Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1064, Spotting Trends.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1064.
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.
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This episode is a dialogue between Heidi and Tim about understanding the way things are changing in the world by spotting trends.
Let's get started.
You look very relaxed reading magazines in the middle of the workday.
And you do that by reading magazines with your feet up?
Why not?
That doesn't sound too onerous.
It's all about finding the trendsetters, the people who are beta testers and early adopters.
These are also the bellwethers for when a trend has run its course.
Can't you just see what people are buying?
By then, it's too late.
Those are people who are jumping on the bandwagon, not the movers and shakers.
Well, don't look at me.
I lag behind every trend and don't have any idea what's in or out.
Luckily, you have me to tell you.
I've been meaning to talk to you about your choice of footwear.
Heidi begins our dialogue by saying to Tim You look very relaxed reading magazines in the middle of the work day.
Heidi is... saying to Tim that he seems very relaxed, very calm.
But you can kind of guess that she's wondering why Tim is reading a magazine instead of working.
That's why she says, in the middle of the work day.
The work day is a day that you would normally expect to work.
For most of us, that's Monday through Friday.
Tim says, however, it's my job.
In other words, reading magazines is his work.
He says, I'm tasked with spotting new trends.
A couple of interesting words and phrases there.
Let's start with the verb to be tasked, T-A-S-K-E-D, with something.
To be tasked with something is a phrasal verb meaning to be given the job to do something or, more generally, to be responsible for something, for doing something.
You could say I'm tasked with getting milk at the store, meaning someone told you probably your wife to get some more milk at the store, or cheese, or butter, or meat or chicken or whatever.
The verb to spot S-P-O-T means to identify something, especially something that might be difficult to see or to find.
A trend, T-R-E-N-D, is something that has become popular recently.
We often talk about trends on the Internet.
Things that people are doing now.
This is especially popular with young people.
Trends in fashion.
Trends in music.
What's popular now or what has been popular recently.
Those are all trends.
Heidi says, and you do that, meaning you spot new trends, by reading magazines with your feet up?
With your feet up means just what it says.
You are putting your feet up on a chair or on your desk as a way of relaxing.
Some people like to put their feet up when they relax.
In general, the expression to put your feet up means to relax, be calm, not work too hard.
Heidi is saying that Tim doesn't look like he's working very hard.
Tim says, however, why not?
Meaning, why not put my feet up?
I also frequent places where hipsters hang out, listening to their conversations and observing what they're wearing eating, drinking and doing.
Tim then gives us some other things he does to spot new trends.
He frequents places.
To frequent F-R-E-Q-U-E-N-T as a verb means to go somewhere often or regularly, especially as a customer.
I frequent my local Starbucks.
That means I go there often as a customer.
Tim says he frequents places where hipsters hang out.
A hipster.
H-I-P-S-T-E-R is usually a young person who follows all the latest trends, all the latest fashions, especially when we're talking about clothing or food, or even ideas.
Here in Los Angeles we have lots of young hipsters, people who listen to the most popular music or eat at the most popular restaurants and think in general that they're pretty cool.
That's a hipster.
Tim is going to places where hipsters hang out.
To hang H-A-N-G out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to spend time with others or at a certain place, having fun, but not really doing anything serious.
Certainly not working.
Tim then frequents places where hipsters hang out and observes what they're doing, what they're wearing, what they're drinking and so forth.
Heidi says that doesn't sound too onerous.
O-N-E-R-O-U-S.
Onerous is an adjective meaning difficult or challenging.
Tim says it's all about finding the trendsetters, the people who are beta testers and early adopters.
A trendsetter is a person who starts trends or who has a lot of influence on other people around him.
If you are a trendsetter, you are one of the first people to wear a certain kind of clothing or eat a certain kind of food.
That would be a trendsetter.
Someone who's influential.
We also might call this person an influencer, although that has a broader meaning.
Tim also uses the word beta tester.
Technically, a beta tester is someone who tries new types of software before the software is ready for everyone else to try.
That's a beta tester.
Sometimes when a company is starts a new product, launches we would say a new kind of software, it will ask people to be beta testers to test it and find any problems in the software.
Here.
I think Tim is using this term more generally to mean people who are the first to try some new thing, some new trend.
A early adopter.
ADOPTER is a person who buys a new product right after it is available for purchase.
An early adopter is a person who goes out and buys the newest iPhone or the newest computer as soon as it is made available for purchase as soon as you can go and buy it.
The early adopter adopts or starts using that new technology right away.
You can see there's a relationship here between trendsetter, beta tester, and early adopter.
All three terms relate to someone who does something before the general public does it.
Tim says, A bellwether B-E-L-L-W-E-T-H-E-R is a person or group or thing that indicates how something is changing or that predicts the future in some way.
We might consider the word bellwether, very similar to the word predictor, an indication of how things will turn out in the future.
For example, college campuses, universities, are often bellwethers of larger social change.
The change starts at the university and then becomes more popular in other parts of society.
A bellwether then would be a person, in this case, who is will indicate that there is some major or larger change that will take place in the future.
If you're a trendsetter, if you're a person who is influential, when you change, that means that the rest of the world will change sometime in the future.
So looking at you can help us predict how things will change with other people in the future.
The expression to run its course C-O-U-R-S-E means to end, to no longer be popular.
In this case,
When a trend has run its course, it is no longer popular.
It is no longer something that people are doing.
Heidi says, can't you just see what people are buying?
She's wondering why Tim has to do all this research.
Tim says.
Tim is saying that it's too late to wait and see what becomes popular in terms of the general public, the average person.
You have to be able to see what will be popular in the near future.
He describes people who are not trendsetters as people who are jumping on the bandwagon B-A-N-D-W-A-G-O-N.
To jump on the bandwagon means to join something or to support something that is already popular.
You're not one of the first people to join it or to do it.
You wait until everybody else starts doing it, and then you start doing it.
That's jumping on the bandwagon.
A mover and shaker is a person who is influential and powerful, especially someone in the business world.
If you say someone is a mover and a shaker...
You're saying this person has a lot of power, has a lot of influence in some particular area.
Heidi says, well, don't look at me, meaning don't observe me for these trends.
I lag behind every trend.
To lag L-A-G behind means to move more slowly than other people, to progress more slowly than everyone else.
If someone is lagging behind, they are behind or less advanced than everyone around them.
What Heidi is saying is that she doesn't Follow the latest trends.
She lags behind.
She will do something only after everyone else has already done it.
She says she has no idea what's in or out.
In would be something that is popular or cool.
Out would be something that is not popular or not cool.
Tim says luckily you have me to tell you meaning.
Fortunately for you, I am doing that work so I can tell you what's in and out, what's popular and not.
I've been meaning to talk to you about your choice of footwear.
I've been meaning to talk to you here means this is something that I have been wanting to tell you.
Tim wants to say something to Heidi about her footwear.
Footwear, F-O-O-T-W-E-A-R, is what you wear on your feet.
It refers to the kinds of shoes that you wear.
We get the idea that Tim is about to tell Heidi that her shoes are no longer fashionable or the style of her shoes is no longer in, but rather out.
That would probably describe everything that I wear.
I'm definitely not a trendsetter.
In fact, I just discovered this new rock band that you might have heard of already, called The Beatles.
Yeah, they're really good.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
It's my job.
I'm tasked with spotting new trends.
And you do that by reading magazines with your feet up?
Why not?
I also frequent places where hipsters hang out, listening to their conversations and observing what they're wearing eating, drinking and doing.
That doesn't sound too onerous.
It's all about finding the trendsetters, the people who are beta testers and early adopters.
These are also the bellwethers for when a trend has run its course.
Can't you just see what people are buying?
By then, it's too late.
Those are people who are jumping on the bandwagon, not the movers and shakers.
Well, don't look at me.
I lag behind every trend and don't have any idea what's in or out.
Luckily, you have me to tell you.
I've been meaning to talk to you about your choice of footwear.
Our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Sayes, spots all the latest trends in English and lets me know all about them.
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.
