Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 547.
Shopping for a hat.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 547.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Shopping for a Hat.
Christine and Eric are trying to buy a hat and will, of course, be introduced to lots of vocabulary related to hats.
Let's get started.
What do you think of this one?
We're here to buy hats to protect us from the sun while we're on vacation.
Do you think a beret will do that?
No, but it looks great on me, don't you think?
Isn't it great to be getting away to the beach in the middle of winter?
I already picked out a straw hat with a wide floppy brim, so I'm all set for the trip.
In that case, help me pick one out.
How about this baseball cap?
Well, the brim gives your face plenty of shade, but it leaves the back of your head exposed.
How about this helmet?
Very funny.
Do you want me to suffocate in this thing?
Okay, hand me that cowboy hat.
That looks cute on you, but it's huge, and it's going to get squished in the luggage.
Hey, try these two hats on.
Stop messing around.
I don't need a top hat, and that one looks like a bonnet.
Okay, okay.
How about this straw hat?
Like mine, it's soft enough to travel in a suitcase.
Just like the tourist that you are, but that makes two of us.
I couldn't care less.
I don't care if I look cool on vacation, as long as I am cool.
Christine says to Eric, what do you think of this one?
She's showing Eric a hat, something you put on your head.
Eric says, we're here to buy hats to protect us from the sun while we're on vacation.
To protect something means to keep it safe or to keep it out of danger.
Eric wants to protect his face and his neck so that the sun doesn't hit it and give him sunburn.
When the sun makes your skin red and dry,
Eric says, do you think a beret will do that?
A beret is a small round hat with a tight piece next to the head.
It's traditionally something associated with the French and it would almost certainly be too small to protect against much of the sun.
You don't see berets very often in the U.S., although at certain times they were popular.
There was a song by the rock singer Prince that was called Raspberry Beret.
She wore a raspberry beret beret.
See, it's about a girl he likes that is wearing a beret.
That is the color of a raspberry, which is a small red fruit.
Anyway, Christine tells Eric that no, the beret will not protect against the sun.
She says, it looks great on me, don't you think?
The beret.
To get away means usually to go on a vacation, to go to another part of the country or the world.
Christine says I already picked out a straw hat with a wide floppy brim, so I'm all set for the trip.
A straw hat is a hat made from dried pieces of hay or grass that have been put together.
We would say they've been woven together.
This hat has a wide, floppy brim.
The brim B-R-I-M is the part of the hat that extends or sticks out beyond the head to protect your face.
It can also go around and protect the back of your neck.
So the brim is the part of the hat that is not directly on your head.
It extends out in front, sometimes on the sides and in the back.
A floppy brim is one that is flexible.
It moves easily.
Floppy as an adjective means something that usually hangs down a little bit, is flexible.
You can think of the ears of a dog.
Some dogs have floppy ears.
They hang down and they're flexible.
Christine says she's all set for the trip, meaning she's ready for the trip.
Eric says, in that case, help me pick one out.
Help me select one.
How about this baseball cap?
He means, what do you think of?
How about this baseball cap?
A cap is just another word for a hat that is very small, that fits, we would say, closely around the head.
But there's a part in front that sticks out.
There's a brim that sticks out in front.
We call these baseball caps because they're the kind of caps or hats that baseball players wear.
If you ever have seen an American baseball game, you know what these hats look like.
They're very popular for people not playing baseball as well.
I have a couple of baseball caps that I use to keep the sun away from my face, to protect my face from the sun.
Christine says Shade is an area of darkness that is created when the sun or some bright light is blocked so that you can't see the light.
For example, if you are in a park and there's a tree and the sun is coming up in the sky, you can stand by the tree and so that the tree is blocking the sun, you would be in the shade.
The tree is shading you.
It's giving you protection from the sun.
The word shade, along with the word brim, has other meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Christine says the baseball cap gives Eric shade in the front, but not in the back.
She says the back of your head is exposed.
To be exposed can mean that other people can see you or see something.
Here it really means not protected.
In other words, the back of the head will not be protected from the sun.
Christine suggests to Eric, how about this helmet?
Meaning, what do you think about this helmet?
Here's something else you can wear.
A helmet, H-E-L-M-E-T, is a very large, heavy, strong hat.
It's typically used by people who are riding motorcycles.
They often wear helmets.
Soldiers in an army will often have a helmet to protect their head.
That's a helmet.
Of course Christine isn't serious, because you would not wear a helmet just to protect your head from the sun.
So Eric says very funny, which is an expression that we use sometimes to mean that's not very funny.
I don't think you're very funny.
So Eric says, very funny.
Do you want me to suffocate in this thing?
To suffocate means to not be able to breathe, usually because something is covering your mouth.
Eric says, okay, hand me that cowboy hat.
A cowboy hat is a large hat that has a soft top and a very large brim, a large circular area that goes around the entire head.
Traditionally, it was a hat worn by men in the American West when they rode horses.
So if you ever have seen a movie which we would call a Western, about the 19th century in the western part of the US, you have seen, no doubt, a cowboy hat.
Cowboy hats are still worn by men in some parts of this country.
Not so much here in Southern California.
Eric wants the cowboy hat and Christine says that it looks cute on him, meaning it looks nice on him.
It looks good when he's wearing it.
But, she says, it's huge, it's very big, and it's going to get squished in the luggage.
To get squished.
S-Q-U-I-S-H-E-D means to put a lot of pressure on something and you, without wanting to, will make it smaller and it will lose its shape.
There's a similar verb to squash, which doesn't help you very much.
You can think of a soft hat like a baseball cap or a cowboy hat that has a big book on top of it.
Well, the book will press against the hat and make it flat.
It will squish it.
Christine then gives Eric two more hats to try on, meaning to put on to see if he likes them.
Eric says, stop messing around, meaning stop joking, stop fooling around.
She has given him two hats that he is obviously not going to wear as a joke.
One of them is a top hat.
A top hat is a very tall hat, usually black or gray, that is sometimes not very often worn by men for a formal occasion.
Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, is often pictured in a top hat.
It's an old-fashioned kind of hat that you don't see very much anymore.
Christine also gave Eric a bonnet, B-O-N-N-E-T.
A bonnet is a hat worn by women, where you put a certain piece of fabric over the head and then there's a string down below that you tie underneath your chin.
Once again, it's an old-fashioned hat for the most part, not that common anymore.
Christine says, okay, okay, how about this straw hat?
Like mine, it's soft enough to travel in a suitcase.
Eric says, hey, this one isn't bad, meaning it's pretty good.
How do I look?
Christine says just like the tourist that you are meaning, you look like a tourist, someone who obviously is visiting a place.
But she says that makes two of us.
The phrase that makes two of us is used to show that the same thing is true for you.
Often, when you agree with what someone says or what applies to their situation applies to your situation.
Someone could say to you, I'm worried about losing my job in this economy.
And the other person says, that makes two of us.
They mean they are also worried about losing their job.
Eric says I couldn't care less meaning it doesn't bother me that I look like a tourist.
I don't care if I look cool on my vacation as long as I am cool.
Here, cool has two different meanings.
In the first case, if I look cool means if I look attractive interesting, something that other people would like.
Cool is an adjective used to describe things that are popular, at least it was a few years ago.
Cool can also mean a comfortable temperature, a temperature that is not too hot.
So Eric is using both meanings here.
He says as long as I am cool meaning I'm not hot, I don't care if I don't look cool, meaning if I don't look attractive, if people don't think that what I'm wearing is attractive.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What do you think of this one?
We're here to buy hats to protect us from the sun while we're on vacation.
Do you think a beret will do that?
No but it looks great on me don't you think?
Isn't it great to be getting away to the beach in the middle of winter?
I already picked out a straw hat with a wide floppy brim so I'm all set for the trip.
In that case help me pick one out.
How about this baseball cap?
Well, the brim gives your face plenty of shade, but it leaves the back of your head exposed.
How about this helmet?
Very funny.
Do you want me to suffocate in this thing?
Okay, hand me that cowboy hat.
That looks cute on you, but it's huge and it's going to get squished in the luggage.
Hey, try these two hats on.
Stop messing around.
I don't need a top hat and that one looks like a bonnet.
Okay, okay.
How about this straw hat?
Like mine, it's soft enough to travel in a suitcase.
Hey, this one isn't bad.
How do I look?
Just like the tourist that you are, but that makes two of us.
I couldn't care less.
I don't care if I look cool on vacation as long as I am cool.
The script writer for this episode was the always cool 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 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
