Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 561, Being Forgetful.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 561.
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, I forgot.
Oh yeah, Being Forgetful.
Let's get started.
You won't forget that we're going over to the Wongs for dinner tomorrow night, will you?
It slipped your mind last week that we were meeting Donna at the movies, remember?
I was preoccupied last week, but I won't forget about tomorrow night.
I'm reminding you because the week before that, you forgot to cash that check at the bank.
Remember that?
I didn't forget.
I was just a little wrapped up in work that week.
I'm not usually absent-minded, you know.
Right.
Do you want me to send you an email tomorrow morning to jog your memory?
That won't be necessary.
I have the day, time, and even their address committed to memory.
Do you want to test me?
No, I don't.
But I just want to make sure we don't have a repeat of what happened last month.
You were supposed to meet me at the Donnellys at 8 o'clock, and you never showed up.
Remember that?
No, I don't.
I have amnesia.
I won't remember any other incident you want to throw in my face.
I thought last week you said you would stop giving me a hard time about my bad memory.
Remember that?
Um, no, I don't.
I guess I'm not the only one who's scatterbrained.
Charlize begins our dialogue.
I think this is the famous actress Charlize Theron, I'm not sure by saying you won't forget that we're going over to the Wongs for dinner tomorrow night, will you?
To forget means not to remember something, to have no memory of something.
Charlize is using one of the many ways to ask a question in English using something called a tag question.
You won't forget that we're going over to the Wongs for dinner tomorrow night, will you?
Pete says it's etched in my brain.
Something that is etched, E-T-C-H-E-D, in your brain means that you have memorized it.
You have permanently written it down in your mind so that you cannot possibly forget it.
Sometimes we use that expression for very happy things, sometimes for very sad things.
Pete says, I won't forget.
Charlize responds.
It slipped your mind last week that we were meeting Donna at the movies, remember?
To slip, S-L-I-P, your mind means to forget something, not to remember something.
John said, I was supposed to get married this afternoon, but it slipped my mind.
Just forgot all about it.
Pete says, I was preoccupied last week but I won't forget about tomorrow night.
To be preoccupied means to be worried about something else, to be thinking about something else.
We might also say to be distracted.
Charlie says, I'm reminding you because the week before that, meaning two weeks ago, you forgot to cash that check at the bank.
To remind someone means to help someone remember something, to remember, to do something, by telling them, perhaps over and over, or sending them an email.
Don't forget to do this.
Charlize is reminding Pete because he forgot to cash a check at the bank.
To cash a check means to go into a bank with a piece of paper called a check.
Give it to the person working at the bank and in exchange they give you back money.
Charlize mentions how Pete forgot to cash this check two weeks ago and then asks him, remember that?
Do you remember?
Pete says, I didn't forget that.
I was just a little wrapped up in work that week.
To be wrapped W-R-A-P-P-E-D up in something means to be very busy with something, to be very involved in a certain task, a certain thing that you are doing.
The word wrap has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more information.
Pete says...
To be absent-minded one word means to be forgetful, to be easily distracted, not to be able to remember things.
There's an old expression about the absent-minded professor.
The idea is that university professors are so busy with their intellectual tasks that they forget to do basic things like get their car washed or buy food to make dinner.
That would be an absent-minded professor.
Well, here Pete is saying that he is not absent-minded.
Actually, he says, I'm not usually absent-minded, you know.
Charlize says, right.
She says right, which would normally mean I agree with you.
But when you say it a certain way, it means the opposite.
I don't believe you.
I don't agree with you.
Often people will say, yeah, right.
That means I don't believe you.
So Charlene says, right.
She doesn't believe him.
Then asks him, do you want me to send you an email tomorrow morning to jog, J-O-G, your memory?
To jog someone's memory means to remind someone of something, to help someone remember something.
If you are going out early tomorrow morning and you don't want to forget your lunch, you may put a little note on the door that says bring lunch.
That note will jog your memory.
It will remind you of what you are supposed to do.
Charlize is offering to send Pete an email to jog his memory about their dinner at the Wong's tomorrow night.
Pete says that won't be necessary.
No, you do not need to do that.
I have the day, time, and even their address committed to memory.
When we say something is committed to memory.
It's similar to the previous expression etched in my brain.
It means you've memorized it.
You know it so well you can repeat it without even looking at it.
Most Americans have committed to memory, for example, certain patriotic songs, because they've heard them so often.
They know them, we would say, by heart.
They have them memorized.
Pete then asks Charlize, do you want to test me?
Do you want me to answer questions so that I can prove that I know?
Charlize says, no, I don't.
But I just want to make sure we don't have a repeat of what happened last month.
A repeat of something is when something happens again, just like it did before.
We would also use the word recurrence.
It occurs or it happens again.
Charlize says, you were supposed to meet me at the Donnellys at 8 o'clock and you never showed up.
Pete was supposed to meet Charlize at the Donnellys.
Notice, if we're talking about someone's house, especially a family in a house, we'll often use the form the and the name of the person, with an S at the end.
We're going over to the McQuillans.
We're going over to the McQuillan house, the house that belongs to the family named McQuillan.
There is an apostrophe before the S, so it would be McQuillan apostrophe, which is like a little comma, but up above the word and then the S.
It indicates possession.
We're really saying the McQuillan's house.
Pete was supposed to show up, but didn't.
He never showed up.
To show up is a phrasal verb meaning to arrive at a particular place at a particular time, to go somewhere when you are expected.
My friend told me that we would meet at the cafe at 3 o'clock, but I waited for an hour and she never showed up.
Show has many different meanings, including other phrasal verbs.
You can get more information in this episode's learning guide.
Charlize says, remember that?
Pete says, no, I don't.
I have amnesia.
A-M-N-E-S-I-A.
Amnesia is a medical condition where you can't remember what happened during a certain period of time.
Usually, this is because you were hit on the head or had a very frightening experience.
You might forget everything.
You might even forget who you are and where you live.
That would be a serious case of amnesia.
Pete says...
He's probably joking, of course.
You want to throw in my face.
I won't remember any other, any additional incident you want to throw in my face or that you will throw in my face.
To throw something in someone's face means to remind someone of something, especially if it's something that the person wants to forget, but you keep reminding them.
Usually it's something bad that happened or something that...
Someone did wrong.
They made a mistake and you keep throwing that mistake in their face.
You keep reminding them.
That's what Pete thinks Charlize is doing.
He says, I thought last week.
You, Charlize, said you would stop giving me a hard time about my bad memory.
To give someone a hard time means to do or say things that make the other person feel uncomfortable, to make a joke about them.
We would also use the verb here to tease T-E-A-S-E, to make jokes about something that someone did wrong.
Pete says, remember that?
Remember when you said you weren't going to give me a hard time?
Charlize says, uh, no, I don't.
Pete then says, I guess I'm not the only one who's scatterbrained.
To be scatterbrained is similar to to be absent-minded.
You're unable to focus.
You're easily distracted.
You are constantly forgetting things.
That would be someone who is scatterbrained.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You won't forget that we're going over to the Wongs for dinner tomorrow night, will you?
It's etched in my brain.
I won't forget.
It slipped your mind last week that we were meeting Donna at the movies, remember?
I was preoccupied last week, but I won't forget about tomorrow night.
I'm reminding you because the week before that, you forgot to cash that check at the bank.
Remember that?
I didn't forget.
I was just a little wrapped up in work that week.
I'm not usually absent-minded, you know.
Right.
Do you want me to send you an email tomorrow morning to jog your memory?
That won't be necessary.
I have the day, time, and even their address committed to memory.
Do you want to test me?
No, I don't.
But I just want to make sure we don't have a repeat of what happened last month.
You were supposed to meet me at the Donnellys at 8 o'clock, and you never showed up.
Remember that?
No, I don't.
I have amnesia.
I won't remember any other incident you want to throw in my face.
I thought last week you said you were going to stop giving me a hard time about my bad memory.
Remember that?
No, I don't.
I guess I'm not the only one who's scatterbrained.
If you listen to our podcast regularly, you should know who the scriptwriter was.
It should be etched in your mind by now.
It's Dr. Lucy Say, in case it slipped your mind.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here 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.
