Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 383, Mending a Broken Heart.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 383.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Mending or Fixing a Broken Heart.
A broken heart is when someone feels sad, usually because a romantic relationship has ended.
I know how this feels.
Many, many times I have felt it.
We'll hear a dialogue between David and Victoria today.
Let's get started.
Why has Joyce been moping around all week?
What's wrong with her?
She's suffering from a broken heart.
Her boyfriend broke up with her over the weekend.
They had been together for two years.
Did she tell you the gruesome details?
Not really.
She just said that she's feeling depressed and she didn't want to talk about it.
But you can see the grief all over her face.
I can think of a way to cheer her up.
I've always wanted to go out with Joyce.
Maybe I'll ask her out.
Wait a second.
I think she's feeling pretty vulnerable right now, and there's no way she's ready to date yet.
I think you're jumping the gun.
There's nothing better to help someone bounce back from a failed relationship than the promise of a new one.
Maybe, but I think it might backfire.
If you just want a fling, she might not be able to recover from rejection twice.
Don't worry.
I know what I'm doing.
I'll just distract her from her misery for a while until she starts to recover.
Just tread carefully.
Leave it to the master.
David begins by saying to Victoria, Why has Joyce been moping around all week?
What's wrong with her?
To mope, M-O-P-E. is to act in such a way that other people know that you're sad or depressed.
You walk and you talk as if you were sad.
And you kind of want other people to know it.
That's to mope.
Teenagers like to mope when they don't get their way, when their parents tell them they can't do something.
Victoria says, Joyce is suffering from a broken heart.
To suffer from something is a phrasal verb meaning to be in emotional or physical pain because of something.
Often we talk about suffering from a certain disease.
He suffers from malaria or polio.
Well, Joyce suffers from a broken heart, this extremely sad feeling because a romantic relationship has ended.
Victoria says Joyce's boyfriend broke up with her over the weekend.
To break up with someone means to end a romantic relationship.
My girlfriend broke up with me again.
I think it was like the ninth time, but I was young.
Victoria says that Joyce and her boyfriend had been together for two years.
David says, did she tell you the gruesome details?
Gruesome means very negative sad, in this case perhaps even disgusting things you don't like very much.
Gruesome is often a word used to describe, for example, the scene of a murder, when there is a lot of blood.
Here it's used somewhat jokingly to refer to the specific, detailed information about something that was very negative or sad.
In this case, the breakup between Joyce and her boyfriend.
Victoria says, no, not really.
She didn't tell me the gruesome details.
She just said that she's feeling depressed, very sad, and she didn't want to talk about it.
But you can see the grief all over her face.
Grief, G-R-I-E-F, is a feeling of very deep sadness, of deep loss.
Usually we use this expression when someone dies.
We say that his family has a lot of grief.
They are suffering.
They are sad.
David, seeing an opportunity, says, I can think of a way to cheer her up, to make her happy.
I've always wanted to go out with Joyce meaning to go on a date or be in a romantic relationship with this person.
Maybe I'll ask her out.
To ask someone out means to ask them if they would go on a date with you, usually the first date.
Victoria says, wait a second.
I think she's feeling pretty vulnerable right now.
Vulnerable means that you are easy to hurt.
You are able to be hurt easily.
Joyce just ended this relationship, and now she's feeling vulnerable, like she can be hurt again.
Victoria says there's no way she's ready to date yet, to go out on dates with other men.
I think you're jumping the gun.
The expression to jump the gun means to do something too early, before you should.
To do something.
We would say prematurely, before it's time, before it's a good time to do something.
So David wants to ask Joyce on a date right after she breaks up with her boyfriend.
David disagrees.
He says, To end a negative situation.
Sometimes we refer to people who date right after they break up in a romantic relationship as being on the rebound, meaning they have just ended a relationship and are now looking for another relationship to help them get over the suffering from the breakup.
There's an expression I learned in Mexico, one nail knocks out another nail.
And that is the general idea here.
David wants to help Joyce with her relationship by going on a date with her.
Victoria says, maybe, but I think your idea might backfire.
To backfire means to do the opposite of what you want to happen, to have the opposite effect of what you intended.
For example, parents give their children some money to teach them about how they should be responsible with their money, to save their money, for example.
But the kids take the money and they go buy a bunch of video games.
Victoria says if you just want a fling, she might not be able to recover from rejection twice.
A fling F-L-I-N-G is a romantic relationship that only lasts for a very short period of time and is not very serious.
Rejection is denial, refusal, when someone says no to you.
Victoria is worried that Joyce will not be able to recover from, to get better, after another rejection if David breaks up with Joyce.
David says, don't worry, I know what I'm doing.
This is what all men think, of course.
I'll just distract her from her misery for a while until she starts to recover.
To distract someone means to make them think about something else, to get them to stop thinking about a certain topic.
Misery is a very strong feeling of being sad, lonely, or in pain.
So David is going to distract Joyce from her misery, get her to think about something else for a while, until she starts to recover, starts to get better.
Victoria warns David, just tread carefully.
To tread means to walk or to move carefully.
To tread carefully means to be very careful about a difficult situation that you are in, a situation that could easily cause more problems if you don't be careful.
David says to Victoria, leave it to the master.
Leave it to means let me take care of this situation.
To leave it to the master means to let an expert like me take care of this situation.
David thinks he's an expert when it comes to mending or fixing a broken heart.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why has Joyce been moping around all week?
She's suffering from a broken heart.
Her boyfriend broke up with her over the weekend.
They had been together for two years.
Did she tell you the gruesome details?
Not really.
She just said that she's feeling depressed and she didn't want to talk about it.
But you can see the grief all over her face.
I can think of a way to cheer her up.
I've always wanted to go out with Joyce.
Maybe I'll ask her out.
Wait a second.
I think she's feeling pretty vulnerable right now, and there's no way she's ready to date yet.
I think you're jumping the gun.
There's nothing better to help someone bounce back from a failed relationship than the promise of a new one.
Maybe, but I think it might backfire.
If you just want to fling, she might not be able to recover from rejection twice.
Don't worry.
I know what I'm doing.
I'll just distract her from her misery for a while until she starts to recover.
Just tread carefully.
Leave it to the master.
The script for this episode was written by a true master, 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 2008.
