Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, number 100, Unkind Comments.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, number 100.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Today we are going to talk about saying unkind or not nice things about another person and how we react to that.
Let's get started.
Yesterday I was talking to an ex-colleague of mine who frankly has something of a big mouth.
I bumped into him at the beach where he was walking his dog.
Anyway, as I was saying, He's the kind of guy who is always bad-mouthing his co-workers.
So he came up to me and said, Hey, Jeff, long time no see.
What have you been up to?
Uh, not much, I said.
Well, guess who I saw yesterday?
John Robeson, the guy from accounting at Firth Industries.
You remember him, the guy with big ears and an ego to match?
It takes one to know one, I thought, but I kept it to myself.
Oh, really?
How interesting, I replied.
Yeah well, I hate to talk behind someone's back, but ever since he and I had that falling out last year, I've never really cared for the guy.
How come?
I asked.
Well, he's a bit of a backstabber, always trying to outdo the other guy.
I know what you mean, I said.
I knew at this point it was time to make my exit.
Otherwise, this guy would go on about John Robeson for the next ten minutes.
What time do you have?
I asked him.
It's a quarter after five.
Jeez, already?
Man, I've got to hit the road.
I'm supposed to meet my brother at the pier in a few minutes.
But, hey, it was sure good to see you again.
You take care.
With that, I made my exit.
I've got better things to do than to listen to him gripe all day.
Yesterday, I was talking to an ex-colleague of mine.
A colleague, C-O-L-L-E-A-G-U-E, is someone, in this case, whom you work with.
An ex-colleague would be someone whom you used to work with but no longer work with.
I was talking to an ex-colleague I say who frankly has something of a big mouth.
Frankly here just means honestly.
He has something of a big mouth I say.
A big mouth is used to describe someone who likes to tell secrets or other things that are not very nice about another person when he's not supposed to do that.
Someone with a big mouth is always talking, always giving out information that often they shouldn't.
I said that I bumped into him at the beach.
To bump into someone is a phrasal verb, meaning I accidentally saw him and, in this case, talked to him.
To bump into someone is not to expect to meet someone at a certain place, but to see them there and usually to talk to them.
In this case, my ex-colleague was walking his dog.
He was taking his dog for a walk along the beach.
I say that anyway, as I was saying.
The expression as I was saying is used in a conversation when you're telling a story and then you perhaps start talking about a different topic and now you want to return to your original topic, in this case the story.
I say that my ex-colleague is the kind of the sort of the type of guy or person that's always bad-mouthing his coworkers.
To bad-mouth means to say bad things about another person, usually when that person isn't there with you.
To badmouth means to say insulting or negative things about another person.
I say that my ex-colleague was always badmouthing his co-workers.
Co-workers is the same as colleagues, people you work with.
So he came up to me, he walked up to me and said, hey, Jeff, long time no see.
This is an old expression long time no see that we use when we see a friend or someone we know that we haven't seen in a long time.
We're saying it's a long time since I've seen you.
What have you been up to, he asked me.
To be up to something means to be doing something.
So he's asking me what I have been doing.
I answer by saying, uh, not much.
Not very much.
I haven't been doing anything interesting.
Well, guess who I saw yesterday, he asked me.
John Robeson, the guy from accounting at Firth Industries.
He is telling me that he saw this man who used to work in the accounting department of a business called Firth Industries.
The idea here would be, I think, that The ex-colleague and I both know this man, John Robeson.
In fact, the next sentence is my friend, my ex-colleague, saying You remember him, the guy with big ears and an ego to match?
The guy here just means the person.
Usually guy is...
Used in the singular to mean a man.
If you say guys with an S at the end plural, it could mean men and women or boys and girls.
Guy is usually an adult male.
He describes this John Robeson as a guy with big ears, large ears, and an ego to match.
Ego relates to how important a person thinks he is.
When we say someone has a big ego, we mean he thinks he's very important.
He has this idea of himself as being a very important person.
My ex-colleague says that the guy has big ears and an ego to match.
So he's saying his ears are big and his ego is big.
To match just means it's the same.
In this case, what is the same is big.
Big ears, big ego.
It takes one to know one, I thought.
This is an old expression.
It takes one to know.
One means you can't really understand something unless you also have that characteristic, unless you are also like that.
It's usually said when someone criticizes another person.
If you, for example, say, oh, he's such a big mouth.
He's always talking.
You might say it takes one to know one.
That means you're a talker also.
You have that same defect.
You have that same negative quality.
You would not know that he was a big mouth unless you were a big mouth.
That's the idea.
But I didn't say that to my ex-colleague.
I say that I kept it to myself.
To keep something to yourself means not to tell anyone else.
Not to say it out loud.
Oh really, I say.
How interesting.
I'm not really interested, but I'm trying to be polite.
My ex-colleague continues, yeah, well, I hate to talk behind someone's back.
To talk behind someone's back means to say something negative about a person when that person isn't there, when they're not there in the room with you.
You're criticizing them when they're not actually there themselves.
My ex-colleague says ever since he and I John Robeson and I had that falling out last year, I've never really cared for the guy, often resulting in two people no longer being friends or no longer speaking to each other.
So John Robeson and my ex-colleague had a disagreement, a falling out.
And after that time, my ex-colleague never really cared for the guy.
To care for here means to like.
He never liked the guy.
How come, I asked.
How come is an informal way of saying why.
Well, he's a bit of a backstabber.
A backstabber is someone who does something bad to you not directly to you, but by talking to other people or by doing things that you aren't aware of, that you don't know about until later, when you find out this person did these negative things to you.
To stab S-T-A-B literally means to take a knife and to put it into something, and To be a backstabber would mean to put a knife into someone's back, which of course would be very painful.
But John Robeson isn't a murderer.
He's not a killer.
When we say someone's a backstabber, we mean they do things that often hurt other people, but not directly to them personally.
Rather, they use other means to hurt someone.
My ex-colleague says that John Robeson was always trying to outdo the other guy.
To outdo means to do something better than another person, to compete with another person.
The other guy here just means another worker, another employee.
Then I say in the story, It was time to means now was the time to.
Now was the appropriate moment to do something.
In this case, I'm trying to make my exit.
E-X-I-T.
To make your exit is to leave a place.
Otherwise, I say, this guy would go on about John Robeson for the next ten minutes.
Otherwise means if I don't do that or if what I just said doesn't happen.
To go on would mean to talk about.
This guy would go on about John Robeson for the next 10 minutes.
I then ask my ex-colleague, what time do you have?
This is a somewhat formal way of asking someone what the time is.
It means the same thing.
What time is it?
It's a little more polite.
What time do you have?
It's a quarter after five, my ex-colleague says.
It's a quarter after five means it's 5.15.
Geez, already?
Geez is an informal expression of surprise.
Man, I've got to hit the road, I say.
Man is also an informal expression we use often.
To express shock or wonder or surprise about something.
I say that I've got to hit the road.
To hit the road is an expression meaning to leave, to go from where you are now, to exit.
I'm supposed to meet my brother at the pier in five minutes, I say.
The pier, P-I-E-R, is a structure that goes out into usually the ocean that you can walk on.
So you can walk above the water on this typically wooden structure that is built.
You will find piers here in Southern California.
There's one not too far from me in Santa Monica.
I say that I have to meet my brother at the pier in a few minutes.
But hey, hey is another informal expression, here meaning the same as well.
It was sure good to see you again.
It was good to see you again.
You take care.
This is something you would say to someone, a friend, a colleague.
When you are leaving and you don't think perhaps you'll see that person for a long time, will you take care?
That just is a polite way of saying, take care of yourself.
I hope everything is good for you.
With that, I made my exit, meaning having said that, I left.
I finished the story by saying, I've got better things to do than to listen to him gripe all day.
I've got better things to do means I don't want to waste my time on this activity that isn't very useful to me or that I don't like.
To gripe, G-R-I-P-E, means to complain.
Someone who's always griping, is always complaining, always saying negative things about the situation or about other people.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.
Yesterday I was talking to an ex-colleague of mine who, frankly, has something of a big mouth.
I bumped into him at the beach where he was walking his dog.
Anyway, as I was saying, he's the kind of guy who is always bad-mouthing his co-workers.
So he came up to me and said, Hey Jeff, long time no see.
What have you been up to?
Uh, not much, I said.
Well, guess who I saw yesterday?
John Robeson, the guy from accounting at Firth Industries.
You remember him, the guy with big ears and an ego to match?
It takes one to know one, I thought, but I kept it to myself.
Oh, really?
How interesting, I replied.
Yeah well, I hate to talk behind someone's back, but ever since he and I had that falling out last year, I've never really cared for the guy.
How come?
I asked.
Well, he's a bit of a backstabber, always trying to outdo the other guy.
I know what you mean, I said.
I knew at this point it was time to make my exit.
Otherwise, this guy would go on about John Robeson for the next ten minutes.
What time do you have?
I asked him.
It's a quarter after five.
Jeez, already?
Man, I've got to hit the road.
I'm supposed to meet my brother at the pier in a few minutes.
But hey, it was sure good to see you again.
You take care.
With that, I made my exit.
I've got better things to do than to listen to him gripe all day.
The scripts for this episode were written by my colleague...
My co-worker, 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.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
