Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,263.
Bragging about success with men.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,263.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to ESLPODcom and take a look at our ESL pod special courses in business, daily and cultural English.
This episode is a dialogue between Evan and Chantel about a woman who is successful in getting men to be romantically interested in her.
Let's get started.
Who are you going out with tonight?
Dinner is in a couple of hours.
You mean they're waiting around for your call?
They'd better be.
They're the ones vying for my attention.
So they'd better be at my beck and call.
How many guys are you juggling?
Not that many.
Only the ones who are really devoted admirers.
I try to throw them a bone now and then.
By keeping them waiting?
It's good to keep them on their toes.
And by making them jealous of each other?
I saw how angry Jack got when he saw you flirting with Kwan and later getting cozy with Mike.
Jack can't stay angry with me.
We'll kiss and make up.
Don't you ever get tired of toying with so many men?
Right.
Just like moths to a flame.
No wonder so many get burned.
This episode is all about bragging.
To brag B-R-A-G means to talk about how good you are at something, to tell other people how great you are.
In this episode, Chantel is bragging about her success with men.
Evan begins our dialogue by asking her, who are you going out with tonight?
To go out with someone here means to go to some social event, such as a dinner or a movie or some party.
I'm going out with my friends means I'm going to have a good time tonight with Doing something with my friends.
To go out with can also mean to be in a romantic relationship with someone.
I'm going out with a girl I met at work last week.
Here however it just means to be with someone to have a good time.
Chantel isn't sure who she's going out with tonight.
She says, I might go to dinner with Steve or Eduardo or Jim.
Evan says, dinner is in a couple of hours, meaning we are very close to the time when you would be going to dinner.
You mean they're waiting around for your call?
To wait, W-A-I-T, around, is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to wait for something to happen.
Usually because you don't have any other plans.
I'm waiting around for my friend to call.
I'm sitting here doing nothing else, really, because I don't have anything else.
These men that Chantel is interested in are waiting around for her to call.
Chantel says they'd better be, meaning she expects them to be waiting around for her call.
She continues, So they'd better be at my beck and call.
To vie V-I-E for someone's attention means to try to get someone to pay attention to you, to try to get someone to notice you.
Chantelle says that these three men are vying for her attention.
They want her to notice them.
Therefore, she says, they'd better be at my Beck, B-E-C-K, and call.
To be at someone's beck and call means to be ready and willing to do whatever someone asks you to do or wants you to do.
Rich people often have servants who are at their beck and call.
The servants work for them and do whatever they tell them to do.
Chantal thinks these men should be at her beck and call.
Sort of like servants, I guess.
Evan says, how many guys are you juggling?
To juggle, J-U-G-G-L-E, here means to try to do many different things at the same time.
Another meaning of to juggle is to take objects such as small balls and throw them up in the air and keep them up in the air at the same time.
Some people are able to juggle three, four or five tennis balls at the same time, keeping them all up in the air.
Here the verb is used, however, to mean to be able to do a lot of different things at the same time.
In Chantel's case, she's talking about the number of different men who are interested in her and to whom she is thinking of paying attention.
Chantel says, not that many.
If someone is devoted D-E-V-O-T-E-D to something or to someone, he is very interested in that thing or person and will spend a lot of time on it or her.
In this case, an admirer A-D-M-I-R-E-R is someone who likes another person, in this case in a romantic way.
So Chantal's devoted admirers are men who are very interested in having a romantic relationship with her.
Chantal continues, I try to throw them a bone now and then.
The expression to throw someone a bone B-O-N-E means to give someone a small amount of what he or she wants or is asking for, but not what they completely want, or not everything that they want.
The expression relates to what you would do for a dog, for example.
You may be eating a nice juicy steak and the dog wants the steak.
Well, you don't give the dog the steak, the meat, but you might throw the dog the bone from the steak.
It's a small amount of what the dog likes.
To throw someone a bone then, means to give him a little of what he wants so that he continues to be interested, but not everything he wants.
Chantal says she likes to keep these men on their toes.
To keep someone on their toes, T-O-E-S means to make someone pay attention, to keep someone ready for something that might happen, something important that might happen.
To keep someone on his toes means to keep him focused, to keep him concentrated.
Chantel wants the men to be kept on their toes, meaning they have to be ready to do what she says she wants them to do.
Evans says, and by making them jealous of each other?
To be jealous, J-E-A-L-O-U-S says, means to want what another person has.
In this case, to be jealous refers to the men each wanting what he thinks.
The other has the attention of Chantel.
Evans says I saw how angry Jack got when he saw you flirting with Quan and later getting cozy with Mike.
Men as well as women are sometimes jealous if the person whom they are attracted to or are in love with shows attention to another person.
Chantel was flirting with Kwan.
To flirt F-L-I-R-T means to show some sort of romantic interest in another person by what you say or by what you do, in a playful way, without any real seriousness perhaps behind it.
Chantal was flirting with Quan.
And later, getting cozy with Mike, another man.
To get cozy, C-O-Z-Y, with someone means to be very close physically to that person.
Perhaps touching that person or putting your arm around that person or kissing that person.
Evan describes a situation in which Chantel was with one man Jack, but she was also flirting with Quan and getting cozy with a third man, Mike.
This made Jack, understandably, angry.
Chantel says however, Jack can't stay angry with me, meaning he won't continue to be angry for a long time.
We'll kiss and make up, she says.
The expression to kiss and make up means to end an argument, especially between a romantic couple.
Then Evan asks her, don't you ever get tired of toying with so many men?
To toy, T-O-Y, with someone. is to treat someone in a way that isn't serious.
In this case, to act as though you are romantically interested in someone, when in fact you really aren't.
You're playing with them.
You're toying with them.
That's what Evan is accusing Chantel of doing.
Chantal disagrees.
She says, I'm not toying with them.
It's not my fault, meaning I am not to blame, that men find me irresistible.
To be irresistible means I-R-R-E-S-I-S-T-I-B-L-E means it is impossible to say no to something or to someone.
In this case, it means that she is very, very beautiful, very attractive, such that men cannot resist her.
They can't say no to her.
Evans says, right.
Just like moths to a flame.
Moths M-O-T-H-S are small flying insects that have large wings the things they move up and down to fly that typically are found at night.
They're sort of like a butterfly, but are usually white or gray.
Moths are attracted to sources of light.
One source of light is a flame, F-L-A-M-E.
A flame is what you get when you have a fire.
The flames of a fire are what you can see of the fire.
That which is burning produces heat and light.
A moth is often attracted to light and so may actually go into a flame, and of course doing that will kill the moth.
When a moth flies into a fire or a flame...
It gets burned.
To get burned means, in one sense, to have the fire harm the insect.
You can get burned if you put your hand into a fire.
But here the expression has two meanings.
It means literally the moths flying into the flame and being burned.
But to get burned is also used as an expression in a romantic relationship, or perhaps in any relationship really where one person does something to harm another person or another person gets harmed because of the actions of the other person.
In the case of Chantel, the men are all interested in her and are attracted to her like moths to a flame.
But also like moths to a flame, they will get hurt by this attraction.
All of us probably have gotten burned at some point or another in our lives because, especially if you vie for the attention of someone whom other people are also attracted to,
There will be one winner and many losers.
That's the way the world is, isn't it?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Who are you going out with tonight?
I'm not sure.
I might go to dinner with Steve or Eduardo or Jim.
Dinner is in a couple of hours.
You mean they're waiting around for your call?
They'd better be.
They're the ones vying for my attention, so they'd better be at my beck and call.
How many guys are you juggling?
Not that many.
Only the ones who are really devoted admirers.
I try to throw them a bone now and then.
By keeping them waiting.
It's good to keep them on their toes.
And by making them jealous of each other?
I saw how angry Jack got when he saw you flirting with Kwan and later getting cozy with Mike.
Jack can't stay angry with me.
We'll kiss and make up.
Don't you ever get tired of toying with so many men?
I'm not toying with them.
It's not my fault that men find me irresistible.
Right, just like moths to a flame.
No wonder so many get burned.
There's no need to wait around to improve your English.
You can start right now by listening to the wonderful dialogues written by our scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
