Episode 0287

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we have an elementary level lesson in which we're going to talk about small talk.

That's right. Today we're going to talk to an old friend and so we're going to give you some of the words and phrases you need to talk about your past or talk about how you have been.

So let's listen to today's dialogue and we'll be back in a moment to discuss it.

Uh, yeah, I guess so.

Likewise, it's been a long time. This is my wife Dorothy.

Pleasure to meet you. So Bill, how have you been?

Uh, you know me. I'm a dedicated bachelor. I never married, although I do have a beautiful daughter with Mary. You remember her? We were high school sweethearts.

It didn't really work out between us, but I really can't complain either.

That's good. Have you seen Frank? I was hoping he would come tonight.

You didn't hear? Frank passed away last year.

All right, we're back. So now let's get started with our language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

The first phrase we have here in Language Takeaway is a very important one because it is the setting for today's dialogue. We are at a high school reunion.

That's right. So everyone knows what high school is, but a high school reunion is when you go back to your high school for a party, maybe five years or 10 years after you graduate, so then you meet all your old friends from high school, you talk about, you know, how you have been and and just meet up with everyone that maybe you haven't seen in a very long time.

Exactly. So a reunion usually happens every five years, 10 years, or 20 years. It can happen at different times, but uh, this is important because you can have many different kinds of reunions, like a college reunion or a high school reunion. I've even heard of some people who had an elementary school reunion.

I couldn't imagine it.

All right, so we're at a high school reunion and we are there because we're going to meet our old classmates and uh to catch up and see how they have been.

Okay, so this is exactly what you do at a reunion. You catch up with people that you maybe lost touch with. To catch up means to find out about what people have been doing since the last time you talked. So maybe Marco and I were classmates in high school and we haven't talked in 10 years.

I say, Marco, I want to catch up. I want to learn about what you do, who who you married, uh where you work, things like that.

Right. So when two people get together to catch up, uh maybe it doesn't even have to be a very long time. Maybe you haven't seen your friend for a week. And so you want to get together, have a cup of coffee and catch up and see how the relationship has been going or how is work, so you want to catch up.

So you can say this in a very simple way. Let's catch up, or it's been nice to catch up.

That's right.

All right, moving on to our next word, um, this guy Bill meets up with Robert Matthews and they're saying, hey, wow, great to see you. And uh he answers by saying likewise.

So it's good to see you. Likewise. That means it's good to see you too.

So you don't have to repeat everything that person just said. For example, if I just meet someone new and I and I say, it's a pleasure to meet you, you can say,

I could say, likewise.

Likewise.

Because I don't want to say, it's a pleasure to meet you too. That's so many words. So likewise is a very short way to say all of those things.

That's right. So we were finding out about Robert Matthews and he says that, uh, well, he is a dedicated bachelor.

So a dedicated bachelor, what is a bachelor, Marco?

So a bachelor is a person who is not married, a person who is single.

A man. A woman cannot be a bachelor. So a bachelor is specifically a man and he's not married. And uh we often have a stereotype, that means we have an idea of what a bachelor lives like, you know, he has only beer in his refrigerator and he uh has has many relationships and and no wife, so.

That's right. So a dedicated bachelor is is a person who is not married and doesn't really seem to want to get married or or any of this. He wants to stay single.

Exactly.

Okay. And uh well to finish off uh this guy Robert uh lied a little bit to Bill saying that uh Frank had passed away.

That's really mean. But uh this phrase to pass away is very important and something we should talk about. So, uh what does it mean to pass away?

It's another way of saying uh he died.

But it's nicer.

Yeah, it's a lot more subtle and nicer. So instead of saying Frank died, you say Frank passed away.

So you could say, you know, last year my grandmother passed away. That's a way of saying that my grandmother died last year, but again, it's a lot nicer way to say it.

Right, because the word died can be a little bit too direct and too harsh. So maybe saying my grandmother passed away last year. It's it's a nicer way of saying it.

Mhm.

Okay, so that's all the language takeaway we have. Let's take a look at our dialogue again and we'll be back.

Uh, yeah, I guess so.

Likewise, it's been a long time. This is my wife Dorothy.

Pleasure to meet you. So Bill, how have you been?

Uh, you know me. I'm a dedicated bachelor. I never married, although I do have a beautiful daughter with Mary. You remember her? We were high school sweethearts.

It didn't really work out between us, but I really can't complain either.

That's good. Have you seen Frank? I was hoping he would come tonight.

You didn't hear? Frank passed away last year.

All right, let's move on now to four key phrases on Fluency Builder.

Fluency Builder.

So the focus of today's Fluency Builder is small talk. These are phrases you can use when you're at a reunion or a dinner, especially with people you don't know very well.

Uh so let's let's jump in and look at this first phrase, great to see you.

Exactly, it means I'm happy. Look at you, you know, great to see you. Uh you say this at the beginning of a conversation.

That's right. And uh actually Bill responded by saying likewise. So we talked about this. He's saying, wow, great to see you too. Then he continues by saying, it's been a long time.

This means that these two people, they have not seen each other in a very long time. You can also say, uh it's been so long, or it's been a long time. That means it's been a long time since we last saw each other.

That's right. So Robert goes on to ask Bill. He says, well, you know, uh how have you been? How how are things?

Bill answers by saying, can't complain.

Okay, so uh this is not grammatically correct. Normally you need a subject. I can't complain. But when we're speaking in English and we're having a conversation like this, it's okay to um to say just can't complain as a phrase. Uh so he's saying, how have you been? Well, I can't complain. Or can't complain. That means nothing bad has happened. Things are okay.

Right. You're saying that things are good, they're not fantastic, but they're not bad either, so you can't really complain. So uh, it's just a phrase where very directly you can say, oh, can't complain, everything's great.

So you could even say this about about other things, like, you know, I asked I asked John how his job was, and he said, can't complain.

Right.

It's not great, but it's not bad.

Right, exactly, right. All right, and obviously we saw how Robert lied to Bill by saying that their good friend that their good friend Frank had passed away. And uh he said, are you serious?

Nah, I'm just yanking your chain.

Okay, so this might sound very strange to to a lot of you because a chain is something that uh that doesn't really seem to fit in this conversation. Uh but yanking your chain, remember this as a phrase. It means I'm just joking.

Right. I'm just not serious.

I'm kidding.

I'm lying to you, I guess, right?

So, but how can you use this in another context?

Okay, I could say, you know what, Marco, I have something I have to tell you.

And I say, what?

Uh, I'm leaving English Pod. I quit.

Okay.

Right. So you're kind of teasing someone when you do this, right?

Mhm.

I'm just yanking your chain. I'm I'm just lying to you. I'm teasing you. I'm I'm making you believe something that isn't that isn't true.

Exactly. So, uh this is this is something you can use after you tell someone that you were just joking. So, you know, I'm just yanking your chain. I'm just joking.

That's right. So don't try to translate it directly or literally because it's not going to make sense. So just remember this as a phrasal verb or a phrase in general.

Exactly.

All right, let's listen to our dialogue one last time and we'll be back to talk a little bit more.

Uh, yeah, I guess so.

Likewise, it's been a long time. This is my wife Dorothy.

Pleasure to meet you. So Bill, how have you been?

Uh, you know me. I'm a dedicated bachelor. I never married, although I do have a beautiful daughter with Mary. You remember her? We were high school sweethearts.

It didn't really work out between us, but I really can't complain either.

That's good. Have you seen Frank? I was hoping he would come tonight.

You didn't hear? Frank passed away last year.

All right, so we're back and talking about high school reunions. These are very popular in the United States, right?

They are very popular and I think people often have them every five, 10, 15, 20 years. But most people don't go to the high school reunion until either 10 or 20 years after their high school graduation.

Why is that?

Uh, I think at five years is very soon. Uh, 10 years is nice because you haven't seen people, but 20 years is really, I think, shocking because people can be completely different or they could be the same, but it's been, you know, you were 18 when you graduated high school, now you're 38 years old. You have this whole life that you've had, and so I think it's much more interesting.

Yeah, it's um, it's very interesting and I guess people go to these things half because they do want to maybe meet up with old friends that they haven't kept in touch with. I think especially this was very popular before the whole internet revolution. Now everyone's in touch on Facebook and and emails and it's just so much easier to keep in touch. But before you have to remember that, you know, it was basically by telephone or by mail. So actually seeing a person 10 years uh or or or catching up with them was very difficult back then.

Yeah, we we all see photos and videos now of our classmates and so it's not quite as surprising when we bump into them later. But uh I think it is still interesting though, because at least on my social networking websites, there are a lot of people that I don't have connections to. And so I I look forward to my high school reunion when I get to see some of these people and kind of find out what they've been doing for the past 10 or 15 years.

Or the high school football captain is now kind of sad and you know, fat.

Bald. So yeah, the these are the types of surprises that people look forward to when they go to high school reunions. So a very interesting subject. Let us know on our website englishpod.com if your high school and the place where you live, do they have high school reunions or maybe even elementary school reunions?

The English Pod Audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Meet each other.

Catch up.

Have strong loyalty to someone or something.

Dedicated.

Also.

Likewise.

Deceive someone in a friendly or playful way.

Yank your chain.

The person who you loved in high school.

High school sweetheart.

Let's try that faster.

Deceive someone in a friendly or playful way.

Yank your chain.

Meet each other.

Catch up.

Also.

Likewise.

The person who you loved in high school.

High school sweetheart.

Have strong loyalty to someone or something.

Dedicated.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Catch up.

Lisa's back from Holland, and we are having lunch today to catch up.

Catch up.

Hi Jonas. I haven't seen you in a long time. Do you want to grab a drink after work to catch up?

Catch up.

I haven't seen my college friends in a while, so the party will be a good time to catch up.

Dedicated.

He's a dedicated husband and father. He's a real family man.

Dedicated.

She's a dedicated researcher of Marine Biology.

Dedicated.

We need to hire a dedicated translator once we start doing more business with Vietnam.

Likewise.

I told Edward I'd liked him, but he didn't say likewise.

Likewise.

My parents want me to get a PhD, and likewise it's my dream to become a doctor.

Likewise.

I ordered a mocha coffee and a muffin, and Janet did likewise.

High school sweetheart.

John married his high school sweetheart last year in a small wedding ceremony.

High school sweetheart.

Lori stayed with her high school sweetheart all through college.

High school sweetheart.

Robbie and Vanessa were high school sweethearts, but they've both moved on and started families now.

Yank your chain.

My uncle Tommy loves to joke around and yank your chain. Just don't take anything he says too seriously.

Yank your chain.

I hate it when people yank my chain when I'm trying to be serious.

Yank your chain.

Chill out. I was just yanking your chain.