Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,215, A Fear of Heights.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,215.
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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This episode is a dialogue between Christine and Asahi about being afraid of heights, of being far above the ground.
Let's get started.
Help me.
I'm going to fall.
You're not going to fall.
Sorry, I have a fear of heights.
I sometimes have panic attacks when I'm high up off the ground.
Okay, but we're not very high up.
I know.
My phobia is totally irrational.
That explains a lot like why you live on the ground floor of your apartment building and why you didn't want to go hiking near the cliffs.
That's right.
I try to avoid any situations that will trigger my fear.
So how do you travel?
Do you ever fly?
The one time I flew in an airplane, I experienced vertigo and I hyperventilated until we landed.
I was really agitated because I thought I was going to die.
It wasn't pretty.
That's why I normally drive or take a train.
Not unless you want to find out how my stomach reacts to heights.
Christine begins our dialogue by yelling, Help me!
I'm going to fall!
To fall, F-A-L-L, means for your body to go down and hit the ground quickly and unexpectedly.
You could fall just by walking down the street, or you could be up high on the top of a building or on a ladder or just on a chair and fall down.
To fall and to fall down mean something similar.
The phrasal verb to fall down is often used in the same way as the verb to fall.
However, the verb to fall can refer to things other than just people and objects.
You can also talk about prices falling or going down, reducing in value.
But here we're talking about poor Christine.
Asahi says, you're not going to fall.
I've got you.
The expression I've got you means that I will protect you.
I will protect you from injury or danger from something bad happening to you.
Often we use this when we're actually holding on to another person.
I've got you.
Don't worry.
You're not going to fall.
Christine apologizes.
She says, Sorry, I have a fear of heights.
H-E-I-G-H-T-S A fear of heights is when you are afraid of being far above the ground.
Some people, for example, don't like to go up in a tall building and look out because they have a fear of heights.
They're afraid, even when there's no danger of them falling down.
Christine says, I sometimes have panic attacks when I am high up off the ground.
A panic.
Panic attack is a sudden feeling of fear and anxiety, often without any logical or rational explanation.
A panic attack makes it difficult for a person to behave normally.
Christine says she gets panic attacks when she is high up off the ground.
That is, when she is in the air or on a raised surface.
When she is perhaps on a ladder or on the top of a roof of a house or just high up in a building.
If she's high up off the ground, she has panic attacks.
Asahi says, OK, but we're not very high up, meaning we are not very far from the ground.
Christine says, I know.
My phobia is totally irrational.
If something is irrational, I-R-R-A-T-I-O-N-A-L, it is not rational.
It is not logical.
It cannot be explained in any logical or reasonable way.
A phobia, P-H-O-B-I-A, is normally a fear of something.
If you have a phobia of something, you have an irrational fear of something.
Just because you're afraid of something however, doesn't mean it's a phobia, doesn't mean it's irrational.
I have a fear of someone... who has a gun killing me.
That's not an irrational fear.
If the person is pointing the gun at you, if the person is aiming the gun in your direction,
A phobia is something that would be irrational, something you have no good reason to fear.
Asahi says that explains a lot, like why you live on the ground floor of your apartment building.
The ground, G-R-O-U-N-D, floor is what we call in the United States also the first floor.
It's the floor or level of a building that you can walk into without going up any stairs or steps.
That's called the ground floor or the first floor.
In other countries, the first floor is what we would call in the U.S. the second floor.
That's the floor that you get to by going up steps or one set of stairs, one flight of stairs, we would say.
But in any case, Asahi understands now why Christine lives on the ground floor of her apartment building because she's afraid of heights.
He also understands why she didn't go hiking near the cliffs.
To go hiking, H-I-K-I-N-G means to go walking outdoors, outside, usually for a long distance.
Cliffs, C-L-I-F-F-S, are very steep, rocky sides of a mountain that go almost straight up and down.
Sometimes next to, say, an ocean, there are cliffs.
The water has worn away the side so that there's a straight up and down surface right next to the water.
That would be an example of a cliff.
Christine says that's right meaning yes, that's why I don't live above the ground floor and that's why I don't go hiking near cliffs.
I try to avoid any situations that will trigger my fear.
To trigger T-R-I-G-G-E-R is to cause something else to happen, to cause an event or situation to occur.
Interestingly enough, we call the part of a gun a that you use your finger to fire the gun, the trigger.
The trigger of the gun is the part of the gun that is used to actually cause the bullet to go out of the gun.
That's a trigger as a noun.
As a verb, to trigger means to cause something else to happen.
You can understand the relationship however, here between the noun and the verb, because you trigger the bullet from leaving the gun by.
We use the verb to pull, by pulling the trigger.
Asahi says, so how do you travel?
Do you ever fly?
Do you ever go up into an airplane?
Christine says, the one time I flew in an airplane, that is, I went in an airplane up into the air.
I experienced vertigo and I hyperventilated until we landed.
Vertigo V-E-R-T-I-G-O is a feeling of dizziness or that you're going to fall over when you are up, for example, on a ladder or any tall structure.
You may have seen the great Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo that's what it's called in English anyway precisely about a man who gets dizzy when he goes up high, when he is high above the ground.
Christine says she experienced vertigo when she was in an airplane.
And because of that, she hyperventilated.
To hyperventilate.
H-Y-P-E-R-V-E-N-T-I-L-A-T-E is to breathe very quickly and uncontrollably, especially because you are very excited or perhaps you are under some stress.
To hyperventilate can be dangerous and it's important, if you are hyperventilating, to try, of course, to breathe normally to calm down.
Christine says she hyperventilated until we landed.
That is until the plane went back down onto the ground.
She says, I was really agitated because I thought I was going to die.
To be agitated A-G-I-T-A-T-E-D is to be nervous, to be worried or to be very excited, but in a bad way.
It wasn't pretty, Christine says of her experience on the airplane.
That phrase it wasn't pretty doesn't refer to how good-looking something or someone is.
Rather, it's used to describe something that is very unpleasant or uncomfortable, or perhaps even embarrassing.
Christine says that's why I normally drive or take a train.
She doesn't fly in an airplane.
Asahi says, so I'm guessing no skydiving for you.
Skydiving S-K-Y-D-I-V-I-N-G is the sport of jumping out of an airplane, falling through the sky for a short period and then opening what's called a parachute P-A-R-A-C-H-U-T-E, which is like a large piece of fabric.
Well, it is a large piece of fabric that slows you down so that you don't kill yourself when you hit the ground.
That's skydiving, and some people do that for fun, not me.
Not Christine either because, of course, she's afraid of heights.
Christine says, not unless you want to find out how my stomach reacts to heights.
To react, R-E-A-C-T, to something is to respond to something.
It's how you behave or something behaves or in a certain situation.
Christine is making a joke here.
She's saying that she would probably get sick to her stomach if she went skydiving, because of course she's afraid of heights.
I'm not afraid of heights, really, although I don't think I would go skydiving or close to a cliff.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Help me.
I'm going to fall.
You're not going to fall.
I've got you.
Sorry.
I have a fear of heights.
I sometimes have panic attacks when I'm high up off the ground.
Okay, but we're not very high up.
I know.
My phobia is totally irrational.
That explains a lot like why you live on the ground floor of your apartment building and why you didn't want to go hiking near the cliffs.
That's right.
I try to avoid any situations that will trigger my fear.
So how do you travel?
Do you ever fly?
The one time I flew in an airplane I experienced vertigo and I hyperventilated until we landed.
I was really agitated because I thought I was going to die.
It wasn't pretty.
That's why I normally drive or take a train.
So I'm guessing no skydiving for you.
Not unless you want to find out how my stomach reacts to heights.
If speaking English triggers fear in you, if you have a phobia about how you do in speaking English.
You need to listen to more of ESL Podcast's wonderful episodes and wonderful scripts.
Those scripts, of course, are written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for coming.
That is, thanks for listening.
Listen to us next time 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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
