Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1123.
Describing Pleasant Scents This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1123.
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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On this episode we're going to listen to a dialogue between Kitty and Pepe about smells, about the way that things smell, the pleasant scents.
Let's get started.
Oh, smell that.
Isn't that delectable?
Yes, it's pleasant.
Pleasant?
It's heavenly.
It has a nice fruity scent, not too sweet.
If you say so.
I don't want to buy anything that has a strong perfume smell.
I know, but you want to exude a sexy scent that captivates the opposite sex, right?
I'm not sure about that.
I just want to smell fresh and clean.
All right.
How about this one?
Uh, it smells musky.
Musky is good.
Musky is sexy.
Not to me.
Let's stick with something basic.
I'm buying this one.
But that one smells like detergent.
Yes, because that's what I'm buying.
Detergent for my clothes.
I don't need any fancy scents on my clothes.
Have it your way, but you're missing out on a chance to lure women with your scent.
I'll pass up that chance, thank you very much.
If I follow your advice and buy this perfume-smelling detergent, women will definitely get the wrong idea about me.
Kitty begins our dialogue by saying to Pepe oh, smell that.
To smell, of course, means to breathe air into your nose so you can get the flavor of something or the scent, s-c-e-n-t of something.
The scent of something is the way it smells, especially if it smells good, and We often talk about say, perfume for a woman as having a certain scent.
Kitty says the smell is delectable.
D-E-L-E-C-T-A-B-L-E.
Delectable is another word for delicious, something that has a very good taste.
Pepe says, yes, it's pleasant.
P-L-E-A-S-A-N-T.
Pleasant means nice.
It means comfortable.
But it isn't a very strong compliment.
It isn't a very strong idea.
If you say something is pleasant, you mean it's okay, it's nice, but it's not great.
That's why Kitty is surprised.
She says, pleasant?
It's heavenly.
Heavenly refers to something that is perfect, something that is really good.
She says, it has a nice fruity scent, not too sweet.
Fruity, F-R-U-I-T-Y, refers to the tastes and smells of fruit.
Kitty is describing something as having a fruity scent, not too sweet.
We usually think of fruit as being sweet, as having certain sugars in it that make it sweet.
Pepe says, if you say so.
We've heard this expression before.
When someone says, if you say so, he's really saying I don't agree with you, but I'm not going to argue with you either.
Pepe says, I don't want to buy anything that has a strong perfume smell.
Perfume P-E-R-F-U-M-E is a kind of scented liquid that a woman sprays on her body to make her smell good.
Men don't normally wear perfume, or at least they don't call it perfume.
The word perfume in English only refers to the liquid that a woman would put on her body.
Pepe says he doesn't want anything that smells like perfume.
I'm a guy, he says.
I'm a man.
Kitty says, I know, but you want to exude a sexy scent. that captivates the opposite sex.
To exude, E-X-U-D-E, means to convey or display.
It's for something to be sent out from your body.
You It's almost as though the confidence were a scent that was coming out of the person's body.
The idea is that it's very obvious.
If you exude confidence, you are a very confident person.
You look confident.
Well, here we're not talking about confidence.
We're talking about a sexy scent.
Sexy, S-E-X-Y, refers to things that people consider sexually attractive.
Kitty wants Pepe to have a sexy scent that captivates the opposite sex.
To captivate, C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-E, means to get someone's attention.
So that he or she can't concentrate on anything else.
You may see a beautiful woman and find her beauty captivating.
You can't focus on anything else.
Of course, I'm referring to your wife or girlfriend.
Kitty is trying to get...
Pepe to captivate the opposite sex.
The term opposite sex refers to, for a woman, a man, and for a man, a woman.
Pepe is a little doubtful.
He says, I'm not sure about that.
I just want to smell fresh and clean.
To smell fresh, F-R-E-S-H, means the same as to smell new or clean, not dirty in this case.
Kitty says, all right, how about this one?
Pepe says, ugh, it smells musky, M-U-S-K-Y.
Musky means having the scent of a male animal.
Some people think it's a pleasant smell.
Some people don't.
Kitty thinks it is.
She says musky is good.
Musky is sexy.
It's how a man should smell, according to Kitty.
Pepe says, however, not to me, meaning it isn't good for me.
Let's stick with something basic.
To stick with something means to concentrate or focus on, to not try other things.
He says I'm buying this one.
Kitty, however, says but that one smells like detergent.
Detergent, D-E-T-E-R-G-E-N-T, is soap that you use to wash either clothing or dishes.
Pepe says, yes, because that's what I'm buying.
Detergent for my clothes.
Now we learn what Pepe is actually buying at the store.
He's buying detergent to wash his clothes.
He adds, I don't need any fancy scents on my clothes.
Meaning he doesn't need his clothes to smell of something.
Kitty says have it your way.
That's an expression we use to indicate that the other person should just do what he or she wants, but that you would do something different.
You're expressing disagreement with the other person, but telling the other person to go ahead and do what he or she wants to do.
There was actually a commercial when I was growing up for one of the big hamburger restaurants.
Not McDonald's, but Burger King.
Burger King had advertisements that tried to emphasize that if you went to Burger King you could get your hamburger made however you wanted it.
Have it your way, have it your way at Burger King.
I remember that.
That was from like the 1970s.
Can you believe that?
Anyway, that's how effective advertising can be, you see.
You get that song in your head and you can't get rid of it, right?
Even after 40 years.
Well, back to the story.
Pepe doesn't want to buy the detergent that Kitty likes.
Kitty says to him, you're missing out on a chance to lure women with your scent.
To miss out on something is not to have the opportunity to do something, especially because you've made a certain decision.
If you're going to miss out on the party...
You're going to not have fun at the party with everyone else because you've decided not to go.
You're going to miss out.
You're going to lose the opportunity to do something good or positive.
Kitty thinks that Pepe will miss out on the chance, the opportunity, to lure women in.
To lure L-U-R-E means to bring someone closer to you by offering the person something attractive or rewarding.
It could also be used for an animal.
To lure an animal would be to get an animal to come close to you, perhaps because you want to capture the animal.
When we're talking about humans.
We often use this verb when we're describing making yourself attractive to another romantic partner or to someone who you would like to be your romantic partner.
Pepe, however, says...
I'll pass up that chance.
To pass up something or to pass something up means to decide not to do something or to have something.
He says if I follow your advice and buy this perfume smelling detergent, women will definitely get the wrong idea about me.
He's saying that women will think something different about him than what I guess Kitty thinks women will think about him.
It's confusing, I know.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
Oh, smell that.
Isn't that delectable?
Yes, it's pleasant.
Pleasant?
It's heavenly.
It has a nice fruity scent, not too sweet.
If you say so.
I don't want to buy anything that has a strong perfume smell.
I'm a guy.
I know, but you want to exude a sexy scent that captivates the opposite sex, right?
I'm not sure about that.
I just want to smell fresh and clean.
All right.
How about this one?
It smells musky.
Musky is good.
Musky is sexy.
Not to me.
Let's stick with something basic.
I'm buying this one.
But that one smells like detergent.
Yes, because that's what I'm buying, detergent for my clothes.
I don't need any fancy scents on my clothes.
Have it your way, but you're missing out on a chance to lure women with your scent.
I'll pass up that chance, thank you very much.
If I follow your advice and buy this perfume-smelling detergent, women will definitely get the wrong idea about me.
Don't miss out on some of the best dialogues on the Internet, written by our one and only 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 Podcasts.
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.
