Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 778.
Getting Your Pocket Picked This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 778.
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 to download a learning guide for this very episode.
You'll be able to understand everything we are saying because you'll have a complete transcript of this episode when you download the learning guide.
This episode is called Getting Your Pocket Picked.
It's when somebody steals something from you, usually your wallet.
Let's get started.
Wait a second.
Where's my wallet?
It's not in your back pocket?
What?
No, it's in none of my pockets.
My pocket's been picked.
It must have happened when our attention was diverted by those boys fighting over there.
I should have been paying more attention in a busy market like this.
I felt someone bump me from behind, but it never occurred to me that someone could be lifting my wallet.
I've been clutching my purse, worried about purse snatchers.
I never thought anyone would be able to pick your pocket.
Me neither.
I don't know how I'm going to live this down.
When the boys hear about this... Come on.
We'd better go file a police report.
You never know.
Maybe your wallet will turn up.
Fat chance of that happening.
This is really embarrassing.
Stop stalling.
If there's one thing I've learned after being a cop's wife for 15 years is that you've got to face the music.
Lenny begins by saying, wait a second, meaning hold on, stop.
Where's my wallet?
Your wallet.
W-A-L-L-E-T is usually a folded piece of leather that you use to carry money and credit cards in.
Lenny says, where is my wallet?
He can't find his wallet.
Anita says, it's not in your back pocket.
When you're wearing pants, you have usually pockets that you can put things into.
That's where I put my wallet, where most men put their wallets.
Lenny says, no, it's in none of my pockets, meaning I don't have it in any of my pockets.
My pocket's been picked.
To pick P-I-C-K someone's pocket.
P-O-C-K-E-T means to steal someone's wallet, usually from their pocket.
And if you have ever been on a subway in a large city or just been in a crowded place where there are lots of people, especially lots of tourists, you may have had this happen to you, where someone takes your wallet from your pocket without you knowing it.
This happened to me once.
Many years ago 20, 25 years ago I was on a small bus in Mexico and it was very crowded, which was not unusual.
And I was very stupid and young and I had my wallet in my back pocket.
And it happened so quickly.
Two people had come on and one stood in front and one stood behind me.
Then they got off the bus and I realized that they had taken my wallet.
So I learned a lesson there, as you should learn a lesson if you haven't had that happen.
Make sure you never miss.
Put your wallet in your pocket, especially in a busy place.
I keep my wallet in my pocket normally, but when I ever go to a crowded place including here in Los Angeles I'm much more careful about that.
Well, Lenny was not careful, and he had his pocket picked.
Anita says, it must have happened when our attention was diverted by those boys fighting over there.
To divert, D-I-V-E-R-T, means to change the direction of something.
In this case, change the direction of your attention to distract you, we might say.
So there were two boys fighting and they were looking at the boys fighting and weren't paying attention.
Lenny says, I should have been paying more attention.
I should have been more alert in a busy market like this.
A market is a place where you buy and sell things, where there are often a lot of people.
That's what Lenny means when he says it's busy, B-U-S-Y.
There are a lot of people there.
Lenny says, I felt someone bump me from behind.
To bump B-U-M-P means to hit something not hard, usually by accident, often with your body or some part of your body.
What happens, of course, is that the people who pick your pockets, we call them pickpockets.
That's the person who does this.
Pickpockets will often hit you slightly from behind, and that's when they actually take the wallet out of your pocket, because you can't feel them doing it while they're doing it.
Anyway, I'm not trying to give you instructions on how to be a pickpocket.
Well, Lenny says that someone bumped him from behind.
By the way, bump is a word that has other meanings in English as well.
Take a look at our learning guide for those.
Lenny says, it never occurred to me, meaning I was surprised that it happened.
I wasn't thinking about it.
It never was an idea that I had.
It never occurred to me that someone could be lifting my wallet.
So he didn't realize when this happened that someone might be lifting his wallet.
To lift L-I-F-T usually means to pick up something heavy in order to carry it or to move it off of the ground.
Here.
However, to lift means to steal, to rob, especially when you are taking something out of someone's wallet or someone's coat by hitting them or bumping them so they don't realize you are stealing it.
You could also use it just as a general verb meaning to steal as well.
Anita says, I've been clutching my purse.
To clutch, C-L-U-T-C-H, means to hold something very tightly and very close to your body.
So women, who often carry their wallets in their purses will, if they're smart, clutch their purses close to them.
Hold it close to them, especially on a subway, for example, so that you don't have someone coming and stealing your purse.
Someone who steals purses from women is called a purse snatcher.
A purse, P-U-R-S-E, is a small bag.
That's what women often carry.
To snatch, S-N-A-T-C-H, means to take quickly from someone.
So a purse snatcher will often be running down a street perhaps, and grab a woman's purse and take it from her, snatch it from her and run away.
It could be that the purse snatcher is on a motorcycle and comes around and takes the purse and goes away.
I saw that in a movie recently, a very good movie, Argentinian movie called Nine Queens.
It was very, very entertaining, very interesting.
Anyway, an old movie, 1990, I think.
You can find it on the Internet somewhere, perhaps.
Anita says, I never thought anyone would be able to pick your pocket.
Lenny says, me neither.
Notice he says me neither, not I neither.
Me is grammatically incorrect, but that's how people talk.
They say me neither in informal conversation.
Lenny says, I don't know how I'm going to live this down.
To live something down is when something bad happens to you or embarrassing happens to you and everyone makes fun of you.
Everyone laughs at you.
You try to keep your pride, your dignity.
You try not to be embarrassed, but it's difficult because of this embarrassing thing, this thing you did.
That's what it means to live something down.
Lenny says, when the boys hear about this, the boys are probably his friends.
Anita says, come on, we'd better go file a police report.
To file means to officially submit or give a document or piece of paper, usually to a government office.
A police report is when you go to a police officer, a cop, and And say that there was a crime, and the officer writes up a piece of paper.
That piece of paper is called a police report.
Anita says, you never know, maybe your wallet will turn up.
To turn up is a two-word phrasal verb.
That here means when something is lost, it suddenly is found, it suddenly appears.
It will turn up means we will find it eventually, even though it is lost now.
Lenny doesn't think this is possible.
He says fat chance of that happening.
The phrase fat, F-A-T, chance, means you don't think it's possible.
It's impossible.
It's an informal way of saying that something is impossible.
Are you going to win the lottery?
Fat chance, meaning almost certainly not.
Am I going to win an award for my singing?
Fat chance.
Lenny says, this is really embarrassing.
Anita says, stop stalling.
To stall, S-T-A-L-L, means to delay in doing something, to avoid doing something until later.
Anita says, stop stalling.
If there's one thing I've learned about being a cop's wife for 15 years is that you've got to face the music.
A cop is a police officer, as I mentioned earlier.
The expression.
To face the music is means to accept the consequences of your actions, to accept reality.
When something bad happens, you can't just hide from it.
You have to accept it.
You have to do something about it, or at least to realize that it is happening, not to avoid it.
Anita and Lenny are married.
So when Anita says she's been a cop's wife for 15 years, she means that Lenny is a police officer.
So he was a police officer who got pickpocketed.
This is somewhat embarrassing.
That's why Lenny says when the boys hear about this, the boys then refer to the other police officers, the other cops male cops that he works with.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wait a second.
Where's my wallet?
It's not in your back pocket?
No, it's in none of my pockets.
My pocket's been picked.
It must have happened when our attention was diverted by those boys fighting over there.
I should have been paying more attention in a busy market like this.
I felt someone bump me from behind, but it never occurred to me that someone could be lifting my wallet.
I've been clutching my purse, worried about purse snatchers.
I never thought anyone would be able to pick your pocket.
Me neither.
I don't know how I'm going to live this down when the boys hear about this.
Come on.
We'd better go file a police report.
You never know.
Maybe your wallet will turn up.
Fat chance of that happening.
This is really embarrassing.
Stop stalling.
If there's one thing I've learned after being a cop's wife for 15 years is that you've got to face the music.
Looking for a better script writer than Dr. Lucy Say?
Fat chance, I say.
Thank you, Lucy, for your always wonderful scripts.
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.
