Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1119.
Methods for Quitting Smoking.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1119.
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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We're going to talk about someone who is trying to quit smoking to stop smoking cigarettes.
Let's get started.
This is it.
I'm quitting smoking for good.
Good for you.
No.
I tried that, but it didn't work.
I craved cigarettes too much.
How about nicotine gum?
Have you tried that?
Yes, but I didn't like the side effects.
It irritated my throat.
That's too bad.
Yes, I have.
I became addicted to the patches and couldn't wean myself off of them.
I just traded one addiction for another.
And electronic cigarettes?
So, what now?
I'm going to try hypnosis.
I hear that it works for some people.
And if that doesn't work?
The last resort is acupuncture.
Some people say that's effective for quitting smoking.
If you say so, sometimes the cure is truly worse than the disease.
Lisa begins our dialogue by saying To quit smoking means to stop smoking cigarettes and never smoke them again.
For good is an expression we use to mean forever. permanently from now on.
My girlfriend and I have broken up for good.
We're not ever going to get back together.
Michael says to Lisa good for you, after she tells him she is going to quit smoking or stop smoking.
Good for you, which is another way of congratulating someone, saying that they have done something good.
He says The phrase to go cold turkey T-U-R-K-E-Y means to quit something immediately, not to use a little less today and perhaps a little less the day after that until you finally stop, but rather to stop immediately, without trying to reduce your use before you stop using it.
Lisa says, no, I tried that but it didn't work.
She tried going cold turkey but it didn't work.
You may be wondering why it's called cold turkey.
No one knows exactly for sure.
The original meaning of the expression was to speak plainly, to not try to use big words or complicated sentences, but to speak the truth in a simple way.
So perhaps the idea of quitting something immediately, without any other sorts of devices or approaches,
But in any case, nowadays to go cold turkey means to stop doing some sort of bad habit like smoking immediately.
Lisa says she is not going to go cold turkey.
She says I craved cigarettes too much, referring to the last time she tried to stop smoking that way.
To crave, C-R-A-V-E, something, is to have a very strong desire to eat it or drink it or have it.
Usually we crave things that are physical pleasures like, for example, the pleasure of eating or drinking certain kinds of drink.
Michael says, how about nicotine gum?
Michael is giving Lisa a suggestion.
Perhaps she should try nicotine gum, G-U-M.
Gum is a substance you put in your mouth to chew.
Nicotine gum is a special kind of gum that has certain chemicals nicotine that are found in cigarettes.
And it allows you to get a little bit of nicotine without actually having to smoke.
Michael asks if Lisa has tried nicotine gum.
She says, yes, but I don't like the side effects.
A side effect is some unwanted consequence of using a particular medicine or drug.
Sometimes, when you take a drug to help your body heal or feel better, it can cause other problems in your body.
It might cause you a headache or to have an upset stomach.
These are side effects of some drugs.
It may make you sleepy.
Lisa says the side effect of nicotine gum for her was that it irritated her throat to irritate.
I R R I T A T E.
Here means to cause a part of your body to become scratchy or red or uncomfortable.
If something irritates your throat, it causes a strange, somewhat painful feeling in your throat.
The verb to irritate can also mean to make someone else mad.
So I guess you could think of it as...
In this sense, the nicotine gum making her throat mad, maybe.
Your throat, T-H-R-O-A-T, is the part of the body inside of your neck.
We breathe and eat and drink using our throat normally.
Michael says that's too bad.
He's saying it's unfortunate that the nicotine gum irritates Lisa's throat.
He says I suppose you've tried nicotine patches too.
A nicotine patch.
P-A-T-C-H is like a sticker that you put on your body that delivers medicine into your body.
A nicotine patch would deliver nicotine chemicals into your body similar to a nicotine gum.
Once again, the purpose is to get the nicotine into your body to satisfy its cravings, without actually smoking the cigarette.
Lisa says yes, i have.
She has tried the nicotine patches.
She says however, i became addicted to the patches and couldn't wean myself off of them.
To become addicted A-D-D-I-C-T-E-D to something is to have a strong desire or need for a particular substance or even experience.
It's such a strong desire that it has other negative effects on your life.
Lisa says she became addicted to the nicotine patch which, of course, was supposed to help her stop smoking, help her stop being addicted to cigarettes.
However, Lisa says she couldn't wean herself off of them.
To wean W-E-A-N yourself off something is to gradually use some substance less and less until finally you don't use it at all.
It's to reduce the amount that you have or that you do slowly in order to eventually stop doing it or having it all together.
Lisa says i just traded one addiction for another.
To trade means to give one thing and to get another thing back.
In this case, she stopped smoking, but then she became addicted to the nicotine patch.
Michael gives another suggestion to Lisa.
And electronic cigarettes?
Electronic cigarettes, sometimes called e-cigarettes, are basically pen-shaped devices.
They look sort of like a cigarette.
The devices.
The electronic cigarettes turn nicotine into a gas that you then put into your body, but it doesn't have the same harmful effects of smoking.
At least, that's the theory.
Lisa says, she said that smoking an electronic cigarette made her want to smoke a real cigarette.
I'm not sure if that's always true.
Some people say it's the opposite.
But in any case, that is what happened to Lisa.
She says they were no help at all.
Michael then asks, so what now?
Meaning, what are you going to do now?
Lisa says, I'm going to try hypnosis.
Hypnosis H-Y-P-N-O-S-I-S is a technique in which a person appears to be asleep but can still hear and answer questions.
Some people use hypnosis to help change their behavior, to stop doing something that they want to stop doing like, in this case, smoking cigarettes.
I've never actually been hypnotized.
That's the verb we would use.
I have never been under hypnosis.
I'm not sure if it would work with me, but some people say it works.
Lisa says, I hear that it, meaning hypnosis, works for some people.
Michael says, and if that doesn't work?
He's asking what Lisa is going to do if hypnosis does not help her quit smoking.
Lisa responds, the last resort is acupuncture.
A last resort.
R-E-S-O-R-T is the last resort option that you have when everything else has failed.
Usually it's something that you don't really want to do.
If you're having an argument with your girlfriend, you might try to talk to her, you might try to give her a gift, you might try being nice to her, but as a last resort, you can always break up with her.
You can always end your relationship.
That's not something you want to do, but if you have to, you could.
It's the last option for action.
For Lisa, the last resort is acupuncture.
A-C-U-P-U-N-C-T-U-R-E.
Acupuncture is a treatment involving putting small, sharp pieces of metal, called needles, in your skin.
Some people say that you can use acupuncture to reduce pain or to, in this case, help you quit smoking.
I actually had a good friend that I used to teach with a German teacher who quit smoking, and I suppose 10 years or so before I had met her.
She says that she used acupuncture.
She went to an acupuncturist and the person put some sort of needle into her ear and she said from that day on she didn't want to smoke another cigarette.
Now, maybe it was for some other reason, I don't know, but that's what she told me.
Michael seems a little skeptical about acupuncture.
He doesn't seem to think it is going to work.
That's why he says, if you say so.
That expression, if you say so, is used when you don't really believe what the other person is saying, but you don't want to argue about it either.
Michael says sometimes the cure is truly worse than the disease.
A cure c-u-r-e is something that helps you get better, to get better physically, to get healthier.
A disease d-i-s-e-a-s-e is something that hurts your body.
The expression the cure is worse than the disease means that the solution that you have to get better is going to actually be worse for you than the thing that you started with.
So if your friend hurts her hand and you say to her, oh, well, I can just cut your hand off.
Your friend might say, well, the cure is worse than the disease.
Yes, my hand will stop hurting, but then I won't have a hand.
So you don't want the thing that you are doing to fix a problem, to make it worse or to make the situation worse.
Michael thinks that putting needles into your body is worse than the actual disease, in this case cancer.
He's referring to Lisa's habit of smoking, even though that isn't technically a disease.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
This is it.
I'm quitting smoking for good.
Good for you.
Are you going cold turkey?
No, I tried that, but it didn't work.
I crave cigarettes too much.
How about nicotine gum?
Have you tried that?
Yes, but I didn't like the side effects.
It irritated my throat.
That's too bad.
I suppose you've tried nicotine patches, too?
Yes, I have.
I became addicted to the patches and couldn't wean myself off of them.
I just traded one addiction for another.
And electronic cigarettes?
They only made me want to smoke a real cigarette.
They were no help at all.
So what now?
I'm going to try hypnosis.
I hear that it works for some people.
And if that doesn't work?
The last resort is acupuncture.
Some people say that's effective for quitting smoking.
If you say so.
Sometimes the cure is truly worse than the disease.
It's almost impossible to go cold turkey on listening to ESL podcasts, thanks to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer.
Her scripts are truly addicting.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
