Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, number 424, Being in Debt.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 424.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, in the state of California, in the country of the USA.
Visit our website at eslpodcom.
You can download a learning guide for this episode, which contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions, Sudoku puzzles and a complete transcript of this program.
This episode is a dialogue between Chang and Ilya about being in debt, owing other people money, which is a common phenomenon, a common situation nowadays.
Let's get started.
I don't mean to be nosy about But all of those bills are red or pink.
Are you behind on all of those bills?
I am but it's no big deal.
I can catch up on them next month.
You know that being late on bills is bad for your credit score, right?
You also have to pay exorbitant interest if you have credit card debt.
I'm only speaking from experience.
When I first started working, I had a loan that I defaulted on.
And I ran up my credit cards.
I had to borrow money from my family and friends to pay my bills.
I was so desperate at one point I even went to see a loan shark.
Did he lend you money?
I decided against borrowing money from him after talking to my brother about it.
With his help, I found a good credit counselor and got my finances under control.
My two main creditors agreed to defer payment for a couple of months.
Maybe I can do that.
Do what?
Work with a credit counselor so I don't have to pay my bills.
You've got it all wrong.
It took me years to pay off those bills.
I just didn't have debt collectors calling me at all hours of the day.
That's all.
A little advice, a little restraint now, will save you a lot of pain.
Okay, okay.
I got the message.
Remind me never to pay my bills in front of you again.
Chang begins by saying, It's not any of your business, we would say.
It's not something you should be asking about.
But Chang asks anyway, He says all of those bills are pink or red.
In the US when you are late paying your bill, say from the telephone company or the gas company, they will send you a bill but the ink will be in pink or red.
That means that you are late.
So Ilya's bills are all red or pink.
Chang says, are you behind on all of those bills?
To be behind on something is an expression which means to be behind schedule, to be doing things later than when you should be doing them.
So if the bill is is due on October 1st and you don't send it in until October 15th, you are behind on your bills.
Ilya says, I am.
I am behind.
But it's no big deal.
It's not important.
I can catch up on them next month.
I can... get back to where I should be next month.
Chang says, you know that being late on bills is bad for your credit score, right?
Here in the US, there are organizations that keep track of how good you are in making your payments.
And they give you a score which the banks will use to.
If, for example, you want to get a loan, you have to have a good credit score, a good credit history.
You have to show that you pay your bills on time.
Cenk says you also have to pay exorbitant interest if you have credit card debt.
Exorbitant means a number or an amount of money that is much higher than normal, much higher than it should be too high.
Interest is the amount of additional money that you have to pay when you borrow money from someone else.
It's the price of that money that you are borrowing.
If you borrow 1000 from the bank at 10 interest, you have to give the bank 1100 back to pay for the loan and the interest.
Credit card debt is when you owe some money to, usually Visa or MasterCard or American Express or another credit card company.
Debt in general is money you owe to other people.
Ilya says, don't worry about it.
Everything will be fine.
Chang says, I'm only speaking from experience.
The expression to speak from experience means to give someone advice or tell someone how something works based upon your own experience with that situation.
Chang says, when I first started working...
I had a loan that I defaulted on and I ran up my credit cards.
A loan is the money that someone gives you, a bank or a person.
To default on a loan means not to make the payments that you are supposed to make.
So if you borrow 1000 and have to pay it back in 10 months, you would pay 100 a month, plus interest of course.
To default on your loan is to miss one of your payments or two of your payments.
This, of course, can cause problems for you.
Chang also says he ran up his credit card.
To run up something means to spend a lot of money or to use a lot of something that one has to pay a lot.
So I ran up my credit card means I charged a lot of things on my credit cards.
Chang says I had to borrow.
I had to ask someone for money from my family and friends to pay my bills.
I was so desperate, I was so in a difficult situation at one point, I even went to see a loan shark.
A loan shark...
S-H-A-R-K is someone who lends other people money but charges a very high interest.
And when those people don't pay the money back, they might use violence or hurt you if you don't pay them back.
That would be a loan shark.
Ilya said did he?
Did the loan shark and she's assuming it was a man, could have been a woman did he lend you money?
To lend means to give someone money or to give someone something else, with the understanding that that person will give that back to you.
Lend has a couple of different meanings in English, as does the expression to run up.
Where can you find more information?
That's right, our learning guide.
Chang says I decided against borrowing money from the loan shark after talking to my brother about it.
With his help...
A credit counselor is a person who helps someone with a lot of debt, especially credit card debt, to fix the problem.
Usually they make an agreement, an arrangement with the different companies to fix the problem and they help the person pay back the money.
They don't give them the money but they help the person be organized and to come up with a plan to pay their debts off, to pay them back.
My two main creditors, Chang says, agreed to defer payment for a couple of months.
Your creditor is the person or organization to whom you owe money.
It's the person who lends you money.
Could be a bank, could be another person.
To defer something means to wait until later before you do it.
We might also say to put it off. to do it later than when it was originally scheduled.
So Chang was deferring payment.
He was going to pay them later than he was supposed to, but he had to sell his car and most of what he owned to raise money.
To raise money means to...
Get money for a specific purpose, usually from different sources.
You might work.
You might ask somebody for another loan.
All of these would be ways of getting money, of raising money.
So Ilya says, maybe I can do that.
And Chang says, do what?
Meaning, what can you do?
Ilya says, I can work with a credit counselor so I don't have to pay my bills.
Well, of course, this is not what a credit counselor does.
Chang says, you've got it all wrong, meaning you are completely incorrect.
He says it took me years to pay off those bills.
To pay off bills is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to give the money back to someone who has lent you money.
Chang says, So going to the credit counselor stopped the debt collectors from calling him.
A debt collector is a person or company whose job it is to get you to pay your bills.
And what they'll do is they'll call you and keep calling you to remind you to pay your bills.
Chang says a little advice.
A little restraint now will save you a lot of pain, meaning a lot of pain later.
Restraint is when you don't do something even though you could.
To show restraint means I'm not going to do something, even though I could do it for some higher reason, for some better reason.
Ilya says, okay, okay, I got the message.
I understand.
Remind me never to pay my bills in front of you again.
Of course, Ilya didn't really get the message, did she?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I don't mean to be nosy, but all of those bills are red or pink.
Are you behind on all of those bills?
I am, but it's no big deal.
I can catch up on them next month.
You know that being late on bills is bad for your credit score, right?
You also have to pay exorbitant interest if you have credit card debt.
Don't worry about it, Everything will be fine.
I'm only speaking from experience.
When I first started working, I had a loan that I defaulted on and I ran out my credit cards.
I had to borrow money from my family and friends to pay my bills.
I was so desperate at one point, I even went to see a loan shark.
I decided against borrowing money from him after talking to my brother about it.
With his help, I found a good credit counselor and got my finances under control.
My two main creditors agreed to defer payment for a couple of months, but not before.
I sold my car and most of what I own to raise money.
Maybe I can do that.
Do what?
Work with a credit counselor so I don't have to pay my bills.
You've got it all wrong.
It took me years to pay off those bills.
I just didn't have debt collectors calling me at all hours of the day, that's all.
A little advice...
A little restraint now will save you a lot of pain.
Okay, okay, I got the message.
Remind me never to pay my bills in front of you again.
Our script today was written by Dr. Lucy Say, who is never behind on writing her scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you 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.
