Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 929, Trying to Locate Someone.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 929.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode, like all of our episodes, has a learning guide.
You can download it at ESLPOD.com.
In this episode, Carmen and Antonio are looking for someone.
They're trying to find or locate someone.
Let's get started.
Hi, I'm looking for Waldo.
I was told that he comes in here from time to time.
Have you seen him?
Waldo?
I can't seem to pin him down.
Every time I think I'm hot on his trail, I'm too late.
He's skipped town or has gone underground.
That's Waldo.
He's the most elusive person I know.
I think he actually enjoys playing a game of cat and mouse with people who are trying to locate him.
I'm starting to get that feeling.
I've been trying to track him down for over two months now.
He does seem to have a sixth sense and knows when to vanish.
I'm starting to think he doesn't really exist and that he's just a figment of my imagination.
It's funny you should say that.
I think his ultimate goal is to be invisible.
Just another face in the crowd.
Carmen begins our dialogue by saying to Antonio, Hi, I'm looking for Waldo.
I was told that he comes in here from time to time.
To come in somewhere means really to go to a certain place.
From time to time means sometimes but not always.
We might also use the word occasionally.
Carmen says to Antonio, have you seen him?
Meaning, have you seen Waldo?
Antonio says, Waldo?
I haven't seen him in a while, in a long time.
He comes in sometimes, but it's pretty hit and miss.
The expression or the phrase hit hyphen and hyphen miss means unpredictable.
Sometimes it's true, sometimes it isn't true.
In this case, it means sometimes Waldo is there, wherever there is, and sometimes he isn't.
Antonio says that it's pretty or very hit and miss.
Carmen says, I can't seem to pin him down.
To pin P-I-N someone down means to, in this case, force them to make a decision about something, or perhaps to understand someone clearly.
I'm not sure which is the case here for Carmen, which meaning she's talking about.
Normally, to pin someone down is to get them to say yes or no to a question they perhaps don't want to make a decision about.
Carmen says, every time I think I'm hot on his trail, I'm too late.
To be hot on someone's trail.
T-R-A-I-L means to be very close to finding someone, or finding something.
Usually, we use this expression when the person is being chased or pursued by, for example, the police.
When the police are trying to catch a criminal, they may be hot on their trail.
I'm not, again, sure what Carmen is talking about here.
She says, every time I'm hot on his trail, I'm too late.
The expression to skip S-K-I-P town means to leave your town, to leave the place where you are living without telling anyone where you went.
Usually, the expression is used when someone, for example, owes you a lot of money or has a lot of debt and they need to escape because they don't have the money to pay you.
In that case we might use this.
He skipped town because he didn't want to pay his friend back the 5000 that he borrowed.
To go underground means to hide yourself or whatever activities you are participating in.
It means to do something secretly.
To go underground if you're a person means to hide, to make sure no one finds you, probably because you've done something wrong.
That seems to be the case with Waldo here.
Carmen says he skipped town or has gone underground.
Antonio says that's Waldo, meaning that's what we would expect from someone like Waldo.
He's the most elusive person I know.
To be elusive, E-L-U-S-I-V-E, means to be difficult to find.
Or it could also mean something that is difficult to achieve, something that is difficult to accomplish.
I want to be in the Olympics, but it's an elusive goal.
It's a very difficult goal for me to attain, for me to achieve.
Maybe someday though, if they have a podcasting Olympics, I definitely think I could win a gold medal.
Well, a silver medal anyway.
Antonio says Waldo is very elusive.
He says.
I think he actually enjoys playing a game of cat and mouse with people who are trying to locate him.
Antonio is saying that Waldo likes or actually enjoys playing a game of cat and mouse.
To play a game of cat and mouse is to be in a situation where someone is trying to find you and you hide or you do things to avoid getting caught.
If you think about what a cat and a mouse would do if they were in the same room.
You kind of get the idea of what we're talking about here.
The mouse would try to run away from the cat, and the cat would try to catch the mouse.
So playing a game of cat and mouse means hiding from someone else who's trying to catch you.
That's what Waldo likes to do.
He likes to do this with people who are trying to locate or find him.
Carmen says, I'm starting to get that feeling.
She means I'm beginning to understand that that is the truth.
She says, I've been trying to track him down for over two months.
To track T-R-A-C-K someone down is a phrasal verb meaning to find someone, especially someone who is difficult to locate.
My ex-girlfriend tried to track me down, but I changed my name so that she wouldn't find me on the internet.
Don't tell anybody.
Antonio says that Waldo does seem to have a sixth sense and knows when to vanish.
To have a sixth S-I-X-T-H sense means to have a feeling about something, an intuition we might call it, not necessarily a reason.
You think something is going to happen.
You're not sure why.
You can't give an intellectual analysis of the situation, but you just seem to know.
You seem to sense it.
That's what a sixth sense is.
Of course, we normally talk about the five senses that a human being has.
You can see, you can hear, you can taste, you can touch, and you can smell.
Those are the five senses.
The sixth sense is this idea that somehow you have some additional power.
There was a movie you may remember with Bruce Willis called The Sixth Sense.
A very scary movie, but a very good one.
The famous line or sentence from that movie was, I see dead people.
I see dead people.
There are no dead people in this dialogue, however.
Antonio says that Waldo has a sixth sense and knows when to vanish.
V-A-N-I-S-H.
To vanish is to disappear.
Carmen says I'm starting to think he doesn't really exist and that he's just a figment of my imagination.
Carmen is beginning to wonder whether Waldo is even a real person, whether he really exists.
She says, maybe he's just a figment, F-I-G-M-E-N-T, of my imagination.
To be a figment of your imagination means something that you've invented, something that you've created in your own mind, but that is not real.
Antonio says, it's funny you should say that.
It's funny here doesn't mean nothing.
Antonio is laughing.
He means it's interesting or it's curious.
He says, I think Waldo's ultimate goal is to be invisible, just another face in the crowd.
Your ultimate goal is the most important objective, the most important thing that you want to accomplish.
To be invisible, I-N-V-I-S-I-B-L-E, means no one can see you.
Antonio is saying that Waldo's ultimate goal is to be invisible.
Just another face in the That no one can distinguish you from anyone else.
You're very ordinary.
You're very normal.
No one would notice you.
Antonio is saying that Waldo wants to be just another face in the crowd.
Someone that no one notices and therefore no one can find.
My own theory is that Antonio is Waldo.
That's right.
Antonio is Waldo, but he's hiding.
He has something on his face so that Carmen can't recognize him.
Maybe Carmen is Antonio's, that is, Waldo's, ex-girlfriend.
That would explain this dialogue.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hi, I'm looking for Waldo.
I was told he comes in here from time to time.
Have you seen him?
Waldo?
I haven't seen him in a while.
He comes in sometimes, but it's pretty hit and miss.
I can't seem to pin him down.
Every time I think I'm hot on his trail, I'm too late.
He's skipped town or has gone underground.
That's Waldo.
He's the most elusive person I know.
I think he actually enjoys playing a game of cat and mouse with people who are trying to locate him.
I'm starting to get that feeling.
I've been trying to track him down for over two months.
He does seem to have a sixth sense and knows when to vanish.
I'm starting to think he doesn't really exist and that he's just a figment of my imagination.
It's funny you should say that.
I think his ultimate goal is to be invisible, just another face in the crowd.
Our dialogues are never hit and miss because they're written by the wonderful although elusive Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
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.
