Following a dress code.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 693.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
We invite you, I invite you, to go to our website at eslpod.com.
There you will find a learning guide for this episode, and your life will be better after that.
This episode is a dialogue between Ty and Nicole.
They're going to be talking about a dress code when certain organizations have requirements for how you must dress.
Let's get started.
You've packed all of the wrong things.
We're going on a luxury cruise and all you've packed are shorts and t-shirts.
I'm going on vacation and I don't have to dress to impress.
You've never been on a cruise like this one, but I have and there's a dress code.
You'll need formal wear for some of the dinners.
I'm not wearing a suit and tie on vacation.
No, not a suit and tie.
There'll be a dance the final night of the cruise that's black tie, so you'll need your tuxedo.
I'm bringing a few cocktail dresses myself.
Don't worry, you can go semi-formal the rest of the evenings.
This is ridiculous.
I have to wear business attire 300 days out of the year and you're making me dress up when I finally go on a vacation.
You don't have to dress up the entire time.
You can go California casual during the day.
I'm just asking that you look presentable a few hours each day.
Is that so hard?
I knew there was a catch when you booked this vacation.
It's less a vacation for me than a dress up party for you.
Dante begins by saying to Nicole, What are you doing?
Why are you taking all of my clothes out of my suitcase?
I just finished packing that.
So Tay and Nicole are going on a trip somewhere and Tay has put all of his clothes into his suitcase, which is a big bag or container for your clothing when you travel.
It could also be called a piece of luggage.
He says, I just finished packing that.
To pack P-A-C-K means in this case to put things into a bag or a suitcase so that you can take them with you when you travel.
Pack has a couple of other meanings as well.
Take a look at our learning guide for this episode to get more information.
Nicole says, you've packed all of the wrong things.
We're going on a luxury cruise and all you've packed are shorts and t-shirts.
A cruise is when you get on a big boat and you sleep on the boat.
Really, it's a ship.
And you go with all these other people on the ship and you usually travel for three or four days, maybe a week or two weeks.
Everyone has their own room and.
It is, for some people, very enjoyable.
I have to say I have been on a couple of short three-day cruises from Los Angeles down to Ensenada Mexico, and I didn't like them very much.
I didn't like the food.
I didn't like being on a big ship there.
But some people love it, and so if you like that sort of thing, that's great.
Not for me.
Anyway, Nicole says they're going on a luxury cruise.
Luxury usually means very expensive, something that's very nice.
But Tay has just packed shorts and t-shirts. so he doesn't have anything very nice to wear.
Tay said, I'm going on vacation.
And I don't have to dress to impress.
This is an expression.
To dress, to impress means to choose your clothing so that other people will have a good opinion of you.
If you are going to an interview for a job, you should dress to impress.
You should want the other person to think that you are very professional, that you take this interview seriously, and so forth.
By wearing the right clothing, then you can impress the other person.
To impress means to give a good opinion to someone else about you.
Nicole says, you've never been on a cruise like this one, but I have.
And there's a dress code.
Code, C-O-D-E, is another name for rule or law.
Here it refers to the rules that the ship has about how you dress.
It's called a dress code.
Many businesses have dress codes.
You can't come in without a tie.
Women can't wear mini skirts.
Men can't wear mini skirts.
I mean, some of them can be very difficult to follow.
My old school, where I went to grade school and high school, had a dress code.
The boys all had to wear shirts and ties and black pants and black shoes and black socks.
That was the dress code.
Well, the ship for the luxury cruise has a dress code.
Nicole says that Tay will need formal wear for some of the dinners.
Formal wear.
W-E-A-R is clothing that is used for very special occasions a wedding, a funeral, an important party such as an anniversary.
These would be times for formal wear.
Also, some restaurants require formal wear.
Tay says, I'm not wearing a suit and tie on vacation.
A tie is what...
Typically man puts on a long piece of fabric, of cloth that is in the front, from your neck down to say, your waist.
A suit refers to a jacket and pants that go together that are very formal looking.
The word suit can be used both for a man and a woman, but suit and tie usually refers to what a man would wear.
Nicole says no, not a suit and tie.
There'll be a dance the final night of the cruise that's black tie.
Black tie is... means that it will be a very formal, a very fancy event.
And the men will have to wear tuxedos.
A tuxedo T-U-X-E-D-O is a special type of suit that men wear for very formal occasions such as a wedding.
But only the men who are participating in the wedding.
The groom and the best man, for example, typically would wear a tux or a tuxedo.
We call it a tux, T-U-X for short.
If you are going to the Academy Awards in Hollywood to receive an Oscar for your latest movie, then you would wear, if you were a man, a tuxedo.
I plan on wearing a tuxedo when I am given an award for my singing at the Grammy Awards.
They're called here in the US.
I'm just waiting for my invitation.
Nicole says, I'm bringing a few cocktail dresses myself.
A cocktail dress is a short or long dress worn by women for a special occasion.
A cocktail is actually another word for an alcoholic drink.
But a cocktail dress is a formal dress that a woman would wear.
Nicole says, don't worry, you can go semi formal the rest of the evenings.
Semi means half or partly.
So semi-formal means not completely formal, but not completely the opposite, what we would call casual.
The opposite of formal when we're talking about clothing is casual.
Tay says, this is ridiculous, meaning this is silly.
This is something very strange, something that people would laugh at.
He says I have to wear business attire 300 days out of the year and you're making me dress up when I finally go on vacation.
Business attire is another term for business clothing, the kind of clothes you would wear to your office or wherever you work.
Attire, A-T-T-I-R-E, is just another word for clothing.
Tay is complaining that he has to dress up most of the days of the year in order to go to work, and now, when he's going on vacation, he doesn't want to dress up.
To dress up is a two-word phrasal verb.
That means to wear clothing that is nicer than what you normally wear or what you would wear on the weekend.
Let's say
Tay doesn't want to dress up for vacation.
Nicole says you don't have to dress up the entire or the whole time.
That is not every day on the vacation.
You can go California casual during the day.
California.
Casual means that you wear clothing that is not quite as nice as a suit and tie, but not jeans and t-shirts either.
It's sort of semi-formal.
California has the reputation of being more relaxed in terms of how people dress.
If you go to Hawaii, people are really relaxed, the island of Hawaii.
California however, is more casual, less formal in terms of the way people dress here, in part because
The weather is hotter and so it doesn't make sense to dress up as much.
At least that's my opinion.
Nicole says, I'm just asking that you look presentable a few hours each day.
To look presentable means to look nice, to look clean so that other people can see you.
When I get up in the morning, I go outside of my house and I get my newspaper, which was delivered to my house.
I try to look presentable.
I try to have at least some clothes on so that if one of my neighbors saw me I wouldn't be too embarrassed.
That's to be presentable, to look nice, to have clean clothing, and so forth.
Tay says A catch.
C-A-T-C-H here means a trick, something that is hidden, something that you don't know about, but you only find out later.
It sounds great, but then when you find the real truth, it isn't so great.
So a catch is the thing that you didn't know about that isn't so wonderful.
And Tay says that he knew there was a catch somewhere when Nicole booked or made the reservations, the plans, for their vacation on this luxury cruise.
He says, He's saying that it isn't really a vacation.
It's an opportunity for Nicole to dress up, to wear nice clothing.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What are you doing?
Why are you taking all of my clothes out of my suitcase?
I just finished packing that.
I'm going on vacation, and I don't have to dress to impress.
I'm not wearing a suit and tie on vacation.
No, not a suit and tie.
There'll be a dance the final night of the cruise that's black tie, so you'll need your tuxedo.
I'm bringing a few cocktail dresses myself.
Don't worry.
You can go semi-form all the rest of the evenings.
This is ridiculous.
I have to wear business attire 300 days out of the year and you're making me dress up when I finally go on a vacation.
You don't have to dress up the entire time.
You can go California casual during the day.
I'm just asking that you look presentable a few hours each day.
Is that so hard?
I knew there was a catch when you booked this vacation.
It's less a vacation for me than a dress-up party for you.
There's no catch here at ESL Podcast.
You listen to the wonderful scripts by Dr. Lucy Say, and your English will get better.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
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.
