Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 88, Socializing at a Reception.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 88.
I'm Dr Jeff McQuillan, your host from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In this podcast we're going to talk about what you do when you go to a reception or a party after a conference or formal meeting.
Let's get started.
Hi.
It's a bit crowded in here.
Yes, it's always like this on the first night of the conference.
Is this your first time attending?
Yes, it is.
By the way, I'm Dan Marimoto.
I'm Gwen Renaud.
Were you here this morning for the opening keynote?
I thought the speaker was excellent.
No, unfortunately.
I didn't arrive to the venue until late morning.
Luckily I pre-registered and just had to pick up my registration packet, so I was able to catch the luncheon speaker and she was very good.
You know, I attended a really interesting session this afternoon on ethics in the profession.
It was a panel discussion, and there was some lively debate.
The luncheon speaker, Stephanie Morse, presented some of her findings from her new groundbreaking study.
I'm sorry I missed it.
It sounds interesting.
Do you plan on staying for the duration of the conference?
No, I'm afraid I have to leave early tomorrow.
Will you excuse me?
I see a colleague of mine over there, and I'd like to say hello.
Oh, sure.
It was nice meeting you.
Yes, you too.
In this podcast, we hear two people who are socializing at a conference reception.
To socialize means to talk to other people, to have conversations with other people, often people that you work with or people that are in the same line of work, the same type of work.
But you can socialize really with anyone.
It just means talking, being friendly, having conversations with people.
We often use that verb to socialize when we're talking about a party or a reception.
A reception is really the same as a party, but it isn't quite as perhaps active.
When you say you're going to have a reception, that often means, in a professional sense, that there may be some food, there may be some drinks, but there's probably not going to be any dancing, at least not at most business receptions or conference receptions.
We also use the word, however, for a wedding.
When someone gets married, the party that you have at the wedding is called the wedding reception.
And there, of course, there might be a lot of dancing and a lot of drinking.
And, well, you know what happens.
The man in this particular conversation introduces himself or says something to the woman next to him.
He says, hi, it's a bit crowded in here.
To be crowded means that there are too many people, and that there are so many people you can't move easily.
The woman responds by saying yes, it's always like this on the first night of the conference, and then asks the man if this was his first time attending.
To attend a conference means to go to a conference, to be part of the conference.
The man says it was, yes it is, and then he says, by the way, I'm Dan Morimoto, introduces himself.
The expression, by the way, is often one that we would use in this particular circumstance.
When you start talking to someone that you don't know and you decide that you want to tell that person your name, you may say oh, and by the way, I'm Jeff.
And of course, the person you hope will give you his or her name.
This woman says I'm Gwen Renaud and then asked Dan if he was here this morning for the opening keynote.
A keynote K-E-Y-N-O-T-E is a speech that someone gives to a large group of people who at a conference, like either a business conference or an academic conference.
It's one of the main speakers, where everyone comes together in a big auditorium or a big, what we might call a conference hall H-A-L-L, which is a large space where people can listen to a speaker.
And in fact the woman refers to Gwen refers to the opening keynote or the opening keynote address, which is the same as a speech.
She says that she thought the speaker was excellent.
Of course, the speaker is the person who gave the keynote address, who gave the speech.
The man says he hadn't seen the keynote because he didn't arrive to the venue until late morning.
The venue, V-E-N-U-E, here just means the place where they're having the meeting or the conference.
The man says that he's pre-registered and just had to pick up his registration packet.
To be pre-registered, P-R-E hyphen registered, means that you sent in your money in advance.
You've already registered for the conference or for the meeting.
And a registration packet is.
When you go to a conference or a meeting, they'll usually give you some information, sometimes a bag that has the schedule of when all the meetings are.
This would be part of your registration packet.
The man said that he was able to catch the luncheon speaker and thought she was very good.
The luncheon speaker is the person who speaks at a lunch.
Lunch and luncheon are pretty much the same.
Luncheon is usually a word we use for a little more formal meal at lunchtime.
The expression to catch the luncheon speaker just means that you were to see or to listen to.
You might say to someone did you catch that movie last night on TV?
That means, did you watch that movie?
So we use that expression a lot to catch when we're talking about a show or a presentation, for example.
The woman said that she attended a really interesting session this afternoon.
At a conference or at a meeting, to have a session means to have a smaller presentation.
For example, in the morning you might have a keynote address where everyone comes together in one big room, one big auditorium.
And then you have various sessions.
And the sessions are smaller presentations.
You may have 5 or 10 or 20 presentations.
And each one of those is a session.
And you get to pick, usually, which session you want to attend, you want to go to.
She went to a session or a presentation.
On ethics in the profession, ethics, E-T-H-I-C-S, is what's right and what's wrong.
We talk about it's a problem of ethics.
We're saying what are the right things to do and what are the wrong things to do in terms of the morality, or whether it's a good or bad thing.
For example, honesty should be part of the ethics in every profession.
The woman goes to a panel discussion.
A panel discussion is when you have two, three or more people, usually sitting up at a table in the front of the room.
We call that a panel, and those people are each going to have a chance to talk about a certain subject.
The woman said there was a lively debate at the panel, meaning that people were arguing disagreeing, not necessarily being rude or impolite.
You can have a friendly debate.
The luncheon speaker, who was at the panel discussion, presented some of her key findings from a new groundbreaking study.
When someone does a research, study or any sort of investigation or report, the answers they get or the conclusions that they have or they reach are called their findings.
It's what they found.
It's what they discovered.
And it's a noun.
Findings is a noun.
It can also be singular.
One of the findings, one finding, I should say, that's also possible.
A study, you know already, is an investigation into something, often something that is presented at a conference or published in a magazine, a scientific magazine.
When we say something is groundbreaking that's a hyphenated word ground-breaking we mean that it is something new, something that is a whole new area of research.
Groundbreaking is what we do when we are going to build a house or a building.
You have to break the ground.
You have to dig a hole in the ground.
And the very first hole, if you will, that you dig, there's a ceremony around it. we're going to be having a groundbreaking for our new library and uh... everybody comes and uh... they have a shovel and the president or whoever is the leader will take the shovel and put it in the ground and throw some dirt of course they don't they don't continue working the president doesn't build the building but it's uh... it's the beginning the uh... ceremonial beginning of the building So groundbreaking is the first or something that you do when you start something.
And as an adjective it's used here to mean something that is new, something that is one of the first of its kind.
The man asked the woman if she is going to be staying for the duration of the conference.
The duration just means for the rest of or until the end of the conference.
The woman says no, and then she says, will you excuse me?
Meaning, I want to do something else.
In this case, she wants to talk to someone else.
So when you say to someone, will you excuse me?
What you are saying to them is, I need to leave now.
I need to stop talking to you.
But it's a polite way of doing that.
The man says, oh, sure, it was nice meeting you, or it was nice to meet you.
It's the same meaning.
And the woman says, yes, you too, meaning, yes, it was nice to meet you too.
Now let's listen to the conversation, this time at a native rate of speech.
Hi.
It's a bit crowded in here.
Yes, it's always like this on the first night of the conference.
Is this your first time attending?
Yes, it is.
By the way, I'm Dan Morimoto.
I'm Gwen Renaud.
Were you here this morning for the opening keynote?
I thought the speaker was excellent.
No, unfortunately.
I didn't arrive to the venue until late morning.
Luckily I pre-registered and just had to pick up my registration packet, so I was able to catch the luncheon speaker and she was very good.
You know, I attended a really interesting session this afternoon on ethics in the profession.
It was a panel discussion, and there was some lively debate.
The luncheon speaker, Stephanie Morse, presented some of her findings from a new groundbreaking study.
I'm sorry I missed it.
It sounds interesting.
Do you plan on staying for the duration of the conference?
No, I'm afraid I have to leave early tomorrow.
Will you excuse me?
I see a colleague of mine over there, and I'd like to say hello.
Oh, sure.
It was nice meeting you.
Yes, you too.
Be sure to visit our website at wwweslpodcom for more information about this podcast and for the scripts of our podcasts.
From Los Angeles, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
