BEING LATE FOR AN EVENT
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 695.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in where else?
Los Angeles.
Beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Being Late for an Event.
Let's get started.
Let's get a move on or we'll be late again.
Hold your horses.
I'm on the verge of being ready.
Rome wasn't built in a day, you know.
A day?
I'd settle for a week.
Why is it that every time we have some place to be you're always running late?
That's because I march to the beat of a different drummer.
Life isn't about watching the clock.
It's about living in the moment.
At this very moment, we're late.
Just give me a couple of minutes more and I'll be ready.
After all, none of our friends expect us to be punctual anymore.
They all know better.
Yeah, and I should too.
From now on, I'll start getting ready when you say you're all set.
Then I'll just have minutes to wait, not hours.
Eric starts off or begins our dialogue by saying to Carmen let's get a move on or we'll be late again.
To get a move on means to hurry, to rush, to do something quickly.
We better get a move on or we will be late for dinner with our friends.
Eric says to Carmen, hurry up, basically.
Carmen says, hold your horses.
To hold your horses is an old expression meaning to wait, to be patient, to stop rushing or hurrying another person.
Probably because horses, when they are scared especially, sometimes go very fast.
You have to control them.
Well, Carmen is telling Eric to hold his horses, meaning stop rushing her.
Stop trying to make her go faster than she is.
She says, I'm on the verge of being ready.
To be on the verge, V-E-R-G-E, of something, means almost, very soon.
It's just about to happen.
Because of is a preposition, the word that comes after it, if it's a verb, has to be changed into what's called a gerund, making it the object of the preposition as a noun.
So you notice Carmen says, I'm on the verge of being, B-E-I-N-G, ready.
Being is a verb.
You could say, I'm on the verge of going to the store.
I'm on the verge of winning this poker game or whatever.
Rome wasn't built in a day, you know, Carmen says.
This is also an old expression.
It means that if you are doing something important, it takes time.
It can take a long time.
You can't try to do it quickly.
The great city of Rome, with all of its wonderful buildings and architecture, wasn't built in a day, meaning it took many years, hundreds of years, to make it what it is.
Well, that's the expression, and that's what Carmen is saying to Eric.
She's doing something great by preparing herself, I guess.
Eric says, a day, I'd settle for a week.
To settle for is an expression that means to accept something that isn't exactly what you wanted, but is good enough.
Eric is making a joke saying that, in effect, he doesn't want to build Rome in a day.
He would take a week.
That would be okay.
Eric says, why is it that every time we have some place to be, you're always running late?
To run late means to be behind schedule, to do things too slowly so that you can't complete them when you are expected to complete them.
Carmen says, that's because I march to the beat of a different drummer.
This is another old expression, to march to the beat, B-E-A-T, of a different drummer.
A drummer is someone who plays a drum.
Usually they have two sticks and they hit the drum.
The beat is the repeating stress that appears, that you hear in the music.
It's what you will often hear in a rock band, for example, the drummer playing.
The drummer will be playing the same thing over and over again, repeating it.
That is often the beat for the song.
Carmen says, What she's saying is that I do things differently than other people.
I don't follow what everyone else does.
Drummers are often used, especially in the military, or used to be used to keep everyone going forward at the same speed.
Carmen says life isn't about watching the clock.
It's about living in the moment.
To watch the clock means that you are always aware of what time it is and you try to be places on time on schedule.
You're not late.
You're making sure that you arrive or other people arrive on time.
But that's not what Carmen says life is about.
That's not the purpose of life.
Life is about living in the moment.
To live in the moment means that you're not thinking about or worrying about the past.
You're not worried about the future.
You're only thinking about what's happening right now.
You want to experience the present completely and fully.
That's to live in the moment, not to worry about the future or the past, but just about what you are experiencing right now.
Eric says, OK, at this very moment, we're late.
Very has many uses in English.
Here it is used for emphasis to mean exactly or precisely.
Doesn't every woman want to hear that?
Eric says that at this very moment, right now, we're late.
Carmen says, just give me a couple of minutes more and I'll be ready.
To give someone a couple of minutes means to give them a little more time, not to try to rush them, not to try to make them go faster, not to continue asking them to go faster.
Carmen says, after all, none of our friends expect us to be punctual anymore.
They all know better.
She's saying, if you think about it, I mean in terms of what's most important, that's the meaning of the expression, after all.
After all, none of our friends expect us to be punctual anymore.
To be punctual means P-U-N-C-T-U-A-L, means to be on time to arrive when people are expecting you to arrive.
She says that their friends all know better.
The expression to know better means that you have enough experience of something or knowledge of something to know how it will actually be, which is different than how it should be or how someone tells you it will be.
So you might say for example, my sister-in-law said she would be here at 5 30, but i know better, she won't be here until six.
I know better, i have experience, i have knowledge about when she normally arrives and it's normally late.
I know better.
Eric says yeah, and I should too, meaning I should know better as well.
From now on, I'll start getting ready when you say you're all set.
To be all set means to be completely prepared, to be completely ready.
You don't need any more time.
Eric says that when Carmen says that she's all set, then he'll start getting ready.
Then he says, I'll have just minutes to wait, not hours.
In other words, Eric is going to wait in the future until Carmen says she's ready, and then he'll get ready.
That way, in that manner, he won't have to wait hours for her to get ready.
It will only be minutes.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Let's get a move on or we'll be late again.
Hold your horses.
I'm on the verge of being ready.
Rome wasn't built in a day, you know.
A day?
I'd settle for a week.
Why is it that every time we have some place to be, you're always running late?
That's because I march to the beat of a different drummer.
Life isn't about watching the clock.
It's about living in the moment.
Okay, at this very moment, we're late.
Just give me a couple of minutes more and I'll be ready.
After all, none of our friends expect us to be punctual anymore.
They all know better.
Yeah, and I should too.
From now on, I'll start getting ready when you say you're all set.
Then I'll just have minutes to wait, not hours.
She's always punctual.
She never runs late.
That's our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here 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.
