Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, episode 698.
Making ethnically or racially offensive remarks.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 698.
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 to download a learning guide for this episode to improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Making Ethnically or Racially Offensive Remarks.
Let's get started.
Ann said, he called me a mick.
What decade is he living in?
He's just ignorant.
I'm sure he wasn't trying to be offensive.
Well, I take offense.
And to add insult to injury, did you hear what else he said?
What?
He said that he was speaking on behalf of the Irish in the community when he said he liked the plan.
It's presumptuous.
He was trying to make a point and probably just got carried away.
I agree that what he said could be insulting, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
You can be magnanimous if you want to be, but I know an ethnic slur when I hear one.
It wasn't an ethnic slur.
It wasn't the politically correct term, that's all.
He's a little behind the times.
Our dialogue begins with Mike saying to Patty, Did you hear what Dan said?
He called me a Mick.
A Mick, M-I-C-K, is an old term for someone who was from Ireland or had relatives from Ireland.
It is an insulting term what we would call a derogatory term.
It is not a compliment but an insult to someone.
There are many as you probably know.
Words that are used to describe people from different countries, different ethnicities, as well as different races white black, Asian and so forth.
We're not going to go over those here on the podcast, other than to use this one as an example.
Mick was someone who, as I said, was Irish-born.
Mike continues, what decade is he, is Dan, living in?
A decade is a period of 10 years.
If someone says in the past decade we have had many good things happen at our company, they mean in the past 10 years.
Decade 10 is related to 10.
Usually it refers to 10 years but it can refer to 10 other things as well.
Patty says he's just ignorant.
He doesn't have the knowledge of something.
He was never taught some particular thing.
When you say someone is ignorant, you say they don't know something.
They're not necessarily a bad person.
They just don't know.
Patty says, I'm sure he wasn't trying to be offensive.
To be offensive here means to be insulting, to be rude, to try to hurt someone else's feelings.
Mike says, well, I take offense.
To take offense says that you are bothered by, you are offended by, something someone did or said.
Mike says, Did you hear what else he said?
The expression to add insult to injury means to make a bad situation worse.
To do something to make a situation more negative.
That was already a negative situation or a bad situation.
Patty says, what?
Mike says, he said that he was speaking on behalf of the Irish in the community.
On behalf of means representing someone else or some group of people.
I'm speaking on behalf of everyone in my family when I say, I'm speaking on behalf of them.
They're not speaking.
I'm speaking for them, on behalf of.
Mike says that Dan said he was speaking on behalf of the Irish in the community when he said he liked the plan.
The expression or is the beginning of a question?
You ask when you are angry at what someone has said.
You think what they said or did was wrong.
Often the expression is used when you think that person has somehow done more than they had the right to do.
How dare you throw water at my cat?
When he was in your backyard, he was in your house.
How dare you?
You don't have a right to do that.
That's what you're saying.
You're wrong, but that's what you're saying.
Mike says, how dare Dan speak for other people?
He says it's presumptuous.
To be presumptuous.
P-R-E-S-U-M-P-T-U-O-U-S means doing something that is wrong, that is inappropriate because, once again, you don't have the right to do it.
You're assuming that you can do something when, in fact, you should not be doing it.
So you walk into a bar and you start talking to this beautiful woman.
And about halfway through your conversation you give her your phone number and you say well, let's meet next Friday for a drink.
Give me a call.
That would be presumptuous.
The verb is to presume.
You are presuming that the woman is interested in you and wants to go on a date with you.
That would be very presumptuous.
Probably not very successful either.
Patty says, Dan was trying to make a point.
To make a point is an expression that means to do something to demonstrate or prove something else.
It's often used simply to mean to make a statement or a strong statement.
And sometimes you can add the preposition of at the end.
When you want to say that you specifically and purposely did something...
For example, I want to make a point of arriving at work on time every day this week.
You are planning on doing it probably because you want to prove something or demonstrate something, or simply because you think it's important.
Patty says Dan was trying to say something important to make a point and probably just got carried away.
To get carried away means to be so excited, so enthusiastic about doing something that you do too much of it.
You don't realize you're doing too much.
To go back to our example at the bar, if the woman actually does call you and you decide that you're going to buy her a dozen roses and a bottle of champagne and get a special car, a limousine, to pick you up together at this restaurant, you go to the best restaurant in the city.
You might be getting carried away.
You might be doing too much, especially if it's just your first date.
If you bought her a ring to marry her, you would definitely be getting carried away.
Patty says.
I agree that what he said could be insulting, could hurt someone's feelings, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
To give someone the benefit of the doubt is is to assume that what someone said or did, they did for a good reason.
They had good intentions, even though the result was negative.
When you're not sure why someone did something and it seems like something bad happened, you can give them the benefit of the doubt.
You can say well, they probably didn't realize they were talking so loudly on their cell phone in the cafe yesterday.
So you're not going to get angry at them.
You're going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps there's something they didn't understand or you didn't understand about the situation.
That would give it a different meaning.
Mike says you can be magnanimous if you want to be.
To be magnanimous is to be very kind, very forgiving, very generous.
The businesswoman gave a million dollars to her old university.
It was a magnanimous gift, a generous one.
Mike says, I know an ethnic slur when I hear one.
A slur.
S L U?
R is an insulting term or word, sort of like a swear word, but usually it's directed at a person.
You're saying something about that person.
An ethnic slur would be like the term mick, an insulting term about someone from a particular group or country.
A racial slur would be about someone's skin color.
Patty says it wasn't an ethnic slur.
It wasn't the politically correct term, that's all.
Politically correct is using words and language carefully so that you don't offend other people.
To get other people mad at you, you often will change the words that we perhaps used to use to describe someone and use language that is less offensive to them.
Some people use politically correct itself to be an insulting term, saying that people are being too careful not to be offensive.
In any case, Patty says that Dan is a little behind the times.
To be behind the times is to be old-fashioned, to be outdated.
Someone who's not necessarily modern, who is not doing things appropriate for the current times, the current day.
Mike says behind the times, he'd have to live to 150 to catch up to the present.
To catch up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to reach the same position or place or level as other people are.
If you are in school and you don't go to class for two weeks, you'll have to catch up to the other students.
You'll have to work to get to the same level they are at.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you hear what Dan said?
He called me a mick.
What decade is he living in?
He's just ignorant.
I'm sure he wasn't trying to be offensive.
Well, I take offense.
And to add insult to injury, did you hear what else he said?
What?
He said that he was speaking on behalf of the Irish in the community when he said he liked the plan.
How dare he speak for other people?
It's presumptuous.
He was trying to make a point and probably just got carried away.
I agree that what he said could be insulting, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
You can be magnanimous if you want to be, but I know an ethnic slur when I hear one.
It wasn't an ethnic slur.
It wasn't the politically correct term, that's all.
He's a little behind the times.
Behind the times?
He'd have to live to 150 to catch up to the present.
Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Say.
Hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
