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Podcast number 1187 Visiting Churches, Mosques and Temples.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1187.
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 Cassius and Brittany about visiting holy places churches, mosques and temples.
Let's get started.
You'll need to cover up if you want to go in there.
All right, if you say so.
I don't really want to go into this mosque or temple or whatever it is.
Keep your voice down.
Can't you see that there are people at the altar in prayer?
I'll just stay outside.
Maybe I'll walk over to that building over there with a dome and steeple.
That's not a steeple.
It's a minaret, and that's a mosque.
You're definitely not going in there dressed like that.
Why not?
I'm curious about other religions.
I just want to see what it's like inside and take lots of pictures.
These are holy places.
You can't just barge into a house of worship to satisfy your curiosity.
I don't think there's anything wrong with me wanting to observe local people worshipping their gods.
I'm very interested in the local culture.
Would you like a tourist coming into your church and taking pictures of you while you're in prayer?
I don't belong to a church, but if I did I'd welcome anyone who wanted to have a look.
Other members of your congregation might not feel that way, but do what you like.
I'll be right here ready to dust you off when they give you the boot.
Cassius begins our dialogue by saying to Brittany you'll need to cover up if you want to go in there.
This is a house of worship.
The phrasal verb to cover up refers means to cover some part of your body, to hide your face or to hide your hair, or perhaps to hide your arms and legs.
Sometimes women especially, are asked to cover up when they enter a certain building that is used for a religious purpose.
A building used for religious purposes is often called a house of worship, W-O-R-S-H-I-P.
A house of worship is a building where people come to pray.
It is also used for religious ceremonies or religious celebrations.
Brittany says, all right, if you say so, meaning if that's what you're telling me to do.
I don't really want to go into this mosque or temple or whatever it is.
She doesn't seem to be sure if the building is a mosque, M-O-S-Q-U-E, or a temple, T-E-M-P-L-E.
A mosque is a building where Muslims worship together, pray together.
The verb to worship is can mean to participate in a religious ceremony or a religious event of some kind.
Muslims worship in a mosque, a temple.
T E M P L?
E is used for describing a house of worship for Jews, though it could also be used for Mormons.
We talk about a Mormon temple.
That's the house of worship of those who believe in the religion of Mormonism.
But more commonly it's used to refer to a place where Jews worship, which is also called a synagogue.
S-Y-N-A-G-O-G-U-E.
Brittany isn't sure whether she's going into a mosque or a temple.
Cassius just says, keep your voice down.
That expression, keep your voice down, means don't talk too loudly.
Can't you see that there are people at the altar in prayer?
An altar.
A-L-T-A-R is a kind of furniture I guess we could describe it that is used in certain religious ceremonies or sacrifices.
In a Christian church, the altar would be in front of the building, typically.
In some Christian churches the altar looks like a big table, but in older churches, especially Catholic churches, the altar is up against the front wall of the church.
Cassius talks about people at the altar in prayer.
That is, they are speaking to God, perhaps thanking God or praising God or asking God for something.
Brittany says I'll just stay outside.
Maybe i'll walk over to that building over there with the dome and steeple.
A dome d-o-m-e is a tall rounded top of a building.
Sometimes Churches and other houses of worship have domes on top of them, but a dome can be on any kind of building.
The U.S.
Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. is famous for its dome.
A steeple, S-T-E-E-P-L-E, is a tall tower, or what we might call a spire, S-P-I-R-E, that is often used in Christian architecture, in buildings that are built for Christian worship.
Brittany points to something, thinking that it's a dome and a steeple, but Cassius corrects her.
He says, that's not a steeple.
It's a minaret, and that's a mosque.
A particular kind of tower associated with a mosque is called a minaret, M-I-N-A-R-E-T.
It's a tall, narrow tower, typically found with a mosque.
Cassius says you're definitely not going in there dressed like that.
It is likely that Brittany is not dressed appropriately to go into this mosque.
Brittany says, why not?
I'm curious about other religions, other organized systems of belief.
I just want to see what it's like inside and take lots of pictures.
To take pictures means to take photographs.
Cassius says these are holy, H-O-L-Y, places.
Something that is holy is something that is dedicated to or connected to God or some supernatural power or being.
To be holy means to be sacred, S-A-C-R-E-D.
The idea is that you would treat that with special respect.
Cassius says you can't just barge into a house of worship to satisfy your curiosity.
To barge B-A-R-G-E into somewhere, to enter a place suddenly and loudly, often without permission to do so.
If you barge into a meeting, you interrupt the meeting.
You go in there making a bunch of noise and disturbing the people who are there already.
Cassius says you can't just barge into a house of worship that is a temple, a mosque or a church to satisfy your curiosity.
To satisfy your curiosity.
C-U-R-I-O-S-I-T-Y means to find the answers to your questions about something.
Curiosity is wanting to know about something, wanting to know the answer to some question.
So satisfying your curiosity is getting the answer or trying to get the answer for your questions.
Brittany says I don't think there's anything wrong with me wanting to observe local people worshiping their gods.
The word God G-O-D, when it is capitalized, when it has a large letter, usually refers to a single supernatural power, what we would call a deity D-E-I-T-Y, which comes from the Latin word deus, meaning God.
Sometimes you will see the word God written as a small G-O-D, often with an S to make it plural.
So it's gods.
Christians, Jews and Muslims usually refer to their God in the singular, with no S at the end and a capital G, but you could refer to say, gods of other religions, as These gods may still be supernatural in their own belief systems.
We could talk about the gods of the Greeks and the Romans, for example, who were in Greek and Roman religion considered supernatural, but there was more than one of them.
I've been using the word supernatural, S-U-P-E-R-N-A-T-U-R-A-L.
Supernatural means beyond our human experience and power, beyond our nature.
Brittany thinks she should be able to go into any place.
She wants to observe local people, as she calls them.
She says, I'm very interested in the local culture.
Local here means of this particular area or place.
Cassius says would you like a tourist tour, someone visiting, coming into your church and taking pictures of you while you're in prayer?
To be in prayer or to be at prayer means to be praying, to be involved in the act of speaking to or listening to God.
Brittany says, But if I did, I'd welcome anyone who wanted to have a look.
She means that, even though she isn't a member of a church, if she were a member of a church she would welcome, she would be happy to have people come in and look.
Cassius says other members of your congregation might not feel that way.
But do what you like.
A congregation C-O-N-G-R-E-G-A-T-I-O-N is a group of people who meet regularly at a particular house of worship to pray.
Cassius says that if Brittany were a member of a church, the other people who go to that church, the congregation, might not agree with her.
Cassius says, I'll be right here to dust you off when they give you the boot.
To dust D-U-S-T.
Someone off is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to help someone who has fallen down, by literally brushing off the dirt or the dust on the person's clothing that got there because of their fall.
In a more general way, in a more figurative way, we could say To dust someone off means to help someone back from a difficult situation or from a challenging situation, to help someone recover.
To give someone the boot.
B-O-O-T means to force someone to leave an organization or to leave a place.
A boot is something you wear on your feet.
It's a kind of heavy shoe.
Literally, to give someone the boot would be to kick them in their behind, in their rear, in their butt to get them to leave the building.
But it's used again more figuratively to refer to getting rid of someone, to forcing someone to leave a certain building or place.
It could also refer to a company firing you, getting rid of you as an employee.
But here Cassius refers to the situation in which Brittany might find herself if she goes into a church, mosque or temple without permission.
They may kick her out of the house of worship.
At least I think that's what Cassius is saying.
He might be referring to the hypothetical, the imaginary situation in which Brittany becomes a member of a church and and invites people to come in and the other members of the congregation disagree with her and kick her out of that church.
I'm not sure.
In any case, let's listen to the dialogue now at a normal speed.
You'll need to cover up if you want to go in there.
This is a house of worship.
All right, if you say so.
I don't really want to go into this mosque or temple or whatever it is.
Keep your voice down.
Can't you see that there are people at the altar in prayer?
I'll just stay outside.
Maybe I'll walk over to that building over there with a dome and steeple.
That's not a steeple.
It's a minaret, and that's a mosque.
You're definitely not going in there dressed like that.
Why not?
I'm curious about other religions.
I just want to see what it's like inside and take lots of pictures.
These are holy places.
You can't just barge into a house of worship to satisfy your curiosity.
I don't think there is anything wrong with me wanting to observe local people worshipping their gods.
I'm very interested in the local culture.
Would you like a tourist coming into your church and taking pictures of you while you're in prayer?
Other members of your congregation might not feel that way, but do what you'd like.
I'll be right here ready to dust you off when they give you the boot.
The scripts for ESL Podcast help satisfy your curiosity about different words and phrases in English.
At least, I hope they do.
Thanks to Dr. Lucy Say for being our script writer.
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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
