Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 622, Having Well and Badly Behaved Children.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 622.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you so much for having me.
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That will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is a dialogue between Josephine and Ray, talking about children who behave, who act differently, in a nice way and sometimes in a not nice way.
Let's get started.
Hello?
Hi, Josephine, it's Ray.
We have a meeting today at 10 am and I was wondering if you would mind if I brought my kids with me.
Their babysitter didn't show up.
Oh, sure.
That's no problem.
Your children are so well behaved.
Even at their age, they have impeccable manners.
Well, they're not always little angels, but they're not too much of a handful, thank goodness.
You know what they say.
Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
It is probably a little easier with two girls.
I feel sorry for my mother, who raised six boys.
Six boys!
Yeah, and before we were born, my father thought that children should be seen but not heard.
Was he in for a rude awakening?
We were all very unruly.
Imagine six boys only one year apart.
We got yelled at a lot for being naughty.
But that's how boys are, aren't they?
Girls are different.
They're quiet, sweet, and even-tempered.
What's that noise?
That noise is my daughters creating a ruckus, fighting tooth and nail over a toy.
So much for quiet, sweet, and even tempered.
Our dialogue begins with Josephine answering the telephone, hello.
Ray says, hi Josephine, it's Ray, meaning this is Ray calling you.
I was wondering if you would mind if I brought my kids with me.
I was wondering, I wasn't sure, if you would mind meaning, if you care, if it's important to you, if it bothers you if I brought my kids, my children, with me.
Their babysitter didn't show up.
A babysitter is someone who watches your children while you go and have a nice dinner and a movie.
The expression to show up means to arrive, to go to some appointment, that you have to be, somewhere that you are supposed to be.
Well, the babysitter didn't show up, didn't come to Ray's house, and so now he needs to bring the children to his business meeting.
Josephine says, oh sure, that's no problem.
Your children are so well behaved.
To be well behaved.
B-E-H-A-V-E-D means that you act in a way that is nice, that follows the rules, that doesn't bother other people.
Typically it's a way that we would describe children, not adults, but you can say that child is very well behaved, meaning they don't yell, they don't scream, they are very polite.
Josephine says that Ray's children are well behaved.
Even at their age, she says, they have impeccable manners.
Even at, in this case, means surprisingly.
Their age is obviously young, and yet they still have good manners.
Manners describes the way that you act, the way that you behave.
Impeccable means perfect, no problems.
Someone with impeccable manners is someone who always says the right thing, who does the right thing, who's never rude, who is always polite.
Ray says well, they're not always little angels, but they're not too much of a handful, thank goodness.
Ray says his children are not always little angels.
That would be a child who behaved perfectly.
An angel is a spirit in many religions that is usually described as being good, as being perfect.
Unless, of course, it's a bad angel, that would be what we would call a devil.
That's also what we call some of the children who live near my house.
But back to the story.
Ray says his children are not always perfect.
They're not always little angels, right?
But they're not too much of a handful.
When we say something is a handful H-A-N-D-F-U-L, we mean they are a lot of work or it is a lot of work.
Something that is difficult to manage.
They're not much or too much of a handful.
Thank goodness.
By the way, handful has some other meanings that you can find in our learning guide.
The expression thank goodness is used to show your appreciation, your gratitude, when you want to thank someone.
Often we use it to express relief, meaning you think something bad is going to happen and then it doesn't.
We say you are relieved, you are happy the bad thing didn't happen.
Well, here Ray says, thank goodness.
Thank goodness that his children are well behaved.
He's appreciating or he is thankful for that.
Josephine says, you know what they say, girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice means that little girls never cause problems.
Ray says it is probably a little easier with two girls.
Ray obviously has two girls.
He says, I feel sorry for my mother who raised six boys.
To feel sorry for someone means that you are sympathetic.
You feel sympathy.
You feel sad or bad about a difficult situation that this other person is in.
Josephine says, six boys.
Ray says, yeah, and before we were born...
My father thought that children should be seen but not heard.
This is an old expression.
Children should be seen, you can see them, but not heard.
You shouldn't be able to hear them.
In other words, the children should be quiet.
They should not talk.
Ray says that his father, unfortunately, was in for a rude awakening.
Something that is rude is something that is not nice, something that is unpleasant.
An awakening is when literally you wake up, you're sleeping, and then you wake up.
A rude awakening, then, would be something that surprises you, something very negative.
You thought it was going to be positive, but then suddenly you find out that it is very unpleasant.
It's an unpleasant surprise, a not nice surprise.
Ray says that He and his brothers were all very unruly.
To be unruly, U-N-R-U-L-Y, means difficult to manage, difficult to keep calm.
Again, it's a way you might describe children, but you could also use this adjective to describe a group of adults who are acting or behaving very badly, yelling and shouting and so forth.
It's often used to describe a crowd, a large group of people who are behaving badly.
Kind of like at a British soccer game, something like that.
Ray says imagine six boys only one year apart, meaning that one was born, for example, in 1955, the next one was born in 1956, the next one was born in 1957, and so forth.
They're only one year apart, one year difference in their ages.
He says that he and his brothers got yelled at a lot for being naughty.
To yell, Y-E-L-L, at someone means to shout at them, to say very negative things to them.
Naughty, N-A-U-G-H-T-Y, is a somewhat old-fashioned word in American English.
It means to behave badly.
Typically, we use this in describing children, small children who are not well-behaved.
Josephine says, but that's how boys are, aren't they?
Girls are different.
They're quiet, sweet, and even-tempered.
To be sweet in describing a person could mean that they are nice, they are kind, they are pleasant.
Sweet has several other meanings in English.
Those can be found in the Learning Guide.
To be even-tempered... means that you are very calm.
You don't get very excited.
You're not very happy.
You're not very sad.
You're sort of very calm and relaxed.
That's even-tempered.
T-E-M-P-E-R-E-D.
Then Josephine says, what's that noise?
Ray says, that noise is my daughters creating a ruckus, fighting tooth and nail over a toy.
So the two daughters are making noise.
They're creating a ruckus.
R-U-C-K-U-S, ruckus.
A ruckus is a noisy, confusing situation.
Often it's related to an argument, a fight that two people are having.
It could be used to describe adults as well as children.
What's all this ruckus in here?
A father might say to his sons who are in their room fighting about something.
That never happened to me, of course.
Ray says that the girls are fighting tooth and nail, N-A-I-L.
This expression, tooth and nail, means very strongly, perhaps violently.
Maybe they're hitting each other, but with a lot of strength, a lot of effort.
Usually it's used with the verb to fight.
It could be used to describe, for example, a company that is fighting tooth and nail to survive.
They're fighting very hard.
They're working very hard to survive.
Ray finally says, so much for quiet, sweet, and even-tempered.
So much for something is a phrase that we use jokingly to show that something that you thought was true is not true, or that there isn't very much of something when you expected there to be a lot of something.
It's used, we would say, sarcastically.
Ray is saying here that The daughters are not the way Josephine described girls.
They're not quiet, sweet, and even-tempered.
Right after they finish talking about how nice girls are, of course the girls have a fight.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello?
Hi, Josephine.
It's Ray.
We have a meeting today at 10 am and I was wondering if you would mind if I brought my kids with me.
Their babysitter didn't show up.
Oh, sure.
That's no problem.
Your children are so well-behaved.
Even at their age, they have impeccable manners.
Well, they're not always little angels, but they're not too much of a handful, thank goodness.
You know what they say.
Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
It is probably a little easier with two girls.
I feel sorry for my mother, who raised six boys.
Six boys?
Yeah, and before we were born, my father thought that children should be seen but not heard.
Was he in for a rude awakening?
We were all very unruly.
Imagine, six boys only one year apart.
We got yelled at a lot for being naughty.
But that's how boys are, aren't they?
Girls are different.
They're quiet, sweet, and even-tempered.
What's that noise?
That noise is my daughters creating a ruckus, fighting tooth and nail over a toy.
So much for quiet, sweet, and even-tempered.
Our scriptwriter today was made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
