Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 628, Introducing a New Product.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 628.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you so much for having me.
This episode is called Introducing a New Product.
It's a dialogue between Augie and Lillian.
Let's get started.
Today's the day.
I'm giving you the heads up.
Our company is rolling out its new line of cell phones.
I can see you're excited about it.
What's so special about the new products?
This line of phones has state-of-the-art technology and never-before-seen features.
It's been in development for over a year and it's been really hard keeping it under wraps.
I thought information was leaked weeks ago.
Those were just rumors, and the company put a clamp on those pretty quickly.
Wasn't the new line supposed to come out next month?
That was the original plan.
But since McEw Corp is coming out with its own line of phones soon, we wanted to get a jump on them.
And steal their thunder.
Yes, and steal their thunder.
We had to scramble to get the phones ready ahead of schedule, but I think it was worth it.
They're really going to make a splash.
I hope so.
I hope all this hype has been justified.
Oh, it will be.
I'll know soon enough.
How soon?
You'll be begging me to get you one.
Our dialogue begins with Augie saying, Today's the day.
I'm giving you the heads up.
Our company is rolling out its new line of cell phones.
To give someone the heads up means to let someone know something is going to happen in the future.
To give someone information before other people may have it.
You're letting them know early about something.
My friend in the accounting department gave me a heads up about how the company was doing this year.
He gave me some information before other people got it.
In this case, Augie is giving Lillian the heads up about the fact that their company is rolling out its new line of cell phones.
To roll R-O-L-L out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning...
When a company introduces and begins selling a new product or service.
We use this verb to roll out meaning to launch, to begin a new product, start selling something different.
Line here, as in new line of cell phones, just means a new group or a new set of cell phones.
Roll has several meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Lillian says, I can see you're excited about it.
What's so special about the new products?
Augie says State-of-the-art technology with hyphens in between.
Each word means very modern, very advanced, the newest and the best technology.
State-of-the-art technology.
We use state-of-the-art typically to talk about machines or computers, something mechanical.
Never before seen, also with hyphens in between the words never hyphen before.
Hyphen seen means that no one has ever seen or experienced something like this.
It's completely new.
It never existed before in the past.
Augie thinks their cell phones are have never before seen features.
He says When something is in development, we mean that it is being worked on by a company, but it isn't finished yet.
We use this expression a lot here in Los Angeles in talking about movies and films.
And when I say we, I mean people who work in films and movies, not me.
When they say in development, they're referring to something that is not yet produced, often not even yet filmed, but something that they are working on.
In fact, there's even an expression, a development deal, D-E-A-L, or a development agreement.
When one of the big media companies decides to do something about a particular series or idea, they make an agreement with the person and they develop the idea.
They work on it.
Augie says that it's been really hard to keep this new cell phone under wraps.
To keep something under wraps.
W-R-A-P-S means to keep something secret, not to share information about it to other people.
Lillian says, I thought information was leaked weeks ago.
The verb to leak L-E-A-K in this case means to share secret information with the newspaper or with the general public, or on the internet, or about your company or about your organization.
Typically, it's secret information that you are not supposed to tell anyone else.
There are leaks all the time of information from the government.
Somebody tells the media, tells the newspapers about some secret that's called a leak.
Augie says those were just rumors.
A rumor is something that is unofficial and may or may not be true, but many people are talking about it.
There are rumors that Brad Pitt is considering making a movie about my life.
Actually, I'm starting that rumor.
If you could tell other people, then we would have a rumor.
People would be talking about it.
It's not necessarily true, however.
I'll let you guess whether it is true or not.
Augie says the company put a clamp on those pretty quickly.
To put a clamp C-L-A-M-P on something means to stop something from happening or to stop it from continuing to happen, typically by doing something drastic, that is, with a lot of force, power or strength.
Well, the company put a clamp on those rumors pretty or very quickly.
Lillian says, wasn't the new line supposed to come out next month?
The phrasal verb to come out in this case only means to be released, to be introduced to something, to be made available to the public.
So a company that has a new thing it is selling will say the new phone, for example, is coming out in July, meaning that's when you can buy it in July.
Augie says that was the original plan.
But since McEw Corp is coming out with its own line of phones soon, we wanted to get a jump on them.
To get a jump on someone means to do something before someone else does it before you, to do something faster or sooner than another person.
Often, when you are competing with that other person, you may decide to get a jump on your schooling by taking classes in the summer, when everyone else will start in the fall.
You're doing it before everyone else.
Lillian says So.
Augie is saying that their company is releasing their phone now, before the McHugh Corp releases their new phone.
The reason, Lillian says, is to steal their thunder.
Thunder is normally the sound that is made when there is a big storm, and there is what is called lightning, which are very powerful electrical charges that appear sometimes in a big storm.
In this case however, to steal someone's thunder means to take attention away from someone else or to get the praise of other people before the other person can.
It's normally something you don't want to do unless you don't want to be nice to someone.
In this case, the company wants to make sure that its new product gets publicity before McEucorp's new phone.
Augie says yes and steal their thunder.
We had to scramble to get the phones ready ahead of schedule.
But I think it was worth it.
To scramble here means to do something very quickly, to do it faster than you would normally do it.
Scramble however, has a couple of different meanings in English, and those are in the learning guide.
They were scrambling to get the phones ready to Ahead of schedule, meaning before the deadline, before the day that it was supposed to be done.
If your schedule says you're finishing the product or the project next Tuesday and you decide you want to finish it on this Friday.
You are finishing it ahead of schedule, before the original plan.
Augie says the new phones are really going to make a splash.
S-P-L-A-S-H.
To make a splash means to do something that attracts a lot of attention, that many people look at or notice.
Lillian says hype H-Y-P-E is things that are said about a product that make people more interested in wanting to buy it, often before it is even available.
You could talk about the hype over a new movie.
People are talking about it.
People are saying how good it is.
Hype is always a positive thing, at least positive things being said about this new thing that is not yet available.
However, it's sometimes also used to mean that people are exaggerating, are saying things that are better about it than it really is.
Lillian says she hopes the hype has been justified, meaning something that you can support, something for which there's evidence, something that shows that it really is what it says it is.
Augie says, oh, it will be.
I'll know soon enough, meaning very quickly, soon.
Lillian says, how?
Augie says, you'll be begging me to get one.
To beg, B-E-G, means to plead, to ask someone to do something in a very urgent way.
Please help me.
You're begging for help.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Today's the day.
I'm giving you the heads up.
Our company is rolling out its new line of cell phones.
I can see you're excited about it.
What's so special about the new products?
This line of phones has state-of-the-art technology and never-before-seen features.
It's been in development for over a year, and it's been really hard keeping it under wraps.
I thought information was leaked weeks ago.
Those were just rumors, and the company put a clamp on those pretty quickly.
Wasn't the new line supposed to come out next month?
That was the original plan, but since McEucorp is coming out with its own line of phones soon, we wanted to get a jump on them.
And steal their thunder.
Yes, and steal their thunder.
We had to scramble to get the phones ready ahead of schedule, but I think it was worth it.
They're really going to make a splash.
I hope so.
I hope all this hype has been justified.
Oh, it will be.
I'll know soon enough.
How?
You'll be begging me to get you one.
The hype around our scriptwriter is definitely justified.
That's because it's Dr. Lucy Saye. who has never before seen or heard dialogues for you each week.
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.
