Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 627, Being Spontaneous or Well-Planned.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 627.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California.
This podcast has a website at eslpod.com.
Consider supporting this podcast by becoming a member, and You can get more information on our website.
This episode is called Being Spontaneous or Well Planned.
These are opposite things, as we will learn from Mariella and Will.
Let's get started.
Wow, it looks like you're working on a big project.
What are all these pages and pages of notes for?
I'm preparing for my date with Christine.
I want everything to be well planned and to go without a hitch.
Okay, but I still don't understand why you're making such detailed plans.
Don't you think you're taking the spontaneity out of your date?
Why don't you play it by ear?
I know you don't like to fly by the seat of your pants, but maybe she'll have some ideas about what she'd like to do.
Oh, I've taken her preferences into account.
If she wants to do something active we can go bowling or take a long walk.
If she prefers something more passive we'll go to a movie.
Well, it sounds like you've mapped out every possible alternative.
Hey, what's this?
Give me that.
I see you've mapped out more than just your date.
You mapped out the entire trajectory of your life together.
Get married in two years.
Have your first child two years after that.
That is not meant for you.
And plus, it's just a tentative plan.
You mean Christine will have some say in it?
I may let her pick our children's names.
Now, get out of here, will you?
Mariella begins by saying, wow, it looks like you're working on a big project, a large task.
What are all these pages and pages of notes for?
Notes is information that you write down sort of informally when you are thinking about an idea or are listening to someone.
We use the expression to take notes.
For example, at a meeting, somebody takes notes.
Somebody writes down everything that is discussed and decided.
Or a student can take notes in school, writing down what the teacher or professor says.
Well, Mariella sees pages and pages, which is a way of saying a lot of pages of notes, and wants to know what they are for.
Why does he have them?
Will says, I'm preparing for my date with Christine.
A date is, of course, a romantic appointment where you meet someone you are romantically interested in.
He says, I want everything to be well planned and to go without a hitch.
To be well-planned means you know exactly what's going to happen sometime in the future.
You know what you're going to do first, second, and third.
Most people don't think about romantic dates as being well-planned.
Planned.
Perhaps you have an idea, but well-planned gives the idea that it's almost going to be a schedule that you will follow.
But Will says he wants his date to go without a hitch.
H-I-T-C-H.
Without a hitch means without any problems, without any difficulties.
Mariella says okay, but I still don't understand why you're making such detailed plans, plans that include exactly everything that is going to happen.
Will says, I want to be ready for every contingency.
A contingency is something that might happen in the future and could change your plans because it causes problems or difficulties.
So if you have a contingency for rain when you are planning say, a party outside, that means that if it rains, you have something you're going to do to prevent the party from being canceled.
Perhaps you are going to move everyone into your garage or inside of your house, or or inside of your neighbor's house.
You probably should ask them first.
That's a contingency, a plan for something that might go wrong in the future.
Will says, I'll take her to lunch at the garden cafe instead.
See, if it rains, he has a plan about what he's going to do instead of the original plan.
Mariella says, don't you think you're taking the spontaneity out of your date?
Spontaneity, S-P-O-N-T-A-N-E-I-T-Y, is the opposite of well planned.
It's doing things without planning them first, just doing them right at that moment.
Mariella thinks that Will is taking the spontaneity out of his date, meaning he's eliminating.
To take out of means to eliminate, to get rid of.
She says, why don't you play it by ear?
The expression to play something by ear, E-A-R means to be spontaneous, to have spontaneity, to decide at the moment what you're going to do without making plans.
This expression actually has another meaning in English, and that can be found in our learning guide for this episode.
Mariella says To fly by the seat of your pants is another way of saying to be spontaneous, to have spontaneity to decide without making plans in advance.
Sometimes we use this expression in a negative way to describe someone who should have planned but didn't.
Will responds, oh, I've taken her preferences into account.
Preferences are your desires, the things that you want.
To take something into account.
A-C-C-O-U-N-T means to consider what someone else is saying or to consider that other thing.
To take someone's preferences into account means to think about what they want and make that part of your plan.
He says, Active here means with a lot of physical movement.
Not just sitting or standing around and talking, but actually doing something.
Perhaps some sport or something athletic.
The opposite of active is passive.
This is when you just let things happen.
You don't try to change things.
You don't get up and walk around or do a lot of things.
Will says, if his date the woman he's going on the date with prefers something more passive, we'll go to a movie.
Mariella says, well, it sounds like you've mapped out every possible alternative.
By the way, I should mention that active can have other meanings in English and those you can find in the learning guide.
Now, to map out something is a two-word phrasal verb, which means to decide or determine something.
I'm going to map out my plans for tomorrow.
I'm going to write them down.
I'm Mariella says, it sounds like you have mapped out every possible alternative.
She means that Will has planned for every possible alternative.
Alternative is possibility, choice, or option.
Then Mariella sees something.
She says, hey, what's this?
Will says, give me that.
He's obviously angry at Mariella for taking it.
Mariella says I see you've mapped out more than just your date, what you're going to do on your romantic date.
You mapped out the entire trajectory of your life together.
A trajectory is the direction that something follows over time.
We usually use this, for example, when talking about a ball that you throw, or a rocket, a rocket engine that goes up into the sky, a missile.
The trajectory is the path that it takes.
Well, it can also be used to talk about the events or things that will happen in the future in someone's life.
And Mariella sees that Will has mapped out or planned the entire trajectory of his life, together with his date.
Get married in two years.
Have your first child two years after that.
Of course, this is very unusual, especially since this appears to be the first date that Will has with this woman.
Will says that is not meant for you.
To be meant for means to be intended for. with you wanting something to happen.
This is meant for you.
This is intended for you.
I'm doing this for you.
Well, the note is not intended for, it's not meant for Mariella to look at.
She's not supposed to see it.
Will says, and plus, meaning in addition, it's just a tentative plan.
Tentative, T-E-N-T-A-T-I-V-E, means possible but not yet final, not definite, not certain.
This is what I think will happen, but it may change.
My plan may change.
Mariella says, you mean Christine will have some say in it?
To have a say in something or to have some say in something means to be participating in a decision, to have your opinions and your ideas matter in the decision.
You're part of the decision.
Will clearly thinks he will make most of the decisions.
He does say I may, meaning it's possible.
Let her pick our children's names, select the names for the children.
That's the decision that Will's date, Christine, will be given.
He then says to Mariela, now get out of here, will ya?
Get out of here means leave.
We use this expression, will you?
Often spelled and pronounced, will ya?
YA, to ask someone to do something.
It's an informal, very informal way of asking someone to do you a favor, to do something for you.
Will you give me that pen?
Meaning, please give me that pen.
That is what I want you to do.
Will is using it at the end of the sentence, and that sometimes indicates that you are angry with the other person.
Stop talking to me, will you?
You're telling the person something you don't like about what they are doing.
You're indicating, that is, that you are not happy.
And Will is not happy that Mariella saw this note that he wrote for himself, planning out his entire life with his date Christine.
Poor Christine.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wow, it looks like you're working on a big project.
What are all these pages and pages of notes for?
I'm preparing for my date with Christine.
I want everything to be well planned and to go without a hitch.
Okay, but I still don't understand why you're making such detailed plans.
I want to be ready for every contingency.
For instance, I planned a picnic, but if it rains I'll take her to lunch at the garden cafe instead.
Don't you think you're taking the spontaneity out of your date?
Why don't you play it by ear?
I know you don't like to fly by the seat of your pants, but maybe she'll have some ideas about what she'd like to do.
Oh, I've taken her preferences into account.
If she wants to do something active, we can go bowling or take a long walk.
If she prefers something more passive, we'll go to a movie.
Well, it sounds like you've mapped out every possible alternative.
Hey, what's this?
Give me that I see you've mapped out more than just your date.
You mapped out the entire trajectory of your life together.
Get married in two years, have your first child two years after that.
That is not meant for you.
And plus, it's just a tentative plan.
You mean Christine will have some say in it?
I may let her pick our children's names.
Now, get out of here, will you?
Our scriptwriter never plays it by ear.
She never flies by the seat of her pants.
Oh no, her scripts are always well planned.
That's because she's the one, the only, 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.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
