Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 523, Having Trouble Making a Decision.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 523.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan.
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This episode is called Having Trouble Making a Decision.
It's a dialogue between Lorenzo and Katia.
They're talking about buying a new television and all of the things that they need to think about.
We'll be hearing a lot of expressions that you might use when you are talking about making a difficult decision.
Let's get started.
Have you bought a new television yet?
No, I'm still looking at consumer reviews and weighing my options.
I'm not sure yet what size I want or what features I need.
I'm keeping my options open for now.
I thought your old TV stopped working three weeks ago.
You still haven't made up your mind about buying a new one?
Oh, I've decided to buy a new one.
It's which one I'm going to buy that's making me hesitate.
There are so many options to choose from.
I want to approach this logically and decide only after I've done the proper analysis.
It's only a TV
It's not like it's a house or even a car.
You know what I think?
What?
Hey, what are you doing?
Where are you taking me?
We're going to the electronics store this minute, and you're buying a TV today.
What if I regret my decision?
Then I'll buy you a new one.
Fine, but I'm holding you to that.
Lorenzo begins our dialogue asking Katia, Have you bought a new television yet?
Katya says, no, I'm still looking at consumer reviews and weighing my options.
What a lot of people do now, especially with the Internet.
Before they buy something they look to see what other people think about it, what their opinion is.
If you buy a book on Amazon.com, there are all sorts of reviews, customer or consumer reviews.
Customer and consumer mean the same thing, the person who buys something.
So you can look at their opinion.
That's what their review is, their opinion about this product or service.
Katya says she's still looking at consumer reviews and weighing her options.
To weigh W-E-I-G-H your options means to carefully consider all of your choices to determine which one is best.
That's weighing your options.
Sometimes of course you don't have very many options, so you don't have much to weigh.
Katya says, I'm not sure what size I want or what features I need.
Features are things that a product offers you.
It might be a color television that could be a feature.
Or it might be a television that has a digital video recorder that would be a feature.
Katia says, I'm keeping my options open for now.
To keep your options, your choices open means not to make a decision yet.
Wait until you have looked at all of the possibilities, all of the options.
So to keep your options open means to think about it some more.
Wait until you have more information.
Lorenzo says, I thought your old TV stopped working three weeks ago.
You still haven't made up your mind about buying a new one?
Lorenzo's a little surprised since Katia has not had a television for three weeks.
He says, you still haven't made up your mind.
To make up your mind means to make a decision.
Sometimes we use that expression when someone is having difficulty making a decision and you are getting impatient.
You want them to hurry up.
You may say, oh, make up your mind.
Make a decision.
Make up your mind.
Katia says, oh, I've decided to buy a new one.
That's her decision.
It's which one I'm going to buy that's making me hesitate.
To hesitate means to delay, not to do something right away.
She says, there are so many options, so many possibilities, choices to choose from.
To do something logically means to do it rationally, following clear thinking.
Analysis is when you do careful research and examination of something to understand it better.
A scientist would do analysis on the results of his or her study.
That's analysis.
Analysis just means to think about it, to look at all the information, to make careful judgments about it.
Lorenzo thinks that Kati is being too careful.
He says it's only a TV, meaning it's not that important.
It's not like it's a house or even a car.
A house and a car are much bigger purchases, much more expensive, so you might think about them more.
A television is less important, and so you probably don't need to think about it all that much.
But Katia does.
She says To live with the decision means to accept the consequences, the results of what you decided.
If you buy a small car and then you want to take all of your friends to the beach well, that's not going to be possible.
You have to live with your decision.
In this case, it could mean a good thing, it could mean a bad thing.
Katya says I'll look at it every day and if I don't make the right decision it'll haunt me for years.
To haunt someone means that someone is bothered, worried or concerned about something bad that happened in the past or or about a bad decision that you've made and you continue to think about it.
It haunts you.
You're reminded of it every day or very frequently.
Katia is worried about making the wrong decision because she doesn't want it to haunt her for years.
Lorenzo says, you know what I think?
Katia says, what?
Lorenzo says, I think you're crippled by indecision and you're stalling.
To be crippled.
C-R-I-P-P-L-E-D means in this case to be unable to do something, to be unable to work properly or correctly.
The word cripple has a couple of different meanings in English however, so take a look at the learning guide for some more explanations.
Indecision is the inability to make a decision, the inability to decide when you can't decide because, for whatever reason, you are unable to.
So Lorenzo is saying that Katia is crippled by indecision.
She can't do anything because she can't decide.
And so she's stalling.
To stall, S-T-A-L-L, means to delay in doing something.
Usually to do other less important things because you don't want to do the thing you're supposed to do.
You're delaying it.
You're waiting longer and longer to do it.
Stall, like cripple, has a couple of different meanings, so take a look at the learning guide for some explanations of that.
Lorenzo says, the sooner you make a decision and buy a new TV, the better.
Katya says, hey, what are you doing?
Where are you taking me?
Lorenzo says, we're going to the electronics store this minute and you're buying a TV today.
Lorenzo is taking her to the electronics store, a store that sells televisions radios telephones computers, perhaps things that are electronic in nature.
They're going to the electronics store this minute, meaning immediately, right now.
And you're going to buy a TV today, he says.
Katya says, what if I regret my decision?
To regret is to wish that you hadn't done something.
To wish that something had not happened.
When someone thinks you're making the wrong decision, They may say to you you're going to regret that decision.
You'll regret it.
They might even say you'll live to regret it, meaning you may not regret it immediately, but in the future you'll look back and say I made a mistake.
So to regret something is to realize that you've made a mistake, to wish that you had made a different decision.
Katia says, what if I regret my decision?
Lorenzo says, then I'll buy you a new one, meaning a new television.
Katia says, fine, meaning okay, but I'm holding you to that.
To hold someone to something means to make someone keep a promise to make sure that the person is going to do what they say they are going to do.
If you tell your children you're going to take them to a movie this weekend...
Your children are probably going to hold you to it, meaning on Friday or Saturday you can't say oh, you know what kids, we're not going to go to a movie.
Well, your children will not be very happy, I don't think.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Have you bought a new television yet?
No, I'm still looking at consumer reviews and weighing my options.
I'm not sure yet what size I want or what features I need.
I'm keeping my options open for now.
I thought your old TV stopped working three weeks ago.
You still haven't made up your mind about buying a new one?
Oh, I've decided to buy a new one.
It's which one I'm going to buy that's making me hesitate.
There's so many options to choose from.
I want to approach this logically and decide only after I've done the proper analysis.
It's only a TV.
It's not like it's a house or even a car.
I know, but I'm the one who has to live with the decision.
I'll look at it every day, and if I don't make the right decision, it'll haunt me for years.
You know what I think?
What?
I think you're crippled by indecision and you're stalling.
The sooner you make a decision and buy a new TV, the better.
Hey, what are you doing?
Where are you taking me?
We're going to the electronics store this minute and you're buying a TV today.
What if I regret my decision?
Then I'll buy you a new one.
Fine, but I'm holding you to that.
You'll never regret listening to the dialogues written by our own Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
