Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 311, A Midlife Crisis.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 311.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called A Midlife Crisis.
It's a dialogue between a wife and a friend talking about the woman's husband and how he is going through something we call a midlife crisis.
Let's get started.
I think my husband is going through a midlife crisis.
What makes you think that?
He just traded in his car for a very expensive sports car and he's filling the house with gym equipment.
Uh-oh.
That's a bad sign.
Do you know what may have triggered this?
That would do it.
He's been talking about quitting his job altogether and becoming a full-time writer.
He always wanted to become a successful writer.
That sounds familiar.
When my brother went through a midlife crisis, he spent a lot of time reflecting on his life and regretting giving up music to get a full-time job.
He saw himself as being washed up And he was fed up with everything.
What did he do?
Well, he's probably not a good example of what your husband would do.
Don't beat around the bush.
Just tell me.
Well, if you must know, he got a divorce, married a woman half his age and tried to start a rock band.
Oh no, that's just what I was afraid of.
I'm sure that won't happen with your husband.
You two have a great marriage.
I thought so too, but you never know.
This episode is called a midlife crisis.
Midlife is the middle of your life, mid is short for middle here, so midlife would be between perhaps 40 and 50, maybe 60 years old.
A crisis is an emergency situation, So a midlife crisis is some sort of change, some emergency situation that takes place in your midlife period.
However, the term is usually referring to a period in a man's life when he becomes unhappy because he's getting older and he realizes he's getting older.
So he sometimes does strange things to try to feel younger, like buy a new car or start a podcast.
In the dialogue, Bella says to Russell...
Russell says, Bella said, For a very expensive sports car.
To trade in means to exchange one thing for another thing.
This is especially common in the U.S. with your car.
You have a car that's maybe 5, 10 years old, and you want to buy a new one.
You bring it to the people who sell cars.
We would call them a dealership.
You give them your old car and they give you a certain amount of money for the old car as a discount off of your new car.
Well, Bella's husband traded in his car for an expensive sports car.
A sports car is usually a smaller car with a very powerful engine that moves very fast.
That would be a sports car.
In addition, Bella says that her husband is filling the house with gym equipment.
Gym equipment are machines you can use for exercise, such as a treadmill or weights.
Some men, when they go through their midlife crisis, will try to become more healthy, become more fit, get a younger car if you will.
Russell says, oh, that's a bad sign.
A sign is something that indicates what might happen in the future.
It's a signal, an indication.
Russell says, T-R-I-G-G-E-R means to start something, to begin something, to make something happen.
It's often a small event that starts a much larger sequence of events.
For example, many wars are triggered by small misunderstandings.
Two countries may fight each other over what seems like a small thing.
That small thing is the trigger.
Russell says, do you know what may have triggered this?
Bella says, I'm not sure, but he was passed over for a promotion at work a couple of months ago.
To be passed over for something means not to receive something that you expected, especially at your work.
You expected to get a better job, what we might call a promotion, and you didn't get it.
They gave it to someone else.
In this case, they gave it to someone who's 15 years younger than Bella's husband.
Russell says that would do it, meaning that would be sufficient.
That would be enough to start this midlife crisis.
Bella continues...
What really worries me is that he's been talking about quitting his job altogether meaning completely entirely, altogether and becoming a full-time writer.
He always wanted to be a successful writer, she says.
Russell says, that sounds familiar.
That's something I am familiar with.
When my brother went through a midlife crisis, he spent a lot of time reflecting on his life.
To reflect on your life is to think about, to think seriously and for a long time about something.
To reflect has other meanings as well.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Russell's brother spent a lot of time reflecting on his life and regretting giving up music to get a full-time job.
To regret.
R-E-G-R-E-T means to feel sad that you didn't do something in the past or that you did do something.
Or I regret going to Phoenix Arizona in the middle of the summertime because it's 120 degrees Fahrenheit there.
That's regret.
Russell says that his brother saw himself viewed himself as being washed up and that he was fed up with everything.
Here are a couple of two-word or phrasal verbs with the word up in them.
To be washed up means to be no longer useful or no longer successful.
To be fed up means to be tired or frustrated, unhappy, perhaps even bored with a situation.
If you are waiting in line for one hour in order to talk to the manager of a store, you might get fed up.
You might get frustrated.
Bella says to Russell, What did your brother do in his midlife crisis?
Russell does not want to tell Bella.
He says, He did something different than what your husband would probably do.
Bella uses then a common idiom, don't beat around the bush, B-U-S-H.
To beat around the bush means to be indirect, to hesitate not to say something directly, but try to.
We might also say talk around it rather than directly about it.
Don't beat around the bush.
Russell says well, if you must know meaning, if you insist, if you really want me to tell you, even though you might not like it, I will tell you.
Russell says his brother got a divorce, which is the legal end of a marriage.
When a man and a woman divorce, are legally no longer husband and wife.
He married a woman half his age.
That's something that men in their midlife crises sometimes do, I hear.
And he tried to start a rock band.
Bella says, oh no, that's just what I was afraid of.
Russell says, I'm sure that won't happen with your husband, meaning your husband will be different.
You two have a great marriage.
Bella says, I thought so too, but you never know.
You never know is a phrase that means anything is possible.
Anything can happen.
You never know.
I might decide to take up football and become a football player here in the U.S.
You never know.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I think my husband is going through a midlife crisis.
What makes you think that?
He just traded in his car for a very expensive sports car and he's filling the house with gym equipment.
Uh-oh, that's a bad sign.
Do you know what may have triggered this?
I'm not sure, but he was passed over for a promotion at work a couple of months ago and his new boss is 15 years younger than he is.
That would do it.
What really worries me is that he's been talking about quitting his job altogether and becoming a full time writer.
He always wanted to become a successful writer.
That sounds familiar.
When my brother went through a midlife crisis, he spent a lot of time reflecting on his life and regretting giving up music to get a full time job.
He saw himself as being washed up and he was fed up with everything.
What did he do?
Well, he's probably not a good example of what your husband would do.
Don't beat around the bush.
Just tell me.
Well, if you must know, he got a divorce, married a woman half his age and tried to start a rock band.
Oh, no.
That's just what I was afraid of.
I'm sure that won't happen with your husband.
You two have a great marriage.
I thought so, too.
But you never know.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan, not going through a midlife crisis.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen again next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2007.
