Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 649.
Disliking a sibling's boyfriend or girlfriend.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 649.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website, you know what it is, is ESLPOD.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode, which will help you improve your English and your love life.
This episode is all about love and hate.
It's called disliking or not liking a sibling's, that is, brother or sister's, boyfriend or girlfriend.
Let's get started.
So, I thought Carla was nice.
You did?
I didn't get that impression at all.
I don't know what Brian sees in her.
Really?
I thought she was really trying to make a good impression.
Yeah, she was trying too hard.
She laughed too loudly at my jokes and complimented you too much on your cooking.
Maybe she was a little too eager, but that just shows that she really likes our brother.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing is wrong with that.
But did you see how clingy she was?
She wouldn't leave Brian's side for a minute, spoke for him, and finished his sentences.
I just found that really annoying.
Brian didn't seem to mind, and that's what really counts.
Maybe he likes having an attentive girlfriend.
There's attentive and there's smothering.
She just seemed really possessive, that's all.
Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.
What do you mean by that?
Are you crazy?
Didn't I just tell you that I didn't like her at all?
Yes, but you said it with such passion.
Georgia says to Andy, her brother, so I thought Carla was nice.
Andy is surprised.
He says, you did?
I didn't get that impression at all.
To get an impression means to understand something, a situation, in a particular way, usually different from the way someone else understood the situation.
You and your friend could have a conversation with someone and then later the two of you talk about that conversation and each of you had a very different view about what happened.
You didn't get the same impression.
Andy says, When we talk about what someone sees in someone else...
We mean what are the things that the one person likes about the other?
What are the things that they are attracted to in the other person?
Now, Brian is the brother of Andy and Georgia, and Brian's girlfriend is named Carla.
So Andy doesn't like Carla.
He doesn't see what Brian sees in her.
Georgia says, really?
I thought she was really trying to make a good impression.
To make a good impression that word again.
Impression means to do or say things that will make another person like you and will say and think good things about you.
There's an old expression, you only have one chance to make a first impression.
That is, there's only one opportunity for someone to meet you for the first time, logically.
So you always want to present yourself well.
Georgia thought that Carla was trying to make a good impression.
Andy says, yeah, she was trying too hard, too much.
She laughed too loudly at my jokes, that is, she laughed more than she should have and complimented you too much on your cooking.
To compliment C-O-M-P-L-I-M-E-N-T means to say something nice or To make someone feel good about some action that they did.
A husband should always compliment his wife on her beautiful face, on her hair, on her shoes, even if he doesn't notice that they are new shoes that she just bought last weekend and would have no way of knowing that they were new because he doesn't normally look at her shoes.
For example, Andy says that Carla is trying too hard.
Georgia says maybe she was a little too eager.
E-A-G-E-R.
To be eager means to be excited about something, really looking forward to doing something.
The students were eager to go to lunch.
They really wanted to eat and get out of the terrible math class they were in or something.
Well, Georgia says that Carla was a little too eager, but that just shows she really likes our brother.
What's wrong with that?
Andy says, nothing is wrong with that.
That's okay.
But did you see how clingy she was?
Clingy, C-L-I-N-G-Y, means that a person depends on someone else too much.
They want to spend all of their time with them.
Sometimes, when you get a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend, one person wants to spend more time with the other, calling her day and night, wanting to be with her all the time, so that you might think the person is being.
They're trying to be too close and too dependent on the other person.
Clingy has a couple of different meanings in English, and those are found in the Learning Guide.
Andy says, She, meaning Carla, wouldn't leave Brian's side for a minute.
Brian's side meaning she wouldn't leave Brian.
She spoke for him, and she finished his sentences.
To speak for someone is to answer questions that someone else is asking that person.
So, someone will ask a question of Brian, but Brian doesn't respond directly.
Carla gives the answer.
That's to speak for someone.
You can also speak for someone, in the sense that you have the authority to give someone else's opinion about a topic.
Who isn't there?
But in this case, it's just Carla answering questions that people are asking Brian.
She also finishes his sentences.
This is when you are talking and before you finish your sentence, the person you're talking to right in the middle will interrupt.
You will finish the sentence for you.
That can be very annoying.
Andy says I just found that really annoying meaning irritating makes you sort of angry, a little angry.
Georgia does not agree.
She says Brian didn't seem to mind, meaning it didn't bother him.
And that's what really counts, meaning that's what's really important.
Count has a couple of other meanings in English.
You can find those, well, in the Learning Guide.
Georgia says that maybe Brian likes to have an attentive girlfriend.
Someone who is attentive, pays attention to the other person, tries to do what that other person wants or needs.
Of course, Andy does not agree.
He says there's attentive and there's smothering.
There are a couple of things here.
To smother...
S-M-O-T-H-E-R means to pay too much attention to someone so that the person doesn't feel they can be free.
Literally you can use the verb to smother to kill someone, usually by putting something, a piece of clothing in their face so they can't breathe, or a pillow.
If you ever read Shakespeare's Othello, this is what happens to one of the main characters.
If you haven't, of course, I won't tell you the rest of the story.
Here smother just means that the person is doesn't feel free, feels the other person is being too attentive.
And he says, there's attentive and there's smothering.
This construction there's something and there's something else is an informal way to show that two things are very different, that there is a big contrast between them.
Andy says that Carla just seemed really possessive.
Someone who is possessive wants to have something and no one else can have it.
No one else can share it.
Georgia thinks now that there is some other reason why Andy doesn't like, or says he doesn't like, Carla.
She then uses, speaking of Shakespeare, a famous line partially from Shakespeare, from the play Hamlet.
Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.
Methinks is an old English way of saying I think.
No one says that anymore.
Doth is an old form of does.
To protest means to argue against something.
The original expression was, the lady doth protest too much, methinks.
But the more common usage is to put methinks first.
Methinks the, in this case, gentleman, since Andy is a man, doth protest too much.
But what does this mean?
It means that someone is denying something.
They're saying they don't like something, but in fact, they really do like someone or something.
So that you try to pretend like you don't like this person or this thing, when the reality is when, in fact, you like that person very much, but you don't want anyone else to know about it.
Andy says, what do you mean by that?
Georgia says, I think you might like Carla a little too much for your own good.
The expression too much for your own good means that you have so much of something that it becomes a bad thing.
If you like candy, that's great.
But if you eat two pounds of candy a day, that's too much for your own good.
In this case, Georgia thinks that Andy really likes Carla, likes her in a romantic way.
She says, shame on you being interested in your own brother's girlfriend.
The expression shame on you or shame on Andy is used to make someone feel bad about something they have said or done.
Shame on you for criticizing your grandmother's cooking.
You should never do that.
Shame on you.
Well, Georgia is saying shame on you Andy, because she thinks Andy actually likes Carla and would like Carla to be, I guess, his girlfriend, assuming he doesn't have a girlfriend.
Of course Andy denies this, doesn't agree with Georgia.
He says, are you crazy?
Didn't I just tell you that I didn't like her at all?
Not even a little bit?
Georgia says, yes, but you said it with such passion.
P-A-S-S-I-O-N.
Passion is a strong emotion, a strong feeling, a strong opinion, often about a romantic interest.
So Georgia is saying yes, you said you don't like her, but you said it in such a way that makes me think that you really do like her.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
So I thought Carla was nice.
You did?
I didn't get that impression at all.
I don't know what Brian sees in her.
Really?
I thought she was really trying to make a good impression.
Yeah, she was trying too hard.
She laughed too loudly at my jokes and complimented you too much on your cooking.
Maybe she was a little too eager, but that just shows that she really likes our brother.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing is wrong with that, but did you see how clingy she was?
She wouldn't leave Brian's side for a minute, spoke for him, and finished his sentences.
I just found that really annoying.
Brian didn't seem to mind, and that's what really counts.
Maybe he likes having an attentive girlfriend.
There's attentive and there's smothering.
She just seemed really possessive, that's all.
Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.
What do you mean by that?
I think you might like Carla a little too much for your own good.
Shame on you being interested in your own brother's girlfriend.
Are you crazy?
Didn't I just tell you that I didn't like her at all?
Yes, but you said it with such passion.
We don't compliment our script writer enough here on ESL Podcast.
So thank you, Lucy Say, Dr Lucy Say, for your wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
