Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 343, Being Alike and Different.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 343.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles California, the home of Hollywood, the home of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and George Clooney and Lucy Say.
It's a dialogue between Fabian and Clarissa.
Their dialogue is about different personalities.
It's going to give you a lot of good vocabulary to talk about someone's personality.
Let's get started.
Oh, your babies are adorable.
They're like two peas in a pod.
They may look like mirror images of each other, but they're nothing alike.
They each have their distinct personalities.
Randy likes to sleep during the day, and Dominic likes to sleep at night.
That's like my babies at home.
They're polar opposites.
They don't like eating the same foods and they have clashing personalities.
Oh, really?
Does that cause problems?
Yes, sometimes it does.
One is playful all the time and the other one is always pensive.
They get on each other's nerves more often than not.
I can't believe they have the same parents.
You're telling me.
I sometimes wonder how two babies born at the same time can be so different.
Oh, my precious little babies are hungry.
We'd better get home so they can eat.
Fabian begins by saying, Oh, your babies are adorable.
Adorable means very pretty, very cute, very attractive.
We often use that adjective when you are talking about babies, young children or perhaps small animals.
You may say to someone, Oh, your 800-pound gorilla is so adorable.
Fabian says the babies...
The expression two peas, P-E-A-S, in a pod, P-O-D, means they're almost identical.
They're very similar.
They're like twins.
Two peas in a pod.
Used to describe two people who are very alike, very similar.
A pea is a small green vegetable that you eat.
Peas grow in what are called pea pods, which are small.
You could think of them as little packs, little containers where the pea itself grows.
Clarissa says, my babies may look like mirror images of each other, but they're nothing alike.
When we say something is a mirror image, we mean it's identical, very similar in appearance, just like twins.
Me and the actor Johnny Depp, for example, are mirror images really.
Clarissa says her babies are nothing alike, meaning they're not at all the same.
They're not at all alike.
They're completely different.
You could say, my brother and I are nothing alike.
He's completely different than I am.
Clarissa says each of her babies has their distinct personalities.
Something that is distinct is easy to distinguish, easy to tell the difference.
Randy, one of her babies, likes to sleep during the day and Dominic, her other baby, likes to sleep at night.
Fabian says that's like my babies at home.
They're polar opposites.
When we say something is opposite, we mean it's completely different.
It's not alike.
The word polar opposites means they're extreme opposites.
They have no similarities.
They're very different.
They're polar opposites.
Fabian's babies don't like eating the same foods, and they have clashing personalities.
When we say something clashes, we mean that it is very different from something else.
It causes problems with that other thing.
So clashing personalities would be very different personalities, the opposite of someone else's personality.
Clarissa says, oh, really?
Does that cause problems?
Fabian says, yes, sometimes it does cause problems.
One child is playful all the time, and the other one is always pensive.
To be playful means that you always want to play.
You always want to have fun.
To be pensive means to be thoughtful, to be thinking about something all the time.
Often people are pensive when they're sad or worried, but not necessarily.
To be pensive means to be thinking about something.
Fabian says his babies get on each other's nerves more often than not.
There are a couple of expressions there.
The first is to get on each other's nerves, N-E-R-V-E-S.
To get on each other's or to get on someone's nerves means to bother or annoy them.
To do something that makes the other person angry.
Usually we have this expression when two people are together for a long time and they keep bothering each other.
Every hour, every day, there seems to be some problem between them.
They're getting on each other's nerves.
Well, the babies get on each other's nerves more often than not.
The expression more often than not means frequently, often, most of the time.
More often than not, I wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning, usually unless I don't, but usually I do.
Fabian says I can't believe the babies have the same parents.
Maybe they don't, Fabian.
Clarissa says you're telling me.
That expression you're telling me, is a phrase we use to show that what another person has said is correct or that you understand what another person is talking about, because you agree with them or you have had a similar experience.
For example, someone says, Oh, I had to pay $1,500 for rent this month.
It's so expensive.
And you say, You're telling me I have to pay $2,000 in rent.
Clarissa says you're telling me meaning she agrees or understands what Fabian says.
I sometimes wonder how two babies born at the same time twins we would call them can be so different.
Then you hear a barking sound, the kind of sound that a dog would make.
And we realize that Fabian and Clarissa are not talking about human babies.
They're talking about little animals.
We usually use the word baby to refer to a human, but sometimes people use that in talking about an animal.
A baby dog is called a puppy.
Clarissa then says, Oh, my precious little babies are hungry.
Precious is a word that means very special, very valuable, either because of money or emotional reasons.
When you love something very much, you say it's precious.
Sometimes you can even use that word about your husband or wife.
You can say, oh, my precious, my precious darling.
I say that every day to my wife.
Clarissa says we'd better get home so they can eat, meaning we now have to leave.
We ought to, we should get home or go home so the dogs can eat.
Fabian says I'd better get home to mine, to my, in this case, dogs.
To crawl up the walls is an expression which means you have too much energy.
You're very nervous, anxious, maybe worried or stressed.
You could also be very annoyed by some situation.
The noise outside had me crawling up the wall.
I was very upset.
In this case, the dogs are excited, which is why they are crawling up the walls.
The verb to crawl, C-R-A-W-L, usually means to get down on your hands and knees and move forward.
Little babies crawl.
In this case, the dogs are going to be crawling up the wall if Fabian doesn't get back with their treats.
A treat T-R-E-A-T in the dialogue means something that is very tasty, something that tastes good, usually something you give to a child or to a pet, a dog or a cat in between their main meals.
So they eat breakfast at 8 and they get a treat at 10, usually something sweet but not always sweet.
Treat has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
We also talk about Americans and their pets and what some Americans do with their pets that you may not believe.
Take a look at our culture note in the learning guide for a discussion of that.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Oh, your babies are adorable.
They're like two peas in a pod.
They may look like mirror images of each other, but they're nothing alike.
They each have their distinct personalities.
Randy likes to sleep during the day, and Dominic likes to sleep at night.
That's like my babies at home.
They're polar opposites.
They don't like eating the same foods, and they have clashing personalities.
Oh, really?
Does that cause problems?
Yeah, sometimes it does.
One is playful all the time, and the other one is always pensive.
They get on each other's nerves more often than not.
I can't believe they have the same parents.
You're telling me.
I sometimes wonder how two babies born at the same time can be so different.
Oh, my precious little babies are hungry.
We'd better get home so they can eat.
I'd better get home to mine.
They'll be crawling up the walls if I don't get back soon with their treats.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say, who never gets on my nerves.
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.
