Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 518, Learning Self-Defense.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 518.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there today to download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your looks and your English even faster.
This episode is called Learning Self-Defense.
It's a dialogue between a teacher and a student.
The student is learning how she can defend herself against other people who may try to harm or hurt her.
But she isn't a very good student.
Let's get started.
Welcome everybody to this self-defense class.
Today, you'll learn how to size up a situation and how to tell the difference between a harmless situation and a threatening one.
You'll also begin to learn some hand-to-hand combat moves to defend yourselves.
Oh, good.
I can't wait to learn some martial arts so I can beat up anyone who tries anything.
Well, the best thing we can do in a dangerous situation is to avoid having to fight.
It's not a good idea to confront someone pumped up on adrenaline.
If you can diffuse the situation or run away, that would be the best strategy.
Alright, but if someone is harassing me, I want to be ready to do some damage.
I'm not sure if that's the right mindset.
I always trust my instincts.
If my intuition tells me that someone may be dangerous, I want to get in the first punch.
Whoa, that's not the purpose of this class.
You're here to learn defense, remember?
Yes, but you know what they say, the best defense is a good offense.
We begin with the teacher saying welcome everybody to this self-defense class.
Self-defense are the physical skills to protect yourself when someone is attacking you, or perhaps you are being attacked by an animal, but usually it refers to being attacked by another person, another human being.
Self-defense allows you to protect yourself so that you don't get hurt.
The teacher says that today You'll learn how to size up a situation.
To size up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to assess, to determine the characteristics of something, including how important it is, or how big it is, or how serious it is.
To size up a situation is to be able to look at the situation and decide what its characteristics are.
Is this important?
Is this not important?
Is this person angry?
Are they not angry?
And so forth.
For more meanings of this word size, take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
The teacher says the students are also going to learn how to tell the difference between, how to distinguish between a harmless situation and a threatening one.
Harmless is the opposite of harm.
Harm means to hurt someone or something.
If you say something is harmless, you mean that it cannot hurt anything or anyone.
Here we're talking about a harmless situation, a situation that is not dangerous, versus a threatening one.
To threaten as a verb means to say or do something to another person so that they are scared or frightened.
Usually you're saying that you're going to hurt them.
If you don't be quiet, I'm going to punch you in the mouth.
I'm going to hit you with my fist.
That is to threaten someone.
So threatening, with an ing, means a dangerous, scary, or frightening situation.
The teacher says you'll also begin to learn some hand-to-hand combat moves to defend yourself.
Hand-to-hand combat is when you have two people fighting without any weapons, two people fighting typically with just their hands.
Sometimes people use it to mean just two people fighting.
Perhaps one might have a weapon, but the idea is that you have these two people fighting each other not with guns, usually.
Combat is merely another word for fight.
Here the students are going to learn some hand-to-hand combat moves.
A move is a way that you would move your body.
It's a noun, a move.
You're doing something with your body, moving your arms and legs in a certain way perhaps.
To defend yourself means to protect yourself, to make sure that no one else hurts you.
Amy, the student, says, Oh, good.
Amy says she can't wait.
She is very eager to begin learning some martial arts.
Martial arts are the fighting styles, most of which come from Asia, where people learn to defend themselves without weapons, using only their body.
Karate, judo, kung fu, these are all examples of martial arts.
Taekwondo...
To beat up someone or to beat someone up is another one of those two-word phrasal verbs.
This one means to hit someone, usually to hit them many times, so that you have hurt them a great deal, caused them a lot of pain or even injury.
Amy wants to beat up somebody using the martial arts that she's learning in class.
She wants to beat up anyone who tries anything, meaning anyone who tries, in this case, to hurt her.
The teacher said well, the best thing we can do in a dangerous situation is to avoid having to fight.
You don't want to have to fight.
To confront usually means to deal directly with someone, especially if that person is dangerous.
To confront someone, in this case, may be to tell someone to go away or to...
Tell this person that you are going to fight them unless they leave.
Something like that.
That would be to confront someone.
You can also confront someone in a non-fighting way.
You may need to talk to one of your employees or someone who works for you.
And you need to talk to them about something they did wrong.
You will go up and confront them about the problem.
Maybe they lied.
Maybe they didn't do their job and so forth.
So that could also be confronting someone.
The teacher says it's not a good idea to confront someone pumped up on adrenaline.
To be pumped up means to be very excited, very interested, very eager to do something.
Adrenaline is a chemical the body makes when you are excited, frightened, or angry.
It usually makes your heart beat beat faster, go faster and you're breathing faster.
To be pumped up on adrenaline can be a dangerous thing, because this person may be interested and eager to fight you.
So you don't want to confront them.
If you can diffuse the situation, he says, or run away, that would be the best strategy.
To defuse, D-E-F-U-S-E, a situation means to make it less dangerous, to make it safer.
Now, if you can't defuse a situation, you can also run away.
Just leave the place where you are.
Amy says, all right, but if someone is harassing me, I want to be ready to do some damage.
To harass, H-A-R-A-S-S, means to bother or annoy someone.
Here it usually means to make someone's life difficult.
Maybe they're yelling at you.
They're doing things that make you uncomfortable.
Amy wants to be able to do some damage to someone who is harassing her.
To do some damage means to do something that will change a situation.
In this case, to hurt someone.
The teacher says, I'm not sure if that's the right mindset.
A mindset, one word, is a way of thinking about something.
Another word for this is perspective.
The teacher says I'm not sure that you, Amy, have the right mindset.
Amy says I always trust my instincts.
Your instincts are things that you know naturally without having studied them or learned them.
It's sort of like knowledge you are born with.
Amy says A punch is an act of hitting a person or a thing very hard with your closed fist, with your closed hand.
To get in the first punch means you want to be the first person to throw a punch.
Notice we use the verb to throw a punch, to hit someone.
You don't want to wait until somebody hits you first.
You want to get in the first punch, or you want to throw the first punch.
The teacher says, whoa, meaning calm down, wait a minute.
That's not the purpose of this class.
You're here to learn defense, remember?
Amy says yes, but you know what they say.
The best defense is a good offense.
Offense is the opposite of defense.
Offense would be to attack another person or a thing, even though they have not attacked you.
Amy quotes an old saying the best defense is a good offense, meaning the best way to defend yourself is to attack the other person first.
The teacher, I am guessing, does not agree with Amy's mindset.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Welcome everybody to this self-defense class.
Today, you'll learn how to size up a situation and how to tell the difference between a harmless situation and a threatening one.
You'll also begin to learn some hand-to-hand combat moves to defend yourselves.
Oh, good.
I can't wait to learn some martial arts so I can beat up anyone who tries anything.
Well, the best thing we can do in a dangerous situation is to avoid having to fight.
It's not a good idea to confront someone pumped up on adrenaline.
If you can diffuse the situation or run away, that would be the best strategy.
All right, but if someone is harassing me, I want to be ready to do some damage.
I'm not sure if that's the right mindset.
I always trust my instincts.
If my intuition tells me that someone may be dangerous, I want to get in the first punch.
Whoa, that's not the purpose of this class.
You're here to learn defense, remember?
Yes, but you know what they say.
The best defense is a good offense.
The script for this episode was written by someone who has great instincts about writing, 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 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
