Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 940, Ending Excessive Spending.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 940.
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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On this episode we're going to listen to a dialogue between Raphael and Kelly about spending too much money.
Let's get started.
Sorry to be a buzzkill.
But this gravy train we've been on is about to end.
What do you mean?
There have been a lot of complaints about our department's spending on extraneous things and to quell the masses.
The department head is making some major changes.
Like what?
But those are the only things that make this job bearable.
Those perks are part and parcel of working for a government agency.
At least, that's what I used to think.
Well, once the press got wind of some of our spending practices...
They started to question our budget allocations.
The long and short of it is that those days are about to end.
And I was planning to take you and a few other employees to St.
Lucia for a retreat in the spring.
My dialogue begins with Raphael saying to Kelly, Sorry to be a buzzkill.
A buzzkill, B-U-Z-Z-K-I-L-L, is a person who spoils or ruins everyone else's fun.
Basically, a...
Buzzkill is a person who does something to stop other people from having fun while they're in the middle of having fun.
They do something or say something that makes everyone no longer enjoy themselves.
That's a buzzkill.
There's an older term, a little less common nowadays, for this same idea, which is a party pooper P-O-O-P-E-R.
A party pooper is the same as a buzzkill.
The word buzz, B-U-Z-Z is sometimes used to mean excitement, a certain atmosphere in a situation or place.
That's probably the origin of this term buzzkill.
Raphael says...
He's sorry to be a buzzkill, but this gravy train we've been on is about to end.
Gravy G-R-A-V-Y train is a situation where you have a lot of money or people are able to make a lot of money very easily.
A gravy train would be a really good situation financially, something either that is making you a lot of money or that is allowing you to spend a lot of money.
Raphael talks about being on a gravy train, just like you would be on a regular train or on a bus or another form of transportation.
Unfortunately, the gravy train is about to end, Raphael says.
Kelly says, what do you mean?
He says, there have been a lot of complaints about our department's spending on extraneous things.
A complaint is an objection to something that is going on that you don't like.
You can have a complaint at a restaurant if your food is bad.
Here people are complaining notice the verb to complain about our department's spending on extraneous things.
Spending is the money that you pay for something.
Extraneous is E-X-T-R-A-N-E-O-U-S means extra and unnecessary.
Something that is extraneous is something that is more than what is needed.
It's too much.
It's not required.
Raphael and Kelly's department has been spending money on extraneous things and to quell the masses, and The department head is making some major changes.
The department head would be the person who is the top boss or top manager in a department in a company.
A department is just one part of a larger company, one division perhaps of a company.
The department head is making some major or major very important or large changes.
He's doing this to quell the masses.
This is an interesting expression, to quell, Q-U-E-L-L, the masses, M-A-S-S-E-S, means to try to make people feel calmer, to try to do things that will address or answer people's concerns or complaints.
The masses refers to a large group of people.
To quell here means to quiet down, to make happy.
People who are unhappy because of a bad situation.
Kelly says, like what?
Meaning, what are these major changes?
Raphael says like no more frivolous and excessive spending on travel and entertainment at conferences.
Something that is frivolous, F-R-I-V-I.
V-O-L-O-U-S is not very important.
Silly.
Something that is frivolous is not worth paying close attention to.
Excessive means too much.
This department has been spending too much on travel and entertainment at conferences.
A conference is a large meeting where people who have similar interests come together and talk to each other.
Many kinds of work have conferences where once a year, or perhaps twice a year, You can go and learn more about your particular area.
It might be a business conference.
It might be an academic conference with university professors.
It might be a conference for people who work in the government.
There are conferences all over the United States, all over the world, for lots of different kinds of interests and activities.
In fact, in most cities in the United States, in most big cities in the United States, you will find conference centers.
These are places that are built especially for these kinds of large group meetings.
Kelly says, but those are things that make this job bearable.
To be bearable, B-E-A-R-A-B-L-E, means to be tolerable, something that you can put up with.
Something that is bearable is something that is not so terrible that you want to quit or stop doing whatever it is you're doing.
Kelly says that going to these conferences, for example, is one of the things that makes her job bearable.
It might not be a very good job, but it's okay because she can go to these conferences and spend a lot of money.
That's kind of how I felt about my university job.
Kelly says those perks are part and parcel of of working for a government agency.
At least, that's what I used to think.
A PERK, P-E-R-K, is a benefit, especially a benefit from working at a certain place, from your job.
It might be something like free parking at the building or you get a free lunch.
Every day.
There are companies here in California that give their employees lunch for free every day.
It's one of the perks of the job.
Of course, they do that so that people will stay in the building and work more.
Kelly says these perks are part and parcel.
P-A-R-C-E-L
Part and parcel is an old expression meaning a necessary part of something, something that you have to do or something that cannot be avoided.
We learn that Kelly and Raphael work for the government, which is why they have so much money to spend.
Rafael says.
Well, once the press got wind of some of our spending practices, they started to question our budget allocations.
The press here refers to the media newspapers magazines, television stations and so forth, people who work in the area of journalism, of reporting the news.
To get wind of something is an expression that means to find out about, to hear about something.
Spending practices just refers to the things that you spend money, on the way that you spend your money.
Budget allocations refers to your plans about how you're going to spend your money.
A budget, B-U-D-J-E-T, is a plan for spending money.
Allocations are the things that you actually spend the money on.
The Prescott-Window... the spending practices of this department, and they started to question, they started to ask questions about and to complain about, really, these budget allocations.
Raphael says the long and the short of it is that those days are about to end.
The long and the short of it is a phrase we use to give someone the most important point about a difficult or complex situation.
It's a way of introducing the conclusion or the most important thing you want to say to someone.
If you are telling someone a long, complicated story about You, may try to summarize everything by saying the long and short of it is.
Kelly says, and I was planning to take you and a few other employees to St.
Lucia for a A retreat.
R-E-T-R-E-A-T is usually a long meeting that you have outside of your offices at a hotel or at a very nice resort somewhere away from where you work.
Usually, a retreat lasts two or three days, and it's a time where for leaders in a company or an organization to come together and talk about their plans for the future.
That's a typical topic at a retreat.
There are also religious retreats, where people go away for a couple of days in order to pray and participate in religious activities.
But Kelly isn't thinking of anything religious here when she talks about this retreat, since St.
Lucia is one of the most expensive islands to go to in the Caribbean.
Raphael says, I think you'd better change those plans, at least the venue.
The venue, V-E-N-U-E, is the place where some event is held.
It's the location where you, in this case, would be having your meeting.
Raphael says.
Raphael is saying to Kelly that She will have a better chance of getting her plan approved to have a retreat if she has it in Cleveland rather than St.
Lucia.
Cleveland is a city in the eastern part of the United States, in the state of Ohio.
The reason that Raphael says Cleveland is that it's not a very nice city overall. to visit.
I've been to Cleveland.
It seems okay.
But it's not a place where people would go in order to have a vacation.
And a lot of times these retreats are places that are nice, that are places where you would go on a vacation, like Hawaii or St.
Lucia.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Sorry to be a buzzkill, but this gravy train we've been on is about to end.
What do you mean?
There have been a lot of complaints about our department spending on extraneous things and to quell the masses, the department head is making some major changes.
Like what?
Like no more frivolous and excessive spending on travel and entertainment at conferences.
But those are the only things that make this job bearable.
Those perks are part and parcel of working for a government agency.
At least that's what I used to think.
Well, once the press got wind of some of our spending practices, they started to question our budget allocations.
The long and short of it is that those days are about to end.
And I was planning to take you and a few other employees to St.
Lucia for a retreat in the spring.
I think you'd better change those plans, at least the venue.
You'd have better luck getting it approved if you picked Cleveland.
There's nothing frivolous about our scripts here on ESL Podcast.
That's because they're written by the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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.
Thank you.
