Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 810, Switching Cell Phone Plans.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 810.
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.
Just six letters, E-S-L-P-O-D.
Well, a dot and then C-O-M, of course.
Go there, become a member, download the learning guide and improve your English as fast as possible.
This episode is a dialogue about cell phone.
These are cellular or mobile phones.
We're talking about the plans that you get from the phone company.
Let's get started.
I need a new cell phone plan.
These roaming and overage charges are killing me.
I thought you had a good calling, messaging and data plan.
I do, but I'm still going over each month.
Have you thought about a prepaid plan?
You'll never be charged extra.
That's not an option.
I think I need an unlimited plan.
Okay, but I don't understand.
Why do you have roaming charges?
Doesn't your carrier have good coverage all over the country?
I've been taking trips to Mexico to see my new girlfriend and the coverage doesn't extend to Mexico.
Oh, I see.
And the overage charges?
When you're in a long distance relationship, you have to do a lot of calling and texting, not to mention updating social media websites, to stay in touch.
I keep exceeding my allotted 5,000 minutes of calling time and 100 megabytes of data.
What?
To exceed that, you'd have to be on the phone all the time.
Not all the time, but I'm talking to her now.
Do you want to say hi?
You've been on the phone with her the entire time we've been having this conversation?
How else can we keep up on everything that's going on in each other's lives?
I need a new cell phone plan, an agreement that you sign with a telephone company about how much you're going to pay for your cell phone service.
Paul says these roaming and overage charges are killing me.
Roaming R-O-A-M-I-N-G refers to using your cell phone outside of the normal area where the cell phone company provides a connection to its telephone network.
So if I have a here in Los Angeles from a certain company and then I go to a different city and, let's say, my cell phone company doesn't have any of its equipment in that city,
I could still use my cell phone, but I would have roaming charges.
I would have to be paying for the service that I'm using in that city because it wasn't from my company.
Overage charges is money that you have to pay because you used more minutes than are in your plan.
Most cell phone plans in the United States give you so many minutes a month.
Let's say it's 500 minutes or 250 minutes.
After you talk for that long in one month, you have to pay extra for each minute.
That extra amount is your overage.
Charges, of course, just refers to money you have to pay.
Paul says the overage charges are killing him.
He doesn't mean they're actually killing him.
That's just an expression.
When you say something is killing you, you mean it's bothering you.
It's hurting you.
It's something that is having a bad effect on you.
Shauna says, I thought you had a good calling, messaging and data plan.
It used to be, when cell phones first began, that the only thing you could do was talk on them just like on a regular telephone.
Now, of course, you can also send text messages, and with the wonderful world of the Internet, you can also get on the Internet with your phone.
Not all phones, but many phones.
So, messaging is text messaging, sending messages to another phone with your phone.
Data refers to internet connection with your phone.
Paul says, I do, I do have a good plan, but I'm still going over each month.
To go over is a two-word phrasal verb.
That here means to exceed, to use more than what you are supposed to, to use more than the maximum amount.
So if I have 250 minutes of calling on my cell phone and I call 300 minutes, I've gone over.
I have used more than my maximum.
To go over can also mean to review, to look at carefully.
I want to go over these plans with you.
But here in the dialogue, it means to exceed, to go more than the maximum.
People might say, I don't want to go over my limit.
It could be a limit for other things, too.
I have a limited number of girlfriends.
My limit is three.
I can't have more than three girlfriends.
I'm just kidding, of course.
I don't have girlfriends.
You understand the idea, though.
Paul says that he's going over his limits each month for minutes, not girlfriends.
Not even sure if Paul has a girlfriend.
Shauna says, have you thought about a prepaid plan?
Prepaid, P-R-E-P-A-I-D. is when you pay for something in advance before you actually use it.
A prepaid plan when we're talking about a cell phone is when you often buy Like a card and you use the card to add minutes to your phone.
And when those minutes are up, that's it.
You don't have the company send you a bill every month.
You can only use the number of minutes that you buy.
And after that's gone, after you have completed those or finished those minutes, then you can't talk anymore.
You'd have to buy another card.
That's a prepaid plan.
Shauna says if you do that, you'll never be charged extra.
Paul says that's not an option.
I need an unlimited plan.
Unlimited means not limited, without limits, without a maximum value.
So you don't have 500-minute limit.
You don't have any limit.
You can talk for a million minutes if you want.
You won't have a lot of time to do much else, especially if you have three girlfriends.
Paul wants an unlimited plan.
Shauna says, okay, but I don't understand.
Why do you have roaming charges?
Doesn't your carrier have good coverage all over the country?
A carrier, C-A-R-R-I-E-R, Here refers to the telephone company that provides you your phone service.
That's a carrier.
Carrier can have other meanings in English, as can the word roam we mentioned earlier.
Check out our learning guide for additional definitions of those terms.
Coverage C-O-V-E-R-A-G-E is a measurement of the geographic or physical area that you can use with your cell phone carrier.
So when we say a carrier has good coverage, we mean that there are lots of different areas where you can use their service.
Paul says, I've been taking trips to Mexico.
Why?
To see my new girlfriend.
Notice he says new girlfriend.
Obviously, he has other girlfriends.
See, I told you.
Paul's going to Mexico to see his new girlfriend, and the coverage doesn't extend to Mexico.
Extend to means go as far as or simply to include.
And that's actually pretty common.
Most cell phone companies don't extend their coverage to other countries.
Shauna says, oh, I see.
And the overage charges?
Paul says, when you're in a long-distance relationship, that is, if you live in one place and your boyfriend or girlfriend lives in a different city or a different country, you have to do a lot of calling and texting.
Texting is text messaging we talked about earlier, not to mention or in addition to updating social media websites to stay in touch.
So because Paul's girlfriend is so far away, he has to call her a lot, he has to text her a lot and he has to update his social media sites.
Social media would be things like Facebook and Twitter.
Paul says, I keep exceeding or going over my allotted 5,000 minutes of calling time.
My allotted A-L-L-O-T-T-E-D means my assigned or my given.
Your allotted minutes are the minutes that you are given by the telephone company.
Paul has 5,000 minutes.
Man, 5,000 minutes.
That's a lot of time, Paul.
He also has 100 megabytes of data.
Well, that's not very much data.
A megabyte is a way of measuring how much information electronic information, if you will is passed up and down to an internet connection.
And 100 megabytes is not very much.
Shauna says, what?
To exceed that.
And she's talking now about the.
Paul says not all the time, but Do you want to say hi?
Shauna says you've been on the phone with her the entire time.
We have been having this conversation.
So Paul is talking to Shauna about this issue and his girlfriend is on the phone right now from Mexico.
What kind of idiot is Paul?
I mean, seriously.
Well, maybe not so stupid.
I mean, he has more than one girlfriend, you know.
Paul says how else, in what other way, can we keep up on everything that's going on in each other's lives?
To keep up on something is to be aware of what is happening, to know the most recent information about something, especially something that might be changing quickly.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I need a new cell phone plan.
These roaming and overage charges are killing me.
I thought you had a good calling messaging and data plan.
I do, but I'm still going over each month.
Have you thought about a prepaid plan?
You'll never be charged extra.
That's not an option.
I think I need an unlimited plan.
Okay, but I don't understand.
Why do you have roaming charges?
Doesn't your carrier have good coverage all over the country?
I've been taking trips to Mexico to see my new girlfriend and the coverage doesn't extend to Mexico.
Oh, I see.
And the overage charges?
When you're in a long-distance relationship, you have to do a lot of calling and texting, not to mention updating social media websites, to stay in touch.
I keep exceeding my allotted 5,000 minutes of calling time and 100 megabytes of data.
What?
To exceed that, you'd have to be on the phone all the time.
Not all the time, but I'm talking to her now.
Do you want to say hi?
You've been on the phone with her the entire time we've been having this conversation?
How else can we keep up on everything that's going on in each other's lives?
If you want to keep up on the real English used by Americans, then you want to listen to ESL Podcast and read the scripts written by our wonderful script writer, 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.
