Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,229.
Telling others to go away.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,229.
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 Joshua and Rosa about how to tell other people to leave.
Let's get started.
Beat it and don't come back.
What's all the noise?
It's the neighborhood kids.
All I want to do on this sunny afternoon is sit out on the porch and enjoy the day.
But those neighborhood kids keep coming around and making all kinds of noise.
Hey, you, shoo!
They're just trying to get a rise out of you.
Maybe if you ignore them and stop waving them off and telling them to run along, they'll go away on their own.
If I don't tell them to get lost, they'll sit here in front of my house and clown around.
They'll make so much noise, it'll wreck my peace and quiet.
Hey, I see you.
Take a hike.
Where are you going?
I'm going to get a plate of cookies for those kids.
Are you crazy?
Are you rewarding those rowdy troublemakers with cookies?
It's a bribe, and it always works.
We begin our dialogue by hearing Joshua say, beat it and don't come back.
Beat B-E-A-T it.
I-T is a rude informal phrase we use to tell someone to go away, to leave, to leave you alone.
You may remember the Michael Jackson song, Beat It.
Beat it, beat it, no one wants to be defeated.
No?
Well anyway, there was this really popular song many years ago called Beat It, by this guy named Michael Jackson.
And the expression meant in that song, what Joshua means in our dialogue, which is to leave, to go away.
But it's a very rude phrase.
It's a very impolite way of telling someone to leave.
Joshua says to someone, beat it and don't come back, meaning do not return here.
Rosa asks, what's all the noise?
In other words, why is Joshua yelling?
Joshua responds, it's the neighborhood kids, meaning it's the children who live near our house.
Joshua wants to sit on his porch, P-O-R-C-H, and enjoy his day.
A porch is an area in front of a house, often made of either wood or cement, that doesn't have any walls around it, although it will often have something overhead a roof ROOF to protect you from the rain and sun.
Porches aren't as common here in Los Angeles as they are in other cities, especially with newer houses.
But where I grew up it was quite common in the houses of my neighborhood to see people on their porches for houses to have porches, in fact.
Almost none of the houses in my neighborhood here in LA have porches.
They're just not as common in the houses in this area.
And I think they're not as common in newer houses.
In any case, Joshua is mad about the neighborhood kids.
He says, Joshua then yells at another one of the neighborhood children.
He says, Hey you, shoo!
Shoo, S-H-O-O, is another informal word used to tell someone to go away.
It's sometimes used humorously, as in making a joke, but Joshua isn't joking here.
Rosa says, they're just trying to get a rise out of you.
To get a rise, R-I-S-E, out of someone is to try to make someone react, especially react angrily.
Usually, people are doing this to annoy you and to get you to react in a certain emotional way.
I suppose it's a way of controlling you in some sense.
Some people like to do this on the internet.
They like to make comments on Twitter or Facebook to provoke, P-R-O-V-O-K-E someone.
To provoke means the same as to get a rise out of someone, to make someone react in anger.
Rosa thinks these neighborhood children are just trying to get a rise out of Joshua.
She says maybe if you ignore them and stop waving them off and telling them to run along, they'll go away on their own.
Rosa suggests that Joshua ignore, I-G-N-O-R-E, the children.
To ignore means not to pay attention to something or someone.
To pretend that you don't even notice or see something.
To wave W-A-V-E someone off means is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to move your hand in the air back and forth, indicating that someone should leave or move away because you no longer want that person to be near you.
To tell someone to run along, A-L-O-N-G, is similar to telling someone to shoo or to beat it.
It's telling someone to go away.
However, it isn't a rude expression, necessarily.
If someone tells you to run along, the person isn't necessarily being rude to you, although typically it would be An expression that someone in authority would use with someone of lesser power.
A mother might tell her children to run along.
A police officer might tell a teenager to run along.
In both cases, they're telling people to move away to walk away or to move away from where they are standing right now.
We can also use this expression about ourselves.
We can say, well, I have to run along now.
That means I have to leave now.
I have to go somewhere else.
Rosa thinks that Joshua should stop trying to wave the children off or tell them to run along.
If he did, they'll go away on their own, meaning they'll leave without anyone having to tell them to leave.
Joshua disagrees.
He says, And clown around.
To tell someone to get lost is the same as telling them to shoo or to beat it or to run along.
It's a way of telling someone to leave.
And it is, once again, a rude expression, to be sure.
Joshua says the children sit in front of his house and clown, C-L-O-W-N, around.
To clown around means to be...
Silly to be goofy, to do things like a child would do, often to make someone else angry or annoyed.
Joshua says they'll make so much noise, it'll wreck my peace and quiet.
To wreck, W-R-E-C-K something, is to destroy or ruin something, to make something less valuable.
Joshua is worried about the children's noise wrecking his peace and quiet.
Your peace P-E-A-C-E and quiet Q-U-I-E-T is your calm environment where you are relaxed, where you are not stressed.
Joshua, again, talks to one of the children he says hey i see you take a hike take a hike h-i-k-e when used as a command means the same as to get lost to go away to shoo and to beat it and it is also a rude expression If you want someone to leave, you could just say, you know what, take a hike.
It's a very rude thing, a very impolite thing to say, however.
It's probably not as common as it was when I was growing up, but you will still hear people say it.
Rosa says, I think I know what to do to get you that peace and quiet.
Rosa thinks she has a solution to Joshua's problem of the noisy children.
Joshua says, Rosa replies, Rosa is going to give the children cookies.
Joshua says, are you crazy?
Meaning, this is a dumb idea.
Are you rewarding those rowdy troublemakers with cookies?
Joshua can't believe that Rosa is going to reward those rowdy troublemakers.
To reward are cookies is to give someone a prize or a present or a gift because they've done something good.
Rowdy, R-O-W-D-Y, refers to activity that is very loud and energetic. often annoying other people.
A troublemaker is a person who, well, makes trouble, who causes problems.
Joshua can't believe Rosa wants to give these loud, rowdy, troublemaking children cookies.
Rosa says, it's a bribe. and it always works.
A bribe.
B-R-I-B-E is something you give to another person to make that person do something for you.
Bribes are often illegal or against the law, especially if you are giving them to someone in the government.
That doesn't mean the person won't accept your bribe, however.
But a bribe more generally refers to money or gifts that you give someone to do something for you.
Often something that they should do anyway, or often in a situation where you're not supposed to give that person anything to do what you want him or her to do.
Rosa thinks, probably correctly, that sometimes children will do what you want to do if you bribe them.
And every parent probably would agree.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Beat it and don't come back.
What's all the noise?
It's the neighborhood kids.
All I want to do on this sunny afternoon is sit out on the porch and enjoy the day.
But those neighborhood kids keep coming around and making all kinds of noise.
Hey, you, shoo!
They're just trying to get a rise out of you.
Maybe if you ignore them and stop waving them off and telling them to run along, they'll go away on their own.
If I don't tell them to get lost, they'll sit here in front of my house and clown around.
They'll make so much noise it'll wreck my peace and quiet.
Hey, I see you.
Take a hike.
I think I know what to do to get you that peace and quiet.
I'll be right back.
Where are you going?
I'm going to get a plate of cookies for those kids.
Are you crazy?
Are you rewarding those rowdy troublemakers with cookies?
It's a bribe, and it always works.
We never want our scriptwriter to go away.
That's because she writes such wonderful scripts.
Thanks to our very own 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.
