Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 759, Worrying About Your Children.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 759.
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.
Support this podcast by becoming a member and downloading our learning guide for this and all of our current episodes.
This episode is about worrying about your children.
Let's get started.
I'm really worried about Hannah.
She's been hanging around with that girl Carla, and Carla runs with the wrong crowd.
Hannah is rebelling a little.
That's natural at her age.
When I was her age, I thought I knew more than my parents or any adult and that I should be able to make all of my own decisions.
I'm not talking about being stricter on her but she's become so secretive.
I'm really worried that she might get exposed to things that should be off limits at her age.
There's no way we can keep her from seeing her friends, short of locking her in her room.
We have to trust her and let her come to us if she runs into problems.
We raised her right and she can handle herself.
I wish I had your confidence.
She's a girl, remember?
All kinds of things can happen to girls.
We've talked to her a lot about those things and what we feel are right and wrong.
A lot of things can happen to boys too, or don't you remember?
Hannah takes after you, and she has your brains and resourcefulness, like father, like daughter.
So stop worrying so much.
Do you really think she'll be okay?
Yes, I do.
Take comfort in knowing that she's just exactly like you.
When she has a daughter of her own, she'll stay up nights worrying, just like you.
That's small comfort.
The novel begins by saying to Hillary, I'm really worried about Hannah.
She's been hanging around with that girl, Carla, and Carla runs with the wrong crowd.
Pavel is worried about Hannah, his daughter, because she's been hanging around with that girl, Carla.
To hang around with means to spend your time with, especially your free time, time that you can use however you want.
It isn't clear what you are doing.
There isn't a clear activity.
You're just spending time with that person.
You're hanging around with.
Sometimes informally.
I think now people might say I'm just hanging with my friends instead of hanging around.
But they mean the same thing.
Pavel is concerned that his daughter is hanging around or spending time with a girl named Carla.
Why?
Well, because Carla runs with the wrong crowd.
The expression to run with the wrong crowd or group of people is to spend time with people who are not doing good things, people that will have a bad influence, in this case on his daughter.
Hillary says, Hannah is rebelling a little.
To rebel...
R-E-B-E-L means to disagree with someone in authority, to not follow what your parents or your government or your teacher says.
That is to rebel.
There's a noun which is rebellion, which is the act of rebelling.
And the person who rebels is called a rebel.
A rebel, stress on the first syllable, is the person who rebels.
The verb, stress on the second syllable.
Hillary says that Hannah is rebelling a little.
That's natural at her age.
When you say that's natural, here we mean it's normal.
It's to be expected.
Natural has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some of those.
Hillary says When I was her age, when I was the same age as my daughter, I thought I knew more than my parents or any adult.
This is something that many teenagers, of course, believe.
Pavel says I'm not talking about being stricter on her.
To be strict S-T-R-I-C-T means that you have rules in this case for your children and you don't make any exceptions.
They must follow exactly your rules.
That's to be strict with your children.
Stricter would be the comparative to be more strict.
Pavel says that his daughter is becoming secretive.
Secretive means that you keep secrets.
You don't tell someone about what you are doing.
You don't give them any information about what you are doing.
Pavel says, I'm really worried that she might get exposed to things that should be off limits at her age.
To be or get exposed to something means that you have some experience with it.
You see it or you are aware of it.
Off limits, O-F-F hyphen L-I-M-I-T-S, means not permitted, not allowed.
You might see a sign in a school saying the principal's office is off limits to students.
You are not allowed there.
You are not permitted there.
Pavel is worried that his daughter will be exposed to things that she shouldn't be at her young age, that should be off limits, that she should not see.
Hillary says there's no way we can keep her from seeing her friends short of locking her in her room.
To keep her from doing something means to prevent her, to stop her from doing something.
There's no way to keep her from seeing her friends short of locking her in her room.
Short of here means except or unless something.
But usually it's used, as it is here, for an extreme action, something that you wouldn't normally do.
Short of selling their home, they don't see how they can pay their doctor bills.
There's no other choice.
Well, Hillary is saying that the only way they can keep money their daughter from seeing her friends is to lock her in her room, which they wouldn't want to do.
Hillary says, we have to trust her.
To trust means to believe that in this case, the person will act appropriately, will do the right thing, the correct thing.
We have to trust her to and let her come to us if she runs into problems.
That is, if she has problems, we have to let her ask us, come to us, come and talk to us.
We can't go and talk to her about it.
I'm not sure if that's true, but that's what Hillary believes.
She says, we raised her right to And she can handle herself.
To raise R-A-I-S-E someone is to take care of and educate someone from the time usually they're a baby until they're an adult.
To handle oneself means to be in control of what you are thinking and what you are doing, to be able to get through a certain situation, especially if it's a difficult situation.
If someone says, I can handle myself, they mean I can do it by myself.
I don't need anyone else to help me.
Pavel says, I wish I had your confidence.
He doesn't have the same confidence, the same belief that Hillary does in his daughter.
She's a girl, remember?
All kinds of things can happen to girls.
Hillary says, we've talked to her a lot about those things and what we feel are right and wrong.
A lot of things can happen to boys, too.
Or don't you remember?
Pavel is saying that a young girl, a teenage girl, could get into more trouble than a teenage boy could.
That may be the opinion of a lot of parents, I would guess.
But Hillary, the mother, is saying that boys can get into trouble too.
Hillary says that she and Pavel have talked to Hannah and Hannah knows what's right and what's wrong.
Hannah, the mother says, and notice the psychology here of the mother, her thinking to try to convince the husband not to worry.
Hannah takes after you, and she has your brains and resourcefulness.
The mother is saying that Hannah takes after her father.
To take after means that they behave or they are like that person, usually a parent or an older relative.
If the oldest sister likes to swim and the youngest sister starts swimming, you might say well, she takes after her older sister.
She follows the example of her older sister.
In this case, Hannah takes after the father, Pavel, and has his brains and resourcefulness.
She has his brains means she is as smart as he is.
Of course, Hillary is complimenting, is saying something nice about the father.
She also says that the father and Hannah are resourceful.
Resourceful means that you are able to use what is available to you and make the best use of it to get the maximum benefit from whatever you have available.
That's to be resourceful.
The noun is resourcefulness.
Resource.
She then uses a version of a popular expression.
The popular expression is Meaning, But she says changing the expression like father, like daughter, meaning the daughter will be like the father.
So the father doesn't have to worry because the daughter is just like he is.
Stop worrying so much, Hillary says.
Pavel says, do you really think she'll be okay?
Hillary says, yes, I do.
Take comfort in knowing that she's just exactly like you.
To take comfort in something means to feel comforted by, to know that you don't have to worry because of this piece of information, of this thing.
Take comfort in knowing that even if it rains, we're inside a building and we won't get wet.
To take comfort in means to get some sort of positive emotion or some, we might say, reassurance that things are going to be okay.
Hillary says when she has a daughter of her own, when Hannah has a daughter of her own, she'll stay up nights worrying, just like you.
Well, Pavel doesn't think this is very comforting.
This isn't very reassuring.
That's why he ends by saying, that's small comfort.
Small comfort means it's not very comforting.
It doesn't help.
It doesn't really matter that Hannah, when she grows up and has a daughter, will also worry.
Pavel thinks that isn't very reassuring, that isn't very comforting.
And I must agree, he's probably right.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm really worried about Hannah.
She's been hanging around with that girl Carla, and Carla runs with the wrong crowd.
I'm not talking about being stricter on her, but she's become so secretive.
I'm really worried that she might get exposed to things that should be off-limits at her age.
There's no way we can keep her from seeing her friends short of locking her in her room.
We have to trust her and let her come to us if she runs into problems.
We raised her right, and she can handle herself.
I wish I had your confidence.
She's a girl, remember?
All kinds of things can happen to girls.
We've talked to her a lot about those things and what we feel are right and wrong.
A lot of things can happen to boys, too, or don't you remember?
Hannah takes after you and she has your brains and resourcefulness.
Like father, like daughter.
So stop worrying so much.
Do you really think she'll be okay?
Yes, I do.
Take comfort in knowing that she's just exactly like you.
When she has a daughter of her own, she'll stay up nights worrying just like you.
That's small comfort.
It's natural for you to expect to have good scripts on our episodes.
That's because they're written by the wonderful 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 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
