Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,218, Describing Relative Location.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,218.
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 dialogue is between Penelope and Otis about describing relative location, where things are.
Let's get started.
Tell me about the new town you're moving to.
It's called Nusquam, and it's smack dab in the middle of the country.
Where is it exactly?
I can't give you the coordinates if that's what you're after.
Of course not.
I'm just trying to pinpoint where it is.
Is it near Wichita, Kansas?
It's nowhere near Wichita.
It's in the heart of a remote part of the country.
Where is it relative to this town?
I can't give you any reference points or tell you the distance.
I'll just say it's on the outskirts of a medium-sized town and borders Nebraska.
Why are you being so cryptic?
I'll tell you that when you spill the beans on why you're asking.
You've just answered your own question.
Our dialogue begins with Penelope saying to Otis Otis apparently, is moving to a new city, a new town.
Normally we consider a town smaller than a city, but we will sometimes use the two words interchangeably.
That is one for the other.
Otis says the town is called Nusquam, and it's smack dab in the middle of the country.
The expression smack S-M-A-C-K, dab D-A-B means exactly or precisely in a certain place, in a certain spot.
Smack dab is almost always used for a location to say something is exactly in this place.
In fact, normally you will hear it together with the expression in the middle of.
It's smack dab in the middle of the city.
Or it's smack dab in the middle of a bunch of apartment buildings.
Penelope says, where is it exactly?
She wants to know where this town Otis is moving to is.
Otis says, I can't give you the coordinates if that's what you're after.
Coordinates C-O-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-E-S refers to the longitude and latitude of a certain place.
Of course, almost no one knows the coordinates exactly of where they are.
Los Angeles's coordinates are approximately 340500 degrees north and 1182500 degrees west approximately.
Otis thinks that Penelope is asking for the coordinates, but of course she isn't.
He says, I can't give you the coordinates if that's what you're after.
The use of the word after here is a little different than the normal meaning of that word.
It doesn't mean something that comes in a place later than another thing.
Instead, it means looking for or trying to get something.
If someone asks you, what are you after?
The person is asking what you want, what you are trying to get, what are you looking for.
That's very different than the more common use of the word after, such as in the expression comes after.
Two comes after one, three comes after two, and so forth.
Penelope says she's not looking for the coordinates, of course.
She says, I'm just trying to pinpoint where it is.
To pinpoint, P-I-N-P-O-I-N-T, means to identify the exact location of something.
It could also mean to get the exact meaning of something, or to get a lot of detail, a lot of information about a topic.
Here, we're using it in the more common sense of location.
Where exactly is it?
Penelope's trying to pinpoint where it is.
Is it near Wichita, Kansas?
Kansas is in the middle part of the United States, the central part of the United States.
Otis, however, says no, it's nowhere near Wichita.
The expression nowhere near means very far from, not close at all.
He says it's in the heart of a remote part of the country.
If something is in the heart, H-E-A-R-T, of something, it's in the middle of or center of something.
It's completely surrounded by something.
If you say my house is in the heart of the Mojave Desert, you mean that it is in the center or middle part of the desert.
If you say I want to go to New York City and stay in the heart of Manhattan, You're saying you want to go and stay right in the middle part of New York City or right where most of the action is in New York City, which is in the borough of Manhattan, the island which is part of New York City.
The word heart normally refers to an organ in your body, the part of your body that pumps or moves blood through the rest of the body.
But here it means more the center or most important part.
Otis says that the town he's moving to is in the heart of a remote part of the country.
Something that is remote, R-E-M-O-T-E, is far away from cities and towns and where most people live.
Penelope says, where is it relative to this town?
The expression relative to means in comparison to or in relation to.
Otis says, I can't give you any reference points or tell you the distance.
It doesn't sound like Otis knows where he's going.
He says he can't give Penelope any reference points.
Reference points would be something that allows you to determine facts about another thing.
We might also use the expression a basis for comparison.
For example, I often describe where a state is in the United States.
By trying to give you some reference points.
In terms of direction, it's in the northeast part of the US.
It's in the center part of the US.
Or I might say, it's 180 miles west of Chicago.
Chicago is a reference point, something you know about already, that can help you determine the meaning or, in this case, the location of another place.
But Otis says he can't give Penelope any reference points or tell her the distance, the number of miles or kilometers.
This town is from another town.
He continues, The outskirts, O-U-T-S-K-I-R-T-S, refers to the area surrounding a town or a city.
You have the central part of a city, and then you have the areas which we sometimes call suburbs that are on the outskirts.
Sometimes we use the word outskirts to refer to places that are even farther away than the suburbs, that are not part of any town or city formally, but we're not quite sure what Otis means about it, just that it's not in the center part of the town.
He says it's on the outskirts of a medium-sized town.
That is not a large town, not a small town, but something in between.
He says it borders, B-O-R-D-E-R-S, Nebraska, which is a state, again, in the center of the country, of the United States.
To border means to be next to something.
Penelope says, why are you being so cryptic?
Cryptic, C-R-Y-P-T-I-C, means difficult to understand.
We use the word cryptic often when someone is using a special code.
A person is not giving the information in a way we can understand.
They might even be using special numbers or even a special language.
Penelope wants to know why Otis isn't just telling her exactly where this place is.
Otis says...
To spill the beans, B-E-A-N-S, means to tell someone a secret.
Often by accident.
If you spill the beans to your friend about something, you tell your friend a secret, but you do it accidentally, you didn't mean to do it.
Otis wants Penelope not to accidentally tell him why she's asking where he's moving, but to tell him directly.
Why are you asking me?
That's what Otis wants to know.
Penelope says.
Penelope explains to Otis that she wants to know where he is moving so she can go and help him.
She wants to come for an extended stay.
An extended stay is a long visit. when you are visiting someone for many days, perhaps even weeks.
Penelope wants to help Otis get settled.
The phrasal verb to get settled S-E-T-T-L-E-D means to get comfortable in a new place, especially after you've just moved there.
Sometimes it takes a few weeks for you to get settled when you move into a new apartment or a new house.
You have to find out where everything is and make sure all of your things are in the places you want them to be inside of your apartment.
Penelope wants to go and help Otis get settled by staying with him for a long period of time.
Otis ends the dialogue by saying, you've just answered your own question.
Remember Penelope's question, or at least the last one she asked in the dialogue of Otis, is why are you being so cryptic?
Why are you being so secretive?
Why aren't you telling me where you're going to live?
Well, the answer, of course, is that Otis doesn't want Penelope to come and stay with him and help him get settled.
I wonder why.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Tell me about the new town you're moving to.
It's called Nusquam, and it's smack dab in the middle of the country.
Where is it exactly?
I can't give you the coordinates if that's what you're after.
Of course not.
I'm just trying to pinpoint where it is.
Is it near Wichita, Kansas?
It's nowhere near Wichita.
It's in the heart of a remote part of the country.
Where is it relative to this town?
I can't give you any reference points or tell you the distance.
I'll just say it's on the outskirts of a medium-sized town and borders Nebraska.
I'll tell you that when you spill the beans on why you're asking.
You've just answered your own question.
If it's better English you're after.
I highly recommend you listen to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
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.
