Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 621, Picking a Fight.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 621.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your English and improve your life in general.
Today's episode is a story about a man who goes to a bar and And there is another man at the bar who wants to fight him.
Sounds exciting.
Let's get started.
I was sitting at my local bar waiting for my friends to arrive to watch the game.
Two guys sitting a few seats away kept giving me strange looks, and one of them said What are you looking at?
I looked around to make sure that he was speaking to me and before I could respond he said You want a piece of me?
You and what army?
Let's take it outside.
By this time I realized that this guy was trying to pick a fight with me and I wasn't sure what to do.
I was hoping that I could make peace with him.
I said to him I'm just sitting over here minding my own business.
I'm not trying to get in your face.
I don't have a problem with you.
Let's just chill out and I'll buy you and your friend a drink.
He didn't seem to like what I'd said.
Chill out, he said.
I don't need to chill out.
Those are fighting words.
Let's take this outside.
He got up and started to walk toward me.
Just then, my friends arrived.
When the man saw my six friends walking toward me, he stopped in his tracks.
I think he was weighing his odds and doubting his own chances.
He turned around and said something to his friend and then they both got up and walked out the door.
That was a narrow escape.
I had never been so happy to see my friends as I was at that moment.
Needless to say the first round was on me.
Our story begins with me sitting at a local bar.
A local bar would be a bar in my neighborhood close to where I live.
A bar is, of course, a place where you can go and get beer and other alcoholic drinks.
I'm waiting at the bar for my friends.
We are going to watch the game.
I don't say which game.
It could be a baseball game, a football game, and so forth.
It's popular in the United States for men in particular to go to what are called sports bars.
And these are bars that have big televisions that you can watch sporting events on.
Two men are sitting a few seats away.
They kept giving me strange looks, meaning they kept looking at me.
They continued to look at me for a long time with strange looks, the expression on their faces, the way that they held their body.
It was unusual, odd, strange.
Finally, one of them said to me, What are you looking at?
This expression, this question, could be just an a way of asking someone what they are looking at, but it's the way that you pronounce it that changes the meaning.
There's a difference between what are you looking at and what are you looking at.
In the second case, what are you looking at?
It's meant to express a kind of anger.
You think the other person is looking at you in some critical way that the other person doesn't like you.
And so you want to defend yourself.
It's the sort of thing you would say if you wanted to fight someone.
So you wouldn't want to say this to, say, someone who was bigger and stronger than you.
Well, this man at the bar doesn't like me in the story, that is.
I say that I look around to make sure that he is speaking to me.
And before I can respond, he says, again, another expression that you would use to start a fight.
You want a piece of me?
This is another way of saying, do you want to fight me?
You want a piece of me?
You and what are me?
You and what?
Army is another informal phrase showing that you don't believe that the other person can beat you in a fight, that this person would need other people, a lot of other people.
It can be used for anything, not just a fight, any situation where you don't think the person is able to do what they say they can do.
Finally, this man says let's take it outside.
To take something outside is another informal expression used to indicate that you want to fight, to physically fight this other person.
You want to leave the bar or leave that room and go outside and have a fight.
So all three of these expressions are ones that you would find in situations where someone was trying to pick P-I-C-K.
A fight.
To pick a fight means to try to get another person to fight you, especially someone who isn't really bothering you, someone who just wants to leave themselves alone.
But you're so angry you feel like fighting someone.
This doesn't happen to me, but apparently to some men it does.
By the way, the expression to take something outside, or words in that expression, can be used in other ways in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
I continue the story by saying by this time meaning by the time this has happened I realized that this guy was trying to pick a fight with me and I wasn't sure what to do.
I was hoping that I could make peace with him.
To make peace P-E-A-C-E means to try to calm down a difficult situation, a tense situation.
To perhaps forgive the other person so that there are no longer any bad feelings between you.
To hold someone off is another two-word phrasal verb meaning to delay someone, to prevent someone from doing something for a certain length of time, usually until something else happens.
This could also be used in a military situation.
The famous group of Spartans in ancient Greece.
The soldiers from Sparta held off the Persians at Thermopylae to allow the Athenians to build a better defense and defend the city of Athens.
That is a famous line written about the Spartans who died at Thermopylae by one of the great poets of that day.
A passerby is someone who is just walking by.
And so the soldiers are saying go tell the Spartans, our people back in our city of Sparta, that here at Thermopylae, obedient to their word, meaning we are doing what they asked us to do, We lie.
In this case, their bodies are there.
They lie there.
Go tell the Spartans you passerby that here, obedient to their word, we lie.
This has nothing to do with our episode, but it does have to do with the expression to hold someone off.
Well, I'm hoping to hold off these two men until my friends arrive.
So I say to the man, I'm just sitting over here minding my own business.
To be minding your own business means that you are not bothering anyone else.
You are not interfering or paying attention to anyone else.
You are just focusing on yourself.
I say that I'm not trying to get in your face.
To get in someone's face is an informal expression meaning to bother, to annoy, to make another person angry, often by asking them personal questions or perhaps standing too close to them.
I say that I don't have a problem with you.
Let's just chill out.
To chill out is a phrasal verb meaning to relax, to be calm.
It's very informal.
I tell him that I will buy him and his friend a drink.
But he's angry.
He says chill out.
In other words, those are things you would say when you want someone to fight you.
You want a piece of me?
Let's take it outside.
What are you looking at?
Those are all examples of fighting words.
Well, this... gentleman thinks that telling him to chill out is an invitation to fight.
He says, let's take this outside.
I want to see you running with your tail between your legs.
The expression your tail T-A-I-L between your legs means that you are scared and frightened, sort of like a dog who's running away.
You are a coward.
You are not brave.
Then my friends arrive, and when the man sees my friends, he stops in his tracks.
T-R-A-C-K-S.
To stop in your tracks means to immediately stop what you are doing, to stop moving, often because you are surprised or shocked.
Well, this man stops in his tracks.
Then I say I think he was weighing his odds and doubting his chances.
To weigh, W-E-I-G-H, your odds, means to think about whether you are going to be successful or not.
To determine whether you will be able to do what you want to do.
He turns around and says something to his friend, and then they leave.
Finally, I say A narrow escape is when you get away from a dangerous or difficult situation without being harmed, without injury.
But you almost got injured.
It was very close.
It was a narrow escape.
I say that I had never been so happy to see my friends as I was at that moment.
The expression needless to say means it is so obvious I don't have to say it.
A round, in this case, is alcoholic drinks that are purchased by someone.
Usually, one person buys everyone in the group a beer or a drink.
When everyone in your group orders a drink at approximately the same time, we would call that a round of drinks.
So you may have a first round, and then you may have a second round and a third round and a fourth round.
Well, you should probably stop after maybe the third round.
I say that the first round is on me.
When you say something is on you or on me you mean that I or you am going to pay for it.
You say oh no that's on me.
Dinner is on me.
I'm going to pay for dinner.
I'm inviting you to dinner.
There are actually some other ways of using the preposition on, especially this saying on me or on you?
Those can be found in our learning guide.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I was sitting at my local bar waiting for my friends to arrive to watch the game.
Two guys sitting a few seats away kept giving me strange looks, and one of them said What are you looking at?
I looked around to make sure that he was speaking to me and before I could respond he said You want a piece of me?
You and what army?
Let's take it outside.
By this time I realized that this guy was trying to pick a fight with me and I wasn't sure what to do.
I was hoping that I could make peace with him or at least hold him off until my friends got there.
I said to him, I'm just sitting here minding my own business.
I'm not trying to get in your face.
I don't have a problem with you.
Let's just chill out and I'll buy you and your friend a drink.
He didn't seem to like what I said.
Chill out, he said.
I don't need to chill out.
Those are fighting words.
Let's take this outside.
I want to see you running with your tail between your legs.
He got up and started to walk toward me.
Just then, my friends arrived.
When the man saw my six friends walking toward me, he stopped in his tracks.
I think he was weighing his odds and doubting his own chances.
He turned around and said something to his friend and then they both got up and walked out the door.
That was a narrow escape.
I had never been so happy to see my friends as I was at that moment.
Needless to say, the first round was on me.
The script for this episode was written, needless to say, by Dr. Lucy Saye.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again 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.
