Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 511, Getting Plastic Surgery.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 511.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions and, most importantly, a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between George and Joan about plastic surgery, when people have medical procedures, surgeries on their body to change the way it looks.
Let's get started.
What are you doing?
I'm looking through these magazines to try and decide which plastic surgery procedures I should have next year.
You're not thinking of going under the knife.
Yes, I am.
I've always wanted to improve on the way I look, and I'm tired of these wrinkles and sagging skin.
I want to look 25 again.
That's ridiculous.
Nobody who is 45 can look 25.
People who get Botox, have facelifts, or tummy tucks look weird.
That's because they didn't go to the best plastic surgeons.
I won't make that mistake.
Help me decide.
Should I get liposuction and a nose job?
Or should I go all out and get breast implants, too?
I think you've gone off the deep end.
We've been friends for over 20 years, and you don't need any cosmetic surgery.
You're perfect the way you are.
You can't be serious.
I'm dead serious.
And if you get all of that plastic surgery, you'll look like an over-the-hill Barbie doll.
And I'm not going to be seen in public with you.
What's wrong with a little plastic surgery?
I just want to feel better about myself.
You don't need plastic surgery to do that.
Sagging skin and all?
What sagging skin?
I feel younger already.
The dialogue begins with George saying to Joan...
What are you doing?
Jones says.
Plastic surgery, sometimes called cosmetic surgery, is one of many different medical procedures that involve cutting into your skin, usually to make you more attractive or more beautiful.
If you think your nose is too big, you may have plastic surgery to make your nose smaller.
My wife thinks my mouth is too big, so she wants me to have plastic surgery to make it smaller.
Joan is interested in plastic surgery, which is very popular, especially in cities like Los Angeles, where everyone is trying to look beautiful, especially those who are on television or the movies.
I, of course, am on a podcast, so you can guess how ugly I am.
George says, you're not going under the knife.
The expression to go under the knife means to have surgery.
Not plastic surgery exclusively.
It could be any kind of surgery.
If you had a car accident, you might have to have surgery where the doctor cuts open your body.
That's going under the knife.
Plastic surgery is just one type of surgery.
Joan says, yes, I am.
I've always wanted to improve on the way I look to make myself look better.
And I'm tired of these wrinkles and sagging skin.
Wrinkles are small lines or folds, we might call them, in your skin, usually caused by age.
As you get older, you have more wrinkles and They may also be caused by sun damage people who like to go out into the sun and get a tan so they look younger.
Well, the problem is later in life.
Then you have even more wrinkles and you look even older.
Sagging skin is skin that hangs down.
It is not as tight as it used to be.
It would be, for example, loose skin on your face rather than having your skin that was tight, as you would see, among younger people.
Not me, people who are really young.
The word sag, S-A-G, has several different meanings in English.
Take a look at that learning guide for some additional explanations.
Joan says, I want to look 25 again.
George says, that's ridiculous.
Nobody who is 45 can look 25.
That's true.
I'm 45 and I will never look 25.
In fact, even when I was 25, I didn't look 25.
George says people who get Botox have facelifts or tummy tucks look weird, look strange.
Botox is a chemical substance that is injected or put into your skin, on your face, so that you have fewer wrinkles.
It makes your skin smoother.
It also makes your skin unable to move, so that when you smile or try to have some expression on your face, your skin just stays the way it is.
It doesn't move.
It looks very strange.
It's very popular among a lot of people here in Hollywood.
They get Botox, especially women, but not just women.
To have a facelift.
One word is to remove loose skin on your face, making it tighter, and The idea is to try to make you look younger.
A tummy tuck is a surgical procedure that cuts away fat and skin from your abdomen, from what we call your tummy, which is in the middle part of your body.
The idea of a tummy tuck is to make you look thinner.
Jones says that people who get Botox, have facelifts or tummy tucks, look weird because they don't go to the best plastic surgeons.
A surgeon is someone who does surgery.
A plastic surgeon is a medical doctor who does surgeries that make people look better or younger.
Jones says, I won't make that mistake.
I won't go to anything but the best plastic surgeons.
If you ever are in Los Angeles and you pick up one of the weekly entertainment magazines or newspapers which are often distributed for free at coffee shops and restaurants, and You can open up the newspaper or magazine and you can see advertisements from doctors who are plastic surgeons.
It's sort of funny.
They're so popular here in Los Angeles that they advertise in the newspaper.
Usually the advertisement has a beautiful woman in a bikini who has a very how should we say large top of her body and a very small bottom of her body.
Obviously, the result of plastic surgery.
Joan says, help me decide, meaning help me make a decision, George.
Should I get liposuction and a nose job or Or should I go all out and get breast implants?
Liposuction is a type of plastic surgery that removes unwanted fat from your belly, your abdomen, your tummy.
It pulls the fat out of your body so that you look less fat.
The nose job is when you get surgery to make your nose smaller or to make it have a different shape.
The expression to go all out means to do 100 of something, to do everything possible, to go to the extreme, to try very hard to do something.
These are all meanings of to go all out.
They're going to go all out on their wedding.
They're has several different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations of that phrasal verb.
So Joan is wondering if she should go all out and get breast implants.
To implant something is to put something underneath your skin or in your body, and Breast implants for women usually are.
When the woman's breasts, her chest, the top front of her body, are changed, usually made bigger, by putting in little bags of a type of plastic, of silicones.
When I was talking about the advertisements for the plastic surgeons in the newspapers in Los Angeles.
Well, usually those are of women in bikinis who have breast implants.
George says to Joan, I think you've gone off the deep end.
To go off the deep end means to go crazy, to stop being realistic.
George says, we've been friends for over 20 years, and you don't need any cosmetic surgery.
Remember, cosmetic surgery is the same as plastic surgery.
You're perfect the way you are.
Joan says, you can't be serious, meaning you're kidding, right?
George says, I'm dead serious.
When someone says they're dead serious, they're saying they're very serious.
They're extremely serious.
They're not joking at all.
George says if you get all of that plastic surgery, you'll look like an over-the-hill Barbie doll.
There's two expressions there.
First, over-the-hill. means old.
It's an informal expression, somewhat of a negative expression.
If somebody says you're over the hill, they mean that you have already gotten to the top of your life and now you're on the second part of your life.
You're old, in other words.
That's what my nieces and nephews tell me.
I'm over the hill.
You're over the hill, Uncle Jeff.
A Barbie doll is a child's toy, usually a young girl's toy.
It's a small doll that has usually blonde hair.
It's been around for several years, since probably the middle part of the 20th century.
They're very popular.
Usually they are dolls that are very beautiful women with large breasts and a small waist, a small bottom.
George says, I'm not going to be seen in public with you.
Joan says, what's wrong with a little plastic surgery?
I just want to feel better about myself.
And of course, that's one unfortunate reason why some women have plastic surgery, I think.
George says, you don't need plastic surgery to feel better about yourself.
You just need to spend more time with me and your other friends who like you just the way you are.
Joan says, sagging skin and all.
The phrase and all is used to emphasize that something is included in the discussion.
It would be another way of saying, even my sagging skin.
George says, what sagging skin?
Joan says, I feel younger already, meaning telling me that makes me feel younger.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What are you doing?
I'm looking through these magazines to try and decide which plastic surgery procedures I should have next year.
You're not thinking of going under the knife.
Yes, I am.
I've always wanted to improve on the way I look, and I'm tired of these wrinkles and sagging skin.
I want to look 25 again.
That's ridiculous.
Nobody who is 45 can look 25.
People who get Botox, have facelifts, or tummy tucks look weird.
That's because I didn't go to the best plastic surgeons.
I will make that mistake.
Help me decide.
Should I get liposuction and a nose job, or should I go all out and get breast implants too?
I think you've gone off the deep end.
We've been friends for over 20 years, and you don't need any cosmetic surgery.
You're perfect the way you are.
You can't be serious.
I'm dead serious.
And if you get all of that plastic surgery, you'll look like an over-the-hill Barbie doll.
And I'm not going to be seen in public with you.
What's wrong with a little plastic surgery?
I just want to feel better about myself.
You don't need plastic surgery to do that.
You just need to spend more time with me and your other friends who like you just the way you are.
Sagging skin and all?
What's sagging skin?
I feel younger already.
The script for this episode was written by someone who never goes off the deep end, Dr. Lucy Saye.
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.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
