Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1013, Living with a Hoarder.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1013.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
And download the learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Julio and his mother, who apparently doesn't like to get rid of things, even things she doesn't need anymore.
Let's get started.
Mom, don't you think it's time to get rid of some of the stuff in this house?
Why?
This house is fine the way it is.
There are parts of this house that are nearly inaccessible.
There are stacks of magazines and bags and boxes everywhere.
I need all that stuff.
You know I've always been a pack rat.
I know, but I think things are getting out of hand.
You have stuff on every surface, and you can't find anything in here.
You can't find anything, but I can put my hands on anything I want at any time.
I collect and keep useful things, unlike you young people these days who throw away perfectly good things just because you don't need them this minute.
I think your hoarding is becoming compulsive.
That's nonsense.
Just because you prefer living in a sterile environment doesn't mean I have to.
I don't mind a little clutter.
A little clutter?
You have junk mail from 15 years ago.
You never know when something will come in handy.
Now don't you have some room in your garage where I can store a few extra boxes?
No, I don't.
This episode is called Living with a Hoarder, H-O-A-R-D-E-R.
To hoard means to collect things, usually things that you don't need anymore but don't want to throw out.
A hoarder is usually someone who collects so much of something that...
They don't have room for anything else.
Their house begins to fill up with things.
Some people hoard only certain kinds of objects.
Other people hoard everything.
They don't like to throw anything out.
You can also use this verb to hoard when you are buying a lot of something because you think that in the future there perhaps won't be any of that stuff.
If I think, for example, that the price of say, rice is going to go up in the future, and or that perhaps there won't be any rice available to buy in the stores, I might decide to go to the store and buy 100 bags of rice.
I would hoard the rice.
I would keep them until I needed them.
In this instance, however, we're talking about someone who keeps things that they don't need.
Julio begins by saying Mom, don't you think it's time to get rid of, to throw out some of the stuff in this house, some of the things in this house?
His mother says, why?
The house is fine the way it is.
Everything is fine, she says.
Julio, however, says, there are parts of this house that are nearly inaccessible.
The prefix in often means not.
So inaccessible means not accessible.
Accessible means you can get there.
You can reach a certain place.
Something that is inaccessible is something that you cannot get to.
You cannot reach.
Julio says there are stacks of magazines and bags and boxes everywhere.
A stack is a vertical pile.
It's a lot of things put on top of each other.
You could have a stack of papers or a stack of newspapers.
A stack of newspapers would be one newspaper on top of another newspaper on top of another newspaper, and so on.
Julio is complaining about the stacks of magazines and bags and boxes in his mother's house.
His mother says, I need all that stuff.
You know I've always been a pack rat.
A pack P-A-C-K rat.
R-A-T is a person who likes to collect many things and not get rid of anything.
It's quite similar to a hoarder.
Julio says, I know, but I think things are getting out of hand.
The expression to get out of hand means that the situation is becoming uncontrollable.
It's becoming so extreme, so difficult that we won't be able to handle it.
We won't be able to manage it.
Julio says, you have stuff on every surface and you can't find anything in here.
We use the word surface to describe things.
The top of a table or of a shelf or of any flat object that you can put something on top of.
Mom says, you can't find anything, but I can put my hands on anything I want at any time.
Julio's mother says that maybe he can't find things in her house, but she can.
She says, I can put my hands on anything I want.
To put your hands on something here means to locate something, to find something.
She says she can find whatever she wants.
Mom says she collects and keeps useful things.
To collect means to get a lot of the same item, the same thing.
She complains that young people these days meaning nowadays, in the present time throw away perfectly good things.
They get rid of perfectly good things.
The use of the word perfectly here means completely, entirely.
It's really used for emphasis.
These are really good things.
Why do young people throw them away according to Julio's mother?
Just because they don't need them this minute.
She's saying that young people throw things away whenever they don't need them, even if they may need them in the future.
That's the implication of the phrase this minute.
This minute means right now, at this exact point in time.
Not in the future, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.
Sometimes a parent angry at...
His or her daughter or son might say, I want you here this minute.
The parent means immediately.
Although it has other meanings that we explained earlier.
Hoarding nowadays often describes people who collect so many things, have so many things in their house that it becomes perhaps even dangerous to go in the house because it's so full of stuff.
Julio thinks his mom's hoarding is becoming compulsive.
Compulsive c-o-m-p-u-l-s-i-v-e means you are unable to stop doing something, often because of some psychological or mental problem.
The implication of this word is that perhaps the person isn't responsible for his own behavior.
The person can't help, can't prevent himself from doing that activity.
Mom says that's nonsense.
She says that's wrong.
That's incorrect.
Just because you prefer living in a sterile environment doesn't mean I have to.
Sterile, S-T-R-I-L-E, means, in this case, very...
Bare, B-A-R-E, very clean, very empty, without anything unnecessary present.
Sterile is often used in the medical field, at hospitals and clinics, to describe an environment where there aren't any germs or bacteria or things that could make you sick.
We talk about sterilizing instruments before surgery, before a doctor cuts into you with a knife.
The knife is sterilized.
It's made clean so that it doesn't have anything that might make you even more sick.
In our dialogue, the mother is describing a place that doesn't have anything hardly anything in it, and because of that wouldn't be very comfortable.
She says, I don't mind a little clutter.
Clutter C-L-U-T-T-E-R refers to things, objects that take up a lot of space and are not organized in any way.
If you look at my desk, for example, you'll see a lot of clutter.
Papers here and papers there.
Not very neat.
Not very organized.
My wife can't even look at my desk at home.
She doesn't like it.
It bothers her because she likes everything to be very neat, very organized.
Anyway.
Enough of me, and back to our dialogue.
Julio says, a little clutter?
You have junk mail from 15 years ago.
Junk, J-U-N-K, mail, is mail that is sent to you that you don't really want or didn't request.
Julio's mom says, you never know when something will come in handy.
To come in handy, H-A-N-D-Y, means to be useful, to be something that might be helpful.
Now, mom says, don't you have some room in your garage where I can store a few extra boxes?
Julio's mother is asking him if he can take a couple of her boxes of things and store them in his garage.
To store, as a verb, means to keep something in a place until you need it sometime in the future.
Julio does not want to store any of his mother's stuff anywhere.
So he says, no, I don't.
Meaning, no, I don't have any room in my garage to store your boxes.
A garage is normally a place where you put your car, but many Americans park their cars outside and put things in their garage that they want to keep but they don't need right away.
They store things in their garages.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
Mom, don't you think it's time to get rid of some of the stuff in this house?
Why?
This house is fine the way it is.
There are parts of this house that are nearly inaccessible.
There are stacks of magazines and bags and boxes everywhere.
I need all that stuff.
You know I've always been a pack rat.
I know, but I think things are getting out of hand.
You have stuff on every surface, and you can't find anything in here.
You can't find anything, but I can put my hands on anything I want at any time.
I collect and keep useful things, unlike you young people these days who throw away perfectly good things just because you don't need them this minute.
I think your hoarding is becoming compulsive.
That's nonsense.
Just because you prefer living in a sterile environment doesn't mean I have to.
I don't mind a little clutter.
No, I don't.
All of our dialogues contain expressions and phrases that will come in handy... in speaking English.
Thank you to Dr. Lucy Say for writing those dialogues.
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.
