Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 166.
A Marriage Proposal, Part 1.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 166.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Today's podcast is called A Marriage Proposal, Part 1.
We're going to hear about a man who wants to marry a woman and how he is going to ask her.
Let's get started.
I've been trying to get up the nerve to ask my girlfriend to marry me.
We have been dating for almost a year and I think she's the one.
I went shopping for engagement rings and really hated the experience.
I wasn't sure what kind of ring she'd like and it took me a long time to decide.
Finally, with the help of the saleswoman, I picked one.
So, I've got the ring.
Now I've just got to find the right time to pop the question.
I needed to think of a romantic way to propose.
I've watched enough romantic movies with my girlfriend to know that the proposal has to be something special.
I thought about taking her on a trip to Paris and asking her in the city of love.
But I spent all of my money on the ring, so that's out of the question.
I thought about writing her a love poem and proposing in the poem.
But I'm a terrible writer.
I thought about serenading her outside her window, but with my voice.
I'm sure the neighbors would call the police.
I don't know what to do.
How do I ask her to marry me?
Today's podcast is about a man who wants to propose to his girlfriend.
The verb to propose here means to ask someone to marry you.
And the noun is a proposal.
We can also use the verb propose for other things, of course.
To propose something is to recommend or to put something forward, or to give someone an idea and ask if they will accept it or not.
But here it is to ask someone to marry you.
And of course, traditionally, a man would ask the woman if she would marry him.
Well, the man in this story says that he's been trying to get up the nerve to ask my girlfriend his girlfriend, not my girlfriend.
Better be careful to ask his girlfriend to marry him.
The expression to get up the nerve, N-E-R-V-E, means to get the confidence, to be confident.
If you are scared about something or you don't want to do something, you may need to get up your nerve.
It means you need to say to yourself okay, I'm ready, and not be afraid, not be scared, to have confidence.
Well, he's trying to get up the nerve to ask the girlfriend to marry him, to be his wife.
He says that we've been dating for almost a year.
We have been dating.
We have been romantically involved with each other.
Of course, to date, D-A-T-E, means to be romantically interested and involved with someone else.
They've been dating for a year and I think, he says, she's the one.
When we say she's the one or he's the one, O-N-E like the number one, we mean this is the one for me.
This is my perfect person.
This is the person I should marry.
And so the man goes shopping for engagement rings.
Engagement, E-N-G-A-G-E-M-E-N-T.
And engagement is a noun, and it means the promise that two people have to marry each other.
So when a man proposes or asks a woman to marry him, They get engaged.
And the verb is to get engaged.
And to get engaged means now they are planning on getting married, but they're not married yet.
They may get married in five months or in six months or maybe even in a year.
But during that time, they are engaged.
And that time is called their engagement.
Well, an engagement ring, then, is not the same as a wedding ring.
It's a ring that a woman would wear to indicate that they are married or they are going to get married, but that they are not married yet.
And so an engagement ring, not everyone gets an engagement ring, but it's common.
So this poor guy goes shopping for engagement rings one for his, what we would call after he gets engaged.
The woman is called the fiancé.
Fiancé is F-I-A-N-C-E-E, two E's for a woman and one E if it's a man.
So, my fiancé is the woman that I'm going to marry.
My girlfriend would say, my fiancé is the man I'm going to marry.
So, fiancé is the person that you are planning on marrying.
Well, in this case, he has to buy a ring for his fiancé.
And he says he wasn't sure what kind of ring his girlfriend would like.
And it took him a long time to decide or a long time to make up his mind.
To make up your mind means to decide.
Finally with the help of the saleswoman.
And the saleswoman S-A-L-E-S-W-O-M-A-N.
All one word is, of course, the person who is selling the rings, the person who is helping you at the jewelry store where you would go to buy a ring, a jewelry store.
With the help of the saleswoman, he picked one or he selected one.
Now he says, I've got the ring.
Now I've just got to or just have to find the right time to pop the question.
Find the right time means find the right opportunity, the right moment.
To pop the question, P-O-P, to pop the question means to ask someone to marry you.
Notice that we say to pop the question.
We don't say what question because the question is always the same.
Will you marry me?
And we only use that expression to pop the question when someone is asking someone else to marry them.
It's only used for marriage.
You don't pop the question about going on a trip.
We only use that expression for two people who are going to be married.
Usually the man, traditionally, will pop the question to the woman.
He says in the story here that he needs to think of a romantic way to propose.
A romantic R-O-M-A-N-T-I-C means, of course.
Well, it comes from the noun romance and the idea is that it is something that is very loving.
You do something very loving towards the other person.
You do something that usually the woman will find to be very special, something that sends her a special message.
These are things that are romantic.
And he's trying to think of a romantic way to propose, to ask his girlfriend to marry him.
He says he's watched enough romantic movies with my girlfriend to know that the proposal has to be something special.
Means he's watched many movies, so many movies that he understands that the time that he asks his girlfriend to marry him has to be a very special time.
He has to make it a special time.
Well, he says he thought about taking his girlfriend to Paris France, and asking her to marry him in the city of love.
Paris, of course, at least in the United States.
Paris is considered one of the most romantic cities in the world, and many people consider that.
Paris is a beautiful city, and so that's considered very romantic, to go to Paris.
And the man in the story says that, unfortunately, he spent all of his money on the ring.
He doesn't have any money to go to Paris.
So that's out of the question.
To be out of the question means that it isn't possible.
There is no possibility of doing that.
If your son or daughter asks you to borrow the car, they want to borrow the car from you and you say that's out of the question means there's absolutely no possibility that that is going to happen.
The man says he thought about writing his girlfriend a love poem.
And a poem, of course, P-O-E-M, is a type of literature.
We sometimes call it verse, V-E-R-S-E.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
The sky is beautiful and so are you.
Isn't that nice?
The traditional poem, romantic poem, begins with roses are red.
Rose, of course, a type of flower.
Violets are blue.
Again, a different type of flower.
And then you have to rhyme something with the word blue.
Well, that would be a love poem, but not a serious love poem, because that's sort of a joke to say roses are red, violets are blue.
I believe in myself, and so do you.
I don't know something that you would say that would rhyme with blue.
Well, this love poem uh, is one idea that he has to propose to her, to propose to her in a love poem.
Unfortunately, he's a terrible writer t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e.
In other words, he's a very bad writer.
He thought about serenading his girlfriend.
To serenade, S-E-R-E-N-A-D-E, is the verb.
He thought about serenading her outside her window.
To serenade means to sing to someone, and the traditional way would be to go to the woman's house and stand outside of her bedroom window and have a guitar or someone with you who can play a musical instrument, and you would sing to her something that was lovely and beautiful.
Unfortunately, the man in the story says With my voice I'm sure the neighbors would call the police.
The expression here, with my voice, means...
And when we were talking about my voice, considering my voice, I'm sure the neighbors would call the police because his voice is so bad.
The neighbors would complain about his singing, and so they would call the police and have the police officers come to the house.
So the man ends the story by saying, I don't know what to do.
How do I ask her to marry me?
Well, to find out, you have to come back and listen to part two of this story.
Now let's listen to the story at a native rate of speech.
I've been trying to get up the nerve to ask my girlfriend to marry me.
We've been dating for almost a year and I think she's the one.
I went shopping for engagement rings and really hated the experience.
I wasn't sure what kind of ring she'd like and it took me a long time to decide.
Finally, with the help of the saleswoman, I picked one.
So, I've got the ring.
Now I've just got to find the right time to pop the question.
I needed to think of a romantic way to propose.
I watched enough romantic movies with my girlfriend to know that the proposal has to be something special.
I thought about taking her on a trip to Paris and asking her in the city of love, but I spent all my money on the ring, so that's out of the question.
I thought about writing her a love poem and proposing in a poem, but I'm a terrible writer.
I thought about serenading her outside her window, but with my voice.
I'm sure the neighbors would call the police.
I don't know what to do.
How do I ask her to marry me?
The script for the podcast today was written by our own Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
Come back next time on our next podcast to find out what happens to this poor guy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
We'll see you next time 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.
