up

to fork out two billion dollars or to fork two billion dollars out

Just remember that when you have separable phrasal verbs and pronoun objects, you always put the pronoun between the verb and adverb or preposition. So you say

Cough it up! Shell it out! Fork it over! Fork it out!

But not

Cough up it. Shell out it.. etc. [Your can find a concise overview of the do's and don'ts of phrasal verbs here link ].

Even though you can separate these verbs and still be grammatical, native speakers prefer to keep them together. It’s far more frequent to say something like “Darn! We’ll have to shell out 500 dollars for a new printer” than to say “Darn! We’ll have to shell 500 dollars out for a new printer.” It’s definitely not WRONG to separate, but it’s more common not to.

Authentic example

Here are seven authentic example sentences for you to investigate. Do you notice any usage patterns, like which prepositions are used?

1. So, the tax payer is asked to shell billions of dollars out to try and fix this mistake of a war and Bush decides to go ahead and throw a party? [ link] [this is an example of a rare separable use of this phrasal verb]

2. In June, BT said it owned the patent to hyperlinks and wanted ISPs in the US to cough up hard cash for the privilege of using them. [link ]

3. The county is facing the prospect of having to cough up well more than $2 million to renovate the dilapidated facility, which has been decertified by the Tennessee Corrections Institute for failing to comply with the state’s minimum standards for local jails. [link ]

4. Five big Wall Street brokerages coughed up $8.25 million in fines in December for failing to preserve electronic messages, as securities rules require. [ link ]

5. Employees in some U.S. metropolitan areas may soon be forking over nearly 10% of their salary for gas needed to commute to and from work. [ link ]

6. …he doesn’t have any money because he’s had to fork it over to all his ex-wives [link ]

7. No way am I forking out $100 or whatever insane price they want for it. [ link ]

Finally, the phrasal verbs we’ve looked at here today are often used in combination with to have to for obligation — when have to means must. Like in example 3:

The county is facing the process of having to cough up…

or in example 6: He doesn’t have any money because he’s had to fork it over…

Combining phrasal verbs like fork over or cough up with have to really emphasizes the idea of unwillingness, don’t you think?

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of Better at English! Here’s hoping that you won’t have to fork over any of your hard-earned cash on anything dull or boring in the near future; only fun things, cool things, things that make you happy! See you next time!

Look up these phrasal verbs in the dictionary
to shell out
to fork out
to fork up/over
to cough up

Note: The opinions expressed in the authentic example sentences do not necessarily reflect our views here at Better At English. They are provided in the sole interest of giving learners a variety of examples of real-life, authentic English usage.

payday loans when money is tight

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

phrasal verbs: spending money unwillingly for boring stuff you don’t want

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-for-spending-money-unwillingly/feed/ 0 8:13 Transcript Hi and welcome to Better at English! Do you ever have to pay for things that you wish you didn't have to spend money on? For ... Transcript Hi and welcome to Better at English! Do you ever have to pay for things that you wish you didn't have to spend money on? For example, if you get a parking ticket, do you enjoy paying the fine? If your computer breaks, do you enjoy buying new parts for it or having to pay to have it fixed? If it's been a really hot summer, do you like paying for that huge electric bill you got because you had to run your AC so much just to keep yourself from melting in the heat? I sure don't like having to pay for those things. In fact, it's a real drag to have to fork over my hard-earned cash to pay for boring things like that. Today we have an upper intermediate lesson for you, and a slightly different, longer format than our normal two-minute English podcasts. Wersquo;re going to look at a group of phrasal verbs that all have the meaning of to unwillingly or reluctantly pay for something. What do reluctant and unwilling mean? Well, if you're reluctant or unwilling to do something, it means you don't want to do it. I'll say each phrasal verb twice slowly so that you can listen and repeat: to shell out to fork out to fork over to fork up to cough up Meaning All of these phrasal verbs have the idea of reluctance or unwillingness built into them. You can use them when you have to pay for things that you aren't happy about. For instance, buying a sexy new laptop because it's super cool, you really want it and don't mind spending the money on it is one thing. But buying a new laptop because you spilled coffee all over your old one and ruined it beyond repair is something you probably wouldn't be too happy about. If you use an attitude-revealing phrasal verb like to cough up or to fork out instead of a neutral verb like to spend or to buy or to pay for, you let the listener know not only that you spent some money, but also how you feel about spending the money: in this case, it made you feel unhappy, unwilling or reluctant. To fork over and to fork up are a bit broader in meaning than the other three in this group. We mainly use to fork over and to fork up about spending money, but you can also use these two to talk about having to give people things in general. For example, if your annoying little brother Nigel has taken something of yours, you want him to give it back, and you know he won't be happy about it, you can tell him: Hey Nigel, that's mine! Fork it over! This means, "Hey Nigel, that's mine. Give it to me." Of course, you could also ask him a bit more politely: "Excuse me, Nigel. Would you mind giving that back to me?" But sometimes the more direct approach works better with annoying little brothers. ;-) Usage These five phrasal verbs are all separable. That means that you can put objects between the mighty VERB and its cute little adverb or preposition friend. So you can say, for example, to shell out money or to shell money out to fork over 50 dollars or to fork 50 dollars over to cough up a lot of cash or to cough a lot of cash up to fork out two billion dollars or to fork two billion dollars out Just remember that when you have separable phrasal verbs and pronoun objects, you always put the pronoun between the verb and adverb or preposition. So you say Cough it up! Shell it out! Fork it over! Fork it out! But not Cough up it. Shell out it.. etc. [Your can find a concise overview of the do's and don'ts of phrasal verbs here link ]. Even though you can separate these verbs and still be grammatical, native speakers prefer to keep them together. It's far more frequent to say something like "Darn! We'll have to shell out 500 dollars for a new printer" than to say "Darn! We'll have to shell 500 dollars out for a new printer." It's definitely not WRONG to separate, but it's more common not to. Authentic example Here are seven authentic example sentences for you to investigate. Do you notice any usage patterns, like which preposition... 2-minute,English,,Intermediate,,Listening,,Phrasal,verbs BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-to-ramp-something-up/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-to-ramp-something-up/#comments Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:49:02 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-to-ramp-something-up/ Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Phrasal Verbs: to ramp (something) up

]]>
This edition of 2-minute English is in response to an email question from Mei, a Better At English listener in China. She asked about the meaning of the phrase, to ramp (something) up.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to 2 minute English, brought to you by Better At English dot com.

Today’s phrase is to ramp something up.

To ramp something up.

To meet the demand for our widgets, we have to ramp up production to 100 000 units per week.

We need to ramp up our customer service if we want to stay competitive.

To ramp something up.

Meaning

To ramp something up means to increase it or do more of it. A business can ramp up an activity, such as production. It can also ramp up things in general, such as speed: Intel has ramped up the speed of its processors yet again (surprise, surprise!).

Usage

To ramp up something or ramp something up is a separable phrasal verb that follows this pattern — you can say:

We ramped up our production by 100%.
We ramped our production up by 100%.
We ramped it up by 100%.

But you can’t say

We ramped up it by 100%. [incorrect]

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example is from CNN:

"The fourth-quarter demand is higher than anticipated so we have to ramp up holiday production," said Harold Chizick, spokesman with Ontario-based toymaker Spin Master. "But because of the labor issue in China, it could be difficult to increase production [of some products] the further we get into the holiday season."

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of 2-minute English. We’ll see you next time!

Look up to ramp something up in the dictionary.

Investigate how to ramp something up is used.

Would you like us to ramp up anything in particular here at Better at English? Just get in touch and let us know! Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

Phrasal Verbs: to ramp (something) up

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/phrasal-verbs-to-ramp-something-up/feed/ 0 2:04 This edition of 2-minute English is in response to an email question from Mei, a Better At English listener in China. She asked about the ... This edition of 2-minute English is in response to an email question from Mei, a Better At English listener in China. She asked about the meaning of the phrase, to ramp (something) up. Transcript Hello and welcome to 2 minute English, brought to you by Better At English dot com. Todayrsquo;s phrase is to ramp something up. To ramp something up. To meet the demand for our widgets, we have to ramp up production to 100 000 units per week. We need to ramp up our customer service if we want to stay competitive. To ramp something up. Meaning To ramp something up means to increase it or do more of it. A business can ramp up an activity, such as production. It can also ramp up things in general, such as speed: Intel has ramped up the speed of its processors yet again (surprise, surprise!). Usage To ramp up something or ramp something up is a separable phrasal verb that follows this pattern #8212; you can say: We ramped up our production by 100%. We ramped our production up by 100%. We ramped it up by 100%. But you can't say We ramped up it by 100%. [incorrect] Authentic example Today's authentic example is from CNN: #34;The fourth-quarter demand is higher than anticipated so we have to ramp up holiday production,#34; said Harold Chizick, spokesman with Ontario-based toymaker Spin Master. #34;But because of the labor issue in China, it could be difficult to increase production [of some products] the further we get into the holiday season.#34; Thanks for tuning in to this edition of 2-minute English. We'll see you next time! Look up to ramp something up in the dictionary. Investigate how to ramp something up is used. Would you like us to ramp up anything in particular here at Better at English? Just get in touch and let us know! Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease! 2-minute,English,,Intermediate,,Listening,,Phrasal,verbs BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-deal-with-something/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-deal-with-something/#comments Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:01:08 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-deal-with-something/ to deal with. The government proposed a treaty designed to deal with the problem of global warming.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

idioms: to deal with (something)

]]>

Transcript

Welcome to 2-minute English, brought to you by Better at English dot com.
Today’s phrase is to deal with.

The government proposed a treaty designed to deal with the problem of global warming.

There is far more information available today than people can deal with

To deal with.

Meaning

To deal with something means to do something, to take action to achieve something. We often talk about dealing with problems, issues, or concerns. For example, many business people need to learn to deal with stress. They need to learn to do something to help them manage their stress so it isn’t a problem for them anymore.

To deal with something can also mean to be about something. For example, this website deals with English. It’s about English.

You can also say “to deal with someone.” To deal with someone means to talk to a person about something. It’s usually something unpleasant or difficult. For example, public relations specialists deal with dissatisfied customers. Or, a manager may need to deal with an employee who is unpleasant or who’s doing a very bad job.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example is from the BBC Online:

[Bill Thompson says:]

Speaking at the RSA Security conference last week, [Bill] Gates admitted that Microsoft has ‘an overly complex system today’, and promised a simpler, easier and safer model for future Windows users.

It’s a compelling vision, and since I’ve argued repeatedly that we need to deal with the problem of how we tie our real-world identities to our online activities, I have to support Microsoft’s new-found interest in the issue.

That wraps up this edition of two-minute English. We’ll see you next time here at Better at English dot com.

Look up to deal with in the dictionary.

See how to deal with is used.

	PROTECT YOUR FAMILY GET QUOTE Mortgage Home Insurance UK Policy Insurance Quotes

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

idioms: to deal with (something)

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-deal-with-something/feed/ 3 2:22 Transcript Welcome to 2-minute English, brought to you by Better at English dot com. Todayrsquo;s phrase is to deal with. The government proposed a treaty designed to deal ... Transcript Welcome to 2-minute English, brought to you by Better at English dot com. Todayrsquo;s phrase is to deal with. The government proposed a treaty designed to deal with the problem of global warming. There is far more information available today than people can deal with To deal with. Meaning To deal with something means to do something, to take action to achieve something. We often talk about dealing with problems, issues, or concerns. For example, many business people need to learn to deal with stress. They need to learn to do something to help them manage their stress so it isn't a problem for them anymore. To deal with something can also mean to be about something. For example, this website deals with English. It's about English. You can also say "to deal with someone." To deal with someone means to talk to a person about something. It's usually something unpleasant or difficult. For example, public relations specialists deal with dissatisfied customers. Or, a manager may need to deal with an employee who is unpleasant or who's doing a very bad job. Authentic example Today's authentic example is from the BBC Online: [Bill Thompson says:] Speaking at the RSA Security conference last week, [Bill] Gates admitted that Microsoft has 'an overly complex system today', and promised a simpler, easier and safer model for future Windows users. It's a compelling vision, and since I've argued repeatedly that we need to deal with the problem of how we tie our real-world identities to our online activities, I have to support Microsoft's new-found interest in the issue. That wraps up this edition of two-minute English. We'll see you next time here at Better at English dot com. Look up to deal with in the dictionary. See how to deal with is used. PROTECT YOUR FAMILY GET QUOTE Mortgage Home Insurance UK Policy Insurance Quotes 2-minute,English,,Idioms,and,slang,,Intermediate,,Listening BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-keep-track-of-something/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-keep-track-of-something/#comments Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:26:47 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-keep-track-of-something/ Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

idioms: to keep track (of something)

]]>

Transcript

2-minute English is brought to you by Better at English dot com.

Today’s phrase is to keep track (of something).

Most business people use a calendar to keep track of their appointments.

If you travel on business, you need to keep track of your expenses so the company can reimburse you when you come home.

To keep track of something.

Meaning

If you keep track of something, you make sure to know about what is happening (or has happened) to it. You can keep track of things or people. The opposite is to “lose track of something.”

Usage

Keep is an irregular verb: keep kept kept.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example comes from The Boston Globe Online:

Ask Wendy Bellissimo, who designs nurseries for celebrities, what an organized day for her looks like — it’s filled with equally urgent priorities and huge chunks of unstructured time.

Each night, she makes a to-do list and checks her calendar for the next day. She keeps a pen and paper next to her bed to jot down thoughts that wake her up at night.

She keeps track of all tasks and appointments on her PDA, which beeps throughout the day with reminders.

And that’s all for this edition of 2-minute English. We’ll see you next time here at Better at English dot com.

Look up to keep track of something in the dictionary.

See how to keep track of something is used.

	UK Life Insurance Quotes Click Here Visit Now Payment Protection Insurance Cover

My Odeo Channel (odeo/3d438bc809d6d3af)

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

idioms: to keep track (of something)

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/idioms-to-keep-track-of-something/feed/ 0 1:49 Transcript 2-minute English is brought to you by Better at English dot com. Todayrsquo;s phrase is to keep track (of something). Most business people use a calendar to ... Transcript 2-minute English is brought to you by Better at English dot com. Todayrsquo;s phrase is to keep track (of something). Most business people use a calendar to keep track of their appointments. If you travel on business, you need to keep track of your expenses so the company can reimburse you when you come home. To keep track of something. Meaning If you keep track of something, you make sure to know about what is happening (or has happened) to it. You can keep track of things or people. The opposite is to "lose track of something." Usage Keep is an irregular verb: keep kept kept. Authentic example Today's authentic example comes from The Boston Globe Online: Ask Wendy Bellissimo, who designs nurseries for celebrities, what an organized day for her looks like -- it's filled with equally urgent priorities and huge chunks of unstructured time. Each night, she makes a to-do list and checks her calendar for the next day. She keeps a pen and paper next to her bed to jot down thoughts that wake her up at night. She keeps track of all tasks and appointments on her PDA, which beeps throughout the day with reminders. And that's all for this edition of 2-minute English. We'll see you next time here at Better at English dot com. Look up to keep track of something in the dictionary. See how to keep track of something is used. UK Life Insurance Quotes Click Here Visit Now Payment Protection Insurance Cover My Odeo Channel (odeo/3d438bc809d6d3af) 2-minute,English,,Idioms,and,slang,,Intermediate,,Listening BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-vocabulary-pointer/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-vocabulary-pointer/#comments Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:42:49 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-vocabulary-pointer/ Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English vocabulary: pointer

]]>

Transcript

Welcome to 2-minute English — real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms, and more! All in just two minutes a day.

Today’s word is "pointer."

Many of my students ask me for advice and pointers about how to improve their English.

Pointer

Meaning
A pointer is useful piece of advice about something. Pointers are often short and simple. Synonyms for pointer include “tip” and “bit of advice”

Examples

Could you give me a few pointers about how to set up my spam filter in Outlook?

Julie asked her boss for some pointers about dealing with difficult customers.

Pointer

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example comes from CNN:

[Mark Horstman] has co-founded a free web site called Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com) that offers down-to-earth, step-by-step pointers on what he calls “the blocking and tackling of management: how to coach, how to give feedback, how to run meetings, how to interview job applicants.” It’s a great resource for anyone seeking specific, detailed guidance — refreshingly free of buzzwords — on these and many other aspects of being a boss.

That’s all for 2-minute English for today. We’ll see you next time!

Look up pointer in the dictionary!

See how the word pointer is used.

life insurance home insurance online mortgages compare products

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English vocabulary: pointer

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-vocabulary-pointer/feed/ 2 1:53 Transcript Welcome to 2-minute English #8212; real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms, and more! All in just two minutes a ... Transcript Welcome to 2-minute English #8212; real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms, and more! All in just two minutes a day. Todayrsquo;s word is #34;pointer.#34; Many of my students ask me for advice and pointers about how to improve their English. Pointer Meaning A pointer is useful piece of advice about something. Pointers are often short and simple. Synonyms for pointer include "tip" and "bit of advice" Examples Could you give me a few pointers about how to set up my spam filter in Outlook? Julie asked her boss for some pointers about dealing with difficult customers. Pointer Authentic example Today's authentic example comes from CNN: [Mark Horstman] has co-founded a free web site called Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com) that offers down-to-earth, step-by-step pointers on what he calls "the blocking and tackling of management: how to coach, how to give feedback, how to run meetings, how to interview job applicants." It's a great resource for anyone seeking specific, detailed guidance #8212; refreshingly free of buzzwords #8212; on these and many other aspects of being a boss. That's all for 2-minute English for today. We'll see you next time! Look up pointer in the dictionary! See how the word pointer is used. life insurance home insurance online mortgages compare products 2-minute,English,,Intermediate,,Listening,,Vocabulary BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-screw-up/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-screw-up/#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 08:50:38 +0000 Lori http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-screw-up/ Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms: screw up

]]>
Welcome to 2 minute English, real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms and more—all in just two minutes a day. Brought to you by Better at English dot com.

Today we give you a two-for-one deal: the phrase to screw something up and the noun screw-up.

"I forgot what I was going to say and completely screwed up my presentation. It was so embarrassing!"

To screw something up.

Meaning

If you screw something up, it means you you make a mistake, damage something, or spoil something.

"What kind of punishment do you give to employees who screw up important projects?"

So, can you guess what it means if you call a person a screw-up?

"Bill is the only screw-up in a family of successes; it seems he can’t do anything right."

If you call someone a screw-up, it means that they are someone who makes a lot of mistakes or very bad decisions.

"Screw up" is also a synonym for a mistake, a blunder, or badly handled situation.

"Bill lost his job because his constant screw-ups were costing the company a fortune."

So Bill is a screw up, and he’s always screwing up!

Authentic Example

Today’s authentic example comes from the BBC Online:

Internet giant AOL has apologised for releasing the search queries of more than 650,000 of its US subscribers.

The company admitted the release to researchers was ‘a screw up’ and had breached the privacy of its users.

See how to screw something up is used.

See how the noun screw up is used.

Dictionary link for "screw up"

That’s all from 2-minute English for today; we’ll see you next time!

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms: screw up

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-screw-up/feed/ 3 2:26 Welcome to 2 minute English, real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms and moremdash;all in just two minutes a day. Brought ... Welcome to 2 minute English, real-life authentic examples that teach you business English vocabulary, slang, idioms and moremdash;all in just two minutes a day. Brought to you by Better at English dot com. Today we give you a two-for-one deal: the phrase to screw something up and the noun screw-up. #34;I forgot what I was going to say and completely screwed up my presentation. It was so embarrassing!#34; To screw something up. Meaning If you screw something up, it means you you make a mistake, damage something, or spoil something. #34;What kind of punishment do you give to employees who screw up important projects?#34; So, can you guess what it means if you call a person a screw-up? #34;Bill is the only screw-up in a family of successes; it seems he can't do anything right.#34; If you call someone a screw-up, it means that they are someone who makes a lot of mistakes or very bad decisions. #34;Screw up#34; is also a synonym for a mistake, a blunder, or badly handled situation. #34;Bill lost his job because his constant screw-ups were costing the company a fortune.#34; So Bill is a screw up, and he's always screwing up! Authentic Example Today's authentic example comes from the BBC Online: Internet giant AOL has apologised for releasing the search queries of more than 650,000 of its US subscribers. The company admitted the release to researchers was 'a screw up' and had breached the privacy of its users. See how to screw something up is used. See how the noun screw up is used. Dictionary link for #34;screw up#34; That's all from 2-minute English for today; we'll see you next time! 2-minute,English,,Idioms,and,slang,,Intermediate,,Listening BetterAtEnglish.com no No http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-to-make-a-killing/ http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-to-make-a-killing/#comments Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:41:21 +0000 Lori 2068429395 Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms – to make a killing

]]>

Transcript

This is Better at English dot com. Welcome to 2-minute English!

Today’s phrase is “to make a killing.”

“Her new business was a fantastic success; she made a killing in its first two months.”

To make a killing.

Meaning

To make a killing on something means that you make a LOT of money, usually on some kind of investment or business venture, and usually in a short period of time and without too much effort.

Usage

When you talk about making a killing, it’s always singular, always “a killing.” Never “the killing” or “the killings.” You can use an adjective to strengthen the effect. For example “they made an absolute killing!” or “we made a freaking killing!” Note that an adjective like “freaking” is very informal slang. You probably should only use words like that if the group of people that you’re with is comfortable with that type of language.

Authentic example

Today’s authentic example is from CNN:

The fossil remains of now-extinct businesses … litter the Internet. Their founders once thought they would make a killing with their clever Web-based plans. Instead, they folded, either because nobody ever found their site or because those that did never pumped any money back in.

Thanks for tuning in to 2-minute English!

See how to make a killing is used.

Look up to make a killing in the dictionary.

Copyright 2008 L. Linstruth - www.betteratenglish.com.

English idioms – to make a killing

]]> http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-to-make-a-killing/feed/ 2 2:07 Transcript This is Better at English dot com. Welcome to 2-minute English! Today's phrase is "to make a killing." "Her new business was a fantastic success; she made ... Transcript This is Better at English dot com. Welcome to 2-minute English! Today's phrase is "to make a killing." "Her new business was a fantastic success; she made a killing in its first two months." To make a killing. Meaning To make a killing on something means that you make a LOT of money, usually on some kind of investment or business venture, and usually in a short period of time and without too much effort. Usage When you talk about making a killing, it's always singular, always "a killing." Never "the killing" or "the killings." You can use an adjective to strengthen the effect. For example "they made an absolute killing!" or "we made a freaking killing!" Note that an adjective like "freaking" is very informal slang. You probably should only use words like that if the group of people that you're with is comfortable with that type of language. Authentic example Today's authentic example is from CNN: The fossil remains of now-extinct businesses ... litter the Internet. Their founders once thought they would make a killing with their clever Web-based plans. Instead, they folded, either because nobody ever found their site or because those that did never pumped any money back in. Thanks for tuning in to 2-minute English! See how to make a killing is used. Look up to make a killing in the dictionary. 2-minute,English,,Idioms,and,slang,,Intermediate,,Listening BetterAtEnglish.com no No