Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 762, Eating a Family Dinner.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 762.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Welcome to our podcast.
Go to our website at eslpodcom to download a learning guide for this episode and improve your English faster than a speeding bullet.
This episode is a dialogue about having dinner with a large number of people.
Let's get started.
My roommate Jim invited me over to his house for a family meal.
I'm an only child, so I'm not used to a big family dinner.
I felt like a fish out of water.
Sit down, everybody.
Dinner's ready.
Thank you for having me over, Mrs. Moreno.
Don't mention it.
Just sit down and eat.
Jim, pass the potatoes, and Dana, don't hog the peas.
Hand them both to Phil.
Thank you, Mrs. Moreno, but I've already taken a helping of each dish.
Then you need to have seconds.
You're too skinny.
Eat up.
This food is really good, but I don't think I have the appetite for more.
My plate is already overloaded.
All right, no more potatoes or peas, but you need more ham.
Laura, serve Phil some more ham.
And Jason, round up some more rolls.
No, no, please.
I really couldn't eat more than what's already on my plate.
Don't be ridiculous.
I know you're saving room for dessert.
There's an apple pie, a strawberry shortcake, a cheesecake, and some ice cream.
I now know why Jim only comes home for meals every once in a while.
Eating like this more than once a week would give anybody a coronary.
Our story begins with Phil saying that his roommate, the person that he lives with Jim, invited him over, invited him to his house for a family meal, a meal, a dinner with the other members of.
In Phil says that he was, or is, an only child, meaning that his parents only had one child him.
So he is not used to, he's not familiar with a big family dinner.
He said, I felt like a fish out of water.
The expression a fish out of water is used to describe someone who is very uncomfortable or in a situation that they are not used to being in.
They are in a very different kind of environment than the one they are used to.
I grew up in a big family, so a big family meal would not make me uncomfortable.
But if I go to a house that has a very small family, I might feel like a fish out of water.
Fish, of course, normally are in water, and if they go out of water, well, sometimes they die.
In fact, I think pretty often the fish will die out of water.
Well, Phil doesn't die, but he does have an interesting experience.
He goes to Jim's house, and Jim's mother says, Sit down, everybody.
Dinner's ready.
We are ready to eat.
Phil says, Thank you for having me over, Mrs. Moreno.
To have someone over means to have someone come to your house for a short time to visit and usually to eat.
Phil says, thank you for having me over, Mrs. Moreno.
And Mrs. Moreno, who is, of course, Jim's mother, says, don't mention it.
We use this phrase, don't mention it, to mean sort of you're welcome.
We're saying that you don't have to thank me.
It was nothing.
It's no big deal.
Don't mention it.
She says, just sit down and eat.
Jim, pass the potatoes.
And Dana, don't hog the peas.
To pass something as a verb in this case means to take the dish that has the food and give it to the person usually next to you so he or she can get food for themselves.
Although in some families one person, often the mother, will put the food on the plate for everyone, it's more common that you have all of the plates of food, all of the dishes, on a large table and people pick them up and they give them to the person next to them.
They pass them to the person next to them.
Jim's mother is telling him to pass the potatoes.
And Dana, who we guess is her daughter, don't hog the peas.
To hog as a verb means to use all of something without having anyone else use it, or to take up all the time with something and not let anyone else have time with it.
Your parents might tell you not to hog the TV or, as parents, you may tell your children you're hogging the TV.
I want to watch something now.
You're spending too much time with that, and you're not letting me do it.
Dana is hogging the peas, meaning she's not passing them to other people.
I think that's what Jim's mother means.
She also says, hand them both to Phil.
To hand something to someone means to give them that thing.
In this case, to give the potatoes and the peas to Phil, who is, of course, the guest that they have invited over.
Phil says, thank you, Mrs. Moreno, but I've already taken a helping of each dish.
A helping, as a noun, is a serving.
It's the amount of food that you take and put on your plate to eat.
That's a helping, H-E-L-P-I-N-G.
You could have a large helping.
You could have a small helping, depending on how much food you want to eat.
Phil has already taken a helping of the potatoes and the peas of each dish, a dish that is, in this case, a type of food that has been prepared.
You could have potatoes and vegetables and meat.
Each of those would be a dish.
The word dish as a noun can also mean the plate that you are using to eat off of or, more commonly, the container that the food is kept in.
So you put all of the potatoes into a large bowl.
We could say into a large dish.
Dish has a couple of somewhat confusing meanings here.
Jim's mother says, then you need to have seconds.
Seconds, S-E-C-O-N-D-S, is a second helping or additional food.
You've already had some potatoes, and your mother says, you need to have seconds.
You need to have even more potatoes, a second helping of potatoes.
Jim's mother thinks Phil needs to have seconds because he's too skinny.
He's too thin, kind of like me.
Jim's mother says, eat up.
This expression, informal, eat up, means go ahead and start eating.
Eat everything that we are giving you.
It's a phrase that is used to encourage people to eat more or to start eating.
Phil says this food is really good, but I don't think I have the appetite for more appetite.
A-P-P-E-T-I-T-E is your desire to eat food or how much food you want to eat right now.
If you say, I have a big appetite, that means you are very hungry.
You want to eat a lot of food.
If you don't have much of an appetite, that means you're not very hungry at all.
Phil says that he doesn't think he has the appetite for more food.
He can't eat anymore.
He says my plate is already overloaded.
To be overloaded means to have too much of something, usually more than what the container can hold or the plate can hold.
To be overloaded with food means to have too much food, more than you can eat.
Jim's mother says, all right, no more potatoes or peas, but you need more ham.
Ham, of course, is a type of meat from a pig.
Laura, serve Phil some more ham.
To serve someone, in this case, means to put food on their plate.
I will serve you.
I will put the food that you need on your plate.
We talk about waiters and waitresses in restaurants.
As servers.
They are the people who are serving you, who are giving you the food, or at least bringing it from the kitchen to your table.
Jim's mother tells Laura to serve Phil some more ham, and Jason is told to round up more rolls.
To round up, as a phrasal verb, means to find something and bring it back.
Go out to the kitchen or go to the store and round up some more milk or round up some more bread.
You go and get more of that and you bring it back.
Jason is supposed to round up some more rolls.
Rolls are small pieces of bread that you eat with your meal.
Phil says no no please, I really couldn't eat more than what's already on my plate.
Phil says he can't eat anymore.
Jim's mother says don't be ridiculous.
She's saying don't be silly.
That's not right.
I know you're saving room for dessert.
To save room for when we're talking about eating means not to eat too much, because you want to also be able to eat something else that comes later.
In this case, dessert, the sweet.
Jim's mother says that Phil is saving room for dessert.
She says there's an apple pie, a strawberry shortcake, which is strawberries, on top of a small little cake, a cheesecake cake, made out of cheese, of course, and some ice cream.
After the meal, Phil says, I know now why Jim only comes home for meals every once in a while.
Every once in a while means occasionally, not very often, not frequently.
Eating like this more than once a week would give anybody a coronary.
Coronary, C-O-R-O-N-A-R-Y, here means a heart attack.
It's an informal term referring to when your heart stops beating.
If you eat a lot of unhealthy food...
That may give you high cholesterol, which could eventually lead to you having a coronary or a heart attack.
And that's what Phil is suggesting here.
Notice that Phil doesn't thank Jim's mother for all the work that she has done making the meal.
Instead, he's worried about a heart attack.
Well, too bad, Phil.
Next time, make your own meal.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
My roommate, Jim, invited me over to his house for a family meal.
I'm an only child, so I'm not used to a big family dinner.
I felt like a fish out of water.
Sit down, everybody.
Dinner's ready.
Thanks for having me over, Mrs. Moreno.
Don't mention it.
Just sit down and eat.
Jim, pass the potatoes.
And Dana, don't hog the peas.
Hand them both to Phil.
Thank you, Mrs. Moreno, but I've already taken a helping of each dish.
Then you need to have seconds.
You're too skinny.
Eat up.
The food is really good, but I don't think I have the appetite for more.
My plate is already overloaded.
All right, no more potatoes or peas, but you need more ham.
Laura, serve Phil some more ham, and Jason, round up some more rolls.
No, no, please.
I really couldn't eat more than what's already on my plate.
Don't be ridiculous.
I know you're saving room for dessert.
There's an apple pie, a strawberry shortcake, a cheesecake, and some ice cream.
I now know why Jim only comes home for meals every once in a while.
Eating like this more than once a week would give anybody a coronary.
Our script writer serves us a wonderful dialogue each and every ESL podcast.
Thank you, 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.
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.
