Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 861, Planning a Children's Party.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 861.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Sarah and Paul, who are planning, who are getting ready for a party for some children.
Let's get started.
Come on, we need to buy all of the things we need for Gabriel's party before the store closes.
Are you sure we need a party?
Maybe we can just have a cake and some party hats.
Are you kidding?
We are going to pull out all the stops.
We'll have streamers, balloons, noisemakers, and party favors.
This is going to be really fun.
I don't even know if he'd like all that.
What are you doing?
I'm getting lots of confetti to throw when we sing happy birthday.
The confetti is going to get all over the ice cream and the icing on the cake.
And it'll be a nightmare to clean up.
Don't worry about the cleanup.
I'll take care of that.
Now, where are the goodie bags?
Are you sure all of this is necessary?
Of course it is.
Ooh, what do you think of hiring a clown and renting an inflatable castle for the party?
You do remember that Gabriel is turning one, don't you?
So?
It's just as I suspected.
Some birthday parties aren't for the children, they're for the adults who never grew up.
Sarah says to Paul, come on.
Come on is an expression we use when you want someone to leave with you or you want them to perhaps work a little faster.
Sarah says come on, we need to buy all of the things we need for Gabriel's party before the store closes.
In this case, Sarah wants Paul to leave with her to go to a store so they can buy things for Gabriel's party, whoever Gabriel is.
Paul says, are you sure we need a party?
Maybe we can just have a cake and some party hats.
A cake.
C-A-K-E is a type of dessert, a sweet bread-like dessert, that you have at parties birthday parties, graduation parties, parties for someone's wedding.
All of these would probably have some sort of cake involved.
Paul says, maybe we can just have a cake and some party hats.
Party hats are colorful paper hats that you wear on your head, usually associated with parties for young children.
Sarah says, are you kidding?
Meaning, are you joking?
She's surprised at what Paul is saying and maybe a little angry.
She says, we are going to pull out all the stops.
This expression to pull out all the stops or all of the stops, means you're going to do everything you possibly can.
You're not going to limit yourself in any way.
You're going to do the most you can.
The expression actually comes from playing the organ.
To pull out all the stops is to make the organ play at its loudest possible volume.
Although I'm not a musician, so don't take my word for that meaning.
You may not want to believe what I say.
Sarah says, we'll have streamers, balloons... noisemakers, and party favors.
These are all things you might find at a children's party or some other kind of party in some cases.
Streamers S-T-R-E-A-M-E-R-S are long-term pieces of brightly colored paper that you hang on the wall or hang on doors or put on the windows.
Balloons are small pieces of rubber that are filled with air and you can fill them with if you want to have a water balloon fight, but I don't think that's what we're talking about here.
We're talking about filling them with air in order to decorate or make a room look more festive, more like you're having a party.
Noisemakers are little things, Devices that are used to make a lot of noise, that you would find again at a children's party, because young children like to make a lot of noise.
If you don't believe me, just ask my neighbors.
Party favors are little gifts that you give people for coming to your party.
That's a party favor, F-A-V-O-R.
Sarah says Paul says He's not even sure if Gabriel will like all of this planning, all of these things that Sarah wants to do for the party.
Paul then asks Paul says Sarah says I'm getting lots of confetti to throw when we sing happy birthday.
Confetti, C-O-N-F-E-T-T-I, are small pieces of paper.
They could be white, they could be colored.
That are used often to throw at people in celebration.
You will sometimes see confetti at someone's wedding as they're coming out of the church.
You can throw either rice or confetti.
So it's an item that you would associate with a party.
Paul says the confetti is going to get all over the ice cream and the icing on the cake.
Paul is complaining.
These little pieces of paper if you throw them up into the air will get all over, meaning they'll get into the ice cream.
Ice cream is a sweet frozen dessert, usually made from milk and sugar, maybe fruit and other sweet things that you would like to eat.
I remember, when I was growing up, those one or two times that I had a birthday party, we would have chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream, which is a white-colored ice cream.
Those were always the most popular flavors for ice cream at a party.
Nowadays, they have ice cream in all different kinds of flavors, all different kinds of tastes.
But back in In the old days, it was basically chocolate and vanilla ice cream.
Paul thinks the confetti will get all over the ice cream and the icing on the cake.
When you have a cake, you usually put a thick colored substance made of butter or some other substance as decoration on top of the cake.
So the cake itself is baked in an oven, and after you take it out of the oven and let it cool, you'll put some sugary, buttery substance on the top of it.
That will make it even sweeter and that will give it some particular color.
You can often write someone's name in icing that goes on the cake for the birthday party.
Paul says, it'll be a nightmare to clean up.
A nightmare, N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E, normally means a bad or scary or frightening dream that you have.
But in this case, it just means a very bad situation, a very bad experience.
Sarah says, don't worry about the cleanup.
Don't worry about cleaning up after the party.
Sarah says, now, where are the goodie bags?
Goodie G-O-O-D-I-E bags.
B-A-G-S bags are little bags, kind of like party favors, that have little gifts for the people who come to the party.
Once again, it's something you would probably find more at a children's party.
When you have a birthday party for your son or daughter and you invite other children to come, the children, even if it's not their birthday, will also get a little gift from you.
Who is hosting or who is having the party?
Paul says.
Sarah says Ooh, what do you think of hiring a clown and renting an inflatable castle for the party?
A clown, C-L-O-W-N, is a person who dresses in very brightly colored clothing, usually with big shoes and a red nose and and tries to make people laugh we associate clowns with children's birthday parties some parents who have way too much money to spend will hire a clown to come to their child's party in order to entertain the children to get them to laugh to have a good time an inflatable castle is something that you used to only find at a big carnival or a big fair, a big celebration in your community or in your town.
Nowadays, however, parents sometimes get inflatable castles for their child's birthday.
An inflatable castle is a large plastic structure In the shape of a castle.
A castle is where a king or a queen would live of a country that's filled with air, so the children can go inside of this plastic thing and bounce up and down inside of it.
I have no idea how much these cost.
As I said it used to be, you would only see them at a big celebration in your neighborhood or in your town.
And now parents with again, way too much money to spend on their children get these for their children's parties.
So some company comes over and they put one of these inflatable castles in the front of your house and all the neighborhood children will come to the party and play inside of this castle.
Paul says you do remember that Gabriel is turning one, don't you?
Turning here means having a birthday and becoming one year older.
So I could say, for example, I'm turning 30 this year.
That means this year I will have my 30th birthday.
Just an example, of course.
Paul thinks that Sarah is having a big party that is really unnecessary, since Gabriel, their son, is only one year old.
He won't even be able to understand what's going on.
Paul ends the story by saying it's just as I suspected.
It's just as I thought.
Some birthday parties aren't for the children, they're for the adults who never grew up.
Grew G-R-E-W up is the past tense of grow G-R-O-W up, which means to become an adult, to no longer be a child.
Paul is saying that the birthday party isn't for Gabriel.
He's only one year old.
He doesn't know what's going on.
It's for Sarah, an adult who has never quite grown up herself.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Come on.
We need to buy all of the things we need for Gabriel's party before the store closes.
Are you sure we need a party?
Maybe we can just have a cake and some party hats.
Are you kidding?
We are going to pull out all the stops.
We'll have streamers, balloons, noisemakers, and party favors.
This is going to be really fun.
I don't even know if he'd like all that.
What are you doing?
I'm getting lots of confetti to throw when we sing happy birthday.
The confetti is going to get all over the ice cream and the icing on the cake.
And it'll be a nightmare to clean up.
Don't worry about the cleanup.
I'll take care of that.
Now, where are the goodie bags?
Are you sure all of this is necessary?
Of course it is.
Ooh, what do you think of hiring a clown and renting an inflatable castle for the party?
You do remember that Gabriel is turning one, don't you?
So?
It's just as I suspected.
Some birthday parties aren't for the children.
They're for the adults who never grew up.
Our scriptwriter pulls out all the stops when she writes her wonderful scripts for us.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
