Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 339, Star-Crossed Lovers.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 339.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpodcom And on it you can download a learning guide for this episode, an 8-10 page guide to help you pick up English even faster.
You can also go to our ESL podcast blog where, a couple times a week, we have additional information to help you improve your English.
This episode is called Star-Crossed Lovers.
The expression star-crossed lovers usually refers to two people who are in love but the situation, the circumstances, prevents them from really being together.
Let's take a listen to the dialogue between Romeo and and Juliet.
What do you plan to do?
I don't know.
I can't defy my parents.
They've been against our relationship from the start, and I've been forbidden to see you.
It's your life, not theirs.
It's time you stood up to them and told them what you want.
I'm tired of being a puppet in the feud between your family and mine.
That's easy to say, but I can't confront my father and tell him that I want to be with you.
It would kill him.
No, it won't.
He's using guilt to get you to give me up.
Don't let him manipulate you that way.
This is tearing me apart.
I can't take it much longer.
You won't have to.
I'm leaving without you.
No, you can't.
I can't live without you.
Someday we'll be together.
Cut.
Where is the director?
This is supposed to be the story about star-crossed lovers, not a trashy melodrama.
Whoever wrote this trash should be fired.
Our dialogue begins with romeo saying to juliet what do you plan to do?
What are you going to do?
Juliet says i don't know.
I can't defy my parents.
I cannot disobey my parents.
To defy D-E-F-Y means not to do what you have been asked to do, not to do what you are expected or supposed to do, to disobey.
Juliet says, And I've been forbidden to see you.
If you are forbidden to do something, you are prohibited from doing something.
You are not allowed or not permitted to do something.
So Juliet says she's been forbidden to see Romeo.
How sad.
Romeo says, it's your life, not theirs.
Just like a teenager might say, it's your life, not theirs.
It's time you stood up to them.
To stand up to someone means to confront someone or to say what you think, what you really think, to someone who disagrees with you.
It can also mean to fight for your beliefs.
Stand up for yourself.
Stand up for what you believe.
In other words, defend what you believe.
To stand up to someone means to defend your beliefs with that person.
Romeo says, it's time, Juliet, you stood up to them, to your parents.
Romeo says, I'm tired of being a puppet.
P-U-P-P-E-T.
A puppet can be... a little doll that children play with where you put your hand inside.
For example, the Muppets, Kermit the Frog, those are examples of puppets.
But here, a puppet means someone who is controlled by someone else, who is like a puppet.
You say, he isn't the real leader of his country.
He's just a puppet.
You mean the real leader is someone else, and he is just saying that he's the leader.
In this case, Romeo is saying, I'm tired of being a puppet.
I'm tired of someone who is controlled by someone else.
He's tired of being a puppet in the feud between Juliet's family and his.
A feud F-E-U-D is a long fight or argument between two people or two groups of people that may have lasted for many years.
A long-standing fight is sometimes called a feud.
Juliet says that's easy to say, but I can't confront my father and tell him that I want to be with you.
It would kill him.
Juliet says she can't confront her father.
To confront someone is to speak to someone to tell them that you don't agree with them, or to talk with someone about your plans to do something, knowing that that person doesn't agree with you.
I'm going to confront my boss tomorrow and tell her that I need a bigger salary if I'm going to stay here.
I'm going to confront her.
I know she'll say no and she'll disagree with me. but I'm going to confront her anyway.
And then the day after tomorrow, I will look for a new job after my boss fires me.
Romeo responds to Juliet by saying, Your father is using guilt to get you to give me up.
Don't let him manipulate you that way.
Guilt is when you feel sad or embarrassed because you think you did something wrong or you did something wrong.
That's guilt.
Guilt.
Your father is using guilt, making you think that you've done something wrong to get you, in order to get you to give me up.
To give someone up in this case means to end a relationship with someone, often in order to make somebody else happy, such as your parents.
There's a couple different meanings of this phrasal verb to give someone up.
Take a look at our learning guide for some more explanations.
Romeo says don't let your father manipulate you.
To manipulate someone is to use this person in a dishonest way to do something, to control the way someone else acts, without them knowing it or realizing it.
Governments sometimes manipulate public opinion and the media in order to get what it wants.
Juliet said, this is tearing me apart.
This situation is tearing me apart.
To tear someone apart is another two-word phrasal verb meaning to hurt someone emotionally, to put someone in a difficult situation where you can't decide what to do.
Romeo then says, Juliet, not happy, says, No, you can't.
I can't live without you.
Just like the old song.
I can't live if living is without you.
If this were a musical, Romeo would sing.
Then Romeo says, someday we'll be together.
And then he says, cut.
Cut.
Cut.
C-U-T is a command that they use when they're making a movie or a TV show to get the actors to stop performing.
In other words, Romeo and Juliet are actors and this is some sort of movie or TV show.
Romeo says cut, meaning let's stop our acting right now.
He says, where is the director?
The director is the person on a TV or movie filming that tells everyone what to do, tells the actors what to do.
Romeo says this is supposed to be the story about star-crossed lovers, not a trashy melodrama.
When we say star-crossed, we are actually using a phrase from a Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet, to refer to a romantic couple whose relationship cannot work, cannot succeed.
People used to believe some people still do that the stars and the planets determined our actions on Earth, had an influence.
We call this astrology.
Well, this is the idea that somehow the stars are arranged so that we cannot have this romantic relationship.
Romeo says this is not supposed to be a trashy melodrama.
A melodrama is a story, a play, a movie, a book, where the characters seem to overreact to everything.
They're too emotional.
You can't believe them.
They don't seem realistic because they're too emotional.
If you watch a soap opera, for example, This is very melodramatic sometimes.
The actors are what we would say overacting.
They're trying to be too emotional.
Trashy, T-R-A-S-H-Y, means very poor quality, very low quality, not having any value.
Trash is what you throw away, things that you don't need.
So trashy means it's without much artistic value.
Then Romeo says, whoever wrote this trash should be fired.
Maybe it would be better if they did the original Romeo and Juliet.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
What do you plan to do?
I don't know.
I can't define my parents.
They've been against our relationship from the start, and I've been forbidden to see you.
It's your life, not theirs.
It's time you stood up to them and told them what you want.
I'm tired of being a puppet in the feud between your family and mine.
That's easy to say, but I can't confront my father and tell him that I want to be with you.
It would kill him.
No, it won't.
He's using guilt to get you to give me up.
Don't let him manipulate you that way.
This is tearing me apart.
I can't take it much longer.
You won't have to.
I'm leaving without you.
No, you can't.
I can't live without you.
Someday, we'll be together.
Cut!
Where's the director?
This is supposed to be the story about star-crossed lovers, not a trashy melodrama.
Whoever wrote this trash should be fired.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say, with a little help from Bill Shakespeare.
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 2008.
