Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1037, Ending a Party.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1037.
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 Gunther and Maria about stopping or ending a party.
Doesn't sound like too much fun, does it?
Well, let's join the party and find out.
Let's get started.
But there are still a few stragglers who seem reluctant to leave.
How do we politely tell them to go home?
I'll just make an announcement.
Wait, that seems kind of rude.
Let me try a few hints.
I'll tell them that we're out of drinks.
If you do that, one of those guys is liable to offer to make a beer run.
That's not going to do the trick.
What if I go over there, yawn and comment on the lateness of the hour?
That should be obvious enough without being too rude.
Those people aren't going to respond to subtlety.
Let me handle this.
What are you going to do?
And if that doesn't work?
I'm going to yell lights out, people, and mean it.
Our dialogue begins with Gunther saying to Maria I think this party has run its course and I'm ready to call it a night.
There are two expressions or phrases in this first line of the dialogue that we want to explain.
The first one is for something to run its course, C-O-U-R-S-E.
To run its course means that something has naturally completed whatever process or perhaps cycle is involved.
Here it really means that the party is no longer entertaining.
It's no longer fun.
It's coming to an end.
You had a good time, but now it's time to go.
That's the idea that Gunther is trying to communicate here.
The phrase to run its course is often used in medicine to talk about, for example, a disease or an illness that is temporary.
There are some illnesses, such as the common cold and flu, that sometimes just have to run their course.
They are not temporary. illnesses that are easy to cure or even to help sometimes.
You just have to let the disease go through its stages until it's all over.
The other expression from this first line that I want to explain is to call it a night.
To call it a night means to say that you are going home.
You are not going to stay at whatever event or party you are at.
So if you go to someone's house for dinner and you stay until 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock and then you want to go, you would say to the person I think I'm going to call it a night, meaning I'm going to leave now and go home.
I don't want to be here anymore.
Maria says, but there are still a few stragglers who seem reluctant to leave.
How do we politely tell them to go home?
We realize in this second line of the dialogue that Maria and Gunther are having a party at their own house.
Maria says there are still a few stragglers, S-T-R-A-G-G-L-E-R-S.
A straggler is one of the last people to finish something, or one of the last few people to continue doing something.
Let's say you go on a tour and the tour bus leaves at 8 o'clock in the morning.
You get there at 7.45, and at 8 o'clock, the bus is ready to leave.
But some people have not yet arrived from your group.
So they come in at 8.05 or 8.10.
We would call those final few people the stragglers.
There's sometimes a negative connotation about this word straggler.
It suggests that the person is late or is very slow.
Maria says these few stragglers seem reluctant to leave.
To be reluctant R-E-L-U-C-T-A-N-T means to not want to do something, to not look forward to doing something.
We might also say that it means to be hesitant, H-E-S-I-T-A-N-T.
The stragglers are reluctant to leave.
You could be reluctant to go to school.
You could be reluctant to go to your mother-in-law's house.
These are all very logical, perhaps even common experiences.
Maria says, how do we politely tell them to go home?
To do something politely, P-O-L-I-T-E-L-Y, means nicely, courteously, with good manners.
Gunther says, I'll make an announcement.
I'll just tell everybody.
Maria says, wait, meaning stop.
Stop.
That seems kind of rude, not nice.
Let me try a few hints.
A hint.
H-I-N-T is in this case a gentle suggestion, an indication about what you are talking about or what you want, without saying it directly.
A hint in other contexts can also mean a clue, information about some mystery or problem.
Here, however, it just means an indirect way of communicating a message.
Maria says that she'll tell her guests that they're out of drinks.
They have no more alcohol, let's say, to drink.
Gunter says, if you do that, one of those guys is liable to offer to make a beer run.
The word liable L-I-A-B-L-E here means likely or probable, something that could and probably will happen.
Liable also has some other meanings that are related to the law.
To be liable for something means to be responsible for something, often financially responsible for something.
But here it just means likely.
One of the guys, according to Gunther, is likely to offer to make a beer run.
A beer.
B-E-E-R run is a quick trip to a store, a liquor store, to buy more beer.
We sometimes use that word run to talk about doing a very short trip for one specific purpose, often to buy something.
If it's eight o'clock at night and you're feeling hungry, you might say to your husband let's go for a doughnut run.
That would mean let's go out and buy some donuts, which sounds really good right now.
Then again, so does a beer.
Gunther says, that's not going to do the trick.
To do the trick means to be successful, to reach your goal or objective.
Gunther is saying that telling...
Their guess that they have run out of drinks will not be effective.
That won't work.
It won't do the trick.
T-R-I-C-K.
Maria then makes another suggestion to Gunther.
What if I go over there where the people are standing yawn and comment on the lateness of the hour?
To yawn, Y-A-W-N, is to open your mouth wide and take a deep breath, usually sighing outwards.
It's better and easier to simply illustrate this.
A yawn would be something like.
Interestingly enough, I believe that when one person yawns, it often causes other people to yawn.
So if you just yawned yourself, well, there you go.
It did the trick.
Maria is going to yawn because when someone yawns, it often indicates that he is tired.
She's going to try to indicate to her guests that it's getting late.
In fact, she's going to comment on the lateness of the hour.
The lateness of the hour simply means how late it is getting, how it is time for people to go home and go to sleep.
Maria says that should be obvious enough without being too rude.
Gunter says those people aren't going to respond to subtlety.
Subtlety, S-U-B-T-L-E-T-Y, is being very indirect.
Subtlety is indirectness, not being direct with someone.
It's similar to hinting.
Gunther says, let me handle this, meaning let me take care of this.
Maria then asks, what are you going to do?
Gunther says, I'm going to do what bars do at closing time.
A bar is a place where you go and get an alcoholic drink.
He says, I'm turning up the lights and turning off the music.
Sometimes in a bar, when they are ready to close, the owners will turn off the music and turn up the lights.
Some lights can be made to be less bright, and that's the case in a bar.
Usually if you go into a bar, there aren't really bright lights shining on you.
That's because people are drinking and they don't want to see bright lights.
To turn up the lights would be to go from the room being sort of dark to suddenly being very bright.
Maria says, and if that doesn't work?
Gunther says, I'm going to yell, say very loudly, lights out people and mean it.
Lights out means that it's time to go to sleep, to turn off the lights and go to sleep.
It's something that, for example, a father or mother might say to his or her children when it's time for them to go to bed.
The parent might send the child to his room and say, then turn the lights off.
And say something like lights out, meaning it's time to turn the lights off.
You might also hear that expression in the military, when it's time for everyone to go to bed, to go to sleep.
Gunther says he's going to yell lights out, people, and mean it.
To mean, M-E-A-N something, means to really believe it, to actually do what you say you are going to do.
We sometimes use this phrase when someone doesn't believe that you are going to do what you say you're going to do.
So a parent may say again to his or her child if you don't go to sleep right now, you're not going to get any candy tomorrow.
I mean it.
The parent is emphasizing that he or she is serious and will actually do what he or she says that he or she will do.
Wives also speak this way sometimes to their husbands.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I think this party has run its course and I'm ready to call it a night.
But there are still a few stragglers who seem reluctant to leave.
How do we politely tell them to go home?
I'll just make an announcement.
Wait, that seems kind of rude.
Let me try a few hints.
I'll tell them that we're out of drinks.
If you do that, one of those guys is liable to offer to make a beer run.
That's not gonna do the trick.
What if I go over there, yawn, and comment on the lateness of the hour?
That should be obvious enough without being too rude.
Those people aren't going to respond to subtlety.
Let me handle this.
What are you going to do?
I'm going to do what bars do at closing time.
I'm turning up the lights and turning off the music.
And if that doesn't work?
I'm going to yell lights out people and mean it.
I'm not at all reluctant to say that the greatest scriptwriter in the world is our very own Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
