Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 997, Writing One's Memoirs.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 997.
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 Oscar and Liz about writing your memoir, the story of your life.
Let's get started. were thrilled that you'll be publishing your memoir with our company.
You've had such an interesting life.
I'm sure you'll have lots of titillating stories to tell.
Well, my memoir will certainly have a lot of stories about my career, the people I've worked with and the kindness I've encountered in this industry.
That's nice, but people buy autobiographical books for the juicy details.
The more salacious, the better.
I was really thinking of focusing on the people who helped me in my career and their selflessness.
But I thought you were interested in writing a tell-all book.
Considering how many times you've been married and the affairs you've had, you must have lots of steamy stories.
I don't want to be telling tales about people I love or once loved.
I want to focus on the positive.
You could do that, but your books won't fly off the shelves Without those juicy details.
Really?
Really.
Maybe I could tell one or two scandalous stories.
Now you're talking.
There was that infamous party where a cat fight broke out between...
We begin our dialogue with Oscar saying to Liz We're thrilled that you'll be publishing your memoir with our company.
You've had such an interesting life.
I'm sure you'll have lots of titillating stories to tell.
Oscar says that he and his company are thrilled.
To be thrilled means to be very excited, to be very pleased with something.
To publish means to create a book, a newspaper or a magazine, typically things that are printed on paper, and then you buy.
However, that's the traditional definition of publish.
Now people publish things electronically.
The more general use of the term then is to make something available for people to buy.
It's usually in the form of a book or a magazine or a newspaper.
You can also publish on a blog.
So the Internet has really changed our definition of publish.
Oscar is talking about publishing Liz's memoir.
A memoir M-E-M-O-I-R is a written account of your life.
It's an autobiography, we could also call it.
It's the story of your life.
Oscar says that Liz's stories are almost certain to be titillating stories.
To be titillating.
T-I-T-I-L-L-A-T-I-N-G means to be very interesting, or exciting, often in a possibly romantic or even sexual way.
That's the meaning of titillating.
Liz says.
Well, my memoir will certainly have lots of stories about my career, the people I've worked with and the kindness I've encountered in this industry.
Liz is talking about her memoir having a lot of stories about her career.
Your career is roughly your work life.
We suspect that Liz is probably an actress or perhaps a singer, someone who's famous.
She's going to talk about the people she's worked with and the kindness she's encountered or she has been met with in this industry.
Industry I-N-D-U-S-T-R-Y usually refers to a group of companies all of whom make the same kinds of products or provide the same kinds of services.
We could talk about the automobile industry, the group of companies that make automobiles.
We could talk about the entertainment industry all of the companies that make movies and television shows and records and so forth.
Here in los angeles, when someone says the industry, they are referring to the entertainment industry, because the entertainment industry is so important here in los angeles.
Nobody even calls it the entertainment industry or the movie industry.
They just say the industry.
And when you say that to someone in los angeles, they know you're talking about the entertainment industry.
Liz doesn't say what industry she's talking about, but we can guess that it's probably the industry in the Los Angeles sense of that term.
Oscar says that's nice, but people buy autobiographical books for the juicy details.
The more salacious, the better.
Autobiographical refers to... your own life, things that you have written about yourself.
Most people don't think about publishing autobiographies until they're older, although there are some celebrities and politicians who have published memoirs or autobiographies in their 20s and 30s and 40s, apparently believing that their lives are so interesting that everyone wants to know about them.
Maybe I should publish my memoir, my autobiography.
I'll have to think about that.
I don't think my life is very interesting, unfortunately.
I could always invent some things, make some things up.
Anyway, Oscar is saying that people buy these memoirs, these autobiographical books, For the juicy details.
Juicy J-U-I-C-Y here means interesting, but also shocking.
Oscar says that these details should be salacious.
The more salacious, the better he says, meaning the more salacious the details, the better the book will be.
Salacious S-A-L-A-C-I-O-U-S like titillating, also refers to things that are shocking, exciting or scandalous, but related specifically to something sexual.
Liz says, I was really thinking of focusing on the people who helped me in my career and and their selflessness.
Selflessness, S-E-L-F-L-E-S-S-N-E-S-S, refers to putting other people's needs and desires before your own.
Selflessness is the opposite of a more common phenomenon and word selfishness S-E-L-F-I-S-H-N-E-S-S.
To be selfish means to only be thinking about yourself.
To be selfless means to be thinking about other people and not yourself.
Oscar says...
But I thought you were interested in writing a tell-all book.
A tell-all book is a book that gives people details of one's life, including secrets that no one has ever heard before.
Oscar says considering how many times you've been married and the affairs you've had, you must have lots of steamy stories.
Oscar is referring to Liz's past.
Apparently she has been married more than once and has had affairs A-F-F-A-I-R-S.
The word affairs has a couple of different meanings, but here it means having a romantic relationship with someone to whom you are not married.
You're married to one person, but you're having a romantic relationship with another person.
That's called having an affair.
Oscars thinks that Liz has a lot of steamy, S-T-E-A-M-Y, stories to tell.
Steamy is similar to salacious that we discussed earlier.
Liz says, I don't want to be telling tales about people I love or once loved.
To tell tales means to tell stories, especially stories that are not completely true.
Liz says, I want to focus on the positive, the good things that have happened in her life.
Oscar says, you could do that, but your books won't fly off the shelves without those juicy details.
To fly off the shelves, S-H-E-L-V-E-S, means to sell very quickly.
Shelves is the plural of shelf S-H-E-L-F, which is a place where you will find goods in a store to buy.
If you go into a grocery store, for example.
There are lots of different shelves, usually three or four shelves in one area, and you have different types of food on each shelf.
To fly off the shelves means to sell quickly, as if the goods that you are selling are somehow flying up into the air.
They're being purchased so quickly.
Liz says, really?
She's surprised at what Oscar is telling her.
Oscar says, really?
Liz then says, maybe I could tell one or two scandalous stories.
Scandalous, S-C-A-N-D-A-L-O-U-S, is very shocking in a bad sort of way.
Realizing her book will not sell very well unless she tells some scandalous stories.
Liz agrees to do so.
Oscar is happy.
He says, now you're talking.
That expression now you're talking is used when you are agreeing with what the other person is saying.
You're telling the other person, yes, that's exactly the kind of thing I want to hear.
Liz says there was that infamous party where a cat fight broke out between, and then the dialogue ends.
Infamous, I-N-F-A-M-O-U-S, is famous in a bad way.
You can be famous for doing something good.
You can be infamous for doing something bad.
Strangely however, in recent years, people have started to use infamous to mean the same as famous, even though the traditional definition is being famous for doing something wrong, for doing something bad.
You do not want to be infamous.
A cat fight is a fight between two or more women.
Why are they cats and not dogs?
I'm not sure, but that's the term we use when referring to a physical fight between two or more women.
You can't say dogfight for a fight between two or more men, however.
It doesn't work that way.
In fact, the word dogfight means a fight between two airplanes up in the air fighting each other as in a war.
That's a dogfight.
Then, of course, there's a bullfight that you might see in Spain or Mexico, where they actually kill a bull.
But we're not talking about killing anyone here.
We're just talking about fighting.
And that's what Liz may tell about in her memoir.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
We're thrilled that you'll be publishing your memoir with our company.
You've had such an interesting life.
I'm sure you'll have lots of titillating stories to tell.
Well, my memoir will certainly have a lot of stories about my career, the people I've worked with and the kindness I've encountered in this industry.
That's nice, but people buy autobiographical books for the juicy details.
The more salacious the better.
But I thought you were interested in writing a tell-all book.
Considering how many times you've been married and the affairs you've had, you must have lots of steamy stories.
I don't want to be telling tales about people I love or once loved.
I want to focus on the positive.
Really?
Maybe I could tell one or two scandalous stories.
Now you're talking.
There was that infamous party where a cat fight broke out between...
We are thrilled to have Dr. Lucy Say writing our scripts here at ESLpod.com.
Thank you, Lucy.
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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
