A: ... so, I said, ”let’s take a break”. And since that night, I’ve been waiting for him to call, but I still haven’t heard from him. You don’t think he’s seeing someone else, do you?
B: Come on, don’t be so dramatic! I’m sure everything is going to work out just fine.
A: You think so? Oh, no! How can he do this to me? I’m sure he’s cheating on me! Why else wouldn’t he call?
B: But, you two are on a break. Theoretically he can do whatever he likes.
A: He’s the love of my life! I’ve really messed this up.
B: Come on, hon. Pull yourself together. It’s going to be alright.
A: But I.. . I still love him! And it’s all my fault! I can’t believe how immature and selfish I was being. I mean, he is a firefighter, it’s not like he can just leave someone in a burning building and meet me for dinner. I’ve totally messed this up!
B: You know what, Veronica, I think you should make the first step. I’m sure he’ll forgive you...
A: No, this is not gonna happen! I.. . I’ve ruined everything...
B: Hey... do you hear something? Guess what? It’s your lovely firefighter!
C: When I had you, I treated you bad and wrong dear. And since, since you went away, don’t you know I sit around with my head hanging down and I wonder who’s loving you.
M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.
E: And I’m Erica.
M: And today we’re bringing you part four of our romantic series called I’m Sorry, I Love You.
E: Yeah, and today we’ve got some drama, don’t we?
M: We got a lot of drama and we got a lot of useful language.
E: Yeah, we’re gonna learn, um, some phrases we can use to describe a mistake.
M: Uhu.
E: And, uh, we’re also going to learn how we can comfort someone, we can make them feel better.
M: Okay, exactly, so, in our dialogue today Veronica and her boyfriend are on a break.
E: Right.
M: So, what does it mean to be on a break?
E: Well, it means you stop having a romantic relationship for a short time.
M: So, you can say “We are on a break”.
E: So, we’re not dating.
M: We’re not dating.
E: But…
M: Oh…
E: We don’t date.
M: Oh… Hehe. Or we could say “Let’s take a break”.
E: Right, so, we’ve got this state on a break and the action take a break.
M: Take a break.
E: Uhu.
M: Okay, let’s take a break. Okay, so, let’s listen to our dialogue and it’s gonna be a little bit fast and the girl, I think, she’s crying, so, it’ll be a little bit difficult to understand.
E: But Marco and I will come back in a minute and we’ll talk about some of the difficult language here.
DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME
M: Wow, that’s a romantic boyfriend singing in the street.
E: Yeah, yeah, that’s amazing. Have you… Have you ever done that for a girl?
M: Uh… no. Hehe.
E: Hehe. Well, have you… have you ever sung to a girl on KTV.
M: I’ve sung to a girl on KTV.
E: And karaoke.
M: Karaoke, yeah.
E: Yeah.
M: So, but not so much as on… on the street with all the neighbors coming out to see me.
E: Well, okay, well, I don’t blame you.
M: Hehe. Alright, let’s take a look at the language that we saw in our dialogue on “language takeaway”.
Voice: Language takeaway.
M: Alright, so, let’s take a look at our first word – seeing someone.
E: Seeing someone.
M: Seeing someone.
E: Seeing someone.
M: So, if I’m seeing someone…
E: You’re dating them M: I’m dating them.
E: Yeah.
M: I’m frequently going out with that person.
E: Right.
M: So, but it’s not very serious.
E: N… No… it is serious.
M: But not really, it’s more of a casual thing. It’s not very exclusive.
E: So… So, if you’re seeing someone, then you can also s… see another person.
M: Maybe.
E: Hm.
M: Hehe.
E: Well, I think sometimes seeing someone can mean actually they’re your boyfriend or girlfriend. Like, I’m seeing John, he is my boyfriend.
M: Okay, yeah, see, this is the difficult thing about seeing someone is that for some people it means it’s really serious, while for other people it means it’s more casual.
E: I guess it’s important that you and your boyfriend of girlfriend share the same view on the meaning of this word.
M: Alright. Have to agree on what seeing someone means.
E: Okay, well, what’s our next word, Marco?
M: Cheating on.
E: Cheating on someone.
M: Cheating on me.
E: Cheating on someone.
M: Okay, so, if you’re cheating on someone…
E: Then you are like kissing or even having sex with someone, who’s not your boyfriend or your husband, or your girlfriend or your wife.
M: Exactly, so…
E: Yeah.
M: If I say “She cheated on me”…
E: Uhu.
M: That means that my girlfriend kissed of had sex with another guy.
E: Right.
M: But if I say “She cheated me”…
E: Yeah, that’ different.
M: That’s different, right?
E: It’s different. Maybe she sold you something for a really high price.
M: She cheated me.
E: Yeah.
M: Or maybe she sold me something that was fake.
E: Or, yeah… or broken or something.
M: Or broken.
E: Yeah.
M: Okay, so…
E: So, cheated on is really different from cheated.
M: Okay, let’s take a look at our next word – messed this up.
E: Messed this up.
M: Messed this up.
E: Messed this up. So, Marco, this is a phrasal verb, um, and that means we can sort of switch it around a little bit, right?
M: Exactly, why don’t we listen to some examples and then we can come back and talk some more.
Voice: Example one.
A: I messed up on the examen and now I passed my class.
Voice: Example two.
B: When I’m cooking I always mess up and burn the rice.
M: Okay, so, messed up, it’s pretty clear I think.
E: Yeah.
M: Alright, let’s take a look at our next word – immature.
E: Immature.
M: Immature.
E: Immature.
M: So, when someone is immature…
E: They’re acting really young.
M: Really young, right?
E: Yeah.
M: But it’s not a very good thing to be immature.
E: No, it’s… it has a negative meaning.
M: Right, it’s normal for children to be immature.
E: Cause they’re children.
M: Right, but not an adult.
E: Yes.
M: Okay.
E: So, we’ve got some examples that will help you to understand this word a little bit better.
Voice: Example one.
A: Your toilet jokes are not funny. Stop being so immature.
Voice: Example two.
B: Jenny acts like she’s sixteen. She’s so immature.
Voice: Example three.
C: God, you and your friends always act so immature.
M: Alright, so, immature. Now, let’s take a look at our next word – selfish.
E: Selfish.
M: Selfish.
E: Selfish.
M: So, a selfish person…
E: Is a person, who only thinks about themselves.
M: Okay, so, I only think about me.
E: Uhu.
M: No one else.
E: Yeah, you don’t care about other people’s feelings.
M: Okay. So, it’s not a good think to be immature or selfish.
E: Exactly. M: Okay, so, I think it’s time for us to listen to our dialogue again. We’re gonna slow it down a little bit.
E: And this will help you to understand these phrases a little bit more clearly.
DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)
M: Okay, so, we saw Veronica’s friend trying to calm her down, right?
E: Yeah, trying to comfort her.
M: Okay, to make her feel better.
E: Uhu.
M: Let’s take a look at some of the phrases she used in “fluency builder”.
Voice: Fluency builder.
M: Okay, so, what was the first phrase that she said?
E: Everything is going to work out just fine.
M: Everything is going to work out just fine.
E: Everything is gonna work out just fine.
M: What does that mean?
E: It’s going to be okay.
M: It’s going to be okay, right?
E: Yeah, the problem will be solved.
M: Okay, so, if somebody’s worried or somebody is crying, you…
E: Yeah.
M: You can say “Oh, don’t worry, everything is going to work out just fine”.
E: Uhu.
M: Okay. Okay, let’s look at the next one - pull yourself together.
E: Pull yourself together.
M: Pull yourself together.
E: Pull yourself together.
M: So, what does that mean, exactly? It sounds kind of weird.
E: I know, I guess it… it just means stop crying, relax and, you know, take a deep breath.
M: Okay. Just like calm down.
E: Yeah, yeah.
M: Get organized.
E: Yeah-yeah-yeah.
M: With your ideas and your thoughts.
E: Yeah. So, you can think of maybe somebody, who’s got tears down their face and everything is sort of in a mess.
M: Uhu.
E: If you pull it together, they clean up and they…
M: Okay.
E: They sort of relax, right?
M: Okay. Pull yourself together.
E: Uhu.
M: Alright, and the last phrase that we saw – it’s going to be alright.
E: It’s going to be alright.
M: It’s going to be alright.
E: It’s going to be alright.
M: So, it’s going to be alright means everything is going to be okay.