Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 933, Letting Go of the Past.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 933.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Emma and Uday about forgetting about things that have happened to you in the past.
Let's get started.
I beg to differ.
I don't want to move on.
If you've had the life I've had, you'd cling to the past too.
But your best days are still to come.
Constantly harking back to days gone by doesn't allow you to live in the moment and to plan for the future.
So what?
I have my memories to comfort me in my old age.
You're speaking as though your life were over.
You're still young.
These old trophies and football jerseys won't keep you young.
Yes, but they help me remember some of the highlights of the old days.
Did I ever tell you about the time I single-handedly won the game?
Emma begins our dialogue by saying to Uday, I think it's time.
It's time is a phrase we use to mean that something should be done right now immediately, without waiting.
We're not sure exactly what Emma is talking about, however.
What needs to be done right now?
We don't know yet.
We do know that Uday then says, I beg to differ.
To beg B-E-G to differ is an old phrase, very formal phrase that that is used to show that you disagree with another person.
I beg to differ means I think you're wrong or I disagree with you.
Emma says you can't live in the past.
To live in the past is to spend all of your time thinking about things that have happened to you last year, last month, maybe 20 years ago.
That would be to live in the past, not to be thinking about your future or even your present, but to be constantly thinking about things that you did many years ago.
Emma says, I know that you like reliving your glory days.
But the only way to move on is to let go of the past.
To relive means to live again.
Really, it means to experience something again or to think about something as if it were happening right now.
To relive your glory days would be to continue to think about or try to do again the things that you did in your glory days, or the days when you were popular or successful.
The term glory days refers to the best days of your life.
There was a song by Bruce Springsteen many years ago called Glory Days, about someone who was looking back at the times when he was successful in his life.
Emma says that it's fun to relive your glory days, but the only way to move on is to let go of the past.
To move on means to continue with the future without thinking about things that have happened in the past.
Usually we use this expression, this phrasal verb, when something bad has happened to us.
And perhaps it's preventing us from moving forward, from continuing with our lives.
Your girlfriend decides to break up with you.
You need to move on.
You need to find another girlfriend who will also, of course, break up with you.
But that's not the idea here.
To move on means to continue forward with your life without worrying about the past.
Emma also uses the expression here to let go of the past.
To let go of the past means something similar.
To stop thinking about things that have happened in the past and instead to think about your future.
Uday says, I don't want to move on.
If you've had the life I've had before, You'd cling to the past too.
To cling, C-L-I-N-G, means to hold tightly onto something.
However, here it means to think about your past all the time, not to be able to forget about it.
To cling to your past would be the opposite of letting go of your past.
To let go of something means to stop holding it, to stop gripping it.
Uday doesn't want to let go of the past.
He wants to cling to the past.
Emma says, but your best days are still to come.
Emma is saying that the best things in Uday's life haven't happened yet.
So he should be looking forward to what will happen to him, not thinking about the past.
Emma says, constantly harking back to days gone by doesn't allow you to live in the moment and to plan for the future.
To hark back to something means to refer to something that happened in the past, to remind you of something that has happened in the past.
Days gone by is a somewhat poetical way of saying the past, things that have already happened.
Emma says that you can't live in the moment and plan for the future if you are constantly thinking about the past.
To live in the moment means to live in the present, to think about and focus on what is happening to you right now, not what happened to you yesterday or 10 years ago, and not to think about what will happen even in the future, but instead to think about what is going on in your life right now, at this very minute.
Emma is asking Uday to forget about his past and to live in the moment, as well as to plan for the future.
Uday says, so what?
I have my memories to comfort me in my old age.
Uday is saying so what, meaning why is that important?
What you are saying to me isn't important.
I have my memories to comfort me.
Your memories are things that you remember.
To comfort means to make you feel calm or relaxed, to feel good about yourself.
Uday is saying that he has his memories to comfort him in his old age as he gets older.
Emma says, you're speaking as though your life were over.
You're still young.
Uday says, not as young as I used to be.
He means he's not as young as he was last year or 10 years ago, which of course is obvious.
No one is younger now than they were in the past.
That doesn't make any sense.
The reason Uday says this is to indicate that he is aware that he is getting older.
He is no longer as young as he wants to be.
When someone says not as young as I used to be means I'm old.
I don't feel young the way I used to feel young.
I feel that way sometimes when I have to move some heavy boxes, for example, and the next day my back hurts.
I say to myself, I'm not as young as I used to be.
I try to tell my wife that so that I don't have to move the boxes, but she never listens.
Anyway, Emma says these old trophies and football jerseys won't keep you young.
A trophy.
T-R-O-P-H-Y is usually an object that looks like a small statue that is given to someone who wins a competition.
It is usually tall, made of metal and wood, and has the name of the person who won, or at least the prize that they won.
Trophies are usually given for big competitions, sporting competitions or other events.
Emma says these old trophies and football jerseys won't keep you young.
A jersey J-E-R-S-E-Y is a shirt that you wear when you are participating in some athletic activity.
When you are a member of a sports team, you have team jerseys.
They all have the same color, the same design.
Typically, jerseys will have numbers on them.
That's your number as a player.
In my glory days as a 8th grade volleyball player, I had the number 10.
That was the number on my jersey.
Oh, those were the days.
Emma says the old trophies and football jerseys, and here she means American football won't keep you young.
You won't become young by keeping these old things.
Uday says, yes, that's true, but they help me remember some of the highlights of the old days.
Highlights are the best or most important moments or parts of some story or some situation.
Uday says, did I ever tell you about the time I single-handedly won the game?
Uday is asking Emma if she remembers him telling the story about how, during one game, he single-handedly won it.
Single-handedly means alone, without help from anyone else.
Of course, husbands like to tell their wives stories of their glory days, and usually they tell them many, many times, and I think that's the situation here with Emma.
Emma says, uh, meaning she does know the story, and she doesn't really want to hear it again.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I don't want to move on.
If you've had the life I've had, you'd cling to the past too.
But your best days are still to come.
Constantly harking back to days gone by doesn't allow you to live in the moment and to plan for the future.
You're speaking as though your life were over.
You're still young.
These old trophies and football jerseys won't keep you young.
Yes, but they help me remember some of the highlights of the old days.
Did I ever tell you about the time I single-handedly won the game?
Uh... She single-handedly writes all of the scripts for our episodes.
I refer, of course, to the wonderful 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.
