Episode 0306

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

My name is Catherine and what are we talking about today, Marco?

Today we are talking about a very interesting topic, most importantly among men who are trying to get women's attention.

Okay, so these are some of the things that men might try to say if they are trying to find a girlfriend or men if you're out there, things that you might want to say or not want to say in English. Right.

Right, that's right. So why don't we just take a look at our dialogue, let's see what's going on and we'll be back in a bit.

Let's go out tomorrow night. We can go to a bar and try to find you a girlfriend.

Maybe you just need a few pickup lines, you know, to break the ice.

Yeah, so you make her laugh, you make a fool of yourself a little bit, and then you buy her a drink.

All right, we're back. So now let's explain what's going on a little bit more. Let's take a look at some vocab on language takeaway.

So the first word that we have here, Marco, is a verb. We say to approach or to approach someone.

That's right, to approach someone. And that means to, uh, you know, go up to someone and start a conversation, start talking to them.

That's right. So you physically walk toward someone. You go to them to start talking to them.

So you can say, uh, I'm not good at approaching other people, or he approached her in the bar because he wanted to talk to her.

That's right. So to approach someone is to go up or get close to that person and start talking to them.

That's right.

All right. So, now, what the dialogue focuses on is pickup lines, as the title says. So what exactly are pickup lines?

All right. Well, take this as a phrase. You don't want to look at the individual words, but a pickup lines are things that people say to show that they are interested romantically in other people.

Right.

So if I am talking to someone and, uh, and maybe he says something that is a pickup line, he's trying to to show that he's interested in me.

That's right. So usually, I guess, guys use use pickup lines at bars or something to get a girl's attention and to, as you say, show that he is interested in her, right?

That's right. And some are very creative and nice, and some are very stupid and silly. Uh, so there are many different kinds of pickup lines, but the trick here is that they're usually lines that the person will create or will have heard before they use it.

Right, exactly.

It's it's like a fixed thing.

Uh-huh. Yeah, it is usually very creative as you say or very funny to kind of get the girl's attention. Now, the first pickup line that we heard was if you were a booger, I'd pick you first.

If you were a booger, I'd pick you first.

All right. So what does he mean here? If you were a booger, what is a booger?

A booger is a piece of dirt in your nose. Okay. So sometimes you have some things in your nose and you you want to blow your nose to clear it. Well, those things inside your nose, those are called boogers. This is very informal English.

Right. So I guess the the the technical term for it would be mucus.

Mucus. That's right.

But uh obviously uh in English there's also an informal way of calling it and it's called a booger.

So the the idea here is the pickup line means two things. It means, uh, sometimes you have to take boogers out of your nose. Some people use their finger. Um, but the other meaning is, you know, if I'm interested in you, I would, I'd pick you first.

Right.

And the the the the verb here to pick is not to choose, but is actually used as a verb when you're talking about uh your your nose. You pick your nose or you pick a booger. That means to actually remove.

It means to put your finger in your nose to take out these pieces of dirt.

Right. So maybe a a mom, a mother to their younger son or daughter would would tell them, don't pick your nose in public.

Moms often say this in English. Don't pick your nose. It's rude.

Exactly. All right. So it's a very interesting pickup line. Obviously, very uh funny and a guess creative, but at the same time, the verb there to pick, we just figured out, it means something completely different.

All right. So it's a joke, but it's also kind of gross.

Exactly. And obviously his friend agrees and says that's lame.

Lame. So something is lame if it's uh stupid or not funny. We often say that's a really lame joke, which means I don't like that. I don't think it's funny. Uh-huh.

Okay. And actually people start using the word lame for many things that they don't like or they think is not interesting, right?

Yeah, like that band is so lame.

Or not cool.

Or that movie was lame.

It wasn't interesting. It wasn't fun.

Okay. So that's basically what it means. All right, so let's take a look at everything we've learned again and we'll be back in a bit.

Let's go out tomorrow night. We can go to a bar and try to find you a girlfriend.

Maybe you just need a few pickup lines, you know, to break the ice.

Yeah, so you make her laugh, you make a fool of yourself a little bit, and then you buy her a drink.

All right, now let's take a look at some of these phrases on Fluency Builder.

Okay, so the first phrase we have here is something very, very common in business as well as in social situations, we say to break the ice.

And this is something that we heard when the two boys were talking about approaching a girl. I said, I don't know how to break the ice.

Right. So to break the ice is to make an awkward situation or something that's a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit more relaxed.

That's right. So often times in a new company or at a, uh, a party where you don't know anyone, you have to break the ice. You have to, um, make things more comfortable so you can talk to people.

That's right. All right, so you want to break the ice. You want to maybe be more comfortable around people.

Right. So sometimes people use games to break the ice, like at your, at your company, maybe your first day of work, they'll have games to learn people's names. These are ways of breaking the ice. Or at a party, you learn some pickup lines to break the ice with women.

That's right. All right, so, um, we want to break the ice. We want to use some pickup lines. And his friend argues that pickup lines are kind of lame. And he even says, no girl would fall for that line.

Okay, to fall for something, this is a really important phrase and something that we say often in English. Now, what exactly does it mean? You're not falling on the ground.

No, no. It means you believe it or you uh consider it to be real.

All right. So when something is a lie, or it's fake, or it's, yeah, it's not totally true, um, but someone believes it anyway, you say that that person, he fell for it. Mhm.

Okay, and I don't come to work.

Exactly. All right. So, uh, to fall for something means to believe it or to, to think it's true.

Yeah, so no girl would fall for that means, no girl would actually like you because you use these silly pickup lines.

That's right. All right, so then he actually used another line. He said, okay, so maybe you can use this other line. And his friend agreed, okay, that's a good one.

That's a good one. We can also say good one.

Mm-hm. Good one.

Yeah, this is very informal English, and it's something that we say when we want to say that, uh, I, you know, I like the idea or it's a good, it's a good idea.

Or maybe even a joke, someone tells a joke, and you think it's really, really funny and say, oh, that that's a good one. That's a good one. So, um, in this case, we heard one good pickup line and one bad one. But maybe you're at at work and someone comes up with a really good idea for marketing, you say, oh, that's a good one. That's a good idea. That's a good one.

That's right. All right. And obviously his friend explains that the whole purpose of the pickup line is to make a fool of yourself a little bit, and then, you know, buy the girl a drink or become her friend.

Okay, to make a fool of yourself. Now, this is something that is probably not a good thing in most cases, right?

Mhm. Uh-huh.

A fool is someone who is silly, who no one takes seriously. Okay. Someone who's not, yeah, not very serious.

So to make a fool of yourself is to embarrass yourself a little bit.

Yeah, to look stupid in front of other people. So I can say, oh, on my first day of work, I tripped and I fell on the ground, and I made a fool of myself in front of my new colleagues.

That's right. So, that's basically what it means to make a fool of yourself, to embarrass yourself. but you're doing it to yourself. It's not that someone else is embarrassing you. You are embarrassing yourself. That's right. All right, let's listen to this dialogue one last time and we'll be back in a bit.

Let's go out tomorrow night. We can go to a bar and try to find you a girlfriend.

Maybe you just need a few pickup lines, you know, to break the ice.

Yeah, so you make her laugh, you make a fool of yourself a little bit, and then you buy her a drink.

All right, so looking at these pickup lines, we took a look at the first one about the booger and everything. What about the second one, when he says, so there you are. I've been looking all over for you, the woman of my dreams. So what is he saying here? What is it what is it implied?

He's basically saying that he's met her before and, uh, he's been looking for her. So where did he meet her? He says he met her in his dreams, but now, oh, there she is. I was looking for you. You, you're the woman of my dreams.

Right. So obviously, the girl can feel a little bit confused at first because, oh, why were you looking for me? And then he says, oh, because you are the woman of my dreams. So it's obviously a little bit exaggerating, but it's funny.

Yes, he's joking, but he's basically saying, you know, I know you. I've been looking for you.

And uh what about our last uh pickup line where he was saying, I was so enchanted by your beauty that I ran into that wall over there. So I am going to need your name and number for insurance purposes.

So he's saying, you're so beautiful that I had this accident. I, I walked into a wall. I hit my face. Uh now that I have an injury, I need your information so that I can claim insurance, so I can get money from my insurance company. So this is a way to ask a woman for her phone number and name.

And her name, exactly. So it's a very clever way of uh of of of obviously breaking the ice. But at the same time, he's trying to be funny and trying to get her number, her telephone number and her name.

That's right. So one of the most memorable ones that I've heard was, uh, was your father a thief? Because he stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes.

So uh this one is more of a compliment.

Yes, it's a compliment.

And uh, but in a funny way saying, oh, your dad stole all the stars from the sky.

Yeah, no, I've, I've heard a number of them. Most of them are pretty bad, pretty lame. Um, and they're always a way to almost always a way to ask for your phone number.

Now, as a girl, what do you think is better for a guy to use a clever, funny, but tasteful pickup line or to just walk up to you and and say, hi, my name is so and so, you know, what's your name?

If you can be clever, if you can come up with something that's funny or interesting, then I think it's good. If you say something that's rude or disgusting, I think that's probably bad. Like the booger. The booger pickup line is a bad idea.

That's that's an example of a bad pickup line.

But you know, if you can laugh about it, not, you don't say it seriously, but if you can laugh about it and say, hey, you know, is your daddy a thief? It's it's something to start the conversation and if you're laughing. Because sometimes it's very awkward if someone says, hey, I'm John, you know, what's your name?

Right. You don't really know how to react to that. And and approaching someone like in that way can be a little bit difficult.

It's a little boring.

It's a very interesting thing. Let us know if you have any pickup lines, if you've heard any pickup lines or used any, uh, we're really curious to know.

Bye.

The English part audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A place one goes to drink alcohol.

Bar.

A female friend with whom a man or boy is romantically involved with.

Girlfriend.

To overcome reserve, awkwardness, or formality within a group.

Break the ice.

Not cool.

Lame.

Conversation opener with the intent of engaging an unfamiliar person for romance or dating.

Pickup lines.

A silly person.

Fool.

To delight to a high degree. Charm.

Enchant.

Let's try that faster.

A silly person.

Fool.

Conversation opener with the intent of engaging an unfamiliar person for romance or dating.

Pickup lines.

A place one goes to drink alcohol.

Bar.

To delight to a high degree. Charm.

Enchant.

A female friend with whom a man or boy is romantically involved with.

Girlfriend.

Not cool.

Lame.

To overcome reserve, awkwardness, or formality within a group.

Break the ice.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Break the ice.

Break the ice.

This is awkward. I wish someone would break the ice.

Break the ice.

I think the easiest way to break the ice is with a simple hello.

Lame.

He thinks he is very funny, but he is just lame.

Lame.

He tried to talk with a girl at the bar, but she thought he was lame and walked away.

Lame.

Bar.

Bar.

I always watch the football match at the bar.

Bar.

He always goes to the bar to try to find a new girlfriend.

Fool.

My friend is always joking around and being a fool.

Fool.

Fool.

His friends don't take him seriously anymore, as he is such a big fool.

Enchant.

Enchant.

I can enchant a girl with just my eyes.

Enchant.

She was less than impressed with his attempt to charm her.