Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1149, Delaying Making a Decision.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1149.
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 Thomas and Eugenia. about waiting to make an important decision.
Let's get started.
You've hemmed and hawed for weeks.
It's time to make a decision.
I know, but I need to sleep on it.
This is a very big decision.
You've dragged your feet for far too long.
Are you having second thoughts?
No, no second thoughts.
I just want to be absolutely sure I'm making the right choice.
I'm on the fence between two options.
We'll have to live with this decision for years.
No, no, no.
In my mind, the jury is still out.
You can't leave everyone hanging.
I know that, but how can I choose if I'm not 100% positive about either option?
I understand that, but it's now down to the wire.
You've got to bite the bullet and decide.
I know.
If only I had a few more days to think about it.
The painters are here?
Yes.
So will this be a blue or green house?
How about stripes?
Thomas says to Eugenia, you've hemmed and hawed for weeks.
This somewhat unusual expression to him H-E-M and Haw H-A-W means to be undecided about making a decision.
In fact, to refuse to make a decision or to provide an answer, because you're still thinking about it.
You're still considering your options.
Usually when we say someone is hemming and hawing, We mean he is being indecisive.
He is not making up his mind, and we consider that a bad thing.
It's a criticism of that person.
Thomas says it's time to make a decision.
Eugenia says, I know, but I need to sleep on it.
When someone says he's going to sleep on it, or if someone tells you to sleep on it, he means to think about something and make a decision tomorrow.
To go to bed, if you will, and perhaps think about it.
I think the idea here is that sometimes, if we wait and allow our mind, unconsciously perhaps, to process information or to give our brain time to think about something, we will make a better decision.
Eugenia says, this is a very big decision.
Thomas says, you've dragged your feet for far too long.
To drag, D-R-A-G, your feet, means to do something very slowly.
It means not to do something when you're supposed to do it, to take much longer than you should take.
Thomas says, are you having second thoughts?
The term second thoughts means doubts about your decision or doubts that will make you change your mind about a decision you've already made.
Eugenia says, no, no second thoughts.
I just want to be absolutely sure I'm making the right choice.
To be absolutely sure about something means you don't have any doubts.
You know that this is correct.
You're certain that you are right.
Eugenia says, I'm on the fence between two options to be on the fence.
F E N C E means to be undecided, to not be sure which of two options you want.
A fence, of course, is something that you put up around your property or around something that you don't want someone to get into, or a place you don't want someone to enter.
At my house, for example, there is a fence between all of my neighbors.
Interestingly enough, I didn't put up the fences, so I guess my neighbors don't want me in their yard more than I don't want them in my yard or property.
Anyway, Eugenia is on the fence between two options or choices.
She says we'll have to live with this decision for years.
When someone says we have to live with this, he means we have to be able to tolerate this or we have to be in this situation.
We're not going to be able to change it.
There's nothing we can do about it.
Thomas says, I thought you'd already made a tentative decision days ago.
Tentative, T-E-N-T-A-T-I-V-E, means not final, temporary.
Something that is tentative is something that you're not certain about.
You are saying yes to something, but you could change your mind in the future.
That's something that is tentative.
Eugenia says, no, no, no, she didn't make even a tentative decision days ago.
In my mind, she says, the jury is still out.
This expression the jury J-U-R-Y is still out O-U-T is used when you mean something is not yet decided, when a decision hasn't been made either by you or by perhaps, a group of people.
A jury is a group of usually 12 people who decide whether someone is guilty or innocent of a crime in a court.
To be out means to be still thinking about it.
That's the expression we use when a jury hasn't yet made its decision.
We say the jury is still out.
The phrase has become more commonly used to mean any decision that has not yet been made, or to refer to a decision that has not yet been made.
Thomas says you can't leave everyone hanging.
To leave, L-E-A-V-E, someone hanging, means not to let someone know the final decision about something, to make someone wait to find out something important that that person wants to know.
If you ask a girl to marry you and she says, well, let me think about that.
Let me sleep on it.
I'll tell you tomorrow.
She is leaving you hanging.
She is not telling you her decision.
She's waiting to give you her decision and you are anxious to get her decision.
You want to know.
Eugenia says I know that meaning, I know I'm leaving everyone hanging.
But how can I choose if I'm not 100 positive about either option?
The word positive P-O-S-I-T-I-V-E here means sure convinced, persuaded that you are correct about something.
Thomas says, I understand that, but it's now down to the wire, W-I-R-E.
When we say something is down to the wire, we mean it is right before a deadline.
There's no additional time left to make a decision or to do something.
If you say something is going right down to the wire, you mean that it isn't going to be completed until right before the final moment, right before a deadline.
Thomas says to Eugenia, you've got to bite the bullet and decide.
The expression to bite B-I-T-E, the bullet B-U-L-L-E-T, means to do something that is very challenging or very difficult, or perhaps even very dangerous.
But it's something you have to do.
It might be something that is as simple as making a difficult decision.
If you've asked your girlfriend to marry you and she doesn't really want to, It will be difficult perhaps for her to tell you, but she has to bite the bullet and tell you.
She has to do this difficult, challenging thing because it's necessary.
You need to know.
You don't want to be left hanging.
Thomas is telling Eugenia that she has to bite the bullet.
Eugenia says, I know.
If only I had a few more days to think about it.
Thomas says, too late.
They're here.
Meaning someone has arrived, perhaps someone related to the decision that Eugenia is supposed to make.
And in fact, that's exactly what is happening here.
Eugenia says, the painters are here.
Painters are people who put paint on your house, either on the inside or the outside of your house.
Now we know this decision that Eugenia is supposed to make is related to painting her house.
Thomas says yes.
So will this be a blue or green house?
Eugenia needs to decide if the painters are going to paint the house blue or green.
Eugenia says, how about stripes?
Stripes, S-T-R-I-P-E-S, are parallel lines of different colors.
You can think of the animal, the zebra, as having stripes.
Black and white lines on its body.
You can have stripes on a shirt where there's a line of black and a line of white, or a line of blue and a line of I don't know gray.
What Eugenia is suggesting is that, because she can't decide if she wants to paint her house blue or green, she's going to have blue and green stripes, lines that go up and down the wall or from side to side, perhaps.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You've hemmed and hawed for weeks.
It's time to make a decision.
I know, but I need to sleep on it.
This is a very big decision.
You've dragged your feet for far too long.
Are you having second thoughts?
No, no second thoughts.
I just want to be absolutely sure I'm making the right choice.
I'm on the fence between two options.
We'll have to live with this decision for years.
I thought you'd already made a tentative decision days ago.
No, no, no.
In my mind, the jury is still out.
You can't leave everyone hanging.
I know that, but how can I choose if I'm not 100% positive about either option?
I understand that, but it's now down to the wire.
You've got to bite the bullet and decide.
I know.
If only I had a few more days to think about it.
Too late.
They're here.
The painters are here?
Yes.
So will this be a blue or green house?
How about stripes?
I am absolutely sure that the best scriptwriter on the internet 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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
