Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 745.
Welcoming a house guest.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 745.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development right here in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This is an episode about welcoming a house guest, someone who is going to be staying at your house, a friend, a family member, that sort of thing.
Let's get started.
Why are you rearranging the furniture?
My Aunt Susan called, and she's coming for a visit.
It'll be so nice to see her.
It's been a while since we've had a house guest.
Your crazy Aunt Susan?
The one who talks to herself all the time and makes funny noises?
Don't be like that.
She's a little eccentric, but she has a heart of gold.
How long is she staying?
She was a little vague about that.
We'll just play it by ear.
I don't like the sound of that.
Open-ended invitations are a bad idea.
She won't outstay her welcome.
As far as I'm concerned, she can stay for as long as she wants.
You don't mind, do you?
Speak for yourself.
I don't like having houseguests.
They hog the TV, and I can't walk around the house in my underwear.
I feel restricted.
That's a small price to pay for her interesting company, don't you think?
We'll have so much fun listening to her stories.
I think you're making some unwarranted assumptions here.
First, you assume that I enjoy her company.
Second, you assume that I'll be here Next week, I'll be visiting my brother in Toronto.
Didn't I already mention it?
A dialogue begins when Yusef says to Rachel...
To rearrange means to change the position of different objects.
We especially use this verb with furniture, couches, chairs, desks, sofas, that sort of thing.
To rearrange them means to put them in different places in the room.
Rachel says my aunt Susan.
You could also say my aunt Susan either.
Pronunciation is correct, called and she's coming for a visit.
It'll be so nice to see her.
It's been a while since we've had a house guest.
A house guest is a person who stays in your home for a, The one who talks to herself all the time and makes funny noises.
To talk to yourself is to speak quietly to yourself, without expecting anyone to be listening or anyone to answer you.
Sometimes that's considered a sign of a crazy person, a person who is mentally ill, or They talk to themselves.
When, in truth, almost everyone talks to themselves, I talk to myself.
We don't tell other people we talk to ourselves, but it's part of the thinking process, I think.
We all do it.
Anyway, Yusef thinks that the aunt is crazy.
Rachel says, don't be like that.
The expression don't be like that is used when you are asking someone to stop behaving in a certain way.
You are not happy with the way they are talking or acting.
Rachel says her aunt is a little eccentric.
Eccentric E-C-C-E-N-T-R-I-C means a little unusual, something that is a.
It's a way that we may describe someone who acts very differently, not the way other people act in that society, but they're not mentally ill.
We make just say they're eccentric.
To say someone has a heart of gold is to mean they're very nice.
They're very friendly.
They're good people.
Yusuf says, Rachel says she was a little vague about that.
To be vague, V-A-G-U-E. means that you aren't very clear.
You aren't very precise.
What time are you going to be at the party?
Oh, maybe two, three, possibly four.
You're being very vague.
You're not giving a direct, specific answer.
Rachel says, we'll just play it by ear.
That's a popular expression.
To play it by ear means to do what feels right at the moment.
You don't have a plan.
You're just going to sort of make up your plan as you go along.
So it may change every hour.
You may decide to do something different.
You're playing it by ear.
You're not making a plan.
It probably comes from music, where you hear a song and you don't have what we would call the sheet music, a piece of paper with the notes written on it.
So you have to play it just by listening to it.
I'm guessing that's where it comes from.
But what do I know?
I'm not a musician.
I can't sing anyway.
Yousef says, I don't like the sound of that.
Open ended invitations are a bad idea.
Open-ended means there isn't a clear end, or in this case, a clear answer.
You don't know when something is going to end.
If you have an open-ended commitment to someone, it could last a week, it could last a year.
You don't know.
Yousef says that open-ended invitations are a bad idea.
Saying to someone yes, come and stay at my house however long you want, not giving them a definite time.
Rachel says she won't outstay her welcome.
To outstay, O-U-T-S-T-A-Y, one word, means to stay in someone's home or office longer than that person wants you to.
You think they're going to be there for two days, and instead they're there for 20 days.
That would be outstaying your welcome.
Rachel says, as far as I'm concerned, she can stay for as long as she wants to.
You don't mind, do you?
Of course, Yusef does mind.
He is bothered by that.
He says, speak for yourself.
We use that phrase to show that our opinion is not the same as the opinion the person we're talking to is expressing.
So Rachel is saying she can stay however long she wants.
Yusuf doesn't agree.
He says, speak for yourself.
I don't like having houseguests.
They hog the TV and I can't walk around the house in my underwear.
I feel restricted.
To hog, H-O-G something as a verb, means to use it so that no one else can use it.
To use it longer than you should.
To hog the TV would be to watch what you want to watch on TV and not let anyone else use the television to watch what they want.
Hog has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some of those.
Yusuf is complaining that he won't be able to walk around the house in his underwear, which many people do.
He says, Rachel says that's a small price to pay for her interesting company, don't you think?
A small price to pay says that yes, something is going to be a little painful, a little unpleasant, but you're going to get a lot back in return.
So you might say, Not smoking every day is a small price to pay for living a longer life.
It isn't going to be that painful, and you get a lot of benefit if you do it.
Rachel thinks that her aunt is interesting company.
Company can mean a business, but company can also mean the presence of another person, someone else in the same room or with you somewhere.
I'm going to keep someone company is a common expression.
I'm going to go and be there with them, talk to them, make sure they're not alone.
That's the use of company that Rachel is employing here.
She says, we'll have so much fun listening to her stories.
Yusuf says, I think you're making some unwarranted assumptions.
An assumption is something that you believe to be true or But it may be wrong.
You don't necessarily have all of the information necessary.
Unwarranted means not warranted.
Warranted means justified, with a good reason.
Unwarranted means not justified.
You don't have a good reason to make that assumption, Yusef is saying.
First, he says, you assume that I enjoy her company.
Second, you assume that I'll be here.
Rachel says, what do you mean?
You won't be here next week?
Yusef says, next week...
I'll be visiting my brother in Toronto.
Didn't I already mention that?
Of course Yusef has decided to visit his brother because Rachel's aunt Susan, is coming to their house.
He, of course, wasn't planning this when they started the conversation, but that's how he's going to get away from having to be in the house with Rachel's aunt.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
Why are you rearranging the furniture?
My Aunt Susan called and she's coming for a visit.
It'll be so nice to see her.
It's been a while since we've had a house guest.
Your crazy Aunt Susan?
The one who talks to herself all the time and makes funny noises?
Don't be like that.
She's a little eccentric, but she has a heart of gold.
How long is she staying?
She was a little vague about that.
We'll just play it by ear.
I don't like the sound of that.
Open-ended invitations are a bad idea.
She won't outstate her welcome.
As far as I'm concerned, she can stay for as long as she wants to.
You don't mind, do you?
Speak for yourself.
I don't like having house guests.
They hog the TV, and I can't walk around the house in my underwear.
I feel restricted.
That's a small price to pay for an interesting company, don't you think?
We'll have so much fun listening to her stories.
I think you're making some unwarranted assumptions here.
First, you assume that I enjoy your company.
Second, you assume that I'll be here.
What do you mean?
You won't be here next week?
Next week, I'll be visiting my brother in Toronto.
Didn't I already mention it?
Our scriptwriter has a heart of gold.
It's the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
