Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1305.
Saying a final goodbye.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1305.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you for the final time from beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode is a dialogue between Lucy and me about saying goodbye.
Let's get started.
I don't know how to say goodbye.
How about so long?
I'm out of here.
I'm leaving on a jet plane and in ten minutes I'll be late for the door.
No, that's not what I mean.
I mean that it's hard to say goodbye to something after such a long time.
I've had a very happy time here.
What you really mean to say is parting is such sweet sorrow, but it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
I will always love you.
Stop.
Listen.
What I want to express is a fond farewell and optimism for the future.
Ah, okay.
Then you should say, Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life.
I'm off to bigger and better things.
I'm blowing this pop stand.
No, no, no.
That's not right at all.
I want to end with some meaningful parting words, something sincere, something from my heart.
Like, may the force be with you.
Hmm, how about live long and prosper.
Now are you ready to leave?
I guess so.
It's been a blast.
It's been a hoot.
It's been an honor and a pleasure.
Adios.
Au revoir.
Sayonara.
Zaijian.
Zaijin.
Ciao.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Prochet.
Ciao.
Wuda'an.
Annyeong.
Toodaloo.
Thank you and goodbye.
Lucy begins our dialogue by saying, I don't know how to say goodbye.
I then give her some suggestions, some informal expressions that we might use in English to say goodbye.
These are all informal, definitely not things that you would say in normal conversation in a formal setting.
The first one, however, I guess you could say in a formal or informal setting, and that is so long.
So, long is one way of saying goodbye.
Another, much more informal way of saying goodbye is I'm outta here.
I'm outa, O-U-T-T-A, here, is something of an abbreviated way of saying I am out of here.
To be out of here is a way of saying I'm leaving quickly, often because I no longer want to be here, though that isn't always the case.
If someone says I'm out of here, he may be saying this is a bad situation and I no longer want to be here.
Said in a different context, perhaps in a different way.
It just means goodbye.
If you are, for example, talking to a friend and you look at your clock and you realize you have to get home now, you say well, I'm out of here.
I got to get home.
I have to return to my house.
The next two expressions that I use are from songs really, and they are expressions of saying goodbye or of leaving from a couple of different popular songs.
One of them is, I'm leaving on a jet, J-E-T, plane.
This comes from an old song called I'm leaving on a jet plane.
It was a song sung by the folk group back in the 1960s, Peter, Paul, and Mary.
I'm leaving on a jet plane.
Don't know when I'll be back again.
It would be a very unusual way of saying goodbye, but it's possible in a joking way, especially if you were about to leave on a plane.
A jet plane is really just another word for an airplane here.
In Ten Minutes, I'll Be Late for the Door is another suggestion I give.
And once again this comes from a popular song from my youth, a song by the rock group Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, who I actually saw in concert when I was in high school.
Yeah, I'm that old.
The song was called Old Time Rock and Roll and was made famous in the movie that starred a young Tom Cruise, called Risky Business.
To be late for the door means that I will be out of the door.
That is, I will be leaving.
However, again, it's not something that you would normally say in order to say goodbye.
But to someone of a certain age my age.
You might say it as a joke, knowing the other person would recognize it as a line from the song.
The person would understand it means that you are saying goodbye.
Lucy says, however, no, that's not what I mean.
I was giving her expressions used in situations when you are leaving temporarily, say in the morning or after work.
Lucy was referring to something more permanent.
She says She's referring to perhaps leaving one's job or saying goodbye to a certain situation, such as writing dialogues, for example, for English lessons.
I respond by saying, What you really mean to say is, Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Parting is such sweet sorrow is a well-known or famous line phrase spoken by one of the actors, one of the characters, I should say, in the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet.
It's used sometimes now almost as a joke to say that it is sad to say goodbye.
The original line in the play says means that saying goodbye is sad.
That's why it is a sorrow.
S-O-R-R-O-W sorrow refers to sadness, but it is a sweet S-W-E-E-T sorrow.
It's sweet because we think about the good times we've had together.
Parting comes from the verb to part P-A-R-T, which here means to separate, when two people have to say goodbye to each other.
That's where we get this expression then, parting is such sweet sorrow.
Then I use another famous sentence.
This is also, as I mentioned, a famous line, a famous sentence, this time from a poem by that was written by the great British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.
It's an adaptation, really, from his poem In Memoriam, A.H.H.
It means that it's painful to end a relationship, especially a romantic relationship, but it is better to have loved someone and then lose that person than never to have actually loved the person or to love anyone, I suppose, in general.
It's better to have loved and lost meaning lost the person you loved than never to have loved at all.
I'm trying to be funny in the dialogue, as I usually do.
I'm using these famous expressions, these famous lines from poems and plays in order to express this feeling of saying goodbye.
Then I take a line from a famous song by the singer Dolly Parton.
It was recorded most famously by Whitney Houston in 1992 for a really terrible movie called The Bodyguard.
But anyway, the line is, I will always I had to do that.
Lucy then says, stop.
I, of course, am making fun, and she's trying to be a little serious.
She says, listen, meaning pay attention to me.
To express means to communicate.
A fond F-O-N-D farewell F-A-R-E-W-E-L-L is a sweet kind, emotional goodbye, something that people would give to each other when they like each other.
Farewell is another way of saying goodbye.
A farewell is a goodbye.
Fond is something that is kind, something that you really mean.
Optimism O-P-T-I-M-I-S-M is a positive view of the future, a belief that things will be better in the future, a hopefulness.
Lucy wants to express a fond farewell and optimism for the future.
I say ah okay, then you should say, and I give another common expression tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life.
This is an expression sometimes people use when they are trying to be positive about their future.
Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life.
Unless, of course, you die today, in which case tomorrow is not anything.
I then say, I'm off to bigger and better things.
I'm off to means I am leaving now to go on to bigger and better things, a better situation.
Then I use a third expression which is quite different and is actually an informal way of saying goodbye sometimes.
I'm blowing this pop stand.
To blow this pop stand S-T-A-N-D means that you are leaving a place, you are saying goodbye to everyone, probably because you think the place you are in is boring, or the situation you are in is unpleasant, one that isn't very exciting, one that makes you want to leave.
A stand is a small store opening often outside, where you sell things from.
You might sell things such as soda pop, and hence the expression pop stand.
People also nowadays say, I'm going to blow this popsicle stand, or let's blow this popsicle stand.
A popsicle is a frozen dessert, basically sugar water that has been frozen.
So I'm blowing this pop stand.
Or if you say to someone else, let's blow this popsicle stand, are both ways of saying that you are now leaving this place because it's too boring or too unexciting for you.
Lucy says, no, no, no.
That's not right at all.
Parting words would be words you say when you are leaving someone.
To be sincere.
S-I-N-C-E-R-E means to express your true emotions, your true feelings, your real thoughts, without hiding anything.
Lucy wants to express something from her heart, emotionally, meaningfully.
I then say, like, meaning, for example, may the force be with you.
May the force F-O-R-C-E be with you is a well-known line from, of course, the Star Wars movies used to In general to mean good luck, or I hope you will be successful.
Lucy then uses another famous line from another science fiction movie or TV series.
Live long and prosper.
To prosper...
P-R-O-S-P-E-R means to be successful, often financially or economically successful at what you do.
This is a famous line from the character Spock in the Star Trek TV shows and movies.
Then I say to Lucy, now are you ready to leave?
Lucy says, I guess so.
I guess so means yes, but it's said when either you're not sure or perhaps you're not very enthusiastic about something.
She says, however, it's been a blast.
B-L-A-S-T.
A blast is a great time, a lot of fun, a lot of excitement.
I then say, it's been a hoot.
H-O-O-T.
A hoot is something that is fun, enjoyable, entertaining.
It's an old word, an old expression.
We don't use it much anymore other than to be funny because it is such an old expression.
It's been a hoot.
Lucy says it's been an honor and a pleasure.
An honor is something that you believe is like a gift to you.
You've had the ability to do something because someone has given you that ability.
Someone has given you permission to do something or has given something to you almost as if it were a gift.
Lucy says it's been an honor and a pleasure.
I think she means making these lessons, but in general it's something you could say if you have been happy to do something.
Then, Lucy and I give a number of ways of saying goodbye in different languages.
I won't repeat those here.
I do say one thing in English using another very old way of saying goodbye, which is toodaloo.
Toodle, T-O-O-D-L-E, Lou, L-O-O, is a funny, informal way of saying goodbye nowadays.
It's actually taken from a French word, but it is a very, we would call, corrupt pronunciation.
Toodle-oo is just a funny way of saying goodbye.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I don't know how to say goodbye.
How about, so long, I'm out of here.
I'm leaving on a jet plane.
And, In ten minutes I'll be late for the door?
No, that's not what I mean.
I mean that it's hard to say goodbye to something after such a long time.
I've had a very happy time here.
What you really mean to say is parting is such sweet sorrow, but it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Stop.
Listen, what I want to express is a fond farewell and optimism for the future.
Ah, okay.
Then you should say, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life.
I'm off to bigger and better things.
I'm blowing this pop stand.
No, no, no.
That's not right at all.
I want to end with some meaningful parting words.
Something sincere.
Something from my heart.
Like, may the force be with you.
Hmm.
How about, live long and prosper.
Now are you ready to leave?
I guess so.
It's been a blast.
It's been a hoot.
It's been an honor and a pleasure.
Adios.
Au revoir.
Sayonara.
Zaijian.
Zaijin.
Ciao.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Proche.
Ciao.
Wudan.
Annyeong.
Toodaloo.
Thank you and goodbye.
As I try to do on every episode, I want to thank our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say, for all of her 1305 wonderful scripts.
And both Lucy and I thank you for listening.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
So long.
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.
