Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 976, Showing Immaturity.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 976.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Romero and Alice about someone who isn't very mature, who doesn't act like an adult.
Let's get started.
Are you going to tell Amber that she can't have Saturday off of work or should I?
You'd better tell her.
I don't think she's going to take it well.
I'll do it but I'm not looking forward to it.
She can be really immature when she doesn't get what she wants.
Yeah, that's why I don't like working with her.
If things don't go her way, she pouts and whines.
I don't know why they don't fire her.
I think she's just a little inexperienced.
This is her first job after all.
Some of her behavior is pretty childish, but when she's not kicking up a fuss or moaning about something, she does good work.
That's like saying somebody is a good worker when they're not napping.
She's not that bad, but we do have to look past some juvenile antics when our employees are so young.
Yeah, too bad we can't have seniors selling to teenagers.
I think that would open a whole different can of worms.
Romero begins our dialogue by saying Are you going to tell Amber that she can't have Saturday off of work, or should I?
Romero is asking Alice if she is going to tell someone named Amber that she cannot have Saturday off of work.
To have a day off of work means that you don't have to work that day.
I have...
Saturday off of work means I do not have to work on Saturday.
Sometimes we just use the preposition off.
I have Saturday off.
That means I do not have to work on Saturday.
Romero is asking Alice if she's going to tell Amber that she cannot have Saturday off of work.
Alice says you'd better tell her meaning you should tell her, or it would be better that you told her.
Alice says, I don't think she's going to take it well.
To take something well or to take something very well means to receive bad news calmly, without complaining.
If someone tells you bad news and you go, well, okay, I'm sorry to hear it, but that's okay.
You are taking the news calmly.
Romero then says, I'll do it, meaning I will tell her, but I'm not looking forward to it.
It's not something I want to do.
She, meaning Amber, can be really immature when she doesn't get what she wants.
Mature, M-A-T-U-R-E
Normally means acting like an adult.
To describe someone as mature Means that they act like an adult, not like a child.
Mature can also mean old in some circumstances, but here We are using it in the sense of someone who acts responsibly, acts like an adult, and The opposite of mature would be immature.
We often say that children and adolescents are immature.
They're not mature.
They don't act like an adult.
They don't act responsibly.
Sometimes.
Alice says, yeah, that's why I don't like working with her.
If things don't go her way, she pouts and whines.
Alice is describing Amber here.
She says that if things don't go Amber's way, she pouts and whines.
When we say something goes your way, W-A-Y, We mean it happens in a way that you want it to happen.
If you are hoping that a certain baseball team wins the World Series, the championship next year say, for example, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and they win the championship, they win the World Series.
Then you could say well, things went my way, meaning they turned out or they had the result that you wanted them to have.
Alice says that if Amber doesn't have things go her way, she pouts and whines.
To pout P-O-U-T means physically to take your lower lip and put it down in a way that indicates that you are unhappy or sad.
When someone does that, especially a child, we would say they're pouting.
They're feeling perhaps sorry for themselves and they're trying to show other people that they are unhappy.
Normally, it's something that a child does.
An adult could also pout, although they may not actually change the expression on their face to do so.
Pouting is usually considered something that children do and therefore an immature act.
To whine W-H-I-N-E means to make loud noises when you are complaining about something, when you don't like something.
You say things out loud that indicate that you don't like the situation.
We often associate whining with a high-pitched voice.
Oh, I don't want to go to the store, Dad.
That would be a little child whining.
Once again, Whining, like pouting, is considered immature, not something an adult should do.
Well, we don't want our children to do it either, but we can at least understand it if they do, because they are not mature yet.
Alice says, I don't know why they don't fire her.
To fire F-I-R-E means to tell someone that they no longer work at the place where they were working.
To fire means to get rid of an employee.
Romero says, I think she's just a little inexperienced.
To be experienced means to have a long time working with a certain project or a certain kind of job.
To be inexperienced means to not have a lot of time doing that particular activity.
Romero thinks that Amber is inexperienced.
She's not experienced.
He says, this is her first job, after all.
Some of her behavior is pretty childish.
But when she's not kicking up a fuss or moaning about something, she does good work.
To be childish, C-H-I-L-D-I-S-H, means to act like a child, not like an adult.
To kick up a fuss.
F-U-S-S means means to do something or say something to indicate that you are not happy with the situation, to complain about something in such a way that you are trying to bother other people or you are trying to get them angry, perhaps.
To kick up a fuss means to complain loudly in such a way that you are trying to cause what we might call a scene S-C-E-N-E.
You're trying to get other people to notice you.
People kick up a fuss because they want someone to do something the way they want it.
And when the situation is such that things are not going their way, they do this sort of complaining in order to get the person to do what they want them to do.
To moan.
M O A N is similar to To the verb to whine.
It means to complain, but instead of complaining in a high-pitched voice, moaning usually refers to people who complain in a low voice.
I'm really angry.
I'm not happy.
That's to moan.
A moan can also be simply a sound that you make when you are disappointed or upset about something.
If your favorite baseball team loses the World Series, you may go, That is also moaning.
Here, it really just means complaining.
Romero then describes Amber as sometimes being pretty or very childish, but when she's not kicking up a fuss or moaning, when she's not complaining, she does good work, Romero says.
Alice says that's like saying somebody is a good worker when they're not napping.
To nap N-A-P means to sleep for a short period of time during the day when you wouldn't normally be sleeping.
Actually, many people say that napping in the afternoon for 30 minutes or an hour is actually good for you.
You're able to get more done.
You have more energy in the late afternoons and evenings if you do that.
Alice is making a joke here.
She's saying that Romero's description of Amber as someone who does good work when she's not complaining is like describing someone as a good worker when they're not sleeping.
Romero says she's not that bad, meaning she's not really bad.
But we do have to look past some juvenile antics when our employees are so young.
To look past something means not to pay attention to something so that you can focus on something more important.
If someone is making small mistakes but is overall doing a good job, we will probably look past his or her mistakes.
We won't worry about them because we know there's something more important.
Juvenile, J-U-V-E-N-I-L-E is normally used as a synonym for immature.
Juvenile describes someone who is not an adult.
Usually, the word is used when we're talking about teenagers.
As an adjective, it's usually used to describe an immature action, and that's how The dialogue is using it here.
Romero says that we do have to look past some juvenile antics.
Antics, A-N-T-I-C-S, are actions that are not appropriate, that are immature in a way.
Juvenile antics then, would describe actions that are childish or that you would not expect of someone who was mature.
Ellis says, yeah, too bad we can't have seniors selling to teenagers.
Seniors, S-E-N-I-O-R-S, are people who are old.
I hope it keeps changing, so I'm never old, but someday I will be a senior.
Teenagers describe people who are between the ages usually of 13 and 20.
Romero says, I think that would open a whole different can of worms.
Alice is suggesting that, instead of having teenagers working for them, they have seniors working for them.
Romero thinks that there would be other problems if that happened, and that's why he uses the expression open a whole different can of worms W-O-R-M-S.
The expression to open a can of worms or a whole new can of worms means to start talking about and getting involved in a new problem.
You already have one problem and now you are going to create a different kind of problem.
And that's what Romero is saying.
Having seniors working for their company instead of teenagers would not necessarily be a better thing, because it may create different kinds of problems, but still just as serious as the ones they're having now.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Are you going to tell Amber that she can't have Saturday off of work or should I?
You'd better tell her.
I don't think she's going to take it well.
I'll do it, but I'm not looking forward to it.
She can be really immature when she doesn't get what she wants.
Yeah, that's why I don't like working with her.
If things don't go her way, she pouts and whines.
I don't know why they don't fire her.
I think she's just a little inexperienced.
This is her first job, after all.
Some of her behavior is pretty childish, but when she's not kicking up a fuss or moaning about something, she does good work.
That's like saying somebody is a good worker when they're not napping.
She's not that bad, but we do have to look past some juvenile antics when our employees are so young.
Yeah, too bad we can't have seniors selling to teenagers.
I think that would open up a whole different can of worms.
Our scriptwriter never whines or moans.
She works hard writing wonderful scripts for our podcast.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
