Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,225, Being a Good Samaritan.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1,225.
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 Ana Maria and Gio about helping someone who needs help.
Let's get started.
Did you see this news article about the good Samaritan who stopped to help a stranger and died?
That's his own fault.
Who told him to meddle in other people's business?
He wasn't meddling.
He saw that a fellow human being was in distress and was selfless enough to try to help.
Exactly.
I call him a fool.
You don't put yourself in danger to help a stranger.
That's just common sense.
So you would have just walked right by and done nothing to help.
If it meant putting myself in jeopardy.
You should always look out for yourself, no matter what the situation.
Great.
Remind me never to get into a lifeboat with you.
Ana Maria asks Gio, Did you see this news article about the Good Samaritan who stopped to help a stranger and died?
The term Good Samaritan nowadays refers to a kind person, specifically someone who will stop and help someone whom they don't know who needs help.
The term comes from a story from the Christian Bible, specifically from the book of St.
Luke in the New Testament of the Bible.
It's what is called one of the parables or stories that Jesus told in the Bible.
A good Samaritan refers then to someone who helps another person who needs help, even someone the person doesn't know.
That's what happened in this news story that Ana Maria is talking about.
Unfortunately, the person who stopped to help the stranger died.
A stranger, S-T-R-A-N-G-E-R, is a person you don't know, a person who you have never met before.
Gio, however, doesn't feel sorry for the Good Samaritan.
He says that's his own fault.
When you say something is someone's own O-W-N fault F-A-U-L-T, you mean that the person himself is responsible for his problems.
The word fault here refers to blame.
If I say it's your fault or it's your own fault, I mean you are the person responsible for the bad thing that happened to you.
If you have a test tomorrow, an examination tomorrow, and you don't prepare for it and then you do very poorly on that exam.
I will say, well, it's your own fault.
You didn't study.
You are the person who is responsible for your poor performance.
Gio says, who told him, meaning the Good Samaritan, to meddle in other people's business?
The verb to meddle M-E-D-D-L-E means to get involved in something that you should not be involved in, or to try to influence other people's activities or decisions.
To meddle is usually a verb we use when we are criticizing another person's actions, saying the other person should not have done this because it was none of his business.
Ana Maria says he wasn't meddling.
He saw that a fellow human being was in distress. and was selfless enough to try to help.
The word fellow F-E-L-L-O-W as an adjective refers to someone who is in the same category or group as you are, or as another person about whom you're speaking.
For example, I can talk about my fellow Californians.
These are other people who are also, like I am, from California or who live in California now.
I could talk about the Queen of England and her fellow Britons.
That is, people who, like the Queen of England, are also British, are also considered part of that group.
All of us are human beings, except you cats out there.
Therefore, to stop and help a fellow human being is to stop and help someone who is part of the same group as you are.
The Good Samaritan in our story stopped to help a fellow human being who was in distress.
To be in distress is D-I-S-T-R-E-S-S.
Is to be in a crisis to need help, to be perhaps very unhappy or worried because of some situation you are in.
The Good Samaritan was selfless, S-E-L-F-L-E-S-S.
To be selfless means not to think about your own needs, to help others even when it may hurt you.
Geo is not convinced.
He says, doing a good deed, was he?
This is a form of what we call a tag question.
It's often used in this form and pronounced this way, when someone doesn't really believe what the other person is saying.
And that's the case with Gio.
He doesn't really think this person was doing a good deed.
What's a good deed?
D-E-E-D?
It's an action you do for another person that will help that person, even though you don't get anything for it yourself.
Gio says, going out on a limb to help someone in need, eh?
Once again, he's asking this as a question, but in a way he's just expressing his doubt.
The phrase to go out on a limb L-I-M-B notice, the B is not pronounced means to take a risk, to do something that may cause you harm.
This person was going out on a limb, doing something risky, in order to help a person in need.
That is, someone who needed help.
Ana Maria says exactly meaning yes, that is in fact what he was doing, even though Gio doesn't believe it.
She says, I call him a hero.
H-E-R-O.
A hero is someone who does something brave, something that requires courage, and therefore is someone whom you would admire and respect.
Gio says, I call him a fool, F-O-O-L.
A fool is someone who isn't very smart or who does something without thinking rationally or clearly.
Steel continues, you don't put yourself in danger to help a stranger.
To put yourself in danger, D-A-N-G-E-R is to do something that may cause you harm, that may hurt you.
If you are driving down a freeway, Don't do that.
Gio says that you should not put yourself in danger to help a stranger.
That's just common sense, Gio says.
Common sense refers to the ordinary or regular ability of people to make good decisions.
Something that everyone knows is a good idea is common sense.
Ana Maria then says, so you would have just walked right by and done nothing to help.
Gio says, if it meant putting myself in jeopardy, meaning yes, he would have just walked right by and done nothing to help.
If helping the person would have put him in jeopardy.
To be put in jeopardy, J-E-O-P-A-R-D-Y, is to put yourself in danger.
Gio is saying here that if he thought he was going to be in jeopardy, in danger, he would not have helped the man, the stranger who needed help.
We're not sure if it's a man or a woman.
Gio says, you should always look out for yourself, no matter what the situation.
Gio believes you should always look out for yourself.
To look out for yourself means to protect yourself first and not worry about anyone else around you.
Ana Maria says, great.
Remind me never to get into a lifeboat with you.
A lifeboat.
L-I-F-E-B-O-A-T is a small boat carried on a larger boat or ship that is used if the larger boat is having problems and you need to leave it.
If you are on a large boat or ship, you will usually have lifeboats that will be used to get off of that boat if the larger boat or ship is sinking or has some sort of serious problem.
Ana Maria is making a joke here.
She says, remind me never to get into a lifeboat with you.
Meaning she doesn't want to be in a lifeboat with Gio, because Gio won't help anyone else if there's a serious problem.
He will look after himself or look out for himself before helping anyone else.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you see this news article about the Good Samaritan who stopped to help a stranger and died?
That's his own fault.
Who told him to meddle in other people's business?
He wasn't meddling.
He saw that a fellow human being was in distress and was selfless enough to try to help.
Doing a good deed, was he?
Going out on a limb to help someone in need, eh?
Exactly.
I call him a hero.
I call him a fool.
You don't put yourself in danger to help a stranger.
That's just common sense.
So you would have just walked right by and done nothing to help.
If it meant putting myself in jeopardy.
You should always look out for yourself, no matter what the situation.
Great.
Remind me never to get into a lifeboat with you.
We thank our hero here at ESL Podcast, Dr Lucy Say, for helping her fellow human beings by writing such wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
