Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 983, Breaking Bad Habits.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 983.
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 dialogue is about breaking bad habits, trying to stop doing things that you've been doing, probably for a long time, but that are bad for you.
Let's get started.
Welcome everybody.
You've all joined this support group because you have some bad habits that you're trying to break.
Would anyone like to introduce themselves and tell us about their bad habit?
Uh, yeah.
I'm Stu and my wife signed me up for this support group because she says I have some really bad habits.
One of my worst is my nail biting.
You can see that they're pretty ragged.
Thank you, Stu.
Is there anyone else?
Oh, yeah.
I also smack my gum.
That drives my wife crazy, so I try not to do it in her presence.
Well, thanks for sharing, Stu.
If we could move on to...
I also tend to tap my fingers and crack my joints, which my wife says is really annoying.
Though her hair twirling is pretty annoying to me.
Stu, let's let a few other people...
What is that?
Really?
I hadn't noticed.
Our dialogue begins with the counselor, the person who is providing advice and guidance to people, welcoming everyone to this group.
We're in some sort of group counseling session.
And so the leader of the group is called the counselor, C-O-U-N-S-E-L-O-R.
Someone who is called a counselor in a situation like this typically will have some training in how to help people, but not quite as much as a regular psychologist or psychiatrist.
The counselor says, welcome, everybody.
You've all joined this support group. because you have some bad habits that you'd like to break.
A support group is a group of people who have similar problems or challenges and who want help from other people in similar situations.
Sometimes talking to other people who have the same problem or issue that you have can help you.
Bad habits are things that you do over and over again, often without thinking about it very much, that have negative consequences for you, that are bad for you.
Some people might say smoking cigarettes is a bad habit.
It's a difficult habit to break, however.
To break, B-R-E-A-K, a habit means to stop doing the habit, to no longer do it.
Of course, you can also have good habits, things that you do every day or frequently, that are good for you.
Brushing your teeth and taking a shower.
Those are good habits, things that are good for you.
The whole idea of good habits and bad habits goes back, at least, to the time of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who wrote a book called The Ethics about the formation of good and bad habits, moral habits and intellectual habits, as he called them.
But We're not going to talk about Aristotle today.
We're going to talk about the support group that is helping people break bad habits.
The counselor says, would anyone like to introduce themselves and tell us about their bad habit?
Would anyone like to tell us their name and tell us what their bad habit is?
Stu says yeah, I'm Stu, and my wife signed me up for this support group because she says I have some really bad habits.
Poor Stu.
Stu doesn't think, apparently, he has bad habits, but his wife thinks that he has some bad habits.
So his loving wife signed him up for this support group.
To sign someone up is a phrasal verb meaning to put someone's name on a list saying that they will participate in a certain activity.
Another verb we could use here is to enroll.
E-N-R-O-L-L.
Stu's wife has signed him up for this support group because his wife thinks that he has some really bad habits.
Of course, all wives think that their husbands have really bad habits.
That's part of being a wife.
I'm just kidding, of course.
Honey.
Stu says...
One of my worst, meaning one of my worst habits, is nail biting.
Your nail, N-A-I-L, is a part of your hand at the end of each finger.
You have nails, N-A-I-L-S.
To bite, B-I-T-E, means to use your teeth to eat or to break something.
In this case, Stu is biting his nails, which some people believe is a bad habit.
People bite their fingernails in particular.
I guess you could bite your toenails also, but that would be very difficult for most people.
Stu says you can see, he's showing the group his fingernails, that they're pretty ragged.
To be ragged, R-A-G-G-E-D, means to be uneven, to be not smooth.
He's showing the group his fingernails and indicating that, yes, he does in fact bite his nails.
The counselor says, thank you, Stu.
Is there anyone else?
But Stu isn't finished talking.
Stu says, oh yeah, I also smack my gum.
That drives my wife crazy, so I try not to do it in her presence.
Gum.
G-U-M refers to bubble gum or chewing gum, something you put in your mouth that is usually flavored and you chew it.
You bite down on it up and down with your teeth to get the flavor out of the gum.
To smack, S-M-A-C-K, your gum means to make loud noises or sounds while you are chewing your gum.
I don't have any gum in my mouth right now, so I can't demonstrate.
Stu says that this smacking of his gum drives his wife crazy, meaning it makes his wife mad.
He tries not to smack his gum in her presence, meaning when his wife is there with him.
The counselor says, well, thanks for sharing, Stu.
To share S-H-A-R-E means to talk about something with other people, especially to talk about your experiences or your opinions about something.
We sometimes use that verb sarcastically when someone is telling us something that we don't really want to know, perhaps because it's too personal.
We might say to that person, thanks for sharing, meaning I didn't really want you to tell me that.
It's kind of an insulting thing to say.
Stu isn't being insulted by the counselor.
The counselor simply wants someone else to talk.
That's why she says if we could move on to...
To move on to something or someone means to go to someone else.
In this case, to have someone else talk about their bad habits, not Stu.
But Stu isn't finished.
He says, I also tend to tap my fingers and crack my joints, which my wife says is really annoying.
To tend to do something is to often do something, especially when you're not thinking about it.
Stu tends to tap, T-A-P, his fingers.
To tap your fingers is to hit one or more of your fingers against a table or something else, and usually several times over and over again, making a small noise.
People sometimes tap their fingers at a meeting when they're bored, which is to say at almost every meeting.
This is considered by some to be a bad habit.
Stew also cracks his joints.
To crack C-R-A-C-K your joints, J-O-I-N-T-S is to move or bend a part of your body that connects two bones.
Usually, we talk about cracking our knuckles, K-N-U-C-K-L-E-S.
Your knuckles are the parts of your hand that connect the fingers to the main part of your hand.
To crack your knuckles and I'm not sure if I can do this anymore is to bend your hands in such a way that they make a sound.
Cracking your knuckles or cracking your joints is to move your bones in such a way that they make a noise.
Like that.
Stu's wife finds this very annoying.
Something that is annoying.
A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G is something that is irritating, something that bothers you.
Stu says that his wife's hair twirling is pretty annoying to him as well.
Tutorial T-W-I-R-L your hair is to take a small section of your hair and move it around in circles with your finger, especially when you're bored or distracted.
It's something that you usually will see with girls and women, because they typically have longer hair.
I remember when I was teaching high school many years ago.
Yes, I taught high school many years ago.
It's kind of scary.
The young girls in my classes would often twirl their hair because they were bored by my lectures, by my presentations, which I can understand.
Stu's wife twirls her hair, and that is annoying to Stu.
The counselor says, Stu, let's let a few other people.
She's about to say, let's let a few other people talk, but Stu doesn't wait anymore.
Long enough for her to finish her sentence, Stu continues talking.
He says, oh yeah, I forgot to mention what my wife says is my most annoying habit.
The counselor says, what is that?
Stu says, I tend to interrupt people in conversation.
To interrupt.
I-N-T-E-R-R-U-P-T is to speak when someone else is still speaking, before they have had a chance to finish what they want to say.
That, of course, is exactly what Stu is doing here with the counselor.
The counselor then makes a joke at the end.
She says really, I hadn't noticed, meaning I didn't even realize that you had this bad habit of interrupting.
Of course, she did, and that's why she's saying this in a sarcastic way, in a joking way.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Welcome, everybody.
You've all joined this support group because you have some bad habits that you'd like to break.
Would anyone like to introduce themselves and tell us about their bad habit?
Yeah, I'm Stu, and my wife signed me up for this support group because she says I have some really bad habits.
One of my worst is my nail biting.
You can see that they're pretty ragged.
Thank you, Stu.
Is there anyone else?
Oh yeah, I also smack my gum.
That drives my wife crazy, so I try not to do it in her presence.
Well, thanks for sharing, Stu.
If we could move on to.
I also tend to tap my fingers and crack my joints, which my wife says is really annoying, though her hair twirling is pretty annoying to me.
Stu.
Let's let a few other people Oh yeah, I forgot to mention what my wife says is my most annoying bad habit.
What is that?
I tend to interrupt people in conversation.
Really?
I hadn't noticed.
We'd like to thank our script writer, Dr Lucy Say, for her scripts, which are always enjoyable and never annoying.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
I'm sometimes annoying, but I'd like to thank you for listening to us today.
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.
