Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,232, Intimidating a Coworker.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,232.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Larry and Anat about intimidating a co-worker, making a co-worker feel fearful or somehow afraid.
Let's get started.
You know full well that this is out of my area of expertise, but I'm coping.
It looks to me like you're making a mess of things.
You know what I think?
No, and I don't care.
I think you're in over your head.
No amount of heckling or trash-talking will make me quit.
I'm here for the long haul.
We'll see about that.
People more qualified than you are have packed it in after they got a taste of how things are done around here.
Talk all you like, but no amount of intimidation will get you what you want.
And you know what I want?
I think so.
You'd like me to go away with my tail between my legs.
But it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
Larry begins our dialogue by asking Anat, how's it going?
Meaning, how are you doing?
How are things going?
You having fun?
Larry says.
Meaning, are you having fun?
Anat says, you know full well...
That this is out of my area of expertise, but I'm coping.
The expression you know full well is used when someone pretends they don't know or understand something.
When someone...
It says they don't understand something, but they really do.
It might also be used if you are just confused about why someone is saying something.
For example, your wife may say, let's go to the baseball game.
You look at her and you don't understand why she's saying that.
You may say to her, So why do you want to go?
You're confused in that case.
Anat isn't confused.
She knows that Larry knows that whatever she's working on is out of her area of expertise.
E-X-P-E-R-T-I-S-E.
Your area of expertise is something you know a lot about, something that you have a lot of knowledge of.
Expertise is related to the word expert.
An expert is someone who knows a lot about a thing that anat is working on is out of her area of expertise, meaning she is not an expert.
She says she's coping.
The verb to cope C-O-P-E means to manage a difficult or challenging situation, especially when you're not very good at what you are trying to do or you don't have the necessary tools or resources to do something.
When you are placed in a very difficult or challenging situation.
Sometimes you don't have the experience or knowledge or resources.
That is things you can use to help you handle the situation.
So you have to cope the best you can.
You have to manage the situation the best that you are able.
Larry says, is that what you're doing?
He's surprised that Anat thinks that she's coping, meaning she's doing okay, but not very well.
Larry doesn't even think she's doing okay.
He says, it looks to me, meaning it seems to me, like you're making a mess of things.
To make a mess M-E-S-S of things means to create a lot of problems by doing things wrong, by doing things incorrectly.
Anat says back to Larry, cut me some slack, S-L-A-C-K.
The expression to cut someone some slack is used informally here.
To mean to make something easier for another person by not being as hard on them or by not trying to give someone a hard time.
If you give someone a job, a task, and the person isn't doing very well at it, you might decide to give the person more time.
This would be one way of cutting the person some slack.
We also use this expression when someone is giving you a hard time, when someone is criticizing you.
You might say to the person criticizing you, cut me some slack, meaning stop being so hard on me, stop criticizing me.
That's the sense that Anat uses this expression here in the dialogue.
She's asking Larry to stop criticizing her.
She says The expression to get up to speed means to learn something quickly, to get the knowledge and skill that other people have in order to do a certain task.
Larry says to Anat, Meaning, do you know what I think?
Anat says, no.
And I don't care, meaning I don't care what you think, Larry.
Larry nevertheless gives his opinion.
He says, I think you're in over your head.
The expression to be in over your head means to be trying to do something that's too difficult for you.
To, we would say, be overwhelmed, O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-E-D.
To be overwhelmed or to be in over your head means that you are trying to do something that is too hard for you.
Larry says...
Why don't you step aside and let someone competent do the job?
To step aside.
A-S-I-D-E is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to stop doing something so someone else can do it in your place.
To step aside can sometimes mean to literally move to one side if someone is trying to get by you or if someone is trying to do what you are doing because you aren't doing a very good job at it.
To be competent C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-T means to be able to do something well, to have the knowledge or skills to do something.
Larry doesn't think Anat is competent to do the task she's doing, but Anat responds well.
No amount of heckling or trash talking will make me quit.
To heckle H-E-C-K-L-E means to interrupt what someone is doing by yelling at them or saying mean things to them.
We usually use this verb when someone is giving a speech or if a comedian is telling jokes and someone doesn't like the speaker or the comedian, and so the person yells out insulting things at that person to get the person angry or simply to interrupt the person.
That's called heckling.
A person in the crowd heckled the speaker.
To trash T-R-A-S-H talk is to say mean things to another person, insulting things, especially someone against whom you are competing, say in a game or a sporting event.
To trash talk means to criticize the performance or abilities of another person.
Anat says that she's not going to quit just because Larry is heckling her or trash talking.
She says, I'm here for the long haul, H-A-U-L.
To be somewhere for the long haul means for a long time until the job is done.
Someone who's going to do something even if it's difficult until it's completed.
Larry says we'll see about that.
That expression we'll see S-E-E about that is used when you don't agree with someone else's prediction, when you don't agree that what the person is saying is going to be correct.
You think the person is wrong, and you are right.
People more qualified than you have packed it in After they got a taste of how things are done around here.
Larry says to pack P-A-C-K it in is an expression meaning to give up, to stop doing what you are doing.
To get a taste of things means to experience something in a small amount, so you have a basic understanding of it.
Larry is saying to Anat that once she realizes how things are done in this particular job, she's going to pack it in, because other people who are more qualified, who have more skills than Anat, have quit after they had gotten a taste of how things are done.
Anat says talk all you like, meaning you can continue criticizing me and talking, but no amount of intimidation will get you what you want.
Intimidation I-N-T-I-M-I says D-A-T-I-O-N is a feeling of fear because you believe someone else is better than you or stronger than you or more powerful than you.
The verb is to intimidate.
So intimidation is a state of being intimidated.
Anat says she's not going to be intimidated.
She will not feel fear based on what Larry has been saying.
She thinks Larry is trying to intimidate her to get what he wants.
Larry says, and you know what I want?
Anat says, I think so.
The expression with your tail T-A-I-L between your legs means to feel embarrassed or humiliated, to feel like a failure.
You can think of a dog who is scared or angry, perhaps afraid of something, running away, with its tail between its legs.
That indicates, at least we think, that the dog is somehow afraid of something.
Anat says she's not going to go away with her tail between her legs, feeling humiliated or powerless.
She says, in fact, it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
The expression it will be a cold day in hell is used to show that something is impossible, that something will never happen.
We think of hell as being a hot place, traditionally, anyway.
So it could never be cold in hell, and therefore that is impossible.
So if you say it will be a cold day in hell before, whatever it is you think won't happen, you're saying that that thing is impossible, just as it would be impossible for it to be cold in a hot place like hell.
There's another related expression You have a snowball's chance in hell.
A snowball, S-N-O-W-B-A-L-L, is, of course, a little ball made out of snow, which is cold.
Once again, it's the same idea.
There are no snowballs in hell because hell is a hot place.
Therefore, what you are saying or predicting is impossible.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You know full well that this is out of my area of expertise, but I'm coping.
Is that what you're doing?
It looks to me like you're making a mess of things.
Cut me some slack.
I've only been working on this for a day, and it'll take me a little time to get up to speed.
You know what I think?
No, and I don't care.
I think you're in over your head.
Why don't you step aside and let someone competent do the job?
No amount of heckling or trash talking will make me quit.
I'm here for the long haul.
We'll see about that.
People more qualified than you are have packed it in after they got a taste of how things are done around here.
Talk all you like, but no amount of intimidation will get you what you want.
And you know what I want?
I think so.
You'd like me to go away with my tail between my legs, but it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
Our scriptwriter's area of expertise is writing brilliant scripts to help you learn English.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say, certainly the most competent scriptwriter on the Internet.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
I usually make a mess of things, but come back and listen to us anyway, 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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
