Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 753, Enduring Hazing.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 753.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a conversation between Rafael and Hannah about something called hazing, which is what happens when you join an organization and are made to do certain things that may be humiliating or possibly even dangerous.
Let's get started.
Go away and stop following us.
Our club is for boys only.
But I want to join.
You do, huh?
Did you know that to join our club you have to go through an initiation?
Okay, I'll do that.
What do I have to do?
You have to endure weeks of hazing.
We'll be putting you through your paces to make sure you're club material.
I'm willing to do that.
I can do anything you boys can do.
Watch me.
I'm not so sure.
If you want to be one of the guys...
Everything?
Yeah, everything.
If we tell you to eat dirt, you have to eat dirt.
If we tell you to stand outside in the rain, you have to do that, too.
Get the picture?
Yeah, I've got the picture.
If we tell you to pull a prank, you have to do it.
If we tell you to streak, you have to do that, too.
We decide what crosses the line and what doesn't.
See?
I knew you'd be too chicken to join our club.
You're right.
I don't want to join any club where the members are stupid enough to do all of those things.
I'm starting my own club, one where you don't have to humiliate yourself to get in.
Suit yourself.
I knew you weren't club material.
Thank goodness for that.
Raphael begins our dialogue by saying to Hannah, go away and stop following us.
Stop walking behind us or going where we're going.
Our club is for boys only.
So Raphael and Hannah are children.
A club is an organization, an association, a group of people interested in some topic.
We call the people in the group members of that club.
Sometimes the clubs are formal, but sometimes we use the word informally.
We may have a book club, a group of people who all read the same book and then come together and talk about it.
This is a club of the kind that young boys might have.
And Raphael says that it's for boys only.
Hannah says, I want to join.
I want to become a member.
Raphael says, you do, huh?
Meaning, oh, really?
Did you know that to join our club, you have to go through an initiation?
An initiation is.
I-N-I-T-I-A-T-I-O-N is some sort of series of actions, a ceremony or ritual, we might call it, to bring new members into a group.
It could just be the head of the group saying welcome, you are now members.
It could involve something else.
The new members may have to do something as part of their initiation.
To initiate also means, as a verb, to begin.
So you can see the connection with the noun initiation.
It's something that happens at the beginning of your membership in the club.
Hannah says, okay, I'll do that.
What do I have to do?
Raphael says, you have to endure weeks of hazing.
To endure E-N-D-U-R-E means to experience something difficult unpleasant, something that might be uncomfortable, even painful for a long period of time.
He endured a lot of pain after he broke his leg.
He had to suffer through a lot of pain to tolerate a lot of pain.
Well, Raphael says that Hannah would have to endure weeks of hazing.
Hazing H-A-Z-I-N-G is the process where some clubs or organizations make new members do silly, sometimes stupid or even dangerous things in order to become a member of the club.
This is most common at colleges and universities that have all male or all female organizations, what are called fraternities and sororities, at least the ones that participate in this kind of hazing.
The colleges say they can't do it.
Many students have actually died during these silly, rather stupid initiation rituals or initiation actions.
But it continues to happen.
It seems like every year we read about some hazing incident or situation at a college or university.
Raphael says, we'll be putting you through your paces to make sure you're club material.
To put someone through their paces.
P-A-C-E-S means to test someone thoroughly and completely to make sure that this person can do everything you want them to do.
Well, Raphael is going to try to put Hannah through her paces to make her do all sorts of things.
To make sure, he says, that you are club material.
Material here means good enough to meet the requirements of some job or position.
Sometimes women might say he's not really very good boyfriend material or husband material, meaning he wouldn't make a good boyfriend or a good husband.
That's the idea of material here.
Material can also be the substance, what something is made out of, especially clothing.
But here it means whether this person is good enough for this position.
Hannah says I'm willing to do that.
I can do anything you boys can do.
Watch me.
Watch me is a phrase we use to tell someone to observe what I do, because I'm going to do something unexpected or something you don't think I can do.
For example, there are two men in a park and they see a beautiful woman.
And one man says to the other, you are too chicken to go over and talk to that beautiful woman.
To say you're chicken means you're afraid, you're scared, you'll never go and do it.
And the other man says, oh, you think I'm too scared?
I'm going to go get her telephone number so I can call her and ask her out on a date.
Watch me. meaning I'm going to do something you don't think I can do.
Raphael says, I'm not so sure.
I'm not so sure you, Hannah, can do anything we boys can do.
If you want to be one of the guys, you'll have to do everything we tell you to do, even if you don't want to.
To be one of the guys is an expression meaning to be one of the group, especially a group of boys or young men.
It's usually used to describe a girl or a woman who is friends with a group of men, but not friendly in a romantic way.
Just friendly, just like she were another man.
She may play sports with them or go drinking with them or whatever.
That would be one of the guys.
That's what Hannah wants to be.
Hannah says, everything?
I have to do everything you tell me to do?
Raphael says, yeah, meaning yes, everything.
If we tell you to eat dirt, eat the black part of the earth in essence, you have to eat dirt.
If we tell you to stand outside in the rain, you have to do that.
Two, get the picture.
The expression get the picture as a question is to understand completely what someone is talking about or what someone is asking.
You might also say oh, I get the picture meaning.
Yes, I understand everything you are talking about.
Sometimes we use that expression when you don't actually give the other person all of the specific details, the specific information, but they are able to understand what you are really trying to say.
Hannah says, yeah, I've got the picture.
Got is the past tense, of course, of get.
Raphael says, if we tell you to pull a prank, you have to do it.
To pull a prank P-R-A-N-K means to do something that tricks another person into doing something that makes them look silly or foolish.
It's like a joke.
We might call it a practical joke, a joke that involves some physical action.
He says, if we tell you to streak, you have to do that too.
To streak S-T-R-E-A-K means to take off all of your clothes and run quickly in public, in a park or in a store, past everyone else, without any clothes on, naked.
We would say.
This was a strange thing that became popular in the 1970s when I was growing up.
I'm not sure.
It might have been something that people were smoking.
Streak has a number of different meanings, however, not related to being naked.
You can find those in our learning guide.
Hannah says to Raphael, you can't be serious.
That really crosses the line.
To cross the line means to go too far, to do something that is too extreme, that is unacceptable.
Raphael says we decide what crosses the line and what doesn't.
I knew you'd be too chicken, too scared to join the club.
Hannah says, you're right.
I don't want to join any club where the members are stupid enough, are dumb enough to do all of those things, all of those things involved in the initiation, the hazing.
I'm starting my own club, she says, one where you don't have to humiliate yourself to get in.
To humiliate yourself means to embarrass yourself.
To humiliate H-U-M-I-L-I-A-T-E is to do something silly or stupid that makes other people laugh at you or think something bad about you.
To get yourself in or to get in means to be accepted by a group or an organization.
Hannah says she is going to have a club where you don't have to humiliate yourself to get into the club.
Raphael says suit yourself.
To suit, S-U-I-T, yourself means means to do whatever makes you happy.
The expression is usually used when someone doesn't agree with the actions of another person.
The other person may refuse to do what the first person wants them to do, or they may simply decide to do something different.
You say, well, suit yourself.
It's a criticism.
It's saying, you're not doing what I want you to do, but I don't care.
Go ahead.
Do it.
Raphael says, I knew you weren't club material.
Hannah says, thank goodness for that.
Thank goodness is a phrase we use to show gratitude.
Gratitude or relief, to say oh, that's a good thing.
Thank goodness.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Go away and stop following us.
Our club is for boys only.
But I want to join.
You do, huh?
Did you know that to join our club, you have to go through an initiation?
Okay, I'll do that.
What do I have to do?
You have to endure weeks of hazing.
We'll be putting you through your paces to make sure you're club material.
I'm willing to do that.
I can do anything you boys can do.
Watch me.
I'm not so sure.
If you want to be one of the guys, you'll have to do everything we tell you to do, even if you don't want to.
Everything?
Everything?
Yeah, everything.
If we tell you to eat dirt, you have to eat dirt.
If we tell you to stand outside in the rain, you have to do that, too.
Get the picture?
Yeah, I've got the picture.
If we tell you to pull a prank, you have to do it.
If we tell you to streak, you have to do that, too.
You can't be serious.
That really crosses the line.
We decide what crosses the line and what doesn't.
See, I knew you'd be too chicken to join our club.
You're right.
I don't want to join any club where the members are stupid enough to do all of those things.
I'm starting my own club, one where you don't have to humiliate yourself to get in.
Suit yourself.
I knew you weren't club material.
Thank goodness for that.
Thank goodness we have the best podcast script writer in the world working here at the Center, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
