Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 739, Performing an Intervention.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 739.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there and take a look at our ESL podcast store with some additional courses for you, in English of course.
This episode is called Performing an Intervention.
That's when people come together and try to get someone who has a problem, especially a problem with addiction, to stop and get help.
Let's get started.
Hey, what's going on here?
Why are all of you here in my apartment?
Your family and close friends are here to perform an intervention.
We feel that you have a problem that is negatively affecting your life and the lives of the people around you.
An intervention?
I don't need an intervention.
What am I supposed to be addicted to?
I think you know.
Each of us can attest to your obsession and the consequences of that addiction.
It is interfering with your work and your personal relationships.
No, it's not.
I can't believe this.
I feel cornered.
We just want to help you.
We all agree that you need to see a therapist and maybe go into treatment.
You guys are all crazy.
Is that an ultimatum?
Yes, I'm afraid it is.
If you don't stop your obsessive behavior, we'll take that away.
What?
Take away my MP3 player?
If you take away my MP3 player, how am I supposed to listen to ESL podcast?
That's the idea.
Listening to ESL podcast 14 hours a day is not healthy.
Okay, I know I've gone overboard, but I'll stop.
I promise.
You'll stop cold turkey?
Well, I need to be weaned off, I think.
How about if I cut back to 10 hours a day to start?
We begin our dialogue with Petra, saying, Obviously, there's a group of people there.
He says An intervention in this case means a meeting, where close friends and relatives usually surprise an individual who isn't expecting a meeting because they are concerned about this person's activities, usually involving an addiction.
When you can't stop doing something,
We think about drug addictions, alcohol addictions, gambling addictions, and so forth.
Johan says that they are here to perform or to do an intervention.
He says, To affect means to have some influence or impact on something, to change something in some way.
They're saying that Petra's addiction is affecting other parts of her life, usually in a negative way.
Petra means to have an addiction regarding or involving something.
I'm addicted to gambling means that I can't stop gambling.
I want to gamble all the time, or I'm gambling in such a way that it is hurting me, but I can't stop.
I feel like I cannot stop it.
That's an addiction.
That's just an example, by the way.
I am not myself a gambler.
So Petra is wondering what she is addicted to.
Johan says, I think you know.
You know what it is.
Each of us can attest to your obsession and the consequences of that addiction.
To attest A-T-T-E-S-T is to say or prove that something is true based on your experiences, based on some facts that you know of.
These friends and family of Petra can attest to her obsession.
An obsession is something that you think about all of the time, something you cannot stop thinking about.
Some men have obsessions about women, specific women.
We would say they are obsessed with them.
In this case, the friends and family of Petra believe she has an obsession and they can also attest to the consequences of her addiction.
The consequences are the results, what happens because of, in this case, the addiction.
Johann says, it is interfering with your work and your personal relationships.
To interfere with something is to interrupt it, to make it less successful or less effective, to slow it down.
Petra says no it's not.
It's not interfering with my work or my personal relationships.
She says I can't believe this.
When someone is frustrated or is confused or surprised by something, they may say this I can't believe this.
I feel cornered.
To be cornered means to be trapped in a place, and you are unable to leave.
You cannot escape.
Corner has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some of those.
Johan says, we just want to help you.
We all agree that you need to see a therapist and maybe go into treatment.
Johan says that they believe that Petra needs to see a therapist.
The word therapist, T-H-E-R-A, P-I-S-T, can refer to a couple of different kinds of people.
It could be a psychologist.
It could be a medical doctor, a psychiatrist.
It could be someone trained in helping people with addictions, a counselor.
If you put a word in front of therapists, sometimes you know more specifically.
These examples are all dealing with emotions, thoughts, and feelings, psychological issues.
But you could also have a physical therapist.
That would be someone who helps you get over a certain problem.
Maybe you broke your leg and now you need to get your leg strengthened after the operation or whatever happened.
That would mean you would go to a physical therapist who would help you.
Well, Petra needs a therapist to help her with her addiction.
Johan says that maybe she needs to go into treatment.
Treatment is a general term that refers to a program to help, cure or help you when you are ill or sick.
In this case, treatment usually involves going to a separate house or building specifically for people who have this addiction, and you stay there.
Here in Hollywood there are several places very expensive where celebrities who are having addiction problems go.
Some of them go many times.
Petra says, you guys are all crazy.
Is that an ultimatum?
An ultimatum is, when you say something to someone that if they don't do something, something bad will happen to them.
It's a kind of threat or could be.
It's the last thing that you can do before something bad happens in this case.
So Petra is asking if this is an ultimatum that she go see the therapist.
Johan says, yes, I'm afraid it is.
Remember when we are telling someone some bad news, we often say I'm afraid.
It doesn't mean you're actually scared of anything.
It's just a polite way of saying something negative or bad to someone.
I'm afraid that I cannot go with you today.
You're giving someone bad news.
Well, Johan says, I'm afraid that this is an ultimatum.
If you don't stop your obsessive behavior, we'll take that away.
Johan is going to take something away if Petra doesn't stop her behavior.
Petra says, what?
Take away my MP3 player?
If you take away my MP3 player...
How am I supposed to listen to ESL podcast?
Ah, now we understand her addiction.
Johan says that's the idea.
Listening to ESL podcast 14 hours a day is not healthy.
Healthy is something that is good for your physical or mental well-being, your health being well.
The opposite of sick Petra says okay, I know I've gone overboard, but I'll stop, I promise.
To go overboard here means to do too much of something, to engage in some sort of extreme behavior or to do too much of any sort of action.
You meet a girl and the second day that you are with her, you ask her to marry you.
You bring her dozens of flowers.
You buy her a car.
That's probably going overboard, even if you like the woman.
It's actually a pretty good way of getting the woman to run away from you.
Not that I have any personal experience in that.
I mean, in going overboard.
Lots of women have run away from me.
Trust me.
Anyway, Johan says that listening to ESL podcast is not healthy.
14 hours a day listening to ESL podcast.
Petra says, I know I've gone overboard, but I'll stop.
I promise.
Johan asks, you'll stop cold turkey?
To stop something cold turkey is to immediately end some activity, usually something that is not good for you, such as an addiction.
So if you are a smoker, you like to smoke cigarettes, and you stop cold turkey...
That means that you stop suddenly.
You say one day no more cigarettes and you don't smoke another cigarette the rest of your life, or at least the rest of that week.
That would be going cold turkey or stopping cold turkey.
Why cold turkey?
I have no idea.
Petra says, well, I need to be weaned off, I think.
To be weaned W-E-A-N-E-D off something is to slowly reduce the amount or number of something that you are addicted to.
It's not the same as cold turkey.
It's not suddenly.
It's slowly.
Some people, for example, who are addicted to nicotine, will wear nicotine patches things on their arm or they'll chew nicotine gum to wean them off slowly from this addiction.
Petra says, how about if I cut back to 10 hours a day to start?
To cut back is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to reduce, to decrease the number or amount of something.
Petra is saying that she needs to quit her addiction slowly.
Instead of listening for 14 hours, she'll listen for 10 hours, which of course we know is still probably a little bit too much time, even for ESL podcast.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hey what's going on here?
Why are all of you here in my apartment?
Your family and close friends are here to perform an intervention.
We feel that you have a problem that is negatively affecting your life and the lives of the people around you.
An intervention?
I don't need an intervention.
What am I supposed to be addicted to?
I think you know.
Each of us can attest to your obsession and the consequences of that addiction.
It is interfering with your work and your personal relationships.
No, it's not.
I can't believe this.
I feel cornered.
We just want to help you.
We all agree that you need to see a therapist and maybe go into treatment.
You guys are all crazy.
Is that an ultimatum?
Yes, I'm afraid it is.
If you don't stop your obsessive behavior, we'll take that away.
What?
Take away my MP3 player?
If you take away my MP3 player, how am I supposed to listen to ESL Podcast?
That's the idea.
Listening to ESL Podcast 14 hours a day is not healthy.
Okay, I know I've gone overboard, but I'll stop.
I promise.
You'll stop cold turkey?
Well, I need to be weaned off, I think.
How about if I cut back to ten hours a day to start?
I can attest to the wonderful qualities of our scriptwriter, our very own 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.
