Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 437, Having a Best Friend.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 437.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode, an 8-10 page guide that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Having a Best Friend.
It's a dialogue between Lucy and her friend Buddy.
Let's get started.
I'm so excited.
My friend Marlene is coming to town for a visit.
Have i met marlene?
No, i don't think so.
We grew up together and we were always joined at the hip.
When i was little, i had a friend like that.
We were blood brothers.
Yeah, Marlene and I did everything together and she was my confidante about everything.
She sounds like a great friend.
Yeah, she always had my back, and I could always count on her to give it to me straight.
A friend like that is hard to come by.
Not as close as I'd like.
We live in different cities, and it's hard to keep up with what's happening in each other's lives.
I can see that.
Does she know you're getting married?
No, I wanted to break the news to her face to face.
Why?
I would have thought you'd want to tell her the good news right away.
Well, I want her to be my maid of honor, and I'm not sure how she'll react to the dress she'll have to wear.
Is it that bad?
My future mother-in-law picked it out and I can't say no.
Here's a picture of it.
Well, I'm glad she's such a good friend, because if anything can break up a friendship, it's that dress.
Lucy begins by saying I'm so excited my friend Marlene is coming to town for a visit.
She's going to be coming to the city or town where Lucy lives.
Lucy is talking to her friend Buddy.
Buddy is his name.
Buddy is also a general term to describe a friend.
This is a term that children will often use, especially boys.
They'll say, he's my buddy.
He's my friend.
But here, Buddy is his name.
Buddy says, have I met Marlene?
Lucy says, no, I don't think so.
We grew up together, and we were always joined at the hip.
To grow up means to get older from childhood to adulthood.
It's that period between when you're born and when you become an adult at 18 or 19.
To grow up together then, means to have lived in the same area, to have gone to the same schools perhaps, and so forth.
Lucy says that she and Marlene were always joined at the hip.
The hip.
H-I-P is the part of your body that's in the center where your waist is, that is where your legs meet the rest of your body.
The expression to be joined at the hip means to be very close to someone else.
In fact, you're always with that person.
You are inseparable.
You spend a lot of time with that person.
To be joined means here to be connected.
So it is as if your bodies were connected.
Buddy says, when I was little, I had a friend like that.
We were blood brothers.
Your blood brother is a boy or a man with whom you have a very strong friendship.
Again, it's something that would happen between boys or between men.
It's your best friend.
You say, he's my blood brother.
He's my best friend.
You don't mean your actual brother, the son of your mother and father.
It's your best friend.
Lucy says, yeah, Marlene and I did everything together, and she was my confidant about everything.
Confidant is a person with whom you can share your secrets, a person to whom you can say anything, someone you can trust.
You're confidant.
Lucy says that Marlene was her confidant, but he says she sounds like a great friend.
Lucy says, yeah, she always had my back, and I could always count on her to give it to me straight.
To have someone's back means to defend someone, to help someone.
More generally, to look out for someone's interests, to make sure that nothing bad happens to them.
You may be in a meeting and your co-worker is giving a presentation and he gets a lot of difficult questions.
You decide to help him by answering some of the tough questions.
After the meeting, he says to you, thanks for having my back.
Thanks for defending and helping me.
Lucy also says that she can count on Marlene.
To count on someone is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to trust someone, to believe that someone will do something.
Your boss may say, I'm counting on you to do a good job.
I'm relying on you.
I am trusting you to do a good job.
So Lucy can count on Marlene to give it to me straight.
To give it to someone straight means to tell someone the truth, even if it isn't pleasant, even if it is difficult.
If someone asks you, tell me what you think of this shirt.
So Lucy's friend always gives it to her straight.
But he says a friend like that is hard to come by.
To be hard to come by means to be difficult to find or get, to be uncommon, not common.
Things that are hard to come by are rare.
There was a famous short story in English by the southern writer Flannery O'Connor.
A good man is hard to find.
We could say a good man is hard to come by.
But he says, are you still close?
Meaning, are you and Marlene still close?
Close here means do you have a comfortable, tight relationship, especially between friends?
You may say, oh, I grew up with Steve, but we're not close anymore.
We're not that connected.
We don't talk to each other very often and so forth.
Close has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Lucy responds by saying, not as close as I'd like.
We live in different cities.
And it's hard to keep up with what's happening in each other's lives.
To keep up with something means to be informed about something, to know what is happening, what changes are happening with something.
Someone says, I don't keep up with the news.
Or, I don't keep up with the news about the economy.
What they're saying is they don't know the latest.
They don't understand or they don't know about what has changed or happened in that particular area.
Lucy is saying that it's hard for her to keep up with what is happening in Marlene's life, to know the changes that are taking place, because they live in different cities.
But he says, I can see that, meaning I understand.
Does she know you're getting married?
Lucy says, no.
I wanted to break the news to her face to face.
To break the news means to announce something or to tell someone something usually, but not always, unpleasant or unexpected.
It could be just a surprise.
Sometimes, if it's bad news, the person will say well, I hate to break the news to you, but And then they'll tell you.
That expression I hate to break the news can also be used as a joke, meaning what you are telling them is something that is obvious.
I hate to break the news to you, but...
This is 2008.
Of course, it's obvious that it's 2008.
So the person is making a joke.
Lucy is not making a joke.
She's going to give this surprise news to her friend face to face.
Face to face just means...
In person.
In a situation where the two people are next to each other, they can see each other, not by phone or email.
Face-to-face means that you are physically present in the same place, the same room as the other person.
Buddy says, why?
I would have thought you'd want to tell her the good news right away.
Buddy is saying, I thought you would want to tell her right away.
Lucy says I want her to be my maid of honor and I'm not sure how she'll react to the dress she'll have to wear.
The maid of honor is usually the best friend of a woman who is getting married and is part of what we call the wedding party, the group of people who are witnesses, supporters of the person getting married.
Usually the maid of honor has to wear a dress that the bride will typically pick out for her will select for her.
Lucy says she's afraid how Marlene will react to the dress she has to wear.
Buddy says, is it that bad?
Is it very bad?
Lucy says, my future mother-in-law picked it out, and I can't say no.
To pick it out means to select it, to choose it.
The expression has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
So her future mother-in-law, the mother of the man she's going to marry, selected the dress.
She shows Buddy a picture of it and Buddy says well, I'm glad she's such a good friend, because if anything can break up a friendship, it's that dress.
In other words, the dress is really ugly.
And Buddy is saying well, I'm glad you are good friends, because if you were not, you Asking someone to wear that dress would break up their friendship.
To break up a friendship or to break up a marriage means to end it, to ruin it.
To break up can also mean to separate from someone, especially two people who are dating.
They're not married yet.
They are boyfriend and girlfriend.
And then they decide to break up.
They separate.
They go and find new boyfriends and new girlfriends.
Or they go home and drink and watch baseball.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm so excited.
My friend Marlene is coming to town for a visit.
Have I met Marlene?
No, I don't think so.
We grew up together, and we were always joined at the hip.
When I was little, I had a friend like that.
We were blood brothers.
Yeah, Marlene and I did everything together, and she was my confidante about everything.
She sounds like a great friend.
Yeah, she always had my back, and I could always count on her to give it to me straight.
A friend like that is hard to come by.
Are you still close?
Not as close as I'd like.
We live in different cities, and it's hard to keep up with what's happening in each other's lives.
I can see that.
Does she know you're getting married?
No, I wanted to break the news to her face to face.
Why?
I would have thought you'd want to tell her the good news right away.
Well, I want her to be my maid of honor, and I'm not sure how she'll react to the dress she'll have to wear.
Is it that bad?
My future mother-in-law picked it out, and I can't say no.
Here's a picture of it.
Well, I'm glad she's such a good friend, because if anything can break up a friendship, it's that dress.
You can always count on our script writer for writing good, interesting scripts.
Her name is, of course, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us 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.
