Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 670, To Forgive and Forget.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 670.
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.
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On this episode we're going to have a dialogue between Luke and Angela called to forgive and forget.
Let's get started.
You'll never guess who called and left a voicemail message today.
Who?
Barbara.
Oh, really?
What did she want?
She said she was calling to RSVP for our party this Saturday.
Did she?
Stop playing innocent with me.
Did you or did you not invite her to our party this Saturday?
I may have.
Okay, I did.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you and Barbara have a knock-down, drag-out fight last month?
We may have.
And didn't you say that you'd never speak to her again, much less invite her over to our house?
That's water under the bridge.
You know what they say.
To err is human.
To forgive, divine.
I can't believe my ears.
You ranted and raved for days that you'd hold against her for the rest of your life all of the terrible things she said about you.
I was being overdramatic.
I don't think I ranted and raved, actually.
We just had a little spat.
It's best just to forgive and forget.
Unbelievable.
Why can't you have a selective memory when we have fights?
Luke begins by saying to Angela, you'll never guess who called and left a voicemail message today.
A voicemail, one word, is a system for recording audio messages from people who call your telephone number and you don't answer the phone.
The call on most phones will automatically go to voicemail, we say.
That is, the voicemail system will begin and allow you to leave a message for that person.
Luke says you'll never guess who called and left a voicemail message today.
You'll never guess is a common expression.
You're going to tell the person something surprising, something that they don't expect.
Angela says, who?
Luke says, Barbara.
Angela says, oh, really?
What did she want?
Why did she call?
Luke says, she said she was calling to RSVP for our party on Saturday.
RSVP is an acronym.
It is composed of letters, the first letter of different words.
These are actually four French words.
And my French is terrible, so I apologize to all French speakers for the following.
That is, please reply or reply if you please.
It's used in invitations in English to ask the person to email, call or write a letter or a note saying whether they will be there or not.
So I invite you to a party, and on the bottom of the invitation, I say RSVP.
That means I want you to let me know if you're coming or not.
It's actually used as a verb.
You'll notice in the sentence Luke says The word to T-O before a verb is the infinitive form.
We say
Angela says, did she?
That is, did she say she was coming to their party on Saturday?
Luke says, stop playing innocent with me.
To play innocent means to pretend not to understand what the other person is talking about, especially when the other person has done something that you consider wrong.
So to play innocent is to pretend, to act as though you don't know something when you really do, and what you know is something that you did wrong.
Luke says, Angela responds by saying, meaning, I may have invited her.
The word may introduces some uncertainty.
We're not sure if she did or not.
But then she says, okay, I did.
I did invite her.
Luke then responds, correct me if I'm wrong.
This is an informal phrase used when you are pretty sure you are correct, but you want the other person to tell you if you are correct.
So Luke says, correct me if I'm wrong.
Tell me if what I am about to say is wrong.
But didn't you and Barbara have a knock-down, drag-out fight last month?
A knock-down, drag-out fight would be a long, perhaps violent fight.
That is, people hitting each other where one person actually falls down.
That's the literal meaning.
However, we sometimes use it just to describe a very serious argument, a serious disagreement, often involving yelling and shouting.
I told you not to come into my room, you.
You know, something like that.
Well, Luke says that Barbara and Angela had one of these knock-down, drag-out fights last month.
Angela, again, doesn't say yes or no.
She says we may have.
By the way, I should say, to knock down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to hit someone or something and make it fall to the ground or fall from the position where it is now.
To drag D-R-A-G out is another two-word phrasal verb meaning to have a very long event, in the sense that you are making it longer than perhaps it needs to be.
That's how it might be used in another situation.
Here, it just means a very serious, long fight.
Angela, as I say, does not say yes or no.
She once again says, we may have, possibly.
Luke says and didn't you say that you'd never speak to her again, much less invite her over to our house?
So Luke is saying you and Barbara had a big fight last month and you said you would never even talk to her again.
You would never speak to her, much less invite her over to our house.
The phrase much less is used to emphasize something that is part of what you have already said.
It's another way of saying if A is true, then B is also true.
So, for example, you might say So we start by saying that Mahmoud is a vegetarian who never eats eggs or milk.
If that's true, then of course he doesn't eat meat either.
This expression much less, is one that has other meanings in English, and those can be found in the learning guide.
So Luke is very surprised that Angela invited Barbara.
Angela says, however, that's water under the bridge.
That fight.
They had those things she said about never inviting her over.
That's all water under the bridge.
Water under the bridge is an expression meaning something that should be forgotten, something that is no longer important.
You used to think it was important, but not anymore, especially if it is related to something like a fight or some unpleasant relationship you had with someone.
Angela says you know what they say.
We use this expression when you are about to give a traditional saying or proverb.
She says, you know what they say, to err is human, to forgive, divine.
To err, E-R-R, means to make an error.
The verb form of error is rarely used, and therefore there are many people now who pronounce error.
E-R-R, as though it were the same pronunciation as error.
So it is very common to hear, to err is human.
The traditional pronunciation is to err is human.
It means to make a mistake is something that all we human beings do.
To forgive, however, to say, that's okay, I forgive you, that is divine.
Divine, D-I-V-I-N-E, is something related to God, something that is in some ways holy.
So the expression to err as human to forgive divine means that making mistakes is human.
But forgiving someone is an even better thing to do.
It's like what God does for us or to us.
This is actually a quotation from one of the great English poets, Alexander Pope, who was not a pope.
Though there was, I'm sure, a Pope Alexander, that's a completely different person.
Pope is the name given to the leader of the Catholic Church and he lives in Rome in technically, Vatican City.
Anyway, getting back to the story here, What Angela is saying is that she has decided to forgive Barbara.
Luke says, Meaning, I don't believe what I am hearing.
We say this when we are very surprised at what someone is telling us.
He says you ranted and raved for days that you'd hold against her for the rest of your life all of the terrible things she said about you.
To rant R-A-N-T and rave R-A-V-E means to complain about something very loudly, to say in very strong words the reasons why you are angry.
This is something people do when they get upset, and they keep complaining about it over and over again, to rant and rave.
To hold something against someone means to refuse to forgive someone for something bad they did to you in the past.
It could have been a year ago.
It could have been 10 years ago.
If you say, I still hold that against him, you mean I have not forgiven him.
I'm still angry at that person.
Many people will also say, I won't hold that against you.
I won't hold the fact that you called me an idiot against you.
I forgive you.
Remember, to err is human, to forgive divine.
Luke says that Angela was very angry.
She ranted and raved loudly, saying that she would hold all of the terrible things that Barbara said about her against her.
But Angela responds I was being overdramatic, meaning I was showing very strong emotions and feelings.
Usually more than what I had to, perhaps because I wanted other people to pay attention to me.
If you, for example, spill a glass of water and you begin crying, oh no, what am I going to do?
My life is over.
I spilled my water.
That's being overly dramatic or overdramatic.
You're expressing feelings that are too strong for the situation, perhaps because you want other people to pay attention to you.
Angela continues, I don't think I ranted and raved actually.
We just had a little spat.
S-P-A-T.
A spat here means a small disagreement, a little fight.
That wasn't very important and didn't last very long.
She says it's best just to forgive and forget.
Spat, I should say, has other meanings that can be found in the learning guide.
The expression to forgive and forget means you're going to decide that you forgive the other person and you're going to forget about what they did wrong to you.
Luke says unbelievable, meaning this is unbelievable.
This is incredible.
So Luke and Angela are married perhaps, and he's saying to her well, you forgive her, why don't you forgive me?
He says, why can't you have a selective memory?
Meaning you only remember certain things, especially things that are in agreement with your own opinions and views.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal rate of speech.
You'll never guess who called and left a voicemail message today.
Who?
Barbara.
Oh really?
What did she want?
She said she was calling to RSVP for our party this Saturday.
Did she?
Stop playing innocent with me.
Did you or did you not invite her to our party this Saturday?
I may have.
Okay, I did.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you and Barbara have a knock-down, drag-out fight last month?
We may have.
And didn't you say that you'd never speak to her again, much less invite her over to our house?
That's water under the bridge.
You know what they say, to err is human, to forgive, divine.
I can't believe my ears.
You ranted and raved for days that you'd hold against her for the rest of your life all of the terrible things she said about you.
I was being overdramatic.
I don't think I ranted and raved, actually.
We just had a little spat.
It's best just to forgive and forget.
Unbelievable.
Why can't you have a selective memory when we have fights?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this was another great script by our script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, thank you for listening to us.
Come back and listen to us again on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
