Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 333, Quitting Smoking.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 333.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
How are you today?
In this episode, we're going to finally quit smoking.
Quit smoking cigarettes, that is.
If you want to find out more about about the vocabulary and the ideas we talk about in this episode, go to our website at eslpodcom and download the 8-10 page learning guide for this episode.
You can also take a look at our new ESL podcast blog and our additional premium courses in the ESL podcast store.
Let's get started.
Hi.
I thought you might be out here.
Jeez, it's really cold.
I know, but I really needed a smoke break after that long meeting.
Can I bum one off you?
I left my pack of cigarettes on my desk.
Sure.
Here's my lighter.
What do you think about the new incentives the company is offering to employees to quit?
Have you thought about it?
Yeah, but I've smoked for 20 years.
I tried going cold turkey once but it didn't work.
I'm doomed to a lifetime of ashtrays and stained fingers.
I've been butting heads with my boyfriend for years.
He wants me to quit, but I say to each his own.
The incentives are pretty good, though, I have to admit.
A cash bonus and more money towards our health plans.
Yeah, I could use the cash.
Have you tried one of those nicotine patches?
No, I haven't.
Well, I'll try it if you will.
Do you think it would work?
I think I'm a lost cause.
I'm not sure, but if you'll try them, I will too.
Okay, but I'm warning you.
I have no willpower.
All right, but just remember, no pain, no gain.
Our dialogue between Vera and Paul begins with Vera saying, Hi, I thought you might be out here.
Jeez, it's really cold.
So Vera is obviously outside somewhere where it's cold.
Paul says A smoke break is a short period of time during the day when you stop working, go outside of your building usually and smoke.
In the U.S., in most businesses, you can't smoke inside the building.
Paul says, can I bum one off you?
To bum, B-U-M, something off someone, is a phrasal verb meaning to ask someone to give you something for free.
This is a very common expression when we're talking about one person asking for a cigarette from another person.
Can I bum a cigarette off you?
Meaning, will you give me a cigarette?
Normally it's for small things.
You wouldn't say, can I bum a million dollars off of you?
That might be a little too much.
Paul says, The little box that the cigarettes come in is called a pack, P-A-C-K.
That word has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more explanations.
A cigarette, you probably know, is a small piece of paper rolled around tobacco and You light one end and put the other end in your mouth and inhale.
When someone says a cigarette, they're referring to the cigarettes that you buy at the store.
There are illegal types of drugs that you also could smoke, such as marijuana, for example.
If you were talking about that, you would say a marijuana cigarette.
But we're not smoking marijuana here at ESL Podcast, at least not today.
We are talking about smoking cigarettes.
Vera says, sure, here's my lighter.
In other words, she's giving Paul one of her cigarettes, and she gives him her lighter.
A lighter is the small plastic thing or metal tool that has gas in it and you press a little button and a small fire comes up enough to light a cigarette.
They're sometimes called a cigarette lighter.
The verb is to light, to light a cigarette.
There are a couple of different meanings of this word also.
Again, you'll find more information in the what else does it mean section of our learning guide.
Vera says, what do you think about the new incentives the company is offering to employees to quit?
An incentive is something that someone gives you to encourage you to do something, to make you want to do something.
In this case, the company is trying to get its employees to stop smoking.
Vera uses the expression simply, to quit.
To quit means to stop doing something.
Many companies do this.
The reason is that smokers, people who smoke, have more health problems.
And since most companies in the United States have to pay for the health insurance of their employees, it's a good practice for them to get their employees to stop smoking.
Paul is asked by Vera if he has ever thought about quitting and Paul says The expression to go cold.
Turkey here means to stop smoking completely, not have any more cigarettes.
You're not going to decrease the number of cigarettes every day.
You're going to stop it completely.
We also use this for other types of drugs and alcohol.
To go cold turkey.
To stop completely what you are doing.
In this case, some sort of what we would call addictive behavior, where you are addicted to something.
You can't stop yourself.
Paul says that it didn't work the last time he tried going cold turkey.
To be doomed means that you are expected to suffer in a certain way.
You are destined, we might also say, for something.
We are all doomed to pay taxes until we die.
We can't avoid it.
Mark Twain said there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes.
So we are doomed to pay taxes.
Paul says that he's doomed to a lifetime of ashtrays and stained fingers.
An ashtray...
A-S-H-T-R-A-Y, one word, is a place where you put your cigarette ashes.
The ashes are what is left after the fire has burned the cigarette.
They're usually gray.
These ashes are put in an ash tray so they don't dirty up the ground or the area where you are.
At least that's the polite thing to do if you are a smoker, is to use an ashtray.
Paul says he has or will have stained fingers.
When something is stained, S-T-A-I-N-E-D, it has some sort of colored mark that is difficult or perhaps even impossible to remove.
In this case, there are stains on the smoker's fingers indicating this person has smoked a lot.
We also use the word stained in talking about your clothing.
If you're eating something and it falls on your shirt, it could stain your shirt.
Your shirt could be stained.
Vera says, I've been butting heads with my boyfriend for years.
Oversmoking.
To butt, B-U-T-T, heads means to argue or fight about something.
This is an old expression.
To each his own means...
Paul then says Meaning.
I have to be honest, they are pretty good a cash bonus and more money toward our health plans.
So the incentives the company is offering the employees include additional money, a bonus.
A bonus is extra money that a company gives you, usually because you've done well.
You did a good job.
Here at ESL Podcast, I never get a bonus because I never do a good job.
That's what my boss tells me.
Vera says, Nicotine is a drug that is in cigarettes.
It's the thing that makes the cigarettes addictive.
It makes you want to continue smoking them.
A nicotine patch...
P-A-T-C-H is a small plastic sticker that you put on your arm that gives you nicotine so that you don't have to smoke the cigarette.
It's one way of helping you quit smoking.
Paul says, no, I haven't tried the nicotine patches.
Sometimes they're called simply the patch by smokers.
Vera says, well, I'll try it if you will.
Paul says, do you think it would work?
Do you think it will work?
I think I'm a lost cause.
If you say you're a lost cause, you mean that nothing can be done to fix you.
Nothing can be done to fix the situation.
It's hopeless.
Vera says, I'm not sure if they'll work, but if you try the patches, I will too.
Paul says, okay, but I'm warning you, I have no willpower.
Willpower, one word, is the ability to do what you think is right, even though it's difficult.
We should all exercise a half hour a day.
But it's difficult.
We're lazy.
You need willpower.
You have to say to yourself, even though it's difficult, I will do it.
Vera says, This is another expression.
No pain, no gain means in order to get something, you have to suffer.
You have to do something that may be difficult.
This is especially true in exercise.
If you want big muscles, you have to lift weights, which is difficult.
But no pain, no gain.
If you don't feel any pain, you won't benefit.
You won't get anything for it.
This is true in some areas of life, but it's not true of language acquisition.
Language acquisition doesn't require pain.
If it does, it's usually a bad thing.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hi.
I thought you might be out here.
Jeez, it's really cold.
I know, but I really needed a smoke break after that long meeting.
Can I bum one off you?
I left my pack of cigarettes on my desk.
Sure.
Here's my lighter.
What do you think about the new incentives the company is offering to employees to quit?
Have you thought about it?
Yeah, but I've smoked for 20 years.
I tried going cold turkey once, but it didn't work.
I'm doomed to a lifetime of ashtrays and stained fingers.
I've been butting heads with my boyfriend for years.
He wants me to quit, but I say, to each his own.
The incentives are pretty good, though, I have to admit.
A cash bonus and more money towards our health plans.
Yeah, I could use the cash.
Have you tried one of those nicotine patches?
No, I haven't.
Well, I'll try it if you will.
Do you think it would work?
I think I'm a lost cause.
I'm not sure, but if you try them, I will too.
Okay, but I'm warning you, I have no willpower.
All right, but just remember, no pain, no gain.
The script for this episode was written by non-smoker Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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 2007.
