Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 367, Going into the Military.
This is ESL podcast number 367.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com to download a learning guide for this episode.
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I think you'll enjoy.
This episode is called Going Into the Military.
It's a dialogue between Chantel and Robert about...
Life in the Army or in one of the military services.
Let's get started.
Attention!
Aren't you supposed to salute?
You're not my superior officer.
Stop goofing around.
I'm busy.
You're packing already?
You don't need to report to duty for two days.
Are you afraid they'll think you went AWOL?
I just want to be prepared.
Now leave me alone so I can finish packing.
Am I dismissed?
Maybe I want to enlist, too.
I think I would look good in camouflage makeup and fatigues.
Being in the military is no laughing matter.
Do you really think that the most desperate recruiter would want you?
That's not very nice.
I have as much discipline as you do about some things.
You may find yourself in a foxhole with me someday.
Whatever deployment you'd get, I'd make sure I'm on the other side of the world.
This episode is about people who are in the military.
To be in the military means to work for the government in the army or the navy or some other military service.
These are people who have guns that protect a country, their own country, we hope.
In the United States, the military is all volunteer, meaning that men and women are not required to go into the military, as they are in many countries.
In the U.S., you volunteer.
You say, okay, that's what I want to do.
And if you don't want to do it, you don't do it.
At least that has been the way the system has worked for the last 30 years or so.
In our dialogue, Chantel says to Robert, attention, aren't you supposed to salute?
Attention is a word that you shout at someone to get them to look or listen to you.
It is often used in the military when the people who are working, the soldiers, are told by, for example, one of their bosses, such as a general, to stand at attention or simply attention.
Everyone needs to stand up and look like they are paying attention, they are listening to the general.
Attention has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more meanings of that word.
Chantel says, Aren't you supposed to salute?
Meaning, Don't you have to or shouldn't you have to salute?
To salute S-A-L-U-T-E means to raise usually your right hand to your forehead, with the fingers held together straight.
You touch those fingers on your forehead and then quickly move them a few inches to the right and front of your face.
This is what happens when someone, a soldier in the military, sees someone who is higher up, who is one of the bosses, if you will.
They have to salute.
They have to bring their arm up with their fingers against their forehead to show respect.
Robert says to Chantel, you're not my superior officer.
Stop goofing around.
I'm busy.
Chantel is joking with Robert.
Robert says, you're not my superior officer.
Your superior is someone who is higher up above you.
An officer is someone, a general word we give to someone who is in charge of or is a supervisor in the military.
So your superior officer is someone who works in the army or the navy that has a higher level job than you.
We would say a higher rank.
That is, they have a higher position than you.
Robert says, stop goofing around.
To goof, G-O-O-F, around means to be silly, to not act seriously, to waste time.
The children were goofing around instead of studying.
Robert is saying to Chantel, I'm busy.
Stop bothering me.
Stop joking with me.
Chantel says, you're packing already, meaning you are packing already so soon.
To pack means to put things that you will need usually into a suitcase when you are traveling or going on a trip.
To pack has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Chantel says you don't need to report for duty for two days.
To report for duty means to go to your job on the first day to begin a new job or, in this case, to begin your first day of working in the military, in the army or the navy.
The army are the soldiers, the people who fight on the land, and the navy are those that have boats and ships and fight on the ocean or on the water.
Chantel says you don't need to report for duty for two days.
Are you afraid they'll think you went AWOL?
AWOL. is an acronym, A-W-O-L, all capital letters, that means absent without leave.
If you are in the military and you suddenly decide not to go where you're supposed to go?
If you decide to stay home, you would be considered AWOL.
This is something that the Army and Navy doesn't like very much, and you will get in a lot of trouble.
You will be punished if you go AWOL.
Sometimes you'll hear this expression for people who, for example, don't come to work or don't show up to the job that they're supposed to do.
We might say they went AWOL.
Notice the verb is to go AWOL.
Robert says, I just want to be prepared.
Now leave me alone so I can finish packing.
Chantel, once again joking with Robert, says, Am I dismissed?
To dismiss someone is to say, leave the room, to give someone permission to leave.
This is often used in the military.
Someone may say, you're dismissed.
Your superior officer would tell you, you're dismissed, meaning you can go now.
I give you permission to leave.
Chantel says, maybe I want to enlist too.
To enlist means to sign up for something, to agree to participate in something.
We often use this verb in talking about the military.
Frank enlisted in the Navy when he turned 18 years old.
Chantel says Camouflage is is a green, brown and gray design that is used on clothing and sometimes painted on people's faces to make them more difficult to see.
This is often a technique used in the military.
To camouflage as a verb means to hide something by changing the appearance so it looks like everything around it.
Fatigues are the clothing that someone in the military would wear.
So Chantel is joking saying I think I would look good in camouflage makeup on her face, for example, and fatigues or clothing.
Robert says being in the military is no laughing matter, meaning it's not funny.
It's nothing to laugh about or make jokes about.
Do you really think, Robert says, that the most desperate recruiter would want you?
To be desperate means that you have no other choices, that you need something very badly.
A recruiter is a person whose job it is to get other people to work for his or her organization or group.
The military has recruiters in most cities of the United States and their job is to find men and women who want to work in the military.
What Robert is saying is that no one would want Chantel, even a very desperate recruiter who needed more people.
Chantel says that's not very nice.
That's not a nice thing to say.
Discipline is the ability to control your actions, to control your behavior, to do what other people tell you to do.
In this case,
Chantel says, you may find yourself in a foxhole with me someday.
You may find yourself means you may be surprised to be in the same situation.
In this case, to be in a foxhole.
A foxhole is a small hole in the ground that soldiers dig, lie in and hide in for protection when they are shooting at other people.
Chantel is saying that someday I may be in a foxhole with you, working with you, fighting alongside you, next to you.
Robert says whatever deployment you'd get, I'd make sure I'm on the other side of the world.
Whatever deployment, whatever place that you were told to go, he's saying, i would make sure i was on the other side of the world, nowhere close to you.
So deployment is the place where soldiers and equipment and supplies are taken and Usually we use the expression on deployment.
For example, Denise is on deployment in another country.
That's where she is working for the military.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Attention!
Aren't you supposed to salute?
You're not my superior officer.
Stop goofing around.
I'm busy.
You're packing already?
You don't need to report to duty for two days.
Are you afraid they'll think you went AWOL?
I just want to be prepared.
Now, leave me alone so I can finish packing.
Am I dismissed?
Maybe I want to enlist too.
I think I would look good in camouflage makeup and fatigues.
Being in the military is no laughing matter.
Do you really think that the most desperate recruiter would want you?
That's not very nice.
I have as much discipline as you do.
About some things.
You may find yourself in a foxhole with me someday.
Whatever deployment you'd get, I'd make sure I'm on the other side of the world.
The script for this episode was written by my superior officer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us 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.
