Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 878, Recovering from an Illness or Injury.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 878.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to ESLPOD.com and become a member of ESL Podcast today.
This episode is a dialogue between Julio and Paula about getting injured, having something bad happen to your body.
Let's get started.
Hi, Aunt Louisa.
It's Julio.
And Paula.
I'm on the extension in the kitchen.
Anyway, we just wanted to call and wish you a speedy recovery.
Get plenty of bed rest and take it easy.
Avoid greasy or spicy foods and drink lots of liquids.
You don't want to become dehydrated.
Don't listen to him.
You need to stay active and not get in the habit of sitting around.
You'll recover faster if you get up and move around a lot.
That's terrible advice.
She needs rest and to eat right.
You know what they say Feed a cold, starve a fever.
What does that old adage have to do with anything?
What you need, Aunt Louisa, is to alternate between a heating pad and an ice pack.
What are you talking about?
Aunt Louisa has a bad cold.
What?
I thought she had a sore back.
Our dialogue begins with Julio talking on the phone to his aunt Luisa.
Your aunt is the sister of either your mother or your father.
Julio says, hi, Aunt Louisa, it's Julio.
Also, however, talking on the telephone is Paula.
So after Julio says hello to his aunt, Paula, who's on the extension in the kitchen, says hello.
The extension is an additional telephone that is connected to the same phone number, to the same line, so that two people in one office or one house can both talk to someone.
Of course this isn't possible on a cell phone, but it is possible when you have the physical phone lines coming into your house or your building.
We sometimes call that a landline.
L-A-N-D-L-I-N-E.
A landline is...
You might call it an old-fashioned phone.
It's not a cellular phone.
It's not a mobile phone.
It's a phone that is connected to your house with physical wires.
Well, Paula and Julio are both talking to their aunt Luisa.
Paula is on the extension in the kitchen.
Once again, extension is just another phone in the house or in the building.
Julio says, anyway, we just wanted to call and wish you a speedy recovery.
That use of anyway at the beginning of the sentence is very common in modern conversational English.
It can be used in a change the subject or to return the conversation to the topic you were on before someone else changed it.
Julio was talking to his aunt Luisa, and then Paula came in shifting the attention of the conversation to her.
So Julio wants to get back control, if you will, of the conversation.
So he says anyway, meaning paying attention to me now.
We just wanted to call and wish you a speedy recovery.
Speedy, S-P-E-E-D-Y, means quick or fast.
Rapid would be another term.
Recovery means is when you get better after feeling sick or after being hurt.
Recovery is getting better from an illness.
A speedy recovery would be doing that quickly.
Paula and Julio are calling to wish their Aunt Louisa a speedy recovery.
They're hoping she gets better soon.
Julio says, get plenty of bed rest and take it easy.
Bed rest is simply lying in your bed, not getting up, not moving.
Take it easy is a general expression we use to mean relax.
Try not to do anything that's difficult.
Take it easy.
Sometimes we use that expression as a way of saying goodbye to someone.
Okay, well, it was nice to see you.
Take it easy.
You're really sort of saying goodbye in that instance.
Here, Julio means exactly what he says.
He wants his aunt to relax, to not do anything difficult.
Then he says, avoid greasy or spicy foods.
Greasy, G-R-E-A-S-Y, is food with a lot of oil and fat in it, like fat.
I don't know, duck or certain kinds of pork might be greasy.
Spicy, S-P-I-C-Y, is a very burning hot sensation produced in the mouth, usually by hot peppers.
Certain kinds of food from certain countries can be spicy.
Food from Mexico, for example, can be spicy.
Food from Thailand can be spicy.
Lots of different countries have spicy foods as part of their traditional food.
Julio is telling his aunt to avoid greasy or spicy foods.
Don't eat them.
Avoid them.
He says, drink lots of liquids.
Liquids would be things like water or milk or soda or tea.
Those are all liquids.
It's not unusual for people who are recovering from certain kinds of sicknesses to give this sort of advice.
Julio says, you don't want to become dehydrated.
To be dehydrated, D-E-H-Y-D-R-A-T-E-D, means to not drink enough water or not drink enough liquid so that your body feels ill, it feels weak.
If you go all day and you don't drink anything, any sort of liquid...
Your body might start to feel weak.
It's becoming dehydrated.
Hydration has to do with water or liquid.
Dehydration is when you don't have enough water or liquid.
Paula says, don't listen to him.
Don't listen to Julio.
You need to stay active and not get in the habit of sitting around.
So Paula comes on the phone and gives completely opposite advice to her aunt Louisa.
I think Paula is Julio's sister.
Sisters do this sometimes.
They think that their brothers don't know anything.
I think my sister Kathy feels that way about me.
Anyway, Paula gives Aunt Louisa completely different advice.
She tells her to stay active.
To stay active means to use your body for physical activities, often to help maintain your health.
So go to the gym or exercise or Jog around the block, run around the block.
All these are ways of staying active.
To get into the habit of something means to get used to something so that you do it regularly.
You continue to do it without having to think about it.
That's what a habit, H-A-B-I-T, is.
It's something you do all the time regularly without really even thinking about it.
I get up in the morning.
I brush my teeth.
I clean my teeth.
That's a habit.
I don't have to write it down to remember, I just know that that's what I do every morning.
That is what Paula is talking about when she is telling her aunt not to get in the habit of doing something meaning don't make that a regular part of your day.
What doesn't Paula want her aunt to do?
She doesn't want her aunt getting in the habit of sitting around.
To sit around means just to sit in a chair and not do anything, have no physical activity.
Paula says you'll recover faster, you'll get better faster, if you get up and move around a lot.
Julio says that's terrible advice.
That's bad advice, a very bad suggestion.
She needs rest and to eat right.
Julio is saying that his aunt needs to rest in bed and to eat the right foods.
You know what they say, feed a cold, starve a fever.
This is an old expression.
To feed means to give someone food.
Feed a cold means when someone has a cold, they should continue to eat.
If someone has a fever F-E-V-E-R, where their body's temperature is higher than it should be, then you don't give them food.
To starve, S-T-A-R-V-E, means not to have enough food.
In this case, it simply means don't give someone food who has a fever.
But if they have a cold, you should give them food.
You should feed them.
Paula says, An adage, A-D-A-G-E, is a saying... or a traditional expression.
We might also call it a proverb, P-R-O-V-E-R-B.
Paula says, what you need, Aunt Louisa, is to alternate between a heating pad and an ice pack.
To alternate between something and something else means to go back and forth.
First do one thing, then do another thing.
In this case, first use a heating pad and then an ice pack.
A heating pad.
P-A-D is something that you put on your body to make it warm, and It's usually a piece of cloth or fabric that has electrical wires inside of it that produce heat, so that if you hurt, for example, your leg, you can put this pad on, this cloth on that will get hot and help it relax.
An ice pack, P-A-C-K, is a small container of usually water that is frozen.
That is to say it's ice that is put into a small plastic container or other small container and put on your body to keep yourself warm part of your body cold.
For example, if you hurt yourself, you may put an ice pack on it so that the injury doesn't get any worse or to help it recover.
Both heating pads and ice packs are used for typically, injuries to your muscles.
When you hurt some part of your body related to your muscles and Julio says what are you talking about, Paula?
Aunt Louisa has a bad cold.
Aunt Louisa did not hurt her muscles, did not have any sort of physical injury.
Instead she has a cold, which usually involves having a sore throat.
You might be coughing, you might have a headache all of these things are part of having a cold.
A cold is usually not a serious disease a serious illness, i should say.
Paula says what i thought she had a sore back, sore s-o-r-e is a part of your body that hurts.
Paula thought that Aunt Louisa's problem was a sore back, that she hurt the muscles in her back or some other part of her back.
And that's why she was telling her to stay active and to use a heating pad or an ice pack.
But of course, Julio knows what's going on here.
Brothers usually know more than sisters.
And he says, no, no, she just has a cold.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hi Aunt Louisa, it's Julio.
And Paula.
I'm on the extension in the kitchen.
Anyway...
We just wanted to call and wish you a speedy recovery.
Get plenty of bed rest and take it easy.
Avoid greasy or spicy foods and drink lots of liquids.
You don't want to become dehydrated.
Don't listen to him.
You need to stay active and not get in the habit of sitting around.
You'll recover faster if you get up and move around a lot.
That's terrible advice.
She needs to rest and to eat right.
You know what they say, feed a cold, starve a fever.
What does that old adage have to do with anything?
What you need, Aunt Louisa, is to alternate between a heating pad and an ice pack.
What are you talking about?
Aunt Louisa has a bad cold.
What?
I thought she had a sore back.
Our script writer alternates between writing wonderful scripts and great scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
