Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 357, Describing Facial Expressions.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 357.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development.
In Transcription by CastingWords, You'll also learn about different meanings for some of the expressions we talk about today.
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This episode is called Describing Facial Expressions.
We're going to listen to a conversation between Marjorie and Pedro about the way that people use their face to express their feelings.
There are different terms that we use for the kinds of expressions that you will see on someone's face.
Let's get started.
I wish I could have been there when you told the managers that you were leaving the company and starting your own business.
Everyone was taken aback.
Dan gave me a dirty look, of course.
He's always looked down his nose at me.
As for Sanjaya, if looks could kill...
Sanjaya, I thought if anyone would understand why you wanted to strike out on your own, he would.
I honestly don't know him that well, but I thought he was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.
Maybe I misread him, but he certainly wasn't grinning ear to ear.
He just had a frown on his face the entire time.
What about Wendy?
How did she react?
I'm not sure what to make of her reaction.
She just raised her eyebrows at me.
She sort of winced when I broke the news, and then she had a poker face.
I really hope she's not angry with me.
I think you'd know it if she were angry with you.
The last time she was mad at me, she was purple with rage.
So, aren't you happy about your big announcement?
I don't get it.
Why the long face?
I just wonder if I did the right thing by making an announcement rather than telling each manager individually.
I thought it would feel good to spring it on them all at once, but now I'm doubting whether I did the right thing.
It's no use crying over spilled milk.
Forget about the announcement and focus on your new business.
You're going to be a big success.
Our dialogue begins with Marjorie saying I wish I could have been there when you told the managers that you were leaving the company and starting your own business.
I wish I could have been there means I wanted to be there.
I wish that had happened.
It didn't happen.
I wasn't there is the idea.
Pedro says everyone was taken aback.
To be taken aback means to be surprised and shocked, often in a very negative way.
When I told him that his son was not going to be able to go to the university today, He was taken aback.
His father was taken aback.
We have several common ways of using the word taken plus some other preposition.
For example, taken over.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations of these expressions with taken.
Pedro says everyone was taken aback, because To give someone a dirty look means to make an expression with your face that shows that you are angry with them or you are unhappy with them.
It's a very negative way of describing what someone does.
She gave me a dirty look.
She looked at me like she was angry or mad.
Pedro says that Dan is always looking down his nose at me.
To look down your nose at someone means to believe that you are better, smarter or more intelligent than another person.
He looked down his nose at me.
He thought I was not as good as he was.
As for Sanjaya, Pedro says, if looks could kill.
The expression if looks could kill is used to mean that someone made a very angry facial expression.
If facial expressions were able to kill people, this one would have done so.
That's the idea.
So the expression, if looks could kill, means something similar to giving someone a dirty look.
They gave you a very angry expression.
Marjorie says Sanjaya, I thought if anyone would understand why you wanted to strike out on your own, he would.
Marjorie is saying that Sanjaya should have understood why Pedro wanted to strike out on his own.
To strike out on your own means, to begin to do something independently, without the help of other people.
Often we use this expression when someone is starting a new business, for example, or is going to move away from home and live in their own apartment.
They're going to strike out on their own.
The expression to strike out has several meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations of that.
Marjorie continues.
I honestly don't know Sanjaya that well, but I thought he was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.
The expression happy-go-lucky means means relaxed, very calm.
We might say laid back, not excited about anything.
Someone who's happy-go-lucky, never gets angry, never gets sad, is always very relaxed.
I am not happy-go-lucky, in case you were wondering.
Pedro says, maybe I misread him.
To misread someone or something means to misinterpret, to see something that you think is one thing but is actually something else.
When you misunderstand a situation, you can misread a person.
You can also misread a situation.
It's more common probably to say, I misread that person.
Pedro says, I misread Sanjaya, meaning my opinion about him was wrong.
I was wrong.
He certainly wasn't grinning ear to ear.
To grin, G-R-I-N, means to smile.
To grin from ear to ear means to have a very big smile, to smile very widely.
Pedro is saying that Sanjaya was not smiling.
He just had a frown on his face the entire time.
A frown, F-R-O-W-N, is the opposite of a smile.
When you are showing someone that you are not happy, you have a frown on your face.
Marjorie then asks about Wendy.
Pedro says, I'm not sure, I don't know, what to make of her reaction.
What to make of means how to understand or how to interpret something.
I don't know what to make of the news that there are now more people in the United States who drink coffee for breakfast than Coca-Cola for breakfast.
Believe it or not, there are a million people in the US that drink Coca-Cola for breakfast.
At least, that's the last statistic that I heard.
Pedro says, To raise your eyebrows at someone means to lift your eyebrows.
That part of your face that is above your eye, what we call your eyebrow.
You have hair above your eye that you can move up and down.
To lift your eyebrows at someone means that you are confused or surprised by something that that person has said.
She sort of winced when I broke the news.
To wince W-I-N-C-E is to change your facial expression to show a very negative emotion.
Surprise pain, shock.
Often you move your head and shoulders back a little when you wince.
It shows that you are sort of in pain or you are very surprised in a bad way about something.
Pedro says Wendy winced when I broke the news, when I told her the news that I was leaving.
Then he says Wendy had a poker face.
To have a poker face means that you do not show your emotions.
No one can tell what you are really thinking or feeling.
Poker, you may know, is a popular game with playing cards.
If you go to Las Vegas, you can play poker.
The expression poker face means that you don't show any expression because when you play poker, you don't want to let the other players know what cards you have.
I'm a terrible poker player because I do not have a poker face.
You know exactly what I'm thinking by looking at my face.
That's why I can never lie to my wife.
She'll always know the truth.
That's a good thing, I think.
Marjorie says that the last time Wendy was mad at her, she was purple with rage.
The expression to be purple with rage.
R-A-G-E means to be very angry, so angry that your face turns red.
Purple is a color, a dark color.
Rage is when you are very angry.
So purple with rage means your face turns red, turns something like the color purple because you are so angry.
Marjorie then asks Pedro, aren't you happy about your big announcement?
I don't get it.
I don't understand.
Why the long face?
A long face is when you are disappointed or sad about something.
Why the long face?
Why are you disappointed or why are you unhappy?
Pedro says, He got everyone together as a group and told them he was leaving the company.
Now he thinks he should have talked to each manager separately.
Pedro says.
Pedro says To spring something on someone means to surprise someone with something, to tell her or him surprising news without giving them any warning, without them expecting it.
Someone may say, I hate to spring this on you, but can you give me your car this afternoon to use?
You're surprising them by asking them for this.
Pedro says, I thought it would feel good to spring it on them all at once, meaning all together, all at one time.
Marjorie says, it's no use crying over spilled milk.
To cry over spilled milk is to worry about something that has already happened and that you can't change.
Don't cry over milk that you have spilled, that you have let fall on the floor or on the table by accident.
It's no use.
It doesn't help you.
You also hear this expression, don't cry over spilt milk.
The past of spill can be either spilled, S-P-I-L-L-E-D, or spilt, S-P-I-L-T.
In either case, you don't want to worry about things that you can't change.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I wish I could have been there when you told the managers that you were leaving the company and starting your own business.
Everyone was taken aback.
Dan gave me a dirty look, of course.
He's always looked down his nose at me.
As for Sanjaya, if looks could kill, I thought if anyone would understand why you wanted to strike out on your own, he would
I honestly don't know him that well, but I thought he was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.
Maybe I misread him, but he certainly wasn't grinning ear to ear.
He just had a frown on his face the entire time.
What about Wendy?
How did she react?
I'm not sure what to make of her reaction.
She just raised her eyebrows at me.
She sort of winced when I broke the news, and then she had a poker face.
I really hope she's not angry with me.
I just wonder if I did the right thing by making an announcement rather than telling each manager individually.
I thought it would feel good to spring it on them all at once, but now I'm doubting whether I did the right thing.
It's no use crying over spilled milk.
Forget about the announcement and focus on your new business.
You're going to be a big success.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say, who never has a frown on her face.
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 2008.
