Episode 0331

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we're talking a little bit about more small talk.

That's right, we're going to continue our series. This is part nine, so we're coming close to the end of our 10-part series. And today we're following Melissa and Michelle as they discuss very casually their personal lives, specifically about their marriages or getting married.

That's right. So this one's a little bit more difficult than the last few. Let's take a listen to the dialogue and when we come back we'll be talking about some of those phrases that you heard.

Hey Michelle, jumping quick, it's pouring out there.

Oh, hi Melissa.

Are you going to the conference too? I was planning to pick up Mr. Campbell.

Yes, he told me. We need to pick him up at his hotel and then go to the conference.

I know what you mean. I think Shanghai is getting more and more expensive. Don't you?

I sure do. In my opinion, it's actually becoming more expensive than back home.

Definitely.

Oh, there's Mr. Campbell. Driver, can you stop here, please?

All right, we're back so a lot of interesting phrases in this dialogue, more than vocab. So we're gonna have two fluency builders. Let's start with the first one now.

The first phrase in today's fluency builder is the phrase 'jump in'. So Melissa says, 'Hey Michelle, jump in quick'.

That's right. So Melissa is actually in a taxi and that's why she's saying 'jump in quick'.

So she is directing Michelle to do something. She's saying, 'jump in'. So it's actually her telling Melissa, 'get in the car'.

That's right. And um, so we can use this uh phrase to jump in somewhere, uh which means um you're going to do it very quickly.

Yeah, to go somewhere or to get in a place very quickly. We could say it about a cab, we could also say it about a swimming pool.

That's right. Or maybe you just got back from the gym and uh you're gonna jump in the shower really quick and before you go out again.

You're not actually going to jump like you jump the action, but you're you're going to get into the shower very quickly.

That's right. And uh of course Melissa tells Michelle to jump in the cab quickly because it's pouring out there.

It's pouring. What's pouring? Pouring pouring water, pouring wine?

That's right. It's actually, yeah, it's pouring water out there. It means it's raining very, very hard.

Okay, so it's not just drizzling a little little bit. It's raining very hard, it's pouring rain. Okay. So we don't have to say the word rain, we can just say it's pouring.

That's right. As you can see in that sentence Melissa doesn't say at any time 'it's raining', but we understand that when somebody says, 'it's pouring out there' you know that it means it's raining very hard.

Can't be chocolate.

Can't be chocolate, can't be dogs or cats, right?

No.

All right. So um, Michelle gets in the cab and she says, 'well, we have to pick up Mr. Campbell'. Mr. Campbell, and uh Melissa says, 'yep, we need to pick him up at the hotel'.

All right, the verb here is 'to pick up'. Now, we want to just remember this as a phrasal verb. Uh, you pick someone up in your car, uh, you could even pick someone up on your bicycle.

That's right. That's right. So, but you can see that you can say we need to pick up Tommy at the hotel or you could say we need to pick Tommy up. So you can use it both ways. You can put the noun in between or after.

So, can you pick me up at five?

Right, right.

Or can you pick up the clothes at the the dry cleaners?

That's right.

It means to go collect something or someone.

That's right. So you can use it in different uh ways. You can put the noun in between pick up or you can put it after.

And uh all right, so they're going to go pick up Mr. Campbell. Now they're talking, uh well, they're kind of gossiping a little bit. They said, 'well, I heard you got married'.

All right, so 'I heard'. Now this is a very, very common way to start a sentence that might have some gossip in it. So I'm gonna say something that um might or might not be true.

That's right. So you're not really sure if it's true or not. So this is why you start with a sentence 'I heard that' something, something, something. So in this case she said, 'I heard you got married'.

Or 'I heard you got married' because I'm I'm basically saying, 'well, some rumor made it to me and and I and I heard that you got married', but I'm not sure. So she's asking, 'did you get married?' Uh if so, congratulations.

That's right. That's right. So it's a very common way of starting a sentence when you are talking to someone and maybe you want them to confirm this news or this gossip or this rumor is true or not.

Mhm. So, that's the way that you use this phrase. I heard you or well, if you're using another person, 'I heard that Tom uh got divorced'.

I heard Susie had a baby.

That's right. All right, so that's all for the first part of fluency builder. Let's take a break and we'll be back in a bit with part two.

Hey Michelle, jumping quick, it's pouring out there.

Oh, hi Melissa.

Are you going to the conference too? I was planning to pick up Mr. Campbell.

Yes, he told me. We need to pick him up at his hotel and then go to the conference.

I know what you mean. I think Shanghai is getting more and more expensive. Don't you?

I sure do. In my opinion, it's actually becoming more expensive than back home.

Definitely.

Oh, there's Mr. Campbell. Driver, can you stop here, please?

All right, so now we're back with part two of fluency builder. Let's get started with the first phrase uh when she says that they got married on holiday. What does that mean?

'On holiday' is another way of saying 'on vacation'. So while we were having a holiday somewhere, uh this happened.

Mhm.

So you could say, we decided to get married on holiday. That means when they were traveling, when they were on vacation, they got married.

So it's kind of more of a British way of saying, right, 'on holiday'?

Yes, you could say, you know, 'where did you go on holiday', but maybe in America we'd prefer to say 'where did you go on vacation'.

On vacation. So both are correct. You can say we got married while on holiday or we got married while on vacation. Both are correct. It's just a little bit of difference between British English and American English.

And then moving on, she said, 'well, they also wanted to get married'. Michelle did, but they had to postpone their wedding.

Okay, to postpone something means to wait until later to do it. So you maybe want to do it today, but it's raining today. So you have to postpone until next week.

That's right. So it's kind of like you had to delay, you had to wait.

Yeah, that's right. So you could say that uh because of bad weather, the picnic will be postponed until next month.

Okay. So that's the way that you use postpone. Now, it's it's interesting because you have a P in between there, so it's postpone.

Postpone. Yeah, it's an interesting word to pronounce.

Okay. And uh well, they also had to postpone it because of money, you know, it's just very expensive and Melissa agrees by saying, 'I know what you mean'.

'I know what you mean'. Now this is a really common phrase and this is something you'll hear with uh more relaxed conversations between friends. Uh it means 'I understand the situation' or um 'I feel the same way'. So in this case, 'we just don't have the money'. Melissa is saying, 'oh, I know what you mean'. It means I'm having a hard time with money too. I don't have much money either.

That's right. So uh you understand what she's talking about. You also agree, 'I know what you mean'. That's it's just a way of agreeing with someone.

All right, and then uh she goes on to confirm what Michelle is saying by saying, 'I think Shanghai is getting more and more expensive'.

All right, now this is a really, really key sentence structure here. Uh we have 'more and more', 'more and more', and then after that we have an adjective. So, um, the structure is 'more and more adjective'. So, 'more and more spicy', 'more and more funny', 'more and more expensive'. Um, so in this case the city is more expensive than it was before.

That's right. And it's still getting more expensive. That's the main idea when you use this structure is that when you say 'more and more' and then you add an adjective such as expensive or beautiful, it means that it continues to grow, it continues to get more expensive or more beautiful or or more difficult.

But remember that we are using adjectives here that are when you're using the comparative, you can't say, for example, you can't use funny, you can't say 'you are getting more and more funny' because obviously the comparative for funny is funnier. So just be careful with that one because uh it it could be a little bit confusing.

All right, so and to finish off our fluency builder, we have Michelle who agrees with Melissa and says, 'yeah, you know, I I I think Shanghai is getting more expensive' and she says, 'I sure do'.

So she's basically agreeing, she's saying, 'yes, that's true'.

Uh-huh. But uh why why does she say 'I sure do'? Why doesn't she say agree? I agree or, 'yeah, you're right'.

Well, she doesn't have to say it because um she says 'I do'. She's the question before that was, 'I think something something, don't you?' And she says, 'I do'. And then think that. So it's assumed that she also thinks this. She's answering a question.

That's right. So um, that's an interesting way of asking a question when you say, um, 'I think the city is beautiful. Don't you?' So the proper way to answer that would be, 'I do' or 'I sure do'.

All right, so that's all the time we have for fluency builder. Let's listen to our dialogue one last time.

Hey Michelle, jumping quick, it's pouring out there.

Oh, hi Melissa.

Are you going to the conference too? I was planning to pick up Mr. Campbell.

Yes, he told me. We need to pick him up at his hotel and then go to the conference.

I know what you mean. I think Shanghai is getting more and more expensive. Don't you?

I sure do. In my opinion, it's actually becoming more expensive than back home.

Definitely.

Oh, there's Mr. Campbell. Driver, can you stop here, please?

All right, so we're reaching the end of our small talk series. In this case, it's two women who are talking about their personal lives. And uh not only that, they're talking about weddings and they're talking about money. So this is a very interesting way to talk about these very common topics: personal life, love, and especially money.

But remember, in American culture these are the kinds of things you would only talk to your friends about. You wouldn't really want to talk to strangers about money, personal life, marriage because those are considered private. So be careful when you're talking to people you don't know very well.

That's right. That's right. And actually your feedback was very interesting when we discussed about uh if it's uh okay to ask, for example, a women her her age or her weight or a man's salary. So, in most places you said that it wasn't really correct, but you know, this is the the very interesting thing about the cultural differences and how people can, you know, what is appropriate to talk about.

That's right. So, again, if you have any questions or comments about the things we talked about here today or any of our older uh lessons about small talk, please just let us know. Our website is Englishpod.com.

All right guys, we'll see you there. Bye.

The English Pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

flowing or falling as from one container to another, or into, over, or on something.

Pouring.

relating to a feeling of love between a couple.

Romantic.

decide to do something at a later time.

Postpone.

Certainly.

Definitely.

way to express your opinion.

In my opinion.

Let's try that faster.

flowing or falling as from one container to another, or into, over, or on something.

Pouring.

way to express your opinion.

In my opinion.

Certainly.

Definitely.

decide to do something at a later time.

Postpone.

relating to a feeling of love between a couple.

Romantic.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Pouring.

It's pouring rain. You should take an umbrella.

Pouring.

Please stop pouring the wine. I don't want to drink so much.

Pouring.

My friend started pouring barbecue sauce over his hamburger when it arrived.

Romantic.

Romantic.

I thought that movie was very romantic.

Romantic.

Postpone.

We will have to postpone our research project due to a lack of funds.

Postpone.

The soccer game was postponed because of the poor weather.

Postpone.

Definitely.

Definitely.

My car definitely needs to go to a mechanic to be fixed.

Definitely.

This match is definitely going to go down to the wire.

In my opinion.

In my opinion, I believe that we should not eat meat.

In my opinion.

In my opinion, we should have bought that car.

In my opinion.

It is in my opinion that today's society is all about money.