Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,252, Reneging on a Promise.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,252.
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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We think you'll enjoy.
This episode is a dialogue between Jean-Paul and Charlene about someone who says he's going to do something, who promises to do something and then doesn't.
Let's get started.
What's going on?
I thought it was a done deal.
I think you misunderstood.
The last time we talked I said I would think about partnering up, but now that I have, I'm going to beg off.
What you said was that you were agreeable to the idea and that we would work out the details later.
Now you're backtracking?
I would never renege on a promise.
If I gave my word...
I'm really surprised by your denial.
I didn't have you pegged as someone who backs out of deals.
That's easy for you to say.
Your failure to honor your promise is going to put me in a very awkward position.
How's that?
We only spoke yesterday.
I may have made some promises of my own and now I'll have to get out of them somehow.
May I make a suggestion?
What?
Deny, deny, deny?
Well, it's worked for me.
Oh, the nerve of some people.
Jean-Paul begins our dialogue by asking Charlene, what's going on?
This is a question that could mean a couple of different things depending on how you ask it.
What's going on means what is happening.
If you say it to a friend of yours, it may just mean how are you, how are things, what's new in your life, but if you say it to someone with a certain intonation, such as what's going on, then You are asking about a problem.
You are asking for the reason why something is not going well, perhaps.
Jean-Paul uses this second meaning of the expression.
He is clearly confused about what is happening.
He says, I thought it was a done deal.
We don't know what it was, obviously some sort of agreement.
A done deal.
D-E-A-L is something that you have agreed to, something that has been decided upon and about which you don't expect there to be any changes.
A done deal is something that has been finalized, we might say some agreement that everyone has already approved.
Charlene says, however, I think you misunderstood.
Charlene is telling Jean-Paul that it wasn't a done deal, that they had not finished their deal.
Discussions about whatever this agreement was.
Charlene continues.
The last time we talked meaning the previous time we talked I said I would think about partnering up, but now that I have, I'm going to beg off.
To partner, P-A-R-T-N-E-R, up, is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to agree to work with another person, to make that person your partner, the person you work with.
Charlene says she was thinking about becoming Jean-Paul's partner, presumably his business partner.
But now that she has thought about it more, she says she's going to beg, B-E-G, off, O-F-F.
To beg off means to decide not to do what you were going to do.
You're asking, in a sense, to be excused from some promise or commitment you made, or perhaps you are simply changing your mind about what you want to do.
Normally, to beg someone means to ask something from that person.
Here, the idea is that you are asking the permission perhaps, of that person to not do what you said you were going to do.
Jean-Paul is not very happy.
He says what you said was meaning.
The last time we spoke, you told me that you were agreeable to the idea that and that we would work out the details later.
To be agreeable.
A-G-R-E-E-A-B-L-E to something means that you like the idea, that you are okay with supporting it.
You think it is a good thing.
Jean-Paul says that Charlene was agreeable to the idea of being his partner and that he and Charlene would work out the details later, meaning they would figure out the specifics of their agreement later on.
Now, Jean-Paul says, Charlene is backtracking.
To backtrack B-A-C-K-T-R-A-C-K means to change your mind about what you had already agreed to, to try to undo or change, Reverse what has already been done.
If you say you are going to buy something for 10 and then 10 minutes later you say no, I don't think I will.
I'll only pay $5.
You are backtracking.
You are trying to go back on or to change your mind about something you have already promised to do.
Charlene, however, disagrees.
She says, I would never renege on a promise.
To renege on something is to not do what you have promised to do.
It's to break a deal or to break a commitment.
Charlene says, if I gave my word, I would follow through.
In this case, I didn't.
To give your word to someone means to make a promise to someone.
The idea however, when you say I give you my word, is that it is something personal that, even though you are not signing a piece of paper, you are making this promise to the person even without a contract, just on your word, just based on your words that are spoken.
However, Charlene says that she didn't give her word.
If she had, however, she would have followed through.
To follow through T-H-R-O-U-G-H means to do what you say you were going to do, to keep your promise.
Jean-Paul says, I'm really surprised by your denial.
A denial, D-E-N-I-A-L, is when you say no to someone.
Or when you say that something didn't happen.
If someone says, I saw you last night with someone other than your girlfriend...
And you say, no, that wasn't me.
That's a denial.
You're saying, no, it wasn't true.
Charlene is saying that she did not give her word to Jean-Paul.
That's a denial.
Jean-Paul says, I didn't have you pegged as someone who backs out of deals.
To have someone pegged P-E-G-G-E-D as a certain thing is to believe that someone has certain characteristics.
If someone says I didn't have you pegged as a beer drinker, That person means that he didn't think you were the kind of person who drank beer.
John Paul says he didn't think that Charlene was the kind of person who backs out of deals.
To back out of something is to break a promise, to renege on a promise or commitment.
Charlene says, all I can say is that we don't see eye to eye.
All I can say means nothing.
The only thing I can tell you at this point is that we don't see eye to eye.
To see eye E-Y-E to eye means simply to agree with another person, to think the same as another person or to come to an agreement with another person.
That's why she says, let's just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
The expression to agree to disagree means you are not going to come to an agreement, but you're not going to fight about it anymore either.
You're going to stop arguing about it or trying to come to an agreement.
So if two people have different political opinions and they discuss those opinions, at the end of their discussion they may say well, let's agree to disagree.
In other words, we don't agree on anything about politics, so we'll just stop arguing now.
That's also what Charlene means by the expression to leave it at that.
To leave it at that means to stop your conversation, even though you have not yet come to an agreement.
John Paul says, that's easy for you to say, meaning that's easy for you but not easy for me.
Failure, F-A-I-L-U-R-E.
To honor H-O-N-O-R.
A promise means the same as to renege on your promise not to do what you said you were going to do.
Jean-Paul thinks that Charlene has failed to honor her promise and this is going to put him or place him in a very awkward A-W-K-W-A-R-D position.
An awkward position would be a situation that would be difficult for you.
That would make things hard for you.
Charlene doesn't understand.
She says, how's that?
Meaning, please explain what you mean.
We only spoke yesterday, she says.
Jean-Paul responds.
To get out of something means to find a way not to have to do what you said you were going to do.
In other words, to renege on a commitment.
So what happened here was that Jean-Paul went and made some promises to other people based on what Charlene had promised to him.
Charlene says, may I make a suggestion?
Jean-Paul says, what?
Deny, deny, deny?
In other words, Charlene is suggesting that he do to others what Charlene did to him simply lie and say that he never made those promises.
Charlene says, well, it worked for me.
In other words, Charlene is saying, yes, that's what I just did.
I basically lied.
I denied that I had made a promise to you.
John Paul obviously is not very happy at this point after Charlene now admits.
She now says that basically she lied to him.
He says, the nerve of some people.
The expression the nerve N-E-R-V-E of some people is used to express your frustration at someone else's behavior, your shock and disapproval of the way someone else is acting, especially towards you.
Jean-Paul is saying that he can't believe someone how much of a liar Charlene is.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's going on?
I thought it was a done deal.
I think you misunderstood.
The last time we talked I said I would think about partnering up, but now that I have, I'm going to beg off.
What you said was that you were agreeable to the idea and that we would work out the details later.
Now you're backtracking?
I would never renege on a promise.
If I gave my word, I would follow through.
In this case, I didn't.
Really surprised by your denial.
I didn't have you pegged as someone who backs out of deals.
All I can say is that we don't see eye to eye.
Let's agree to disagree and leave it at that.
That's easy for you to say.
Your failure to honor your promise is going to put me in a very awkward position.
How's that?
We only spoke yesterday.
I may have made some promises of my own, and now I'll have to get out of them somehow.
May I make a suggestion?
What?
Deny, deny, deny?
Well, it's worked for me.
Ugh, the nerve of some people.
Our scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say, and I have partnered up to give you what we hope is some useful information, some useful help in improving your English.
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.
