Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1135.
Having hearing problems!
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1135.
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 Bernadette and Cloud about someone who has difficulty hearing.
Let's get started.
Why are you mumbling?
I'm not.
Nothing is wrong with my hearing.
You just need to speak up.
I'm practically shouting.
You need to see a doctor about your hearing loss.
I'm not hard of hearing.
It's probably just a buildup of earwax.
This is more serious than earwax.
Do you hear ringing in your ears?
Not more than usual.
Meaning you usually hear ringing sounds?
Sure.
Who doesn't?
Uh, normal people?
Have you been asking people to repeat themselves?
Are you having trouble hearing people when there's a lot of background noise?
Maybe.
It might be something as simple as an infection, but it could be more serious, like damage to your eardrum or inner ear, if you can't hear sounds at low decibels.
Would you prefer people to yell?
Well, that's just rude.
Bernadette asks Cloud, why are you mumbling?
To mumble, M-U-M-B-L-E, means to speak in a low, soft, difficult to understand voice.
When someone mumbles, they go, well, I don't know, I thought maybe I wasn't sure.
It's something that your teenage son and daughter might do, especially if you're asking them questions and they don't really want to tell you the truth.
They might mumble, so they make it difficult for you to understand them.
It's sort of an insulting thing to tell someone that he is mumbling.
It means the person doesn't know how to speak properly or doesn't want to speak properly.
Claude says, I'm not.
I said, what's wrong with your hearing?
Your hearing, H-E-A-R-I-N-G, is your ability to understand sounds.
The ability to use your ears to hear other things, other people.
We talk about the five senses that a human has.
The other four are sight, which involves your eyes.
Taste, which involves your tongue.
Touch, which involves most of the outside of your body, we could say, and smell, which involves your nose.
Now the joke here is that Claude was asking Bernadette what was wrong with her hearing and she couldn't hear him.
Bernadette says, To speak up is a two-word phrasal verb.
That can mean a couple of different things.
Here it means to speak more loudly, to raise or increase the volume of your voice.
To speak up can also mean to make your opinion known, especially when perhaps, you disagree with the decision of your boss or someone in charge.
We sometimes talk about speaking up for other people.
That means we are voicing our objections.
We are telling other people our opinions about things in order to try to protect or help someone else.
In our dialogue, however, to speak up just means to speak more loudly.
Claude responds, The word practically here means almost or nearly.
To shout, S-H-O-U-T, means to speak in a very loud voice, to yell, Y-E-L-L, we might say.
Claude says you need to see a doctor about your hearing loss.
Hearing loss is when you start to lose your ability to hear people clearly and accurately.
This of course is something that often comes as you get older.
Claude says that Bernadette should see a doctor about her hearing loss.
But Bernadette responds, To be hard of hearing means not to be able to hear very well.
It may at times also be used to describe someone who cannot hear at all.
If you can't hear anything at all, you are what we would call deaf, D-E-A-F.
That's the traditional term.
More recently, people have talked about the hearing impaired, I-M-P-A-I-R-E-D.
Some people consider hearing impaired to be a more polite way to talk about people with hearing problems.
Bernadette says she's not hard of hearing.
She says it's probably just a buildup of earwax.
Earwax, E-A-R-W-A-X, is a substance that is produced in your ears to keep germs out of your body.
It's a brown or yellow colored substance.
A buildup B-U-I-L-D-U-P.
One word is an increase in the amount of something, often something that increases little by little over a long period of time.
Now, if you have a buildup of earwax, that might prevent you from hearing properly.
What Bernadette is saying is that she isn't hard of hearing.
She just has a buildup of earwax that, if she were to clear out or clean out, would allow her to hear just fine.
Claude disagrees.
This is more serious than earwax, he says.
Do you hear ringing in your ears?
To hear ringing R-I-N-G-I-N-G in your ears is to have sort of a light echoing noise.
That shouldn't really be there.
That could be a sign of hearing problems.
When Claude asks her, do you hear ringing in your ears, Bernadette says, not more than usual.
Claude says, meaning, you usually hear ringing sounds?
Bernadette responds, sure, who doesn't?
Claude says, uh, normal people.
Claude is asking Bernadette if she hears these ringing sounds.
Bernadette says, well, yes, of course, but assumes that everyone has these ringing sounds.
Claude tells her, no, they don't.
Then he asks her, have you been asking people to repeat themselves?
To repeat yourself means to say again what you had just said.
To repeat yourself means to, ah, just kidding.
Claude then says, are you having trouble hearing people when there's a lot of background noise?
Background noise is noise that can be heard but isn't really what you're focusing on.
It's not the noise that you want to hear.
It's all the other noise or sound that might be present in that particular environment.
Bernadette says maybe meaning perhaps she does have problems hearing other people if there's a lot of noise in the room, a lot of background noise.
Claude then says it might be something as simple as an infection, but it could be more serious, like damage to your eardrum or inner ear.
An infection.
I-N-F-E-C-T-I-O-N is a medical condition where bacteria gets inside of your body and makes you sick.
Your eardrum E-A-R-D-R-U-M is a part of your inner ear, the part of your ear that's inside of your body, That moves, or we would say vibrates when it is hit by sound waves.
And this allows you to interpret and understand the sounds.
It allows your brain to understand the sounds.
Claude says there may be damage to Bernadette's eardrum or inner ear that causes her not to be able to hear sounds at low decibels.
A decibel is a measure of how loud something is.
Low decibels would be sounds that are not very loud at all.
Bernadette then says, I am not getting a hearing aid.
AID.
A hearing aid is a small electronic device that you put inside your ear to help you hear better.
As people get older, sometimes they need hearing aids, although many people don't want a hearing aid.
They don't want people to see, in effect, that they cannot hear very well, probably because it reminds them that they are old.
Claude says would you prefer people to yell?
To yell means to talk very loudly, to shout.
Bernadette says what?
Smell?
You think I smell?
Well that's just rude.
Claude asked Bernadette if she preferred people to yell, but Bernadette didn't hear him correctly.
She thought Claude said the word smell, S-M-E-L-L.
The verb to smell in this case means to have a certain odor, an unpleasant smell, an unpleasant odor.
If you go to the gym and you work out, you run, well, you're probably going to smell a little.
Your body has sweated, and sometimes that's not the most pleasant smell.
It's insulting, of course, to tell someone that he or she smells.
The other verb we might use for this situation is to stink, S-T-I-N-K.
Bernadette is surprised that Claude would insult her in this way.
That's why she says, you think I smell?
Well, that's just rude.
She's saying that Claude is being rude, R-U-D-E, to her.
To be rude to someone means to be mean to them, not to be very nice to them.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm not.
I said, what's wrong with your hearing?
I'm practically shouting.
You need to see a doctor about your hearing loss.
I'm not hard of hearing.
It's probably just a buildup of earwax.
This is more serious than earwax.
Do you hear ringing in your ears?
Not more than usual.
Meaning you usually hear ringing sounds?
Sure.
Who doesn't?
Uh, normal people?
Have you been asking people to repeat themselves?
Are you having trouble hearing people when there's a lot of background noise?
Maybe.
It might be something as simple as an infection, but it could be more serious.
Like damage to your eardrum or inner ear if you can't hear sounds at low decibels.
I am not getting a hearing aid.
Would you prefer people to yell?
What?
Smell?
You think I smell?
Well, that's just rude.
Our scriptwriter is not hard of hearing.
She can hear just fine, and she can write even better.
Thank you to 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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
