Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 586, Getting a Girlfriend or Boyfriend Back.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 586.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpodcom.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode that will contain lots of good information to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is a dialogue between Grace and Yuji.
It's called Getting a Girlfriend or Boyfriend Back, meaning after you have separated, broken up, split up, you no longer are boyfriend and girlfriend and then you want to get that person back into a relationship.
Let's get started.
I'm working on a plan to get April back.
Watch me prove you wrong.
When I tell April about all of the ways I'm going to change and to make her happy, she'll let bygones be bygones.
You're dreaming.
She won't be duped by a bunch of empty promises.
They're not empty promises.
I really am going to change within reason.
Do you really think April is going to forget all of the things you've done to her in the past?
I'm not going to rake up the past.
I'm going to show her the new me and she'll know I'm sincere.
After all, she used to be crazy about me.
I'm sure it's just a matter of me making the effort.
Pride comes before a fall, you know.
I think you'd have a better chance if you got down on your knees and begged her for mercy.
Grace begins by asking Yuji, what are you doing?
Yuji says, I'm working on a plan to get April back.
April was his girlfriend.
To get someone back means to convince or persuade someone to continue a romantic relationship that you had stopped or the other person had stopped.
Grace says C-A-U-S-E as a noun can be something that you are fighting for, something that you want to change about the world.
Your cause could be world peace or ending world hunger.
That would be a cause.
The expression a lost cause means that you will never be able to accomplish that.
It's impossible for you to do.
We use this in daily conversation, when we see someone trying to do something and we want to tell them that it would be impossible to do that.
We might say that's a lost cause.
Grace thinks that trying to get April back is a lost cause.
She says you guys, meaning you two, broke up three months ago.
To break up means to end a romantic relationship.
It's a phrasal verb, meaning you no longer want to be with this other person.
There's no way, Grace says, April will take you back.
To take someone back is the opposite of to get someone back, in that you are the one who agrees to resume the relationship.
So if I want to get my girlfriend back, She would have to take me back.
That is accept that we will continue the relationship.
Yuji doesn't think this is a lost cause.
He says, Meaning, observe me.
Watch as I prove you wrong.
To prove someone wrong means to demonstrate that the other person is incorrect, is not right about something.
Yuji says, when I tell April about all the ways I'm going to change...
And to make her happy, she'll let bygones be bygones.
So, Yuji's plan is to tell April, his ex-girlfriend, how he's going to change.
This, of course, is something that men often promise to women.
I'll change.
I'll be a different person.
I'll make you happy.
If this happens, Yuji says, if he tells her this, then April will let bygones be bygones.
To let bygones B-Y-G-O-N-E-S be bygones means to ignore or forget about the bad things that have happened in the past, especially if they are painful things that someone did to you.
So, for example, you may send a poem to your girlfriend and your girlfriend says Oh, thank you for the poem.
Luis also wrote me a nice poem yesterday.
Well, that could be something that would be very damaging, something that would hurt you very much.
It hurt me.
But this is just an example, okay?
So Yuji hopes that April will forget about the things, probably the bad things, that he did to her.
Grace says you're dreaming, meaning you're imagining something that will not happen.
She won't be duped by a bunch of empty promises.
Grace is saying that April won't be duped.
To dupe D-U-P-E means to fool someone, to make someone believe something that isn't true, to trick someone.
When we say, I won't be duped, you mean I won't let someone else trick me.
She won't be duped by a bunch of empty promises.
A bunch of means a lot of, many promises.
A promise is when you say to someone, I will do this in the future.
An empty promise is something you say you will do, but you aren't really going to do it.
So in this case, poor Yuji, according to Grace, isn't going to really do the things he says he's going to do to change.
Yuji says they're not empty promises.
I'm really going to change within reason.
The expression within reason means something that isn't very small but isn't very large.
With moderation, without going to extremes.
You might say, for example...
Meaning, I can't give him $100,000.
I'm going to help him, but there is a limit to how much I can help him.
That's really the meaning here.
When someone says within reason, often they mean there are certain limits to what I can do.
In this case Yuji, says he's really going to change within reason, which makes us think he really isn't going to change very much.
Reason, as well as the word cause we used earlier, have additional meanings in English.
Look at our learning guide for more explanations.
Grace says.
Eugie says To rake R-A-K-E up the past means to talk about things that happened previously, to make other people remember things they might have forgotten or ignored usually bad things that happened in the past.
The verb rake is also used when we are collecting leaves in the autumn, in the fall, when they fall from the tree.
You want to get them off of your lawn, off of your front yard.
And so you use something called a rake.
It's sort of like a broom.
And you rake up the leaves.
Well, in this case, he's talking about raking up the past, taking things out of the past, disturbing them, if you will, so the other person will remember them.
Yuji does not want to do this.
He says, I'm going to show her the new me, and she'll know I'm sincere.
Boy, does Yuji not understand women.
To be sincere.
S-I-N-C-E-R-E means to be honest, to be truthful, to really mean what you are saying or doing.
He thinks that he can show April the new version of him.
He says, after all, she used to be crazy about me.
To be crazy about someone means to like or love someone very much, usually in a romantic way.
You can also be crazy about a thing.
I'm crazy about baseball.
I love to watch baseball.
Not as much as I love being with my wife, of course, though it's close.
Yuji says, I'm sure it's just a matter of me making the effort.
It's just a matter of means the only thing I have to do is make an effort or make the effort.
To make the effort means to try very hard to do something, even if you are not successful.
Grace says, pride comes before a fall, you know.
This is an old expression.
Pride meaning someone who is very confident in themselves, who thinks that they are great comes before is something that happens to someone right before there is a fall when they are unsuccessful, when they fail.
It's basically a warning to people who think that they are great, who are very proud of what they do, that if they aren't careful, they will fail.
They will have a fall.
Grace says, To get down on your knees means to kneel, to put both knees on the ground.
Grace is saying that Eugie should kneel and beg April for mercy.
To beg someone for something means to ask someone to do something, especially when it is unlikely that the other person will do it, because the other person has all of the power.
To beg someone means to ask them desperately.
Well, here Grace is suggesting Yuji will have to beg April for mercy, which here means forgiveness, compassion.
To be nice to another person is mercy, M-E-R-C-Y.
Sometimes, when little children boys, I mean are fighting and one boy, for example, grabs the arm of another boy and puts it behind his back to hurt him,
The other person might say, mercy, meaning be nice to me, don't keep hurting me.
Grace thinks that April is going to have to have a lot of mercy in order to take Yuji back.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm working on a plan to get April back.
I think that's a lost cause.
You guys broke up three months ago.
There's no way she'll take you back.
Watch me prove you wrong.
When I tell April about all the ways I'm going to change and to make her happy, she'll let bygones be bygones.
You're dreaming.
She won't be duped by a bunch of empty promises.
They're not empty promises.
I really am going to change, within reason.
Do you really think April is going to forget all of the things you've done to her in the past?
I'm not going to rake up the past.
I'm going to show her the new me and she'll know I'm sincere.
After all, she used to be crazy about me.
I'm sure it's just a matter of me making the effort.
Pride comes before a fall, you know.
I think you'd have a better chance if you got down on your knees and begged her for mercy.
We're all crazy about our wonderful scriptwriter here, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Say.
Hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
