Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 640, Being Genuine and False.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 640.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Why?
Well because, if you do, you can download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your English even faster.
Even faster than what, you ask?
Even faster than just listening to the episode.
You see?
On this episode...
We're going to listen to a dialogue between Javier and Florian.
It's going to be about people who are genuine, people who mean what they say, and people who are false, who say one thing but mean something else.
Let's get started.
I saw Terry cozying up to you this morning.
What was that about?
He was just offering me some advice on my first proposal.
Sure he was.
What were his true intentions?
I don't think he had an ulterior motive.
I wouldn't take Terry at face value.
He has a reputation around the office of being two-faced.
He'll try to get to know you under false pretenses and then stab you in the back.
I don't get that feeling from Terry.
He seemed genuine and open.
By the way, was there something you needed?
Me?
No.
I was just trying to watch out for you.
I'll beware of anyone giving me advice who may have an ulterior motive.
Javier says to Florianne, I saw Terry cozying up to you this morning.
What was that about?
To cozy C-O-Z-Y up to someone means to do and to say things, to try to have a close relationship with the other person.
Usually because you want something from that person.
So the woman sitting in your office wants to get information from you about your clients who you are working with.
So she comes up to your desk and she's very friendly.
She brings you a donut.
She laughs at all of your jokes.
You get the idea.
She's cozying up to you.
It could be a man with a woman.
It could be two women or two men.
It's not a romantic thing, although it could lead to something romantic, I suppose.
The word cozy can also mean comfortable.
To be cozy means to be comfortable, for example, sitting on a comfortable chair.
Well, here someone, Terry, is cozying up to Florian.
Florian says, he was just offering me some advice on my first proposal.
A proposal is a written document that presents some solution to a problem.
Often it is asking for money in order to carry out in order to do that solution.
You may write a proposal, for example, to get money for a new product, and you give that to your boss or your boss's boss, and someone says yes or no to your proposal.
If you are a charitable organization and you want to get money from some rich person, like Bill Gates, for example, you would write a proposal and send it to him.
I'm not sure if he'll say yes.
That's what a proposal is, at least in the business sense.
In the personal sense, a proposal is when typically a man asks a woman to marry him.
But in a business sense, it's something different.
Javier says sure he was.
Remember, Florian said that Terry was just giving her some advice on her proposal.
He wasn't trying to cozy up to her, she says.
But Javier doesn't believe her.
He says, sure he was.
Notice, he seems to be agreeing with Florian, but in fact, he means the opposite.
It depends on the way you say it.
If a husband comes home late from work and says that he was working late on a project, if his wife doesn't believe him, she might say It's the tone, it's the intonation that determines what the meaning is here.
And here, Javier is doubting what Florian is saying.
He says, what were his true intentions?
His true intentions are the real reasons why he was doing something.
Florian says, I think he was being upfront about wanting to help a new employee.
He was just trying to help her.
He was being upfront.
Upfront, U-P-F-R-O-N-T, one word, means direct, honest. without trying to hide anything.
Florian says An ulterior motive means a secret, hidden reason for doing something, especially if it has negative consequences for someone else.
If someone says, oh, I will help you for free, they might have an ulterior motive.
They might have some other reason why they are helping you, not just because they are nice.
Well, Florian does not think that Terry has an ulterior motive.
Javier says I wouldn't take Terry at face value.
To take someone at face value means to understand or to accept something as it appears, without thinking there is a hidden meaning or hidden explanation.
If someone says I'm busy, I'm sorry, I can't help you, you will probably take their word at face value, meaning okay, they're busy.
I believe that.
But Javier says that you should not take Terry at face value.
He says that Terry has a reputation around the office for being two-faced.
A reputation is what other people think about you.
It's other people's opinions about you.
To be two-faced means that you are dishonest.
You are not trustworthy.
You say things to one person and then you'll talk to someone else about the same subject and you'll say something different.
You tell one person that you like your boss.
You tell another person that you hate your boss.
That's being two-faced.
Javier says that Terry will try to get to know you under false pretenses and then stab you in the back.
Wow, this Terry's a pretty evil person.
The expression false pretenses, P-R-E-T-E-N-S-E-S, means dishonestly, not honestly.
Someone pretending to do or to be something that isn't real, isn't true.
Javier says that Terry will try to get to know Florian under false pretenses.
Notice we use the word under with this phrase.
So under false pretenses.
And then after he knows her, he will stab her in the back.
The expression to stab S-T-A-B someone in the back means to suddenly do something that will hurt the other person.
You've been very nice to someone, but then, when you see an opportunity, perhaps to get something you want, you will stab that person in the back.
You will do something mean, something bad to them in order for you to get what you want.
The verb we would use here is to betray.
B-E-T-R-A-Y.
To betray someone.
To do something that the other person is not expecting in order to hurt them after you have been nice to them.
Literally, to stab someone in the back would be to take a knife and put it into the back of the person, obviously trying to kill them.
Florian says, I don't get that feeling from Terry.
She doesn't agree with Javier.
She says he seemed genuine and open.
To be genuine means to be real, to be true.
Here really it means to be sincere.
Someone who is sincere is telling the truth, means what they say.
Open here means willing to share information with another person, not hiding anything.
The word open has a couple of different meanings, as does the word up front, which we talked about earlier.
Those can be found in our learning guide.
Florian says, by the way, was there something you needed, Javier?
Javier says, me?
No.
I was just trying to watch out for you.
To watch out for someone means to do something to protect the other person, to keep them safe.
Florian says, in that case, I'd better get back to work since you don't want anything else.
A warning is when someone tells you about something that could go wrong, some potential problem.
She says To beware of someone is a phrasal verb meaning to be careful or to be cautious because you know there is a possible danger in this situation.
What we of course think here is that Javier is romantically interested in Florian and he doesn't like another man in the office trying to get close to her.
Florian realizes this and at the end of the dialogue says I'll beware of anyone giving me advice who may have an ulterior motive.
Meaning, of course, that Javier has an ulterior motive.
He isn't just trying to protect Florian.
He's trying to get her to be romantically interested in him.
I think he will probably succeed and one day they'll get married.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I saw Terry cozying up to you this morning.
What was that about?
He was just offering me some advice on my first proposal.
Sure he was.
What were his true intentions?
I don't think he had an ulterior motive.
I wouldn't take Terry at face value.
He has a reputation around the office of being two-faced.
He'll try to get to know you under false pretenses and then stab you in the back.
I don't get that feeling from Terry.
He seemed genuine and open.
By the way, was there something you needed?
Me?
No, I was just trying to watch out for you.
In that case, I'd better get back to work, and I'll keep your warning in mind.
I'll be aware of anyone giving me advice who may have an ulterior motive.
The script for this episode was written by our genuinely nice script writer, 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.
