Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 684, Asking for Information About a Coworker.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 684.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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This episode is called Asking for Information About a Coworker, Someone You Work With.
Let's get started.
What's the lowdown on the new guy?
Which new guy?
You know, the cute one.
Fill me in.
Is he single?
I don't know.
I have no idea.
You're working with him side by side and you haven't gleaned any personal information about him?
We talk about work.
It's not my job to pry into his personal life.
I need to get the scoop on Mr. Perfect and you're my source.
You don't know anything about him, so how do you know he's perfect?
Maybe when you get to know him, you'll find out he's a selfish, self-centered jerk.
Wait.
Catch me up on what's going on here.
Have other people asked you about him?
Yeah, maybe about a dozen of the women in this office.
They've been bombarding me with questions.
Oh, sorry.
I didn't know.
Yeah, I'm not the guy's social secretary.
You women have to satisfy your own curiosity elsewhere. point taken.
But do you know if he's shown interest in any of the dozen women you've talked to?
Our dialogue begins with Amina saying to Earl, what's the lowdown on the new guy?
The word lowdown one word, means what is the interesting information about someone?
What is the true information about this person?
We often use this when we are talking about perhaps, secret information, information that you know and no one else knows.
Amina is asking for the lowdown on the new guy, the new man who is working at their company.
Earl says, which new guy?
Amina says, you know, the cute one.
Cute is someone who is attractive, physically attractive.
I'm sort of the opposite of cute.
I'm the anti-cute.
Anyway, Amina says, fill me in.
To fill someone in is a phrasal verb meaning to give someone accurate information about what she or he wants or needs.
Fill me in means give me the information I need.
She begins by asking, is he single, meaning is he unmarried?
Earl says, I don't know.
I have no idea, meaning I don't have any information at all.
Amina says, you're working with him side by side, meaning right next to him physically.
And you haven't gleaned any personal information about him?
To glean G-L-E-A-N means to learn something or to find something out indirectly, without asking the person directly.
You get information, but not by asking them directly.
You get it by doing other things, listening to their answers, asking related questions, perhaps.
Earl says we talk about work, meaning when he and the new guy have a conversation, it's related to their work, not to their personal lives.
Earl then says, it's not my job to pry into his personal life.
To pry, P-R-Y, means in this case to ask personal questions.
Usually questions that are very private or that are about information that you would not normally ask someone.
Someone might tell you don't pry, meaning don't ask too personal of a question, things that you really don't have any right to know.
To pry also is the verb we use when, for example, we're trying to open a door that won't open.
And we take a piece of thin metal, a long stick, and we try to open the door.
We try to pry it open.
It's the same idea of trying to get into an area that is closed, much like your personal life might be closed.
Earl says that it's not his job to pry into the new guy's personal life.
Amina says, I need to get the scoop on Mr. Perfect, and you're my source.
The scoop, S-C-O-O-P in this case, is the most important information about something, especially information that is secret.
The word scoop can also be used as a verb in journalism, when talking about newspapers, for example, or magazines.
To get a scoop on something, or simply to get a scoop, means to get information about a story before anyone else does, before anyone else is able to write an article about it.
Here, the term is used more generally to mean information, important, possibly secret information.
Amina calls him Mr. Perfect, meaning she really likes this person.
She says to Earl, you're my source.
Source in this case, just like we were talking about newspapers and magazines is a person who provides information on a particular topic.
It's a term often associated with journalism, with news reporting.
Your source is the person who tells you information, again, often secret information.
Earl is Amina's source for information, the place where she can go to get information.
Earl says you don't know anything about him.
So how do you know he's perfect?
Maybe when you get to know him, you'll find out he's a selfish, self-centered jerk.
To be selfish.
S-E-L-F-I-S-H means to care only about yourself and your happiness, and You don't care about anyone else.
Self-centered means something similar.
You only think about yourself and how something will affect you.
You don't think about how something will have an impact on or affect another person.
That's someone who is self-centered.
We might also use the word narcissistic.
From the old Greek story of narcissist, the person who is so in love with themselves they don't pay attention to anyone else.
This, some people say, is narcissistic.
Epidemic of Narcissism.
Well, that's what some psychologists say is happening with narcissism, especially among younger Americans.
It was an interesting book but I really wish it would have talked more about my generation.
I mean, they're the most important, right?
So Earl says that this new guy could be a selfish, self-centered jerk.
A jerk.
J-E-R-K is a rude uncaring selfish self-centered, thoughtless person that you don't like.
It's a very negative way to describe someone, an insulting term informally used, not something you would ever, for example, want to say about your boss, at least if your boss is listening to you.
It can be used to describe a man or a woman, probably a little more common in describing a man.
Amina says, wait...
Catch me up on what's going on here.
To catch someone up is a two word phrasal verb meaning to give someone the information that he or she needs in order to know as much as everyone else knows about a certain topic.
The idea is that other people know more than you do about this.
Maybe you were on vacation or you were gone and now you want someone to catch you up, to give you information that everyone else already has.
There are some other meanings of this verb that you can find in our learning guide for this episode.
Amina says, have other people asked you about him?
Earl says, yeah, maybe about a dozen of the women in this office.
So a dozen around 12 other women have also asked Earl for information about this new, apparently cute guy.
Earl says, they've been bombarding me with questions.
To bombard, B-O-M-B-A-R-D, someone.
In this case means to ask them many questions very quickly.
Where is he going?
What does he look like?
How old is he?
Is he married?
Does he hate cats?
All important questions, right?
That would be to bombard someone with questions.
We also use this verb when talking about airplanes that are dropping bombs on a place in order to blow things up, to destroy things.
So that's the original military meaning of bombard.
Earl says that the other women have been bombarding him with questions.
Amina says, oh, sorry, I didn't know.
Earl then says, yeah, I'm not the guy's social secretary.
A social secretary would be a person who schedules another person's personal meetings and dates, not a professional secretary that you would have at an office.
Some people are so busy and have so much money that they can have a personal and a business or professional secretary.
I don't have either one.
But I don't really need the social secretary.
My life is very boring anyway.
Anyway, enough about me.
Earl says that you women have to satisfy your own curiosity elsewhere.
To satisfy your own curiosity, or simply to satisfy your curiosity...
To discover things you want to know without getting help from other people.
That would be to satisfy your own curiosity.
Amina says, point taken.
This is an informal phrase we use to mean that you understand and agree with the other person on what they just said.
Point taken.
Amina then says, Do you know if he's shown interest in any of the dozen women you've talked to?
So she asks another question, even after Earl says he doesn't want to answer more questions.
Her question is has the new guy shown interest in any of the other women who have been asking about him?
To show interest in is to be interested in someone or something.
Often we use it to describe someone who is interested in a romantic relationship with another person.
They may show interest by talking to them, laughing at their jokes, asking them to go to lunch with them, and so forth.
Earl replies simply by saying, ugh.
Ugh.
This is an expression of frustration, of disappointment, of dislike.
He doesn't want to be asked these questions.
He's tired of it.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's the lowdown on the new guy?
Which new guy?
You know, the cute one.
Fill me in.
Is he single?
I don't know.
I have no idea.
You're working with him side by side and you haven't gleaned any personal information about him?
We talk about work.
It's not my job to pry into his personal life.
I need to get the scoop on Mr. Perfect and you're my source.
You don't know anything about him.
So how do you know he's perfect?
Maybe when you get to know him, you'll find out he's a selfish, self-centered jerk.
Wait, catch me up on what's going on here.
Have other people asked you about him?
Yeah, maybe about a dozen of the women in this office.
They've been bombarding me with questions.
Oh, sorry, I didn't know.
Yeah, I'm not the guy's social secretary.
You women have to satisfy your own curiosity elsewhere.
Point taken.
But do you know if he's shown interest in any of the dozen women you've talked to?
Ugh.
The lowdown on our scriptwriter is that she's intelligent, creative, and knows how to write.
The one and only Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again, won't you, on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
