Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 585, Being Clear or Confusing.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 585.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening to this podcast.
It will also make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.
This episode is called Being Clear or Confusing.
It's a dialogue between Bethany and Laurent about explaining things, especially to someone else, that may be difficult for them to understand.
Let's get started.
So, I'm confused.
Who's David again?
David is my roommate's friend's brother.
Haven't you been listening?
I have, but how am I supposed to keep all of these people straight?
Your stories are always so convoluted with too many twists and turns.
Why don't you try telling a straightforward story for once?
My stories are only confusing for people who don't pay attention or who can't deal with complexity.
Complexity?
You just don't appreciate intricate plots.
My stories are crystal clear to anyone who pays attention.
Good stories have lots of detail.
Just ask Shakespeare.
Talk about delusions of grandeur.
When you start comparing yourself to Shakespeare, it's time for you to seek professional help.
Our dialogue begins with Laurent saying, so I'm confused.
To be confused means not to understand what is happening or what is being discussed.
We might also say to feel puzzled.
Laurent says, who's David again?
Obviously, we've come in in the middle of a story in this dialogue and Laurent is trying to get Bethany to explain it better to him.
Bethany says, David is my roommate's friend's brother.
Notice in English that you can have a possessive in front of a possessive in front of a possessive.
Here we have my roommate's friend's brother.
This is the brother of my roommate's friend.
Bethany says, haven't you been listening?
Laurent says, I have been.
To keep something straight.
S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T means to be able to understand something without by keeping it well organized in your mind.
If you're reading a very complicated novel with lots of different people in it, lots of different characters, like one of the Russian novels from the 19th and 20th centuries, they're very difficult perhaps, to understand.
To keep everyone straight, to understand who is who.
Laurent says that he cannot keep all of these people in Bethany's story straight.
Your stories are always so convoluted, he says, with too many twists and turns.
To be convoluted.
C-O-N-V-O-L-U-T-E-D means to be very complicated, very difficult to understand or to follow.
Twists, T-W-I-S-T-S and turns is an expression that means There are many unexpected changes, making the story difficult to understand.
Sometimes you will go to see a movie and there'll be many different twists and turns.
There'll be many different changes in the story that make it difficult to understand.
Laurent says, why don't you try telling a straightforward story for once?
Straightforward, one word, means uncomplicated, not difficult to understand, simple, direct.
For once is an expression we use to mean That it doesn't happen very often.
That something is very rare.
You want it to happen more often.
In this case, Laurent wants Bethany to tell a simple, easy to understand story more often.
That's why he says, why don't you try telling a straightforward story for once?
The for once implies Bethany doesn't do it very often but that she should.
For example, it would be nice if my neighbor stopped yelling into his cell phone outside of my window for once, implying that he does it all the time.
And he does.
Bethany says, To pay attention means to listen, to try to understand, to follow something.
Complexity means very complicated, very convoluted, very difficult to understand because there are many different parts of the story.
Bethany says that her stories are only confusing to people who can't deal with complexity.
That is, they can't handle, they don't know how to behave or think in a certain situation.
Laurent says complexity?
Is that what you call going off on tangents and including completely irrelevant information?
To go off on a tangent T-A-N-G-E-N-T means to begin talking or writing about something that is not directly related to the topic.
I do this all the time here on ESL Podcast and English Cafe.
I go off on a tangent.
I start talking about something that isn't directly related to this episode.
Some people really hate that.
They don't like it.
They Bethany is including in her story completely irrelevant information.
Irrelevant means not related to what is being discussed, not connected to your main topic.
Laurent says half the time, meaning most of the time, or at least 50 of the time.
Bethany says you just don't appreciate intricate plots.
Something that is intricate, I-N-T-R-I-C-A-T-E, is something that is very detailed.
We might say very involved.
There are many different parts that work together.
You can have something physical that is intricate, a watch, for example, or a piece of jewelry.
In this case, Bethany is talking about the plots of her stories.
The plot is what happens first, then what happens next, and so forth.
The actual events of the story.
She says her plots are intricate.
My stories, she says, are crystal clear to anyone who pays attention.
The expression crystal clear means very direct, very easy to understand, very clear, no confusion.
She says good stories have a lot of detail.
A detail is a single small piece of information about something, a single fact.
Detail, however, has other meanings in English, and those can be found in the Learning Guide.
Bethany says, just ask Shakespeare.
Shakespeare, of course, was the great playwright who wrote very complicated, interesting plays.
Just ask is an expression we use when we are trying to compare ourselves perhaps, to someone else, or to make reference to someone else.
You're using that someone else as an example of something.
For example, the study of geometry is easy.
Just ask Euclid.
Florent says, talk about delusions of grandeur.
Delusions are things that you imagine that are not true.
Grandeur is something very powerful, something very important.
To have delusions of grandeur however, means that you think that your ideas or that you are very important, very powerful, more important than you actually are.
It's often something we would associate with someone who perhaps has some sort of mental illness, someone who's crazy.
So Laurent says, talk about delusions of grandeur.
Talk about means, this is a good example of.
When you start comparing yourself to Shakespeare, it's time for you to seek professional help.
Meaning, when you get to the point that you are comparing yourself to Shakespeare...
It's time for you to seek, to look for, to get professional help.
Usually professional help refers to a doctor, especially a psychiatrist or perhaps a psychologist.
That will help you find a problem.
Usually, what you are saying is that the other person is crazy.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
So I'm confused.
Who's David again?
David is my roommate's friend's brother.
Haven't you been listening?
I have, but how am I supposed to keep all of these people straight?
Your stories are always so convoluted with too many twists and turns.
Why don't you try telling a straightforward story for once?
My stories are only confusing for people who don't pay attention or who can't deal with complexity.
Complexity?
Is that what you call going off on tangents and including completely irrelevant information?
Half the time, the end of the story contradicts the beginning.
You just don't appreciate intricate plots.
My stories are crystal clear to anyone who pays attention.
Good stories have lots of detail.
Just ask Shakespeare.
Talk about delusions of grandeur.
When you start comparing yourself to Shakespeare, it's time for you to seek professional help.
The scripts for ESL Podcast are never confused or convoluted.
They don't go off on tangents.
They're crystal clear and yet intricate.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say, who writes them.
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.
