Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1024, Dealing with Crises.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1024.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Become a member of ESL Podcast and download a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Adrian and Teresa about managing or handling difficult situations.
Let's get started.
Hey, where are you going?
We have a meeting in ten minutes.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to have to postpone.
I'm in the middle of putting out fires and I've had to clear my schedule to deal with the latest crisis.
Can I help?
I wish you could.
With the new layoffs I feel like I'm being pulled in several directions at once.
As soon as I feel like I'm making headway with one problem I get another thrown at me.
I'm so tired of everything being urgent all the time and needing attention ASAP.
I've got to go.
As soon as things quiet down.
When will that be?
I'll let you know as soon as the latest disaster has been averted.
Our dialogue begins with Teresa saying to Adrian, Hey, where are you going?
We have a meeting in 10 minutes.
Adrian says, I'm sorry.
I'm going to have to postpone.
To postpone P-O-S-T-P-O-N-E means to do something later than you had planned on or than had been originally scheduled.
It's to change the time or even the day of something.
Usually we postpone something when there's some problem, some issue in doing what we were planning on doing.
Adrian says I'm in the middle of putting out fires and I've had to clear my schedule to deal with the latest crisis.
The expression to put out something as a phrasal verb means to either turn something off for example, I put out the lights or to extinguish a fire, to stop a fire from burning.
The firefighters put out the fire in the house.
Here however, putting out fires is used to mean taking care of difficult situations, taking care and providing solutions for difficult problems, often problems that come up without a lot of warning.
To clear your schedule means to free time in your day, to cancel other things, usually so that you can spend time on, in this case, putting out fires taking care of some immediate problems that must be solved right away.
A crisis...
C-R-I-S-I-S is a very important and urgent or immediate problem, a problem you have to take care of or deal with right away.
That's a crisis.
Well, in our dialogue, it seems that Adrian has some sort of crisis.
Teresa says, can I help?
Adrian says, I wish you could, meaning I wish you could help, but you can't.
He says, with the new layoffs, I feel like I'm being pulled in several directions at once.
A layoff L-A-Y-O-F-F as a noun is when someone is fired from his or her job, when you lose your job.
If a company is having difficulty and it's not making very much money, there may be layoffs people who are to use the verb form now laid off to lay off.
So at Adrian's company it seems as though there have been layoffs, and this means we're guessing that he has to do more work, since there are fewer people working there.
That's why he says, I feel like I'm being pulled in several directions at once.
To be pulled P-U-L-L-E-D in several directions at once means to need to do a lot of different things, especially when the number of things that you have to do is.
There are a lot of things that you have to do all at the same time or with some sense of urgency.
Adrian says, as soon as I feel like I'm making headway with one problem, I get another thrown at me.
To make headway.
H-E-A-D-W-A-Y is a phrasal verb meaning to make progress, to advance toward some goal.
We're making headway on the paperwork we have to complete.
We're making progress.
We're doing better.
Every time that Adrian feels as though he is making headway with one problem, he says I get another thrown at me.
Thrown T-H-R-O-W-N at is an expression that means thrown, imposed on another person, especially when it's some responsibility that you would rather not have.
My boss has thrown several problems at me.
I have to take care of them.
He has told me to take care of them.
Thrown is obviously the past participle of the verb to throat.
Teresa says I know exactly what you mean.
I always feel like it's crunch time around here because we're so short-handed.
The phrase crunch C-R-U-N-C-H time refers to A period of time when a lot of things have to be completed and you have to work really hard in order to complete them.
Many students, for example, wait until the last week of their class to do their big project.
Then it's crunch time.
They have to get a lot of things done in a small amount of time.
To be shorthanded means to not have enough people to do a job.
Teresa complains that the company is shorthanded.
It doesn't have enough employees, enough people to do all the work that needs to be done.
Adrian says, I'm so tired of everything being urgent all the time and needing attention ASAP.
To be urgent.
U-R-G-E-N-T means to need immediate attention, something that you have to do right away.
It can't wait.
That's urgent.
In Adrian's case.
He says he's tired of everything being urgent all the time and needing attention ASAP.
ASAP is an acronym for as soon as possible.
As soon as possible.
Without delay, in other words.
Adrian continues...
I long for the days when projects had timelines and people followed them.
He longs for the day means he wants very badly to return to the time when this certain thing happened.
In this case, when projects had timelines and people followed them.
So to long for something means to desire something, to want it a great deal.
Timelines, T-I-M-E-L-I-N-E-S, are schedules, plans about when things are going to be completed.
Adrian says, I've got to go, meaning I have to leave now.
Teresa says, hey, when are we going to have that meeting?
In other words, when are we going to have the meeting that we were supposed to have in 10 minutes?
Adrian says, as soon as things quiet down.
To quiet.
Q-U-I-E-T down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to become calmer, to not be rushing so much.
To rush, R-U-S-H, means to go fast.
So to be relaxed, to be calm.
Sometimes we use this phrasal verb to mean to not talk so loud or to be quiet.
To quiet down a group of students would be to get the students to stop talking so loudly.
Teachers have to do that all the time.
Teresa says, when will that be?
That is, when will things quiet down?
Adrian says, I'll let you know as soon as the latest disaster has been averted.
A disaster.
D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R is a serious, large problem.
That happens has very negative consequences.
We sometimes talk about natural disasters.
That would be an earthquake or a flood or a big snowstorm.
These things cause damage and therefore have negative consequences.
You can also have a disaster in your own life.
Something bad could happen to you.
Maybe you lose your cat.
Would that be a disaster?
Maybe.
Not for me.
The verb to avert, A-V-E-R-T, means to prevent something from happening or to avoid something.
You'll often hear this verb or see this verb in writing with the word disaster.
We're trying to avert a disaster.
We're trying to prevent something bad from happening.
Adrian is saying here that he won't have time until there are no crises to meet with Teresa.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
Hey, where are you going?
We have a meeting in 10 minutes.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to have to postpone.
I'm in the middle of putting out fires and I've had to clear my schedule to deal with the latest crisis.
Can I help?
I know exactly what you mean.
I always feel like it's crunch time around here because we're so shorthanded.
ASAP.
I long for the days when projects had timelines and people followed them.
I've gotta go.
Hey, when are we going to have that meeting?
As soon as things quiet down.
When will that be?
I'll let you know as soon as the latest disaster has been averted.
Her scripts help you make headway with your English.
I'm speaking, of course, of our wonderful script writer, 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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
