Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1073, Seeking Asylum.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1073.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, It has some courses in business and daily English.
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This episode is a dialogue between Julie and Ed about people who need to leave their home country and go to a different country because they're not safe where they're living now.
Let's get started.
Maybe you should move to another country.
I guess that's one solution.
Yes, you should seek asylum in another country.
Well, if you feel like you're being persecuted, you should look for other options.
That seems a little extreme.
People who are being treated unfairly because of their political opinions or religious beliefs have the option to emigrate.
I'm not sure I'd go that far.
I urge you to think about it.
Other countries have resettlement programs for refugees, and And not every country will have reached their quota yet this year.
You might still find a country that will take you.
I didn't say that I wanted to renounce my citizenship.
I was just letting off steam.
That's the problem with you young people these days.
You have no follow-through and no courage of your convictions.
You all need to man up.
Julie begins our dialogue by saying to Ed, The government is out to get me.
When you say someone or some organization is out to get you, you mean that the person is trying to create problems or difficulties for you.
If someone says my teacher is out to get me, he means that the teacher doesn't like him and is trying to do something bad to him.
Usually when that happens, it's the student's fault, of course.
As a teacher, I have to say that.
Julie says Freedom the ability to choose what you want to do and do it when you want to do it.
We can talk about freedom as it relates to political expression, of giving your opinion.
We could talk about religious freedom, the ability to practice the religion that you want.
All of these are kinds of freedoms and Julie says she doesn't feel like she has any real freedom and that everything she does is being monitored.
To monitor means to watch or observe something, especially if you are trying to see whether that thing is changing.
Here we think Julie is referring to the government watching her actions and making sure she doesn't do anything the government doesn't like.
Ed says maybe you should move to another country.
Julie says I guess that's one solution.
That's one answer to this problem.
Ed says yes, you should seek asylum in another country.
To seek asylum.
A-S-Y-L-U-M means to go to another country, or to the officials of another country and ask for permission to live in that country.
Usually, people seek asylum when they don't feel safe in the country where they're living now, perhaps because the government is persecuting them.
To persecute P-E-R-S-E-C-U-T-E someone is to treat someone unfairly, often because of their political or religious beliefs.
When that happens, people sometimes seek asylum.
They try to go to a different country.
Julie says to Ed, become a refugee.
She means, do you mean I should become a refugee?
A refugee R-E-F-U-G-E-E is a person who has to leave his or her home country, often because there's a war or there's some situation making it unsafe for the person to live there.
You could have political refugees, you could have refugees for other reasons as well.
Perhaps there was a natural disaster or something bad has happened in a country.
People leave that country to try to go to another country.
We call those people refugees.
Julie says, I'm not sure what I want to do.
Ed says, well, if you feel like you're being persecuted, you should look for other options.
Julie says that seems a little extreme.
When we describe something as being extreme, we mean that it is too much of something, that it's a very large amount of something.
In this case, it means perhaps that the solution that Ed is proposing is too drastic, we could say.
It goes too far.
Maybe she can do something that doesn't require her to actually leave the country and go to another country.
Ed continues...
People who are being treated unfairly because of their political opinions or religious beliefs have the option to emigrate.
The term religious beliefs refers to the kind of religion that you practice.
In some countries it can be very dangerous not to be of the religion of the majority.
And that would be a case where you might be persecuted for your religious beliefs.
Ed says that people who are being treated unfairly have the option to emigrate.
To emigrate, E-M-I-G-R-A-T-E, means to leave home.
One country to go to another country.
Now we have another word that sounds quite similar, which is immigrate.
I-M-M-I-G-R-A-T-E.
Really, the two words mean the same thing or refer to the same action.
They just emphasize a different aspect of that action.
If you emigrate from one country...
You immigrate to another country.
So someone could say, I immigrated to the United States.
That means that person came here.
However, the same person could say, I emigrated from Ireland or from Japan or from Colombia.
To emigrate puts the emphasis on leaving country.
The country where you're living.
Now to immigrate puts the emphasis on coming to the country where you have arrived.
Julie says, I'm not sure I'd go that far.
She's not sure she wants to actually leave the country.
Ed, however, says, I urge you to think about it.
To urge U-R-G-E someone means to encourage someone, to tell that person that you strongly believe that he or she should do this certain thing, this action.
Ed says other countries have resettlement programs for refugees.
Resettlement refers to the process of helping refugees.
People come to a new country and adapt to the life there.
We usually use this term when we're talking about a large group of people, typically political or religious refugees, who are leaving their home country and coming as a group to another country.
When I was growing up, for example, in the 1970s, there were a lot of refugees from Vietnam.
Those refugees participated in a resettlement program where the US government helped them to come to the United States and find housing for them and find them jobs and so forth.
Resettlement programs are usually run by the government, although sometimes private organizations participate in that as well.
Ed says that Q-U-O-T-A is usually the maximum or the minimum number of people that you can have, or it could be for a certain number of anything really that you can have.
For example, if you are a salesperson you work selling things to other companies you Your company may give you a quota.
They may say, you have to sell $1,000 every week of our product or service.
That $1,000 is your quota.
If you sell $1,000, then we would say you have met MET your quota.
The verb would be to meet a quota.
Quota here refers not to money, but to people.
Many countries, including the United States, have a limit to the number of people they will accept as immigrants each year.
That number is the quota.
In this case, the maximum number of people that they will accept.
Ed is saying that some countries have not yet reached their quota this year, presumably their quota for refugees.
You might still find a country that will take you, that will accept you.
Julie says, To renounce, R-E-N-O-U-C-E, your citizenship... is to say that you no longer want to be considered part of a certain country.
If you renounce your American citizenship, you're saying, I no longer want to be an American.
I don't want to be legally considered an American.
Usually that means that you no longer have an American passport.
In fact, in all cases, I think it would mean that.
Julie says, however, that she does not want to renounce her citizenship.
She was just letting off steam, S-T-E-A-M.
The expression to let off steam means to say something or to do something that expresses your frustration, your anger, your irritation, but it is not meant to be taken too seriously.
Someone who's letting off steam is someone who is perhaps yelling or shouting or saying things about another person, complaining about something as a way of getting those emotions out, to release those negative feelings that they have.
It's a psychological thing.
You don't really want to do some of the things, perhaps even that you say when you are letting off steam.
Ed, however, says that's the problem with you young people these days.
You have no follow through and no courage of your convictions.
You all need to man up.
From the dialogue we're guessing that Ed is older than Julie, perhaps quite a bit older, because she refers to her as being a member of a group that he considers young people.
He says that young people today have no follow-through.
Follow-through refers to completing or finishing the actions that you've started.
Follow-through means getting something done, completing something, not stopping halfway through, not quitting before you've finished.
The expression courage of your convictions refers to a confidence, and perhaps a certainty, that what you are doing is right.
Your convictions are your beliefs.
To have the courage of your convictions means to really believe what you say and therefore be willing to act on those beliefs, those convictions.
That's why Ed ends our dialogue by saying you all, meaning you young people, including Julie need to man up.
To man up is a somewhat recent phrasal verb that has become popular.
It means to be brave, to be courageous.
Usually it's addressed to men.
If you say to a man you should man up, you're saying that the man should take responsibility to do what a man would do to be strong, to be courageous.
Here.
However, Ed is addressing it to a whole group of people, which is a little unusual, but we understand what he's saying here.
He's saying that Julie and the other people who have similar convictions should follow through.
They should do what they say they want to do.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
The government is out to get me.
I feel like I don't have any real freedom, and everything I do is being monitored.
Maybe you should move to another country.
I guess that's one solution.
Yes, you should seek asylum in another country.
Become a refugee?
I'm not sure I want to do that.
Well, if you feel like you're being persecuted, you should look for other options.
That seems a little extreme.
People who are being treated unfairly because of their political beliefs or religious beliefs have the option to emigrate.
I'm not sure I'd go that far.
I urge you to think about it.
Other countries have resettlement programs for refugees, and not every country will have reached their quota yet this year.
You might still find a country that will take you.
I didn't say that I wanted to renounce my citizenship.
I was just letting off steam.
That's the problem with you young people these days.
You have no follow-through and no courage of your convictions.
You all need to man up.
Our script writer always finishes what she starts.
She has great follow-through.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
Thank you.
