Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 827, Fad Dieting.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 827.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Just six letters, well, six letters, a dot, and a C-O-M will give you... an entire world of English.
You can download a learning guide for each of these wonderful episodes on our website.
This episode is a dialogue between Joel and Beatrice.
They're talking about trying to lose weight by using some recently popular methods.
Let's get started.
You don't look so hot.
Are you okay?
I'm perfectly fine.
Oh, and you're grouchy, too.
Don't tell me you're dieting again.
The natural way?
You mean like that diet you were on a few months ago, where you only ate Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Or that other diet you were on before where you drank 50 cups of water a day?
Those were fad diets that didn't work.
I'm on to a new diet that's guaranteed to take away those unwanted pounds and to reveal my slimmer self.
You sound like a commercial or an infomercial.
Is that where you found this diet on some late-night infomercial?
It doesn't matter where I heard about this diet.
It only matters that it's scientifically proven to help people lose weight.
Alright, I need to shed a few pounds.
What's the secret diet?
I'm not telling you.
You'll only make fun of it.
No, I won't.
Tell me.
Alright, I only eat orange-colored foods.
What?
I can see why you're so grouchy.
You've lost your bleeping mind.
Our dialogue begins with Joel saying to Beatrice, you don't look so hot.
The expression to not look so hot means that you seem tired.
You seem sick.
There seems to be something wrong with you.
Perhaps your physical appearance isn't very attractive or isn't a good appearance.
The expression is you don't look so hot or she doesn't look so hot.
Now, you have to be careful if you say to someone she is not hot.
You mean something different.
If you say she is not hot, you mean she's not sexually attractive.
She's not physically attractive.
There's a difference between she doesn't look so hot and she is not hot, or she is hot, which would mean informally, she is very attractive.
So you have to be careful with this one.
The verb we use is look.
You don't look so hot.
Joel says, are you okay?
Beatrice says, I'm perfectly fine.
Perfectly, P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y, is used here as a emphasis word.
She means I'm very fine.
I'm completely fine.
So perfectly is an emphasis word, but it also has other meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some of those.
Joel says, oh, and you're grouchy, too.
To be grouchy, G-R-O-U-C-H-Y, means that you're not in a very good mood.
You're in a bad mood, a negative mood.
You are feeling irritated and annoyed by other people.
Nobody wants to be around someone who's grouchy, someone who seems a little angry or a little mean.
Joel says, don't tell me you're dieting again.
The expression don't tell me here means I know and I'm going to guess what your problem is.
To be dieting means to be trying to lose weight, usually by not eating certain things.
Beatrice says, just leave me alone.
Don't bother me.
I'm not popping pills or anything like that.
To pop, P-O-P, pills, P-I-L-L-S, means to take medicine.
Usually the idea is that you're taking too many pills.
I'm popping pills.
The expression is often related to someone who's a drug addict, someone who is abusing drugs or illegal drugs.
Beatrice says she's not popping pills or anything like that or anything similar.
I'm just trying to shed a few pounds the natural way.
To shed S-H-E-D means to lose, to get rid of something, especially if you have too much of something.
It's often used in connection to weight.
I'm going to shed some pounds.
A pound, P-O-U-N-D, is the unit of measurement we use for weight in the United States.
Pound has a couple of other meanings as well, you may know.
Take a look at our learning guide for some of those.
Joel says the natural way...
Thank you.
Thank you.
Joel is asking what Beatrice means by natural.
Normally, we use the word natural to mean the way things are supposed to be, especially with your body or with the environment around you.
But Joel mentions a couple of diets that probably aren't very good ideas like just eating three days a week or drinking 50 cups of water a day.
Notice he says, the diet you were on.
We use the preposition on.
I am on a diet.
Beatrice says those were fad diets that didn't work.
A fad, F-A-D, is anything that's suddenly popular.
It's popular for maybe six months or a year, and then everyone forgets about it.
A fad in the United States back I don't know 15, 20 years ago, maybe earlier.
I guess earlier was something called the pet rock.
And a company sold these rocks, just regular rocks.
They put them in boxes.
And they were supposed to be like your pet.
So instead of having a dog or a cat, you could get a rock.
And they were called pet rocks.
And millions of people bought them.
The dumbest thing you ever want to hear about.
But that's a fad.
It was popular for a year or two and then everyone went on and did something different.
So that's a fad for a product.
Beatrice is talking about a fad diet.
This is a way of losing weight, often a set of rules, that becomes very popular.
And usually these diets have names.
They might be the South Beach diet or it might be the cabbage soup diet.
It sometimes has someone's name.
Sometimes it's a place.
Sometimes it's an ingredient, a kind of food that is popular in that diet.
Beatrice says, I'm on to a new diet.
To be on to something means to be aware of and interested in something.
You're participating in something.
She says I'm on to a new diet that's guaranteed to take away those unwanted pounds and reveal my slimmer self.
To be guaranteed means that the person or company is promising that it will work.
The idea is if it doesn't work...
We'll give you your money back.
That's a guarantee.
G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E.
This diet is guaranteed, Beatrice says, to take away or get rid of, or eliminate those unwanted pounds, the weight that you don't want, and reveal her slimmer self.
Slimmer comes from slim, S-L-I-M, which means thin, not fat, not heavy, not overweight.
Someone who is slim is someone who doesn't have any extra weight for their body type.
Slimmer would be more slim.
Joel says you sound like a commercial or an infomercial.
An infomercial.
I-N-F-O-M-E-R-C-I-A-L is a relatively new word.
It describes what you will see on television, often late at night.
These are long commercials.
They're like 20 or 30 minute, sometimes an hour long commercial for one product.
And they show people using the product and people come on and say how great it is.
These are infomercials.
Well, that's what Joel says Beatrice sounds like.
He says, Beatrice is a bit, we might say, defensive.
She's feeling like she needs to defend herself.
Because most people think infomercials are for products that aren't really very good.
Infomercials have a bad reputation among a lot of people.
Beatrice says it only matters.
The only thing that is important is that it is scientifically proven to help people lose weight.
Something that is scientifically proven means it has been tested by scientists and it has been demonstrated to be effective.
To lose weight means to make yourself lighter, to shed those pounds.
Joel says, all right, I need to shed a few pounds.
What's the secret diet?
Beatrice says, I'm not telling you.
You'll only make fun of it.
To make fun of something or someone means to say something funny but a little mean.
You're making a joke out of something or someone else.
Joel says, no, I won't.
I won't make fun of you.
Tell me.
Beatrice says, all right.
I only eat orange-colored foods.
Foods that have the color of orange.
That's the diet.
Joel says, what?
Beatrice says, I said, I only eat orange-colored foods.
I've eaten a lot of oranges and carrots.
Oranges and carrots are two foods a fruit and a vegetable that have the color orange.
Joel says I can see why you're so grouchy.
I can see why means I understand why you are this way.
You've lost your bleeping mind.
Bleeping B-L-E-E-P-I-N-G comes from what happens on television when someone says a vulgar word, a word they're not supposed to say, and so the television network or channel bleeps puts a little sound in place of the word.
And that sound is called a bleep.
B-L-E-E-P It can be used as a verb.
I'm going to bleep that out.
To bleep something out means to substitute a sound in place of the actual word.
So I could say, well, he's a bleep idiot.
Bleep is the sound that you might hear, and it is substituting for a bad word that I used.
Joel is using this to say that Beatrice is crazy.
He says, you've lost your bleeping mind.
So, instead of actually saying the bad word, he says bleeping, which is a funny way that people sometimes use to say something very strong, but they don't want to use a bad word, which we, of course, would not use here on ESL Podcast anyway.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You don't look so hot.
Are you okay?
I'm perfectly fine.
Oh, and you're grouchy too.
Don't tell me you're dieting again.
Just leave me alone.
I'm not popping pills or anything like that.
I'm just trying to shed a few pounds the natural way.
The natural way?
You mean like that diet you were on a few months ago, where you only ate Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Or that other diet you were on before where you drank 50 cups of water a day?
Those are fad diets that didn't work.
I'm on to a new diet that's guaranteed to take away those unwanted pounds and to reveal my slimmer self.
You sound like a commercial or an infomercial.
Is that where you found this diet on some late-night infomercial?
It doesn't matter where I heard about this diet.
It only matters that it's scientifically proven to help people lose weight.
All right.
I need to shed a few pounds.
What's the secret diet?
I'm not telling you.
You only make fun of it.
No, I won't.
Tell me.
All right.
I only eat orange-colored foods.
What?
I said I only eat orange-colored foods.
I've eaten a lot of oranges and carrots.
I can see why you're so grouchy.
You've lost your bleepin' mind.
Our scripts are not written by any fad script writer.
She's been doing it for more than seven years, 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.
