Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 845, Dropping Out of College.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 845.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is to be found at eslpod.com.
To be found on our website are the learning guides for these episodes.
If there's something you don't quite understand, you want more explanation?
Take a look at the learning guide.
This episode is a dialogue between Aaron and Margot about leaving college before you are finished.
Let's get started.
Mom, I have something to tell you and you're not going to like it.
What is it?
I want to get out into the real world and get a job.
I'm wasting time in school.
You'll get a better job if you stay in school and graduate with a degree.
You'll have more earning power and better long-term prospects.
I'm sick of school.
All of my friends are earning money, buying cars and living life.
I feel like life is passing me by.
Your friends didn't go to college and got a job right out of high school.
That's right.
There's nothing wrong with that.
No, there isn't and right now they seem to be living the high life.
They don't have any responsibilities and can blow their paychecks on having fun.
Once they have a family, their paychecks won't stretch very far.
With a degree, you'll out-earn them right out of the gate when you graduate in two years.
I don't want to wait.
This is all about delayed gratification.
A little suffering now will pay off in the long run.
Trust me, two more years and you'll be done.
Yeah, maybe I can stick it out for two more years and then no more school, ever.
Unless you decide to go to graduate school.
Mom, don't push it.
Aaron says to Margo, who we find out is his mother.
Mom, I have something to tell you and you're not going to like it.
Margot says, Aaron's mom, what is it?
Aaron says, I'm dropping out of college.
To drop out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to stop going to school before you have completed your education, before you have received your degree or certificate, you can drop out of high school.
We have many young people who stop going to high school after they turn 16 years old.
In the United States.
In most states, you can leave high school when you turn 16, even though you haven't completed your high school diploma or certificate.
The Normal age is 18 to complete high school, 17 or 18.
It is possible to stop going to school before that.
That's what we call dropping out.
You can also drop out of college, leave college before you finish your degree.
That's what Aaron wants to do.
He says, I want to get out into or to go into the real world and get a job.
When people say the real world, they mean not inside of a school, to be out where people are working doing things like making money.
Aaron says, I'm wasting time in school.
To waste time means you aren't doing anything very useful or productive.
Margo says, you'll get a better job if you stay in school and graduate with a degree.
Margo's trying to convince her son that...
If he wants to get a good job, he should stay in school and graduate.
To graduate means to complete your program.
I graduated from high school in 1981.
That's when I completed my high school degree, my high school diploma, we would call it.
Degree is usually a word we use when you finish school. some sort of college program.
You can have an undergraduate degree, what we call a bachelor's degree, or you could have a graduate degree, such as a master's or a doctorate.
Margot says you'll have more earning power and better long-term prospects.
Margot was saying to Aaron, if you graduate with a degree, you'll have more earning power.
Earning, E-A-R-N-I-N-G, refers to getting money by working.
Earning power is the ability to make a lot of money from your work.
Long term... means for a very long time.
Prospects, P-R-O-S-P-E-C-T-S, refer to opportunities.
So long-term prospects are your opportunities for the future, for many years into the future.
Aaron says, however, I'm sick of school.
I'm tired of school.
All of my friends are earning money, buying cars and living life, living a normal life.
I feel like life is passing me by.
The expression life is passing me by or passing someone by, means that you feel that your life is very boring, that you're getting older but you're not getting more out of life.
You're not enjoying life the way other people enjoy life.
That's boring.
The meaning of the expression, life is passing me by.
Margo says your friends didn't go to college and got a job right out of high school, meaning immediately after they finished high school.
Aaron says, that's right, that's correct.
There's nothing wrong with that, meaning that's okay.
Margo says no, there isn't.
She's agreeing with Aaron that there isn't anything wrong with getting a job when you graduate from high school and not going to college.
However, she's also reminding Aaron that in the future, he will be better off than his friends.
He will have a better job than his friends because he did wait to get a job and go to college instead.
Margot says, right now at this moment, your friends seem to be living the high life.
The high H-I-G-H life is a relaxed comfortable, exciting life.
Spending a lot of money on your own comfort, your own entertainment.
A good life.
And that's what Margot is saying that Aaron's friends are doing right now.
They're living the high life.
They don't have any responsibilities and can blow their paychecks on having fun.
To blow B-L-O-W your money on something means to spend it on something that isn't very important or to waste your money on something that isn't very useful.
I'm going to go to Vegas and gamble.
I'm going to go to Las Vegas and play cards and gamble a million dollars.
I'm going to blow a million dollars.
Well, I don't have a million dollars but it's just an example.
To blow it means to waste it, to lose it in this case.
Margot says that Aaron's friends can blow their paychecks on having fun.
Your paycheck is the money you receive for working at your job.
Margot says, once they have a family, once they get married and have children, their paychecks won't stretch very far.
To not stretch S-T-R-E-T-C-H very far means they won't be able to pay for everything they want and need because they won't have enough money.
So if you only have to worry about yourself, you may be able to buy whatever you want.
But when you get married and have a family and have children, well then your money will not stretch very far.
You will have less money to spend because you have more things to buy.
Margot says with a degree, with a college degree, you'll out-earn them, your friends, right out of the gate.
When you graduate in two years,
To out-earn means to earn more than, to get more money at a job than. the other people.
To out-anything means to do more of that.
You can out-perform.
You can out-sing.
You could out-swim, meaning you would perform better, you would sing better, you would swim better than the other people.
Right out of the gate, G-A-T-E, means immediately.
As soon as you graduate, right out of the gate, you will start to make more money than your friends.
Aaron says, I don't want to wait.
This, of course, is the problem of many young people.
They do not understand that you need to wait in order to get good things in life.
If you spend your time wisely,
But they don't want to wait.
Margot says, this is all about delayed gratification.
Gratification is getting good things in your life.
To delay, D-E-L-A-Y, means to wait.
So delayed gratification is waiting for the good things.
Many people can't delay their gratification.
They want gratification right now.
And so, instead of going to college and getting a degree, they want to go out and get a job right away.
Or when they get money, the first thing they do is they spend their money, even though they should perhaps wait, save their money and buy something in the future instead.
Margot says a little suffering, a little pain now will pay off in the long run.
To pay off means to be worthwhile, to have benefits.
The long run means in the future, in the long term, which is an expression we used earlier.
Aaron's mom says, trust me, two more years and you'll be done.
Aaron says, yeah, maybe I can stick it out for two more years.
To stick it out means to wait, to delay.
And then no more school.
Margot says, Unless you decide to go to graduate school.
Graduate school is where you go after you finish your bachelor's, if you want a master's or a doctorate in something.
Aaron says, Mom, don't push it.
The expression, don't push it, means push.
Stop right there.
Don't try to get a better deal or don't try to get even more out of this negotiation or this conversation.
We often use the expression jokingly, humorously, don't push it.
So, for example, your daughter asks you if she can use your car to go to a movie.
And you say, okay, fine.
And then she says, oh, and can you also pay for the movie?
And you say to her, don't push it, meaning you've already gotten something good.
Don't ask for more.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Mom, I have something to tell you and you're not going to like it What is it?
I'm dropping out of college.
I want to get out into the real world and get a job.
I'm wasting time in school.
You'll get a better job if you stay in school and graduate with a degree.
You'll have more earning power and better long-term prospects.
I'm sick of school.
All of my friends are earning money, buying cars, and living life.
I feel like life is passing me by.
That's right.
There's nothing wrong with that.
No, there isn't.
And right now they seem to be living the high life.
They don't have any responsibilities and can blow their paychecks on having fun.
Once they have a family, their paychecks won't stretch very far.
With a degree, you'll out-earn them right out of the gate when you graduate in two years.
I don't want to wait.
This is all about delayed gratification.
A little suffering now will pay off in the long run.
Trust me.
Two more years and you'll be done.
Yeah, maybe I can stick it out for two more years and then no more school ever.
Unless you decide to go to graduate school.
Mom, don't push it.
She went to graduate school and is now living the high life, I hear.
I speak, of course, of our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen again right 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.
