Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number one thousand and four.
Being modest and boastful.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode one thousand four.
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 Hans and Freddie about being modest and boastful.
Let's get started.
Well I think the choice is clear.
I think we should hire Clark.
To me, the choice is clear too, but I think that choice is Paul.
Both Paul and Clark are qualified for the job, but Clark is a blowhard.
He was too full of himself.
Clark may come off as a little overconfident, but Paul is just too low-key and timid.
Paul wasn't timid at all.
He was modest and self-deprecating, but he also had a quiet confidence.
He wasn't trying too hard to impress, like Clark was.
Clark is the kind of person who stands out in a room and gets noticed.
That's what we want in a rep trying to get new clients.
I found Clark to be overbearing.
Paul, on the other hand, had a way with him.
He exuded confidence without having to resort to blowing his own horn.
I see we're at loggerheads about this.
Let's ask them both to lunch and ask Monique to join us.
She's done a lot of hiring and has good judgment.
You mean you want Monique to make the call, so neither of us will be blamed for picking the wrong person?
I always thought you were quick on the uptake.
Our dialogue begins with Hans saying to Freddie, Well, I think the choice is clear.
I think the person we should pick is obvious.
To hire, H-I-R-E, means to give a job to someone.
Hans thinks they should give the job to Clark.
Hans is talking with Freddy.
Normally when you hear the name Freddy in English, you think of a boy or a man.
Fred, F-R-E-D, is definitely a man's name.
But some women with names like Frederica might use as a nickname or a short name, Freddy.
And that's the case here.
Freddy says, to me, the choice is clear, too.
But I think that choice is Paul.
Freddy doesn't agree with Hans.
She says, both Paul and Clark are qualified for the job, but Clark is a blowhard.
A blowhard, B-L-O-W-H-A-R-D, one word, is someone who likes to talk a lot, but who's very arrogant and who likes to... we would use the verb boast, B-O-A-S-T.
To boast means to talk about how great you are, how wonderful you are.
Normally, the word blowhard is an adjective used to describe someone who talks too much and often in an arrogant way.
It's definitely an insulting term.
You would never ever ever ever, ever want to call your boss a blowhard, at least not when your boss is listening.
Freddie thinks Clark is a blowhard.
She says he was too full of himself.
To be full of yourself means to think that you are better than other people.
It means that you think you are wonderful and great, better than the other people around you.
Hahn says Clark may come off as a little overconfident, but he makes a good impression.
To come off as something means to give the impression of being a certain way to do or say things that give people a certain idea about who you are.
If someone comes off as friendly, he or she is acting in a way that makes you think that he or she is friendly.
Hans says that Clark comes off as a little overconfident.
The prefix over, O-V-E-R, usually means too much.
Overconfident would describe a person who thinks he's better than he really is.
Hans however, thinks Clark makes a good impression, meaning he is a good person perhaps to represent the company.
He says...
He would make a much better rep than Paul.
A rep R-E-P is a representative, often someone who is selling something for the company, selling services or products for the company.
Your rep is often the same as your salesperson.
But not always.
Sometimes your rep in a company is merely the person who you contact if you have problems.
Hans says Paul is just too low-key and timid.
To be low-key, K-E-Y, means to be calm, to be quiet, to be very relaxed.
Maybe a little too relaxed.
Timid, T-I-M-I-D, is someone who is shy, who doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence.
To describe someone as low-key is not necessarily to criticize him or her.
However timid is definitely more negative way of describing a person, especially someone in a business environment.
You don't want someone representing your company to be timid.
You don't want them to be shy.
You don't want them to show a lack of confidence.
Freddie disagrees.
She says Paul wasn't timid at all, meaning he wasn't timid even a little bit.
He was modest and self-deprecating, but he also has a quiet confidence.
To be modest M-O-D-E-S-T means to be humble, not to talk about how great you are or think that you are more important than everyone else.
Self-deprecating, D-E-P-R-E-C-A-T-I-N-G, means critical of yourself, often in a funny way.
Someone who is self-deprecating is someone who makes fun of himself or who doesn't think that he is very important or more important than the people around him.
We like people who are self-deprecating and modest, who don't think that they are better than the rest of us.
Freddie says that Paul has a quiet confidence in The term quiet Q-U-I-E-T.
Confidence is used to describe someone who realizes he or she has abilities but doesn't brag about it.
If you say this woman has a quiet confidence, you mean she knows that she can do the job.
She's confident she can do the job, but she doesn't brag about it.
She doesn't boast about it.
To brag B-R-A-G means the same as to boast, to tell people how important you are, how good you are at something.
Freddie says, Paul wasn't trying too hard to impress her.
To try too hard at something means to be doing it too much.
To impress I-M-P-R-E-S-S means to try to get other people to think that you are good.
To try to get other people to have a good opinion of you.
Hahn says that Clark is the kind of person who stands out in a room and gets noticed.
If you stand out, you are someone who other people notice, other people see, especially in a good way.
We may talk about a standout student using the expression standout as an adjective.
A standout student would be a student who does better than any of the other students in the class.
To stand out as a verb means to act in such a way that other people notice how good you are.
Sometimes you can stand out in a bad way, I suppose.
There's an expression in English, he stands out like a sore, S-O-R-E, thumb.
To stand out like a sore thumb means to be very noticeable but in a bad way.
Here, however, Hans is using it in a good way to describe Clark.
He says that's what we want in a rep to get new clients.
So now we see the rep more as a salesman.
Because Hans wants the rep to get new clients.
Clients, C-L-I-E-N-T-S, are customers.
Usually customers that you have for some service you provide.
Freddie disagrees.
Freddie says, I found Clark to be overbearing.
Someone who is overbearing O-V-E-R-B-E-A-R-I-N-G is someone who is perhaps a little bit too aggressive or too forceful in a situation.
Someone who is overbearing would would be someone who talks a lot and perhaps doesn't let you talk, or gives their opinions a little bit too strongly in such a way that no one else really wants to talk with this person in the room.
Freddie says Paul, on the other hand, had a way with him.
This is an expression you might use when you're not quite sure why you like someone, but you like the way they act.
You like the things they do.
Freddie says that Paul exuded confidence without having to resort to blowing his own horn.
To exude, E-X-U-D-E. means to display some quality or some emotion.
To exude confidence means to show other people that you are confident.
To resort to something means to have to do something, even though you don't really want to, but you think it's necessary in order to accomplish what you want to get done.
I don't want to resort to violence.
That means I don't want to have to use violence.
We always use to resort to for actions that you don't want to do, but you may think necessary.
Freddie says Paul doesn't have to resort to blowing his own horn.
To blow B-L-O-W your own horn.
H-O-R-N means to brag or to boast, to say good things about yourself.
Hans and Freddie don't agree.
Hans says, I see we're at loggerheads about this.
To be at loggerheads, L-O-G-G-E-R-H-E-A-D-S, means to be in a disagreement in such a way that you don't think you're going to be able to solve the problem or to come to an agreement.
Hans asks Freddie what she suggests they do.
Freddie says, let's ask them both to lunch and ask Monique to join us.
Freddie's idea is to have the two people come to lunch and have a third person from the company join them so that she can give her opinion.
Freddie says, Monique has done a lot of hiring and has good judgment.
To have good judgment means that You are good at deciding whether something is good or bad.
Freddie's solution is to ask Monique to go with them to lunch and basically to have her make the decision.
Hans understands what Freddie is doing here.
He says, you mean you want Monique to make the call?
So neither of us will be blamed for picking the wrong person.
To make the call means to make the decision, especially a difficult decision.
Freddie is suggesting that Monique make the decision, so that if it's the wrong decision, Freddie and Hans won't be blamed.
That is, people won't say it was their fault for hiring this person.
Freddie says, I always thought you were quick on the uptake.
The phrase to be quick on the uptake U-P-T-A-K-E means to understand something very quickly, to be a fast learner.
Freddie is saying that Hans has understood the reason for inviting Monique to lunch and making the decision for them very quickly.
It is, of course, so that Freddie and Hans won't get into trouble for making the wrong decision.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
To me, the choice is clear too, but I think that choice is Paul.
Both Paul and Clark are qualified for the job, but Clark is a blowhard.
He was too full of himself.
He would make a much better rep than Paul.
Paul is just too low-key and timid.
Paul wasn't timid at all.
He was modest and self-deprecating, but he also had a quiet confidence.
He wasn't trying too hard to impress, like Clark was.
That's what we want in a rep trying to get new clients.
I found Clark to be overbearing.
Paul, on the other hand, had a way with him.
He exuded confidence without having to resort to blowing his own horn.
I see we're at loggerheads about this.
What do you suggest?
Let's ask them both to lunch and ask Monique to join us.
She's done a lot of hiring and has good judgment.
You mean you want Monique to make the call, so neither of us will be blamed for picking the wrong person?
I always thought you were quick on the uptake.
Thanks to the always modest Dr. Lucy Say for her wonderful scripts.
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.
