Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,256.
Describing fast and slow speech.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,256.
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 Jerome and Elise about speaking fast and slow.
Let's get started.
Did you hear what the speaker said?
No, I didn't catch that either.
She's racing through her presentation like she's late for her train.
I know.
She speaks at such a fast rate of speech that it's dizzying.
I wish she'd slow down so I could make out what she's saying.
Most of it is mumbled or garbled.
She's got to be breaking a record for the number of words per minute.
Hey, wait, she's done.
The next speaker has to be better.
Oh my God, she's worse.
She must be the slowest speaker alive.
Every utterance is drawn out and every sentence seems interminable.
She just keeps droning on and on and on.
At least we can understand her.
Yes, but I wish she'd pick up the pace.
She's making a lengthy speech even longer.
At this rate, we'll be here until midnight.
Maybe we should try to pay attention and take notes like we're supposed to.
How can we when her voice is so hypnotic?
I know what you mean.
I think I need some coffee.
Do you want some?
Jerome, Jerome.
Jerome says to Elise, did you hear what the speaker said?
A speaker.
S-P-E-A-K-E-R here refers to a person who is talking or giving a speech in front of other people, in front of a group of people.
The word speaker can also refer to an electronic device that you hear sounds out of.
So if you're listening, for example, to the radio, you are probably listening to the sound coming out of a speaker.
You could also have headphones or earbuds as well that go right into your ear.
Jerome, however, is talking about a person who is speaking, who is talking.
Elise says, no, I didn't catch that either.
To catch, C-A-T-C-H-A.
Hear means to understand or to recognize something, especially something that is being told to you.
If you have difficulty hearing someone, you may say I didn't catch that meaning, I didn't understand it or I didn't hear it properly.
Elise isn't able to understand what the speaker is saying either.
She says she's racing through her presentation like she's late for her train.
To race, R-A-C-E, means to do something very quickly, very fast.
Elise is saying that the speaker is talking very fast.
She's racing through her presentation, the information she's giving to people, like she's late for her train.
If you are late for your train, you may miss your train because you may arrive at the train station too late.
So of course you're going to move very quickly so you don't miss your train.
Well, that's what Elise is.
Comparing the speaker to a person who is moving very quickly, Jerome says.
I know she speaks at such a fast rate of speech that it's dizzying.
Your rate, R-A-T-E, of speech is how fast you talk.
I'm talking at a slow rate of speech right now compared to how fast I might speak to someone else.
The rate of speech of the speaker, according to Jerome, is dizzying.
D-I-Z-Z-Y-I-N-G.
Something that is dizzying makes you dizzy.
To be dizzy means to be confused.
Usually you feel as though you may fall down or you feel, we would say, disoriented.
If someone hits you on the head, you may feel dizzy.
Your head might begin to seem as though it is spinning around, as though it is moving around in circles.
If something is dizzying because it's fast, it is so fast it's making you confused.
And that's what Jerome means here.
He says, I wish she'd slow down, meaning speak more slowly, so I could make out what she's saying.
To make out is a two-word phrasal verb.
That here means to be able to understand something that is otherwise unclear.
To make out means to recognize or to understand something.
There's another completely different meaning of the phrasal verb to make out.
In informal English to make out means to kiss and otherwise touch someone to whom you are romantically attracted.
That's a very different meaning than what we have here.
Jerome continues, most of it, meaning most of what the speaker is saying, is mumbled or garbled.
Mumbled, M-U-M-B-L-E-D, means said in a way that is difficult to understand.
The verb to mumble is to say something, usually in a low voice, that is not very loudly and in a way that is difficult for other people to understand.
Young children sometimes mumble.
They speak like this.
They speak like this. in a way that is opposite of the way I'm speaking now, which is very clearly.
The same is true with the adjective garbled, G-A-R-B-L-E-D.
Garbled means unclear or confusing and Often garbled means more specifically to be mixed up.
Perhaps two different people are talking at the same time, or there's a lot of noise while someone is talking, and so you can't hear things clearly.
That's a little different than mumbled.
Mumbled refers specifically to someone who is speaking at a low volume and not very clearly.
Elise continues, she's got to be breaking a record for the number of words per minute.
To break a record here means to be doing something, in this case, faster than anyone else has done it.
A record.
R-E-C-O-R-D is the highest or greatest accomplishment that anyone has made in that particular area.
In sports we often talk about world records, the fastest person in the world or the fastest that anyone has ever run.
Well, Elise says that the speaker is breaking a record for the number of words per minute.
That is, the number of words that you speak each minute, each 60 seconds.
Hey, wait, Elise says, she's done, meaning she's finished, she's completed her speech.
The next speaker has to be better, Elise says.
She means that the next speaker cannot be any worse than the one they just heard.
But that isn't true.
Jerome says, oh my God, she's worse.
She must be the slowest speaker alive.
Every utterance is drawn out and every sentence seems interminable.
An utterance, U-T-T-E-R-A-N-C-E, is another word for something that is said or spoken.
Sometimes we think of an utterance as being a sentence, although that's not always true.
To be drawn D-R-W-N out means to be made to last longer than it should, to take more time than is necessary.
Sometimes you'll go to a movie and it will be very drawn out.
The story will be made much longer than it needs to be.
That's usually a boring movie.
Every sentence seems interminable.
I-N-T-E-R-M-I-N-A-B-L-E.
Something which is interminable is something that doesn't seem like it's ever going to end, something that is very long and usually very boring as well.
Jerome says, she keeps droning on and on and on.
To drone D-R-O-N-E on is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to speak for a very long time in a boring and uninteresting way.
I'm going to now talk about all the things that I'm interested in.
First, I will tell you about my first day at school.
That's to drone on, to talk for a long time in a way that isn't very interesting.
Elise says, however, at least we can understand her, meaning...
Well, even though she's boring, we can understand what she's saying, which is unlike the previous speaker.
Jerome says yes, but I wish she'd pick up the pace.
P-A-C-E.
To pick up the pace is to increase the speed of something or to increase how fast you are doing something.
In this case, how fast she is speaking.
Jerome says she's making a lengthy speech even longer.
Lengthy, L-E-N-G-H-T-Y, means lasting a long time, taking a long time.
At this rate, Jerome says, will be here until midnight.
At this rate, R-A-T-E, means if we continue going at this speed.
Jerome is saying that if the woman keeps speaking so slowly, they will be there listening to her until midnight, presumably many hours in the future.
Elise says, maybe we should try to pay attention and take notes like we're supposed to.
She's suggesting to Jerome that they actually listen to the speaker and maybe write some things down about what she is saying.
Jerome says how can we meaning, how can we do that when her voice is so hypnotic hypnotic?
H Y P N O T I C is someone who either makes you feel tired and sleepy because the way they are speaking is slow and uninteresting, or Or just the opposite.
Someone is so interesting that you feel as though you are under their control.
The word hypnotic comes from hypnosis, which is the process supposedly, of making someone go into a certain mental state in which the person can perhaps be given certain suggestions that will affect his or her actions or behavior in the future.
In movies and on television you often see someone being hypnotized by taking an object such as a little watch and making the watch go back and forth in front of the person's eyes until they somehow fall asleep or fall into this different mental state.
That's where the word hypnotic comes from.
Again, it's an unusual word.
Here it's being used to mean someone is so boring that you're falling asleep.
But it can also be used as an adjective to describe someone who is very interesting, so interesting that you are almost in a hypnotic state and that person could control you because the person is so interesting and perhaps so persuasive.
Jerome thinks the second speaker is hypnotic.
Elise says, I know what you mean.
I think I need some coffee.
Do you want some?
In the meantime, Jerome has actually fallen asleep.
He makes a noise because he begins to snore.
S-N-O-R-E.
To snore is to make a noise with your mouth open. and or nose while you are sleeping.
That is an example of snoring.
Jerome has fallen asleep because he starts to snore.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal rate of speech.
Did you hear what the speaker said?
No, I didn't catch that either.
She's racing through her presentation like she's late for her train.
I know.
She speaks at such a fast rate of speech that it's dizzying.
I wish she'd slow down so I could make out what she's saying.
Most of it is mumbled or garbled.
She's got to be breaking a record for the number of words per minute.
Hey wait, she's done.
The next speaker has to be better.
Oh my god, she's worse.
She must be the slowest speaker alive.
Every utterance is drawn out and every sentence seems interminable.
She just keeps droning on and on and on.
At least we can understand her.
Yes, but I wish she'd pick up the pace.
She's making a lengthy speech even longer.
At this rate, we'll be here until midnight.
Maybe we should try to pay attention and take notes like we're supposed to.
How can we when her voice is so hypnotic?
I know what you mean.
I think I need some coffee.
Do you want some?
Jerome.
Jerome!
Jerome!
Our dialogues are never interminable.
They're always short and sweet.
That is, they don't take long, but there's a lot of good things in them.
We thank our script writer, Dr. Lucy Say, for that.
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.
