Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 702, Finding Other Singles.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 702.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development, wwweslpodcom.
This episode is called Finding Other Singles People Who Do Not Have a Romantic Partner.
Let's get started.
I was tired of being single.
All of my friends had paired up and I was left hanging.
Like everybody else these days, I tried using the internet to find other singles, but I never had any luck.
Cruising for my ideal woman among a bunch of lonely hearts is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
I needed another strategy.
I finally hit on a brilliant idea.
I would find places where single women naturally congregate and simply show up.
It may turn out to be a wild goose chase but I was willing to give it a shot.
That's how I decided to take a jewelry making class at the community center.
I may not know much, but But I do know that two things that naturally go together are women and jewelry.
I got to the class a few minutes late so I could make a grand entrance.
But when I walked in, I got the shock of my life.
The room was full of single women, all right, but not one of them was under the age of 70.
They were definitely glad to see me.
I even received a couple of invitations to dinner that day, but to be honest, that wasn't the kind of dinner date I had been looking for.
To be single means not to be married or dating anyone not involved in a romantic relationship.
I am married, happily married, we'd say so.
This isn't me.
But the person in the story says that all of his friends had paired up.
To pair P-A-I-R up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to become involved in a romantic relationship, to no longer be single.
The person in the story was left hanging.
To be left hanging means to remain wanting to do something or have something, but you don't have it.
Other people have it, but you don't.
So everyone in your group gets a ticket and But you don't.
You're left hanging.
You are the one who doesn't get what everyone else gets.
He says that, like everybody else these days nowadays, during this time I tried using the internet to find other singles.
But I never had any luck.
Cruising for my ideal woman, he says, among a bunch of lonely hearts is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
To cruise C-R-U-I-S-E for women is a term that used to mean only you were looking to find women for a sexual relationship.
It here is used a little more broadly, a little more generally to mean trying to find a woman who will be your new romantic partner.
You could go to a bar or a disco.
Do we still call them discos?
A dance club, I guess we call them.
I guess I'm really old calling them discos.
Anyway, going to places where young single women might be and trying to find one of them and hope that one of them becomes a romantic partner.
The person in the story who really needs a name, don't you think?
Let's call him Bill.
Bill is saying that he doesn't want to cruise for his ideal or perfect woman among a bunch of lonely hearts.
The term lonely means alone, by yourself.
Lonely hearts refers to people who are single but they feel alone and they want to find a romantic partner.
They're not happy being single.
Lonely hearts is an old term, but it's still used.
He thinks Bill, that cruising for ideal women on the Internet was like looking for needles in a haystack.
The expression to find a needle, N-E-E-D-L-E, in a haystack means to find something very difficult.
Something that's very difficult to find because it isn't very common.
It's very rare.
A needle is a small piece of metal you use, for example, for sewing, when you are repairing a piece of clothing.
Or a needle is also what we call... the thing the doctor puts in you to give you some medicine.
They stick the sharp thin, long needle into your arm or somewhere else and they are able to give you the medicine that way.
So a needle is very small, very thin, very difficult to find.
A haystack is a large pile... of hay.
Hay is dry grass or other kinds of plants that you will find usually on a farm.
The hay is all put on top of each other and, of course, to try to find a needle if you put it into the haystack would be almost impossible.
So that's the expression, to find a needle in a haystack.
So what Bill is saying is that cruising for his ideal woman among a bunch of lonely hearts is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
It's almost impossible.
He says I needed another strategy.
I needed another plan, another approach.
To hit on something here means to find someone, to discover something, or to realize something.
Usually it's used when talking about an idea or a solution to a problem.
Ironically, there's another meaning of hit on, which is when a man or a woman tries to get another man or a woman interested in them romantically.
They start talking to them and smiling at them and making jokes.
This could be a way of hitting on a woman.
But here, we're not talking about that informal use of the expression.
This is a phrasal verb meaning to suddenly find a new idea or a solution to a problem.
Bill says, To congregate is when a group of people come together.
We talk about the members of, for example, a church as a congregation.
They all come together.
They all meet at a certain place.
Bill is going to try to find places where single women would go, and he will then simply show up.
To show up is a phrasal verb meaning to go somewhere without plans, without making special arrangements, often without getting the permission of the people who are there.
They don't know you're going to be there.
Suddenly you show up.
You arrive.
You appear.
It doesn't always have to be unplanned.
You could say, I went to the cafe to meet a woman I found on the internet, but she never showed up.
Actually, it wasn't a woman, it was a man.
You just didn't realize it because it was the internet, you see.
You've got to be careful.
Anyway.
Anyway.
This is Bill's great idea.
He says that it may turn out.
It may result that this is a wild goose chase, but he was willing to give it a shot.
The expression wild goose, G-O-O-S-E, chase, C-H-A-S-E, means to try to do something that you are not successful in doing because it is difficult or impossible or was a bad idea or strategy to begin with.
In other words, you never should have tried to do it.
It was an impossible task.
A goose is, you may know, a kind of bird.
Bill says that he was willing, however, to give it a shot.
The expression to give something a shot means to try to do something even when you know you probably will not be successful, or when you don't expect to succeed or to do it.
He says that he decided to take a jewelry-making class.
Jewelry is like rings and necklaces, things that you would wear.
He's taking a class on how to make your own jewelry and he says that, Since women love jewelry, this is a great place for him to find single women and therefore to try to find his ideal woman.
He arrives at the class a few minutes after it starts, so he could make a grand entrance.
To make a grand entrance is to enter a room at a certain time or in a certain way so that everyone notices you.
This is true if you are going into a room where there are a lot of people.
You will do something so that everyone knows that you are in the room or that you are coming into the room.
Bill says when he walked in, however, he got the shock of his life.
The shock of your life is some very unexpected, powerful surprise.
Something that surprises you in a big way.
He says that the room was full of single women.
All right, meaning it was definitely full of single women.
The expression all right, two words, is used to emphasize that something is true or correct.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional uses of this term or based on this term.
So Bill is saying yes, there were a lot of single women there, but none of them was under or less than the age of 70.
They were all 70 years old or more.
He says they were definitely glad to see him.
He even received or got a couple of invitations to dinner.
The women asked him to go to dinner with them.
He says, but to be honest, that wasn't the kind of dinner date I had been looking for.
A dinner date is an invitation to eat dinner with another person, often hoping that this will be something that will begin a romantic relationship or make your romantic relationship stronger.
Obviously, Bill was not interested in dating women over the age of 70.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
I was tired of being single.
All of my friends had paired up and i was left hanging like everybody else these days.
I tried using the internet to find other singles, but i never had any luck.
Cruising for my ideal woman among a bunch of lonely hearts is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
I needed another strategy.
I finally hit on a brilliant idea.
I would find places where single women naturally congregate and simply show up.
It may turn out to be a wild goose chase, but I was willing to give it a shot.
That's how I decided to take a jewelry-making class at the community center.
I may not know much, but I do know that two things that naturally go together are women and jewelry.
I got to the class a few minutes late so I could make a grand entrance, but when I walked in I got the shock of my life.
The room was full of single women, all right, but not one of them was under the age of 70.
They were definitely glad to see me.
I even received a But, to be honest, that wasn't the kind of dinner date I had been looking for.
The best strategy to learn English is to listen to the dialogues and stories written by our own wonderful Dr Lucy Saye.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here 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.
