Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 313, A Suspicious Neighbor.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 313.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development.
At Transcription by CastingWords, It's a dialogue between two people talking about one of their neighbors, their new neighbors, someone who recently moved close to them, and whether this person is perhaps involved in something they should not be.
Let's get started.
What do you think of our new neighbor?
I don't know.
I haven't met him yet.
Me neither, but I think he's a shady character.
Why do you think that?
Well, when he was moving in, I tried to shoot the breeze with him, and he was shifty.
When I asked him what line of work he was in, he was very evasive.
Maybe he just didn't want to talk to a busybody when he was busy moving boxes.
Have you thought of that?
I wasn't being a busybody.
I was just being neighborly.
When I offered to help him, he practically kicked me out of his apartment.
Okay, you must be right.
He's probably a serial killer.
I wouldn't put it past him.
Come on.
My guess is that he just wants some peace and quiet.
He wants peace and quiet to do what?
That's what I want to know.
I think we should just mind our own business.
You can do what you like, but I'm going over there and I'm getting some answers.
If I have to live next to him, I'm entitled to know something about him.
That's what you think.
I'm not taking no for an answer.
That poor man.
The title of our episode is A Suspicious Neighbor.
If you are suspicious of someone, you don't trust them.
You think that they are bad perhaps or evil in some way or are doing something wrong.
He is very suspicious looking.
He looks like he is doing something wrong.
Well, in our dialogue, Patricia says to Ray, what do you think of our new neighbor?
Ray says, I don't know.
I haven't met him yet.
Patricia says, me neither.
That would be the common informal way of saying, I haven't either.
We use the word me instead of I in normal conversation.
Me neither.
But I think he's a shady character.
A character is used to describe a person who is unusual or a little different, a little strange.
Shady, S-H-A-D-Y, means someone who is suspicious, someone who you think is doing bad things.
So Patricia thinks their new neighbor is a shady character.
Ray says, why do you think that?
Patricia says, well...
I tried to shoot the breeze with him, and he was shifty.
Patricia says she tried to shoot the breeze, B-R-E-E-Z-E.
To shoot the breeze is an idiom, which means to chat, to talk in a friendly way about things that are not important.
You can shoot the You can shoot the breeze with someone you haven't even met before.
It's to talk, to chat, to have an informal conversation.
The word breeze has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for additional explanations.
Well, Patricia was shooting the breeze with her new neighbor and said that he was shifty.
To be shifty S-H-I-F-T-Y means to look dishonest, to look as though you were guilty, to be suspicious looking.
Someone who acts as if they want to end the conversation quickly or to leave for some suspicious reason would be shifty.
We sometimes use that adjective especially about someone's eyes.
We say he has shifty eyes.
I don't trust him.
People say that about me all the time.
Patricia says, Your line of work is your career, the area where you work.
My line of work is English language teaching.
Evasive means you are trying to avoid answering a question or avoid giving a direct reply.
Your wife says to you, where were you last night?
You got home very late.
And you were at the bar with your friends watching the baseball game.
This is just an example, not something that happened to me last Thursday.
But you don't want to tell your wife where you were.
So you say Oh, I was um, I was Boy.
That's a beautiful dress you have on, my love.
You're being evasive.
You're trying not to answer the question.
Or you might say, oh, your hair looks beautiful tonight, my darling, my beautiful wife.
That's another way of being evasive.
Just an example.
I've never done that, of course.
Ray says, maybe he just didn't want to talk to a busybody first. when he was busy moving boxes.
Ray is saying maybe the new neighbor didn't want to talk to a busybody.
A busybody, one word, is a person who is interested in other people's lives, too interested.
Someone who likes to gossip, someone who wants to know everything about you, even very private things.
The other word or expression we can use here is a nosy, N-O-S-Y, a nosy person.
The man was busy moving into his house so he didn't want to talk to a nosy person, a busybody asking him lots of questions.
Patricia says We use the word neighborly as an adverb here to mean friendly with your neighbors, trying to help your neighbors.
Patricia says, To kick someone out is a phrasal verb meaning to tell someone to leave.
If you come home late every night from the bar, someday your wife may kick you out of the house.
Ray says, okay, you must be right.
You must be right about this person.
Then he tells a joke.
He says he's probably a serial killer.
A serial, S-E-R-I-A-L, killer would be someone who kills many people in the same way.
A famous example of this would be Jack the Ripper from English history, a serial killer, someone who kills many different people.
Of course, Ray is joking.
We use this expression, serial killer, when we want to describe someone, usually sarcastically.
It's often used strangely, as a joke.
Patricia responds to Ray's joke by saying This phrase, this expression I wouldn't put it past him means I believe this other person may have done something.
I believe this person may be capable of doing something bad.
I wouldn't put it past him.
Patricia is saying maybe he really is a serial killer.
Ray says, come on, meaning stop joking, be serious.
You're being unreasonable.
My guess, Ray says, is that he just wants some peace and quiet.
That expression.
Peace and quiet means calmness tranquility, a time and a place where there is no noise or there are no interruptions and you can just relax.
Patricia says, She doesn't trust him.
Ray says, To mind your own business means to not get involved in other people's private lives, to worry about your own life, your own business, your own situation, and not worry about other people's situations.
Patricia says but I'm going over there and I'm getting some answers, some answers to the questions she has about the new neighbor.
If I have to live next to him, she says, I'm entitled to know something about him.
To be entitled means you deserve something.
You have a right to do or to know something.
Ray says, why don't you leave the man alone?
To leave someone alone means not to bother someone, to leave someone in peace.
Ray says, and plus, in addition, he probably won't let you in.
He probably won't allow you to come into his apartment.
Patricia says, that's what you think, meaning I don't agree with you.
I don't think that.
She says, I'm not taking no for an answer.
To take no for an answer means to accept that the answer is no.
To accept that another person doesn't want to do something.
Ray says that poor man, meaning that unfortunate man, he feels sorry for the new neighbor.
The word poor has a couple of different meanings in English.
Again, take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What do you think of our new neighbor?
I don't know.
I haven't met him yet.
Me neither, but I think he's a shady character.
Why do you think that?
Well, when he was moving in, I tried to shoot the breeze with him, and he was shifty.
When I asked him what line of work he was in, he was very evasive.
Maybe he just didn't want to talk to a busybody when he was busy moving boxes.
Have you thought of that?
I wasn't being a busybody.
I was just being neighborly.
When I offered to help him, he practically kicked me out of his apartment.
Okay, you must be right.
He's probably a serial killer.
I wouldn't put it past him.
Come on.
My guess is that he just wants some peace and quiet.
He wants peace and quiet to do what?
That's what I want to know.
I think we should just mind our own business.
Why don't you leave the man alone?
He's entitled to some privacy.
And plus, he probably won't let you in.
That poor man.
The script for this episode was by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you 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.
