Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,266, Being a Refugee.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,266.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Beautiful Los Angeles, beautiful Los Angeles, beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to ESLPOD.com and become a member of ESL Podcast.
When you do, you can download the Learning Guide for this episode that contains not only a complete transcript of everything we say, but also a complete list of all of the important vocabulary words with their definitions and additional sample sentences.
You also get a culture note and additional words and meanings we don't talk about on the audio part of this lesson.
This lesson is all about being a refugee, someone who has to leave his country.
Let's get started.
How's work been?
Really hard.
Our agency is working to resettle refugees who have fled McQuillan land because of the armed conflict there.
It must be so difficult to be displaced and have few possessions.
You don't know the half of it.
Some are in refugee camps and some are in detention centers.
They're overcrowded.
And the already poor conditions are deteriorating.
There simply isn't an infrastructure to support an influx this big.
If they're resettled.
But what if they won't go back?
There aren't many good options for asylum seekers.
I feel so bad for everyone in McQuillam land.
I totally agree.
You're damned if you leave and damned if you stay.
Our dialogue begins with Sarah saying to Tarek, how's work been?
Meaning, how is your job going or how are things at your workplace?
Tarek says, really hard, meaning very difficult.
Our agency, our organization within the government or private organization is working to resettle refugees who have fled McQuillan land because of the armed conflict there.
A refugee or refugee either pronunciation is correct, whether the accent is on the first syllable or the last is a person who has to leave his country, usually because of some violence or threat of violence.
That is, that person might be killed if he doesn't leave his country, by the government or someone else in the country.
The verb to resettle, R-E-S-E-T-T-L-E, means to help someone find a new place to live.
It could be in a new country.
It could just be in a new city.
Or you might even use it to talk about just moving to a different house or apartment.
I need to get resettled in my new apartment.
I need to get everything arranged so that I can live here.
Here we're talking about resettling refugees, helping people from another country come and live in our country.
The verb form fled, F-L-E-D, comes from the verb, is the past tense of the verb to flee, F-L-E-E.
To flee means to leave a place very quickly, especially when you are in danger.
If your house is on fire, if it is burning up, You will need to flee as quickly as possible.
You will need to leave it as quickly as possible.
There's another word pronounced the same in English, but spelled differently, flee, F-L-E-A.
That's actually a little...
I guess it's an insect or a bug, a little animal that often lives on dogs or cats, though they can also bite people as well.
But this flea means to leave quickly.
An armed...
A-R-M-E-D, conflict, C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T, refers to two groups fighting each other with arms, A-R-M-S.
Now, when I say arms here, I don't mean the two things that come out of the top of your body, with hands at the end of them.
I'm referring to guns or other ways of killing people, such as bombs, that are used in a war.
An armed conflict is really just another term for a war.
So to review then, Tarek works for an agency, a group that is working to resettle refugees who have fled Mequilin land because of the armed conflict there, meaning there's a war in Mequilin land.
Sarah says it must be so difficult to be displaced and have few possessions.
To be displaced, D-I-S-P-L-A-C-E-D, means to be forced to leave your home and live somewhere else.
You may be displaced because of a bad storm.
Maybe there's too much rain in your area and the water has gone into the houses what we would call flooding.
That may lead to people being displaced, having to live somewhere else.
Possessions P-O-S-S-E-S-S-I-O-N-S refers to anything you own your clothing, your cars, your computers and so forth.
Sarah says it must be so difficult or very difficult to be displaced and have few or not very many possessions.
Tarek says, you don't know the half of it.
That expression.
You don't know.
The half H-A-L-F of it means that you don't have the complete information.
Usually it means that things are actually worse than what you know, that you don't have the information about how bad things are.
Tarek then describes that some are in refugee camps, meaning some of these refugees are in refugee camps C-A-M-P-S.
These are temporary places where people are kept when there is no other place to put them.
Some are in detention centers, Tarek says.
A detention center is usually a place where people are forced to stay until the government decides where they should go next, especially if they have problems, perhaps entered the country illegally, or when the government is deciding to let or not let those people into the country permanently.
Tarek says these places are overcrowded and the already poor conditions are deteriorating.
If something is overcrowded, O-V-E-R-C-R-O-W-D-E-D, there are too many people there.
What's the difference between crowded and overcrowded?
Well, crowded usually refers to a situation where there are a lot of people in a small space, but...
There's enough room, I guess, for you to be more or less comfortable.
Overcrowded means there are too many people in a certain area or space.
So many people, perhaps, that it is dangerous.
The conditions or the situation in these places, according to Tarek, are deteriorating.
To deteriorate, D-E-T-E-R-I-O-R-A-T-E, means to get worse.
He says there simply isn't an infrastructure to support an influx this big.
The word infrastructure I N F R A S T R U C T U R E is used to describe the systems or Organizations, or perhaps physical structures, that allow something to work properly or that allow society or a large group of people to function, to do what they need to do.
We often talk about the infrastructure of a country when describing the airports and roads and public services that are available so that people can live comfortably and have a healthy economy.
But infrastructure can also refer simply to the organization or the physical features of a certain place.
Tarek says that there isn't an infrastructure to support an influx, I-N-F-L-U-X, this big.
An influx is when there is a large number of people who arrive or enter into a certain place all at once or within a very short amount of time.
Sarah says at least they're under protection until they can be resettled.
Protection refers to things that prevent you or someone from being hurt or harmed.
Tarek says if they're resettled, meaning he's not sure if they will be, in fact, resettled.
If we can't find countries willing to take them, they may be repatriated.
To repatriate, r e p a t r i a t?
E means to return someone to his own country, someone who has left that country as a refugee or for some other reason.
So if a person is repatriated, he is returned, often against his will, to the country from which he came.
Sarah says but what if they won't go back?
That is what if these refugees won't return to their home countries?
Tarek says then they'll be stateless S-T-A-T-E-L-E-S-S.
Someone who is stateless is someone without a state or country or nation, or at least someone who is not recognized by any country as being a citizen or official member of that country.
Tarek says, there aren't many good options or good possibilities for asylum seekers.
Asylum, A-S-Y-L-U-M, here refers to giving someone safety by allowing him to stay in a country.
A seeker S-E-E-K-E-R is someone who is asking for something, or looking for something or trying to get something.
The verb to seek means to look for, to try to find something.
An asylum seeker is someone who goes to another country or and tries to get permission to stay in that country, often because that person feels he won't be safe in his own country.
Sarah says, I feel so bad for everyone in McQuillan land.
Tarek says, I totally agree.
The word totally here means simply, I agree completely.
You're damned if you leave and damned if you stay, he says.
The word damned, D-A-M-N-E-D, here means that you will suffer or bad things will happen to you.
That's why he says, you're damned if you leave and damned if you stay.
Meaning, if you stay in McQuillan land, things will be bad for you.
If you leave McQuillan land, things will be bad for you.
There are no good choices.
There are no good options.
Now let me just say that this is a fictional story.
Things in McQuillanland are actually wonderful and I invite everyone to come and take your next vacation in beautiful McQuillanland.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
How's work been?
Really hard.
Our agency is working to resettle refugees who have fled McQuillan land because of the armed conflict there.
It must be so difficult to be displaced and have few possessions.
You don't know the half of it.
Some are in refugee camps and some are in detention centers.
They're overcrowded and the already poor conditions are deteriorating.
There simply isn't an infrastructure to support an influx this big.
At least they're under protection until they can be resettled.
If they're resettled.
If we can't find countries willing to take them, they may be repatriated.
But what if they won't go back?
Then they'll be stateless.
There aren't many good options for asylum seekers.
I feel so bad for everyone in McQuillan land.
I totally agree.
You're damned if you leave and damned if you stay.
If you find your English deteriorating, you need to fix it by listening to more of our wonderful dialogues written by our wonderful script writer, 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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
